Tales from a Scorched Earth (post-apocalyptic arcs)
By
GlaziusF,
Posted on: 2010-09-20 13:33 in Mission Architect
I have tentatively taken off the WIP flag from both arcs since they're pretty much feature-complete; the last boss of the villain arc needs a new costume, but making costumes is hard work. 
I'd definitely appreciate more feedback on 'em, especially the villainous one [only got one comment so far from @FredrikSvanberg, many thanks for that btw!]. I know that Television is hit-and-miss, but I'd like to know if there is anything I can improve wrt the contact and/or the plot.
Thanks in advance,
-- Z.
Review done as part of the CoHMR Aggregator project.
@GlaziusF
Playing this on a high 20s necro/dark mastermind, +0/x2 with bosses on.
---
War. War never changes.
Nah, just funnin ya.
Ah, TVs kept itself alive in the interim. Hey, TV! Lets resume your regularly scheduled programming!
When in doubt, hit the first console you see!
Ah, alright, got some more stuff to click. The prison room kinda makes this map a pain, though, any chance you could come up with one with less height?
Anyway, automated defenses spring up with various amusing malfunctions as I move through the place.
---
Ah, TV. Father, mother. Secret lover. Time to get the eyes in the sky back online.
So I encountered some of Arbiter Daoss troops trying to get power back to the rest of Arachnos, and took them down, then took a look at the spy satellites. Bloody Bays got some weird kinda force field around it, which makes it seem a bit like this was the coming storm. One satellite tells me the Rogue Isles are doing just fine, but others say that a rising tide has put Cap Au Diable underwater.
Well.
There arent exactly many bits of the Rogue Isles that are really that high up. Youd think rampant flooding would qualify under devastation.
Also this map has a flier hanger, which is basically a prison room but without the force fields that ruin your tab-targeting.
---
Hmm. TV seems to be pointing me to somewhere in Grandville, suggesting that whatever affected Bloody Bay might have originated from there. Well, lets have a look.
And play in a band. Just to be safe.
Hmm. Okay, Ive got a librarian from the Legacy Chain tracing the trail of a spell that summoned a world-ravager. Judging from this bulletin board, it would seem an Arachnos researcher left a trail behind him when he was exploring the astral depths.
Oh! Interesting. Some ancient artifact from the revival of the CoT contained a magician who was employed to contact the Shivan ur-conscious. ...and then things went predictably south.
---
And now its time to end... uh... a gestalt capable of exploding the sun.
Dearie me.
Well, I rescue the ghost, an illusion/flintlock pistolero. I hear grave news from topside (through the comms of some fighters) as most of the attacking forces seem to be getting wrecked, but after breaking off a stalagmite Armageddon is summoned.
Hmm.
Is he a custom? Might be worth putting some bone bits on him to better get the look of the Shivans.
Anyway, with the help of some ally Void Stalkers (as this is THEIR planet to ruin, damn it!) he goes down hard.
And... somehow Arachnos pops back out of its many fortified bunkers, like nothing ever happened? When the guy in the radio tower spouted off his death message about well, there goes half the force, I thought that half the force actually meant that half the surviving Arachnos were there in that building.
So in the final desperate push to stop the Earth from being sunnihilated, Arachnos held back enough forces to rule the Rogue Isles again?
Or did Dr. Aeon bring them in from some alternate dimension, as the closing sendoff may or may not indicate?
---
Storyline - ***. You had me going right up until the end. This was a world full of mysterious destruction and burgeoning opportunity, and I was facing down with the ongoing cause of it all, ready to strap a TV to my arm and head out into the wasteland to build my own empiARACHNOS STATUS QUO.
Seriously, that comes out of nowhere, and I cant really think of why. I mean, part of the fun of the post-apocalypse is that everything from the pre-apocalypse is somehow gone or changed, and just having Arachnos reassert itself at the end there was just ridiculously jarring.
Design - *****. Missions packed with interesting stuff to do and see, with very reasonable standard enemy groups (or subsets thereof) and various customs mostly for ally details and flavor. Aside from maybe boning up the end boss I wouldnt suggest much else.
Gameplay - ****. Really the only irritating thing here is poking around the Arachnos base prison/flier rooms looking for stuff to click. So many little alcoves on multiple layers.
Detail - *****. Some really great work here with both TV and the custom descriptions.
Overall - ****. Call this 6 - 2. Its a great ride, but right at the end it crashes hard. Theres evidence that something may have changed during this arcs writing - I find alternating clues in one mission describing the Rogue Isles as mostly underwater and largely unscathed. Really, bringing Arachnos back like nothing went wrong doesnt fit with the post-apocalyptic timbre or most of the details as presented.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it!
Good call on the annoyance factor of the first 2 missions; I'll look into changing the maps (originally the objectives were a bit different for M2, but I don't think such a big map is warranted now).
Regarding the ambiguousness between "the Isles are underwater" vs "they were barely touched": this isn't explained properly in this arc (oversight). The sunpocalypse was followed up by targeted meteor showers hitting hero bases / hideouts and population centers all over the world; the Rogue Isles weren't hit, however. In the end, most everyone is screwed in different ways:
- Paragon City: mostly in ruins, main staging point for the Shiva v2.0 invasion (see other arc)
- Rogue Isles: most of it underwater
- Other areas: to be determined when I write more arcs in this setting (yay, proactive retcons!)
- Underground zones / other dimensions / etc: safe, but all persistent portals were taken out by EMP
As for the ending... well, that's neither here or there. Actually it's both here AND there.
The original design indeed had $name take over the bits of the Rogue Isles that were still aboveground, leaving $himher to rule over... not much. However, I felt really bad about wiping out Arachnos like that (Recluse always has a plan, after all), so I figured they'd lay low for a while and gather their strength in their secret underground bunker network / extra-dimensional safehouse / insert-plot-device-here, then take back what remained of the Isles by force. From that POV, the player character is really nothing more than a slightly annoying unruly pawn.
However, I can see the merits of option #1, and it's definitely more fun for the player. I'm just iffy about getting rid of Arachnos 'right away'... maybe I'll just have them write off the Rogue Isles as a loss and reorganize somewhere else in the world.
Thanks again,
-- Z.
Eh, no need to really manage an either-or on those endings. I mean, the Arachnos could come back from their dimensional bunker or whatever, and you and TV could spot this from a long way off and decide you liked this whole independence thing, so you'd go buzz off and open a local affiliate station somewhere else entirely. Not like there's a shortage of somewhere elses.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
For now I went with the original design: player "wins" and takes over... though there is not much to rule in the first place with the entire underwater thing. Arachnos is reorganizing and biding its time -- also probably not really thinking about the Rogue Isles as a high-priority investment (again, the whole underwater thing). It might not be as canon-friendly, but it's an alternate universe demmit!
I figured I could have a later arc from the Arachnos POV with the player assisting Arachnos in defeating 'some annoying upstart who thinks having the TV on your side somehow entitles you to rule the Rogue Isles'.
-- Z.
I've made some updates to the arcs.
"Scythe of Kali":
* I've discovered that Hydra give only half xp (or so) compared to other critters. This is perplexing, since they're not really easier than a hellion or <insert_lowbie_critter_here>. Maybe their xp was nerfed because of the Hydra farms of yore?
* To deal with the xp issue, I've created customs to replace the recolored Hydra (used the bio-organic look as an approximation). They're all melee, and I tried to avoid nasty sets that give -def or -res. Minions should be giving 100% xp, LTs and bosses above 80% (didn't want to go higher, since that would've required taking some annoying powers on them).
* Changed some text all over to reflect the change and the humanoid looks of the 'Scythe of Kali' group.
* Slight tweaks to the rescue mission: instead of an ambush, patrols spawn in after the rescue event. This'll hopefully make the rescue a bit more exciting than 'slow-run-to-the-exit'.
"To Reign in Hell":
* M1 and M2 use smaller, no-elevation maps. Clue text in M2 clarified.
* M4 features slightly different enemy groups / conversation, hopefully the rescue and patrol events make more sense now.
* Ending of the arc (last mission debriefing, exit text, souvenir, some ingame text_ overhauled, it is much more player-friendly now.
Take care of your bottlecaps,
-- Z.
Review as part of the CoHMR Aggregator project.
@GlaziusF
Playing this one on my low-20s Peacebringer, +0/x1 with bosses on.
---
Alright, so Im going to go scout after the apocalypse. This ones presented much more seriously so Ill play this review more seriously and keep the Fallout jokes to a minimum.
The Lost seem to be... lighting signal fires for something?
Ah, the surviving leaders spell it out. Theyve adapted this into their doomsday cult and think that by burning things theyll become like the great force that seared the world.
Boreas working theory is that this is a Rikti superweapon. Well, its as good a guess as any.
Oh, and Im a brevet Vanguard agent. If its going to be important is anyones guess.
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Well, time to check up on the Midnighters.
Okay, they left all their stuff behind and poofed off to Cimerora, including a secret cache of what they could scry about this disaster that came without warning.
Giant cosmic wasps nest. Hmm. Seems like somebody was trying to do something to Paragon City and it got a leetle out of control.
---
I may possibly have seen Shivans before. Its not like nobody ever goes to Bloody Bahahahaha yeah nobody ever goes there.
Anyway, going in to extract a bro.
Some scientist retreated to a sample fallout shelter and hes jury-rigging the museum machinery to investigate whats going on. This should be interesting to follow.
Mixed in with the shivans are more human-limited blobs with melee powers. Apparently theyre evidence of whatever force originally did this. They came here to wreck the place and they dont seem disinclined to disobey orders.
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Alright. Now to bomb the meteor and destroy whatevers commanding the Shivans and Shivan accessories.
Hm.
The structure of planting bombs and running back to the entrance to detonate them is thematically sound, but having to lead my ally there and back and there again seems a bit off. If I might suggest starting with a short sewer mission solo just to plant the bombs, and another sewer mission with ally of the wall-caved in variety to follow it?
Oh, the Kali types are warring with the Lost, not patrolling with them. Well, that makes succeeding things easier.
The description of the EB Destroyer says it emits a bright pulse of energy but instead of doing the explodo-cast its cheering alongside its minions.
Anyway, with a boss blaster backing me up and Dwarf Form insulating me he goes down pretty easy, amid dire pronouncements.
Things seem clear for now, though. Time to start rebuilding.
---
Storyline - ****. Only thing Im really wondering here is... if this guy was just all the time bombarding the Earth from space with meteors, why did he stop, and come down to Earth where he was relatively more vulnerable? He ran out of explody sun juice and had to come down to pick up more?
Sorry if it was there and I never picked it up. Aside from that its a pretty good run through trying to re-establish a safe haven and communication with the world.
Design - *****. The new melee mobs who join the Shivans add a bit of variety and look very nice, even if theyre a bit dangerous given how much the Shivans debuff defenses.
Missions take place in pretty reasonable settings and are a lot of fun generally.
Gameplay - ****. Tracking an ally around to hit the bombs and then back to set the detonator was a bit of a chore. I still think you could get a good effect with a small sewer map that chained into one of those sewer maps with the wall torn down.
Detail - ****. Detail is pretty good for whats happened to many major groups in the wake of the cataclysm, but the one place it falls down a bit is on whats caused it. Not so much what it is as why its bothered coming down to where we can punch it.
Not that I mind the chance necessarily.
Overall - ****. A solid arc. Not much wrong with it, maybe a few things Id change, but well worth playing. I think the only problem with it is that Id played the villain arc first and was expecting some kind of, like, astral projection up to space as the villain arc was rather securely grounded on Earth.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
Thanks for the review! You're right in that this arc is more 'bland' (it's kind of on purpose, it's meant to be an introduction for the entire setting)... I'll look into adding some more flavor and cutting down on wall-of-texts a bit.
Regarding the explody sun juice: it's there between the lines (prof Harmont's calculations in M3), but never explicitly said. Basically, not-Itelet couldn't keep up with the energy required to keep turning the Sun into a blue dwarf, so he just called the meteor down to Earth to deal what he hoped would be the final blow against Paragon City. Yeah, he has a Shivan-bone-chip the size of Lichtenstein on his shoulder when it comes to Paragon. I'll probably make this a bit clearer in his dialogue (and/or via other details in the last mission, see next paragraph)
Good suggestion about mixing it up in the last mission (or rather breaking into two). The current - admittedly clunky - way the mission is set up does result in a lot of annoying back-and-forthness. With the split, there wouldn't even be a need to backtrack and detonate the bombs, the first mission could autocomplete when the last bomb was set.
Thanks again for the review!
-- Z.
It is the year 2016. Two years ago, a solar cataclysm all but destroyed life on Earth; the few survivors of the disaster hid underground or sought other means of shelter. Now, a month after the fury of the Sun has subsided once again, the various survivor factions all over the globe scramble to reclaim what is now known as the...
Scorched Earth
[placeholder for swanky movie trailer image... once I get un-lazy enough to create one!]
This is a post-apocalyptic alternate-future COH setting I've been thinking about for some time. I've created two arcs so far, and might create more later on depending on how they are received (I got a few ideas, but nothing concrete yet). This is not intended to be a multi-arc story; rather, a single overarching theme/setting behind multiple arcs along with several minor connecting plot points (in fact, the first two arcs take place at the same time). I want to make sure that each arc "works on its own", so to speak. Neither arc is really 'final' yet -- I want to do a final polish / design iteration based on feedback once I get some (hint hint!). All feedback is welcome, I'm not adverse to making large changes if the suggestions are reasonable.
Current list of Scorched Earth arcs:
Arc name: Kali's Scythe
Arc ID: 445456
Faction: Hero/(Vigilante, Neutral)
Level range: 20-25
Difficulty: Easy. No custom enemies (though Circle of Thorns can be annoying); while the last mission has an EB, you will have a Boss-level ally at your disposal.
Synopsis: You've spent the last two years in a secret Vanguard bunker under Atlas Park along with a handful of Vanguard personnel and some civilians. As the only hero denizen, you have a difficult task ahead of you -- try to find survivors, deal with any dangers that might be lurking outside, and search for clues relevant to the cause of the disaster.
Notes: This is a 'serious' heroic/survival-oriented post-apocalyptic arc with no real plot twists.
Arc name: To Reign in Hell
Arc ID: 448234
Faction: Villain/Rogue
Level range: 20-25
Difficulty: Moderate. Custom end boss (EB), but you have at least a powerful Lieutenant-level ally at your disposal along with other sources of help if you're crafty.
Synopsis: You got lucky when the disaster hit -- you were loitering in Grandville and your survival instinct led you to a nearby high-security shelter. After knocking out the guards, you locked yourself into what was apparently the private bunker of an Arachnos Arbiter with its own power source, food and drink aplenty, a huge television and enough DVDs to last you a lifetime. Two years later the control panel indicates that it is safe to go topside once more. Time to seize your opportunity and make the best of this disaster!
Notes: Your contact is the Television who *does* exert a sort of soft mind-control / hypnosis over your character throughout the arc, just as it does in its canon missions. The general 'style' of Television briefings also makes the arc a bit more campy and less serious than the hero equivalent. If you don't like this stuff, stay away -- you've been warned!!
edit: Note for this week (Sept 20-25) -- I'm out of the country until Saturday with no access to COH, but I will be able to read the forums. Please reply here or send me a PM if you have feedback, thanks!