Returning Player Diary

Please provide an update when you complete the Twinshot arc.

Now that you're 14, do yourself a huge favor and give the new and revamped Positron Task Forces (yes, forces, plural -- they split it up into two much more easily manageable parts during the revamp) a try.

oh and just in case I can't hook on with a Posi run, what content would y'all suggest checking out in the level 13-15 range?

ZWill doesn't play mind games,
He plays meme games.

Ran a quick radio last night & hit 14.

The whole inherent stamina thing + power pool liberalization has really made a massive difference in the low level game- instead of all your early power choices being basically dictated by the need to fit in stamina & get a travel power, you can take whatever you like.

I settled on Build Up, as I don't need my status protection quite yet.


I was running a little low on funds, my stockpiling of large Defense insps having eroded my early windfalls, so I'd decided to check up on one of my favorite methods of lowbie enrichment, flipping crafted generic IOs.

Back in the day you could always count on crafters dumping stock to pick them up cheap, and sure enough my 60k bids on high level acc IOs had all filled. Re-listed them for a bit over half the 'going rate' of 400k, and when I checked this AM they'd all sold for 400k.

Bonus surprise, I had a couple of extra level 10 damages from early on and those had sold for 100k.

Not bad, pulling 100k for something I picked up for a few thousand.

Should be able to make 15 & more Twinshot tonight.

okay, unexpected free time this AM. Son still asleep, so I popped in game.

Headed for Faultline, but wasn't high enough yet. Didn't want to retrace my steps & hopped into the AE building to run something.

Found a suitable Dev's Choice arc, CTRL-ALT-RESET by Bubbawheat.
Really liked it- fun story, entertaining manipulation of game tropes, and most importantly from my perspective STOCK ENEMIES with no ridiculously overpowered special creations.

Ran the whole thing in a half hour, picked up most of a level. Very enjoyable return to AE.

Why don't more people do relatively simple, short arcs like this one?
Hit it and quit it!

Had a spare 30 minutes earlier while my son took an unexpected nap.
One thing I've always liked about this game, you can fit it into whatever spare time you happen to find lying around.

Lizardroid was closing in on 15 and had a healthy wad of patrol XP banked, so I decided to run a radio & see what happened. Stole File X from the clockwork (who I still dislike on principle, but no longer hate and fear thanks to inherent stamina) & didn't quite make it, so I found a good sized spawn of Outcasts, red & orange, ate a couple of big defenses and went to town.

GRATZ'ed right before the last guy went down & bounded over to Valkyrie to level. Figured I didn't have time to run anything else before he woke up, so I headed to my second favorite in-game timesink, Icon, to do some costume fiddling.

A bit ago I discovered my graphics were turned waaay down for some reason (probably farming related- my aging machine can make the game look pretty as long as there isn't too much going on, but suffers vapor-lock when exposed to farm-sized masses of foe unless I flatline the graphics). Turned 'em back up and Lizardroid was a much more attractive fellow. I'm an inveterate tinkerer with most of my costumes- a few I nailed right out of the gate & have never touched, but most undergo a process of evolution over the years.

Here's his latest iteration:



trying to work in more of a robot vibe over the lizard core. Not totally happy with his feet yet, might give those little robot claw feet a try.

Called up Twinshot and got the next mish in that storyline, hopefully I'll be able to play a bit more tonight.

ok, the kid is asleep, the wife is out with the Mommies, so after many false alarms and delays TONIGHT I finish Twinshot!

The introduction to the Hero Corps mission slider contact is a huge improvement on the old days. Funny dialog r/e "why am I fighting hellions at level 15".

Cleaning out a smokey office map, Grym assisting. No problem with the difficulty, but Grym's refusal to move out of Ignite patches is somewhat bemusing. Amusing dialog between the Girlfriends from Hell & their Hellion paramours.

Found the last alter we're supposed to break, Grym once again opts to stand in the fire and burn. I put the spawn down in good order, but not fast enough to keep him from keeling over. I really hate losing 'allies' in these missions, even as thin as their personalities usually are I get attached to them.

But, to paraphrase Bladerunner's replicant hottie Pris, "he was stupid and he died". Well, not really- went to the hospital, I guess. Still, I get a twinge of Samuel_Tow-style unreasonableness about these situations.

Okay, bonked the last alter and lo, a shock twist ending- not a mission complete, but a "get that demon before he reaches full power!" objective, complete with sinister dialog.

Fun!

As I know this map almost as well as I know my wife of ten years, I bee-line for the elevators and head up to the final confrontation, sans Grym.

Pretty let down by the demon, though- a Yellow con behemoth? When I just waded through two straight spawns of Orange lieutenants? Well, give them the benefit of the doubt- maybe I was so quick on the uptake he didn't have time to turn into a Red con uber-beast....in which case I should have waited, I could use the xp!

He and his two white con minions go down easy, and it's MISSION COMPLETE.

Pop out, head over to the Hero Corps analyst.
Good dialog- makes me feel like a badass and clearly explains the difficulty system without it sounding too much like someone reading a game manual at me.

This poor guy needs a makeover tho- that green mohawk doesn't really suit.

Ring up Twinshot and get sent off to Investigate the Clockwork Presence.

Nice updated warehouse map, very snazzy- might be a GR map I haven't seen yet. Spot the guy I'm supposed to rescue, leap on the two clocks...and surprise, there were three more hiding around the corner! Now that is VERY like GR.

No problem for Lizardroid tho.

I chat with No Mind, and am surprised and amused that he's another bit of tutorial, on the sidekicking system. Very slick, devs! Again, a huge improvement on the old introduction.

Now let's see if he's smarter than Grym...


Well, he may have been smarter, but he didn't fare any better.
I forgot we were playing by GR rules and jumped a spawn of 3 in a room full of shelving units, aggro'ed two other nearby spawns and had to eat a big purple to survive the mayhem. No Mind was not so fortunate...but at least this time it was my fault.

Big map, but my nose for objectives leads me to a concentration of glowies.
Lots of clocks to clean out, but all whites so no problem. Click, Click, Click...and DEFEAT AMBUSHES.

AAaaaaaaad, they're the kind that spawn 100 miles away and jog toward you slowly.

Sigh.

I hang out doing /e dance on top of a box waiting for them, and eventually clear them out. The last wave had a Dismantler in it, which was nice as I was basically one-shotting the whites with build up + thunder strike. Still, an exercise in tedium rather than superheroics.

I finish them off, and the mission complete text credits me with saving No Mind's life, which is a bit odd since my careless ways led him straight to ignominious defeat.

Talk to Twinshot, and get sent to Icon on another stealth introduction/tutorial- again, very nice. I'm finding these informational fedex's much less annoying when they're woven through a real story arc.

Next mish is aaaaaal the way across the zone...I groan, but then remember that the train lines are all connected now. Sweeet! A quick hop to the nearby train station and zip, I'm right next to the mish.

TY, QOL improvements!

After some more running around getting to know various useful game locations, I end up in Manticore's mansion to check some data.

Hmm, seems two of my teammates may not be among the most reliable sorts!

Clock ambush was well introduced, but not tough enough- I may have to break my guideline of not messing with the difficulty slider until SOs. If the missions are too easy it's my own fault.

More clocks to nullify- I much prefer this approach, having me run around looking for them, as opposed to sitting on my rear waiting for them to navigate the map. It probably took the same amount of time, but it a seek and destroy is much less tedious than a 'wait for ambushes'. Unless I'm defending an objective, there's no reason to make me wait around twiddling my thumbs waiting for the AI to find me.

I get a nice bonus as I defeat the last of the clocks in the mansion- the Technophobe badge. It seems such a perfect fit for Lizardroid I chortle as I open the 'collections' window and select it.

Exit the mish- this should be an interesting call to Twinshot!

whoop, no call after all- an auto-mission to talk to Grym, alllllll the way back across the zone. Happily, I'm standing in the train station!

Seconds later, I have my chat with Grym.

Some nice storyline stuff, setting up a confrontation at the base with all the team present- this should be fun! I'm expecting a bit of a twist- we'll see if I get it.

(promotional aside- I see that Ninja Run is on sale in the Paragon Market. Anyone who lacks this amazing little power is urged to get it ASAP. It makes the lower levels SO much more fun, and combined with the Jump Pack can get you anywhere you need to go with a minimum of fuss)

Yay, got my twist.
Final confrontation was great, exactly the kind of thing this game needs more of. The pacing of the encounter was great, dialog was well written, it set up the battle without dragging on to the point where you were mashing attack keys in frustration (my main problem with the old CoV-style cutscenes). Much more immersive to do this stuff in-game.

Nice that there was an obvious spot for you to take if you wanted, and Flambeaux's "Eeeew, anyone want to switch?" made me actually LOL.

Afterward I had the option of either going to Atlas to chat with Twinshot in person or auto-completing. Very nice. Not having done it before, I headed for Atlas. I don't mind that kind of travel in the service of a storyline- as much as I hated the old fedex's that took you all over to talk to this or that Security Chief, physically going back to Atlas to really talk with a physical contact felt like a fitting capstone to a very entertaining story arc.


Five Stars, Goat sez "would play again!"

Twinshot has some of msot fun arcs and NPCs in the game.

Grym didn't do much better when I ran that mission. Did the whole series of arcs twice, on new characters, and got "Argh! I am sorry, [name]. I cannot continue. You must press on." both times. Didn't bother me much though - more enemies for me to fight. I'm not a big fan of NPC allies "stealing" my kills, even if I get xp for it. And in some cases, having NPCs around fighting reduces the xp I get - I like it even less then...

That was worth the wait.

But now I'm faced with an empty active contact bar and a bunch of people trying to send me to Skyway City, which I well remember as a graveyard of junky missions untouched since launch.

Maybe I'll hop over and see if I'm ready for Faultline...

Faultline is 15

but there are also 2 new arcs in Steel that open at 15. The contacts will appear in your find contact.

Yes, they should have the words OLD AND LAME stamped in red over the face of any original contact. And if you accept the contact a pop-up window appears that says YOU'LL BE SORRY.