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 What is this? Midnight suns is a card based tactical rpg set in a Marvel universe. Okay, I realize that sounds bad. A lot of people are justifiably tired of the marvel cinematic universe and digital card games, but this game is unironically really good. It was developed by Firaxis and lead by Jake Solomon, the guy who did the Xcom reboots, and they know their stuff. The core tactical gameplay is tight and satisfying without being as unforgiving as their previous work. And the writing is a surprisingly good superhero adventure, that knows both how to write good quips and when to stop joking around. LP structure This is going to be a minimal grinding run, more for pacing purposes than for the challenge. This does mean that I won’t be able to max everyone’s friendship meters before the end of the game. If there is demand for it, there might be postgame updates grinding up everyone’s friendship. We’ll see if we get that far. I plan on completing the main game, DLC campaign, and the Abbey sidequests, but will probably not include most of idle dialogue in every section of the game-there’s a lot of it. I will also be minimizing the use of some obviously overpowered things, to keep the game interesting. Audience participation Because the cast is quite large, using them all in the course of the main story is rather impractical. So you, dear readers will be given a chance to vote on who we will be focusing on, once we are out of the tutorial section. There’s also some character creation choices that will be left up to the thread.
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Dec 29, 2023 18:00
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Dec 29, 2023 18:00
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Eastern European nation of Transia   You know how much I hate this hocus pocus nonsense Faustus. Now you wanna tell me just what the hell is so important?   You who rise with the moon in the darkness, who prepares the path for the Midnight Sun......Turn your merciless eyes upon us and ARISE!!!  Lilith... My child...   Six months later southwest USA   Trouble in the air. More innocent blood joinin’ ya soon. Head back you your magic castle. You ain’t welcome here.  It’s called a Sanctum. And welcome or not this is where fate has determined the Sorcerer Supreme needs to be. Tell “fate”, answer’s no. This is the secret guardian you dragged me 5000 miles to meet?Who’s the mouth?Mr Stark is brash by I assures you he can be trustedWait... You seriously don’t know who I am?The fabric of magic is shifting, Johnny. The Prophecy of the Midnight Sun is upon us.Your last crusade cost me plenty. This time I intend to look after my own.Hey pal. I don’t think you understand. Things are changing. 2+2 now longer equals 4. Up is sometimes down and Strange here is actually starting to make sense!Do I look like someone who gives a drat ‘bout any of that?No you look like you should be bouncin’ for the Double Deuce. Listen, all I know is Hell’s comin’ and my pal here says you can help.  You’re welcome, Robo-Man  Iron Man. It’s okay, it’s fine! I know what he meant... Johnny Blaze has sacrificed a great deal for this world already. I am certain he will come around given timeI thought you said time was the one thing we didn’t have? Alright. let’s just wrap this up. I think I’ve got sand in my nanopolymer weave. And we’ve got gameplay. Just pick a blast card, and click on one of the souless minions to get blasting. Iron man automatically will move into position, with his new location after completing the attack shown in green.  Every time an attack card is played, you gain a point of heroism. This heroism can be spent on more powerful “Heroic” cards, like Air Support, which will blow up the other two minions.  After ending our turn, another pack of souless rush in for the second section of the tutorial, and we get to use some of Dr Strange’s cards. All heroes have their own decks of action cards, which are combined together into a single deck. From this combined deck, you can play 3 cards per turn. It doesn’t matter if those are from the same hero, or different heroes.  Strange’s basic attack is a tutorial for knockback cards. One of the reasons this game isn’t just a turn based RPG, knockback shoves an enemy a short distance, doing a bit of damage to both objects if it hits another enemy, object or hero. As Strange says, this is pretty much just an upgrade over Iron Man’s blasts because it sometimes deals 5 extra damage to another enemy, but that doesn’t really matter. The tutorial uses simplified cards to teach mechanics, these versions of blast and winds won’t be used anywere else. I’ll go into more detail about card viability when we actually get real decks.  Next Iron man finishes off the wounded enemy.  And we can use Strange’s heroic to take out the other tough enemy.  Iron man takes a hit, but in the tutorial enemy damage is negligable. Now that I have their attention, perhaps a blessing is in order... something protective?[img]https://lpix.org/4644978/vlcsnap-2023-12-24-18h29m29s961.png[/url][/img] Guys, I just said enemy damage is negligable in the tutorial! Well, we don’t have any other cards to play, so we may as well put a shield on strange. Skill cards are a grab bag of cards that don’t do damage or cost heroism. Using them provides 2 heroism instead of the 1 provided by attacks, to pay you back for their lack of ability to beat up bad guys. Heads up grants a bit of block, additional health on top of your base health. You can’t have more block than you have max HP, but it otherwise works just like real health.  The front minion is too far away from anything for Winds to kill it, so all we can do is beat down one minion and one regular souless. The two surviving enemies beat ineffectively at Strange’s block.  Round three, and while there is a lot of enemies spawning, we’ve got a reserve of heroism from last turn and drew Air Support.   This whittles down the pile of enemies, and lets me take out all but two. Now if only we had more some way of doing damage without play cards.  Oh right, rocks! All battlefields in Midnight Suns will have a variety of environmental objects that can be weaponized against the baddies. These cost a small amount of heroism to use but don’t take a card play. This is a really clever bit of design-because environmental attacks are done on top of your primary action economy, they stay relevant throughout the game without completely overshadowing the actual deck you build. Lots of other tactical RPGs with environmental attacks have trouble balancing them, either being a pointless gimmick or overshadowing the actual character you have built. Throwing two rocks at the last surviors ends the first tutorial fight. If I’m being honest, that encounter went better than I expected. Ya see, this is why you shouldn’t eat spicy food, Bruce... ...localized in the West Villiage, converging on the Sanctum...Wanda! Ya don’t say. You okay kid?  Yes. Are you?Let’s put a pin in that.  Carol!? Bruce and I’ve been trying to reach you. He’d have come himself but he’s-You did the big green guy proud. I really should up my homeowners insurance.Hail Hydra!Ms Maximoff, the wards of protection if you please.Stephen, I can fight. I’ve got control now.Then show me by activating the wards. In the meantime, in honor of our missing companion, the rest of you may feel free to “smash” away.We picked up some crazy gamma readings coming from here.  Yes, but not why you failed to use the front door.How about we discuss proper hero landing etiquette after we take down the bad guys?Tutorial battle round two. We can take out the minions on the right with Winds and the convenient rock created by Carol’s landing, but that will only get me so far.  With only two attack cards, I don’t have enough heroism to afford Captain Marvel’s heroic. Thus, we get introduced to redrawing-every turn we can pitch two cards (1 in the tutorial) to get others. This gets us another attack to finish off the wounded hydra goon.  Next turn we get introduced to a new environmental element-sliders. Unlike the rocks from last misssion, these have to be shoved away from the hero activating them-they aren’t useful unless you can get in postion. To get the sofa lined up, the tutorial introduces the move mechanic. One hero per turn can take a free move to wherever they need to go. Other heroes have to get angles by strategically playing cards and using environmentals.  Silders are very powerful and even more satisfying. Not only can we destroy these two pirate goons, we can also smash even more of Strange’s antique furniture to splinters.  That does leave us with three goons to fight, and I realize I really should have had Strange throw the couch so he could knock the two on the left into each other as follow up. I throw some attacks out, killing one.  With that, Hydra finally runs out of goons, and we can beat the last two down over a couple turns, because this is the tutorial and they do negligable damage. How do these guys keep showing up? Despite the fact that there is a lot of them, I now have photon beam and the heroism to use it.  We’re three of the world’s strongest heroes, right? Doesn’t it seem like this should be easier?I’ve punched through Skrull Starcruisers that went down faster... something’s up.Yes, Hydra has clearly raised their game... and I have a terrible suspicion as to how. The wards-something’s blocking them.Not something. Someone. Gozer?Lilith. Mother of Demons, Harbinger of the Midnight sun. Prophecy or not you overstep. Challenging the Sorcerer Supreme at his very Sanct- Be silent.   What just happened?  Be gone.NO! A fellow daughter of Transia. You remind me of my own beloved-  Well done, Ms. Maximoff. Your unique energies surprised her.Strange may talk too much, but he does know his stuff. Lillith may be powerful, but she was overstepping attacking Strange in his sanctum.  I’m fine! What? I’m fine.The prophecy is in motion. Lilith is still out there, growing stronger each second the Midnight Sun approaches.Define stronger. I won’t go back there.We all must eventually face our demons, Ms. Maximoff. However, one of us should remain behind to maintain the Wards of Protection.See you on the other side... The fabric of magic is unwinding. We are fortunate to be here at all.And where is here exactly?Salem, Massachusetts. Well, a pocket dimension in Salem, Massachusetts.Oh, suburbs. Nice.Welcome to the Abbey, home of the ... Midnight Suns What the hell is this? Lilith’s Junior demon league. Wait, it’s that jerk from TV Which one?Now if everyone would just take a moment- ENOUGH!  It’s been a long time SaraIt’s Caretaker now.If I could have avoided this moment I would but-Oh, spare me the speech. I know Lilith’s back. We are sisters after all.Guess we’re suddenly invisible now...Shall we chat, Stephen? I only hope they are up for the task once more...You wizards always make everything sound so lofty. I raised my sister’s only child as a weapon against her.And saved the world in the process.Now you want me to dig them up and ask them to do it again.I did not write the prophecy, Sara. Besides, I am no common grave robber. We are simply reuniting their ethereal essence with their corporal form...Speaking of, it would help to have a mental image for the proceedure. Spare no detail. Spiritual identity theft is no laughing matter... What do you want our hero to look like? Also do you want to follow the exploits of an Idealistic, Trusting, and Self-Sacrificing Hero or an Pragmatic, Cynical Anti-Hero mr_stibbons fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Jan 18, 2024 |
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Dec 29, 2023 18:00
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 Hear the voice of those who beseech thee and... WAKE UP!    Sara... where... is sheAs far as resurrection spells are concerned... I’ve seen worse. Particularly on myself... That thing wakes up and takes a bite outta ya, don’t blame me.Visiting hours are over.Later  There’s nowhere else I should be.Just saw that Stark guy poking around behind the Mirror Table...Find me as soon as they awaken. And Blade... be nice.Always am. I know this place... In my dreams, it was always empty. But now I sense...There was one hair related vote, and while I am trying to honor it, I may just lose control of myself at some point.  Have to admit Hunter, you make one hell of an entrance. Guess that makes two of usYou should have struck when you had the chance, vampire. You will not live to regret your error.Cute. And caretaker told me to be nice. Relax slayer. I’m a friend. You just don’t know it yet.Yes... I saw you with Sara... before. But what would she want with a vampire, unless...The name’s Blade and I’m no ordinary vampire. I get you’ve been outta commission, but I thought you’d notice since we’re having this little showdown under the freaking sun.A dhampir? Daywalkers were a myth, even to me.Says the half human, half demon, monster hunter.You appear quite well versed in my history, Dhampir...Heard my fair share of stories from Caretaker. The Legendary Hunter. Child of Lillith, last champion of the Blood. Some call you angel, some demon. Probably a little of both. Led the Knights of Wundagore against the armies of darkness until you fell at--Fell?Shoot. This is why they don’t normally have me do the meet and greets.I can see why Agreed. The prophecy is in motion. I can feel it. We have wasted too much time here already.Man, the others are really gonna love you.Others?Yeah you’ve got a little fan club, I think. But why spoil the surprise. Hope you’re up for the challenge, chosen one. The witch who called me back from the grave?Ooor Nico. But either works. And this is-  Robbie Reyes! Oh man, never thought I’d be standing next to you. Got quite a rep. I mean, Caretakers’s told us... stories.That’s Illyana.Frivyet.And I think you already met Blade.Of course. Caretaker has re-formed the Midnight Suns.The existence of the “real” Midnight suns in this plot is one of the first things that made this game catch my eye. The fact the four pretty obscure characters are taking a central role in the narrative, instead of the usual cast of big names and characters being pushed by Marvel is a good sign, as is the fact that the story arc this game is technically adapting is one the nobody who wasn’t reading comics in the 90s has ever heard of. It shows that there’s some actual passion and creative freedom in this game. So... welcome home. I guess we-I never left.Right. Well we can fast forward through the tour then. Course that doesn’t stop us from making some improvements. We can all thank Robbie for the wifi.Oh! And one more thing. We’ve got some new houseguests now. You think we’re a fun bunch, just wait until you meet them. Speaking of... We’re here.  And you look... older. How long was I in that crypt Sara?No more than a few centuries. You were missed.Centuries? And... what of Lillith?Fallen by your hand... until now.Yeah, so speaking of Lillith...Tony.What? The kid’s literally speaking of Lillith.Tony!]That’s my name. Tony. That’s uh, Carol and Doctor Spooky over there. Here to help.Help with what exactly? Do you recall anything of that last encounter, child?There was ... a voice. The rest is... hazyA voice? That’s it? A voice?! That’s what we have to go on?Results of your long crypt-sleep most likely.A minor inconvenience. Everything required to restore those memories is contained within the sanctum. I will simply alert Wanda to prepare the necessary rituals. Some Sorcerer Supreme.Must be mystical interference caused by this little pocket dimension of yours.Perhaps Agatha can help?*Awkward silence*Allow me. AllatouWhoa. What kinda network you running there? We just call it the “Mirror Table” That’s impossible. Nothing on Earth could possibly affect those wards!Wanda’s in trouble.Wanda is trouble.I’ll go.You’ll need my help... of course.Then let us make haste, Doctor Spooky. Our hunt begins now.*Glowers at Tony.* You are a Sorcerer Supreme. Can you not predict her movements?Normally, yes... But since your mother breached the Sanctum, my sense of the future has grown velutinous in nature....Is that another language, or...“Fuzzy.” My predictions are “fuzzy.” For the first time as Sorcerer Supreme, I cannot foresee how the future unfolds. And with my apprentice in danger, we cannot tarry.Your Sanctum will survive. We shall see to that. Friendship point get! All of the other playable heroes have a friendship meter, which is influenced by dialog choices and also other mechanics like taking them on missions with the MC. Every few points you’ll get a small scene with them and assorted bonuses. You’ll probably be glad to hear that none of these go in an explicitly romantic direction. Between everyone’s vague ages and the various cannon love interests that everyone has, that would have been an absolute disaster. I do not doubt Wanda’s capability. But without my predictive acumen, I cannot bolder the wards, should she need it. Still.... the wards are woven into the Sanctum’s very essence. They should hold. In any case, all will be revealed in time. I suggest we make use of it while it still functions. Not just about time, Mr. Brooks. Time, space, reality. The building blocks of magic all musty be constant for my portals to work properly. Yet as we now know – that is no longer the case.We’ve heard.Several times. Otherwise I would still be hunting Dread Maidens in my sleep...Indeed. And while I certainly appreciate the view of this vista, I fail to see how it will hasten our return to the Sanctum. No, as I’ve just stated, magic is the problem.Your magic is. Not ours. The ground you are standing on exists within two worlds. A mystical anchor point to Illyana’s realm that allows her to- well, I’ll just let her show you. Any more questions?  Are you certain of that? Because I am sensing all kinds of-Dark energy? That feeling you’re being watched? General hellhole vibe? You think this is crazy, wait until you see Manhattan.From here, Magik can open gateways to just about anywhere on our planet... and beyond. We don’t want to risk punching through the wards protecting your Sanctum, Doctor, so we’ve chosen a safe exit a few blocks over instead.  Well, at least we know the wards of protection are still in place...For now.I suggest we hurry.  Arm Alpha in position. No one’s getting through.Welcome to New York. Looks can be deceiving I’m afraid. There’s no way these foot soldiers are behind the disruption of the wards of protection. We got real cards now. Strange’s knockback card now has the quick keyword. This means that if it successfully K.O.s an enemy, you get your card play back. This keyword is a pretty key part of the heroism economy. Using quick cards on minions gives you heroism points without using card plays, which you can then spend. Quick knockback cards are are particularly great because they spread some extra damage while turning minions into heroism.  Since there are still minions around, try to do it again. Agomotto’s Gaze is another of Strange’s starting cards, which gives you back the last two attack cards played. This is a little situational, but it also will give you back the card play you spent on it next turn, which makes things a little more attractive.  Next bonk the other minion  Next, we use a new environmental to get some damage on the hydra officer. Vaults, various big square blocks, let heroes do pretty high damage to anyone on the other side by jumping on them. These do a lot more damage than throwables, but are trickier to line up without spending a move. Hunter starts lined up on the officer, which helps  Strange’s starting heroic, which I will only refer to as “Axe” has gained a couple new pieces of functionality. It now debuffs the target, and will spend two extra heroism if available to double the damage. Annoyingly, this is not optional. In this case, I used the vault to get below 4 heroism to avoid overkill.  Hunter’s starting heroic, whip, just launches an enemy a long distance in any direction. Like, into that unsafe looking electrical conduit. Unfortunately this card discards a random card every time you play it, which is profoundly annoying.  Turn two, blade take a hit from the surviving goon, but the hydra officer loses his turn to electrical conduit. Two new minions rush in, which is going to be happening basically every mission for the rest of the game.  We’ve drawn blade and hunter’s quick attacks, so the minions are summarily converted to heroism points.  With the heroism, Hunter steps over to the other side of the dumpster, and finishes off the officer with it. Then Strange uses his other skill to increase the damage of the other cards, though more importantly, gain more heroism.  Blade wraps things up by using his heroic. Stake does decent damage and also heals Blade for the damage dealt.   You were saying?Glowing green demon goop-the answer to any an all questions about how these idiot fascists are so dangerous.   ...fail!  Oh god. Exactly. Nope. I’ll handle it.    It calls itself Venom. Until now a pale imitation of a very heroic young friend of mine. We will feed your ugly tongue to the Spider, wizard. Marinate it in his stomach juices and eat it with his spleen. It’s time for a supervillian fight. Supervillians have several privileges over basic goons. They have two actions every turn, and consequentially they do not show their target hero like regular enemies. In addition, stun effects can only reduce them to one action, not fully stop them. So, let’s start with a blessing for more damage.  Then Blade can open things up. Strike is a chain attack, after the first attack it hits the same or a nearby target again. This synergizes with card Strange’s buff, doubling it’s effect.  Hunter can then get behind Venom for her basic attack. Unfortunately Venom is slightly too far away from promising red barrel, but I’ll settle for bouncing him into a minion.  For Venom’s first action, snares Blade in a puddle of symbiote goo.  Then he tosses hunter into the conduit she was standing beside. That was sloppy on my part.  So, right now only strange can still take action. Thankfully you will never draw cards for a hero who isn’t able to act, so strange has some options. So Strange flies over to the other side of Venom, then uses Winds to knock him into Blade. Bound heroes are mechanically converted into a 1hp immobile enemy, and are freed when the enemy is KO.ed. So winds can free blade without spending a card play.  And while Venom may be smart enough to stay away from explosive barrels, the minions are not so smart.  This time, I’ve got more heroism that I know what to do with, so I drop the full power Axe on Venom.  This triggers Venom’s passive ability, Symbiotic skin. Whenever Venom is hit he has a 50% chance to trigger this, and then anyone hitting him for the rest of the turn with a melee attack will automatically be bound. I could just brute force it and have Blade hit Venom anyway, but that would be a bit of a hassle. I just throw another buff up and end turn.  Venom spends both of his attacks continuing to beat up hunter. This would have knocked hunter out, but Axe’s debuff, weak, halves the damage Venom is doing.  No escape from me, demon! Hold up, We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet!  SUCH... EASY... PREY  Hey, big guy!  I was in the neighborhood, you know, being friendly, seemed like you folks could use a hand, Doc.SPIDER-MAN!!! WE WILL RIP YOUR FACE OFF AND SUCK THE MARROW FROM YOUR BONES!!Always nice to see you too, buddy.So... I’m thinking your friends here could use a little break. How about I take Eddie here for his afternoon walk?*ROARS*Don’t worry Doc, that’s just his way of saying he cares...  New world or not, some things remain unchanged...The look.What look? Fire Dragoon. My memories may be fragmented but as I recall I killed the bastard.And all it cost was a village.Ah, of course! I see it now. The look!Cut em some slack. It wasn’t that simple.It never is.. Which is why I sent you to help. If Spider Man hadn’t come along today, we could have lost far more than...Than the Sanctum?Or Wanda?She means I could have died. Again. Putting an end to her eternal crusade against my mother....You’ve been through a lot. For now, it’s enough that you all made it back in one piece... more or less. We’ll talk more later. Get some rest.There are so many layers of hosed to the relationship between Caretaker and the Hunter. They love each other, but they don’t trust each other. And they both know that as much as Lillith needed to die, training Hunter to kill her mother was a monstrous thing to do.
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Jan 6, 2024 21:48
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 On the stark scale of reckless yet daring heroics I give it a solid six out of ten. Don’t worry, you’ll get there. With a little help.Your support is...appreciated.No problem. Already got a few ideas cooking. You’re not allergic to mimetic poly- You know what? Never mind, why spoil the surprise?I couldn’t help but overhear Auntie Caretaker over there telling you to get some rest. Sounds like a good idea to me. I supposed I could keep you company on the way... seeing as our rooms are in the same direction and all. Besides no one should be forced to walk the hallways around here alone. Full transparency Hunter, there’s another reason I asked to join you here-other than my abject terror of this entire facility. Teasing him here would be wrong. But it would be very amusing.I assure you, there is nothing to fear here.Well it’s easy to say not to be scared of things that go bump in the night when you are a thing that goes bump in the night. I supposed I should leave before whatever monstrosity that is most definitely hiding under your bed jumps out, rips my face off and then proceeds to feast on my soul. I’ll leave you too it.May your sleep be filled with pleasant dreams, Tony.Right back at ya. Oh, and if you hear the shrieking of a grown man, please ignore it. It’s just me walking to my room.Now that Tony has left, we have a present of his to open.  When I’m not saving the world, I solve the world’s problems with technological means-like the one you’re holding. I call it the Spark, a secure information and communication device, built only for SuperHeroesIt does all the usual—private messages, pictures, and calls, for some reason. But it also comes with access to Superlink, a private social network exclusively for your cape-wearing, world-saving compatriots.You might ask, “Tony-- aren’t you just repurposing a failed product from your communications division?”If you do, I’ll revoke access and let everyone else know you’re a jerk. I call it the “Wonder Man” Rule. Yes, we have our own personal chat room for the team. Such is life in the 21st century  I probably won't be showing all of the random chatter in superlink, just the ones I find relevant or particularly funny.  Then we have to pick a civillian outfit for running around the Abbey. I go with a pretty conservative sweater, because hunter is from the 1700s. And after that it's time for sweet dreams.   The book! Is she reading from the book?!Then we advanceNo! Hold the line! I can stop her! Only I can stop her!Child I know, I know. I missed you too. Aww, It must have been so hard on her.Not just her. I suppose that’s why I might have been a little curt before.A little We do not choose our destinyBut we can choose to duckFirst lesson you ever taught meAnd still the most important. Especially now that you have all these eyes on you.I have noticedTo these people you are a being of myth and legend – a grand hero of old. And they’re right – you are a heroBut I also know the battle that rages within your soul. It’s not enough that you are a hero, you need to decide what type of hero you will be. This was a lot easier when it was just you and I beheading the Dark Legion as we traipsed through the woods.Don’t forget about Agatha.I never could. Indeed. I met a Gabba Ghould once. We definitely do not want to invoke one of those right now.So... Spider-Man?Not that easy. These boys move too drat fast.Keep at it. Even in New York City, those two stand out. Think you can tell your friend inside there to turn it up a few hundred Kelvin?I could. However, it might shatter the containment spell preventing him from incinerating this facility.*Furnace Roars* I think we’re good The Forge has certainly changed.Right. Caretaker said that this all happened after your... Siesta. What spooky castle would be complete without it’s own Babylonian demon powered furnace?Sumerian Fire Demon. His name is Babs.Now it all makes sense. Well once you get past the estoric terror of the situation. I’ve found this thing actually has some uses. Molecular bonding, breaking down evil gamma serums, fashion accessorizing...Yes, speaking of... Thought you could use an upgrade.Well-hammered... Well-fired. Caretaker did not mention that you two were such skilled... Smithies.Yup. I am Iron Smithy.Perhaps you should just try it on. Hunter, your new Attire suits you quite well. But how are you holding up on the inside? You mean a physician of the medical arts? You jest.I assure you, Hunter, I do not jest. They don’t call me Mister Strange now, do they? Except for Tony.Your awakening ritual was admittedly a touch more chaotic than I had originally intended, and after your violent encounter with Venom, my oath to Hippocrates compels me to check in with you. Simply put, how do you feel?You lost much yesterday, Doctor. I am the one who should be asking you how you are feeling.I appreciate that Hunter. I, for one, do not know if I will ever feel one-hundred percent again after the events of yesterday. I still can’t believe what transpired. The Sanctum, all that knowledge... Wanda. Lost. Swallowed whole by the black mouth of that foul Venom creature. Lilith’s power has placed a dark shroud over us all, Doctor. You are not alone in this.Your words are appreciated. Still I must not allow the underlying truth of the situation to become shrouded as well. It is not just the Sanctum Sanctorum that was lost yesterday. It was my protege Wanda. She was, is, my charge, my responsibility and I failed her. Wanda’s story is quite tragic, and perhaps not mine to tell. There was an accident on the Abbey grounds not long ago... Involving Agatha.I feel like everyone is avoiding mention of Agatha.I can’t say I’m surprised, but I’m afraid it’s really not my place. You should speak to Sara about her when you’re ready. Who would have thought mystically-bound demon power would be so drat energy efficient. Or carbon neutral. Certainly got that new suit of yours done a lot faster than I expected. Speaking of... what’s the verdict, boss?It is nice having an armorer on demand.Any time I tried to make this version a little less palatable to that symbiote thing. Was this close to making it menthol flavored.I’m betting you have questions. So... Ask away, Hunter. Seen anything strange around here?Other than my roommate? Boom! Roasted.But on a more serious note, this place is legitimately haunted. Mirrors look back at you, my room rearranges itself, and worst of all... magic cats.It just “poofed” in next to me out in the Yard. Small, black, furry. Cute little thing, probably some kind of shapeshifting monster knowing this place. This is a hint to a secret. In addition to Charlie, there is also an Abby cat who can be pet for rewards. Said cat is hidden much better than Charlie, and while I do know all the possible hiding spots, it’s a pain to go check them, and we won’t have most of them unlocked for a couple hours anyway. Thanks for keeping me up to date.Anyway, remember that creepy gamma goop you found from that hopped up Hydra solider? Well I gave it a peek and that explains a lot. I appreciate that.Closest I’ve ever seen to this substance is pumping through Bruce’s veins. Part gamma accelerant, part unknown element. Calling it C.O.I.L for know, given it’s unique atomic structure. Man, I love acronyms.They are using it to get stronger.Exactly. A few drops would make your average salamander look like Fin Fang Foom. You are not suggesting we start injecting ourselves with it.No! No, nothing like that. Though I can see some future applications for my energy drink line. I was thinking we apply this stuff towards upgrading our equipment.I like where this is going.Just give me a little time here and I can whip up some pretty fun toys. New cards! You can basically forget that wall of technobabble up above. Gamma coils are just new card packs, and you get one every mission even if it makes no sense for you to be able to retrieve some gamma goop. We have seen all these cards before, and I take another copy of slash. Now we need to take a short hike over to the other card management station out back.  Caretaker put me in charge of your training. Too bad she didn’t listen to me yesterday. Now that we know what we’re up against, I think we could all use the practice. Out in the yard you can use duplicate cards to upgrade cards. Each card has one unique upgraded state, and like pretty much everything in the game, they aren’t terribly well balanced. Some are very good, some are basically meaningless. Upgrading slash is one of the better ones. Upgrading to Forceful Knockback is effectively a 50% damage boost in most situations, and it opens up more options through the extra knock back distance. Anyway, now that training is complete, we can bug Blade. You get a friendship point for getting down to business before trying to pry his backstory out of him. Is your name really Blade?Is your name really “The Hunter”Yes...? That is how I understand it.It takes all kinds.So is your name really Blade?No.So what is it?It’s private.Is it embarrassing? You do not consider me a friend.Not yet. Don’t take it personally.So how old are you, Blade? Much of the last century was a blur. I have occasional memories, almost like coming up for air before being yanked back into the depths.What happened?I killed a lot of vampires. I hadn’t lost my mind, exactly, but I got into a rhythm and never stopped. Never had a reason to stop. What brought you to the abbey Did she ever say why?She said she thought I’d be able to kill more vampires if I was acting on more than just instinct, but I know it was more than that. She gave me safe haven, here at the Abbey-- something I’d never known. Must’ve read half the books in the library by the time I headed out. So when she reached out and asked me to be part of this weird little club, of course I showed up.What do you think of the Midnight Suns? And I think we’re pretty green. But enough training will get us through it.Well that was interesting. Next up we have to have a chat with the last Avenger on site.  I’m Carol. Carol Danvers, but you can call me Captain Marvel.Kidding, Carol’s fine. Just thought I’d throw a bone to the Avengers PR team. Not gonna lie, going a few rounds in vampire guy’s magic Thunderdome sounds like fun, but we’ve go bigger fish to fry.Well, not so much fish as that ginormous invulnerable sewer monster that swallowed the Sanctum.Every lock has it’s key. Strange, Caretaker and the rest of the funky bunch can try and “magic” their way through that shield all they want. If my time as a pilot taught me one thing, it’s that sometimes you’ve gotta find a workaround...As in Hydra. They’ve gotta know a way inside. Steve’s always said they aren’t much for talking. But then again, I’m told I can be rather persuasive when I need to be.Well, if there is any time to put your powers of persuasion to work, now is the time, Captain.Trust me, Hunter, I’m looking forward to it. Hydra’s been a thorn in me and Steve’s asses for years. Can’t wait to remove them for good. Find me in the War Room when you’re finished here. We waited all year for that game, and you know the Skrulls would have spoiled it for us if they got the chance.Can’t you just-Work my magic again? See, that’s the problem. This time I am working with actual magic. And let me tell you, it sucks! If the gamma signature from the Sanctum is really that unique Bruce, then couldn’t we just - *kicks machine*We should be able to track this new gamma signature to it’s source then, right? I’d do it myself, but we seem to be having a little IT trouble today...Please, Ol C.E.N.T.R.A.L. here’s ready to grind through that data like chum.What exactly is a Central?CENTRAL. Cognitive Encryption Net Transmogrification... Eh, we’ll figure it out later.Sending co-ordinates now. Hope your gremlins enjoy gamma spectroscopy. I heard that. That makes two of us.Hey, come one. Happens to everyone. Well, okay, not everyone...Nice work, Bruce My favorite kind. Anybody up for paying it a visit?DefinitelyMulti-million dollar piece of experimental technology... And she kicks it. Gamma signatures and unstable isotopes aren’t really in my wheelhouse, so we’ll be patching Dr Banner through from Avenger’s Tower. Probably can scratch “abandoned” off the description of this place.  Johann Fennhoff. That hack. I heard he was dead. Well hoped is perhaps the more accurate description.Calls himself Faustus now.That’s magic coming from those crates. I can feel it.Yeah? How about Gamma radiation?! You feeling that too? Because that’s some pretty evil looking Hydra tech down there.  Kill them. Faustus apparently couldn’t spring for some interesting Hydra goons, just a pack of minions and grunts. This is somewhat tolerable, because I have Captain Marvel through this mission. With all due respect to people who like the character, as a unit in Midnight Suns, she has issues.  First though I can break out our new upgraded slash to oneshot a goon by bouncing him into an explosive barrel.  That gives up a level up. Characters level up by playing cards, which increases their health and damage. All cards do damage based on some multiplier of a character’s attack stat, not a flat damage value, which is why I have avoiding ever mentioning the numbers on attack cards when discussing how good they are. I’m not a great fan of this system, because it just makes the game less readable at higher levels. They probably would have been better off not having the card damage and enemy health scale, but who am I to argue with the siren song of numbers going up.  With that and a quick shot from Blade we’ve got enough heroism to use Captain Marvel’s only decent card, Fists of Radiance. This smashes the poor goon down a drop. Whenever an enemy gets knocked down a drop they have a chance to be instantly killed depending on their current health, starting at 25% for full health. Minions always fall in, and supervillians are immune.  Then blade does some more minion cleanup.  Some more minions come in, and they conveniently stand next to yet another explosive barrels.  Things wrap up easily.    The perfect opportunity to field test Mother’s device.  Watch out   Get her!For the record Bruce, I did not smash that thing. Captain Marvel is designed around a central mechanical gimmick-after you play three of her cards, she can enter the Binary state. This doubles her offence and gives her block equal to half of her health, and the state ends if she loses all her block. With all due respect to the developers, balancing the normal and double damage states is a bit of a nightmare, but this system is largely to Captain Marvel’s detriment. Most of her cards are really bad in her base state, which makes getting to Binary major sacrifice, and in later levels, half your health in block vanishes alarmingly fast. Now, because this is the Captain Marvel tutorial mission, she starts this half already in Binary, so we can have some fun.  For instance, Binary Photon Beam oneshots basic grunts.  Hunter and blade are basically on minion cleanup duty.  Explosive barrels can be detonated by spending a heroism if you can’t find a way to hit enemies into them, but it always feels a little bad.  Anyways, there is an objective here. You need to recover the artifact, and to do that we need to deal with the big shield dude who just dazed Blade. You have three turns to remove all his block then you can play the recover artifact card to secure it.  Binary Fists of Radiance solve all manner of problems. Shield guys are immune to knockback with their shields up, but the base damage is still enough for the job.  Artifact get. One less thing to worry about. Approximately 16,342 more to go. I suggest starting with the remaining Hydra forces in your vicinity.However, now I have to deal with the other problem with Captain Marvel. Half of her starting deck is 2 and 3 cost heroic cards, and that’s just too many heroic cards. I’m heroism screwed, and have the choice between playing a heal that I barely need, or a card draw card that is entirely redundant because you draw to six cards every turn.  Now that his shield has broken, Shield guy opens up with his secret move-exploding himself. This really hurts, but as you get an entire turn of warning, it’s not actually much of a threat.  Heroes are pretty intelligent about these kind of damage areas. You can see here that blade is going well out of his way when shooting a minion to make very sure he isn’t ending his movement in the blast radius.  And explodey shield goons aren’t immune to knockback, or immune to being knocked out by an angry Captain Marvel.  Bad guy crate. Full of bad guy stuff.I know those symbols. From the time of the first Hunt. That glyph means “barrier” That one “almighty” something something “gods and demons”So it’s a spooky bad guy crateVery spooky. Designed to contain powerful magic. Be careful.Got it. Don’t cross the streams.Never do. How about we get this thing back to the Abbey and see for ourselves? Kid? You do know that I am a good three centuries older than you, right? Okay. Abbey Tournament. Tonight. The eternal Spirits of Vengeance take technical fouls very seriously. Especially in the 4th quarter. It is always movie night.Exactly Well if the parking is free, clearly no one from Manhattan. Come on, you should hang out. I... should rest. Another time.
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Jan 13, 2024 17:34
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Card update #1-Blade, Hunter, and Captain Marvel’s starting cards As mentioned before, cards in this game don’t do flat damage, instead doing a multiplier of a Character’s attack stats. I’ll be using the notation of X*offense when talking about damage. Also, there was a slight recording hiccup, and I had to replay some stuff. So the Slash+ I got last update is now a Strike+, and I’ll be more careful about manual saves in the future. .png) Remove minion, gain heroism. Quicks are an important part of your decks, and this upgrading into a knockback quick is a major upgrade that adds multi target potential. .png) While the starting attacks for all heroes top out at 1*offence,1.5* offence is the baseline for rare and upgraded cards. After upgrade, Slash is the gold standard for attack cards in the game. It hits the 1.5* offence damage baseline to the primary target with an impact, and the knockback can damage other enemies or take advantage of explosives or conduits. .png) Your official panic button. This is a huge amount of healing that is stuck to the MC which will let you grind out earlygame fights if you can’t get a quick advantage. As the game progresses, I’ll probably drop down to one copy, but it’s good to have in your pocket .png) Discarding a random card is profoundly annoying to use even if you aren’t at risk of running out, and this really isn’t offering a powerful enough effect to be worth the hassle. It’s good at taking advantage of environmental effects in the early game, but not much more than that. As the protagonist who is mandatory on most story missions, it’s a relief that Hunter’s starting cards don’t hold her back. 2 quicks 2 attacks 2 skill 2 heroic is a nice safe deck composition, and none of the cards are stinkers, though slash really needs it’s upgrade. .png) One of the worse quicks in the game, the fairly niche upgrade leaves this very cuttable once other heroes have better upgraded quick attacks. .png) So strike badly needs it’s upgrade to hit that baseline, strike plus is a competitive attack card that is reliable and flexible. It also synergizes well with Make em bleed, letting you spread bleed onto multiple targets. .png) Right now, this is pretty questionable. Bleed is potentially a lot of damage, doing 1* Blade’s offence every turn, but it requires leaving an enemy alive to beat you up for two turns, which makes it a bit niche. Later on, as Blade gains more cards that care about Bleed, this turns itself around, this becomes a key part of Blade’s gameplan, providing the bleed and digs for more Blade cards to apply and take advantage of bleed. .png) Another Blade card which badly needs an upgrade, but with that is a solid workhorse card that’ll stick around for a good while, doing good damage while offering some healing utility.Blade’s starting deck has the same safe composition as Hunter, but with a lower average card quality. Still, a solid inclusion in the early game, especially after a few upgrades. .png) The poster boy for captain marvel’s problems. Without binary, this is one of the most do-nothing attacks in the game, the small amount of damage and block just doesn’t really advance the game state in your favour. With binary, it gets to the lofty heights of above average, doing baseline 1.5* damage with a good bonus of all the block. Good, but not so good to be worth the work you are putting in..png) The way binary works, it rewards non damaging skill cards, as they don’t do damage, and thus move the binary meter without suffering from the lack of damage buff. Unfortunately, the developers thought of that, and left Captain marvel with some pretty bad skills. In a game where you draw back up to a full hand every turn and get two redraws, card draw is a fundamentally low value effect. You’re not going to run out without a lot of ways to play extra cards, and you’ve got a pretty decent card selection. And this one does nothing if you’ve drawn a lot of Captain marvel cards. To be charitable, drawing captain marvel cards does help with binary. One of the problems you’ll run into with binary is you use all your Captain marvel cards getting to binary and then don’t draw any more to take advantage of binary. But you’re still sacrificing tempo just to get more cards. .png) The one actually good card in Captain Marvel’s starting deck. It starts as a slightly subpar damage card at 2* offence for 2 heroism, but then becomes an amazing 4* with binary. This is a case study in why conditional double damage is a balance nightmare- If the base damage was only a little bit lower, the card would be pretty bad. The upgrade is pretty minor, but as mentioned above, more Captain Marvel cards are useful, and you can get the card by bouncing the target into a minion..png) Another Captain Marvel card, with a story you’ve heard before. It’s pretty bad without binary, and a little above average with it. Line attacks have some caveats, they generally are going to take your move to get a good angle, and even with the extended width hitting more than three enemies takes a bit of luck. Captain Mavel’s general design issues are seriously exacerbated by her starting deck, which has someway too many heroics and some pretty bad cards with weak upgrades. It’s really annoying how often she is mandatory in the early game. She does get better with more cards, but a lot of players will write her off completely because of her bad starting deck.
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Jan 18, 2024 17:23
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   Blood magic stuff. Cool room. Spacious. Aww, is that bed for Charlie!Yes.Wait, where was Charlie sleeping before this? So, if you’re planning on giving me some sorta brooding “code of the stoic warrior” speech, I’m immune. Just ask Blade or Magik Work?Yeah, talking to people, making friends, basic human stuff... or quasi human. You’re a Midnight Sun now. One of us.Nico I was just “Hydra bombed”. I could use some rest. I will meet you outside.Yes! I’ll go nuke us some popcorn and you pick our a movie! Oh, and it may just be the two of us. The others went outside, needed to cool off. Really need to hang a fan over that Forge. Or maybe crack open the Casket of Ancient Winters a little...Hunter has been adopted. Resistance is futile, friendship is inevitable.  I know this entire situation’s gotta suck for you. Not just the whole “resurrected chosen one” thing. I get why facing Lilith won’t be easy. I was fifteen when I found out my mother was Capital E Evil.Was your father there for you when you found out?Uh, dad was evil too. Long story, lots of drama. There was a cool dinosaur- I’ll fill you in later. Makes me hate her even more.I did not realize you carried such pain.I just leaned to bury it. You think I can afford a therapist on a Super Hero’s salary?I’m kidding. We don’t get paid for this. So the first thing you need to know-the glowing briefcase is a metaphor. We have just completed our first hangout! Hangouts are short scenes with other playable heroes that provide large amounts of friendship points. Different characters like different activities, but for the tutorial Nico insists on one of her favourite activities. Hangouts are sometimes available in the night. So? What did you think of the movie?I understood more than I shouldn’tHow? You’ve been dead for three centuries ...Dreamt.Of what?Of everything. Much of this world is familiar to me. I know it from my dreamsThat’s not creepy at all. So... Do you know everything?No, I... Think of it like this. I know what a car is, but I have no idea how to drive. Just what you shared earlier.You’re always free to askTell me about your old team.The Runaways? Sure thing.Were you all heroes who banded together?No, we were normal kids. We saw each other once a year, when our parents got together to reminisce. Then we found out two very disturbing things.First, our parents were supervillians who sacrificed children to evil gods. Second, each of us had some sort of powerful birthright. Our parents wanted us to follow in their footsteps.What did you do? You know, typical kid stuff.Where are your friends now?Molly attends Xaviar’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Karolina left earth to marry alien nobility. Gert... She, uh... She didn’t make it. After Gert passed, Chase and I had a falling out. The last I heard, he and Old Lace are living at his family home in L.A.How does the staff of one function?It’s blood magic, so my own blood is required to summon it. You wouldn’t belive how many bandages I go through each year.What about the words you speak? If each magical effect is unique, do you worry you will run out of words?Not really. I only use the staff’s power when I need it. The rest of the time I rely on more conventional means. Like, y’know, magic.This is a bit of a cheat on the games part, Nico is generally not that well versed in regular magic, but it is kinda necessary for a card game, and being tutored by caretaker does provide an excuse for why she has more magical skill in this continuity. I should go.Um ahem good timing-looks like Caretaker wants to speak with you. I was planning on getting some rest but-...things are moving at a frantic pace. For all we know I’ll be landing a jet on the roof with Mr. Stark this afternoon. Now quite like it was in the good old days I’ll give you that. But there were times back then I wouldn’t trade for anything. With both you and...Agatha? Where is Agatha?I’m sorry, I should have had this talk with you much sooner, but you should know... Agatha... She’s no longer with us.What? That is impossible. She was so...Fierce? Indomintable? Or maybe just kind to a fault.You do not have to do this. And more so than anyone you deserve to know.Agatha died in an accident caused by her protege Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch. The Midnight Suns latest recruit, a powerful spellcaster in her own right, perhaps the most powerful Agatha and I had ever seen.Agatha was killed. So I did what needed to be done. I sent Wanda away to the Sanctum Sanctorum. To study under Doctor Strange. I know the others still harbor a great deal of resentment towards me for it.Was Wanda so different from me as a child? Was it that easy to send her away? I thought she would be safe with Strange. On that part I was clearly mistaken. Wanda, Agatha... It seems we have lost them both now.I conjured a small shrine to Agatha’s memory on the grounds, hoping to find some solace, a way to move forwards. You should pay your respects. Maybe you’ll find what I couldn’t Charlie helpfully leads us to the shrine, though it’s not really necessary since objective markers exist.    Agatha!?You always did have the most remarkable eyes, Hunter. Just like your mothers. The first?To commune with the spirits of course...Is this a trick of some kind? Because I am not amused. I actually find it quite liberating....you are dead.Always straight to the heart of things. That’s my Hunter.You seem strangely at ease about this whole thing. And what have you been doing all this time?Meet me by the cave just over there... you know the one. I think we can safely lift the veil on a few more of our secrets, what’s the worst that can happen?  That ominous looking portal is known as a Blood Gate, and you’re the only one among us who can pass through it.Blood Gate? Caretakers handiwork I have noticed that.What lies beyond is meant for you as much as it ever was for her. Assuming you’re up to the challenge that is...You know I am.I do, but it’s always polite to ask. There was a time when the Blood stood within these celestial halls to prove their worth. Sara- Caretaker, was here?Nothing ever comes easy, dear. The Elder Gods felt their descendants needed to earn their blessings. Which is why they created these trials to begin with.Trials? I should have known. And this is my challenge.Yes, but I may have found a loophone they never considered. Why don’t you try summoning your four legged friend.The old Gods are responsible for a great many creations, including your faithful companion. I think even they tend to forget that.   Agatha has dragged us into a special combat challenge, which only Hunter and Charlie can participate. Charlie isn’t a real hero unfortunately. She can only appear in fights under specific circumstances, like in these challenges. She always has the same deck consisting of three cards whenever she helps out.  The most important by far is Howl. This skill applies the marked status condition to all enemies in an area. Marked basically makes all cards quick against marked enemies, you always get your card play refunded when they die. Against the swarm of minions in this encouter, one howl provides 3-4 additional card plays.  To take advantage of all these plays, Charlie has bite, a fairly basic attack that lets you draw a card when it K.O.s an enemy.  With these tools, Hunter has plenty of heroism to pick off the rest of the minions with the plentifyl supply of rocks around the arena. Charlie, sadly, cannot use environmental attacks.  So, you may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned what difficulty I’m playing this game on. That is a way to show off the way this game’s difficulty works. On a new game, you only have the two difficulty options-normal and story. However, as you play through the game, six additional difficulty levels will slowly unlock. I really like this, by giving players intermittent reminder about the difficulty it encourages new players to step things up once they’ve gotten comfortable with normal.  I immediately slam the difficulty slider up to Heroic 1. I’ll probably be gradually stepping this until Ultimate 1, and then going based off my comfort level. I’ve played this enough times that I can handle myself, but I’m not going to beat my face against a wall to prove myself to the goons. Good girl, Charlie! Oh, and you too Hunter. You’ve finished this trial, but don’t worry... the other gods are waiting. Anyway, let’s head into the spooky cavern that opened up after beating the challenge.  The two of you, as well as your mother, are the last of your kind- The Blood. Your lineage follows an unbroken line to the Old Gods themselves. And if you call upon them, you might just find they’re actually listening. Why don’t you ask the goddess Oshtur for her aid in dealing with that barrier over there. Putting the plate on the platform unlocks one of the words of power. These are a series of minor spells that can be used to explore the abbey grounds between missions as part of an extended sidequest. It’s a nice break from missions every now and then.  It’s hard to believe Lilith and Caretaker brought this place all the way from Transia. This are is particularly attuned to the forces of magic. And why our sanctuary here has remained all but impregnable over the centuries.Hmph... and now I’m rambling on like an old Sorcerer Supreme. Why don’t you come see me in the library tomorrow night. Goodnight, Hunter.I’m going to have to break this here, I’m going to need a vote at the end of next update, and this is good stopping point, even though the update is shorter than usual. mr_stibbons fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jan 21, 2024 |
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Jan 21, 2024 20:43
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DLord posted:Of everything. Much of this world is familiar to me. I know it from my dreams
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Jan 21, 2024 23:48
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 Ah, yes. The “spooky crate”The very one. Though it is far from any mere container, I assure you. I am detecting powerful emanations from inside. If this is a sign of what Hydra is after, I fear we are all in grave danger. Or we could open it, Tony. And perhaps use the mystical energies I sense inside to our advantage.I heard a “we” in there. Green goopy gamma serums are one thing. I’m not opening boxes full of mummy curses.You don’t have to. Hunter, if you’ll allow me...Your second funeral, boss. And you think you can do it with whatever is in the container?Tony has one of the greatest scientific minds that I’ve ever seen. I, of course, have an unparalleled understanding of the mystic arts.I have no doubt that we can find a way to research whatever we find in there and have it work in our favour.I hope the two of you create something powerful. I want to stop Lilith quickly and decisively. His discomfort with the esoteric nature of the arcane might be a problem. But Tony’s eccentricities aside, I know you can make this work.If I can find items to research, I can give the Midnight Suns every possible advantage over Lilith and her disciples.I look forward to seeing what you come up with.  What? Is it worse than you expected?No, it’s... totally unexpected. It’s the Eternitiy Dagger. This was in a place of honour in my bedchamber in the Sanctum for years. The Sanctum Sanctorum is no common domicile to be burgled. These barbarians have no idea what they possessed. A distressing thought. If they had my dagger, who knows of what others of my priceless possessions have passed through their greedy fingers. The Cube of Nothingness, the Tear of Prophia and most worrisome of all...Your Toothbrush? You, uh, had a little coffee thing going on this morning with your breath. I believe Carol is already working on it.Now that this artifact has been returned to its proper owner, we shall see if we can make use of the mystic forces contained within. We’ve unlocked research! Collecting Strange’s lost possessions will provide access towards a wide variety of bonuses to tactical combat and the strategic layer. Research project have two requirements to start- the first is research level, the total of Strange’s knickknacks we’ve recovered as mission rewards. The second is a small mission tied to a specific hero. Usually this is taking them on missions or upgrading a certain number of their cards. It’s a blunt but effective way to encourage players to put some effort into every hero.  All the research currently available is level 1, so that’s not an issue. There are two research projects that are immediately unlocked from the mandatory hero selections on the previous missions. Strange unlocks the item bench and combat item system, but we’re going to start with Captain Marvel’s, which let’s us pick two cards from four options every day instead of one from three. There’s a lot of cards that need upgrading. There’s also a currently locked research project from Blade which is really, REALLY important, but we can’t get until I we can put Blade on another mission. .png) We also get our daily cards. After retcons, we already have a strike+, and I’d like to spread the upgrades around a bit. Cosmic ray, despite being a new card, is really bad. It requires both Binary and targeting enemies targeting captain marvel to be useful, which is too many hoops. So I’m picking Holy Flame, which is also a pretty questionable card, but taking it let’s us upgrade Slash, and Holy Flame isn’t that much worse than base slash. Hey hunter, could you meet me in the Forge? The Forge is pretty badass, but the creature trapped inside riles up my own inner demon. Uh, speaking of... There’s something you should know about me.You are bonded to a Spirit of Vengeance.drat, you’re good! How could you tell? Three centuries ago.Oh, man. Um...Sometimes when I have crap to work through, I like to get my blood pumping. Why don’t we hit the Yard for a sparring session. I know Sparky’s excited to meet you.“Sparky”? Also, he’s not allowed inside after the... incident with Caretaker’s Sumerian sofa.It would be my honor to spar with a Spirit of Vengeance.Ha! Wow, he’s real excited. Never thought he’d get “bouncy,” but here we are. So, the final part of our daily routine is sparring. Every day we can practice with one hero for some friendship points with them and some other minor bonuses. This one grants Ghost Rider a small bonus on the next mission he’s on, but you can also get free resources or bonus levels. .png) It is indeed, DaywalkerAnd that op against Faustus. The way Captain Marvel just absorbed that bomb. Unbelievable, isn’t it?That bomb was clearly meant for me. I am in her debt.Yeah, but I don’t think she sees it that way. She just saves people. Amazing. Smart, quick witted, fearless... Hell. She even glows....png) Yes. No. Wait... what are you trying to say?You are not used to expressing feelings of affection, are you?I have no idea what you are talking about..png) My apologies. Of course it is not. Whatever a rodeo is.Yeah, well, now that we settled that, maybe I should go, uh, sharpen my stakes or something. And maybe we should keep this, uh, chat to ourselves for now. I would like to make very clear that the key used to interact with objects in the Abbey is normally “E”.  There’s a variety of collectibles hidden around the Abbey, including set of marvel themed Tarot major arcana that will give you rewards if you pick up all of them. Generally, by the time you can actually get the full sets, the reward isn’t a big deal. I won’t show most of them, but the old midnight suns graves are a little interesting. You called for me, Captain? Got a lead on some particularly gnarly Hydra operations happening in the city. But we need to move fast if we want to intercept them in time.Then let us get going.My thoughts exactly. There’s just one problem, though. We seem to have lost our gatekeeper- MagickLost There is no passage to New York. Or anywhere for that matter.Now you see my problem.Do not worry, Captain, I will locate and alert her of the teams needs. Then I shall make haste..png) No, but there were some pretty crazy energy flashes coming from the dorms a few minutes ago. Usually means she wants to be left alone. Trust me on that... Wanda. It belongs to Wanda.Let me guess, you are to ask me to do the one thing the others value me for, opening their precious portal. Well I am in the middle of something. Come back later.It is never easy to lose a comrade. I know this too well.We did not “Lose” Wanda. We let her go. Before any of this happened.Wanda’s first grimorie. Agatha gave it to her when she was teaching her witchcraft, the dark arts. She was trying to help Wanda control her powers. I am going to execute the light side run that was voted on in the first post. However, there is no chance that lecturing Illyana here is going to move this conversation in a productive direction. There is no shortage of points in this game, so I am going to be diplomatic and pick the middle option. I do not suppose there are any spells in there that will banish Lilith and save the world?Hard to say. These incantations appear to have been written for Wanda alone. Maybe a world without Wanda is one we are not meant to save. Your heart so filled with soot that it chokes out all the bright parts of you, until you are just a dark thing of smoke and ash...I cannot let such a fate happen to her.We will find her. I can feel it. Illyana. Just open the portal.You are like an Avenger. All you do is take, take , take. You expect too much.Okay. I will open your drat portal.Well. That went poorly.  When Hydra isn’t preoccupied with world-ending scenarios, they spend a lot of their free time terrorizing the citizens of New York through various low-level operations.It’s fairly routine stuff for heroes these days, and worst case we’ll still get some fresh intel in the process. Why don’t you check on the mirror table and see what we’ve got on our plate? For the first time, we get to pick a hero to bring with, and we might as well bring someone new. The instinct of most new players would be to pick Ghost Rider, since he just got a combat bonus from the sparring tutorial, but that’s probably not the best idea. We’re locked into Captain Marvel, and like her Ghost Rider has a starting deck that is half heroic cards. Bringing them both is not the best idea. You may also think the bring Magik, to let her see some action after that last conversation, but Magik doesn’t really work until we’ve completed Blade’s first research. So, instead we’ll bring Nico, because Tony is boring. Nico is too cool for superhero codenames or costumes. We’re sending you straight to the coordinates Captain Marvel identified in New York. Dr Banner has confirmed that the gamma signatures in the area match those of Faustus’ weapon. We need to recover whatever intel we can if we’re going to find out exactly what’s going on down there. Ah, heroes... a single world-ending calamity is never enough to satiate your appetite for destruction. You insist on meddling further, forcing our hand yet again.Oh, that’s just lovely. Faustus has a radio. I’m assuming whatever Hydra is attempting to flee with on that chopper is our target. I suggest we stop it and see for ourselves. Nico is mostly a support character, though she has a bit more damage options than Strange. One of her most notable cards is Empower, which just makes every heroic card in the hand cost 0 heroism.  Which means we can just drop a beam through some minions and into the objective helicopter. There is a time limit on this mission, but it’s extremely generous, and not really a big deal to get damage on the copter.  Then she’s in the right position to jump on a hydra grunt. Hunter follows up on the same grunt, but doesn’t KO.  We are dealing with hydra officers again, but unlike in the first mission, this idiot is actually going to take some turns. Hydra officers apply a random minor debuff to the hero they hit. In this case Captain Marvel will now do half damage next turn.  They can also turn hydra minions into bombs. This doesn’t take their action, which is fair, because it’s not terribly threatening.  Nico just walks out of the blast zone while making an attack. The minion will knock himself out in the blast. Nico is the game’s obligatory random character. Several of her cards have the Roulette keyword, which randomly selects one 3/4 variations of the base card when it is drawn. This is pretty tolerable by the standards of RNG mechanics. You know exactly what the card will do on play, and you can just use your redraws to get rid of the bad results. Curse is a weak attack card that applies one several debuffs based on the roulette roll. This one marks this goon.  Hunter finishes the goon off, with a fair amount of overkill. This is often what happens with Mark mode curse, it just doesn’t do enough damage to be the difference in getting a KO, it’s mostly just a free point of heroism. Doing so gives us access to a mission card. Certain enemies in carry blue mission cards that are added to your hand when they are defeated. These cards usually do not cost or provide any heroism. The actual value of these are pretty varied. Delay helicopter for instance, just steps back the mission timer one turn, which really shouldn’t be necessary. More useful is Weak point, an OK attack that when used on an objective causes it to take 50% more damage for the rest of the mission. I drop it on the helicopter with my last card play.  I then realize that all the enemies have been picking on Nico all mission, so I need to waste two heroism dropping a lamppost on a minion.  Turn 3 I drop a heal on Nico to get her back to full, which will give me the heroism to use Fists of Radiance on the Officer.  Folling that up with a knee strike let’s Captain Marvel enter her binary state... with a grand total of one enemy still on the field. Classic Captain Marvel.  To finish things off we use Nico’s starting heroic, Swarm. This is a one heroism attack just does variable amounts of damage to a single target, but on average, its damage is excellent for the cost. That should keep them grounded. Now let’s get everything back to the Abbey for analysis.Such arrogance. Our brave soldiers will never allow-Oh shut up already. Take them down.  One annoyance with the game is it’s not explained if you’ll have to clear out the surviving enemies after completing the objective or not. The general rule is that if the objective has a time limit, completing the objective prevents you from losing but you’ll need to finish off the enemies afterwards If there’s no time limit, the mission will end when the objective is completed. Last? There are more heads to the Hydra than you will ever comprehend heroes. This is a minor setback at most.Well at least we won’t have to listen to you any longer today. I consider that alone a victory.   You could say that. I’ve been staring at the night sky trying to figure it out. You’re observant, Hunter. You tell me.You are trying to figure out how to bring Wanda back.Close, Hunter, but no. Sinister?When I was holding back the trans-dimensional door for you back there, I sensed something was there at the docks with you. Something dark and familiar.What did you see, Illyana?I did not see, I said I sensed something there. But that’s not the only thing I sensed today.Oh? All I know is that whatever is happening is also strangely familiar to me. And when all you knew was darkness and despair growing up, that warm fuzzy feeling of familiarity is not just a warning sign, but and alarm bell.We should inform the others of any potential danger. The Avengers are already unsure of us. I do not need to add to that. Best not say anything until I am better able to articulate it.I’d like to be left to my thoughts now, Hunter. After that awkward conversation, we have More Hangouts. Not everyone is available to hangout on hangout nights, so we’ve got a limited options. Who do you want to hang out with Carol (Captain Marvel) Robbie (Ghost Rider) Tony (Iron Man) Doctor Strange (Doctor Strange)
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Jan 25, 2024 02:07
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cokerpilot posted:I rolled a d4 and got 4 so Doctor Strange Quackles posted:I vote for Captain Marvel. She's cool. Sorry guys, footage has already been recorded. After a couple days of silence I had assumed I wasn't getting any more votes.
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Jan 28, 2024 16:45
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 Looks like we’re hanging out with Robbie tonight. Every time a character is available for a hangout, they’ll present several options for activities to do during the hangout. Different characters like different things, and you’ll have to take your best guess (or check a wiki) to pick the option they like best. Robbie, being a teenage male, is always up for some video games. You ever get in a horse chase?What is a horse chase I had a horse with four trick knees. If I whistled a certain way she would stop on a shilling and then run backwards.No way. And what’s a shilling?It does not matter. One time I caught a bug in my mouth mid-whistle. She stopped, gave me a sour look and started running sideways.Oh wow. Could she run sideways the other way?No she was a 3-speed. I knowI’d pay to see a sideways horse chase.Oh? How many shillings?All of em. That’s our nightly socialization done. Last night we promised to meet with Agatha in the library to discuss her little sidequest. The library is currently locked, but it’s nothing that the gifts of the old gods can’t solve.  I’m glad to see you’re getting comfortable with the Words of Power, Hunter. Investigation?A side project, but a potentially transformative one. With my blessing, Wanda was working to uncover what may be the most powerful... Standing in the library.I’ve given you free reign so you could get back on your feet... but I never thought you’d pull something like this.I... What is it you think I am doing exactly? I told you how hard it’s been since we lost Agatha. Instead of letting it rest, you decide to... re-open the wound?Oh Sara, I would never... I never thought of this place like that.Of course you didn’t. And now it’s done. Why should I ever stand in your way.In retrospect, forcing the door with magic instead of asking Caretaker for the key was probably not the best idea.  She may try to mask her feelings, but you know she is struggling with what happened. Why are you hiding from her.For most people, the captivating relationships of their lives are formed over a matter of days and years. And yet we preserverd, together.You still have not answered my question.It may be difficult to understand, but she needs this time. You are right, I do not understand.It isn’t up to me to reveal myself, it’s up to her to accept what happened and allow herself to grieve. When that happens, we’ll see each other again, but not before.I trust you will do what is right for Sara. So... what is it you are looking at here? The Abbey grounds have a great deal of history, many of it’s secrets remain hidden even after all this time.Even to you?Even to me. Wanda had taken to exploring the grounds in search of a strange energy we both sensed. Of course, being the clever girl that she is, her notes are written in an ancient Transian cipher that I’ve only just begun to understand. Have a look at the first entry. And investigation that involves experiments? Why do I feel like you’re going to get me into trouble.Since when has that ever stopped you? Let’s meet out at the altar, I’ll try to do a better job of explaining from there.We’ll get to that in a moment, but I’m going to take a moment to check out the library. The library has a rotating selection of lore interactables that you can take a look at each day.   One of which is the actual prophecy that Caretaker and Strange keep banging on about. I’ll be honest, as prophecies go, this is extremely vague.  Poking around the lore gives us a level of Arcane Knowledge, one of the many progression systems in this game. Arcane knowledge xp comes from picking up collectibles/lore and using words of power in the Abbey, and the rewards provided tie back into the Abbey. Like the rest of the Abbey exploration, it is strictly optional, but does provide some small benefits in the strategic progression if you go through with it. Anyway, we need to catch up with Agatha.  Are you going to make me say it?Humor an old, dead woman.Hocus Pocus. You haven’t lost your touch, dear. The words may be simple, but these plinths won’t appear for just anyone.Each represents one of the basic elements, their power activated only be the elemental rods they would normally be holding.And where are the elemental rods now? Let me guess...That’s right, I want you to find the missing rods and return them here. Hopefully, as I decipher Wanda’s journal, her notes will aid in the search.The way the Abbey sidequest works, every few in game days Wanda’s Journal will update with more hints to find whatever you are currently trying to collect. In practice, the Abbey isn’t that big and you’ll find pretty much everything if you give the place a good once over. But you have not actually told me what the greater purpose is here... what are we doing this for? In fact, I don’t want you overthinking this little project, there’s no rush, and you don’t have to help if you don’t feel like it.But there is one more thing before I head back to the library. An Arcane Key?Just a little something, a token for your efforts so far. Scattered throughout the Abbey are Arcane Chests. If you’ve acquired Arcane keys you can open them for cosmetics and some other resources. We only get a pretty meh red version of Hunter’s suit.  Poking around just past Agatha’s altar, we find the air rod on the edge of the cliff. I could find the rest of the rods right now, but for pacing reasons I’ll hand them in on a slower night. The combat challenges on this side quest are one of the only things in the game that don’t scale to your level, so getting any further would be quite difficult with the resources I have right now. Importantly, every rod you turn in gives you a new key, so I’d like to turn one in now.  The library has a more valuable purple chest, which potentially has some good rewards.  Doing so provides us our first combat item, which is a rather odd way to get it. Combat items can be used once in tactical combat to provide some minor effect. As with most limited use items in RPGs, most players just horde them forever. I personally tend to value items that can get you out of tough spots like this one because they’re much more likely to be used than buffs. It’s much more obvious when you need more redraws to fix a bad hand than when it’s worth using an offensive buff item.  We also get one of my most used cosmetics, this little She-ra helm. Sadly doesn’t work with this haircut, I’ll need to find some different costume choices. With that, we turn in for the night.  Can that really be you Wish I could say the same, mother. Now enough with this deception and reveal your true form.But this is my true form. The way I was when you were just a sweet, helpless little baby. You don’t remember that, do you. Well, I do... bringing you into the world was the happiest time in my life. I had thought the Words of Power would open your eyes. But I should have known my sister and her pet witch would continue to withhold the truth from you...My trial with the Elder Gods. How did you know?I heard you calling upon Oshtur. And I am not the only one...  Time for our morning chores. The first research project finishes, so we now get more cards and more choices. I always forget that you have to research this, everyone get's it as their first tech.  We’ve had several new research options revealed. For our starting characters, their associated research projects are not revealed until they’ve been taken on one mission. Since we took Nico on a mission, we can now see Mystical healing, though we need more artifacts and Nico to start in. In addition, completing a hero’s first research project reveals their other two research projects. Completing the Foundry thus reveals Carol’s other two researches at level 4. I have no other option but to start the Item bench research. Or, that’s what I thought I did, but I will later realize that I failed to actually start it. Whoops.  The card pulls aren’t great, I don’t need more slashes and Photon Beam’s upgrade is pretty marginal, I I pick up a spare Empower and Fortify, a defensive hunter card which isn’t generally that good but helps with some specific missions.  With CENTRAL’s help, I can decrypt these babies in no time, providing us a valuable and fascinating glimpse into Hydra’s twisted little minds Some missions provide Intel Caches as rewards, these can be cashed in at central to provide the Intel resource and Hero Ops. You can spend intel on hero ops to get extra cards for characters without taking them on missions. There are some other uses for intel that will unlock later, but for now more cards are valuable, so there’s no point in hording it.  We also get our first Request. Sometimes heroes have a little dilemma that gives you a choice of rewards. In this case, because my plan doesn’t have Tony taking on a mission for several days, I take the second option-he’ll heal before I need him, and a card and permanent stat boost is valuable.  Our daily sparring is with Blade. I’m still operating under the impression that I have completed all of our research projects, so am bringing him along next mission via author fiat but either way, getting his first research done is very important.  I thought we were past that.We are, but I’m still allowed to be annoyed with you. I expect a bit of pushback from the others... but not from you, hunter.Why not? When have I ever made things easy for you? If I had known it meant this much to you, I would have waited. It was not my intention to defy... or hurt you.Hurt no, defy... maybe. At the same time, I know I haven’t been very open with you about everything that’s happened.You’re right about that, we have bigger things to worry about... like the mouthy alien tormenting Spider-Man as we speak.He did risk himself for us without hesitation, we owe him for that at least. I would just follow the trail of destruction, but maybe there is another way.I’m sure we’ll come up with something. I would be rotting inside that creature’s gullet if not for Spider Man. Time to return the favor. Can’t believe I’m saying this but... you think Team Spooky’s doing any better? Well your inflection on that last dactyl was...Stares...perfect. Perhaps a magnetism rune?Against a Level 5 Demon Alien Hybrid? Where did you learn your magic, DemoCon? Hunter’s right. This isn’t working.On to plan C. Well more like D Higher further faster baby82nd and 5th Guys they’re live. And they’re trending. Not badThanks. Now imagine if you had just asked for our help sooner.No time for an after school special. Patching it through.   Crash Jeeze, you think he’d at least have tennis elbow or something.SPIDER MAN! WE SHALL SQUASH YOUR BONES AND BRING THEM HOME TO MOTHER   It’s all about the co-workers Hydra’s venom retrieval squad are between us and venom, we’ll need to clear them out while dodging the items venom is throwing at us from the museum roof, which creates a damage zone every turn.  Several civilians are stuck in the danger zone. Our objective for this stage of the fight is to rescue them by playing a 2 heroism “Rescue Civilian” card.  Spider-man does start with a good quick card to get him out of the blast zone. Unfortunately his other starting cards aren’t that great, so Blade and Hunter are going to be doing the heavy lifting. Our starting hand isn’t that great, so I can take down a single grunt before ending turn.  Every other turn, Venom takes aim at one of the trapped civilians. If you don’t save them this turn or play the “Taunt Venom” mission card to make him hit somewhere else, you lose. The upside is that Hydra isn’t immune to the massive damage of projectile AC units-in a stroke of luck the officer is just going to get smashed without I me doing anything.  I’ve a got plenty of heroism banked after turn 1, so let’s just progress the objective.  The nasty surprise in this fight is this trooper in red. Hydra specialists are basically an upgraded version of the officers, another supportive enemy. Right now he’s made the mistake of standing next to an explosive and a minion. Quicks refund a card play if an enemy is ko’d-even if that happens because of an explosive being detonated.  One of many annoying things about Hydra specialists is that if you hit them with melee attacks while they still have block, you get hit for a good chunk of damage. Sometimes it’s worth it, but it is a problem.  This fight can be a bit of a nasty surprise for new players, it’s the first time you’re dealing with multiple elite enemies in one stage, and with your starting cards you don’t have great options to burn through all their health. The best move is to take advantage of Venom-his AOEs do more damage than any cards you have at this point.  On the enemy turn, the specialist stuns Spider Man with his basic attack because that’s a reasonable thing for them to be able to do every turn.  Still, with just a specialist and minions left, there isn’t much pressure on us. I can easily rescue the other civilian and slowly work through the specialists health bar. The only other spider man card that’s really usable is Chain Strike. It’s a fairly normal attack that bounces to another target if it ko’s an enemy.   Don’t suppose you’d let us actually try and help you Eddie? Gonna put that down as a definite maybe.After the nasty surprise that was the first phase of this mission, the actual confrontation with Venom is surprisingly easy. Venom has the same abilities and amount of backup as back in the very first mission we fought him in. If anything, the environment is actually more favorable.  With a vault, and a conveniently placed explosive half of Venom’s health bar disappears before he gets his first turn.  Actually that’s less than half Venom’s health, since he has bleed on him. Bleed is in a weird place in this game. Fights in this game are generally like 3-4 turns, so it doesn’t have a lot of time to work. And it only triggers at the end of enemy turns, so they get their attacks even if they bleed out. So compared to a lot of video games, the damage is really high, every tick of bleed does damage equal to the attack stat of whoever applied it, the same as most starter attack cards. Blade can bleed three enemies with strike+ and Make Em Bleed, which is a lot of damage without spending heroism. But it only triggers at the end of enemy turns, so they get their attacks even if they bleed out. People in the thread have mentioned that some mods reverse this. That probably puts bleed among the more broken strategies in the game. Personally, I’d prefer to balance around a lower power level than that, but it’s fine if you like that.  The theoretical difficulty spike in this battle with Venom is that he’s acquired a second health bar. After the first time he goes down, he’ll spend the next enemy turn clearing all his status conditions and returning to full health. But Hunter’s healing means attrition isn’t much of a threat, and his first health bar wasn’t a problem. WHY FIGHT HEROES? EMBRACE MOTHER’S LOVE. YOUR STRUGGLES ARE POINTLESS AND THEY SPOIL THE MEAT!Is he always like... this?I wouldn’t take it personally. Eddie always gets extra grumpy when he’s hungry. Think he’s bad, you should see Jameson if he doesn’t get this morning bagel.He goes down for real after two more turns.  Is this thing unstoppable?Oh. he’s not unstoppable Not my worst idea ever Here’s a special request from all of New York to you, our slobbiest invader since Thanos EARSPLITTING MICROPHONE FEEDBACK *Screams in pain*  TRULY UNHOLY MICROPHONE FEEDBACK Spider-man, speakers do not work that way. You’re just going to unplug them if you pull them up to the top of the museum.  That was - I was going to say – amazing.That’s what the kids tell me. I think I’ll pass out now.Don’t worry, I know a safe place.
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Feb 7, 2024 18:40
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 Hunter, I was just looking for you. We need your assistance.Who is we That is an elaborate name.You can blame Doctor Strange. Oh, I may have rearranged a few words so it spells out EMO KIDSTell me what you need. How about it? Ready to uncover one of the greatest mysteries about your life after death?Lead the way So about the spell that brought you back to life. It worked better than expected, but there are some... gaps.You are talking about my death. Those memories are lostMaybe not. We think there’s a way to recover them. All you’re going to need is a mystical jumpstart.How would that work?Doctor strange can explain it better than I. But if you want the abridged version, ask Magik. And when you’re ready to begin the ritual, let me know. How does this ritual work?This is the ritual: You focus on the past, Nico zaps you with her staff, Strange chants and waggles his fingers, then you remember. Maybe.So why are you here? There is a chance I might explode?A very small chance. UnlikelyDoes Strange have any other details about the ritual?Ha! Far too many. Of what, exactly?Why, the Knights of Intellect and Dimensional Spiritualism! The Abbey’s local chapter of the Estoric Mystical Order!Right, “EMO KIDS”. So, the ritual? How does this relate to the ritual?Animating your corpus was the easy part. But your essence? Your thoughts hopes, fears, and dreams? That was the slipperiest eel.Does the ritual require eels? The ritual- Doctor Strange. The ritual—how does it work? Just tell me what to expect.Ah, yes. You will focus on recalling what was lost as we do everything in our power to restore it. Simple, really. Will this help me remember? I can’t answer that. When I start, you’ll be the one making the repairs. The rest of us are here to keep you steady.All right. I race through the Abbey Grounds. Angry...Terrifed? It is too late, we were not ready for this fight.  I—I cannot—No!Whoa. We all saw that, right?I have no words to describe it.FinallyWell, how about that. Your final moments are there, just buried deep inside.It did not work. Next time?Heck yeah! EMO KIDS meet every lunar alignment. Or, y’know, whenever we’re free on a slow night.Oh, and we need ingredients. Magik will send a list to your Spark. If you bring enough, we can refine them into more useful mystical objects.  EMO KIDS is our first abbey club, little side story lines with heroes hanging out. Every time you complete a club meeting, all the attendees get two friendship points, and you get one special reward. In the case of EMO KIDS, you get a free card for one of the club members. In this case, we get an easy choice between two of Nico’s rare cards. Witchfire is the bad kind of random-it’ll never waste itself on a minion, but too often it hits a heavy enemy that you’re in no position to finish off. Focusing fire is the name of the game in Midnight suns, and hitting a random target is a major negative. We take Blood for Blood, a solid attack card which occasionally heals someone. Then we turn in for the night.  Spider man would probably appreciate it if you looked in on him, I think he’s quite impressed by you. Spider-Man...Oh, hey Hunter! Didn’t see you there. Everything’s fine. This is completely normal. All the top heroes do it, I’m sure...Do what?Practice their... hero voice. In my case, my Spider Voice. Well, your “Spider” voice is very noticeable.Really? Did it give you pause? Strike fear in your heart as you approached the Spider’s Lair?It struck something.Yesss! That means a lot to, coming from you. And if I might add an opinion of my own, you are much nicer than Kraven.I actually came here to thank you.Thank me? For what? And by the way, does this thanks also involve... pizza? Have to say battling Eddie always works up the appetite. Oh, you want to meet the Spider-Man beneath the mask? Sorry, that’s a no-go. My true identity is a closely guarded secret. Not even MJ or Aunt May know for... Wait... I see what you’re doing there.Sorry Hunter, the masks gotta stay on. I hope that’s not gonna make things weird between us.The Abbey is a place of many secrets. Your identity is safe within these walls. No mask can hid you or them from Lilith. Her gaze can pierce your very soulYeesh, reminds me of my best friend’s dad. And that was before he became a flying goblin. Wait, did you just say “lives”? As in plural?Yes.I am really gonna enjoy getting to know you, Hunter.And we would enjoy getting to know you. The real you.Gotta meditate on it. Check my horoscope. Roll it around in my head. And maybe we’ll talk soon? Cool? Cool. Time for chores. Magik has a request, I go for a rare card because I’m starved for cards, and I don’t what to explain blueprints yet  Holy gift is not what I wanted to see. There are situations where a card is so good you’re willing to spend three card plays to play it twice, but they aren’t common.  No research completes today because of my brainfart yesterday. I start Blade’s research, to make the game function normally.  Our cards today include a new hunter common card, charge, which is okay, but Hunter’s attacks are in a pretty good state. I pick up quick kick and strike., because Blade and Spider Man are mandatory in several upcoming missions.  I have my first Ebony encounter of this playthrough, gaining +25 Arcane knowledge.  The tutorial hero op finishes up, and provides an upgraded one step ahead. I have no intention of playing the base or upgraded version of one step ahead, and don’t really care.  Every victory we have inches us closer to stopping Lilith. And every life we save... Which is a good thing now that we know Hydra has been augmenting their soldiers with this radioactive green gamma shampoo. We’re gonna need all the help we can get. We are finally out of the tutorial, so I have a normal choice of side missions to do before I can continue to advance with the plot. All of these missions provide different rewards, have a different mandatory hero, and provide different rewards for the strategic layer. It’s another unsubtle way the game encourages you to put at least a bit of effort into levelling everyone, because you never know when they’ll be mandatory on a mission that gives you what you need next. Right now I need another artifact so I can pick up another important research project, so Nico is going to be coming along.  Since Robbie is mandatory, and is on cooldown, I let Nico have our daily training.  Nico’s deck can be upgraded a bit as well, upgrading one of her Empowers and replacing a curse with Blood for Blood.  This upgrade progresses another of the seemingly infinite array of progression systems in the game. Doing daily training and upgrading cards upgrades our training level, which improvise the damage of environmental attacks. This might seem like a weird design decision, but there’s a bit of sense to it. Environmental attacks need to progress somehow, to keep up with enemies scaling health. But tying the m directly to hero stats isn’t great, because different heroes have different stats and toggling through heroes to make sure you’re on the optimal character before using an environmental attack would suck. It’s better for them to do flat damage. But they probably didn’t need an entirely separate progression track.  Anyway, with Nico kitted out, we roll out.  The enemies today are an officer, a Shieldguard, and a bunch of goons.  Ghost rider is the obligatory “black deck” in this card game. He has many cards that are powerful, but will cost his health or your cards. Lash, his basic attack is a forceful knockback in any direction at the cost of some of his health. Hunter gets the same effect at the cost of a heroism and a random discard, so really a bit of health is a bargain.  Nico then uses her curse to throw a vulnerable on the hydra officer, which sets up Robbie to go for a ride.    Ghost rider’s starting deck only has two good cards. But one of those cards is Hell ride, which is both very good and very cool.  Hell ride may cost three heroism and your entire hand, but it does incredible damage in the “wide” line aoe that upgraded Photon beam uses. Robbie’s demonic hot rod KO’s the officer, breaks the shieldguard’s shield, and KOs a goon in the back. This is the only card I own which oneshots goons. And it’s an AOE. You draw back up to six cards anyways, so discarding your had only really means that hell ride has to be the last card you use in a turn. It’s well worth the slight awkwardness.  On the enemy turn, the shieldguard stuns hunter then preps for an explosion. The gimmick of this type of mission is a heavier than usual set of reinforcements, adding an extra goon to the usual two minions.  As the reinforcements have conveniently spawned near an explosive, ghost rider can blow most of them up with a lash.   Nico can them smash a surviving goon over the head with her staff. Unfortunately the heal lands on Hunter, who doesn’t need it as much as ghost rider.  I spend a heroism exploding a barrel to take out a minion targeting Ghost rider, just to keep him safe.  Then Nico knocks out the other goon with a swarm.  More reinforcements swarm in next round.  Nico uses Blood magic in counter mode on hunter, to get some heroism and deal with the minions that are targeting her. Then Hunter heals Ghost rider to get him out of the danger zone.  With all that heroism, what better to use it on than another hell ride!  Round four sees an end to the heavy reinforcement waves, and all that’s left to do is pile on the weakened shield guard.  Hunter! I need your help! Magik’s birthday is coming up. I want to throw her a surprise party, but I can’t do it alone.I have no idea what that is.Right, I bet that meant “musket ambush” in your time. With the exception of cake, that is exactly like a musket ambushThat’s why I like you Hunter. You’re creepy, but informative.What do you need me to do?Nothing complicated. I don’t need you to hunt special ingredients for a cake, or anything like that. Do you really need me to do this?I don’t, but... I want them to see more of what I see, that you’re part of the team. It’ll mean a lot coming from you.All right. Let me know what you want.Still figuring out who and what I need, but I’ll message you when I do. Probably tomorrow?Sounds good.Thanks for this. Do you have any questions? It’ll be fun! All your friends showing up at once to wish you the best... Doesn’t that sound fun to you?Sounds like you really like surprise parties. I have no idea why talking about surprise parties gives you 3 friendship points with Nico. Most conversation options only ever move you by one. She's just friendly, I guess. You do not often speak of that time in your life.Why would I want to? It was a childhood of happy memories, before my quite literally evil parents pulled the rug out from under me.But those parties... My parents weren’t throwing them to appease their dark gods. They wanted me to have the happiest birthday.That is all I had. I am good for now.I’m good if you’re good. Thanks for this Hunter. Can’t wait to see the look on her face. That was probably a mistake. I kept having dreams that I was swallowed by Sandman. That’s actually happened, you know.Look man, I get it. It’s not a decision to take lightly. I struggled with it for awhile myself.What changed your mind?  And what about your real family? Don’t you worry about what could happen?Ah, they’re back in L.A. Much as my kid brother Gabe would love this place, they don’t know a thing. Whatever happens here, never gets back there. To be honest, I don’t even think we’re in the same dimension.Umm what? Sort of comes with the territory of being a Midnight Sun. Most of our lives weren’t sunshine and candy before Caretaker recruited us.And now we’ve got a gigantic demonically powered pizza oven in the Forge!Excuse me, would ya...Hey man, it’s okay. We can talk about something else if you want.Yes, please stay. I really thought I had him with the pizza thing.What is it with you both and pizOkay, you wanted it? You got it.  Peter Parker from Forest hills, Queens! Nice to see you finally ditch the Spider face doily peter. We’re all friends here. You got our attention. So what do you got to say, Petey?Umm... Hi? I mean I can’t shoot laser beams, light my skull on fire, or glow like the sun. Like Tony said, ouside of the costume, I’m just boring old Peter Parker. I don’t even have a cool screen nameI have seen you in battle with Venom, Peter. Believe me when I say you are anything but boring. I did not realize you embarrassed so easilyOh yeah, I actually surprise myself at the things that embarrass me.Speaking of... Now that we took care of the giant radioactive spider elephant in the room, we might as well get to know one another. If there’s anything else you’re curious to know about me, ask away. I’m apparently an open book.There’s the option to know a bunch of spider man backstory here, but let’s be real, y’all know who spider man is, and what’s his deal.  So instead, time for more hangouts! Chose between Doctor Strange, Magik, Blade, and Captain Marvel.. Voting open for 48 hours.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:53
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grandalt posted:Magik, and what are the guidelines about knowing things from the comics for stuff? Not sure what you are asking here. The game operates on something vaguly close to comics cannon, with big exceptions for caretaker and characters close to her. If you want to comment on how this game relates to the books, feel free, I'm not a marvel comics lore expert. Just be careful with this game's own tie ins and the original 90s midnight suns arc for spoilers. I'm going to assume the audience knows the backstory of high profle characters like Iron man, Spider man and Strange, but will cover what the game explains about more obscure characters like the midnight suns and interesting facts I remember.
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Feb 27, 2024 04:35
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Things are moving a little slowly on my end, so lets talk about some more starting cards..png) Axe of Angarruumus; Options are nice, but all versions of the card have pretty poor damage for their cost. And applying debuffs is not really what you want on high damage single target heroics, because those cards are supposed to just kill or put into quick range what you use them on, making the damage reduction wasted. This just isn’t efficient enough to be worth it. .png) Blessings of the Vishanti: Being a skill card that does damage is pretty attractive-you get two heroism without losing tempo. But the damage buff is small. It’s fine in the early game, but as we get better cards, this really needs to be hitting chain or AOE cards to make a difference. The upgrade doesn’t really matter, you aren’t that likely to get one of the buffed cards back while the battle is still up in the air. It’s ok, but it’s also a Doctor Strange skill card, and competition for those spots is ferocious. .png) Agomatto’s Gaze: As I’ve said before card draw is not very good-your cards are replaced for free every turn. Card draw that you can control is slightly better. You will often use this knowing you can get back a quick card that you know you can take advantage of. And the fact that this refunds it’s card play next turn does make it look a lot better, because it’s kind of free heroism. You are losing tempo playing this though-not playing a card which disables enemies this turn means taking more damage, and enemies hurt on higher difficulties, which makes it fall off at higher levels. The damage buff provided by the upgrade is a bit marginal-this only gets back attacks, and there aren’t many chain or aoe attacks that really like damage buffs and lots of quicks which don’t care. .png) Winds of Watoomb: the better class of quick. Knockback quicks splash a bit of damage onto real enemies while doing their job of turning minions into heroism. The upgrade is not a high priority, but nice when it kicks in. It’s more notable as an example how frustratingly inconsistent the Enhanced keyword is-on an attack card like winds, it means the card gains the effect if you have the heroism (before the heroism gain from playing an attack card), but on heroics, it means the card will spend extra heroism up to the threshold to gain it’s additional effects. Overall, Strange is a pretty solid starting hero even though he mostly acts as a support, providing damage buffs and cheap heroism.  Quick kick: A pretty solid quick card, the damage bonus on upgrade makes finishing off real enemies much more plausible, though it can be hard to set up at times.  Chain strike: This card can feel good early, when doing an ok hit on an enemy and taking out a minion is decent. But the damage falls off quickly, and all the upgrade does is take out more minions. Industrial strength minion removal like this is only useful in a couple missions, and there are a lot of more general purpose solutions to those problems.  Spider sense: The base form of this is pretty much unusable, drawing two cards and discounting spider man’s not terribly good heroics. Cards which don’t effect the actual battlefield like this need to be very efficient, and this just isn’t. The upgrade gives it the effect that you would expect from a card called spider sense, gaining a resist stack which will completely block the next attack spiderman takes. Spider sense plus is useable, but is fighting for slots with some very powerful skill cards once you have more cards.  Thwhip: Several heroes have versions of this card which make an enemy skip their action for two heroism. I don’t think any of the are very good, though that’s a bit of a controversial opinion. The big problem is that Thwip and it’s alternates are competing with defensive skills, which block a similar or greater amounts of damage, and provide 2 heroism instead of costing heroism. Thwip does have additional utility, it always stops the enemy you target, it can stop non-attack actions, and prevents enemies from debuffing you while they attack, but that’s not 4 heroism worth of utility. Spider man was one of the main heroes I focused on in my first playthrough of the game, but as I’ve replayed it over a couple of times now, my estimation of him has fallen. He really suffers from a lack of damage, and you can see that even in his starting deck.  Curse: The important thing to consider about roulette cards is how many results are above average and below average. Curse has one obvious low-roll result, applying weak, and one arguable high roll result, stun. The other two, marked/vulnerable are more middling. Vulnerable is an ok card, but there are several strictly better ways to apply vulnerable. Marked is pretty situational, the damage is so low that the curse effect is rarely going to make the difference between making the KO and not, marked-curse is mostly just a way to get a free heroism. With one good result, two below average result and one terrible result, curse is generally below average.  Blood magic: Roulette math, round two! As before, one is very good and one is awful. Applying strengthen 2 is an incredibly powerful effect, two turns of +50% damage on a damage focused hero can blow through most encounters. Likewise, Fast, reducing one hero’s heroic card costs by one, is mostly useless. Spending a card for 3-5 heroism and nothing else is just not a super great use of your cards. The other two options are both situational. Counter can be a decent amount of damage on someone who is going to take some hits, but isn’t usable in every combat situation. Blood magic, which gives a hero lifesteal on all their cards, does require both a hero who has taken damage and has decent attack cards in our hand, but it theoretically a serious amount of healing. On balance this card has similar odds to curse, but is a little better on all results, which makes it just and average card. The strengthen version is really so powerful that there’s an argument to fish for it even if you don’t care about any of the other results.  Swarm: The good roulette card. Sure, it’s just damage, but it’s very good at damage. Highroll Swarm is the highest damage 1 heroism heroic in the game, and the second best is the next level of swarm. Even the third level is respectable, it’s only the bottom result is really bad. Swarm is a key Nico card that gives her her identity as a hybrid support/damage dealer.  Empower: This card asks the question: how much heroism card which just exists to produce heroism needs to make to be good? I’ve generally felt that six or more is the point at which I start caring, and upgraded empower is pretty consistent for hitting that threshold, though it helps if you build around it by packing lots of big scary cards. Nico is another character that I used heavily in my first playthrough that I don’t really rate anymore. In her case, it’s more that she often starts feeling pretty effective especially if you get lucky, and only falls off in the later game.
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Mar 6, 2024 18:11
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 This joke here is that Hunter died in New England before the American Revolution. This is all “America” now, correct? Does that not make me American?Do you have a social security number?A what?Or a birth certificate?What does that mean?It means “don’t try to fly domestic.” That last mission actually got me my first friendship levels with both Robbie and Nico, because I have had hangouts with them before. In this case, one hangout doesn’t unlock until after I take some actions in the Abbey for some reason, so Robbie is up first.  Who did you want me to meet?Hunter of the Abbey, I’d like to formally introduce you to the Hell Ride Gorgeous, right? Even without the extra hell sauce, she’s a beast.She is one of a kind. As are you, Robbie. Sometimes, I feel more like... invisible by day, rattling chains by night. Know what I mean?You are not a ghost to me RobbieMaybe not, but I have a feeling the two of us are gonna haunt the armies of Lilith anyway. All friendship levels provide some goodies, but for the first it it’s just a new combat skin. It also increases our team friendship level, because this game feels that there’s no such thing as too many progressions systems. Back to our regularly scheduled programming  But this is the Avengers we’re talking about, right? They’re heroes! If they are so powerful, why could Strange not help us save WandaLook, Doc’s a good guy, okay. He’s patched up a spider knee or two since I started this thing. Flaming pumpkin bombs are not exactly covered by insurance.I would not trust him to patch a tire.They move into our home, take it over, and then have the nerve to leave us out of every single drat decision that affects us. You two wanna cozy up to Mister Stark and Doctor Strange, go right ahead. Me, I’ll be outside. Most of the air’s been sucked up from here already. Robbie has a dilemma referencing Marvel Comic’s unpopular attempt to recapture the attention they got in the first Civil War event, only to make people even more unhappy than the first time! As much as I hate to say it, I have to side with Tony here. Pre-crime is not something I can get down with. Anyway, we had a reason for talking with him.  Of course! Let’s go.Nico needs help prepping for Magik’s surprise partyAll right! What does she need me to do?She wanted you to pick the team present for Magik.Oh, I got this. I’ll find something unforgettable. I mean, yeah, Tony can be annoying. But not all of them.Of course.Although, it makes me wonder...Wonder what?Well, what are they thinking about us?When facing a demon, aim for the heart.Always do. or at least her.I have no idea what you are talking about.You have many abilities Daywalker. Lying is not one of them. Admit what you feel about Carol. You owe yourself that much. Perhaps a slightly more subtle approach to meddling in Blade's love life will work. Carol is a formidable warrior. A true hero whose power rivals the Titans of old.Exactly. And she’s so chill about it. Down to earth. Smart. Funny. Able to punch through a tank.Yes, very admirable and respectable traits. I’m not going there, Hunter. Let’s just drop it.Consider it dropped.Oh, and this conversation... it never happened.I will add it to the list. Way of the Fang research finishes, one of th most important pieces of research in the game, excepting possibly being able to pick two cards every day. Trading moves for damaging knockbacks is so powerful  With the Artifact from last mission, I can get started on The Old One Two, Spider Man’s first research. This is also a very important research to complete. It removes the risk of collateral damage from knock back abilities, and turns your other heroes into sources of extra damage to whoever you’re bouncing around.  Another somewhat disappointing set of cards to pick from today. I do get back the inspire I had lost due to save issues, and I also pick up a second copy of hellmouth for Ghost Rider. Two cards that are pretty much useless base, but become quite powerful with their upgrades. Agatha has more sidequest for us, though this one is quick.  If it were not so good to see you again, I might think you were taking advantage of me.Yes, and how you think that was possible? It’s not just any flame we’re talking about here... maybe you’ve heard tale of the demon fuelling the Forge? A fire-breathing demon no less, blazing as hot as the flames of Hell itself. Fortunately, I’ll only require a single ember.I can see where this is going... how do I find it?I’ve enchanted this vessel to protect you from the ember’s heat, you should be able to get close enough to retrieve it through one of the old mine tunnels beneath the Forge. The mine entrance is in a blasted crater out behind the Forge.  Just head down then magic open the door to find the embers. I have the ember. The bottle is not even warm.If it were giving off any heat at all I’d be concerned, given the enchantment on that vessel. Now let’s see if the old girl still works. Essentially yes. Collect reagents on the Abbey grounds, you’d be surprised what we can make use of.And I just drop the ingredients in? Is that not dangerous?Experimenting can be fun, but I’d find a recipe book first to guide your hand. I’m sure there’s an old one around here somewhere. More subsystems. As explained Agatha’s cauldron lets you turn random stuff found exploring the grounds into combat items and some other valuables. The more you explore the grounds by completing the Abbey sidequest, the more recipe books you can find, giving you more powerful options. This is the kind of system that creates some anti-fun incentives-nobody wants to go over the entire abbey with a fine toothed comb for ingredients every day, but is technically the optimal move. I’ve never felt like grinding ingredients like this is necessary and mostly found that I had a reasonable amount of stuff just from incidental pickups when exploring, but if you’re the type of person who needs to always take the most optimal path, it might sour the game. I couldn’t help but hear some raised voices in the other room. You might want to talk to Nico directly.Why? Is she upset?I do not want to speak for her. But she seemed angry about Wanda.I want to grieve too, but none of us have that luxury right now, or else we’ll be grieving the whole world. Thank you for your honesty. I will have to think about how to handle this with Nico.I should perhaps check on Nico while we’re on the subject.  Perhaps I wanted some fresh air as well.Well, enjoy it while you can. I’m sure they’ll be opening an Avengers satellite campus here soon enough.The gods spare us all.Look, the Abbey might be a little rustic, but it’s ours. Was ours. Until these Avengers just swooped in and started treating us like a bunch of outsiders in our own home. And it’s not like Caretaker does anything to stop it, hell she freaking encourages it. Once again, the light option is obviously not going to go over well here, so I'll diplomatically be neutral. Now would be the time.What?Scream. No one will hear you but me.What? You want me to shout, ‘Screw you, Avengers! Go back to your Tower!” If it makes you feel better. You know maybe this all wouldn’t be bothering me so much if they were focusing all their effort on finding Wanda. None of them even mention her, let alone discuss how we’re going to rescue her.. because ‘news flash’ no one plans to, especially Caretaker. She’s probably happy she’s gone.Forget I said that. And definitely don’t tell Caretaker about any of this. Midnight Sun cone of silence, okay. Good vent. Let’s do it again sometime. Later, Hunter.Whoops, a bit late for not talking to Caretaker. Still, we have her friendship level up as well.  So, like Hunter, don’t let this go to your head, but I think you’re okay.You do? Nico, you decided to adopt me as soon as you met me. You’ve been making me feel included, what are you talking about. Caretaker makes me feel like a child sometimes, but you don’t, so, like, thanks.Caretaker sees herself as the matriarch of this team and as a maternal figure she tends to be protective of her ownSeriously, Hunter? Are you suggesting she’s just being over-protective of me?Or just protective.Gah... you know what? Nevermind. I came out here to thank you for putting your trust in me and I’m determined to keep it positive. I need all the allies I can get on this apocalyptic reality show, because I do not want to get voted out of this Abbey or off this world.Reality show? Vote?Just try and not get eliminated Hunter. Vampires?Yes, but an entirely new breed. Nothing I’ve seen before.If it is the kind with chameleon skin, we must act quickly. We cannot let them overrun the Abbey. Not again.My intel doesn’t mention a visibility issue, but let’s circle back to the “not again” part?Ancient history. It was... Unpleasant.So you’re saying “no need to bring this up with Tony.”His room is where the infestation began.Good to know. For me, not him. I see...No, I do not. You already said they were vampires.Vampyres. With a ‘Y”? Pronounced exactly the same as “vampires”. I suppose that was wildly creative for the 16th century monks who first catalogued them.No, it is just confusing.That's why I'm calling them "new breed vampyres" to set them apart. I'll flag anything related to these bloodsuckers and send it to the Mirror Table. We have ulocked the DLC? I’m leaving thsi here so I don’t forget to introduce it, but I’m not planning on delving into the DLC at the moment. I’d like to give all of the starting heroes their time in the spotlight before I go around adding more characters. But in about 2.3 updates I’ll get back to this and we can have a long conversation about the many failings of Deadpool.  And what does Doctor Banner have to say about that?Can’t get an answer from him. He’s gone off the grid, AWOL. Happens sometimes when he’s working something out.What kind of something?The really big kind.Then what now? FaustusOne and the same.Well, I suppose you two do have some catching up to do.Oh you know... Hydra secrets, dastardly plans, the odd bomb launched in my face...How soon before we begin the hunt? You’ll be heading into New York near the Harbor. Faustus is overseeing Hydra operations in the area. There must be something important down there if he’s shown up personally. Stay focused, and try to keep a low profile. If you think Lilith’s forces are corrputed, you don’t want to meet the port authority.   My point exactly...Oof. Dark magic. I can feel it, just like before.Plus he’s boosted the gamma signature. Must be the new and improved, extra evil model.Ah yes. Coming soon to a deserted dock near you...So glad you discovered television.Whatever this thing is, it’s clearly important to Faustus.And Lilith. No, no, please... come, examine the device closely! I think you’ll find it’s not so easy to dismiss this time around.Could we get this lunatic off our comms?I’m sure Mr Stark will get around to it eventually. Hydra has been slightly more intelligent than normal, and the minions are conveniently not standing near anything that they can be knocked into. So I’ll be leaving the minions up for now.  Our first step is to smash this sniper into the power conduit. Hydra snipers are the new enemy introduced in the mission, and they have one job-do damage. I don’t want then to do anything if possible.  With the sniper not an immediate problem, this grunt is our first target. He is introduced to the explosives behind him, and then Magik can finish him off with her quick.  Meanwhile, Captain marvel can use the heroism built up to take down the other grunt by vaulting into him and then following up with Fists of Radiance.  Turn two, the usual pair of minions show up.  The primary threat is still the sniper, and the first play is to put some damage on him. Between the quick, knee strike, and the convenient box, the minions will be taken out pretty easily.  This triggers the sniper’s gimmick-half of the time he takes a hit, the sniper will conceal himself. This makes the sniper unable to be targeted with cards and single target environmental attacks until it’s next turn.  There’s a catch to this defence-the sniper cannot be directly targeted, but can still be damaged by AOE attacks or getting other enemies knocked into him. If the sniper takes any damage while concealed, the concealment is broken. This makes snipers a little annoying to deal with, but if you know how they work you can plan around them. With access to Whip, conceal isn’t much of a problem.  The sniper has a bit of health left, but I can finish him off with little help from the new research I just picked up. Shove lets any hero perform a single basic knockback instead of making a move. A small amount of free damage or movement is really useful in a wide variety of situations.   No! Please! You cannot fail me!Owed you one.One? Mother’s will be done.Typical.    In the second half of the battle, Faustus is actually on the battlefield, but he’s not going to fight us. Instead, I just need to break the block on the shieldguard following him around and play the “Capture Agent” card to take him down before he escapes in a couple turns. It’s basically the same objective as the artifact capture mission from earlier.  This is an excellent map to show off Magik’s primary gimmick- the limbo portal card. This skill is free, not taking a card play, and creates a portal on the map that you can point in any direction. Like, at an explosive barrel with enemies nearby, for instance.  Once the portal is set, the next time Magik knockback's any enemy, instead of moving normally the enemy will immediately exit the previously set portal, maximizing the value of an explosive. This card is why I didn’t want to use Magik before the shove research, as before this research the portal is useless unless you draw a knockback Magik card.   Because some turns are just a hero’s time in the spotlight, I follow up with her starting heroic, Gather. This drops all enemies in an area through portals, dragging them towards the middle. This does solid damage for the size of an AOE, but has a big caveat -unmoveable enemies, like shieldguards with their shields up, are completely immune. Still, taking out a minion and finishing off a grunt is useful.  Then Magik shoves a minion at the edge of the docks into a pier.  This gives her an angle to smash the surviving grunt into the shieldguard while still getting value out of the shove. Optimizing hero movement like this takes a bit of practice, but it’s very satisfying to get right.  Guessing the Darkhold doesn’t have any spells for boosting your cardio. Let’s get this turkey before he makes it to the transport.Captain marvel get’s dazed by the Shieldguard, but I draw a pair of quicks next round, which will wear that off without much trouble.  Let’s show off what that hero combo card I just earned does, shall we?    Hero combos cost 4 heroism, require both randomly selected heroes on the card to be able to act, and does a major amount of damage based on both characters attack stats. The animations that play are unfortunately not bespoke, just a combination of different clips for each hero. It’s understandable, there’s a ton of combinations if you include all the heroes, but disappointing. Now’s your chance! Take Faustus into custody before he can regain his bearings. The one twist on this mission compared to the artifact recovery mission is that capturing Faustus triggers a large wave of reinforcements to spawn. This is much less scary than it first appears-most of the spawned enemies are not going to act on the next enemy turn. You can tell this by their lack of a target indicator over their heads. So the only immediate problems are the grunt and the mostly dead shieldguard.  The one grunt who’s actually acting is standing between Hunter and an explosive barrel (there are so many explosives on this map, it’s so fun.) He can be then shoved into a wall to finish him off. Then I have the heroism to blow up the barrel that those three minions decided to spawn next to.  For the final turn, there’s three enemies left, I have a handful of Magik cards and the Golden Opportunity mission card. This strengthens one hero, and apply vulnerable to three random enemies. Couldn’t have worked out better.    And that’s the mission.   Truly not your day is it?You, You think you scare me? Who was chosen to learn his secrets in the one true tome of creation. Do you really think I could be afraid of you?! YeahWhat do you want to know?Everything AAARHG! Crossbones. Hydra’s black ops division. You should see the file Steve’s go on the guy. Perhaps not. If decades of fighting the undead have taught me one thing, it’s that there’s always an answer... Nice! Let’s get that back to the abbey... or maybe wipe it down first.RIP Faustus. Your bumbling mad scientist shtick was pretty fun for a starter villian, but your not actually threatening enough to stay around.  Things are going pretty smooth, so I’m turning up the difficulty again. See you all next time, whenever that is.
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Mar 26, 2024 03:53
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