Patriot City Tales

[BentonGrey]

Prev. will update the main download soon, but in the meantime, here is an updated version of that mission that should be less brutal.

http://www.mediafire.com/?gl35zm0zkot

Facing off against Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers can still be a pain because Buck can fly, but if you play smart and take advantage of Puck's arrival, it won't be too bad.  Let me know if you need any tips!

Please let me know what you think!

[Previsionary]

@Trelau, if the comics are considered canon, and they should be considering they were nothing but really stripped retellings of the FF1 adventures with small changes, The ff1 team knows Tombstone because he was part of the team near the end of the book. I don't think they ever really explained his place on the team.

[John Jr.]

Just played the Man 'O' War Mission and have to say you got the speech patterns right on!  Diablo's unique style, and the Beast-like Mentor ("Troublesome tidings") were just like on the original games and Urchin made me laugh with the nicks ("Brainey" and "Manny", that's no way to treat heroes!). The way the character speaks is part of the his personality and you got it.
Congratulations!

[BentonGrey]

Thanks JJ, I had a real blast writing Man 'O War and Sea Urchin...and ESPECIALLY Mentor!  They are so much easier to write than DC's more textured heroes.  PCT Trivia: A certain modder may have found himself completely unable to resist the urge to speak in his best "Mentor" voice when writing that character's lines....and during every cutscene in which he appeared... "Rings of Rexxor!"

[cmdrkoenig67]

I totally agree with John Jr, B....You were spot on with the characterizations of the FF members.

Dana

[BentonGrey]

Thanks Dana!

[Previsionary]

you know... Benton didn't do all the work here. Don't I get any props at all? That's it... Episode 2 is canceled. Deal with it. DEAL!

*no good so and sos...*

[BentonGrey]

Like you ever planned to write the next El Diablo mission anyway....

[John Jr.]

you know... Benton didn't do all the work here. Don't I get any props at all? That's it... Episode 2 is canceled. Deal with it. DEAL!

*no good so and sos...*

Hey! I commented Diablo's speech too!
Seriously, great team work guys!

[cmdrkoenig67]

you know... Benton didn't do all the work here. Don't I get any props at all? That's it... Episode 2 is canceled. Deal with it. DEAL!

*no good so and sos...*

Prev  ...We love you too...Good job on the mod, pal...Buddy...I'll give you a big kiss later...LOL!

Dana 

[Previsionary]

Dana, for the last time, no means no. Don't make me get a restraining order.


Just to prove that this isn't a one off project and is constantly being expanded and updated (and hopefully more of you will join in), here are some pics of two of the stories that began in Episode 1. While there may be some trust issues between the two, Diablo and The Ant travel to Shadow's lair to see what she's up to. Meanwhile, Sea Urchin and her sidekick, Man O' War, look for the source behind the kidnapping of kids!

El Diablo and The Ant in "The Return of Shadow"





Man O' War and Sea Urchin in "Trawling for Trouble"






Does that make you hunger for more or what?

[cmdrkoenig67]

LOL! 

Awesome pics, Prev....I can't wait!!!

Dana 

Dana, for the last time, no means no. Don't make me get a restraining order.


Just to prove that this isn't a one off project and is constantly being expanded and updated (and hopefully more of you will join in), here are some pics of two of the stories that began in Episode 1. While there may be some trust issues between the two, Diablo and The Ant travel to Shadow's lair to see what she's up to. Meanwhile, Sea Urchin and her sidekick, Man O' War, look for the source behind the kidnapping of kids!

El Diablo and The Ant in "The Return of Shadow"





Man O' War and Sea Urchin in "Trawling for Trouble"






Does that make you hunger for more or what?

[WyldFyre]

Does that make you hunger for more or what?

Oh... We Hunger..........We Hunger.

[Trelau]

If I may: i just played the bard/rogue mission and...well, too many cutscene. there, i said it.
You litterally have five minutes of dialogue at the begining of the mission before you can play, then you just run south and bam another dialogue, 2-3 punches later the elf king comes around and dialogue again...
it felt more like watching than playing. i think all the cutscene have their place (introducing the villain and such) but you have to shorten the mentor briefing + pan speech. or even better, after mentor speech, put a short playing time (save a civilian from a banshee who tells who where pan is, get attacked by more banshee then rogue comes around and save you, thus introducing that character to those who haven't played liberty bay...). It's definitly my less favourite one so far, it didn't felt as thrilling as el diablo's one or as "facinating" ad man o war and sea urchin's one (i love mission with just "investigate in the city at night" when you stumble upon crooks at a street corner)
it still very good, but i really think that this mission starts really slowly. Then maybe it's just me  

by the way: intriging peview pics, can't wait for the next episode!

[BentonGrey]

Thanks for the feedback Trelau!  I'm afraid that my Bard concept proved to be a little more dependent on heavy dialog than was good for it.  I thought that might be the case.  Given so many diverse characters and all the haracterization that I wanted to do, I guess I rather overloaded it.  Did you find it interesting, if a bit on the slow side?  I'll try and revisit it eventually, but at the moment I'm trying to get the other part of my contribution to Episode 2 done.

[Trelau]

i find the concept very good, and fitting th bard and the rogue perfectly (that why i payed it). it could even be a mod by itself...the rogue and the bard fighting litterature's most iconic villain. now that is cool. but yeah, overall it was very good as i stated before, just a little slow in the begining. maybe you could try to split it in two mission? that way you could have the same amount of diaologue tin a two-parter, and have more "random brawling" in between cutscene. plus i like the fact that all heroes are advancing their adventure at the same time but at different place; it really changes from the original campaign where everyone was moving to every places as a group. so first part of the bard/rogue mission, then another round of el diablo and man o war, then last part of bard/rogue mission. since the el diablo mission was more action-focused it balanced well with more dialogue-focused mission

[John Jr.]

It's a matter of personal taste. I always see FF like a comic book game, so we have action drive stories and character driven stories. I don't mind the longer cutscenes, I liked them even. But I like characterization over action and I believe this was the strength of PC Tales.
Just my personal opinion, of course.

[Epimethee]

Okay, you've got me hooked. When is the new episode due? 

The were a few bugs (I always play in debug mode for a reason), but the story and characterization were quite enjoyable.  Having a guest start from Liberty Bay was a great touch.

[BentonGrey]

Awesome!  I'm glad you enjoyed it, Epimethee.  We're working on the next episode, and we've already got a large chunk of it done.  I play in debug all the time these days as well.  Would you mind telling us what bugs you encountered?  We definitely want to troubleshoot if there is anything wrong.  Haha, it was a thrill for me to be able to bring The Rogue into the fray.  He's my favorite of my contributions to LB, and it only seemed right that he should be able to lend The Bard a hand.

[Epimethee]

From memory, in mission 1 , the last darkman stayed invisible and couldn't be KO'ed. That was before the patch, though.

In the MoW-SU mission, secondary objectives looped ? succeeding an objective called another which called another and so forth ad vitam ?ternam.

Overall, I could never restore a save game in the second arc (had to restart the missions), as some variables weren't properly initialized.

To my shame, I didn't even check the specifics of the bugs in details (guess I've really lost my interest in coding or, more simply, I just was more interested in finishing the mission). I could try to give you a better bug report in a few days, if you want. Alas, I know very little about EZScript, so I'd be of limited use. (Sigh, converting EZScript to static Python code for easier debugging and extensibility was somewhere in my to-do list? Re-Sigh.)

[Previsionary]

Thanks for the reply, Epi! Odd that you guys are getting error and fixes for those darkmen. I didn't alter them from IG's design, and I know I didn't touch them in the patch. However, if it'll help in the future, I may add arrows to the second set. *sighs... coding work... I feel like running away. ^^*

[Previsionary]

Tease Tease:







Could it be? Could Tombstone have found himself in trouble with a mob? Is PCTales episode 2 closer to being done? Will there actually be more than 3 missions in this pack? Find out the answer to all these questions and more in... PCTales: Episode 2 coming out in *mumble*.

[Epimethee]

Looking good!

[BentonGrey]

From memory, in mission 1 , the last darkman stayed invisible and couldn't be KO'ed. That was before the patch, though.

In the MoW-SU mission, secondary objectives looped ? succeeding an objective called another which called another and so forth ad vitam ?ternam.

Overall, I could never restore a save game in the second arc (had to restart the missions), as some variables weren't properly initialized.

To my shame, I didn't even check the specifics of the bugs in details (guess I've really lost my interest in coding or, more simply, I just was more interested in finishing the mission). I could try to give you a better bug report in a few days, if you want. Alas, I know very little about EZScript, so I'd be of limited use. (Sigh, converting EZScript to static Python code for easier debugging and extensibility was somewhere in my to-do list? Re-Sigh.)

Thanks for giving us some details Epi, several of these issues are things that we'll try and do something about.  Unfortunately, the repeating secondary objectives are a function of how I designed the mission, and there isn't really much I can do about it short of removing the objectives themselves.

[BentonGrey]

Another teaser for all of you Fans of Freedom out there!







Can our two literary heroes tackle the mad god Pan alone?  What's this?  Perhaps they will not be alone after all!  Join The Bard and The Rogue as they break into Pan's inner sanctum, which just so happens to be a corruption of their own sanctum sanctorums.  Can even the cream of literature's crop stand against the wrath of Pan?  Find out in PCT Episode 2!

[John Jr.]

Great teasers, Prev and Benton.
Looking forward to use Tombstone (my favorite FF). Your literary adventure is looking still better than part 1, Benton.
Congrats for both of you!

[spydermann93]

Can't wait for the next issue

[BentonGrey]

Great teasers, Prev and Benton.
Looking forward to use Tombstone (my favorite FF). Your literary adventure is looking still better than part 1, Benton.
Congrats for both of you!

Thanks!  I haven't forgotten about you JJ, I'm going to be devoting part of my evening to your mission.

[Previsionary]

Hey gang, guess what? PCT has gotten its first mission from someone not involved from the beginning. Who's it from, you ask? Oh, just John Jr. We thank him for jumping on board and being a sport. Many thanks, JJ. Now, for beta mission pics:











What is going on here? Is that Freedom Force's youngest two members being attacked by Microwaves? Has he gone mad? Is this an evil plot by Mr. Mechanical or someone much more sinister? Will the two sidekicks prove to be useful without their comrade-in-arms or will they simply be overpowered and left for dead?! Find out in PCTales episode 2, coming out soon!

[John Jr.]

Thanks! It's great be part of the team.
By the way, Prev, loved your intro for my story.