Subject: Piratron Infiltration

Alright, here goes!

Upon your return to Moonbase Alpha, you find a world at war. Moonbase Alpha and Piratron starfighters zip through the sky, locked in mortal combat, barely missing you and your rocket! Once you get inside, you meet two new characters: Warren and Ellie Phant, a brother-and-sister duo brought in to assist Commander Han Nibble manage his new recruits. Unfortunately, Commander Nibble is missing, kidnapped during the ongoing Piratron attack on the Moonbase. Your first mission is to man a defense turret (model coming soon), and shoot down 10 incoming fighters (in a Moonbase-themed Shooting Gallery instance). Once you do this, Warren and Ellie send you outside to salvage some of the wreckage from the downed Piratron fighters. However, the fighting has disturbed the underground warrens of Grabbles, and they attack you in force! Once you bring back 5 Damaged Piratron Circuit Boards, Warren and Ellie build you a special Piratron Helmet that will allow you to walk into the Piratron Encampment without being recognized and attacked by Piratron soldiers (if you take off the helmet at any time once you walk in to the encampment, the soldiers will open fire on you). Once there, you must seek out Piratron Leader C. Pio Afro-Canis to gain access to the cellblock. He says you must be a new recruit, and sends you on a mission to salvage more parts from the downed Piratron fighters so they can repair the ones that came back damaged (the reward includes a Piratron Rocket Cockpit module). After this, he tells you that Grabbles have infested one of their cargo bays and sends you down there to clear it. When you arrive, you meet up with Piratron Commander Pierre Rus, who has established a save zone where you can rest and heal in between Grabble attacks. After you smash 50 Grabbles, Pierre sends you back upstairs to tell the Piratron Leader that the cargo bay is a loss and must be destroyed. When you tell him this, he gives you a Piratron Rocket Nosecone Module and opens the control room for you so you can activate the self-destruct. There you find Pierre, who informs you that he is actually Commander Han Nibble in disguise. He ambushed one of his captors at mealtime and assumed his identity. Commander Nibble tells you he's figured out a way to escape the Piratron encampment undetected, but he needs your help. He sends you to fetch three access codes by quick-building the computer consoles around the encampment. Once you do this, you return to Commander Nibble, who uses the codes to cause an explosion in the cell block. While the Piratron are distracted, Commander Nibble escapes. At this point, you can return to Moonbase Alpha for your reward or go on one last Piratron mission. The Piratron Leader tells you that the explosion damaged their force-field generator. He sends you to gather 25 Piratron Circuit boards to repair it. This is now even more dangerous, as the enormous Super Grabbles have emerged from underground due to the explosion. Once you return, the Piratron Leader gives you a Piratron Rocket Engine Module and sends you on your way. (This is a repeatable mission; you can continue to bring him Circuit Boards for coins.) When you return to Commander Nibble in Moonbase Alpha, he says he has no more use for the Piratron Jumpsuit (+2 Armor, +4 Imagination, counts as both shirt and pants) he was wearing, so he gives it to you. You can now leave, or go back to the defense turret to gain more rewards from the Moonbase Alpha Shooting Gallery.

So? What do you think?

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: Flipz

Alright, here goes!

Upon your return to Moonbase Alpha, you find a world at war. Moonbase Alpha and Piratron starfighters zip through the sky, locked in mortal combat, barely missing you and your rocket! Once you get inside, you meet two new characters: Warren and Ellie Phant, a brother-and-sister duo brought in to assist Commander Han Nibble manage his new recruits. Unfortunately, Commander Nibble is missing, kidnapped during the ongoing Piratron attack on the Moonbase. Your first mission is to man a defense turret (model coming soon), and shoot down 10 incoming fighters (in a Moonbase-themed Shooting Gallery instance). Once you do this, Warren and Ellie send you outside to salvage some of the wreckage from the downed Piratron fighters. However, the fighting has disturbed the underground warrens of Grabbles, and they attack you in force! Once you bring back 5 Damaged Piratron Circuit Boards, Warren and Ellie build you a special Piratron Helmet that will allow you to walk into the Piratron Encampment without being recognized and attacked by Piratron soldiers (if you take off the helmet at any time once you walk in to the encampment, the soldiers will open fire on you). Once there, you must seek out Piratron Leader C. Pio Afro-Canis to gain access to the cellblock. He says you must be a new recruit, and sends you on a mission to salvage more parts from the downed Piratron fighters so they can repair the ones that came back damaged (the reward includes a Piratron Rocket Cockpit module). After this, he tells you that Grabbles have infested one of their cargo bays and sends you down there to clear it. When you arrive, you meet up with Piratron Commander Pierre Rus, who has established a save zone where you can rest and heal in between Grabble attacks. After you smash 50 Grabbles, Pierre sends you back upstairs to tell the Piratron Leader that the cargo bay is a loss and must be destroyed. When you tell him this, he gives you a Piratron Rocket Nosecone Module and opens the control room for you so you can activate the self-destruct. There you find Pierre, who informs you that he is actually Commander Han Nibble in disguise. He ambushed one of his captors at mealtime and assumed his identity. Commander Nibble tells you he's figured out a way to escape the Piratron encampment undetected, but he needs your help. He sends you to fetch three access codes by quick-building the computer consoles around the encampment. Once you do this, you return to Commander Nibble, who uses the codes to cause an explosion in the cell block. While the Piratron are distracted, Commander Nibble escapes. At this point, you can return to Moonbase Alpha for your reward or go on one last Piratron mission. The Piratron Leader tells you that the explosion damaged their force-field generator. He sends you to gather 25 Piratron Circuit boards to repair it. This is now even more dangerous, as the enormous Super Grabbles have emerged from underground due to the explosion. Once you return, the Piratron Leader gives you a Piratron Rocket Engine Module and sends you on your way. (This is a repeatable mission; you can continue to bring him Circuit Boards for coins.) When you return to Commander Nibble in Moonbase Alpha, he says he has no more use for the Piratron Jumpsuit (+2 Armor, +4 Imagination, counts as both shirt and pants) he was wearing, so he gives it to you. You can now leave, or go back to the defense turret to gain more rewards from the Moonbase Alpha Shooting Gallery.

So? What do you think?

Hmm, that a good story. Not sure if that is all possible to delete Han Nibble from the map for a little time but I guess it's possible.
Otherwise I find the rest very good. From where did you found the names?

Re: Piratron Infiltration

I made them up, based on the Hannibal pun. And yes, it is possible to make NPCs appear and disappear-the captured ninjas in Gnarled Forest disappear from their cells when you rescue them and reappear in Forbidden Valley.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Wow, exciting! It would obviously take a very long time, but it sure would be cool! Here's an idea: After doing a certain one of the missions, you no longer have to wear your Piratron helmet to be in their base. Might be fun to go in without your helmet though. Maybe there would be a mission before you get your helmet where you need to sneak and steal secret plans. What would also be very cool is if the Piratron only have a small base on the moon, and their main base is in space orbiting the moon. Anyway, would be great fun. But, I wonder, can the A-Team do it? It would be very very hard programming...

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: Redboy31

Wow, exciting! It would obviously take a very long time, but it sure would be cool! Here's an idea: After doing a certain one of the missions, you no longer have to wear your Piratron helmet to be in their base. Might be fun to go in without your helmet though. Maybe there would be a mission before you get your helmet where you need to sneak and steal secret plans. What would also be very cool is if the Piratron only have a small base on the moon, and their main base is in space orbiting the moon. Anyway, would be great fun. But, I wonder, can the A-Team do it? It would be very very hard programming...

As I indicated to Sim, everything in my story idea is based off the existing mission/mechanic structures found elsewhere in LU, so if the models and locations were ready, this story path could be implemented in mere days, just by copying and pasting code.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: Flipz

Alright, here goes!

Upon your return to Moonbase Alpha, you find a world at war. Moonbase Alpha and Piratron starfighters zip through the sky, locked in mortal combat, barely missing you and your rocket! Once you get inside, you meet two new characters: Warren and Ellie Phant, a brother-and-sister duo brought in to assist Commander Han Nibble manage his new recruits. Unfortunately, Commander Nibble is missing, kidnapped during the ongoing Piratron attack on the Moonbase. Your first mission is to man a defense turret (model coming soon), and shoot down 10 incoming fighters (in a Moonbase-themed Shooting Gallery instance). Once you do this, Warren and Ellie send you outside to salvage some of the wreckage from the downed Piratron fighters. However, the fighting has disturbed the underground warrens of Grabbles, and they attack you in force! Once you bring back 5 Damaged Piratron Circuit Boards, Warren and Ellie build you a special Piratron Helmet that will allow you to walk into the Piratron Encampment without being recognized and attacked by Piratron soldiers (if you take off the helmet at any time once you walk in to the encampment, the soldiers will open fire on you). Once there, you must seek out Piratron Leader C. Pio Afro-Canis to gain access to the cellblock. He says you must be a new recruit, and sends you on a mission to salvage more parts from the downed Piratron fighters so they can repair the ones that came back damaged (the reward includes a Piratron Rocket Cockpit module). After this, he tells you that Grabbles have infested one of their cargo bays and sends you down there to clear it. When you arrive, you meet up with Piratron Commander Pierre Rus, who has established a save zone where you can rest and heal in between Grabble attacks. After you smash 50 Grabbles, Pierre sends you back upstairs to tell the Piratron Leader that the cargo bay is a loss and must be destroyed. When you tell him this, he gives you a Piratron Rocket Nosecone Module and opens the control room for you so you can activate the self-destruct. There you find Pierre, who informs you that he is actually Commander Han Nibble in disguise. He ambushed one of his captors at mealtime and assumed his identity. Commander Nibble tells you he's figured out a way to escape the Piratron encampment undetected, but he needs your help. He sends you to fetch three access codes by quick-building the computer consoles around the encampment. Once you do this, you return to Commander Nibble, who uses the codes to cause an explosion in the cell block. While the Piratron are distracted, Commander Nibble escapes. At this point, you can return to Moonbase Alpha for your reward or go on one last Piratron mission. The Piratron Leader tells you that the explosion damaged their force-field generator. He sends you to gather 25 Piratron Circuit boards to repair it. This is now even more dangerous, as the enormous Super Grabbles have emerged from underground due to the explosion. Once you return, the Piratron Leader gives you a Piratron Rocket Engine Module and sends you on your way. (This is a repeatable mission; you can continue to bring him Circuit Boards for coins.) When you return to Commander Nibble in Moonbase Alpha, he says he has no more use for the Piratron Jumpsuit (+2 Armor, +4 Imagination, counts as both shirt and pants) he was wearing, so he gives it to you. You can now leave, or go back to the defense turret to gain more rewards from the Moonbase Alpha Shooting Gallery.

So? What do you think?

This is exactly the kind of detail that we need to get for stories. As for this story there are a few things that we are already discussing like "super Grabbles" or at least a more difficult Grabble. Also Piratron is planned to be a much bigger part of the story at some point but we have our next 2 maps fairly well planned. One will probably involve the player finding a pressure suit in order to go outside. The other map would be the first "exterior map" with some foot races and other challenges. After that point the goal is to build the Piratron story.

A couple of concerns. The kill 50 Grabbles seems a bit more of a "Grind" then we would like. Also we will have to see about the Commander Nibble tangent. It sounds good but have to think about it.

I really like the Piratron helmet idea for invading the base.

A couple other things we are trying to work out with NetDevil is all LUPs want there to be a separate LUP economy. That is because integrating the current economy with LUP levels will be difficult. This could be collecting LUP Tokens or even Moonbase Tokens. These tokens would work as the local currency. This way you can buy and sell LUP items.

We also have one LUP wide idea we really want to pursue because if we get the go ahead it would be a quick add for us that we think would be popular.

Great ideas, I want to try and reply more I just have a conflict of interest in terms of time spent looking for a paying job and time spent helping on an unpaid project.

Keep the ideas coming,


-Eric

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Is the mission called "kill 50 grabbles" the only one that will be added? This mission will be fastly done (possible in one day).

I should also add a mission for 100, 175, 250 grabbles. This way user will go back to the world frequently.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: Sim533

Is the mission called "kill 50 grabbles" the only one that will be added? This mission will be fastly done (possible in one day).

I should also add a mission for 100, 175, 250 grabbles. This way user will go back to the world frequently.

Well, there would be a lot of missions involving "go to this location and talk to this person", and a lot involving "go to the crash site and collect x amount of circuit boards". Not unlike the mission sequences in Avant Gardens and Gnarled Forest, actually.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Honestly, I would like to see some stuff besides "Talk to ___" or "Smash ___ amount of ___". No idea what else could be done, but I think some new gameplay mechanics could be good and break up the repetition.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: Sim533

Is the mission called "kill 50 grabbles" the only one that will be added? This mission will be fastly done (possible in one day).

I should also add a mission for 100, 175, 250 grabbles. This way user will go back to the world frequently.

Again don't take everything I post as a definite. I am a fan brainstorming just like the rest of you. Just because I post doesn't mean something is going to be in game.

And I repeat, I hate "grinds". I was in game last night just grinding to collect the tokens needed for my Rank 3 Book and Helmet. It was miserable just grinding out kills to collect about 330 tokens. You can probably safely say that if it were up to me there wouldn't be many "Grind" missions in Moonbase but I am not the only one to decide. I am much more in favor of the go do or collect this thing and return type of missions. Also small grinds of 20 or less are OK from time to time as well.

My hope would be that Moonbase would be a no grind zone.

-Eric

Re: Piratron Infiltration

I'm sorry for everything. I thought that you was moving those ideas from yourself already forward. I like brainstorming as well.

Many users in LU like to search for things. They like to search for persons, but mostly for treasures or other things. This is another idea of something you can add into the game.

The space battle would add as well some more action to the world.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Well I would like to do a "Flag" type achievement in our levels but our issue there is ND and LEGO won't let us alter the "economy" of the game at all so we cannot offer more imagination, life, or backpack space. We are trying to find out what type of "LUP" economy we could implement but it is a very touchy and difficult subject.

We have ideas but it is difficult to say if anything is even a starting point.

One issue we have is if people dump their LUP Rocket sections there is no way to get them back. One way to do that would be to have a vendor in each level but how do we have a vendor if we are not allowed to affect the economy?

-Eric

Re: Piratron Infiltration

Quote by: kingsley

Well I would like to do a "Flag" type achievement in our levels but our issue there is ND and LEGO won't let us alter the "economy" of the game at all so we cannot offer more imagination, life, or backpack space. We are trying to find out what type of "LUP" economy we could implement but it is a very touchy and difficult subject.

We have ideas but it is difficult to say if anything is even a starting point.

One issue we have is if people dump their LUP Rocket sections there is no way to get them back. One way to do that would be to have a vendor in each level but how do we have a vendor if we are not allowed to affect the economy?

-Eric

If you may not affect the economy of the worlds designed by Netdevil. Then you need to make everything by yourself. Having a new window vendor, maybe space based. And maybe you can make it that the smashables (in the LUP worlds) gives you LUP coins, which allows you to buy items from the vendor in each world. No LU money is needed, only LUP coins which could be founded when you smash some smashables, or maybe something others.

Re: Piratron Infiltration

This all sounds like an amazing idea. Flipz, I think you really know a lot about gameplay mechanics. I would just love to have this in the game! A Piratron rocket would be really fun

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