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Epic Stronghold
pantagruel01
Posts: 7,091 Arc User
This is an idea I had many years ago, but it seems worth brushing off if 'epic' lairs are to be a thing. Updated Stronghold Prison
Menton now has control over an army of augmented superhumans. The Champions went in, but they didn’t know about the weakness built into the formula… and they haven’t returned. Go in there, shut down Menton, and recover the Champions.
Defeat them, unlock the elevators, go up.
Menton Dominant
Mission
Viper has been testing radioactive wastes acquired from the Atomic Wasteland in Millennium City for a while (we call these tests ‘Rad Rumble’), with some success. Unknown to them, Menton was interfering, and their new formulation includes a flaw that lets Menton seize control over anyone using their compound. Then, to compound the error, a shipment was smuggled to Stronghold (theoretical purpose being freeing some Viper people, such as Dr Timothy Blank), and Menton took advantage.Menton now has control over an army of augmented superhumans. The Champions went in, but they didn’t know about the weakness built into the formula… and they haven’t returned. Go in there, shut down Menton, and recover the Champions.
Surplus Villains
To fill out numbers, pull villains from the nemesis arcs. Usable ones are Black Scorpion, Crucible, The Greyskull, Monolith, Morticus, Dragon King, Howitzer, The Reaper, Crimson Serpent, The Cadaver, Black Ice, Cursed Dragon, Cykill, Deadly Shrike, Death Phoenix, Land Shark, Rook, Tech Titan, The Fiend, The Griffin, Volta, Skullder, Hard Target, Double Dealer, Lethal, Scalpel, Gargoyle.First Floor
For the first floor, you get a taste of fighting a supervillain team, with actual tactics. I like the Brain Trust, but with some upgrades. In particular, they have mechanics that support one another (note that bionic shielding with :- Ape-Plus: Defiance, Beatdown (Crippling Challenge), reskinned Howl (use some chest beating emote), other Might.
- Black Mist: Night Warrior, Dragon's Wrath, Shuriken Storm, Smoke Grenade.
- Lynx: Way of the Warrior, Shred (Penetrating Strikes), Massacre, Masterful Dodge (AI: triggers at 1/3 health).
- The Overbrain: Medical Nanites, Bionic Shielding w/Overloaded Circuits (AI: triggers on lowest health teammate that lacks bionic tampering; high priority, low recharge), Neuroelectric Pulse, other Electrical, Unbreakable (AI: triggers at 1/3 health).
- Mr Zombie: Pestilence, Venomous Breath, Bite (Furor Venenum).
Defeat them, unlock the elevators, go up.
Second Floor
The second floor is essentially a 'can you deal with the waves of enemies before they all pile up and overwhelm you' map. When you enter this level, you get a cut scene of Captain Miller? coming out of cell block 1, opening up cell block 3, and going in, while several villains follow him out of cell block 1 and attack the heroes. You will be warned that he has unlocked the villains in blocks 1 and 2 and seems to be headed over to unlock block 3 and beyond. Your objectives are:- Prevent 'Captain Miller?' from opening up main detention. He will head over to the door at the end of block 3 and acquire a progress bar; if you can get him down to 2/3 health before he's half done or 1/3 health before he's done he'll turn around and fight. If you fail this task, adds will start spawning and you acquire a new task of seal the door to main detention.
- Defeat 'Captain Miller?': This is actually Morph; basic bestial SN powers seem plausible. Will use a large Resurgence when he turns around to fight, which will heal him by one bar.
- Defeat the Released Villains: there are a total of eleven villains in blocks 1 and 2, but they don't all arrive at once; they are moving at some natural pace from their cells, which means enough time that if you're fast at dealing with the early arrivers you don't get overwhelmed by the late (playing with the timing of arrivals is key to balancing this).
- Cell Block 1: The Mechanic (Fight Club), Black Mace (Fight Club), Iron (Metals of Dishonor), Gold (Metals of Dishonor), Tachyon (not in game, originally in Purple Reign).
- Cell Block 2: Buzzard, Darkmoon, Neanderthal, Rot, Windfist, Galeforce (should be updated to use Wind power set). There is also an unconscious Captain Miller in one cell.
Third Floor
When you enter, there are hackers trying to break out: Cybercide, Dr Ohm, Scalpel, and Waylon Talos. Once they are defeated, it's necessary to get the key cards, each of which is in the possession of a ward boss (A, B, C, D). Each ward boss is a double strength SV with two normal SVs as allies. In addition, each ward contains two other groups of 3 SVs, who will aggro if the boss is attacked but may be taken out without causing the boss to aggro. The wards are:- Block A (Stronghold Apocalypse and Stronghold Randoms): Boss is Raza, with Dr Tenebrous and Lacuna as backup. Group 2 is Dread Metal, Ogre, and Bulldozer. Group 3 is Black Dog, Bludgeon, and Rottweiler.
- Block B (Viper): Boss is Diamondback, with allies Dr Timothy Blank and Tornado. Group 2 is Director Fang, Electric Eel Supersoldier, and Redstone. Group 3 is Black Adder and two Surplus.
- Block C: Boss is Mind Slayer, with allies Vengeance and one surplus. Groups 2 and 3 are Surplus.
- Block
Boss is Talisman, with allies Leech and Fallout. Group 2 is Black Shepherd, Lady Purana, and one surplus. Group 3 is Ferd and two surplus.
Fourth Floor
The fourth floor contains 5 Nemesis Tough SVs. If possible, use Defeated Nemeses. No particular plot.Fifth Floor and Hot Sleep
In this room you have the Mind Controlled Champions (Defender, Ironclad, Kinetik, Sapphire, Witchcraft), and Menton. Menton is initially invulnerable and can take no actions, as he is too busy controlling the Champions. Each time Mind Controlled Champion is defeated, some of his concentration is freed up, and the following effects occur:- Menton can now use Mind Lock. His version works on players, and will target a random player character.
- Menton can now use Ego Storm with Malevolent Manifestation. His version spawns near a random player, rather than next to him.
- Menton can now use Collective Will with Consume Will. This will happen immediately after using Ego Storm.
- Menton is no longer invulnerable and comes down to fight. The last Champion ceases to be mind controlled and will assist the heroes. Menton gains the following powers: Psi Lash (villain-appropriate damage), Ego Sprites (Slave Mentality; 50' PBAoE; has cd), Mindful Reinforcement (100k hp; has cd), Psychic Vortex (100' radius), Summon Nightmare (100' PBAoE variant).
Post edited by pantagruel01 on
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Comments
First of all, one thing that CO lacks is any examples of an organized super team. Yes, you do have a few team fights (e.g. Red Winter and GRAB), but they don't actually work together to any notable degree. There seems room to have a couple of setups like that in here. Thoughts:
Brain Trust
The basic idea here is "don't let them focus fire one guy" and "deal with the healing". The key here is having a support AI, and powers that help others. Specifics of note:The Champions
The primary difference about the Champions is that they have a different support type, but it makes a lot of difference, because Witchcraft might be using Arcane Vitality, which is spammable.Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
Block C boss should be Psimon with Mind Slayer and Medusa as back up/sidekicking.
Psimon would be a classic mix of telepathy and TK. Making use of Ego Blasts, TK constructs etc and his Psi Giant Form which should grant him physical damage attacks (might).
Mind Slayer would require defense penetration mechanics in addition to the melee ego attacks she already has, possibly also a 200ft lunge.
Medusa should be a squishier boss with her main focus to be incredibly annoying to players. Her mechanics would revolve around paralysis and roots. She should have one "killing" attack (Surprise Diamond Heel) which deals high damage if you don't block (think Jack Fool's Any Sharp Object attack).
Menton would require high defense penetration vs general resistance (this would be reduced suitably for your character having Ego Damage Resistance) as a staple for all of this attacks. He should also probably have an empowered version of Psionic Reflective Shielding, Perception debuffs w/ surprise attacks and some telekinetic abilities in addition to what you've put down.
I'd increase the range on his Ego Sprites since typically he wouldn't get into a scrap with heroes (if he can avoid it), so it would be a good 120ft ability for him to have.
As it has been mentioned, NPCs should not be able to mess with players like that, especially since our version is so piss poor. I get that he's a super villain/end boss, but something else should be considered.
Perhaps in a similar manner to what Medusa's Psionic Bombs do, he should forge a link with one player's mind and cause a stacking debuff to appear on them, which will only detonate if they are within a certain range of another player. To make matters worse, Menton has access to the original version (or close to it) of Gravity Well, so will try to force the infected player to suck players nearby in, call it "Subtle Psychokinesis - Menton is affecting your movement! Stay away from other players!" and this stacks continually until the stacking debuff expires which you must block in order to survive.
Also, lol @ Bulldozer "The Dozer approves!"
--
I had a similar idea but it was mainly based around PSI and making them threatening in a new rampage, now you've posted this. I may flesh it out and post it soon.
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It's a nice start but I think there should be more stuff, and honestly, instead of a bunch of small fights, there should be one major fight for each floor. And this time, make the lair pick a random boss for each floor. That way it's not the same every time and the mechanics can be different.
I do like how the introductory is using the Brain Trust, sheesh they were poorly used in Canada. However, I don't think Lynx would be in Stronghold, since she would be considered an unwilling accomplice to the Brain Trust. It would provide for a more interesting fight to fight a super team of villains though, instead of the one and bunch of adds grouping we have.
Another issue I have with Teleios, and I think it is what brings about the hum drum feeling for some people, there is no variety in most of the fights in Teleios Ascendant as the fight goes on. Most of the bosses use the same attacks from start to finish, with the exception being Gravitar since she is basically an enhanced version of her Rampage fight. I would want the bosses in an Epic Stronghold run to actually have a progression of attacks the lower their health gets. Basically, a you're kidding me, oh you want a fight now, to a desperation mode where they stop holding back. So at the first third new attacks, and final third you might see the deadliest attacks.
Another thing that needs to be considered, trash is good for an instance, but all the trash up front is bad. You only need a small amount of trash between boss fights, and they can even be used to help identify the mechanics of the bosses you are about to fight next.
Having some Nemeses fights in there as well is a good idea, but let's not repeat Nem Con, since that will probably eventually get redone as well for epic lair fights.
In the end, I just want Menton to matter. He is the most powerful mentalist in the CU, and he needs to be treated as such. Rehashing the mindscape from Demonflame might actually be a good idea, as instead of fighting controlled Champions (we've done that already) instead have to fight hard enough to weaken his defenses and once those are weakened enough a couple of team members go into Menton's mindscape. They have to defeat several Id's to take down his defenses fully to make him completely vulnerable and defeatable since his mental powers are tricking you into thinking you are doing nothing to him.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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EDIT: One more thing, do NOT require this lair to have a tank. Having a tank would be nice, but being able to, when your in a crunch for time, grab a team of say, all DPS/CC(which would need a buff) and succeeding would be great.
42 40s, LTSer.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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What part isn't epic? The fact you don't need trinity? Or the time comment?
42 40s, LTSer.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
42 40s, LTSer.