LostInWeb

A ridiculous Universe sounds fine, but I don't really get, what this is. Is it a self created Universe or something we all know from Comics or TV? What does WWYT stand for?

Exactly my approach too.

I'm pretty sure, my biggest task in the end will be to balance my own database. The adding of characters, locations, storys etc. is work for sure, but I'm making good progress with that. But the balancing to make it all fun to play could be a lot of work.

When I don't give an Artifact a Type (like Technological, Futuristic etc.) does that mean, that they can't be uncovered or stolen, since that only seems to work if a Type is specified? That would be helpful for Artifacts I only want to give away through storylines. And another question, the answer to will be "No" for sure, but I'll ask anyway: would it be possible to give the Custom Powers a bit more relevance by adding more options to Factions and Artifacts? I'm thinking of something like "Cannot have Custom Power X" to define more, who can join a Faction and not or can have an Artifact or not. For example, if I wanted to make an Artifact that works like Kryptonite, I would give all Kryptonians the Custom Power "Kryptonian" and would give the Artifact the "Cannot have Custom Power: Kryptonian"-Command, so Kryptonians can't have it since it would kill them.

Yeah, but they can be locked to a charcter, so nobody else can gain them. I can give them the quest to uncover it or give it to them through the stories and I can hide them in the game, so there isn't a bunch of pictureless stuff displayed. As for now, it works for me. Of course, there is always the possibility, that I overlook something and then I have to try something else. I like to be creative with this stuff, so we'll see, where I end up. The problem with your suggestion is, that storylines don't trigger fights. So, the only thing happening is the "leveling up" through the storylines. When I take away Batmans Power through a storyline, I can't use them in fights, but that is what I am looking for. The idea is, to have many storylines with all charactes, not one storyline per character, so it wouldn't work to give and take the Powers, since I don't know, when which storyline starts. I know, I could do that by adding Issues and add the requirements especially so, that one storyline follows another, but I don't want that. I want to have many storylines that are triggered whenever they are triggered, so every game would feel different. The problem is, that my ideas are kind of aiming for a lot of storyline trees. There are storylines that only have one part and then they are done. But there are also storylines with 3 to 4 parts (or maybe more) and some storylines are the follow up to others, some are stand alones, some have different outcomes, that the game can choose randomly, some have a lot of requirements, some have a few etc. I want to add a lot of stuff through the storyline system so in the game there is always something happening, apart from the fights. At least, that is my goal. I will see, how good that will work. I don't have villains (or heroes) that can't be beaten (although I'm still working on the right balancing), it is more my idea of having fun with the game, by giving characters more possibilities to beat each other over time. For example, Clayface could be beaten by normal powers, but has a weakness for schockwave attacks. When Batman has gained the Batarang through the storyline, he has a shockwave attack in his arsenal, to beat Clayface easier. On the other hand, Clayface could gain a Resistance to Electrical Attacks, so it would be more difficult for other characters to beat him. Those characters could gain other strenghts and weaknesses over time and so on. How good that will work in the end ... I will see, I guess. But it's me having fun with the editor and hopefully later with the game. That would indeed be interesting, but I guess I would more or less do that through specific issues/volumes. Let's say, I have the rookies, the experienced and the veterans. Than the Volumes 1 - 3 could be the rookie years, the Volumes 4 - 6 would be the experienced years and Volumes 7 - 9 the Veterans. But that would be a more straight forward approach and a different Database for me.

Right now, I'm building a Batman/Gotham City Database and try to have more or lesse storylines for everyone in it, with sometimes characters gain powers through stories, because they need them in those. For example, Batman has an enemy, he has to come up with a way to beat, so he in the story invents the Explosive Batarang and I want to add that to his repertoire through a storyline effect. The two options I see for that right now are: a) copy Batman, give the new version the Power and make him active and the first one dormant through the storyline effect b) create an Artifact for the Explosive Batarang and give that to Batman through the storyline effect With both versions I have my problems, because with a) I would have to build every storyline including Batman at least twice (for Batman and Batman2) or I would have to set it so, that all storylines could only trigger after the storyline where Batman gets his new Power. But I don't want that, as I want to keep the randomness and therefore the surprise of Storylines in the game. But with every multiple version of any character, that would get alot more complex. Especially, when there will be stories, where more than just two or three characters are involved. Imagine having Batman, Batman2, Batman3, Batman4, Nightwing, Nightwing2, Joker, Joker2, Joker3, Riddler, Riddler2, Riddler3 etc, and all of them would share a story. I would have to build them with every possible constellation of versions, since I never now, which versions are in the game together at which point. With b) - which is my way to go right now - I only don't like, that it means, that I have a bunch of Artifacts in the game, that aren't even Artifacts but just Powers or Abilities. That would be easy avoidable, if Artifacts could be hidden in the game as sites, which I already asked to be added in one of the next patches. Of course, I'm alway open for suggestions, to handle it differently.

As I said, I usually am looking for workarounds for those things, but it could be easier, with some tweaks here and there in the game itself. I have to admit, I had to look up those characters, as I'm not very familiar with the Teen Titans - I know, that Red Robin is/was their leader, but that's about it - or other groups like the Justice League International, so this is just a simple solution without thinking to much about it: With Vixen, I guess, I would go with Tokens. There are around 20 kinds of Tokens in the game, so I would assign a Token to any animal, I want Vixen use the powers of. Like, Leader - Lion, Poison - Snake, Power - Bear etc. Then I would categorize her powers by those animals and connect them to the use of those Tokens. The Token Gain of course should be easy and maybe giving her more than one ability to gain them, so she could gain more than just one kind of Token per round. Beast Boy is a little more complicated, I guess. Maybe, I would use just a lot of Drones in form of different animals with different powers and abilities for him. The character itself wouldn't have much powers himself, since he gains them through his animal forms, which would be represented through the Drones. Wolfsbane would only work through three different "attires" I guess, since she has different powers and weaknesses with any form she has. Maybe those ideas give you at least some inspiration, to figure out, how you could get them into your game. Yeah, I know, but as you already said, that doesn't help me much, when I want to just use the same character with littel changes. I use the linkers already here and there, but I try to go around it, so I don't have to much versions of multiple characters to handle. I like my database full of unique characters and want to implement many stories in there, so with every multiple version, it gets alot more complicated for me to handle the whole thing.

Would it be possible for Artifacts to get the option "Hide Artifact", like Sites have it, so they aren't listed in the game, but are there to be used?

It does, kind of, but personally, I find it a bit laborious (is that the right word?), because I have to copy the characters every time, I want to add something new to them. Let's say, I want to crreate Learning Man, a Hero, who learns alot of thing over time, represented here through Powers, Abilitites etc. So, everytime Learning Man learns something, I have to switch him to a new character in the Database. Meaning, I have - I don't know, let's say - 20 Learning Mans in the Database alone. Would be easier, if I could just create an event, where I check a box on active for a power, ability etc. And to be honest, I'm not sure how much the character linkers do for me, since they - as far as I can see - don't link events and storylines, which are my main focus. So, when I have a character, who has more than 1 version, and I build a storyline including them, that I want to trigger randomly at any timepoint during gameplay, I have to copy that storyline for all versions of that character, since it is not clear, when the story triggers and which version of that character would be in the game by that point. I'm looking for way around that for now. I thought about artifacts, but learning a skill isn't necessarily linked to an object. But I guess, that would be the best way I can see right now, to do, what I want to do. The game is great and the editor gives me all the things I need, no question, but I guess, some things could work a little bit better for me personally. But as I said, I usually find a way around it and just get creative with it.

Okay, I guess this is the ultimate longshot and I'm 99% sure this won't work, but I'll ask anyway: Would it be poosible to add Active/Inactive functions for Powers, Schemes, Quests and anything else, that is linked to a character? It would be a much easier way to update characters through storylines and reactive events instead for having to create a new character everytime. We could give a character every power we want them to gain in the long run, but could just set those, they should get later on inactive. The effects in stories and events could work like status with just switching between active and inactive.

That's how it works for now. As you mentioned, the problem I see with this, is that it could get very complex, if you update more heroes over time this way, because then you would have to build alot of branches, when more updated heroes are in the same story. You would have to build one branch for everyone updated, just one updated, just two updated, just three updated and so on includig all constellations of heroes, who could be updated or not. Seems liek a big struggle in the long run, but for now, I don't have a better idea.

A question about storylines and reactive events, of course: Let's say for example, I set up a reactive event to be not run before or after Volume 1 Issue 6 (like in the default databse with the Mainframe Debut), but I have also set up some requirements like having a character at a location or something like that. Would that event be triggered, even if the requirement isn't fullfilled, because it can only be triggered at that Issue or would it not trigger at all, because the reuirements are not fullfilled? In short: would requirements be overpowered by the Issue-Setting or are the requirements always the important part and must be fullfilled in any case?

Yeah, I used the full version instead, but if you want to check what the issue may be, since others may have the same problem: When I click the link above or the "Demo to Retail" button on the Game Page it opens a new tab for just a few seconds saying "Loading ..." and then "Unknown" and then immediately closes. Then nothing more happens, so I can't download anything or do something else, for that matter. For the record: I have no Add-Blocker running for this site, if that might cause the problem. It must be something else. Browser is Chrome.

For some reason, this doesn't seem to work neither here nor from the game page with the Demo to Retail Version.

@Adam Ryland maybe a long shot, as I don't know how difficult it would be to implement this, but would it be possible to add effects for storylines and reactive events, where relationships between two characters change. Like, making a new nemesis for a hero or make a foe to a friend, because they have to fight a common enemy? I think, from the space under the effect box it should be possible, since there could be 3 boxes for 2 characters and 1 relationship.

Since the storylines (and reactive events) are the most important addition in this game for me, I thought it would be interesting, to collect some ideas, how we could build some complex storylines in the game. I for myself have a lot of fun with being creative with this stuff and like to explore the boundaries of the possibilities. Like, in this game, the one thing that's kind of missing is the possibility to go to trigger a fight with a storyline, so there could be showdowns, like they are in the comics. But therefore, I just write the fights down in the story, which is a lot of fun for me too. For starters, I'm trying to build a story right now, which can go into different ways at a specific point. I started with a new storyline of course that will be triggered through the Issue Content. In this story called "Part 1" a new faction of two characters is build. One is a hero and one is a villain, becuase they have a common enemy for the moment and decide to work together. Then, I have build two seperate storylines as "Part 2 A" and "Part 2 B". In both parts, the common enemy is defeated, but in part A something from the hero is destroyed and in part B something from the villain is destroyed. In the part, where the hero defeats the enemy, he is an updated version with a power that he "needs" to defeat that enemy. So if that part is triggered, from there on the hero would be an updated version, if the other one is triggered, he will stay as he is. Part 3 is separated in A and B either and in one the hero breaks up the faction with the villain and in the other vice versa. The idea is of course, to follow this up with a storyline, in which the hero and the villain "feud" with each other. But from here on I guess it could get complex, because with every new storyline, that can trigger after this one and includes the hero, i would have to make two versions. One with the normal hero and one with the updated version. Maybe, someone has a better idea, how this could be done or other ideas for complex stuff, that can be done with storylines.

Thanks. I figured it would be the case, because there is a character in the default database using the identy switch to make 8 or 9 new versions and that gave me the idea in the first place, but I thought I'll ask anyway.

The handbook is available on every screen by clicking the questionmark in the upper right corner. Not sure, if the popularity rankings are in there, but I guess they are. Your question has been answered already, but you can just rememeber that the ranking is arranged, as you can select it in the box. Meaning: the highest rank is at the top and the lowest ist at the bottom. About the levelling up: in CBH, the predecessor of this game, you could level up your character like in an RPG, where you have some kind of pointsystem and use the points to level up skills. This is not in CBU. Levelling up works through triggers in events and storylines. That being said, @Adam Ryland after I trialed and errored a bit around with events and storylines (as you suggested), I guess I get the hang of it now, but am kind of missing an event or two: would it be possible to trigger an event, where characters gain a new power, raise or reduce a skill or gain a new health level? That would be nice to evolve characters over time some more. Of course, one could use the Identity Switch for that, but that would mean to build a character for every new power, skill etc.

A thought about that: since I find it a bit unclear, I guess others may find it a bit unclear too. Maybe you could expand the first paragraph in the handbook with "and all valid Reactive Events will be triggered at the end of the issue" or something like that to make it clearer. Maybe the same would be good in the storyline-section, since it's not clear there if only one storyline can progress at a time or if it progresses all valid. I guess, the old rule applies here: "Always imagine the most stupid user possible (in this case me) and make everything as clear as possible for them."

Okay, I just read through the issue content and found nothing on it. So if I understand it correctly, a Reactive Event will automatically trigger, when all requirements are fullfilled or will the game just choose one if more than that could be triggered? Like, the game just triggers the first one in the Database that fullfills all requirements and for the next, it would be at the end of the next issue. I'm asking that, because I want to avoid that all Reactive Events are triggered at once.

Short question about Storylines and Reactive Events: In the Database Details there is the Issue Content Dice Table, where I can find the option Storyline, but nothing on the Reactive Events. Are they included in that option or fall Reactive Events under Game Universe Progression or something completely different?

In the handbook for dialogues there is a section about Targets, but there is no Targets-Option in the editor. Only Situation and Trigger.

After spending some time in the editor just goofying around, I found in the Powers-Section of Character-Editing a whole section about gaining and spending Tokens. I looked it up in the handbook, but didn't found anything about that, so my question is: What are Tokens and how do they work in the game?

Great! I guess, I shot to soon then. Was just messing around with the editor, but didn't got to characters yet. Thanks.

I guess, this one may be a little bit difficult to implement, but I suggest it anyway: I just thought, that it would be neat, if sites wouldn't only work as a background, but giving certain characters an advantage, when they are somehow linked to that site. That would simulate, that a character is more familiar with the site than others. For example, a fight between Batman and The Penguin in the Batcave would give Batman an advantage, while Penguin would have an advantage, when the fight takes place in the Iceberg Lounge.