Tales From The Crypt

[Outsider]

TALES FROM THE CRYPT

What's up? The Outsider here. So, I've opened up this thread so everyone can share their fondest memories from "The Outsider's Crypt." Talk about whatever you want. For example...

How did you feel when you found out that a character you wanted was just created by me, or was announced to be next?

What was your reaction when you clicked on a question mark, revealing a secret character's identity?

What were you thinking when you saw some of my promos at the Lab, like the comet hurling in space with the strange coordinates (for Captain Universe), or the eerie reports of NPCs getting possessed (for Shuma-Gorath)?

Were you dancing when you played the music of Star-Lord, Night Thrasher, or the Dazzler booster? (It's ok, you can admit it. Haha!)

Or perhaps uncovering certain secrets (without spoilers)... Stuff like that.

[Hobgoblin]

I've been lurking & posting on this forum for years, occassionally tinkering with my version of the game using the mods, stuff and help from this forum. I remember when you came on the scene, asking similar questions that I had back then, but while in all the years I have never been able to grasp enough of the matter to create a standalone mod, you quickly built yourself up to the most prolific modder around. I'll be honest: this scared me at first, as I had some worries that a large quantity of output within a quick succession of releases would not necessarily mean that those mods would be of any high quality. However, I was quickly reassured that there was nothing to worry about, you've always cared for getting complete and distinguished characters out there with great attention to the source material. And you've always taken notice of reports of problems, issues and feedback in order to even further improve on your mods. There's so much creativity and quality to be found in your work that I occassionally wondered whether you couldn't somehow be sent to work with Activision on MUA3 (or a proper re-release of the earlier games)!

Additionally, you've catered to several of my greatest desires for the game. As a big Avengers fan, I'm always baffled that a number of the characters used by Roger Stern in his acclaimed run on the series rarely (if ever) get used in media. You've created brilliant mods of two core characters: Monica Rambeau and the Black Knight. Monica seemed easy to mess up: to make overpowered, to include the 'phasing' power as seen with Vision/Shadowcat that doesn't actually work well for the game - but you managed to pull it off!
I've often looked at your work as well for my own tinkering, for example looking at your mods with costume-specific powers made me realize how to make an Iron Man version which includes War Machine with powers of his own. You've done some great stuff with special activations of features (like how Black Knight would draw his sword): I've used that to give Doctor Strange his teleport power as a standard, non-upgradable move activated by pressing Block+punch (as I found he had too many active powers otherwise, yet I wasn't eager to let go of any of them).

And all of the above is why the Crypt quickly became one of my favourite on-line retreats. I'd check for new forum messages on this site pretty much daily and was always especially hoping for new announcements in the Lab or Crypt.

[Outsider]

Hobgoblin, that was quite the compliment you gave -- I appreciate those kind words. I recall your personal quest to create your perfect roster, and one compliment you gave me was around the time I've released the Avenger Sersi. You had said that you were rethinking that roster upon playing as her, and then you expanded to other non-Avengers such as Star-Lord and Groot. I take a lot of pride in researching the characters before modding them.

I actually wouldn't mind being hired by Activision to work on MUA3, or improved versions of the classic games. For one thing, I definitely would work on MUA3, as I feel that MUA2 (though I liked the Civil War angle), didn't keep up with the ending of MUA1, where Galactus is pissed off at Planet Earth's meddling of his plans. Imagine what they could have done with that!

Personally, I would have had MUA3 start on Earth with an initial roster of only the most prolific heroes and a few anti-heroes (I consider Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Blade, and the Punisher for example as very popular anti-heroes). The first mission is somewhere in New York. Then, Nick Fury and the initial roster hears a threatening message from Galactus that Earth is next to be devoured due to their previous meddling, prompting them to leave Earth and search for intergalactic help. They acquire (unlock) powerful playable characters residing/traveling from outer space such as Silver Surfer, Magneto, Adam Warlock, Nova (Frankie Raye), Quasar, the Inhumans, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Sentry, the Imperial Guard etc. The Skrull particularly may offer to help after the heroes saved their planet from extinction. They can visit different plants such as the Shi'ar, Skrull, and Kree empires, facing villains such as D'Ken, Ronan the Accuser, Nebula, Super-Skrull, Terrax, Firelord, etc. Some enemies such as Ronan & Nebula can become playable after defeating them and convincing them (or in the anti-heroes' case, threaten them) to temporarily align with the heroes to stop the greater threats, such as Thanos & his Black Order, Gamesmaster, the Dark Phoenix, Shuma-Gorath, possibly the Beyonder, and of course the final boss -- Galactus himself. At one point, they may have to compete in one of the Gamesmaster's bouts, and/or fight in the Negative Zone! HUB areas can include the flying SHIELD helicarrier, Attilan (again), the Blue Area of the Moon, Starship Milano, Knowhere, Asteroid M (Avalon), Lilandra's Shi'ar castle and a couple of uninhabited planets. Special items can be bought from the Collector for a price.

Oh man, the ideas are just flowing out! I heard that MUA3 is currently in development (http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/20735/20161025/marvel-ultimate-alliance-3-2017-release-date.htm), but it may not happen. Hopefully, someone will have an idea similar to mine.

[BaconWizard17]

Those are some great ideas!
On the subject of MUA3, I've seen websites claiming it's in development for years now, so I hesitate to believe it. I'd of course love an MUA3, as it would do wonders for the marvel game industry. Hopefully they also think to include X-Men characters.

[LarsAlexandersson]

Speaking of MUA3, i wonder when will MUA1 & MUA2 patch 3? There still remaining missing contents & gameplay issues left

[Hobgoblin]

Sersi and the Guardians of the Galaxy were indeed reasons for me to set up a second roster, more 'cosmic' themed with additions from less prominent but very fun characters and mods, also featuring other characters found in the Crypt such as Valkyrie and Scott Lang's Ant-Man (who is of course very prominent in the MCU, as are the Guardians, but I'm more focused on the overall Marvel comics line as a whole).

Thanks to you, I really thought I had my 'perfect roster' set with the addition of Monica Rambeau, but I'm now heavily struggling with really wanting to include yet another character which you made extremely fun to play: the Falcon. I just don't have space for Sam, but I can't really explain why he should be the one to be left off the roster either. (If only that pesky 27 character limit could be increased just a little bit...)

If MUA3 ever sees the light of day, I can only hope that not only would it allow for far more characters, I also hope that they also won't ignore characters who haven't been in the movies but who have often been important characters in classic comics, such as Monica Rambeau and Hercules, but I have little faith in that: they're not even in the second Lego Marvel game (baffling, really - even someone like West Coast Avengers C-lister Firebird is in there!). (OK, granted, Herc's in MUA2, but not as a playable character. And yes, Monica's difficult to make playable, but you proved it can be done... which brings my rant back on topic.)

[Outsider]

To keep this thread going, I'll periodically share some memories of some of the more difficult mods I've made. Right now, I'll chat about the creation of Captain Universe:

A long time ago, I recall this contest where one lucky person can be featured in a Marvel comic book, as Captain Universe. Since then, that character has had an impact on my imagination. So when I thought of creating the Uni-Power, I wanted it to feature very popular hosts, but also the non-popular originals such as Ray Coffin and Tamara Devoux. The 1st challenge was to create some skins myself, and that design wasn't easy! The 2nd challenge was for each host to play differently, as (for example) Hulk will never play like Invisible Woman, and X-23 wouldn't play like Silver Surfer. That's how I learned about the "force restart" method. From there, it was fun to create the mod.

I also liked the promo I made of the comet heading to Earth with the "interesting" coordinates, as it did generate excitement and people wondered who I was talking about. You can relive that moment here:  http://marvelmods.com/forum/index.php/topic,8782.msg177374.html#msg177374, and read the following posts to view their reactions and guesses as to who it was.

[Outsider]

Reviving this old topic, now that I'm done as a character modder. Feel free to tell your "Tales From The Crypt" (which is any story or memory you can recall from your time visiting The Outsider's Crypt) such as how you felt when I released a character you really wanted to see, or when you solved one of my mysterious puzzles or hints. Whatever you want to share, go right ahead. I'll share a little story here:

I always wanted to see a mod of Agent 007 himself, James Bond created. When I first thought about it, I was inexperienced as a modder and was hoping BLaw would do it. It was his work that inspired me as a modder in the first place. Then years later, as I grew into an experienced modder, I still thought I wasn't the right modder to create 007, and that BLaw would be better. Unfortunately, he was done modding, so it was up to me. Considering Bond's long history, I was admittedly a little concerned that I wouldn't do him justice. Even experienced modders like myself have moments where we feel like we can't make this character the way they should be. But as I worked on him, I started feeling more confident that I could create him well enough. When he was done, I felt a sense of pride. He played like the secret agent I had imagined. Sometimes, one can surprise even themselves.

I'll probably share more "confessions of a modder" here over time. But feel free to share any memories from The Crypt as well.