Vaudevillain

Chapter 215: Emails and Theorycrafting

The day after Dylan finished talking with Jack, he received an email from Vert.

Hey there!

A shrink ray sounds super exciting! And we love the idea of using it. However, we have a bit of an issue with the moon base. As I'm sure you know, Sentinel City is located on the moon and is the base for the heroes guild. This is a problem for us as we always try to code in a line for failure as well as a line for success. That way, if too many people fail, they can see a permanent change affect the world. The guild headquarters is one of those places that we cannot afford to change at the moment.

We love the idea with your Zlobots as well, so what if we merged the two a bit more? Perhaps Dr. Zlo built an army of Zlobots armed with shrink rays to steal important landmarks around the city? Then, they take all the items up to Dr. Zlo's space station that stores the items in his personal museum. The heroes can then try to get all the monuments back and defeat your character. Please let us know your thoughts within the day. We want to get started on this ASAP!

Let me know what you think,

Pete Johnson

Lead Designer

Vert

Dylan's lip twisted in disappointment.

"I was all set on the moon," the man sighed.

Pete's idea wasn't bad, but Dylan had hoped Dr. Zlo would get to enact a bigger scheme than stealing essential landmarks. It felt too much like his earlier crime using the tsunami bomb. Dr. Zlo already did multiple cities; it was time for him to threaten the entire world. The moon was the perfect way to do that. Dylan didn't know if the game had tidal physics or anything similar, but moons were known to be necessary. It just made sense to escalate things.

Dylan doubted he could get around the heroes guild issue. He knew how strict Vert was when it came to what could and couldn't happen in their world. And the explanation made sense. Losing something like the heroes guild headquarters would be a big blow to the players joining the hero side. Planning for that eventuality would probably push the expansion out past its deadline.

It was no use dwelling on it, Dylan supposed. Pete's idea would have to do for now. Dr. Zlo could always try and shrink ray the moon later on, or perhaps something similar. He'd still try to push for the moon stealing, but weakly. Maybe they would allow it if Dr. Zlo always lost in some way. Dylan clicked reply and started to compose an email, getting a silly idea in the process.

Hi Pete,

As much as I loved the idea of trying to shrink the moon, I would be fine with your concept. It fits Dr. Zlo's character. However, Dr. Zlo is also the kind of character that always loses when he enacts his big plans. So I'm fine with his shrink ray never getting the chance to work. Perhaps the device explodes at the wrong time, or a comet flashes between the moon and space station to block the shrink ray? Basically, some kind of act of god?

Of course, I understand if none of that is possible. If we do have to go with your idea, stealing famous monuments sounds great. However, instead of a museum, what if it was a model train exhibit? Dr. Zlo got really into trains for some reason and wanted the most authentic items possible for his models. Therefore, the villain creates a shrink ray to miniaturize the world's famous monuments and use them for his trains?

Dylan

Email done, Dylan sent it off, leaning back to wait for a response. He didn't want to get on World of Supers, just in case he missed the reply email. Instead, the man pulled out another sheet of paper and started to plan out his new item set. He needed to change things up now that he had a new power.

Pencil met paper as Dylan scratched out what he had currently alongside what he thought he needed.

"My old cane is gone," he said to himself, "Which means no adhesive, frictionless gel, smoke clouds, or nanites."

His freeze spell somewhat filled the space left by his adhesive, but not all of it. Dr. Zlo sacrificed area coverage for a stronger freeze. Of course, Dylan didn't know if Dr. Zlo needed the area coverage, but the player knew area of effect was always helpful. He circled where he wrote adhesive, leaving a question mark beside the word to come back to it.

"I don't need the frictionless gel," Dylan said. Now that most people had some form of flight, the substance wasn't all that useful. Most everyone could circumvent the invention in some way, shape, or form, meaning that it would only be useful as minor utility. That wasn't to say that he wanted to get rid of the gel. But perhaps it would be better to use it in tandem with something else. He wrote the words combine next to the entry on his paper.

Next up were the smoke clouds, which Dr. Zlo definitely needed in some capacity. While the villain didn't always use them, a cloud of smoke was classic, and Dr. Zlo was a man who stuck with the classics. Perhaps it would be better to have the smoke as another bomb? Perhaps one of his button bombs or maybe a pen sitting in his suit. Dylan marked replace next to the smoke clouds and moved on.

"I don't really need the nanites now, do I?" the villain asked himself. Disintegrate covered the damage portion Dr. Zlo used for his nanites. Any utility they might have had in distracting would be covered by his hat drone and dueling gloves. No, the villain didn't need his nanites any longer, no matter how fun they were. Though, he could maybe stick them on the hat drone in the future. Dylan crossed out the entry on his list, putting combine with drone next to it.

Dylan went to the next item on his list, his button bombs and self-destruct patches. Both were used to similar effects, which meant it made sense for Dylan to combine them. Perhaps he could make a few button bombs into self-destruct patches. Or maybe it would be better to make all his button bombs self-destruct patches and place bombs on his hat drone. Dylan drew a line between the self-destruct patches and button bombs.

After that, Dylan took a look at his monocle. It was definitely an item that needed improving. With his new spells, Dylan's laser monocle wasn't all that useful. It needed some way to stand out among the crowd. Perhaps he should add some more utility to the item? Give it some infrared vision and other abilities. Or maybe he should look into making the laser stronger or different. Oh, perhaps he could double up on the weakness ability. Dylan wondered if it would work, but he liked the idea enough to write it down next to the monocle.

Past that was replacing the hat drone since the item was ripped to shreds against Kaiju. Of course, it was bound to happen sometime. The hat drone wasn't built from anything substantial, so it was a wonder that the item hadn't been destroyed earlier. His new robot would need to be stronger, especially if he wanted to give it all the different items on his list.

Yes, the new hat drone would need to be an invention on par with his minions. Not smart enough to think on its own, but intelligent enough to perform tasks commanded to it. Dylan pulled out another sheet of paper, listing out the materials he wanted in the robot. The base item would be strong enough to withstand attacks, meaning the hat's frame should be made of Zlonium. It could hold the razor edge it had before and use the nanites to craft manipulators. The bombs, frictionless gel, and anything else Dylan wanted in the hat could be stored in its top.

But Dylan resolved to start with a base hat. The new addition to his power would let him upgrade his hat after making it, allowing him to add on anything that was missing. That way, his initial description wouldn't be too complicated for the Mad Science power. Dylan nodded to himself as he finished writing. His new loadout was coming together.

He received a reply from Pete a few minutes later when Dylan was eating a dinner of pasta carbonara from one of the prepared meal kits he got from a free trial.

Dylan,

As much as it pains me to say it, we won't be able to go with your moon idea. Other departments want to keep the lines of success and failure to give players a sense of a changing world. Thanks for offering to make it so Dr. Zlo always loses, though. I would have loved to see the shrink ray on the moon. As for your addition to the other idea, we think we can do that. But are you sure you want his crime to be for something as wacky as train models? If you are sure, we can get started on the process. I'll send you another email entailing all of our design choices, and you can give us some feedback. Our plan is to start with a barebones storyboard structure that we'll make from your idea. We'll send it over, and you give us an okay or offer up the changes you want to see.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Pete Johnson

Lead Designer

Vert

Dylan set down his bowl of carbonara and typed out his reply.

Hi,

Sad to see the moon can't get used, but I understand. And yes, I'm okay with making his reasoning for shrinking the monuments because he wants authentic model train models. I had always modeled Dr. Zlo after old cartoon villains, and this seems like something one of them would do.

Dylan

Dylan sent the email off and went back to his dinner. Once finished, he decided to jump back into the game. He wanted to make his new inventions as soon as he could. It would give Dr. Zlo another reason to go out and cause chaos.

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