Tale of Diep:Club Panzer

Club Panzer is an Event Gamemode that will randomly appear in regards to events happening in The Realm. It is basically a big dance club run by The Juggernaut with connections to the story. Club Panzer is guaranteed to appear as part of the renovated Seven Steps of the Sanctum (series of steps leading to the battle with the Archprophet).

Story
Somewhere deep off in a recently constructed building near the center of The Realm, the Tank Empire have found records of gatherings of Fanboys of Panzer, and many much larger and more feared entities. It is up to the soldiers of the Tank Empire to infiltrate this new 'Club Panzer' and find out what is going on! Be warned... as these large pips on our scans could turn out to be some of our biggest enemies. Most that we send in don't return. But uh, don't worry champ, we have faith in YOU!

Mechanics
Unlike every other game mode related to the story of The Tale of Diep, this is a solo mission. Players will be sent in alone and without anybody else, really adding to the dire feeling of the relatively unknown situation. Players who do not complete their run of Club Panzer will not be able to enter the Tower of Gladii at the end of the Seven Steps of the Sanctum. Once completed, Club Panzer disappears until the next time it returns. Unlike most other gamemodes part of the Seven Steps, Club Panzer does not spawn any other way but the steps. The mission is divided into three parts. A stealth section, a Belisarius chase sequence, and then finally, an enemy battle sequence followed by a beefed up variant of The Juggernaut being fought. This ultimately makes it a very intense mission that requires skill to complete accordingly. Players who fail can reattempt it an infinite number of times, but will not be able to enter the Tower of Gladii when the steps conclude if Club Panzer is not finished. The Archprophet will mock players this happens to in a Transmission. Players spawned in will be automatically Level 45 and can assign their stat points at the start of the mission. It will then be explained to them through a Transmission that they will be infiltrating the club using a disguise that makes them look like a Cultist.

Step 1: Infiltration
Players will begin outside a large dark 'building', which is just a very large square of walls. Various obstacles prevent players from going around it, but moving away from the building will allow players to easily exit the mission. Upon entering the doors, everything outside the building becomes blackness to show that you're inside of it and to provide realism and focus to the events inside. Before the player can proceed the super colorful disco tile area, they must first pass through a security gate guarded by Belisarius. Uh huh, the big brute is there, and now the player has reasons to fear... He will glare suspiciously at the player, but ultimately allow them to pass through. Players must navigate through the maze of Club Panzer-goers, slowly discovering that something is wrong. Not only are there Fanboys of Panzer and cultists there, but also normal tanks. And they seem... off. Moving to the music in the same positions repeated over and over again... The player can try to interact with them, with only strange, creepy, and cryptic chat messages from them in response, related to the Cult of Panzer being great and such.

The player needs to get close to the stage without blowing their cover. Various cultists, guards, and other individuals will attempt to make conversation with and question the player, and to proceed they must answer questions either correctly, or put in the right series of button inputs in a short minigame. If the player fails, their cover will be blown and they must restart the mission over as everyone will gang up on the player. In Club Panzer, there will be about eight of these sequences as they make their way to the back of the club and up to the stage, four where they must put in the right responses, and four button sequences. These conversations aren't just one line either, and each one of these eight encounters can have anywhere from one to six layers, getting more difficult as the player progresses.

Step 2: Belisarius
After the player makes it up to the stage, a cutscene will play. The Archprophet himself is standing behind a turntable, next to The Juggernaut, and Belisarius at the front-right of the stage. The Archprophet will be seen glaring into the direction of the player, and then beckon Belisarius over. He can be heard whispering "Keep an eye on the one with the blue...". The player, as part of the scene, will automatically move closer, and the Archprophet will go wide-eyed, followed by him shouting "BELISARIUS! Destroy them!". The chase sequence will then initiate.

Unlike either of the Mad Science chases, this one is incredibly long compared to them. In fact, it is long enough to humorously make the building seem endless, as it only goes in one direction, back toward the entrance. The player will have to run past a whole bunch of tanks in the crowd, dancing on the dance floor, and even some cultists trying to attack them from the sideline. Tanks themselves kind of form the walls that make it a 'corridor', turning to watch the player flee. They are still disguised as a cultist like during the infiltration part of the mission, to add to the effect. As usual, Belisarius will choose from his chase sequence attacks, but since this time there is only one person, he can focus down solely the person playing instead of having to try and take down a plethora of tanks as in Mad Science and Tower of Gladii. They are listed here:


 * Sweep Blast: His cannon will retract and reform into a Vulcan, and he will sweep the barrel from left to right. Despite the barrel looking like a Vulcan, this is only aesthetic, and the shots themselves will be normal-sized and there will be about eight of them in a spread made one at a time as he sweeps his cannon, that players can squeeze through.
 * Target Shot: Will place a red target marker on the ground where players are which will flash red and yellow quickly. Two seconds later, it will become solid orange, and a powerful Annihilator shot will be fired there from his large cannon, dealing incredible damage to players caught in, and within 2 tiles of the blast, which explodes on contact with the ground.
 * Rocket Fist: His gauntlet's blue sigil will flash white before he moves to the left, right, or center, aims it in front of him, and fires it off in a straight line, piercing through players and dealing damage, before boomeranging back into his wrist socket.
 * Bombard: His cannon will turn into a Gunner-like one, and he will begin randomly firing off a barrage of four to six explosive bullets one at a time. Each one is like an individually weaker Target Shot, but a lot less focused.
 * Power Throw: If a player falls too far behind and comes within Belisarius' reach, he will grab them with his fist, and throw them like a projectile forward toward the players. Anyone hit takes damage equal to that player's body damage, and the thrown player rarely survives.

The chase sequence itself lasts about two minutes, and along the way are a bunch of little details, like clusters of tanks providing little gaps Belisarius needs to take time to get through while the player is small enough to squeeze through. Each time something like this happens, Belisarius can be seen pushing them or downright throwing them aside with his massive gauntlet. Sometimes multi-colored light beams will begin shooting in from the sides, altering the screen color, or slowing players down just a bit. Note that if the player does fall behind and Belisarius reaches them, he will throw them forward again, but it does significantly less damage than in other gamemodes. Remember that Health Regen is turned off during chases. But ultimately yeah, run away from Belisarius as you navigate your way back through the club.

The chase sequence ends when Belisarius actually runs out of power, rendering him unable to move. Throughout the sequence, you can see his back power packs visibly draining as he pursues. This is because when abusing his energy based attacks, it will puts some strain on his battery, which usually can last for days on end. Since Belisarius is a cyborg, when he runs out of power, only his body stops moving, and he can be seen glaring angrily as the player continues to run away.

Step 3: Liberation
By now the player should have figured out that the Cult of Panzer is using music to hypnotize unwilling tanks into joining their ranks. So now its up to the player to save them from the hypnotic music! As the player attempts to make it back to the stage, their disguise will be dropped and they are now the Level 45 tank with stat points that they selected at the start of the mission. There will be a very clear cut path through the crowd, pretty wide and curved like a C-shape from the entrance to an area near the left wall, and back to the center of the stage.

As the player makes their way back through, different clusters of Dungeon Crawlers and instantly hostile Fanboys of Panzer will leap from the crowd and attack the player. This happens quite a few times as they make their way through. As the player goes, speaker polygons (large square shaped black speakers), can be destroyed, freeing a section of the crowd and having them flee, opening more room for battle. There are six different speakers along the path to the stage, and while not required to destroy, demolishing all six rewards players with a secret achievement. These speakers are about as large as Alpha Pentagons, and have the 3000 health of them too, making it quite difficult when tons of other enemies are trying to swarm.

And finally, as the player is making their way back, just after the fourth speaker polygon location, the camera will pan to the Archprophet on stage, who will angrily look in the direction of the player, and his hands will begin flaming. Now, targets will begin appearing on the tiles, followed by large orange bullets ranging down into their positions and exploding in a 5x5 tile radius. This is constantly occurring until the player reaches the stage.

Once the player makes it to the stage, a cutscene plays again. The Archprophet will taunt the player, but congratulate them for their efforts. Following this, he will vanish through a self-created Portal, and leave The Juggernaut to kill the player. This battle is very different from the Fortress battle with The Juggernaut, and is detailed at on a soon-to-be added section of his page. After the new crazy and unique battle with The Juggernaut concludes, the game fades to black and the player is returned to the Realm Map screen, being rewarded for the completion of the mission and the saving of many innocents.

Trivia

 * There's a first time for everything. Club Panzer is the first single-player story mission.
 * I got the idea because of ecstasy. I read an article about it, and one of the effects was during parties and listening to music in clubs, people would dance in the same methodic pattern over and over again completely blind to everything else. So I thought, what if the Cult of Panzer weaponized music to hypnotize rebellious tanks into joining them? And now it actually exists with this weird story behind it all about drugs.
 * The Archprophet is only there on a turntable because of a quote during his battle about him being a part-time DJ, and because Curtain of Steel plot convenience demands it.
 * Plot convenience is also the justification for the player being immune to the effects of the hypnotic music.
 * Club Panzer will get its own chapter in Curtain of Steel, alluded to above.
 * Have to give a whole bunch of people in chat credit for the disguise mechanic. It was originally a joke presented as a possible section in Tower of Gladii, and about three different users built it up to its current state.
 * It very well may be used again in Tower of Gladii, along with Belisarius and his chase sequences.
 * Club Panzer was originally going to be an event spawned in The Realm as a structure instead of an entire game mode.