The Energon Pub

My inspiration is from the inferno mission set. The overall idea is Cybertron gets a signal from an old scouting probe about a new planet. Both sides gets the signal, get ready to go, launch their crafts, land on the new planet, set up their bases, gather the resources, raid/defend each other based, and evacuate the planet because of the environment is making it difficult. They find out the planet itself is alive and not like being stripped. Now, the challenge is trying to figure out the level break down once the individual missions are wrote up. I want to include all levels in the spread. I prefer not to do a 1-11 style but more if a 0-5 & 6-11 split to end the storyline.

I think one thing that you'll need to decide, is what and how many key points are in the story, as these points would form the basis for the missions as well go someway to decide what the level range breakdown could be. ie if there were 5 key points, resulting in 5 different missions, the level breakdown could be 1-2, 3-5, 5-7, 7-9 & 9-11.

One of the locations that Burn published when he posted the list was prehistoric earth.

If we are going to use location tags in mission, which are trackable behind the scenes but not publicly yet, it may be better to base it on those, but if you want to add in a small planet/moon, it can be based in whatever region you want them to blast off from?

As for the mission text itself:
I approach missions from a 'command bulletin' perspective. Imagine who would be issuing the mission; Is it a security (e.g. Prowl, Soundwave), scientific (Jetfire, Perceptor, Shockwave), combat (Wreckers, Ironhide, Megatron, Onslaught) or medical (Ratchet, First-Aid, ...uh, Shockwave again) mission (or any other you want to invent), and then write out the message they would send.

You need one for each faction

e.g.

the 0-5 mission wrote: Moonbuggy Yellow
This is Bumblebee, we've got reports Decepticreeps crawlin' all over that new moon Perceptor has been babbling about. I don't know what they want, or why they are there, but if we leave them to it they'll tear it apart! It's up to us to stop them, and we don't have much time - let's go!!
Moonscream
Reflector has reported a new moon in the alpha sector. You will go there, strip it of all resources, and return them for the Decepticon cause! Do not come back empty handed, or I will feed you to Trypticon!! - Starscream out.

Then you need the win/loss text for each. No one ever reads them, so its probably best you keep them short.

Win:
Well done 'bots, that another planet safe from the Decepticon menace, my plot-armour remains intact.
Loss:
Regroup, Autobots, Megatron's forces were too strong and we were rubbish. I just hope the next time we can do better but I'm not hopeful.
Win:
Excellent, with these resources I, Starscream can deliver all the pizza's as that's all I'm good for.
Loss:
You fools are almost as big a losers as I, Starscream.

As for the mission level spread, think about keeping them broad, but not too broad. As a general rule, if there is more than 3 levels difference (e.g. L1-3 works, but L1-4 might not) often you find that the lower levels in it just get demolished and the rewards are quite rare, so it might be best to keep the brackets small for the regular missions and add in the bigger-ranged missions (the L0-5 you suggested) as special events.
(please feel free to disagree, I can only speak from experience.)

Now you just need to think of a cohesive subject for them.

Do you want the lower level missions to be the guards, the mid level to be special ops and the high level to be the assault missions? Work within each bracket accordingly.

Alternately, if you want to have a similar combat mission in each level bracket, think about the canon characters you will use for the command bulletin and what level the would likely be giving order to: (e.g) Wheelie/Starscream at L0-1 → Brawn/Brawl, L2-3ish → Sideswipe/Skywarp at L4-6ish → Ironhide/Shockwave, L7-8 → Prowl/Sixshot L9-10 → Optimus Prime/Megatron L11 or similar.

Once you have that framework, it can be easy to put them together. I've used random G1 examples as an easy reference, but you can alter them to any character set and era you want, as the current canon era encompasses pretty much all generations these days.
Also, I hate Starscream and wanted to trigger the seeker fanboys.

The signal/probe recovery was going to be a L0-2 mission. I never thought of the commander sending out the mission. The mission launch could be something like L2-4, while at the same time a sabotage mission could be the same level range or maybe L1-3. The landing and set up could be a defending mission from the other faction. This one could be L4-5. Resource gathering will probably be focused on one or two main areas to ensure conflict but at the same time this will awaken the living planet to the Cybertronian presence. Let us say L3-5 or L4-6 on this set. The raiding can be L7-9 while the defend based could be L8-10. This fighting continues to awaken the planet and making it target both sides in the story line. Evacuation will be the L0-5 and L6-11 missions.

I will take more suggestions and volunteers for anyone who wants to help write these missions. I think burn will assign the rewards and time frames.

It doesn't HAVE to be a "command bulletin" as such, it can simply tell a flowing story (see the Inferno mission series), for example,
Mission bracket #1 - Find/detect/investigate something
Mission bracket #2 - Try to retrieve/capture whatever the something is
Mission bracket #3 - Deal with repercussions of whatever the something is
Mission bracket #4 - All in brawl to determine outcome of whatever the something is

That's just an EXAMPLE and is in no way how it MUST be set.

FYI, mission text involving player based characters should be kept for tournament style missions.