zzMDude

Yeah, this is one of those situations where I think science should take a backseat to the rule of cool. I'm with Jurassic Park! Scaly dinosaurs forever!

I am shocked that a conversation about revamping zones only mentions Boomtown twice. Most of the other zones brought up on this thread so far at least get some sort of foot traffic, even if it's for the sake of passing through, the odd mission or certain amenities. Boomtown is pretty much a big, useless nothing and is in as desperate a need to be made relevant again as Dark Astoria was before issue 22.

As for Kings, I'd be all for new environmental art as long as it maintains or enhances the overall "bad part of town" feel of the area. Add a community center, or a red light district, or a run down public school or housing projects etc. etc. Maybe sprinkle in one or two destroyed buildings, bombed out or burned down by the gang violence. Let there be a pre-Halloween event where the Hellions set the whole area on fire.

I wouldn't necessarily want Kings Row to be Gothamized though, at least not the Tim Burton sense. The Rogue Isles handles that look just fine.

These may take up too many resources to be feasible, but they're worth a shot.

- Wands and staffs/sceptres for elemental ranged attacks: I'm having a hard time coming up with a magician or wizard type character because I don't really feel like there's a way to make them look appropriately magical. I know 'cast' animations have been added to ease this issue but they just don't do it for me(although I am using them on my nrg/nrg tech blaster, makes him look cooler). I was thinking it'd be much better for me if elemental ranged offensive sets could have the option of using a wand or sceptre to cast their attacks. You know, waving around a wand and pointing it at the enemy to shoot fire, waving the wand or sceptre in an arc in front of you to do an knockback attack, or raising a sceptre into the air, before slamming it into the ground to cast an AOE. The bad news is that the developers would have to make a lot of new animations that could be used on entirely new powers(maybe the coming staff fighting set has some animations that could be appropriated? There's the Nemesis staff and black wand animations too). The good news is that once it's done, you could use it on all ranged offensive sets but Assault Rifle and Archery.

- One handed animations for the Katana: Pretty self-explanatory. If you want to use a medieval sword and a shield, swing a massive titan sword, wield two swords or fight like a Samurai/Ninja, you're covered. The only people left out are those who want to be like fencers or musketeers. The easy way out would probably be to just add a fencing sword skin to Broadsword and Katana, but it'd be really great if appropriate animations were made for fencing like holding the sword out in front of you, and quick pokes, swipes and thrusts. A fencing mask costume piece would be a cherry on top.

Ever since the beginning of this game, people have banged the drum for new environmental artwork. I am one of those people, and the monotony of the zones and mission maps was the primary reason I let my subscription end. I would restart my subscription again once or twice, but ultimately reach the same conclusions and move on to something else.

That said, things have come a very long way since April 2004, with many more mission maps or modified base maps, and missions designed to take advantage of them. It's only when you grind the newspapers and play older blue-side content when things start to get ho-hum again.

I'm afraid I'm not as averse to at least working on zones as some in this thread seem to be. There's a lot of currently useless real estate in Paragon City and I'd really like to see those zones made relevant again before adding new zones entirely. Places like Boomtown, Crey's Folly, Perez Park, Brickstown and Skyway City are either totally abandoned or very underused. I'd like to see them all be revamped like Faultline and Dark Astoria. There would be nothing wrong with adding more new interesting places to heavily trafficked zones too. A news building to Steel Canyon, a community center in Kings Row, a museum in Atlas or an aquarium in Talos could all be useful to potential plot lines or just giving the zones more character. How about a trial in The Ziggurat, using assets for the old City of Villains tutorial?

Mission wise, people have already given a lot of good suggestions for new maps, so I don't have much to add but a vote of solidarity for subway maps, either new or abandoned. They'd be the perfect way to break up the monotony of sewer missions, maybe you could even have the subways and sewers transition into each other from time to time. Extra cool points if would able to fight in, or on top of a moving train.

Also, I really think the game could with a carnival style mission map with a bunch of goofy colors and clown faces, fun house mirrors and kids toys mixed in nasty death traps. Think Arcade's Murderworld, or the places Batman often fights Joker, or the places Spider-man fights Mysterio.

If the developers are dead set on taking the game to space, I hope they go big. I feel as if one moon base or space zone or mission map wouldn't really be enough to capture the amount of possibility the setting brings. I guess I'm saying that I would totally pony up for a new full expansion with multiple new zones, storylines and powers for heroes who want to go beyond Earth.

The most pain this has caused me is simply from a plot perspective, wondering about the time-stream implications of traveling to the past not to change the future but to stop a plot that's taking place in the present.

Otherwise, I figured that the developers simply didn't have the time or resources to rewrite all of the old DA focused missions for i22 and would likely handle it in the future. It is pretty neat that they kept a way to get to legacy DA and Galaxy though. Maybe they should add Atlas Park too?

My dream would be for at least ten new entirely original mission maps to be designed and put into the game where usable. Museums, hotels, mansions, old subway lines, shopping malls. Anything to spare me from another office or warehouse crawl. Maybe give more factions their own base maps, like a Devoured Earth old, overgrown greenhouse, or a Sky Raider base, or a Nemesis base filled with golden pistons and gears in constant movement.

I don't see the point in adding new zones, they're useless. They've been useless since XP was adjusted to favor running missions instead of street hunting, and the newspaper/radio missions and Aeon Entertainment just twisted the knife more. Any further zone work should be used for adding more features and updates to the zones that are already in the game, or only for zones which are completely conceptually impossible with the current zones. Space stations, Cyberspace, Underwater, Medieval fantasy dimensions. On second thought, you could just use those as more mission maps.

Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr have histories. Batman and Harvey Dent (depending on the continuity) have histories. The relationship between Professor X and Magneto, Batman and Two-Face however is prettty clear cut. Same thing with Peter Parker and Eddie Brock or the Osborns. Since CoH does not touch on origin stories or secret identities, I don't see what the out-of-mask time has to do with it. This is starting to get too far removed from the main topic anyway.

I'd rather keep the PvPers in the four pens that were designed for them. If they can't populate those zones by themselves, that doesn't give them a claim to spread it to the rest of the game. I would fully support something like making the PvP zones cross server.

For an exception, you have to admit that Mayhem missions are a big part of the villains game. Especially since newspapers and banks are all certain groups want to do these days, pfft. Also, I don't see what's so bad about villains fighting villains. You're still going to Paragon, and there's not much love between crooks.

Eh, you think WWs is fun, okay. I think it's a distraction at best, another pit stop between missions at neutral and busy work at worst. Comparing what you're going to sell against store prices, checking the salvage that you have in your vaults, deciding what you're going to craft and what you're going to toss, going over to the campus, etc. etc. It's best function is to just give you something other to do than cycle emotes while you wait for some PuG to take you in.

Actually, I'm watching two in development MMOs at the moment. One is so far removed from this game that it's not worth mentioning. The other? Eh, I'd rather not get this thread locked.

Aaaand it's easy for the current developers to look like the good cop when the predecessor was the one who had to give out the tough love.

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Why not develop PvP as it's own compatible "expanshalone" with its own city developed for it from the ground up? Then you have two completely seperate Devs teams and content, and all you have to worry about is the fiddly bits for when someone takes a character from PvE land into PvP land

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Do you...really need somebody to answer that?

Sounds like your hero and villain aren't really either, just people who happen to have powers. I'd think that your hero would want to apprehend the villain simply for being a Ziggurat escapee, and the villain would want to take out the hero to gain credibility with Arachnos. What I know however is that heroes and villains aren't neutral towards eachother, much less palsy. Any exception to this is either a circumstance that "is bigger than the both of them," or a joke comic.

Consider my duel commentary future proofing against the only other way of having villains and heroes in the same zone without faction instances or PvP free fire. Also consider it a subtle, stealth jab against the posters here who already have directly suggested this. Doesn't look like you tried very hard to distance yourself from the notion, though.

Your 50 Brute has gone to Paragon City multiple times, and has been treated like a villain in Paragon City multiple times. Hunh, if anything it's the heroes who are rarely sent to the Rogue Isles.

Also:

That your list of issues went your way is not a commentary on your efforts, more than it is a showing of the developers folding like cards to the MMO traditionalist set. Cards in slow motion! Regardless, they still capitulated to the same old band-aids designed to distract people from monotonous maps and mission design.

Finally, it was not by my hand that I am once again given flesh.* I was quite happy with being MMOless and getting hyped over some other game that was on the horizon. However, one of my e-buddies (who I actually convinced to play CoH shortly after launch, hunh) told me I should come back because he had one of those 15 bonus days codes. I guess I'll see in a week or so if I want Samurai armor that bad...

*Only cool people recognize that line.

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See, this is why I hate "immersion". How stupid is it to have two different versions of Atlas running at the same time. While a group of heroes are shaking their bootys under Atlas, there's this dark villain Atlas that exists at the same time. Somehow this doesn't break immersion, but just having one Atlas does.

I don't buy it.

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Versus what? Having Villains and Heroes under the Atlas statue, shooting the crap with eachother like they aren't separated by just about everything they believe in? "Sorry, Captain Justice, but as of today EVERYTHING's problems are bigger than your fight for truth and justice. Now go cook cocktails with Genocide-man."

Having to deal with some idiot's /duel spam because he knows he can victimize more people in Atlas Park than he ever could in those ghost town PvP zones? That's fun?

You think that just because you can point out some silly little blemishes on the world's continuity (most of which can be explained by story or gameplay needs) that it's okay to throw all pretenses of coherence out. You might as well stab somebody in the face with a knife because they got a paper cut a little earlier.

But then again, there'd be nothing like that to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Villains were a waste of programming tme in the first place. Heroes under red skies and nothing more.

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Give players PvP flags; on or off, change them as the whim suits you. Never want to PvP, don't turn it on.

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PvPers can't even fill the four zones they have.

What a tired meme...

But at least this mad me chuckle.

I've only commented on the parts that I believed were worth commenting on. You'll forgive me if I speed read through flavor and lore text that more likely than not isn't going to be what NCSoft's writers have in mind.

The 5th are in the game, as Ouroboros missions. I said that I'd rather not see the 5th column on the moon. I said that at least the Council has more claim to be in a space zone than the 5th. I fail to see the contradiction.

I appreciate that you tried to use groups which were less recycled, but if I were the one to will this moon zone into existence, I'd keep -all- of the current factions off of it.

Level 50 plus? Hunh, the zone better pour IOs on you like a waterfall to make you play after you've maxed your character. I'd rather see 40-50. Another level 50 raid encounter would be fine by me.

5th column on the moon. Really? At least the Council has a space theme going on. The 5th column going up into space sounds a little bit too cheesy for them. As a matter of fact, I'd rather see as little of the earth bound groups as possible. No point in making a new zone if it's just going to be more of the same villains with a new map.

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The way to rememdy this situation is to increase the player pool in PvP zones/arenas, one way to do this is link the zones/arenas across servers so that PvPers from all servers can get a shot at each other and populate the PvP areas, thus enticing more people to join in.

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I agree with this. Also, do this for Pocket D.

As for the main subject of this thread, I have to say that there's nothing I would love more than to speed into the PvP zones, grab the exploration badges, toy with the mobs for a little bit and laugh at all those fools sending me duel requests as I exit back to the real game.

Sometimes I think that the posts I make are too negative towards the game...

But then I read a post from Calibre2 and Cawabunga, and my conscience is cleansed.

When the developers do get around to pulling from that ages old forum poll, I'm sure that they'll make sure that the new map is designed to the best of their ability. Until then, I think I'll be happy with a change of scenery. Everybody knows it's going to take much more to kill off the Offices and Warehouse tedium, but this is a step in the right direction.

The tied boots clip a little with some of the pants. example.

Vanguard costumes I understand, Arachnos Epic-AT costumes I fully support. Locking out Roman costumes? I groan. Not scream in rage! Not question anybody's intelligence. Just, just a little groan.

But I fully 100% support having a new mission/zone map to play on. Moar! MOAR!

Oh god, please don't relegate MMs to heal bots...

Great, more 10-20 content. Now I have one more task pulling at me, added to Hollows, Steel Canyon, and Fautline. In such a short amount of time, too, thanks to XP smoothing. I guess this is what you'd call a good problem to have.

Thank god, a new map! Not only does CoH begin to cross the world, it begins to cross time as well. I'm not seeing many, if any obviously reused assets, so that's a good thing.

I still don't believe in locking out costume pieces. Those Roman costume pieces....I don't know if locking them off is a good idea. Seems a tad bit too generic a concept for me.

However, I've no problem whatsoever with the epic Villain archtypes; costumes, powerset branching and all. Perfect fit. Now I'm going to have to take a villain to the top instead of giving up at 20.

Last week, I had wanted to make a plant controlling type hero, but was bummed out that he'd have to be a villain. The powerset proliferation announcement made my day.

People who couldn't handle the Hollows are girly men! But I'm glad the rest of us manly men are going to have a better time in it from now on. I'll be up for taking out Frost Fire again.

Thank god for the contact improvements. With all the fast leveling you can do in the early game, it was getting confusing to keep track of which contacts you could use and which were outleveled. Add Ouroboros and you have recipe for a headache.

Inspiration conversion, also thank god. I can't count the times that I've had a bunch of blues I didn't need, or a bunch of revives my team was too awesome to ever have to use.

The level up boost sounds neat.

Overall, as NCSoft's first issue with Cryptic (I don't know if 11 counts..), and with warnings that transitional issues may not be as meaty, I think I'm very satisfied with what's in the pipeline.

Well, it looks like there's nothing I can say that hasn't been expressed by somebody else yet, but I'll try giving my take regardless.

I remember the recent Boomtown interview with Positron, and reading his comments on player apartments. Him saying that player apartments offered no real gameplay opportunities, and therefore weren't of real importance.

I was so disappointed reading that, being that for one I would love to have a personal base, and two because personal bases are only as important as the game designers decide to make them.

Personal computers with newspaper-like missions or extra mission holding. Dressers that allow you to store more costume designs. Salvage Buff/Crafting tables. Teleporters. Enhancement/Inspiration Storage. Danger rooms/power testing areas. Med bays.

Why wouldn't people want a personal base if they could have that stuff in it? Of course, people would argue that giving personal bases that much functionality would marginalize supergroup bases, but I say that such an outcome would only be good for the game.

SG Bases have only made the Supergroup experience more of a hassle. They've only fostered Supergroups held together by tape and paste forcing members into SG mode, just so they can make a better base. Supergroups that people only stay in to have access to bases. Supergroups should be about teaming with people you like, not just a base.

Boomtown and Faultline are the biggest, visible offenders when it comes to not being used.

The Abandoned Sewer Network, The Shadow Shard, Dark Astoria, Perez Park, Eden, and the Rikti Crashsite aren't exactly brimming with activity(or activities to do, heh.)

But as for Faultline and Boomtown, I'd think that Boomtown would be the reconstruction zone. For one it's the bigger zone, which means more opportunity to fight for neighborhoods. Second, it's geography I imagine would be much easier to switch on the fly than Faultline's. Third, Faultline is just too uniqe a design to be changed into a "normal" city zone. The Boomtown look, on the other hand has already been replicated on outdoor mission maps. Nobody misses anything if Boomtown goes clean.

EDIT: Okay....maybe they are fixing Faultline....

Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah she paraphrased so well that she announced something I just had Statesman contradict. Good job on that one.

Maybe your friend misinterpreted, maybe Statesman didin't know what he was talking about. Doesn't change the fact that as of the most recent time he was asked, he did say that vehicles were coming. Feel free to commence with the hmming and the hawing but for now, that subject is closed.

Disagree? His PM box is right there.

.......

I was talking about Vivace's comment.