The frustrated Villains guide to Siren's Call - (a tongue and cheek observation of PvP).
I wrote this guide from the bad guys perspective as 90% of the time (IMHO) we are outmanned, outgunned and outnumbered. I figured some poor souls would check the forums and maybe find some peace in my guide saying "Oh, it's not just me."
COV is primarily a PvE game. You mish, you team, you level, you laugh. There exists though these places called PvP zones. Bloody Bay is the first one you will probably encounter if you dare to go to PvP. Once you hit Level 20 you can go there - excited like a kid on his first day of school (not me I hated school which would proabably account for any spelling errors in here). Bloody bay is fun. It will be the first time you encounter another hero player and you will either come away saying "what happened??" or "Man my toon Rocks!" I'm sure it does.
Enter Siren's Call. Off of Sharkshead Island near the Ferry is the entrance to SC. Your thinking "man I loved Bloody Bay but I am at level 26-30 now and want access to my cool new powers and I rock," so you click the bald man and away you go.
Thus begins the torment of a villains life. SC is like a drug. You will either hate it or keep coming back for more no matter how much emotional damage it does. If you have found this guide then I am guessing you have read all the others, how to pvp, how to build and slot your toon so I will not bore you with all that. I will address all of the questions I am sure you have after going to SC. Here we go.
1. Why are there 40 heros up on the ledge of the villain base drooling?
Ah You have been to SC! Good. People are going to tell you that it goes back and fourth. That it is sometimes 40 villains outside the hero hospital and yes I have to be honest and say I have seen that, once or twice. More often than not it will be a 4 to 1 ratio when you go there. Four heros, one you. That is not to say that they will all be together to gank you (see:gank). One might be doing the missions. The other three are more than likely on a team hunting, well..you. Let me guess. You get out of the base and run,jump,fly past the ruins. You make it to the park area full of confindence and then - zap, hold, another hold, then three heros come in and make sashimi out of your terrifying villain. Mad and full of vengence you heal, walk out of the hospital door and go flying off to avenge your death (or running or jumping or teleporting) only to find those heros are now waiting in the water outside your base. ZAP! You put up a brave fight, you might even have gotten one of them but in the end it's back to the hospital (villains have a great HMO in SC). And then you start to notice something.
"Hey! there are five guys now. Wait, there are seven and they are not in the water anymore they are on the ledge? What is clone hero a power? Dang they are killing me when I come out of the hospital! Wait there is
one right next to the hospital door? And on the roof!"
Yup.
2. HOW CAN THEY GET IN OUR BASE???
They can, Face it. You can ask them and you will get "it's harder than it looks" or "it takes l33t skilz man" but the fact of the matter is the villain base sucks. Sure we have drones and NPC's and turrets even! (p.s. when you come out of the hospital and you hear the turrets firing...you are probably screwed), but in the end it's a big ole Walmart to Heros and we are the sale items. Here is one piece of advice. The only safe place is inside the hospital. That's it. The rest, it's as crappy as floating out in the middle of the water with a "kill me" sign on. When the heroes gather at the top of the base, they will take out the npc's and turrets so they are not bothered. This leaves more time to kill you! I know you will try to get out. I know you will try, but you won't. They swarm like sharks when they see you run. Holds - Holds - kill kill. Stealth, invis, it probably doesn't matter. Some will have +perception, or a emp handing out CM or IR goggles or the 10 other ways they can see you. So to answer your question, I don't know how they can get in, but they can. So be wary my young villain.
3. How can this be fun for them?
I don't know. Honestly. I know you will complain to them on broadcast. You will either be told to get some skillz, get some friends, get a tissue or challenged to a 1v1. That is my favorite. Most of the time it will be a hero with a PvP build toon who will crush you. The best is when all 40 of them want to line up for 1v1's against you. You might beat a few but most of the time they will just dump on you. Even better is when a new hero enters SC and you are winning a 1v1. New Hero comes in and ganks you - then you hear "sorry I didn't know" or "go to the arean this is PvP." But I digress. How can it be fun for them? Simple it's probably not, but they are not their for fun. More than likley when you have a hero gank fest, they want free SO's. I won't explain the bounty system to you, you should know it. This goes back to question #1. More than likely they are in a large team. Each time you die they all get bounty. More if your one of a few villains because you will be someone's specific bounty and worth more. Once they hit 6K they get a free SO to buy trade from their merchant at the gate to SC at the hero hospital. Make sense? WHy spend 30+K of inf when you can gank on a villain for 30 mins and everyone can get SO's, to make then more strong. To come back and kill you faster, to get more SO's. Yippe.
4. Okay I get all that, but how are these guys so strong?
Ahhh, you are dying with one or two hits aren't you? I would say you are probably a lower level and they are not but I have personally lost toons loaded with 35 SO's. Okay here is the thing. SC will level limit you and everyone else to level 30. People will probably tell me I a wrong here but...that is just a LEVEL LIMIT. Meaning you can only access the powers you got up to 30. It is not a ENHANCEMENT LIMIT. WHat does that mean you ask? Let me see if I can splain. Say you are a 30 and I am a 40. We both have Ice Blast with 6 enhancement slots. You have 2xacc 3x dmg 1xrchg as do I..but. I have lv 40 SO's and you have lv 30. Mine is bigger than your! Get it? Sure neither one of us can get to our +30 powers but who cares? My acc is better than yours, my damage greater - I win! Yea me! NOW here comes the best part. HO's! No not those. They are dual and triple enhancements you can get from "hammy raids." THey are difficult to get and well deserved to those who work to get them..but in SC it just plain stinks. This math can get a bit difficult so bear with me. Let's take that same scenario, but this time I am a lv 50 with a 6 slotted ice blast with HO's that increase acc+dmg x6. So now I have 6X acc and 6X dmg! There may be a level cap but not a enhancement cap. It would be impossible to figure that out. How would I as a developer know if you wanted acc or dmg? So you get both. yea me again! (** I could be wrong on the regular SO leveling - but I have tested it with an ice blaster - his atks were 38% stronger than mine same slotting same level outside the game with no hero or villain buffs in place)
5. Why would a lv 50 even come here? Don't they have a place for them?
See question #3.
6. But if they have these HO things, why do they want SO's?
Well they might not have all HO's, or their buddies might be lower levels and want SO's and they got some free time and like shooting fish in a barrel. Heck I dunno. Maybe they got their butts kicked in RV (where the lv40+ play PvP) and need to feel bad again. (cheap shot). More than likely they want 53 SO's.
7. How come there are never enough villains?
Sometimes there are. Sometimes. But like I said more often than not it's at least 4 to 1 (heros to villains). I have a feeling that smart villains come once or twice, see how lopsided it is and never come back. The funny thing is you will probably notice a lot of the same heros, but not a lot of the same villains. The one exception is stalkers. They seem to love SC. Probably becuase in a large hero gank fest they get sloppy. Stalkers can AS a few before they get noticed and get their own bounty and SO's. It makes it hard for teaming with villains too. Two types do really well in SC in small groups. Stalkers and MM's. Neither one will probably want to team becuase you don't bring in any bounty and die a alot. (although I find MM's team a lot more if your a corruptor with some buffs or heals)
8. Okay I get all that but why are they so mean about it?
Ohhh you have been called a whiner, complainer, noob or something huh? Okay to be fair some will be nice and talk to you civil. Most will trash talk about how l33t they are or tell you you were pwned. My favorite comeback to that was "congratulations, you can push 3-4-5." Here is my advice. Don't talk on broadcast. Just don't. Don't take it personal, don't get mad. If it is that bad there then leave SC. If you are getting ganked more then three times in a row, then leave SC. If you do a /whoall and it reads like a list of AT clases for COH, leave SC. If you do a /whoall and it reads like an AT classes for COH and a list of stalkers, leave SC unless you are a stalker too. Odds are there will be a bunch of pissed off heroes and you will be their target.
9. Speaking of mean, why do they hold me near the longbow and then let the NPC's kill me?
Ahh you got debt. I'm sorry. You ever watch a cat toy with a mouse? It's like that. Some do it to amuse themselves. Some do it becuase you are just not good enough and need to be taught a lesson. Some do it by accident. Debt is a way of life at SC. If you go there you will probably get it. The worse part is, the only place you are safe from debt is at the villain base and if there is a hero gank party on the ledge, it's the worse place to be. Debt seems badly skewed in SC. I got 10K debt once from being "accidentally" unstealhed in a crowd of LB. I am told the debt is because you get so much more XP and Inf for the NPC kills in SC. But you would have to run 6 or 7 missions in SC to work off that one death. Stinks huh?
10. Why go to SC at all?
Well. Huh. I can say this. When it's even, it is really fun. Heroes die, villains die, it's a good time. The problem is it is hardly ever like that. See when there is a bounty farming party there and they start to get some competition from a good group of villains, they suddenly seem to drop. You will see the "g2g" messages fly. Then it's more villains then heros and usually the villains will start to leave. And it starts all over again. So why go to SC? Well on the off chance that you get that good time! Remember how excited you were when you first went to Bloody Bay? Well when SC is even, it's like that. Your thrilled!
11. Man I hate this place I am never coming back.
See you there soon!
. You will come back you know it.
12. Well you think you know it all how would you fix it?
Hmmm. Well. Quotas might work. Say you can enter PvP if there are X number of heroes/villains. Say I want to go to SC with my super bad defender (it could happen). I click on the cop and he says "sorry there are x number of heroes in SC now - please check later." Quake III Arena worked in a similar way. When you joined it would stick you on the team with less members kicking off a bot. I dunno I am not a dev but it seems to me it could be done. But that is just me. I would never suggest it..just and idea.
P.S. One last thing...our NPC's suck. If do make it out to the city you may notice the Longbow Agents have level 32 hero powers - something even the heroes don't have. Summoning Phantasams, Singularities...healing heroes with Rad buffs and they can kill you quick. My last piece of advice..stay away from the hero base. Just stay away...it's a debt parade. Longbow all over the place launching web grenedes, concussion grenedes and those pesky Level 32 Agents.
- on most of your examples you have tripmines past 30 - essential for SC is Cloaking,caltrops,webnades,targeting and the lovely tripdrones...er mines...all need to be take before or at 30.