Faultline & Boomtown = Ghostown
By
9783_Dollar_Man,
Posted on: 2004-11-15 08:36 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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You don't realize how bizarrely laid out the streets are in the regular zones (like Skyway) until you've run them for a while, and then you think, "The guy who laid out the traffic patterns in this city must have been dropping acid. This whole place should be in perpetual gridlock." And then you find there are whole *sections* of the city where ground transport is totally impractical?
Apparently Paragon City has a thriving market in hovercars. 
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The office buildings crack me up too. Paragon City University offers advanced degrees in anti-ergonomics.
I don't think the problem with Trial zones is that SS doesn't work. It SHOULDN'T work everywhere. Most everone takes Haste then SS so they don't have to "waste" another power and another power pool. They get stealth and the fastest travel power in the game. Then complain when it can't do everything.
Powers should be a trade off. If you take SS be prepared to have trouble in some zones, get a buddy who has port friend or to have to take a second power for vertical zones. That is the trade off. If you could reach everywhere with SS there would be little point to the other travel powers, why take a slower power if the faster one gets you all the same places? Trade offs currently are:
Fly - Slow but the second best utility. No flying mob is ever out of reach.
Super Jump - Fast with veritical movement but not always easy to hit those narrow ledges or get within melee range of flying mobs. Has tendency to occasionally land in groups of VBT (Very Bad Things). Also forces you to take the ever unpopular Jump Kick or Combat Jump which is nice unless you really don't need it.
Teleport - Fast, best utility but sucks down END like drunk on a three day binge. Can be a pain unless you also take Hover.
Super Speed - Fastest power, stealth, prereq is Haste which over half the people take anyway, downside is no vertical movement.
Faultline can be a treasure chest for flier's/jumpers with ranged attacks, if some people don't figure that out well it's their loss.
What I would like to see is to bump up the levels of the Lost in Boomtown. Currently there is a Lost "dead zone" between the ones in the South of Skyway and the ones in Tera Volta. They apparently level straight from 19 to like 25. This wouldn't be a problem except there are missions for them during those levels where you either have to wait to be able to get into TV or go pop greys/greens. Meanwhile in Boomtown are a bunch of Lost there is really no reason to ever hunt due to their level and no bosses at all, you are better off in Skyway.
Personally I don't like "street sweeping" for exp. I can play EQ if I just want to kill the same mobs over and over without any story or logic. What is really needed is some interesting missions for groups in these zones. Sort of Mini-Task force kind of things. Like:
1) Escort a NPC across the zone or to a building with reward only if NPC makes it and your group defeats a minimum number of mobs on the way (to avoid exploiting) or possibly with ambushes along the way that can only be defeated by the group (no one else can effect them in any way and they ignore everyone outside the group and the NPC).
2) Phone missions that trigger ambushes which again must be defeated by members of the group only.
3) Badges for # of defeated in that zone that only include blue (white?) or better mobs. Personally I'l love to see some badges of this type with a lower count but challenging battles. A few hard fights are much more fun than farming a trillion grey monkeys.
4) Missions to defeat 35 of a specific type of mob (like badges) i.e. defeat 25 Behemoths in Faultline. This prevents people from "jackleing" missions - that is sniping weak mobs at the edges of groups to complete missions without ever engaging the group.
Or whatever, Devs have been consistently better at designing the game than me so far so they probably have better ideas. 
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You can't please everyone, so lets concentrate on me.
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There is already a bonus for doing missions, why not have a small XP bonus for hunting in Hazard zones?
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It would need to be worthwhile for the factions people avoid fighting. Why get hazard pay on vaz in faultline when you can get hazard pay on 5th in boom. Or more importantly, why kill vaz in boom when you can kill 5th in boom? Bonuses per zone AND per faction. The devs know which factions people dont kill. When was the last time you saw people going "Yay, lets farm knives for mega exp!".
Daoc kind of had this where mobs that had been left around longer were worth more exp. It kind of stands to reason that bad guys who have been left to their own devices for a while would have comitted more crimes, and at least be worth more influence, if not exp. Influence isnt worth anything at upper levels, but in the teens (the level range for fault and boom) it can be pretty important for DO's and SO's if you dont g et given 99999 while standing around Ms Liberty.
Track mobs killed, and give a bonus to the lowest killed faction that naturally spawns in an area, these are the guys who are getting away with stuff while the Nemesis are piling in the paddy wagons. Increase exp awards for mobs unkilled after a certain point. It would encourage people to spread out and patrol, vs running a circle around the same street corner in Brisk for 4 hours at a time.
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The office buildings crack me up too. Paragon City University offers advanced degrees in anti-ergonomics.
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The candy machine companies must lose money by the bucketful since you apparently have to have been raised by circus monkeys if you want to leave your office to buy a Snickers.
I agree for the most part.
Faultline has always been horrible. It's visually disorienting, by far the worst zone to navigate without Flight, TP, or SJ, the group sizes nearly preclude soloing, and the landscape minimizes herding.
Boomtown is better. I have spent a fair amount of time here both solo and in teams. It's a more fun run, though still very awkward without the 3 aformentioned travel powers.
Most of the Hazard zones are less traveled though. I think there are a few good reasons for this (in order of importance):
1) Teaming has become less important in the game (see the long winded explanation below).
2) Less little spawns in towns and more in hazard zones. I realize this may be counter to the point of hazard zones, but at the same time you could probably put a few higher level guys together (like +1 to +3 lvl from typical area mobs) as a change up from 8-15 lower level guys in the same spawn areas.
3) Make Hazard zones more accessable by adding hospitals, more train stops, contacts like in the Hollows that are area specific, and more entrances and exits (why is perez the only hazard zone with more than 2 entrances, and only about 2 others have 2 entrances?).
Teaming continued: The XP reward given to teams just does not justify the huge amount of time taken to get a pickup team together. At this point I have a lvl 30 controller, meaning I pretty much have to team. When my SG buddies are not on and I search for members, there are typically between 1 and 3 players within a level of me in the entire game that are looking for a team and usually all of these are either controllers or defenders. This does not mean I want forced grouping, but making the game more group friendly would not be bad.
IMHO this is a huge problem with the game now. Some possible fixes: better XP for teams, more large groups of mobs in cities, making hunt missions give XP to players other than their owners more often (if I got a hunt 30 mission before I teamed, then I team up, they get no XP bonus even if I haven't killed a single guy but if I get it after teaming they get it? This seems broken, and you might even give a partial reward for helping kill part of the group), and making it a little less easy to pick out guys in mobs with Stealth/Superspeed type combos would be good (a guy gets shot in the middle of a gang and only he flinches? I don't think so. They might not see the guy shooting, but they might all run away together). BTW: I have a stealth SS lvl 19 blaster, so I'm not hating here. I just feel that, like the old smoke grenade effect, mobs act in a way that is completely ridiculous.
Well, just my 2c worth, and I realize much of what I said was covered some in one form or another above.
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One of the trickinesses of having a largely "loot free" game is trying to make rewards interesting for such things - obviously if characters are motivated largely by XP+influence as the major rewards it makes things a bit tougher for the designers - many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else. And we like the lack of loot, generally.
But I know Jack & co are thinking on the issue, in any case.
-jg
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If only we had other kinds of rewards than just XP, Influence, and Enhancements....
My FireFire Tanker just Graduated from Dark Astoria to Terra Volta, and I remember my Boomtown days (pre-Burn, they went on and on and on)
Other than Babbage Hunters, very damn few teams working there... but its kinda like a party or a club, if there aren't people there arent going to be people. Even my FireTank can't solo bosses in Faultline (Damn Eidolons!!)
Every team I know capable of hitting BOOM! or Fault or any Hazard Zone is doing TF---More XP per min I guess!
Maybe my Spines/Regen FOTM will be able to solo there Post-Integration? 
People sometimes tell me I'm both pessimistic and paranoid but I think that's just because all you optimists are out to get me.
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There have been some good suggestions for Faultline--a contact, maybe a fence of some sort, a hospital--but why not take it a step further? This would be difficult to implement, but I think a lot of players would find it appealing:
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Make Faultline the front line.
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It's clear that the villains have the upper hand in the zone; that's why there are no conveniences there. Give heroes an incentive to push them back, with real, tangible results. Track the total xp earned in the zone (to keep high-levels from gaming the system). If the total crosses a certain threshold, respawn the zone with footholds--safe areas with an infirmary (a hospital, but in a temp structure like a tent or Quonset hut), a field trainer who buys enhancements at a good price, and a contact who sells skittles and gives generic missions--and maybe even loans you "weapons" (temp powers) occasionally. As long as the xp total stays above the threshold each day, the conveniences stay in place. If the heroes let up, they go away and have to be re-established. Maybe even have some buildings restored or ramps added if the zone stays in the green for long periods of time.
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Like I said, it might be a pain to implement, but it would be cool. Haven't we all wished, at one point or another, that we could see a real effect we have on the city? We beat up a swarm of villains, only to have more appear moments later--a necessary game mechanic, but disheartening. Having a few places where there are signs that the war on crime can be won would be a great motivator.
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That's a very good idea.
Another that occurred to me is creating a contact in Faultline and Eden designed specifically for those levels where you run out of missions. I know there was one level in my mid-20s where my contacts all clammed up and I had to just street hunt and do the Task Force over and over in order to level up. Right now my Blaster is 37.7 and all of his contacts have dried up, telling him to come back when he's 39. That means the entirety of level 38 is going to have to be street hunts, TFs and respecs. I hate that. I so don't want to do Numina's TF again, nor am I interested in respec, as my guy already respec'ed once and he's now fine. And street hunting... yawn.
As much as I hate powerlevelling, I might just resort to that to keep down the tedium.
The Security Chief for Eden gave me one mission there when I was mid-36, which I knocked out solo. I wish he gave more, and considering how dangerous Eden is for 36-38s it would encourage grouping. It could be like a super-Hollows.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
Some great suggestions here, and I'm glad to hear that the devs are looking at the underutilized zones.
I think at the very least, there should be contacts and some sort of story arc for each hazard zone. It's one of the things that makes the Hollows so great. You can street hunt or do door missions... and some of the door missions are even pretty unique (like Frostfire). It would be very cool to see some door missions in Faultline. Personally I'd like to see interiors that are partially colapsed, etc... that are consistant with the flavor of the zone. I mean it would be pretty cool to climb through piles of rubble to reach the next floor rather than taking the elevator all the time.
Some of the other suggestions are great too. Some kind of portal or helipad system would be great, if only to get people from the hospital and back.
I think if you give people the incentive to come to the zone, they will come, and they may even group up and help each other get around. I mean look at how players are willing to go all the way across the Hollows without any travel power. I'm betting greater rewards and more interesting plotlines will even encourage some of the SSers to give Faultline another try.
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Just for the record, making risk=reward is definitely one of our goals - we're trying to add spice and reward to bring people to the harder/underutilized zones.
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Putting a couple more monsters who give badges in those zones might help.
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People would just get the badge and leave. Temp powers, exp boosts, special enhancements would encourage people to stay.
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Yeah, you're right. The best badge idea I've seen in this thread is to make badges for specific villains in specific zones. Tesla Princes and 5th Column Unteroffiziers in Boomtown, Behemoth Masters and Cannon Princes in Faultline, Sentries and Devoureds in Eden, etc. And make them all 200 each.
Combine that with a contact for the "dry" levels where you are missionless who will also buy/sell Enhancements and Inspirations and those zones would be repopulated with players.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
and I hate hunting/streetin' in TV (or any Hazard Zone) because I either constantly discard enhancements or spend half my time travelling, SJ can get real boring
People sometimes tell me I'm both pessimistic and paranoid but I think that's just because all you optimists are out to get me.
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For this to be reasonable, the -same number- of zones that penalize superspeed should exist to penalize each travel power .... in a fashion that makes it take 3-4 times as long to get around in said zones as it does in a 'normal' zone using the penalized powers.
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I'm going to suggest a change of perspective, here. Instead of seeing any zone that is friendlier to fliers/jumpers/'porters than speedsters as penalizing speedsters, what if you were to see them as giving the less-utilized (and they are, don't fool yourself) travel powers a boost? In which case, every zone but for those eight you list actually penalizes EVERY other travel power than SS, since SS gets around them faster and for less power investment. By that reasoning, if you really want equal treatment of travel powers, there should be MORE zones that require vertical movement! 
Of course, this argument is made from a skewed perspective and is playing semantic games with the facts, but so is yours. The fact is, if getting around on foot is the baseline that zones are constructed around, then zones like Faultline and the Shadow Shard are INTENDED to be tricky to get around in, and reward players who thought ahead and chose powers that let them slice through that obstacle. And for those of you who are having difficulty because you chose not to? Get one thing straight: you CHOSE not to, and you can always CHOOSE to get a different travel power to shore up that weak point.
The devs aren't penalizing you, they're rewarding other people. The whole point of powers like Fly is that they allow three-dimensional movement. If you remove the need for that or start penalizing people for it, then people will stop choosing those powers, which leads to less diversity and a more homogenous character population. Is that what you want?
To get back on topic, the problem with zones like Faultline isn't the difficulty of getting around - the fact is, if it was worth going there in the first place, people would do it, and difficulty be damned. They'd adapt, learn the approaches, more people would choose travel powers with vert, etc. The problem is that there isn't a reason to go there. They lack content, flavor, and appropriate reward for risk (Faultline in particular is VERY dangerous for its level range). They also lack door missions and contacts. If the devs take a page from the Hollows and add contacts and door missions to these zones, create backstory for flavor, implement the Trials in those zones where they aren't active yet (i.e. Fault), and add Hospitals and vendors at the entrances to the zone, people would FLOCK to them. You'd also see more grouping, more desire for support classes, and in general a better game. The solution is content, not pandering to the min/maxers.
One way to fix it would be to send alot more story lines into those zones. I think I got offered one or two kill x missions in faultline and that was it. And yet I have done 80 or 90 missions in perez park even high level missions keep sending me back to perez.
Kaid
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2) Phone missions that trigger ambushes which again must be defeated by members of the group only.
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This can be implemented using a 'detention field' explaination. The ambushers can't run, you can't run, it's a fight ot the 'death'. Course, that might also mean that you can't port to the hospital, either..... Hmm.... hero taken prisoner, rescue mission needed? Would sort of suck for the hero waiting. Maybe the enemy just leaves at that point, leaving your carcass an example to others.
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4) Missions to defeat 35 of a specific type of mob (like badges) i.e. defeat 25 Behemoths in Faultline. This prevents people from "jackleing" missions - that is sniping weak mobs at the edges of groups to complete missions without ever engaging the group.
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Change it to 'Take down Z xp worth of Y faction'.
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It is great that the staff is looking for ways to get players to use the "ignored" zones.
One suggestion that might work:
Actually have the Faultline Trial running.
Faultline is a trial zone... yet there is no trial running in it.
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It's not a Trial Zone. It's a Hazard Zone. Just meaning it's hazardous for someone to try and solo that zone if they're at even con due to the overwhelming size of groups.
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Faultline is actually a Trial Zone, according to the strategy guide. Also, I believe there use to be a Trial TF in Faultline early beta, but was removed. The fact that door missions don't exist in the zone and there is a boss in every pack proves that.
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Just for the record, making risk=reward is definitely one of our goals - we're trying to add spice and reward to bring people to the harder/underutilized zones.
One of the trickinesses of having a largely "loot free" game is trying to make rewards interesting for such things - obviously if characters are motivated largely by XP+influence as the major rewards it makes things a bit tougher for the designers - many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else. And we like the lack of loot, generally.
But I know Jack & co are thinking on the issue, in any case.
-jg
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How can reward be balanced against risk if each archetype assumes a different degree of risk versus the same hypothetical enemy? The risk reward ratio almost ignores the fact that different builds are imbalanced versus that ratio.
For example, in seconds my blaster can arrest enough minions to equal 2 bosses, but against a higher level boss he is toast. On the other hand my defender may take a lot longer, but he can arrest the boss easily though arresting many minions simultaneously might prove to be overwhelming. Is either of them at less or more risk?
So far, what we've seen isn't risk=reward, it's damage=reward. A player (or team) can get more damage per kill by attacking higher risk targets or can level more safely by attacking lower risk targets that clump in larger spawn sizes. Many builds can actually level faster hunting blue or green cons at almost no risk. While others must hunt higher level prey to advance at slow clip and at immense risk; i.e., high risk, low (relatively) reward.
50 Fire/Dev | 50 AR/Dev | 50 Ninjas/FF MM | 50 Bots/Dark | 50 Kin/Rad |
44 EM/Regen | 39 BS/Regen | 38 Kin/Elec | 27 Thugs/Pain
"Rare is the man so noble that he will always give thanks for that which is freely given." -Jock_Tamson
Everyone seems to be missing the key issue here:
Faultine + Boomtown = FAULTOWN, not Ghostown. The OP has some serious maths problems...
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Just for the record, making risk=reward is definitely one of our goals - we're trying to add spice and reward to bring people to the harder/underutilized zones.
One of the trickinesses of having a largely "loot free" game is trying to make rewards interesting for such things - obviously if characters are motivated largely by XP+influence as the major rewards it makes things a bit tougher for the designers - many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else. And we like the lack of loot, generally.
But I know Jack & co are thinking on the issue, in any case.
-jg
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The rewards for just about everything aren't good enough. I hope you take this into consideration. It seems to me like the rewards for collecting a large number of badges is something akin to recieving a sticker for slaying hordes of mobs, a reward more suiting for a good week of preschool.
While the idea of keeping loot out of the game may be good, you have to reward players the most for their hardest to achieve efforts. The first time I saw a Crey Cryo Gun, I saw something cool looking but in actual function was pretty worthless or superceeded by another power for almost all of my characters. When I saw all the things required for the Archmage badge, I thought for something that difficult the reward must be pretty nice. I found it dissapointing yet again, as the power granted was only a slight tradeoff.
To have rewards that keep people interested and don't require giving out loot, you need something that has some kick to it. Rather than handing out a cheap little freeze gun (which is loot, already proving you've invalidated your principles of not giving out loot) I would suggest a power like buildup that boosts certain enhancements. Though somewhat weaker it would offer a way for you to do different quests that allow new types of boosts from endurance reduction to hold durations. If you collect all of them you can get one power that boosts all your abilites by a certain amount. This is something that every class could use at some point and is a reward.
Not a cheap trinket like Archmage or the Cryo Gun.
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I'm going to suggest a change of perspective, here. Instead of seeing any zone that is friendlier to fliers/jumpers/'porters than speedsters as penalizing speedsters, what if you were to see them as giving the less-utilized (and they are, don't fool yourself) travel powers a boost? In which case, every zone but for those eight you list actually penalizes EVERY other travel power than SS, since SS gets around them faster and for less power investment. By that reasoning, if you really want equal treatment of travel powers, there should be MORE zones that require vertical movement!
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Hmm... This statement seems pretty false to me. You mentioned a skewed perspective, so maybe this is why you posted it, but are you really saying SS is the most easy power to get around with?
Have you been to TV with a superspeeder? I don't just mean moving around in there, which is a pain, but just trying to get there with SS. What a huge waste of time. All areas that have height changes (SC, Sky, etc.) are a hassle too.
Fly is terribly slow but probably the safest, is easiest to use (you can go AFK for 2 min while traveling), and allows for aereal battles. SJ has the issue that you can land in mob groups. SS has the nice bonus that you're stealthy, but it is easily the worst to get around with (unless you have lag issues, in which case TP is due to the extreem falling issues).
I'm not saying superspeed is bad, but it's not the best power to get around with - Superjump is. For that reason I think most people think that is the best travel power, not SS. People who get SS often get SJ also. They use SS in battles and sometimes traveling flat areas, and SJ when they really need to get somewhere.
Anyway, the point of the thread was why are many hazard areas severely underused. I think one of them is SS. If you have a team without TP, your SSer will often refuse to go to those areas because it's such a pain to get there and travel through it.
I don't advocate changing the travel powers. I think they have been looked into thoroughly and are pretty balanced (with TP having the most issues). I think to make the hazard/trial zones more usable traveling to/in them needs to be easier.
This is an easy fix.
Temporary Travel power that last while you are in zone.
You get to chose what you want - TP, Flight, Jump, Speed
I would also open this zone up to much higher lvl creatures make it a hazard. You chase that running lvl 19 CoT spirit and he runs right past a lvl 30 Behemoth Master.
That is a Hazard.
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... many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else.
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I've spent next to no time in either Faultline or Boomtown since beta. But it's because I usually try to put together a team of four or more people to do missions. When teamed with large groups, you level faster than you run out of missions (at least to level 30, my highest character).
And for me at least, roaming the streets doing random ganks will never be as challenging, and therefore appealing, as doing a mission scaled to a larger group (even if I am resucing Frankie for the umpteenth time). Hazard zones could be challenging, but as you say, pick-up teams tend to want to avoid the challenge and go for the easy xp.
The only thing I feel I'm currently missing by not going there is the opportunity to fight monsters like Babbage. Unfortunately, I can't think of anything off the top of my head to make these zones more appealing other than more day-to-day GM involvement. I.e., taking control of random spawns and surprising a group of heroes with a "per-encounter" event (as opposed to the current zone-wide, GM-in-control-of-an-uber-boss events).
Perhaps, missions could have a "gather intel" segment where the existing spawns would have special dialogue to say when the mission team approaches (or defeats them?) that would clue you in on the location of the next spawn in the chain. I.e., kind of running waypoints, but instead of actual waypoints, you are led around by dialogue giving landmarks as references etc.
And they could sometimes give multiple objectives with a timer... So you have to recover some stolen explosives and rescue a hostage from two different locations in a very short timeframe, forcing teams to make a choice about splitting up etc. Yeah, that's the ticket!
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It's not a Trial Zone. It's a Hazard Zone. Just meaning it's hazardous for someone to try and solo that zone if they're at even con due to the overwhelming size of groups.
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As has been pointed out by others, you are mistaken.
Faultline is a Trial Zone.
The in-game map shows it as a Trial Zone.
The (error laden) strat guide shows it as a Trial Zone.
The hard-copy map that comes with the game shows it as a Trial Zone.
The fact that there are bosses in EVERY spawn shows it to be a Trial Zone.
Everything about it says Trial Zone... except for the fact that there is no Trial in it. Why the proposed Trial was removed and Faultline's TZ status was not changed, I do not know. I do know though, that Faultline would likely see a surge in population if a trial (any trial) was put in there.
Head of TRICK, the all Trick Arrow and Traps SG
Part of the Repeat Offenders
Still waiting for his Official BackAlleyBrawler No-Prize
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Just for the record, making risk=reward is definitely one of our goals - we're trying to add spice and reward to bring people to the harder/underutilized zones.
One of the trickinesses of having a largely "loot free" game is trying to make rewards interesting for such things - obviously if characters are motivated largely by XP+influence as the major rewards it makes things a bit tougher for the designers - many players tend to go and do whatever the easiest source of XP is and ignore most everything else. And we like the lack of loot, generally.
But I know Jack & co are thinking on the issue, in any case.
-jg
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The rewards for just about everything aren't good enough. I hope you take this into consideration. It seems to me like the rewards for collecting a large number of badges is something akin to recieving a sticker for slaying hordes of mobs, a reward more suiting for a good week of preschool.
While the idea of keeping loot out of the game may be good, you have to reward players the most for their hardest to achieve efforts. The first time I saw a Crey Cryo Gun, I saw something cool looking but in actual function was pretty worthless or superceeded by another power for almost all of my characters. When I saw all the things required for the Archmage badge, I thought for something that difficult the reward must be pretty nice. I found it dissapointing yet again, as the power granted was only a slight tradeoff.
To have rewards that keep people interested and don't require giving out loot, you need something that has some kick to it. Rather than handing out a cheap little freeze gun (which is loot, already proving you've invalidated your principles of not giving out loot) I would suggest a power like buildup that boosts certain enhancements. Though somewhat weaker it would offer a way for you to do different quests that allow new types of boosts from endurance reduction to hold durations. If you collect all of them you can get one power that boosts all your abilites by a certain amount. This is something that every class could use at some point and is a reward.
Not a cheap trinket like Archmage or the Cryo Gun.
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I quite agree with you about this sort of reward. It's a very good idea, I think. When badges were first introduced, I was pretty keen on collecting them and spent a few days just zipping around various zones to do just that. As time passed and people started getting the rewards for amassing their collections of badges, it became clear that the reward wasn't really worth the effort. Now if I just happen to run across an Exploration badge or a history plaque, I'll stop and get it, but I'm not going out of my way for them. Same with "defeat X" achievement badges.
Now that I have a character who's looking at 1.5 million xp to make it to his next level where contacts will talk to him, maybe I will go out and acquire those badges just to make the time pass by. But other than that I don't have a huge incentive to get them all. I like the badge idea, I just don't feel that "gotta have it" urge to possess them.
That said, I do think that putting some badge-granting monsters and mobs in Trial zones will help repopulate those areas.
The Alt Alphabet ~ OPC: Other People's Characters ~ Terrific Screenshots of Cool ~ Superhero Fiction
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And we like the lack of loot, generally.
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I love you folks! I really do! Please, please, please keep us loot free!!!
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i love going to these "crap zones". No competition for mobs, all the free time in the world to jump around and figure out where good spots are, or if I'm in the mood, start in one corner and pull a clean sweep across the zone.
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I agree. I went back to Faultline when I was a much higher level and got my Gearsmasher and Vahz badges without having to worry that I was taking mobs from players at the proper level.
I have had hover/flight since the teens, so the layout of Faultline and TV never really bothered me. (The Hollows, with my low lvl alts, is much more difficult for me, since I have no travel power yet.) My "Kill XX in Faultine" missions weren't so painful.
Boomtown has some of the best music in the game. I love flying through those zones and listening to it.
And Crey's is an excellent place to get your monkey badge. Again, it's easier if you have a flight power, since some of the monkeys are high off the ground. But I often find groups of 5+ monkeys with no other bad guys around. I can just hover over them and blast away.
~Missi
http://tinyurl.com/yhy333s
Miss Informed in 2016! She can't be worse than all those other guys!