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Hey gang,
We are going to implement a couple changes to make this better. The early brokers will only require 3 missions and 1 heist to introduce a new contact. In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction. This should help keep you from leveling out of content. Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.
Cheers,
Sean
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Not meaning to nit-pick, but I am kind of upset over not having the chance to get badges because I missed the magical contact combo (I chose Heck).
To address Manticore's points-
(1) As of last night, it only took 3 missions to unlock the heist for the brokers.
(2) So the group gets credit...encouraging group play...which INCREASES the chance to outlevel the contacts unless all of you strategically plan and grab the arcs in advance.
(3) Leaving us with the exemplaring option for story arcs. Doable, but a bit lame.
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A better solution might be to have something in game INFORM people that certain arcs give badges and you will outlevel them. That way they know to grab the arcs ahead of time.
I made a character to be a badge collector, and only did the minimum number of missions to get the contacts. Unfortunately I did the contacts in the wrong order and the only badge I have for the early arcs is the Outbreak one from Radio. No street hunting, no extra newspaper missions, no teaming to boost xp. Just running the missions.
It's just a very irritating game mechanic. *shrug*
Co-Founder: Hand of Justice, Champion Server
Currently published arcs:
1) Azuria's Difficulties (arc: 55639) - Ver 1.2
Here's what gets my goat:
I wanted the Stone Cold badge for my Mastermind. I got to Port Oakes, did my schemes and heist, took Vendetti as my contact. He gave me two missions (capture the sick Archon, steal the Council's account numbers), then gave me the Vampyr arc and then shut up because I was level 11. No badge.
I'm not angry that I couldn't get every single badge and arc in the Port Oakes bracket. I understand that the game needs replayability. I'm angry because I couldn't even get the one badge I wanted due to level constraints.
I was not PLed in any way. I only did my own missions, no grouping. I played in what I consider to be a competent manner; I was aggressive in street hunting to and from missions and I turned the difficulty up a notch as soon as I thought I could handle it (level 6). I feel like I was punished for showing a modicum of skill. The strategies people have discussed in this thread to prevent outlevelling content are, to me, absurd -- not kill the mobs in my own missions?!?
On my Brute, I took Billy Heck. Was 8 or 9 when I got to him; when I hit 10 I got the Last Man Standing arc, dinged 11 when I checked in after the last mission. Heck shut up and didn't pass me off. Didn't get the Fire Imp mission. Again, just levelled right past it without even trying.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
thank god, i re-rolled my main to get all three in PO and just barely got all of them, i mean byt the skin of my teeth!
Manticore, it's worth pointing out that story arcs are not working as intended. You're supposed to be able to finish them out, like in City of Heroes, but that's not the case. I was in the middle of Billy Heck's second story arc (versus the Hellions), and I dinged level 11 in the middle. He immediately dumped me, and won't let me continue. I would at least like to see what happens in the end.
Malefacting down to get missed badges, that I can deal with. Somebody will always be doing Mr. Bocor's missions, and it's a good way to rack up Infamy and Prestige. I had a character in CoH who predates badges, who had to go back for Negotiator, too. But will this also allow us to do story arcs and pick up the souveniers? Even though nobody else can see them, I like to pop open my window and see a big long list of junk I've collected - makes me feel like I've accomplished things. 
Or for that matter! As currently built, the Facemaker mission is unfairly designed, as the Facemaker spawns like 50 feet from the door, making it nearly impossible to stop her from escaping. Any change malefacting down will give us a "second shot" at such missions?
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
I didnt see that working today.
As for not outleveling contacts, I have an idea.
If you want PO story arcs, head there at lvl THREE.
Yes. Level 3.
You can get a broker at level 3, and do the required newspaper missions to get the contacts.
This means skipping Kalinda and Mongoose, but as theer is only 1 badge (the snakes) do that (until you kill enough fo it) then move on. Skip the other mercy island missions.
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This means skipping Kalinda and Mongoose, but as theer is only 1 badge (the snakes) do that (until you kill enough fo it) then move on. Skip the other mercy island missions.
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That just means that you have to do all of Kalinda's missions at Level 20 when you go to her for the cape mission. Unless they've fixed that since Beta, if you skip her she forces you to do the whole stupid Snake arc before she gives you the cape mission. 
Can anyone verify that if you don't go "Level-Up" at 11 that you indefinetly stay at lvl 10 and complete all PO arcs? e.g. that even if you "ding" 11 that as long as you don't go to the Arbiter and level that you are still considered 10 for contacts?
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Hey gang,
<snip>
Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.
Cheers,
Sean
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Something strange must be up with Dr Shelley Percey (Cap au Diable) then, just 45 minutes ago I was doing her "Protect lab equiptment" mission as part of the "Midas Touched" story arc and I levled from 14 to 15 while in the mission.
True to form the mission failed since the mobs apparently start attacking the lab as soon as you enter the floor it's on, but that's beside the point, when I went to the contact and talked to her she whined about losing all her precious research and then she blew me off.
She reverted to "outleveled" behaviour and said she had nothing more for me and that I should look to my other contacts, however I still have all the clues in my clue tab from the story arc, and as I recall from the beta I should be recieving at least one more mission from her to complete the story arc.
I've bugged this (and another bug with the lab mission) but figured I might as well mention it here as well.
[ QUOTE ]
Hey gang,
We are going to implement a couple changes to make this better. The early brokers will only require 3 missions and 1 heist to introduce a new contact. In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction. This should help keep you from leveling out of content. Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.
Cheers,
Sean
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Unfortunately, this doesn't help those of us who love to collect all of the souveniers. In CoH we could finally backtrack and talk directly to our contacts and get the story arcs to start, even if we had outlevelled them and never started them, and get the souvenier. The way things are here, if you missed a contact completely, you can never get the arc, therefore, never get the souvenier.
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As an aside, at least with the Plague Spreader badge, and possibly others, only the person who "completes" the mission (by clicking on the last glowy) is getting the badge, even if its not their mission. No one else in the group is getting the badge.
Have had that happen twice now. So, yay on the exemplaring down to see content, but getting badges remains difficult.
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Duoed that mission and didn't experience that problem. Both of us got the badge.
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It is still INCREDIBLY difficult NOT to outlevel content in the lower levels. I ran my stalker solo and finished all of the content given to me in Mercy(Kalinda, Mongoose) and Port Oakes(Drea, Bocor, Vendetti, Heck, Radio) including their badge and Temp item missions but I was level 10.8 and purposefully maxed my debt out between missions once I hit level 10. I also only ever defeated exactly what was required to finish the missions, going so far as escorting hostages out WITHOUT fighting the ambushes and mobs between them and the door(go Respites 
). Even with that very miniscule amount of xp I almost outleveled The Radio's stuff.
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Unfortunately it sounds like you STILL missed some Port Oakes content: Veluta Lunati's missions, which require you to first trap 50 or so ghosts at Fort Hades to get a badge before you can start them. I do not know what level her missions cap out at. Also, the Radio is (I believe) considered a level 10 contact, so hitting level 11 doesn't cause you to outlevel it. With one character I was nearly level 13 by the time I completed all the Radio's missions.
I've just worked a new toon up to the point of getting Bocor as a contact, after having done all the missions in Mercy, and she is just barely level 6. I'll have to find out soon if it is even possible to solo all the level 5-11 content in Port Oakes without picking up permadebt the moment I hit 10.
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I'm lvl 17 and finally got the Privateer badge and am doing her missions. Unfortunately the mobs cap at 10. Obviously, it is possible to get a contact you've outlevelled to give you their arc, as long as you have the contact.
Note: She didn't offer me any missions at first. I had to click, about this contact, then talk about what's going on, before available missions showed up.
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Can anyone verify that if you don't go "Level-Up" at 11 that you indefinetly stay at lvl 10 and complete all PO arcs? e.g. that even if you "ding" 11 that as long as you don't go to the Arbiter and level that you are still considered 10 for contacts?
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I can veryify that it doesn't work.
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In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction.
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Here's how I'm reading this statement. (I welcome correction if I am wrong.) Presently, if a team does a "newspaper" mission, only the teammate that has that mission gets credit towards his broker. This unfortunately provides incentive to run newspaper missions solo. The proposed change means that if you help a villain with his own newspaper scheme, your broker still notes that you've been busy, and you'll be able to pull a heist that much sooner.
That said, it is insanely easy to outlevel the Port Oakes content, and the early Cap Au Diable content as well. I was constantly maximizing my debt to try to keep experiencing content from my various contacts.
One issue is that many contacts seem to only offer badge missions _after_ you have completed a story arc. Since story arcs include multiple missions, this contributes to leveling up quickly, which in turn means that you'll outlevel the contact before ever seeing the elusive badge missions. My suggestion on this issue would be to have these contacts offer badge missions _first_, and _then_ proceed to offer story arc missions.
I'll also note that getting Veluta Lunata as a contact seems really hard to do without outleveling her content. Her story arc seems to cap at level 10-11 enemies. To gain access to this contact, players need to capture 50 ghosts at the spirit traps of Fort Hades. The spawns of ghosts tend to be in large numbers, and often close to level 9.
Thus, in order to fully experience Veluta Lunata's content, this suggests that a player needs to put together a large team of around level 8-9 characters to go ghost hunting in Port Oakes. However, over-filling a ghost trap runs the risk of spawning a large group of _level 15_ ghosts, including Bosses and Elite Bosses. This little wrinkle then suggests that the best way to earn the badge is to get a high-level villain on the team, to round up a bunch of ghosts and defeat them, while also being able to handle any nasty level 15 ghosts that pop up. I would strongly suggest double-checking this dynamic to see if it is working as intended.
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Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it.
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Incorrect. Hit 11 in the middle of an arc in COV and it grinds to a halt.
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Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it.
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Incorrect. Hit 11 in the middle of an arc in COV and it grinds to a halt.
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I think that some of the confusion here stems from the fact that
the PO contact's "2nd arcs" are not really arcs. They do have
a story clue, as normal arcs do, but when you finish them, they
give no souvenir, only a temp power.
Mongoose's "arc" appears to be the same way, a series of linked
missions + story clue, but no souvenir (although some people
say it had one in beta, I don't remember there being one).
So, if you have the main (1st) arc, you can complete that even if
you outlevel it. If you are on one of the 2nd "fake arcs", they
will turn you away if you outlevel. I am about to test this out,
my mastermind is level 10.5, and I've managed to do bocor's
and billy's arcs and get their temp powers, but I'm only halfway
through vendetti's first arc. I should ding before I finish it, and
if he won't let me finish it, I will post here to retract my statement.
[ QUOTE ]
Hey gang,
We are going to implement a couple changes to make this better. The early brokers will only require 3 missions and 1 heist to introduce a new contact. In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction. This should help keep you from leveling out of content. Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.
Cheers,
Sean
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Outstanding! So, this means that any broker mission undertaken by a team will count towards filling that broker bar, regardless of whether the missions match? If so, Great!
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That said, it is insanely easy to outlevel the Port Oakes content, and the early Cap Au Diable content as well.
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I think this will carry thru the entire game. I hit finished all of my Cap missions that I could get at 21. Did a team and hit 22. Moved on to Sharkshead.
Just doing the 9 paper missions and 3 heists, setting to villainous and doing the minimum to complete the mission, I still came 1/2 a bubble from 23 before even starting the contacts.
I dont know the level restrictions on these mission but I can see how it would be easy to outlevel these too if playing teamed.
Now the idea of the paper missions is OK. It moves all the pointless filler crap from the contacts to the paper. But maybe its just one of those ideas that is good on paper and in theory but doesnt work well in real life.
Maybe the entire concept needs a retool. Maybe give you a contact for each paper mission completed. Insteasd of leading to contacts the paper is just use when you have nothing else going on or prefer to fight a specific villain group.
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From: CuppaJo
I have already passed this on and I think it is a bug - hang in there. When I find out more about it I will post!
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Hi all im perturbed by this situation as well, trying to get all the badges/souvenirs or as much within reason on one character here is CuppaJo's response on the topic, from PM i got a few minutes ago.
[ QUOTE ]
We are going to implement a couple changes to make this better. The early brokers will only require 3 missions and 1 heist to introduce a new contact. In addition, if a group completes a broker mission everyone on the team will get credit toward a heist that will lead to a new contact introduction. This should help keep you from leveling out of content. Just like in City of Heroes, if you start a Story Arc in City of Villains you will always be allowed to finish iteven if you outlevel it. If you miss a contact entirely, you can still Exemplar with a less experienced hero who has the correct Story Arc assigned to him or her in order to hunt down any pesky badges you may have missed.
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Ugh, dudes, why not just remove the blasted caps already!? I *regulary* run teams on Victory and always in danger of out levelling my story arcs! It get's frustrating because I have some form of MMO ADD and feel that EVERY alt of mine must collect everything including, yes, souveniers!!!
Just pop that cap off and let us go our merry way, eh.
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Just pop that cap off and let us go our merry way, eh.
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I totally agree. The caps serve no purpose. Its like Jack or somebody got it into their that X villain group should only be fought at X level. Like there are no Lost over level 30 or something.
We
should never ever outlevel a contact or content.
It just makes no sense. Not from a playability standpoint or even from a content standpoint.
I shouldnt have to LOWER myself for content. The content needs to RAISE itself to my level. There should be no caps.
I'm going against the general concensus here, but I kind of liked the fact that I wasn't able to go through every contact I had available to me. In each zone, my main toon did certain contacts, and right from there, went onto the referred contact (in this case, Mr. Bocor/Radio). Since I missed out on the other two contacts, I feel as though I actually have a different way of taking my next character. I'll pick as many different contacts as possible. It'll keep things interesting, and though it might take longer than usual, I'll still be able to see most of the content at my own pace.
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I'm going against the general concensus here, but I kind of liked the fact that I wasn't able to go through every contact I had available to me. In each zone, my main toon did certain contacts, and right from there, went onto the referred contact (in this case, Mr. Bocor/Radio). Since I missed out on the other two contacts, I feel as though I actually have a different way of taking my next character. I'll pick as many different contacts as possible. It'll keep things interesting, and though it might take longer than usual, I'll still be able to see most of the content at my own pace.
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How about a choice, then? You can do things your way, those who want to see it all can still do so. You might have to do more street hunting if you want to keep outlevelling content, but those of us who want to see it all, can.
OK I think there is something wrong.
I just did the Sharkshead levels.
Got all 3 contacts.
I hit 25.
One let me finish the arc I was on then dropped me. Will not give me another contact.
One just dropped me. I know he leads to other contacts because I have spoken to them and they tell me If I want to work for them I need to talk to Lorenzo,
One intoduced me to a New Contact and let me do one more mission.
I just feel like I am missing out on CONTENT. You know people are always saying they want more content. I also think I might be missing out on Badges.
I think it's pretty bad when the power I really want is a toggle that will stop me from getting xp.
Nice changes. Thank you
CatMan - some form on every server
Always here, there, and there again.