Early game desperately needs variety
By
AlienOverlord,
Posted on: 2005-11-03 24:21 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Working on it...
But Burch is a weenie!
DONT DRINK THE COOLADE!!!
Huzzah!
As someone who kept bringing this up in Beta, I am glad to see a possible encouraging future!
Something I'm wondering though is why they don't utilize the cops or Longbow more often then they do. It'd go a long way to feeling more villainous if, instead of kidnapping some idiot from the Mooks for the 8th time, you were smacking around the cops to get to them.
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Something I'm wondering though is why they don't utilize the cops or Longbow more often then they do. It'd go a long way to feeling more villainous if, instead of kidnapping some idiot from the Mooks for the 8th time, you were smacking around the cops to get to them.
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They do use Longbow and its more vigilante counterpart Wyvern quite a bit later on (I fought them very often in the late teens and continue to do so in the early 20s). They also start throwing lower echelon heroes at you around then as well (I've taken out the Sea Witch, and at least one other who's name I can't remember, plus Ms. Shock from the cape mission).
I suppose the theory is that you have to snarl around with the other wolves for a while until you prove you're big enough in the pack to be a threat.
Not that I necessarily agree with the theory, since lots of villains do tend to just "appear" without an entrenched power base, but it seems to be the intended progression.
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Something I'm wondering though is why they don't utilize the cops or Longbow more often then they do. It'd go a long way to feeling more villainous if, instead of kidnapping some idiot from the Mooks for the 8th time, you were smacking around the cops to get to them.
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And aren't the cops on Recluse's payroll? That's a valid reason right there to not have them in the early missions.
Also, don't forget about the countless Rent-A-Cops you mow down in the heist missions! 
Agua Man lvl 48 Water/Electric Blaster
"To die hating NCSoft for shutting down City of Heroes, that was Freedom."
I'm sure there will eventually be a "'Go to Mercy Island' or 'Go to <insert other island zone>'" option. So another zone with totally different starter missions. Mercy Island isn't much fun to hang out in. Aeon City really feels more like an Atlas Park. But you're not going to want to hang out there until you're about 10th or so.
I think it would also be nice if there were AT specific starter missions. Like, "A Stalker, eh? Go sneak past these enemies and steal the plans for the death ray." Or, "Greetings Brute, this guy owes me money. Go break his legs and pummel all his friends."
I know making content based on origins doesn't work since most people are Magic and Mutant. But ATs are somewhat evenly distributed--well other than Corruptors and Dominators are less common.
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I think it would also be nice if there were AT specific starter missions
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By golly... it's so crazy, it just might work! Could almost play like a tutorial for the ATs, but you could just skip the missions if you already know what you're doing.
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Working on it...
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And if you could make it accessible to us lv 50's while you're at it that would be great too. 
We're asking for this same exact thing in CoH too Lokana. It's probably easier for them to make such content for Villains, but Heroes could also seriously use some AT-Centered missions.
Defenders, and MM's could assist a Garrison of entrenched Longbow/Arachnos soldiers in a "Keep atleast XX men alive for XX minutes" base-style Onslaught. Controllers and Dominators could assist some bounty hunters pursuing runners/fugitives. Blasters and Corruptors could lead an assault team against large amounts of destructables. Brutes and Scrappers ... Well they do fine with the current content. Tankers and Stalkers could lead missions against just bosses while being supported by a couple of summonable LT's for backup(They'd have 3 to choose from--Nem Sniper, Crey Medic, or a CairnStone, but could only summon and have 2 of them out simultaneously).
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Working on it...
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Here's the weird thing:
I have a much easier time taking new characters through the starting missions in CoV than I do in CoH. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but CoH just feels more cumbersome somehow.
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City of Villains is much more streamlined than CoH. Starting with Striga, they could put mission doors in neighborhoods that are actually your level, instead of, say, sending you clear across Atlas Park over into the level 6 part of town for your first mission. There's a lot less running back and forth, and between zones (I like how Mercy is almost a mini-zone unto itself).
That said, I whole-heartedly agree. We need at least one other track to follow. If nothing else, something like Galaxy City - a starting zone that nobody uses so we can avoid the crowds and power flexing.
Arc #41077 - The Men of State
Arc #48845 - Operation: Dirty Snowball
Agreed, and I wanted to add to this..
Last night I had a string of missions all in the same mission door. Now, it made it super easy for our team to lvl up fast, but it really broke the sense that we were part of a living city having an impact.
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Agreed, and I wanted to add to this..
Last night I had a string of missions all in the same mission door. Now, it made it super easy for our team to lvl up fast, but it really broke the sense that we were part of a living city having an impact.
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What kind of missions were they? I know I've had a couple of times where I was sent to the same boat for subsequent missions, but in context of the missions it fit (IIRC, I cleaned out the boat of Lost for the contact to use, and then we used it for a series of things).
To the OP, there's a workaround for this: skip Kalinda (and since you'll be skipping out on her, you can ignore that Mongoose guy entirely, too).
Just hop on the ferry to Port Oakes, talk to the Hook or the Ear or whoever to get your newspaper, and build your own story. Yeah, it's a little dangerous walking around in a neighborhood where everything's +8 to you, but the missions are scaled to your level. And yeah, the broker won't introduce you to any contacts until you're at least level 5 ... but it's sorta unique every time you make an alt.
"We are looking into the possiblity of maybe someday thinking about maybe implementing something similar to this, in the future."
- Positron
Sharkhead island. Each mission had different bad guys too.
Folks in my SG have just expressed disappointment with the lack (other than the Longbow here and there) of any enemies that seem like Super Heroes. Wouldn't villains be fighting Super Heroes? Why are we fighting retreads (hellions and skulls and Family and the Sky Raider-re-do Goldbrickers) and endless hordes of snakes for 12 levels? Why are we "helping people escape," which appears to be COH rescues with the rescuee saying "It's Joe Schmoe! *BLEEP!*" as the lone difference? Where are the "villainous" missions? Why does the game - in terms of missions - feel like COH with a new coat of paint instead of something truly, villainously different? Maybe it's too much to ask of a game with the same engine as COH. I don't know what I was expecting even. Maybe assassinations and hits, instead of "escapes" and more glowie clicking.
Mind you, I've having too much fun with my Mercenaries/Traps Mastermind to really care right now myself. I've played COH since opening day, you can just keep feeding me the same old missions with new coats of paint and I probably will keep playing anyway. 
But there is much grumbling amongst my brethren. It's just, with no increase in the monthly fee (thank you ), it's very muted grumbling.
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Working on it...
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Jack..PLEASE DONT. This so called early game last 2-4 hours of game time.
If people are tired of the content for ALTs they can just street sweep and actually level faster...
Please direct your efforts on the HIGHER LEVELS. Maybe post-40 content as well?
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Working on it...
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Jack..PLEASE DONT. This so called early game last 2-4 hours of game time.
If people are tired of the content for ALTs they can just street sweep and actually level faster...
Please direct your efforts on the HIGHER LEVELS. Maybe post-40 content as well?
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While I'd love more higher level stuff, the fact is that the lower level game lasts 2-4 hours, per character, not 2-4 hours. For someone with 50 characters thats 100-200 hours total. For someone like me, with over 100 total characters (in CoH), thats 200-400 hours, more time than I've spent in any other level range (except possibly the level 50 crash zone). In CoH, it's bearable. In CoV, doing the same missions over and over... I'd like at least a bit more variety. Besides, it's not like it'll take that much work to pull off.
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Working on it...
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Could you expand the end game (like you've been promising for about 8 months now) before going back the early game again.
Plus how about some supergroup content across the board while we are at it.
I hope we see some way to guide our career based on our AT. As was mentioned before, we need a way to guide our progress and the type of villian groups we fight based (loosely) on our AT or Origin. I myself find my main , a science blaster, trapped in an option of only getting new contacts that will only give magic or natural enhancements for doing either DE or CoT missions. I really wish their was a way for contacts to recognize your abilities and reccomend missions that are "Right up our alleys".
"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."
Man. I'm glad I haven't made any alts, cause I'd probably get bored too.
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I'm sure there will eventually be a "'Go to Mercy Island' or 'Go to <insert other island zone>'" option. So another zone with totally different starter missions. Mercy Island isn't much fun to hang out in. Aeon City really feels more like an Atlas Park. But you're not going to want to hang out there until you're about 10th or so.
I think it would also be nice if there were AT specific starter missions. Like, "A Stalker, eh? Go sneak past these enemies and steal the plans for the death ray." Or, "Greetings Brute, this guy owes me money. Go break his legs and pummel all his friends."
I know making content based on origins doesn't work since most people are Magic and Mutant. But ATs are somewhat evenly distributed--well other than Corruptors and Dominators are less common.
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That would be interesting. Sort of like the missions one did in EQ2 when you wanted to become the next class. Like the Broawler got to punch and kick peeps, the Bard went into a hall to "entertain" well .. you actually kall pirates, the fighter went into an arena to fight animals to become a guardian ... stuff like that.
I make a lot of alts. I am an altoholic. I make a new one almost everyday, many more than that with CoV now. In CoH you have 12 different choices on how the start the game. 12 contacts divided into 7 origins and 2 zones. If I'm Magic origin and I don't like Azuria I'll go to Galaxy City. I hate fighting Vahz at level 1-5 so I never take Science.
In CoV everyone starts off the same way. Not only do we have one zone. We only have one contact, who sends everyone to the same next contact. Mercy is big enough for more than one starting point, or at least more than one low level contact. It is really boring to roll alts and have them all have the exact same stuff from 1-5 (longer if I do Mongoose). At least I can skip Mongoose and go straight to Port Oakes if I want to. I'm not asking for 12 contacts each with extremely different mission content, the ones in CoH all give out similar missions, just the chance to do things other than eliminate the infected in the same water treatment place and capture Operative Burch every time.