Slot machine contact...wth were the devs thinking?
By
Anjiru,
Posted on: 2005-12-08 13:53 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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i think this game could be so much more enjoyable if they would just remove level caps all together. I mean doesnt it say something when a lot of people are intentionally getting debt so they dont miss crap.
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Yes. If Hellions boosted to level 30 really will be too easy, at least give me the option to ex down and do the arcs for inf/prestige. It worked for TFs, let it work for normal contacts and story arcs. But I actually don't see the problem with boosting the Hellions to 30.
Statesman, another thing worth looking at is the unlockable contact who requires you to have a Respec badge.
One problem is that I thought he was supposed to be the third respec. He told me to come back after I'd done a respec, and that's all I remember. His actual nature could be made more clear.
More importantly, you actually have to *pick* the respec as your reward. I've done both respec trials but taken other rewards because I didn't need a respec. Now that I know what he needs, I really don't want to do them again and take a reward I still don't need. Please find a way to let us take him as a contact no matter what reward we choose.
Most importantly, he's bugged. People are saying that they can get missions from him, but if they actually *use* their respec, then he stops giving missions.
The last slot machine mission was ridiculous as you needed to rescue this hostage in a CoT orenbega map. My hostage was at the bottom of a huge chasm in one of the rooms and wouldnt go into the portal which gets you to the top. Needless to say i had to wait for a GM to get him where he's supposed to be. I feel these missions werent really tested beforehand.
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If you're out of Supergroup mode, Bling isn't really much of an accomplishment, it's an inevitability.
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But just barely. I got Bling at level 30 (no super group), just on the verge of outleveling Doc Buzzsaw.
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I missed Doc Buzzsaw, only because I didn't know he existed until it was too late. The only one that I really WANTED to do was Crimson Revenant. Unfortunately, every time I have tried to get the Hammer Down badge, Scrapyard walks in front of an Arbiter Drone and gets zapped.
Boooo!!! 
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I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.
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Could you guys check all the unlockable contacts? It just seems kinda pointless to need a badge for a contact that you wouldn't normally get until you outlevel the contact. Or maybe add some in-game hints or something, so the non-forum goers could have a chance at the contacts.
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I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.
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Yay for Statesman!
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Indeed, I wanted to do Slot Machine but outleveled it before I could.
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I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.
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Could you guys check all the unlockable contacts? It just seems kinda pointless to need a badge for a contact that you wouldn't normally get until you outlevel the contact. Or maybe add some in-game hints or something, so the non-forum goers could have a chance at the contacts.
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Oh, and how about if you talk to an unlockable contact but can't access him yet, he still goes into your contact list. We already have that happen when one contact sends you to another, but that second contact doesn't have anything your level. Having the unlockables appear in your contact list would clear up a lot of confusion, plus make it easier to find them again once you did complete the requirement.
I don't mind the idea of needing a badge to unlock a contact, just as long as it's a badge that isn't ridiculous to get.
Only the most hardcore, devoted players are able to get Veluta What's-her-name in the correct level range, since the spectral ghosts all are too strong for 5-10 (not to mention how quickly you blow by those levels anyway). Unless you spend all day malefactored down, you're past level 30 by the time you can get Bling. And Gangbuster, while earnable at 30-35, sounds absurdly tedious to get.
Archmage Tarixus, Crimson Revenant, and Johnny Sonata are good examples of what the badge contacts should be like - their badges require effort to earn, but they're badges you can pick up well in advance of meeting the contact, and it doesn't require hours and hours of grinding if you have to backtrack and pick them up. Scrapyard is tough to beat, but it's not like he isn't marching around Sharkhead all the time.
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Since I don't know whether the missions from this contact are even worth doing, I didn't bother trying to get the badge. Tracking down a huge number of gray bosses is too much of a boring grind for my tastes.
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I agree. We shouldn't have to farm for hours to get content. Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.
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If there are going to be contacts that require badges to unlock (a horrendously stupid idea in and of itself), then they should be made so that you NEVER outlevel them.
I despise badges anyway. I don't even know which badges unlock which contacts or where, and I'm sure as heck not going to be bothered to find out and farm the badges for a contact I'll probably have outleveled by that time anyway. Thanks for the inacessible new content, guys.
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Doc Buzzsaw could probably use a look. If you stay in Supergroup mode, it's pretty much impossible to get the Bling badge in time to run those missions. If you're out of Supergroup mode, Bling isn't really much of an accomplishment, it's an inevitability.
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Malefactoring down for teaming works for making lots of infamy without getting XP, though it is taking me a while to hit that million mark for the badge.
I agree. We shouldn't have to farm for hours to get content. Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.
The point of making the contact unlockable is that not everyone is supposed to have it....
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I agree. We shouldn't have to farm for hours to get content. Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.
The point of making the contact unlockable is that not everyone is supposed to have it....
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Considering that the result is people running out of content before they run out of levels, that idea isn't working out so well.
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I agree. We shouldn't have to farm for hours to get content. Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.
The point of making the contact unlockable is that not everyone is supposed to have it....
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But, should unlockable be the same as hidden? I just like some type of hint or something in-game for the non-forumgoers. Without the guide to unlockable contacts, they might as well be hidden. And who wants to study up on how to get any contact?
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I agree. We shouldn't have to farm for hours to get content. Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.
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The problem with that is that if you are like me, you never fought the family or mooks or valskiak or most anything in Port Oaks... I didnt even get to finish Mongoose... When straight from Kalinda to Brass. And once you get off track you get screwed teh rest of the game. So there are badges for things I have never seen. You also cant do paper missions for the zones the you have "outleveled". So to get many of the bages you have to hunt in lowbie land or join a framing team.
I would be scared to farm missions at the proper level. It would just make it all the easier to outlevel the contacts.
I would luv to fight the skulls at 30 --- god any thing aside from the CoT ---
There is really nothing about any of the groups that prevents them from just scaling to what ever level you are.
I think at the very least they just need to do away with doing X paper missions to get a new contact.
Oh, and it's really very unsatisfiying to know you need a badge, but not be able to tell if you're making progress. I have over a dozen badges named "Unknown" with a description of "???". I tried killing a bunch of Mook bosses and seeing which bar got bigger, but by the time I'd killed a significant amount, I couldn't be sure I remembered the position of every bar correctly.
There might as well not be progress bars if they're not going to have names or hints.
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I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.
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While you are at it how about fixing the villain badge for Kristof Jaeger, lvl 25-29. Venuta Lunuta whose missions are 6-10 with the first ghost badge in Port Oaks required.
Also get rid of the required newspaper missions. There are 4 contacts from 6-10. Doing the 12 missions required to get them all is almost 2 levels as it is. Newspaper missions to get the contacts should not be required but optional.
It is inexplicable why Statesman would respond here when I provided a list of problems with unlockable contacts and their screwy badge in this thread.
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I'll take a look at those badges for the contacts mentioned.
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Heya States the REAL contact that needs to be looked into actually aside of this is the Doc Buzzsaw. Getting a million infamy before 29 is alittle extreme. Anyhow, thanks. 
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It is inexplicable why Statesman would respond here when I provided a list of problems with unlockable contacts and their screwy badge in this thread.
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Um... because he doesn't scour every single forum thread? Because this is as good of a place to announce it as any? There you go: fully explicted.
Considering that the result is people running out of content before they run out of levels, that idea isn't working out so well.
Since when has this not been the case? It was always my understanding that this was deliberate, to incent people to do Task Forces or help other people with their missions.
But, should unlockable be the same as hidden? I just like some type of hint or something in-game for the non-forumgoers.
Contacts in-game are surrounded by a bright ring indicating that they're not just part of the scenery. If you talk to one it will give you some indication of what you have to do to get missions from it. It could be argued that perhaps some of those hints are too vague, but this is really the best you can hope for. There is supposed to be some value to exploration in MMOs.
There might as well not be progress bars if they're not going to have names or hints.
As it happens, the Gangbuster badge didn't have a progress bar. I watched mine like a hawk while farming the Capos and none of them ever moved. Suddenly, wham! Badge. And yeah, that's not good.
Also get rid of the required newspaper missions. There are 4 contacts from 6-10. Doing the 12 missions required to get them all is almost 2 levels as it is.
You are not supposed to get them all. This is the point. In order for the game to have replayability, it must be the case that you can't get at all of the content in one pass. The game should require you to choose a path, thus leaving some things undone for your next character.
Certainly there is an issue with Contacts like Veluta Lunata, who want you to do something way outside the level range the Contact itself is intended for, but the system as a whole is a sound one.
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"
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The last slot machine mission was ridiculous as you needed to rescue this hostage in a CoT orenbega map. My hostage was at the bottom of a huge chasm in one of the rooms and wouldnt go into the portal which gets you to the top. Needless to say i had to wait for a GM to get him where he's supposed to be. I feel these missions werent really tested beforehand.
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Yeah, after begging in this thread to get info to actually get the CONTACT, I finished all the slot machine missions last night and had the same bug(?) as you. Reset it twice and in all three instances, the hostage was put in the watery chasm where he couldn't exit.
Took two GMs to figure out that he couldn't escape and they finally just completed the mission for me.
Just finished getting the Bling badge on my stalker. It was important to me to get Doc Buzzsaw since I've done all the other arcs except Veluta's.
Final tally was 7 hours of street sweeping in Bloody Bay (Auto-Malefactored) to get Bling even though I was 1/2 of a bar into 29 when I started.
I don't mind having to work on a badge to open contacts, but can we at least pick badges that are somewhere around easy to moderate to obtain in the level range?
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Bah, double post......wish I could have found a place for double infamy so easy
- End is for noobs! - Board quote
I did the first two missions for Slot Machine, both of which are timed. I only mention it because I bugged 3 or 4 things (text errors) before I finally said '***** this' and just did the missions.
Slot Machine could definitely use a good looking at. I can't believe anybody play tested it(and as hard as the contact was to get, I understand why it wasn't found in beta).
Thanks for the attention, States.