Slot machine contact...wth were the devs thinking?

I'd like to be able to go back and do missions myself. It sucks that in order to experience evrything with a character I really like I must first wait a month or so after release so that everyone can find all the unlockable missions and badge missions so that I can experience all the content.

Just make missions scale to us no matter what level we are, save perhaps the first contact. Hell, don't make them scale and just let us wipe out missions full of greys! Then that solves the "We don't feel super" thing. Those people would still have other missions an street hunting for XP but they wouldn't miss out on content that, barring you know about it ahead of time and then go far out of your way to get the stuff to access it, you'll probably never see with your favorite character.

Especially if we get apartments or hideouts for just a single character. I have a feeling if those are ever made they'll finally apply graphics to souvenirs and let us use ours to decorate the place. If thats the case then we need flashback or the ability to go back to old contacts and do missions.

There are alot of storylines I missed out on because I didn't know about them both in CoV and CoH. It sucks we get punished for not buying a strategy guide.

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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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Absolutely! What's worse is the non-forum go'ers who will have no idea what any of the badges are or any inkling of a clue of what is making the bars move (if the badge isnt bugged anyway). At least in CoH you got a clue as to what you should be going after to move the bar. And even in that game most people dont bother with badges.

Also needing a hard to get badge to unlock a contact sucks. There I said it. It wouldnt be terrible if there was one or two in the entire game, but there are several. I thought they wanted people to experience the content? Instead they make infinite generic newspaper missions available and hide portions of the actual story content in a place where 99% of people will never see it.

I actually like the idea of newspaper missions. But I think some poor decisions were made when they setup the method by which you move through the contact chain in CoV.

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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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How does that follow? Anyone can stand around in Marconeville of Port Oakes and kill any Boss that pops.

And even if they change it not everyone will get the badge. You still have to choose to fight the family through your missions. That's not as easy as it sounds. Most contacts aren't in opposition to the family. The point is that bosses are the exception and a pain to farm.

Make the badge for all family and it could be something ridiculous like 1000 family. Then you'll be quite a bit along by the 30s and if you're looking to get it you can.

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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.

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Weird, I didn't have any trouble with the hostage going through the portal when I finished these missions on Sunday. (And the souvenier from the second story arc in question amuses me.)

Marcone boss hunting's not terrible - best bet is to look through the northern alleys in downtown Port Oakes, you'll often have multiple Marcone Capos hanging out plotting protection rackets in them, and they're pretty easy to annihilate if you go back and finish the badge in your twenties. Three people in my VG cleared the badge in maybe thirty minutes of work by spreaidng out through the zone and doing some havok, without infringing on anyone else's work who happened to be in the area.

Now what's really needed are progress bars to this sort of badge.

Edit: Side note on this contact sequence. When you read through the hostage's clues and history against the Phalanx... are we SURE that they're the good guys, people? Or is it a weird semi-Identity Crisis homage?

How does that follow? Anyone can stand around in Marconeville of Port Oakes and kill any Boss that pops.

But not everyone will.

And even if they change it not everyone will get the badge. You still have to choose to fight the family through your missions. That's not as easy as it sounds.

Actually it is. They are one of the more frequent opposing factions.

The point is that bosses are the exception and a pain to farm.

Which brings us back to: if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Edit: Side note on this contact sequence. When you read through the hostage's clues and history against the Phalanx... are we SURE that they're the good guys, people? Or is it a weird semi-Identity Crisis homage?

I was thinking of starting a thread on that topic. Just more evidence that the Freedom Phalanx think they're gods and little things like laws and Constitutional rights don't apply to them.

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So if you think it's too tiresome to grind out the Marcones for the badge, then, uh, you don't have to tire yourself out getting it. You miss nothing.
--GF

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Actually, I found the second arc amusing I'd do it again, given the chance.

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I was thinking of starting a thread on that topic. Just more evidence that the Freedom Phalanx think they're gods and little things like laws and Constitutional rights don't apply to them.

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Oh I'm sure they think they apply to *them* just not their enemies. Well, my robotics mastermind (who's backstory gives her a mutant aptitude towards tech) now has every justification she needs for kitting her robots out with napalm rockets. This is about *survival* now.

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How does that follow? Anyone can stand around in Marconeville of Port Oakes and kill any Boss that pops.

But not everyone will.

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And not everyone will get a general family badge. What's your point?

We don't have [much] loot in CoX, no reason to bar content via boring farming.

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And even if they change it not everyone will get the badge. You still have to choose to fight the family through your missions. That's not as easy as it sounds.

Actually it is. They are one of the more frequent opposing factions.


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Umm.. no they're not.

Kalinda - never fight them
Mongoose - never fight them
Bocor - I don't remember fighting them
Billy Heck - The Vendetti Family is an opposed contact, so is the Marcones later
Angelo Vendetti - Mostly council
Peter Themari - Mostly Wyvern
Shelly Percy - Can't remember, but different enemies, not family focused
Dmitri Krylov - Mostly Vahzilok
Whilly Wheeler - mostly CoT, Legacy
Golden Roller - Can't remeber honestly!
Radio - Here either
Marshall Brass - Little if any family, mostly that Aeon arc
Seer Marino - Arachnos and CoT
Operative Wellman - OK, I'm getting old, but I can't remember, don't remember family though


That takes you through 20, only one contact focused on the family. You work FOR the families more than you have to fight them. Unless you're talking about the newspaper missions.

The developers actually where thinking clearly with this contact since you can unlock it way before you will be the correct level to get it.

As far as unlockable contacts this is one of the ones that was the most well thought out for unlocking because you not only have a spread of 20 levels to get it easily......but by the time you will be of the correct level range you will not have anything other to do besides newspaper missions to level or street hunt.

Anywise.....as for it being a chore to hunt the bosses and defeat them as the slot machine said.....

I find it more of a chore doing newspaper missions which are always the same.

But some people thats what they do...and then they level up and up and up and then whine on the forums that they missed something.

All becasue they never looked or took the time to play the game.

Call me crazy, but i get payed in the real world to do the same thing day and day out, and to me when i play this game, half the fun is finding new things and exploring.

So anywise......you should have easily completed all your conatcts by level 32 and had no extra contacts missions to do from 32 to 34, which means if you passed the contact...oh well guess you shouldnt just sit around doing newspaper missions all the time, and maybe followed hardlucks advice, or maybe you should have not had other people level you so fast.

It was no problem for me to get this contact, as it was the only real content available after i finished up all the rest.

All my conatcts told me to come back at level 35.

But i guess when you actually do all the missions...thats to be expected.

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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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Absolutely! What's worse is the non-forum go'ers who will have no idea what any of the badges are or any inkling of a clue of what is making the bars move (if the badge isnt bugged anyway). At least in CoH you got a clue as to what you should be going after to move the bar. And even in that game most people dont bother with badges.

Also needing a hard to get badge to unlock a contact sucks. There I said it. It wouldnt be terrible if there was one or two in the entire game, but there are several. I thought they wanted people to experience the content? Instead they make infinite generic newspaper missions available and hide portions of the actual story content in a place where 99% of people will never see it.

I actually like the idea of newspaper missions. But I think some poor decisions were made when they setup the method by which you move through the contact chain in CoV.

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It isnt just people who dont come to the forums --- which is a lot ---. Many folks are brand new with CoV and dont have a clue about badges. For instance, the first time I saw an Embalmed Cadaver I thought hnmmm better kill it, there was a badge for that in CoH.

And as stated previoulsy, since most people are outleveling good portions of the game there are enemies you might never fight because they only show up for 5 levels in the low end of the game.

The badge that is super whacked is the Tsoo. I dont recall ever getting a Tsoo story arc. I do know I did do a couple of paper misions with them because the other choice was --- GAG -- CoT. I do know there are two badges for them and spend 3 days in St Martial killing Sorceres and Ancestral Spirits. Well guess what. None of those count. There is a bug -- or maybe its intended --- that any Tsoo over level 29 doesnt count. So the only way to get the badge is from paper missions That I can no longer get.

and yes ... all the progress bars are messed up.

One guy in my VG had the bug where the Brokers werent giving out contacts. So for 2 weeks he just did paper mission after paper mission after paper mission. I found out he was having this issue after doing 2 sewer missions in a row. I took him around Nerva and we were able to open the contacts for him. Of course by this time he had outleveled most everything in Nerva. The thing was since he was new to the game, he had no idea that something was wrong. He had never had many contacts because of outleveling. He just though that newspapers were like mission terminals in other games. Like in E&B, they were where you got stuff to do.

Its no wonder some people are already bored and not renewing. They are not directed to the content and more often than not its cutoff from them when they find it.

Inorder to do all the content you have to earn debt to level slower .I have done every ounce of content up to 25 so far, i have all 3 debt badges too. The content is sorta of a way to make teaming better because ,some people go one route and another goes the other giving you time to do both contacts . So if you want todo these other contacts just hunt a little, Its not that hard to get the slot machine I have it on my alt i got it at 14 from just running missions then street sweeping a bit to hit 14 for my travel power.
These contacts are just extras you dont HAVE to do them its just a few extra missions I like the idea its kinda like having to earn a reputation in the Rougue isles by doing some slaughtering......Just my Opinion

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The developers actually where thinking clearly with this contact since you can unlock it way before you will be the correct level to get it.



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I guess you could have had you known it existed and made sure you killed enough bosses. But I suspect most people will find the slot machine around 35. See it needs the family badge and have to start then. If they dont know that it takes Specific bosses they might just start killing Family on the streets. That is what I would if the machine said Kill Family.

I never once had a mission that involved the Family until I got to St Martial. And even then nearly all the content their revolves around Wailers and CoT, Freaks and few Carnies thrown in.

If I hadnt read Hermods Guide to the contacts I would never have known it was there.

If I had read another Kill Guide, I would never have known there was a difference between Marcone Bosses and Regular Family bosses. They both just list their affiliation as Family.

There is also a big issue of being teamed and playing Sole. I would play thru most story arcs Solo so I wouldnt get tons of XP and outlevel stuff. But the rub is to get some of these badges you need to be on a team to spwan enough critters for badges. But then Teamed you will get XP faster causing you to outlevel more content.

On the surface CoV appears really free form. No strict path you must follow or set in stone linear progression. But when you play thru it becomes eveident that there actually is a underlying path you were supposed to take.

Since none of the contacts give you any indication of their level range its hard to make informed decisions about which arcs you persue at what time. Follow the wrong one and not only will it crap out 1/2 way thru but it might cause you to outlevel sonething else you should have started sooner.

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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.





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.

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I have done every TF, even the Super Group one and both Respecs. I've played with other people. I still ran out of missions and had to do repetitive crap from 33.5 to 35 and from 37.5 to 40. Most of the grouping that I did during level 39 was with people who had also run out of missions.

The idea that not everyone does everything is a valid one. Here's how it should work. There are more missions than everyone can take. The people who focus on certain things naturally get one badge while the people who focus on other things get a different badge. This leads to each person later getting the missions that fit what they've already done.

What's currently happening instead is that sometimes people get the badge but never know there's a contact that goes with it. Other times people find the contact, but no combination of natural gameplay before that would have allowed them to unlock it. So people either miss a contact entirely or they end up grinding to get something they couldn't naturally get in 30 levels of normal gaming.

The overall idea of different people getting different contacts is fine. The implimentation just needs some tweaks. Since this is the first time that CoX has done the hidden contacts, some kinks in the system are to be expected.

And not everyone will get a general family badge. What's your point?

You said, and I quote:

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Just make the badge for any family and people will naturally earn it as they level up.

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This sounds like advocating that the badge should be so easy to get people will earn it as a matter of course with no extra effort.

That takes you through 20, only one contact focused on the family. You work FOR the families more than you have to fight them. Unless you're talking about the newspaper missions.

Why should the newspaper missions not count? In any case, I fought the Family quite often on the way up, particularly in Sharks.

I have done every TF, even the Super Group one and both Respecs. I've played with other people. I still ran out of missions and had to do repetitive crap from 33.5 to 35 and from 37.5 to 40.

My main villain (Vector Alpha, Guardian) is 33 now and doing Hard Luck's missions. I've done Vivacious Verandi (way underdeveloped Contact IMO) and the Slot Machine. Haven't touched Hard Case yet.

What's currently happening instead is that sometimes people get the badge but never know there's a contact that goes with it. Other times people find the contact, but no combination of natural gameplay before that would have allowed them to unlock it. So people either miss a contact entirely or they end up grinding to get something they couldn't naturally get in 30 levels of normal gaming.

Do you expect to uncover all the game's mysteries on the first time through?

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This sounds like advocating that the badge should be so easy to get people will earn it as a matter of course with no extra effort.

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Yes and no. The people who focus on doing Family missions should get the badge naturally. The people who focus on other things should not get it, they should get something else instead. By the time they get through with the something else, they've leveled past the Family unlockable stuff and moved on to the next set of content.

The idea of everyone doing different content is to make sure that different characters see different things. It's possible to do that without forcing people to grind.

If there was no lack of content, then I'd be OK with missing some things. However, grinding is worse than not uncovering a mystery. If the price of having mysteries in the game is people grinding, then there should be fewer mysteries.

Yes and no. The people who focus on doing Family missions should get the badge naturally.

If they're going to get it naturally, then what's the point of making the Contact a stand-alone "unlockable"? It should be difficult enough to open such a Contact that some people will think it requires too much effort.

However, grinding is worse than not uncovering a mystery.

Anyone who thinks getting that badge is "grinding" is just plain spoiled. I've played EQ, SWG and WoW; I know what real grinding looks like.

It may be less grinding, but that doesn't mean it isn't grinding.

If you can't enjoy something unless someone else had to suffer, even a little, then that's too bad. That's really not a problem with the game, and after Statesman changes it the game really will be better.

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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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Same here. Got it at about 29 3/4. Hit 30 during that mish. Hit buzzsaw right away.

(FWIW, I liked the missions from the Slot Machine. Just a little weirdness to keep things going. But the hunt... oy.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

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Do you expect to uncover all the game's mysteries on the first time through?

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Yes. I don't care if it's hard, that's fine, but it should be *possible*, because there are those of us who are completists who get our fun that way. I could care less about PVP. I don't give a crap about getting to level 50 as a goal in and of itself. Getting all the badges? Getting all the new badges as each expansion comes out? That gives me my jollies.

Don't talk to me about lack of replay value and unsubbing, either. It's hogwash. Across the games I have 70+ alts, most of whom are nearing level 10 and all of whom are meant to be played to 50 eventually. My completism demands that I use all the powersets, see.

Making it impossible for my designated "badge characters" to get all the contacts, badges, and souvenirs is a surefire way to make me lose interest in the game, and I doubt I'm the only one that feels this way.

T

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Do you expect to uncover all the game's mysteries on the first time through?

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Yes. I don't care if it's hard, that's fine, but it should be *possible*, because there are those of us who are completists who get our fun that way. I could care less about PVP. I don't give a crap about getting to level 50 as a goal in and of itself. Getting all the badges? Getting all the new badges as each expansion comes out? That gives me my jollies.

Don't talk to me about lack of replay value and unsubbing, either. It's hogwash. Across the games I have 70+ alts, most of whom are nearing level 10 and all of whom are meant to be played to 50 eventually. My completism demands that I use all the powersets, see.

Making it impossible for my designated "badge characters" to get all the contacts, badges, and souvenirs is a surefire way to make me lose interest in the game, and I doubt I'm the only one that feels this way.

T

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Still bitter about Isolator?

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Still bitter about Isolator?

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Er, no. I have it.

EDIT: And more specifically, anyone who wants it can get it, then follow up by getting all the other badges as well. I have no problem with having to make a new character, IF that character can then get all the badges. What I object to is the idea that *by design* no one character can ever get all the badges.

T

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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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I have never been out of SG mode and got the Bling and Did Buzzsaw. But then I also have the debt badges too heh Gotta love these Stalkers, they do so love their debt.