Sheesh, sounds very similar to an Anarchy Online alien invasion.
ADDENDUM:
If you go to a zone that is being invaded and find that a second (or third or more) instance was created because of people rushing to that zone, then the extra instances of that zone *will not* have an invasion. And if the first instance of the zone is full, you've missed it. Keep your eye on the ADMIN announcements to see where the next zone being invaded is, and rush there!
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So wait.... I don't know all the intricacies of this issue... but... The invasion only goes for two weeks?
After the first 2 weeks or so it will occur every time someone completes the RWZ TF.
[ QUOTE ]
So wait.... I don't know all the intricacies of this issue... but... The invasion only goes for two weeks?
[/ QUOTE ]
The continuous invasion of zones on a three hour cycle (the *World Event*) will be about two weeks. Maybe more. And can always be turned back on a again for fun.
The one-shot zone invasion is triggered by any team completing the Lady Grey Strask Force. So, three weeks from now, after the World Event has ended, if seven teams on your sever complete the LGS/TF in one day, then there will be seven random zone invasions on that day on your server.
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Excellent guide!
I wish I had read it before I went into RWZ.
ty for the guide!
Great guide! I've tried most of the stuff in the RWZ, but haven't seen/participated in a zone-invasion yet. I will tonight 
A GUIDE TO THE ZONE-INVASION EVENT
The Two Types of Zone Invasion
When players finish The Lady Grey Task Force (a 45+ hero-villain cooperative task/strike force [strask force?] found in the Rikti War Zone (RWZ)), a Zone-Invasion Event is triggered for a random city zone. It could be a hero or a villain zone and the choice of zone is independent of the make-up of the team completing the Strask Force. That's one type of Zone Invasion: a simple Zone-Event.
The other type is when all the invadable zones are invaded on a continuous and staggered three-hour cycle. The Devs currently had the World Event running on Test 24/7. Positron has recently said in an online interview that the World Event (multi-zone, continuous rotation) will run for at least two weeks when I10 is released to Live (or thereabouts, depending on player feedback). After that, only the Strask Force will trigger a Zone Event (one-time random single-zone event). The World Event may be brought back at any time just for fun.
The invadable zones are:
City of Heroes: Atlas; Galaxy; Kings Row; Steel Canyon; Skyway; Talos; Founders Falls; and, Peregrine Island. (Note: Bricks and Independence Port don't have invasions, nor the 'zone-arc' zones, nor the hazard/trial zones.)
City of Villains: Mercy; Port Oakes; Cap au Diable; Sharkhead; Nerva Archipelago; St. Martial; and Grandville.
During an Invasion Event there will be no debt out of doors in that zone being invaded.
Please note that if you go to a zone that is being invaded and find that a second (or third or more) instance was created because of people rushing to that zone, then the extra instances of that zone *will not* have an invasion. And if the first instance of the zone is full, you've missed it. Keep your eye on the ADMIN announcements to see where the next zone being invaded is, and rush there!
Stage One: Drop Ship Carpet Bombing.
Drop Ships: When you see the big red letters from the Admin channel (which shows up in every tab) warning of a Rikti attack on a zone, that means that zone is about to be attacked. When that happens, you'll hear air raid sirens, the sky will turn green and grey, and you'll see:
WARNING: Rikti ships have been detected heading for [zone]
The next Admin warning let's you know the attack has begun!
WARNING: Rikti invasion forces have been spotted in [zone]. Non-combatants are advised to seek shelter.
Then a series of Rikti Drop Ships appear following each other and creating a swath of carpet bombing death. Sometimes you'll see two of these conga lines of death in the sky in one zone. Sometimes their path is meandering, but they all follow each other in that meandering path.
The bombs have a very high AoE damage blast. With high enough Defense (like from purple/shield inspirations), one can ignore the bombs. That is, until just one gets through your Defense, and then, bam! Insta-death.
The Drop ships not only drop bombs, but they have a Death Ray! But the death ray is comparatively tame. Squishies might get two-shotted from it, so, if you get hit once... RUN FASTER!
War Walls in City of Heroes will come down to let the Rikti through. We presume that since the War Wall Force Fields are Rikti technology to begin with, that they found a way around it.
UXBs: The unexploded bombs. Most of the bombs the Drop Ships drop explode on impact. However there are some that land unexploded. These UXBs have partial health and start repairing themselves. When they reach full health, they explode (and are *very* deadly). These UXBs are Elite Bosses that use the 'giant monster scaling code.' But even with the GM-code, they can be difficult for lowbies who don't have a lot of damage enhancements or a solid attack chain to overcome their regeneration.
Some zones seem to have a plentiful amount of UXBs and some very few. They have typical spawn points along the path of a drop ship. So, if you find where they spawn during one invasion, they'll spawn there again the next invasion.
Current presumed bug on Test (don't know if it will be this way on Live): Just getting in one hit on an UXB and then letting it explode or having others destroy it will give you credit for an UXB kill.
There is a badge for defeating 25 UXBs, Bomb Specialist, which goes toward the Watchman/Watchwoman Accolade.
The bombs are named "A Bomb," presumably not "Atomic Bomb" but "Anti-Matter Bomb," which is potentially more, not less, deadly in real life. But, this is comic book science.
The UXBs have a strobe light attached to them indicating how far they are from exploding. When they have little hp, the light is blue. When they have medium hp, the light is yellow. When they have close to full health and are close to exploding on their own, the light blinks red. As you attack an UXB with a red light and it loses hp, the light will change back to yellow then blue.
Defeating UXBs is complicated by the fact that they are in the path of the Drop Ships. This means that as you're trying to destroy an UXB, you're gonna get bombed. If you can keep an eye on the sky, you can run for cover as each Drop Ship passes over you. Or, you can wait for the first wave of Drop Ships to stop. You then have a short time with no Drop Ships to defeat UXBs until the next wave of Drop Ships start.
Also be aware that as you're destroying one UXB, a nearby UXB may go off. They have a large and very, very deadly AoE blast.
I timed how long the Stages were in St. Martial:<ul type="square">[*] Stage One: Carpet Bombing and dropping UXBs -- 6 minutes[*] Lull in between stages, time to clear UXBs -- 4 minutes[*] Stage Two: Carpet Bombing and dropping troops -- 10 minutes[/list]Total time of the event for St. Martial: 20 minutes.
Stage Two: Enemies Porting In.
When the Drop Ships start up again, you're now in Stage Two of the Zone Event Invasion. The Drop Ships will continue to drop exploding bombs which can one-shot you. Watch out. They will no longer drop UXBs. However, they will now start 'dropping' something new... troops. You will get Rikti spawns that will teleport in to your location.
As explained by a Dev, the Rikti will teleport to where you are, wherever you are in the zone. It doesn't matter how close you are to a drop ship. If you're in the zone, and you're not in a building or under cover (like under an overpass), you will get a spawn that will port in right next to you. It seems that if you look straight up and some solid geometry is blocking your view of the sky, you will not get a spawn (though, be careful, some have reported that they will get a spawn while under geometry if their teammate is out in view of the sky... this is definitely a bug; /bug it if it happens to you).
Soloists without any other players around will usually get a lieutenant and minion pair. With two people, the same, but a few extras. Where there were large numbers of players or teams, the spawns were larger and included higher ranked Rikti, especially bosses and Elite Bosses. Difficulty level has no impact on the spawns.
Also, spawns seem to come at timed intervals. If you haven't finished the previous spawn, a new, additional spawn will come anyway and they'll start adding up until you are overwhelmed.
Known Bug: If you are alone in the zone, expect lots of spawns rapidly appearing at about 3 times the normal rate. You're their only target. Lucky you. Supposedly fixed in Test, but keep an eye out for it.
The Rikti that spawn next to you first 'appear' invisibly. Then they go through an animation sequence where they 'appear' in a Rikti teleportation field. Then they look around to see who they can agro onto and kill. Until their animation sequence is finished, they do not attack, nor do they 'look' to see who's around. This is great news because you can 'tab around' hoping to target and attack the invisible spawn before it can respond. Pets set on aggressive will attack these invisible spawns immediately.
The Rikti that appear use the 'giant monster scaling code'. This means a level 1 and a level 50 can dish out (and take) proportional damage according to their level. Of course, the level 50 will have a clear advantage with more powers, a full attack chain, and fully enhanced powers and defenses. But lowbies can still participate. On the other hand, since the Invasion Zone Event is tied story-wise to the 35+ level content of the Rikti War Zone... there's no need to fight them as a lowbie. There are aways to avoid the conflict (see below) and wait until you're a higher level to participate.
Here is a rundown of the Rikti and their hp:
small (Pet Monkey), 110 hp.
minion, 295
lt., 545
boss, 1,310
elite boss, heavy suit, 5,355
elite boss, UXB, 5,415
Don't forget some Rikti troops are Mentalists and Mesmerists and Priests... bring break frees to the party! Also, the Elite Bosses are new to I10. They are the Heavy Assault Suits... basically, floating eggs. Crack 'em.
By defeating any 100 Rikti during a Zone Event Invasion, you get the Sentry Badge. By defeating 10 Heavy Rikit Assault Suits (the EBs), you get the Chief Badge. Both of which are needed for the accolade for the event.
When the Admin channel says that the Alert is Canceled, all the Rikti tp away. War Walls come back up, and the sky goes back to normal.
ALERT CANCELED: The Rikti have retreated from [zone].
Gaming Aspects:
To Play or Not to Play: If you do nothing, the Rikti will come and go. You don't have to participate. Stay indoors. Move to a zone not being attacked. Go into a mission. It's only 20 minutes of invasion for select zones over a three hour cycle for the next 2 weeks.
So why bother? You're protecting Earth you role-players! You're keeping the aliens from muscling in on your racket, Villains! Or, you can look at all the loot they'll bring you: Inf., badges, recipes, salvage, Merits. It's unlike any other gaming mechanic and you might find it to be fun.
How Hard the Battle? Note that the Rikti use the 'Giant Monster' scaling code that allows people of all levels to participate at once. The Rikti will con in different colors according to their rank (from white to orange). But they are in fact all level 30 Giant Monsters with *a lot* less hp than the traditional GMs. Level 30 is just a general way to describe their difficulty level in terms of what powers they have available to them. They all drop inf, salvage, invention salvage, recipes, enhancements, inspirations, and, if you've done Levantera's arc in the Rikti War Zone (35+) they will also drop Merits.
Because of the scaling code, the Rikti register as enemies to the home-zone spawns and vice versa. Stand among the Supa Trolls of Skyway while stealthed. The Rikti drops in and attacks the Supa Trolls and the Supa Trolls attack back. Fun!
Drop Ships con as OMGINSTADETH!! Or something like that (level 54 Objects with 77k hp). They *can* be hit and damaged and don't have infinite hp or regeneration. However, they move at a fast clip. And there's another twenty coming behind. And they hit with insanely huge damage if you're under them and get hit by a bomb. And they have that weak death ray. And have insanely high ACC. A drop ship can be destroyed, buy only by a huge number of players charging it all at once (probably 80 or more). If you think you can tank it solo, think again. Think of it as a flying Hamidon Nucleus to get an idea of it's level and power.
Merits: Unlike the mini-game of the Rikti War Zone, the Rikti of the Invasion Zone Events don't drop Merits one per defeat. They fall at the same drop rate as any other Rikti defeat (once you complete Levantera's arc in the RWZ in order to get Merits to start falling, so, no Merits yet for anyone under level 35). Merits drop at a 10% chance per defeat, with minions dropping one, lieutenants dropping two, and bosses/portals three. Pets and summoned Rikti, however, don't drop anything. Merits can not be traded, given away, or sold... ever.
Stratagems
Drop Ships: Don't stand under them. Even if you avoid or withstand a bomb blast, the ship itself has incredibly long range and will zap you with its Death Ray. I have no idea right now how to *reliably* find an UXB (unexploded bomb) if you're going for the UXB badge. Try running along the flight path of the drop ships. This bind might help:
/bind [bindkey] "targetcustomnext bomb"
The Hospitram Effect: During Test we found ourselves in this situation: When we're in Stage Two, the enemy AI is looking for players to spawn on top of. When you enter the zone and you are in the tram, it can't spawn on top of you, because, you're under cover. Once you step outside the tram... SPAWN! This happens for each person who enters the zone. If you stop to fight, the Rikti will keep on spawning there. Other players show up and join the fight, more spawns. Larger number of players means higher ranked Rikti show up (EBs). Higher ranks, longer to kill. Longer to kill, more spawns on top of old spawns. Thus, we get a huge build up of Rikti EBs at the trams. This also happens at the hospitals. You step out of the hospital... SPAWN. And the same dynamic as the tram.
However, this has been fixed in that there is a 100 yard no-spawn zone around hospitals. Don't know if that's true about the tram stations. But keep this Hospitram Effect in mind whenever the number of spawn seems completely overwhelming... it's usually the players fault from being all together in the same area. Break away from the crowd and you'll get reasonably sized spawns.
The Solution to Too Many Rikti: RUN! If you're a soloist, run away from the other players and the super sized spawn with the 20 EBs. Find a secluded spot. The Rikti will spawn on top of you again in manageable numbers. If you're on a team, do the same thing: gather away from others. Let me repeat this: You *don't* have to *find* a spawn. The spawns will find you.
I suggest you find an area of the zone where the terrain helps you funnel the Rikti into a narrow area for AoE smackdown, or, at least, get your back up against a wall or building so they can't surround you. This way you can farm the Rikti for the inf., badges, loot, and Merits.
It's Just Me Against the (Invading) World: A possible problem occurs when you are alone in a zone that is being attacked (welcome to the world of the Rogue Isles at 4 AM on a low population server). Some have reported getting large spawns, but not the Elite Boss kind, but many lieutenants and minions. What is probably happening is that the entire invasion fleet is focusing just on you. And sending you a small spawn, but many times over in rapid succession. Especially if you zone into an empty zone. If that happens... RUN! Then stop and see if any follow up spawns come at a normal pace or not.
If they do not come at a normal pace, here is a possible tactical solution: Get under cover, like a bridge, for example. That stops spawns completely. Then do a quick pop out from under the bridge and hop back under. This may cause just one spawn to happen and you can lure them under the bridge to fight fairly. Melee types may have to use their ranged AT attack to pull them and then hide behind a corner or pillar to pull the Rikti under the cover so as to beat on them without fear of more spawns.
I See Your Spawn With A Spawn of Hellions: As mentioned above, the Rikti of the Invasion Event use the same scaling code as Giant Monsters. Damage of low level characters against the Rikti scale up. The Damage the Rikti does to a low level character scales down. And this is true for the regular zone spawns: Hellions, Clockwork, Circle of Thorn, Malta, etc... The Rikti will agro not only onto any nearby player, but also any nearby combat-able NPC. In fact, you can watch the Drop Ships zap NPCs in its path. But don't get too close else you'll get zapped, too.
So, how can you use this against them? Well if a regular zone-spawn of Hellions, for example, con grey to you, stand next to them. They won't attack you, their AI tells them that's suicide. Then when a Rikti spawn drops on you, the Hellions will start shooting at them because, by the rules of the the scaling code, these Rikti are 'their level'. And vice versa, the Rikti will agro onto the Hellions as well as you.
Just let the local spawn hit the Rikti first (and they usually will since NPCs and pets 'see and target' the teleporting Rikti before you can). Don't forget to thank the nice Hellions for protecting Mother Earth and taking the alpha.
Can't Touch (or See) This! Besides getting under cover you can prevent Rikti spawning on you by hovering or flying high enough off the ground. Also, if you're invisible, the Rikti will not agro on to you, unless a drone spawns (darned drones!). This isn't an ambush spawn that is automatically agroed onto you. They pop in and if they don't 'see' you, they'll pop back out 30 seconds later. And because this isn't a ambush spawn agroed onto you, RUN FASTER! If you keep moving (Sprint is fast enough), you'll be out of agro range by the time any Rikti finish going through their teleportation animation.
This means even a level 1 lowbie can sprint to their mission door in Atlas or Mercy while the second phase of the invasion is taking place and not have to worry about getting Rikti spawns. (They do have to be careful about not running underneath a drop ship or running into someone else's spawn). At level 5, the temporary power of flight available in Mayhem or Safeguard missions can fly them safely to their mission doors if they stay high enough off the ground (about the height of a 5 story building... like the one that catches fire in Steel Canyon).
Summary of Badges for the Zone Invasion Events
Sentry
Type: Achievement
Description: Defeat 100 Rikti during an invasion
Bomb Specialist
Type: Achievement
Description: Defeat 25 UXBs
Chief
Type: Achievement
Description: Defeat 10 Heavy Assault Suits during an invasion
Watchman/Watchwoman
Type: Accolade
Description: Earn Sentry, Bomb Specialist, and Chief.
Note: This accolade grants the Elusive Mind accolade power whose description is: "You have gained the ability to deflect and protect yourself from mental invasions of all sorts. By focusing your mind using this technique, you gain strong defense against Psionic attacks and are moderately resistant to Psionic damage while this power is active. It lasts for 60 seconds per use. Recharge: Very Long"
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