Issue 12 Discussion: Hollows Zone Makeover
By
Aakan,
Posted on: 2008-03-12 09:27 in Developers' Corner
What I am really interested in is Meg Mason.
The zone revamp is nice and not unwelcome, but with the ease of gaining temp powers, and, in my opinion, one of the most welcoming games I've played, people can quickly learn about those temp powers instead of being "force" into the Hollows. But, that implies people aren't afraid to ask a question and that goes into a whole lot of things that aren't important to what I'm talking about.
What I'm interested in is Meg Mason.
Will my level 50s be able to go to Meg Mason and do some of the radio mishes? I think that would be kind of cool so we actually have a reason to revisit the zone in the future. I mean, come on, who wouldn't love the unadulterated thrill of excessive use of force on level 50 Hellions and Skulls.
Remember those Bone Daddy's who gave you such a hassel at level 10? Face a level 50 Bone Daddy when you have Total Focus! or Headsplitter! or other awesome upper level powers. Imagen nuking a group of Hellions and actually getting XP for it instead of thrilling in an abuse of your abilities.
Just sayin it would be kinda cool if we could work with/for/on Meg Mason at higher levels. I mean, what, Back Alley Brawler is a "level 50" and he still fights thugs....why can't we? 
One thing I'm interested in is the mention that there will be Corlax (Coralax?) in the zone. Is this a new thing, or have they been added elsewhere before now? and most importantly, is there a badge for slapping around the uppity goldfish?
Coralax, and as far as i know this will be their first appearance heroside.
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There appears to be a dead Coralax in a box in a Striga mission.
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I still dont see anything about getting a temp travel power in the Hollows. So you will still have to go to Kings Row and do missions there to get a Safeguard mission.
"A pigs gotta fly"
"Heroes occur because someone makes a mistake. We dont want any heroes today."
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I still dont see anything about getting a temp travel power in the Hollows. So you will still have to go to Kings Row and do missions there to get a Safeguard mission.
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It's still a hazard zone. So radio missions wont work there. Thats why the new contact gives repeatable missions.
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I'm sure it's been covered in the 20 pages of this thread already, but I do hope that no missions given by non-Hollows contacts give missions in the back of Hollows. I recall one mission door WAY back there that I had to get to with my Grav eons ago. Timed mission, and I was duoed. My friend died at least twice trying to get there, and I died a couple of times in the mission (pre-containment) and had to try to run all the way back from the hospital. Eventually we just gave up.
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In the Dev Diary that was released recently, War Witch did mention that she re-did the way the mission doors are assigned. I'm pretty sure that meant that the doors are now closer to the contacts that give them ... at least for the Hollows.
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Right, but his concern was receiving missions from contacts outside the Hollows. i know i've had the same thing with KR contacts, and it was rather annoying when some of the team had no effective travel powers. Still, it does sound like the spawns will be less densely packed overall, and most areas will not have the current huge spawn groups, so i expect it will be easier. Past level 20 or so having a mission at the far end of the Hollows isn't so bad, but when you're still several levels below the inhabitants it's painful.
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Yes, that was my concern. War Witch said that contacts would only give out for their neighborhoods, but I didn't see anything there that indicated she looked at assignments for non-Hollows contacts. In the example I cited, it was likely a Skyway or Steel Canyon contact, and I was maybe around level 11 or so. Low enough that a hike (or three...at that point, my controller had trouble on Heroic at times) back from the Atlas hospital a mile deep into Hollows is a big deal (hospital in Hollows helps there a bit, as do temp travel powers), and low enough so being spotted by that level 15 Ogre that you didn't see is a big deal (experience and spawn changes will help with that).
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Hmm...I don't think much can be done about that, other than the fact that the roads (if the door for the mish is in the city part of the zone) are clearer. I don't really know how contacts in a different zone pick their doors, but if you're getting mish's in the hills or in the other less accessible areas, then the only thing that can help you is a travel power of some kind.
I think that the overhaul of the zone was long overdue. But I can't help but feel that War Witch just kept saying to herself phrases like, "Ah what the hell, I'll add Tsoo too." It feels like the zone is crowded with factions now. Like most of them where added because they could be added.
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There appears to be a dead Coralax in a box in a Striga mission.
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Granted, but it's not like you actually ever see it, and it's not explicitly established that it is a Coralax IIRC. i don't recall the description at the moment, but could it possibly also be a Mako clone or some other creature? Not sure it was described as having coral-like flesh.
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It sounds great. Check out more of the changes...coralax it seems. No, she states they will be in Red River. Sounds great, very integrative of both higher levels and cov, and really introduces the player base to more of the bad guys. DE in the gulch...only the bees....but wow. I love it.
When they announced details of the Hollows changes, the general reaction was blah, in part with no offense to WW, it wasn't that the changes weren't welcome, but everybody is more excited about the VEATs and Power Proliferation.
So the question begs, what could've caused more excitement over the Hollows.
And I came up wit this,
simply make it a shared PvE zone,
that is give villains access to it, with their own unique contacts and story arcs seperate from the heroes. with a lot of the missions geared towards actually helping the Outcasts and Trolls against the PPD, Legacy Chain etcs. Instead of defeating Frostfire for instance, you must rescue him from the Legacy Chain, and must defeat a comparable EB Legacy Chain boss instead.
A shared PvE zone would be cool, I just don't think that the Hollows is the place to do it. Much better to completely make a new zone or heavily repurpose a zone to make a good reason for there to be villains (i.e. RWZ and the greater threat of the Rikti), which doesn't really make sense in context for the Hollows. The biggest threat in the Hollows is probably the Circle of Thorns and all their disturbing up the Igneous there. Well, Nerva already has plenty of Circle, and it has the big ol' Thorn tree, plus you romp over Circle all the time in missions, etc., so they hardly seem worth it.
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Will my level 50s be able to go to Meg Mason and do some of the radio mishes? I think that would be kind of cool so we actually have a reason to revisit the zone in the future. I mean, come on, who wouldn't love the unadulterated thrill of excessive use of force on level 50 Hellions and Skulls.
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Yeah, I'd enjoy beating up level 40+ Hellions and Skulls ... but I doubt the Devs would do it. Part of the reason may be related to game design.
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A shared PvE zone would be cool.
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Ever since Pocket D came out, I've always thought that a shared PvE zone would be coming soon. Perhaps we should all sign a petition to have a permanent shared PvE zone added to the game.
*runs off to suggestion forum*
When I read the description and how more factions will be in the zone now, the first thing that I thought of was that the Hollows will be crowded now. I'm sure badge hunters will be in there.
I think it would be interesting to have Hollows shared with Villains. Perhaps they could get there through some sewer tunnels?
Villains really need more zones, heroes have at least more than one zone for each level range, villains have one zone for each level range, so its repeatedly the same thing over and over..
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A shared PvE zone would be cool.
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Ever since Pocket D came out, I've always thought that a shared PvE zone would be coming soon. Perhaps we should all sign a petition to have a permanent shared PvE zone added to the game.
*runs off to suggestion forum*
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Maybe I'm missing something but isn't that what the RWZ is?
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A shared PvE zone would be cool.
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Ever since Pocket D came out, I've always thought that a shared PvE zone would be coming soon. Perhaps we should all sign a petition to have a permanent shared PvE zone added to the game.
*runs off to suggestion forum*
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Maybe I'm missing something but isn't that what the RWZ is?
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*silences him*
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A shared PvE zone would be cool.
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Ever since Pocket D came out, I've always thought that a shared PvE zone would be coming soon. Perhaps we should all sign a petition to have a permanent shared PvE zone added to the game.
*runs off to suggestion forum*
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Maybe I'm missing something but isn't that what the RWZ is?
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d'oh!!
You're right ... but what I had in mind when I made this specific reply was a low-level shared PvE zone ... maybe something that offered "newspaper/police band" missions as well ...
... and they still have to fix the Team/Search feature so it allows for cross-over searching in these shared PvE zones.
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Will my level 50s be able to go to Meg Mason and do some of the radio mishes? I think that would be kind of cool so we actually have a reason to revisit the zone in the future. I mean, come on, who wouldn't love the unadulterated thrill of excessive use of force on level 50 Hellions and Skulls.
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Yeah, I'd enjoy beating up level 40+ Hellions and Skulls ... but I doubt the Devs would do it. Part of the reason may be related to game design.
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It would be kind of cool to deal with a larger thug problem.
I mean, heck, they could make an issue out of it where gang fights randomly break out over Paragon.
The thugs, feeling like the heroes and such are paying attention to larger threats, such as the Rikti and such that they see this as their time to strike. Huge Gangwars all over the Isles and Paragon City. Would be freakin sweet.
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It would be kind of cool to deal with a larger thug problem.
I mean, heck, they could make an issue out of it where gang fights randomly break out over Paragon.
The thugs, feeling like the heroes and such are paying attention to larger threats, such as the Rikti and such that they see this as their time to strike. Huge Gangwars all over the Isles and Paragon City. Would be freakin sweet.
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Would be funny if every Rikti Raid was immediately followed by Rampant Street Looting event.
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It would be kind of cool to deal with a larger thug problem.
I mean, heck, they could make an issue out of it where gang fights randomly break out over Paragon.
The thugs, feeling like the heroes and such are paying attention to larger threats, such as the Rikti and such that they see this as their time to strike. Huge Gangwars all over the Isles and Paragon City. Would be freakin sweet.
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Would be funny if every Rikti Raid was immediately followed by Rampant Street Looting event.
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That would be hilarious!
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Would be funny if every Rikti Raid was immediately followed by Rampant Street Looting event.
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That would be hilarious!
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Actually, now that I think about it, the Rampant Street Looting event should take place almost at the same time as the Rikti Raid. Perhaps ... once the bombing stage is over and the Rikti are landing their troops, the "street thugs" who would normally be "hiding" during the Rikti invasion would start breaking into stores.
The basic code already exists -- Safeguard missions have the random "Vandals" event, as well as the side-missions that would allow players to find "keys" and enter doors.
that IS pretty cool....
but jeas....could you imagen the lag?
i mean, it might be nice for the people who have the accolade but still enjoy participating in the invasions. But if people are scattered in the zone attacking the "vandals"...ugh...
But...it could be implimented that AFTER the rikti are defeated, several Hot Spots, like in Siren's Call, start popping up all over the invaded zone where looters, i.e, the gangs: Trolls, Skulls, Hellions, etc., with the same GM-esque code that the Rikti have could be fighting the Paragon Police Department and random detachments of Longbow.
Cooling off the hotspots might be fun.
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well if they are re-balancing the zone for single player and small groups(1-3), does this mean they are finally admitting that some servers are ghost towns, and that for a MMO there are a lot of solo players?
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They realized that people don't (generally) fight outside or travel as groups in this game, and that the mob spawns were only serving as cheap, frustrating obstacle. Now the outer world is both less of an obstacle and probably interesting enough to run around in blowing things up/hitting things.
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Yup. At the level of the Hollows teams tend to have a wide disparity of travel speeds/modes and teams also tend to be Pugs that are constantly dropping and adding teammates, so it's rare that a team will travel from AP/Skyway/SG portal exit as a group. (It's rare at all levels of the game, but only a real issue at Hollows levels.)
<Failsight>
As for the roads being kept clear... yeah, that doesn't really help all that much in the hills. Like i said, though, it sounds like the spawn placement/sizes will still be easier to deal with once the revamp goes live.
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