Live Feedback:Issue 12: Hollows Zone Makeover
By
DreadShinobi,
Posted on: 2008-05-20 11:53 in Developers' Corner
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What I mean is, take Wincott's first two missions for instance, now instead of finding Trolls when I'm looking for Outcasts, or vice-versa, I'm finding everything but Outcasts and Trolls. I've had, in some cases, to go almost to Flux just to find some Outcasts or Trolls for those hunts. It's nice to see Hellions, Lost, and Skulls in the Hollows now, but there's just a little too much of them.
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QFT
Remove the Skulls and Hellions. There's tons of them in Atlas, Galaxy, Kings, and Perez. We don't need them in the Hollows. Lost are a suitable addition. Coralax are a pleasant surprise.
Getting the CoT Bosses for archmage accolade certainly takes longer now; not like it already takes long enough to get that accolade :/
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The Hollows is a Hazard Zone, so the increased difficulty is deliberate. To those who perceive this as an annoyance rather than a challenge, staying in the city zones is better fit. The changes have certainly made the zone more survivable than it used to be, so "mission accomplished" in that regard.
EC
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Have you read War Witch's information about the revamp?
The Hollows is now supposed to be a mixed zone. The areas that are partially under control are city-zone level spawns and the wilder areas are hazard-zone level spawns.
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Except that the Trolls, Hellions, and hydras have pushed out many of the CoT spawns in the south end of the Hollows, and the spawns that remain have been significantly toned down, to the point where you have to do some serious hunting to find Madness and Ruin Mages; in one half-hour cruise of the southern quarter of the zone, I found two Madness Mages and no Ruin Mages -- 90% of the territory on the east side of the Red River that had been alsmost exclusively CoT spawns was now populated with Trolls and Hellions (both as short on boss spawns as the CoT). The south end of the Hollows used to be a good place to go to hunt CoT for Arcane salvage drops, particularly Luck Charms, but the spawn changes have significantly reduced the return on time invested, diminishing the availability of low-level Arcane salvage on the market and driving prices up.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
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Hawk, the Coralax will ambush you if you run in the river or right at the shore. You don't see them above water unless they're ambushing someone, at least that was my experience in Red River.
And I found quite a few of them too!
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If you have a little altitude, or pay attention to the water, you will occasionally see a group of four 'riffles' in the water; that is the location of an 'ambush' spawn of Coralax, and if you run through or near where the riffles were you'll trigger the ambush.
The same is true for the Devouring Earth shroom spawns in the water on the north side of Crey's Folly at night; there was a brief period during the early days of CoH where the DE shrooms had inadvertently been given a vulnerability to Lethal damage about five times what it should have been when the fast track from 30-35 for /Regen Scrappers was to hit Crey's Folly at night in teams, split up, and each deliberately aggro two or three spawns of DE shrooms, herd them up, and AoE them back into the water, then do a quick mission at sunup, coming back to Crey's Folly at sundown.
"But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses."
-- Bruce Leverett, Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers
i would just like to add /e scream for trying to find anything that you have to hunt in this zone now. its sucha mess with so many villan groups everywere...why are skulls and hellions even in the hollows in such numbers this area was saposed to be a gang war between outcast and trolls now its a melting pot of ever foe that could be tossed in.......
There is but one truth. Time is limited. ndnw its over
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i would just like to add /e scream for trying to find anything that you have to hunt in this zone now. its sucha mess with so many villan groups everywere...why are skulls and hellions even in the hollows in such numbers this area was saposed to be a gang war between outcast and trolls now its a melting pot of ever foe that could be tossed in.......
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Some cities have "Little China/China town" or similar other ethnic neighborhoods. Paragon gets "Little America" in the Hollows.
Orc&Pie No.53230 There is an orc, and somehow, he got a pie. And you are hungry.
www.repeat-offenders.net
Negaduck: I see you found the crumb. I knew you'd never notice the huge flag.
Changes are awsome! I love the hollows and I'm so glad someone took time to make the Hollows a bit friendlier to lowbies. Thanks you so much for placing a trainer. Maybe a base porter in the future? P.S. Wouldn't the Hollows make an awsome PvP or co-op zone?....
I like the trainer being added and the coralax are a nice visual touch and they also seem to make sense because of the lava men popping up in the zone. But the overall feel was the same for me. I only ran up through Frostfire, but we had doors all over the zone and it still took forever to get to around a lot of enemies. Aside from the coralax, the other new enemy groups seemed redundant.
I like the new Hollows,
The Trainer and makeshift hospital area was much needed, and my alt+itis tends to throw me into the hollows all the time, so I have had much experience with it already. I don't have a problem with any of the new enemy types either, although it will take awhile to find a new favorite mob for the kill "X" number of "Y" missions.
Although I absolutely cannot stand the timed mission from meg mason, I have failed it several times solo'ing.
10 50's To Date! Check out Titan Sentinel; it got my CoH presence synced online
When I first started CoH years ago I was dissatisfied with Hollows. It was too tough for low levels, and by the time I got a flight power and could appreciate it, I outlevelled it. Hollows has always been a beautiful place in its own surreal and macabre way, but after my first two toons, I later made a point to avoid Hollows whenever possible.
The Gauntlet was a predominant reason. Having to traverse the terrain without a travel power to get to the next door mish was amusing at first, and at times challenging fun, but more often than not it was just frustrating in a manner that one should not have to pay to experience. Running The Gauntlet would bring about groans in the chat from veterans, and whining from the newbs. Where's the fun in that?
So until quite recently, and for some time now, I've gone out of my way to pretend The Hollows just didn't exist in this game, on more than one occasion leaving a PUG that insisted on going there. I happened by chance to get in a PUG where a mish was set in Hollows, and I was enjoying the company enough to put up with it. We were all high enough level so flying over the zone wasn't gonna kill me. Now understand, I had managed to avoid stepping foot in the zone (except maybe occasionally seeing the cop dude and running right back out) for over a year.
I zoned in to discover Meg Mason standing there. A fiery redhead on the top of that hill was not something I recalled ever having been there before. I was too high level on that avatar to really appreciate the New Hollows, but by the time I was done flying through the newly changed zone, I vowed to create a new toon just to experience it again for the first time.
I have not been disappointed, now I get ticked off when something or someone draws me away from Hollows. For a time Hollows seemed the only way to level from 5 to 10. The game seemed to actively push all toons towards going to Hollows with that introductory mission to the cop who lost his son. One has to actively seek out Perez Park and Kings Row or use the sewers to just skip up as high to ten as you can.
The toon I used to experience the New Hollows just levelled to 11. I think when I log back in I'm gonna purposefully up my debt to slow down my progress, I'm outlevelling the zone too fast this time. Enjoying it too much. I'm seriously considering creating a new Alt and starting it again. What used to be an annoying unfun experience to avoid has turned into a delightful amusement park of pain.
My dear War Witch: we are not worthy.
I like the new Hollows too but do kind of miss the old excitement of trying to get through the Hollows with a new low level character without getting killed and having to start over again in Atlas. It was one of the few times that dying had any real consequences in this game.
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I like the new Hollows too but do kind of miss the old excitement of trying to get through the Hollows with a new low level character without getting killed and having to start over again in Atlas. It was one of the few times that dying had any real consequences in this game.
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Not me. I don't miss that at all. In fact I'd like to see a full fledged hospital built in the corner of the map nearest to the Skyway entrance, and a new required plot arc where players help defend the hospital from an onslaught of CoT or Trolls (lower level instanced would be trolls. upper level instanced would be CoT).
I think dying should have greater consequences for higher level toons. However, before level fifteen or twenty it should be even easier than the way it is now.
Admittedly this go around I kinda cheated. I am currently using a PeaceBringer to get around in Hollows - that would have taken the edge off a bit even in the early days.
I've also NEVER understood why Perez Park has no hospital. Now THERE's a zone that's overdue for a makeover.
Well if they do ever revamp Perez Park I hope they at least make it a player event kind of like the Rikti invasions or something to motivate heroes to band together in a massive effort to take back the park from the criminal gangs or at least civilize it a bit. They could even give out special prizes and badges to encourage player participation and of course there would have to be a temporary zone exemp down to a reasonable level and maybe a way for villains to get in on the fun as well.
I was just getting the Atlas Medallion for one of my toons yesterday and was thinking about how shameful it is that the zone with the tree planted in honor of one of Paragon City's greatest heroes has become such a hotbed of criminal activity. I think I've been playing this game for too long.
Lol I had the same problem until I found some Vahz in Grendel's Gulch on the third day of searching at night. They needed to add more of them on test unless it's meant to be one of the most annoying hunts in the game. A lot depends on luck too I think.
Don't know why some are having trouble with the other hunt missions though, the Outcasts are just a litte further into the Cherry Hills than they used to be and the Trolls are pretty much in the same places as ever only more spread out.