A couple of ideas that I've been pondering
By
BBQ_Pork,
Posted on: 2009-07-22 24:55 in Suggestions and Ideas
Permanent Contacts sound like Detective/Brokers, the only difference being that you don't outlevel them in favor of a Detective/Broker in the next zone. Seems redundant.
"You don't lose levels. You don't have equipment to wear out, repair, or lose, or that anyone can steal from you. About the only thing lighter than debt they could do is have an NPC walk by, point and laugh before you can go to the hospital or base." -Memphis_Bill
We will honor the past, and fight to the last, it will be a good way to die...
I do like the Hometown idea but I don't think they could implement tech that would allow, say, a level 50 to street sweep in AP and still earn XP and have the zone safe for a Level 1. Unless they made all mobs in streets adhere to the Rikti Invasion code, which is another problem and probably not a good idea.
Soooooo, Hometowns sound like a good idea. And to supplement your idea, maybe when you select your town you get a Badge that represents the city you consider home. I like the radio/paper mission idea for sure.
The premanent contact idea, I'm not sold one because I don't quite understand your idea.
Well, the permement contact is like your Commissioner Gordon. Batman NEVER swings by to see Commissioner Gordon only to have the Commiss say "Sorry Batman, but all the crime in Gotham City is beneath your notice, you've tapped me out". :P
I'm proposing a contact that always has relevant missions for you. Maybe by giving you missions you would have otherwise gotten from other contacts that your existing contacts would have introduced you to.
And yeah, I wasn't suggesting that the street villains get tougher to accommodate you, but maybe that in your Hometown you'd get -- I dunno -- like maybe 1xp for street sweeping goons instad of 0xp. Just because you're protecting your turf.
It's just one of those ideas that occured to me when I was running a character in Steel Canyon, and then I outlevelled the radio/contact missions in Steel Canyon.. but I like Steel Canyon, and wanted to stay there protecting the zone I had come to consider that character's 'turf', but I had to move on to progress the toon and have anything for him to do.
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I'm proposing a contact that always has relevant missions for you. Maybe by giving you missions you would have otherwise gotten from other contacts that your existing contacts would have introduced you to.
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I get it now and I don't mind the idea. I'm not sure how easy hard it would be to implement, but that's the job of the Devs anyways....so I like it too!
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And yeah, I wasn't suggesting that the street villains get tougher to accommodate you, but maybe that in your Hometown you'd get -- I dunno -- like maybe 1xp for street sweeping goons instad of 0xp. Just because you're protecting your turf.
It's just one of those ideas that occured to me when I was running a character in Steel Canyon, and then I outlevelled the radio/contact missions in Steel Canyon.. but I like Steel Canyon, and wanted to stay there protecting the zone I had come to consider that character's 'turf', but I had to move on to progress the toon and have anything for him to do.
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It might not be the most fleshed out idea(s) but I like the general gist of both the Hometown and Permanent Story Contact.
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I see merit in both ideas.
I like the idea of having a "'hood" to call home. Several of my characters already do, but it would be nice to flesh that out into game mechanics. Maybe if they introduce Apartments, they let you choose which City Zone it will be in. Southpaw lives in King's Row. Lady Crane and Lord Rook live in Steel Canyon (well, Lord Rook haunts Dark Astoria at the moment, but he lived in Steel Canyon when he was still alive). Dag Nabbit and Granny Go retired to Salamanca before Croatoa smacked down on top of it. The Mighty Scarab rents a warehouse in Galaxy City where he stockpiles Twinkies for the long trip back to his home planet.
While I don't think they could do a permanent Contact without turning it into a glorified newspaper, I would support the idea of level 1-50 (or 5-50) Contacts. I had a similar idea a while back where each of the FBSA Contacts would have series of story arcs that would run from 1-50 dealing with the specific concerns of their Agencies. I even started to outline the story arcs, but haven't finished them yet. Similar Contacts could be made redside and grayside.
New story arcs coming soon (ARC IDs will be aded when I finish the arc):
So, you want to join the Hellions? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
Sparks & Steel (level 5-20 Heroic arc)
and
So you want to join the Skulls? (level 1-14 Villainous arc)
So, anyone else have a comment to add? Maybe a Redname even? *hint*hint*
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a level 50 to street sweep in AP and still earn XP
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That one point of XP to 51 has been very hard to implement.
I know what you were saying, but I couldn't resist.
To the OP:
It's not a bad idea, although the second sounds more plausible than the first. Given the AE addon, it should actually be possible to make a custom contact and have it only visible to you in the zone you are in. As to the missions, they could probably work off the pre-existing radio/paper mission bit, though with a thematic approach, so it cycles through a certain mob for a while, then a new one, etc.
1. Paragon City is one big town. Kings Row is a district within the city, not a town in and of itself. Same goes for all of the Rogue Islands. While I like the idea of having a "Home Zone" for a character, I think that that can easily be roleplayed (I do so myself with several characters) and we do not need to spend our entire game time there.
2. There are a number of contacts like this already throughout the game. Radio and Papers are this way. Borea in RWZ and Marcus Valerius in Cimerora are like this. I don't have any objection to adding more of these kind of contacts with extended level ranges, especially for the redside, but I don't think they should keep you in a low level zone throughout your entire career. Level ranges should still be used.
So, no to 1 and yes to 2 but with conditions.
i dont think he meant you had to stay there, i think he just meant it as a "pick your favorite zone and let people know" kinda thing
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Despite the fact that I have found this forum to be rather
nasty about suggestions,...
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Not usually. It depends on the suggestion. Some are pretty good, but some really suck or are presented poorly.
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a couple of (related) thoughts have occurred to me lately, and while I dont know if the Devs actually bother to read this forum or not, I figure Ill post it anyway.
[/ QUOTE ] Evidently, some do, since BackAlleyBrawler posts occasionally.
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First: Home towns. Itd be kind of interesting if you could choose one of the zones at some point to be your chosen stomping ground.
You never outlevel radio missions there, maybe you can always manage to get *some* xp from even street sweeping. Batman spends most of his time in Gotham, Superman spends most of his time in Metropolis, The Flash in Central City
why cant my hero decide hes going to be the permanent protector of
say
Steel Canyon (I rather like Steel Canyon) and have that decision be worthwhile in-game? Id be cool.
[/ QUOTE ]Bolded section contains the possible problem. (as per previous posters). I'm against encouraging even more characters to never leave Atlas Park. But I think there's a solution. (skip to the end to see)
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Second: Permanent Contact(s). Im thinking Commissioner Gordon here, Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson (sorta). A contact (or limited group of contacts) who you can always count on to have some missions for you.
Not quite like Meg Mason, who just tosses out an unlimited number of similar-but-not-quite-the-same missions, but something like the game goes <alright, had I sent the Hero to the next contact, their arc choices would have been W, X, Y, and Z
so the Perma-Contact will offer a random assortment of those arcs, preferably located in Hometown zone>.
Anyway, just a thought thats been dancing around in my head.
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It does sound like a permanent Detective/Broker contact.
But here's my counter-proposal:
Have the favored Permanent Contact in your favorite zone auto-exemplar you (Ouroboros-style) to the top of the level range of the zone, enabling you to get some reward, just not XP. Who is to say that Superman and Batman are still getting XP from the streetsweeping of Metropolis and Gotham? Unless there is a Galactus GM zone event, anyway. 
If you choose a permanent contact in a zone that caps at L50 (P.I., RWZ, Grandville or the Shadow Shard (heh) 
), they could exemplar you to L45, or not at all.
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But here's my counter-proposal:
Have the favored Permanent Contact in your favorite zone auto-exemplar you (Ouroboros-style) to the top of the level range of the zone, enabling you to get some reward, just not XP. Who is to say that Superman and Batman are still getting XP from the streetsweeping of Metropolis and Gotham? Unless there is a Galactus GM zone event, anyway.
If you choose a permanent contact in a zone that caps at L50 (P.I., RWZ, Grandville or the Shadow Shard (heh) ), they could exemplar you to L45, or not at all.
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Honestly, while I think its really cool to see people trying to come at the idea from different angles and see how they bounce
am I the only person who hates the Ouro-style auto-exemplaring so much he hopes whoever suggested that now works at a McDonalds?
Despite the fact that I have found this forum to be rather nasty about suggestions, a couple of (related) thoughts have occurred to me lately, and while I dont know if the Devs actually bother to read this forum or not, I figure Ill post it anyway.
First: Home towns. Itd be kind of interesting if you could choose one of the zones at some point to be your chosen stomping ground.
You never outlevel radio missions there, maybe you can always manage to get *some* xp from even street sweeping. Batman spends most of his time in Gotham, Superman spends most of his time in Metropolis, The Flash in Central City why cant my hero decide hes going to be the permanent protector of say Steel Canyon (I rather like Steel Canyon) and have that decision be worthwhile in-game? Id be cool.
Second: Permanent Contact(s). Im thinking Commissioner Gordon here, Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson (sorta). A contact (or limited group of contacts) who you can always count on to have some missions for you.
Not quite like Meg Mason, who just tosses out an unlimited number of similar-but-not-quite-the-same missions, but something like the game goes <alright, had I sent the Hero to the next contact, their arc choices would have been W, X, Y, and Z so the Perma-Contact will offer a random assortment of those arcs, preferably located in Hometown zone>.
Anyway, just a thought thats been dancing around in my head.