New co-op/competitive zone: Airport
By
Arctic_Princess,
Posted on: 2008-07-11 14:22 in Suggestions and Ideas
*Applauds*
I like this a lot. If we can go to other dimensions and time zones, then globe-trotting should be a doddle. 
The instances would probably not look much like where they're supposed to be (too much developer time) but I can live with that. Nice idea. 
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This Idea made me look at the original map that came with my copy of CoH in 2005, there are 15+ blank coloured spaces on the map for city zones that are currently unused, plenty of room for expansion then!.
I like these ideas Valkryst, whether it is the airport you detail or any of the other two Paragon City Airports - having them as jump off points for said missions would be great. I love the ideas of instanced missions set at different points around the world, battling giant lizards in Tokyo sounds fun! 
You had me at [ QUOTE ]
Level 10-50 co-operative zone
[/ QUOTE ] so /signed.
The content is nice so I would have /signed for that. But the level range is what made me want to /sign.
If the level range had been 35-50 I would have /unsigned or not even bothered reading trough it.
And really it is a great suggestion. Like a breath of fresh air is what best describes your suggestion in my mind.
So /signed again.
Very good idea.
Given the international appeal of CoX, I'd have thought it a good idea to do something along these lines unless the devs were already planning more terrestrial content outside of Paragon/Rogue Isles.
And, however they do it, the game could do with a low level co-op zone.
BTW - Even though they're only 1-2 line idea I liked that you're obviously trying to put some effort into rationalising why heroes and villains may be in the same mission.
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Thanks muchly for the compliments.
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And, however they do it, the game could do with a low level co-op zone.
[/ QUOTE ]
It's funny, I had another idea for a pure newbie-level co-op zone (L1-15) all ready to post a while ago and I didn't bother because it was getting so long I didn't think anyone would bother to read it. I may have to dig it out and see if I can turn it into something readable, if I can find the time.
Oh, and for Mother's benefit, I was going to place that zone on the peninsula north of DA and east of Talos (but with transport links to other newbie zones on both sides and a land-link to a revamped co-op DA)
I actually wish the Devs would let us have a map showing where the Rogue Isles are comparative to Paragon City - all we know is that they're about 50 miles off the coast. I had a go at making a basic zone-connection map, that was also close to being geographically correct, ages ago when I was teaching myself how to use layers on the GIMP art program, but my PC art skills are a bit lame so I pinched most of the graphics from in-game or off the incredibly useful VidiotMaps site.
[ QUOTE ]
BTW - Even though they're only 1-2 line idea I liked that you're obviously trying to put some effort into rationalising why heroes and villains may be in the same mission.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah I didn't want the post to get ridiculously long - I type so fast and waffle so much that my posts have a tendency to overrun most attention spans anyway. I've been consciously trying to fix that so I don't get ignored so much 
Writing the missions would be the Devs' job - I wouldn't presume to do that for them - I just wanted to chuck out some ideas for flavour so you'd all understand what I meant - although tbh I still got carried away because CoH/V lore just begs to be expanded upon.
What's above /signed again.
/salute to you Valkryst, an excellent post.
I very much like that idea. I couldn't really care about the co op(although it's nice) but the idea of missions all over the world would be just great
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@Lyrik
A great idea and i hope its implimented
the only suggestion i would make is that you mention that hero's and villains yous it to take on freelance missions so what about some contacts from other groups and even some non aligned types. I realise it would probably work more for villains but missions could be worded like tips when given to heroes or something.
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the only suggestion i would make is that you mention that hero's and villains yous it to take on freelance missions so what about some contacts from other groups and even some non aligned types. I realise it would probably work more for villains but missions could be worded like tips when given to heroes or something.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure what you mean really, but I'll try and guess.
The last thing I wanted was to spread the missions around lots of different contacts and potentially divide up the playerbase further - not when co-op zones are about bringing both sides together so the servers feel less empty.
This way heroes have one contact to go to and villains have one to go to - nice and simple for implementing the matchmaking system - if you had to run around half a dozen or more contacts to find one that actually had teams forming to do a certain mission that contact offered then it would get annoying fast - I didn't want any extra barriers in the way of players getting together.
I actually toyed with the idea of having a single contact that both villains and heroes used, but I really couldn't think of which group to use as the neutral to offer it - we only really have 3 completely neutral factions who don't particularly care if you're a hero or villain: Vanguard, Ouroborous and the Midnight Club - each have their own quest hubs/areas and have narrow agenda/focus (Vanguard are anti-Rikti, Ouro is time-fixing, Midnight Club have the magical focus) - I needed a contact that could have a much wider remit to send players against potentially every other enemy faction in the game - and Longbow/FreedomCorp and Arachnos just work well for that.
I toyed with the idea of using Crey for the neutral contact, but that would be morally objectionable for a lot of heroes, plus it would prevent the Devs using Crey for any international missions.
Basically don't get fixated on the word "freelance" - in retrospect I probably shouldn't have used it.
/SIGNED!
Amazing idea :]
@Lukas
/signed
Nuff Said...
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A refreshingly brilliant post and Idea.
thousand Kudos', and a big fat /signed
<Forum Echo, sorry>
My current bugbear is the lack (and I mean complete lack, Cimerora is time-travel to an island. One whole island. Whoopie-do.) of international content, let alone information about the rest of the world's experience of the Rikti invasions. For CoX to survive the onslaught of the other upcoming hero game, it needs to expand its borders to include the rest of the planet.
This idea, if implemented, will go a long way toward filling the gaps outside the war-walls. Very fine idea. *appalauds*
A good use of NPC background, and noticing that there would be a struggle for air superiority, ideal for flying battles. I can just see skiffs and chasers flying around dogfighting, maybe a GM event where a Rikti ship and an Arachnos flyer battle it out? This is a great Idea, but if the rikti are looking for tech, then maybe Goldbrickers too?
A total of 14 of my nerves have been harmed in the making of this post...
A brilliant zone. I like it a lot.
I would like to have three contacts though. One for hero and one for villain and one for coop. I am sure a new faction who doesnt care about who is helping them can be invented. Alternate is having representatives of Vanguard and Midnight and possibly Crey (free opportunity for all) in the zone for helping out.
I would love to see more villain groups though. I like the idea of the goldbrickers for example. And skulls. Go hunt Kill Skulls!
I like this alot, would alot of great content to the game. I LIKE
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A good use of NPC background, and noticing that there would be a struggle for air superiority, ideal for flying battles. I can just see skiffs and chasers flying around dogfighting, maybe a GM event where a Rikti ship and an Arachnos flyer battle it out? This is a great Idea, but if the rikti are looking for tech, then maybe Goldbrickers too?
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I put Sky Raiders in mainly because they have that "airborne" slant to them and could have their skiffs flying around - Longbow & Arachnos could obviously have their chasers and helis buzzing around too, and Crey could have airborne Paragon Protectors.
The Rikti aren't there looking for tech - it's stuff they left behind that Crey and the Sky Raiders are there to scavenge - Crey because they have such a history of researching Rikti tech and trying to acquire as much of it as possible, and Sky Raiders because they're air pirates so scavenging/stealing stuff to sell to the highest bidder (probably to Crey) is their modus operandi.
I would actually intend for the Rikti to have a very small presence in the zone, mainly around the Crey hangars (perhaps trying to recover some of their stuff, the drop ship especially, so that Crey doesn't reverse-engineer it and discover all their secrets). Post-RWZ we face Rikti so much in the game that I didn't want to have them being a major presence here too - at least not outside the lore background of the zone. Also Rikti only appear at levels 30-50 usually (as Lost appear at 1-29 instead) and the hangar district would be the highest level outdoor hunting in this zone.
Goldbrickers really wouldn't fit here - they're basically a small-time gang of tech-thieves that started out so well-equipped because their boss, Midas, is so rich (from selling all those Goldbricker chocolate bars!) - I've yet to find out what he wants with all the tech that his Goldbrickers steal, though - maybe he wants to move in on Crey and Aeon Corp's market sectors But anyway the Goldbrickers only have a presence in Cap au D, so this would be far too far outside of their usual travel range and even further outside their zone of influence and their interests. Plus they only scale as far as L15-ish (similar for Skulls, though they tend to peter out at L10) so they'd basically be getting kicked around by everyone else. I've been having a go at knocking my co-op newbie zone idea into shape, perhaps to post it next week, and that has Skulls in it, though (but no Goldbrickers ).
For this zone I tried to pick factions for the level ranges that they already populate either blueside, redside, or both - and that would make sense in this zone thematically. After all, the Devs put factions at certain levels for a reason - we start off fighting what are basically just street gangs, move on to better-organised/funded criminal organisations and the like in the mid-range, then on to the really powerful factions at top-end which is all carefully planned that way by the Devs. Sure, some organisations scale all the way from 1-50 (CoT, Crey, Council, Longbow, Arachnos, etc.) but only because they are so ubiquitous - most enemy factions have just a tight level range they occupy so players get a sense of becoming more powerful than some/most of them as they level-up.
A GM event would be a good idea though - I didn't think about that. Maybe Crey could take their salvaged Rikti Drop Ship out for test flights at night once per game week - but being damaged anyway it would be easier for players to destroy than actual Rikti ones we see on the raids - that could justify it being of Giant Monster rank.
[ QUOTE ]
I actually toyed with the idea of having a single contact that both villains and heroes used, but I really couldn't think of which group to use as the neutral to offer it - we only really have 3 completely neutral factions who don't particularly care if you're a hero or villain: Vanguard, Ouroborous and the Midnight Club - each have their own quest hubs/areas and have narrow agenda/focus (Vanguard are anti-Rikti, Ouro is time-fixing, Midnight Club have the magical focus) - I needed a contact that could have a much wider remit to send players against potentially every other enemy faction in the game - and Longbow/FreedomCorp and Arachnos just work well for that.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm, well Spanky was a dubious man to say the least.
How about an unlocking arc first (say an instance and an errand or two) to allow you access to the terminal missions? Everyone likes badges (sweeping statement) so maybe even unlock it with the Tourist badge? (collect 10 badges)
I do love this idea and the possibility of consented PvP intrigues me.
Maybe the following badges could be unlocked?:
Holiday Maker - Complete 5 missions overseas
Sidekick - Rescue Aurora/Barracuda
Even a few temporary powers? Unlocked from those 'retrieve the relics' style missions?
Poison Dart from the Peru mission.
Medusa's Mirror (Basically a 5 use Fossilise that does no damage) from the Athens one.
/signed - excellent ideas Valkryst.
I like this idea a lot. Well done nicely thought out and well researched
Thelonious Monk
/signed!!!
Love the idea and the description is excellent reading
Thanks again all for the compliments. Hopefully War Witch or another Dev will notice this post and get some inspiration from it.
I've rarely posted suggestions before because I'm not sure what value they have (i.e. if the US devs even check these forums regularly), but thanks all for inflating my ego a little - you've certainly provided an incentive for me to post any strong ideas I get in future.
To guarantee a Dev views your suggestion, send them a PM over these boards. I know War Witch checks her inbox regularly for the EU forums, she told me so at Omega Sektor.
[ QUOTE ]
To guarantee a Dev views your suggestion, send them a PM over these boards. I know War Witch checks her inbox regularly for the EU forums, she told me so at Omega Sektor.
[/ QUOTE ]
I considered doing that, but I thought it would be somewhat immodest of me to do that myself and I figured Dev inboxes would be full anyway from players pestering them. I wouldn't complain if someone else sent a PM on my behalf though
(Btw, I'm almost ready to post my co-op newbie zone ideas, but the text is rather long so I'm trying to cut it down - I'll do it as a new post, but I may link it here)
Ive been working on this idea on-and-off since being disappointed by the lack of co-op content in Cimerora (besides the TF & repeatables). Ive also been trying to think of ways to evolve both PvE and PvP while providing content that could be used for both by heroes and villains. Let me know what you think.
[u]Rabinowitz International Airport[u]
Level 10-50 co-operative zone
Description: North of Independence Port, west of Baumton (Boomtown), east of Salamanca (Croatoa), is Paragon City's main airport, named in honour of Spanky Rabinowitz, the four-time former Mayor of the city.
The airport was devastated during the Rikti War as the invaders used it as a staging ground to re-arm their drop ships and disembark troops. Now the area has been mostly liberated from the Rikti and a major rebuilding program financed by Crey has managed to re-open one runway, build a new main terminal (near the old highway heading south to Independence Port), and also renovate the old green line station. Flights have recently resumed to many major cities around the world.
NPC factions present & zone layout:
Longbow (L30-50) - new airline terminal southwest of runway
Arachnos (L30-50) - the heli-port terminal northeast of runway
Rikti (L30-50) - minor presence around hangar district southeast of runway
Crey (L10-50) - all over the zone (L30+ around hangar district southeast of runway)
Sky Raiders (L20-30) - disused runway to northeast of the restored main runway
The Family (L10-30) - old airport terminal, hotels and nearby warehouses
The Tsoo (L10-30) - old airport terminal, hotels and nearby warehouses
Freedom Corps Longbow Division is providing security for the civilian construction staff and airport workers at the new airline terminal as they dont trust Crey to do it. Arachnos have taken over the heli-port to the northeast, rebuilt it, and their black helicopters fly in regularly from the Rogue Isles; Longbow cannot touch them unless the spiders cause trouble as apparently Lord Recluse has made a deal with Countess Crey to lease the site.
Creys own agents provide security in all other areas, acting as a buffer between Longbow and Arachnos to head off trouble before it starts. The Paragon Protectors have a heavy presence around some of the old airline hangars to the southeast and rumours say that Crey are storing large pieces of Rikti technology in the hangars and even have a damaged drop ship, scavenged from the site after the Rikti vacated it.
The Sky Raiders are making use of one of the overgrown old runways to the northwest of the site, having also moved in soon after the Rikti were beaten back to scavenge what technology they could.
Both The Family and The Tsoo have recently moved in from nearby Independence Port; violent clashes have erupted between them as they contest for the right to run protection rackets in the area once independent businesses return, and also to expand their smuggling concerns beyond shipping to air freight as well. Creys agents try to push both of those groups out to defend their corporations legal interests in the area, and more importantly their profit margins.
Zone access:
Heroes - from any green line station (i.e. Steel, Skyway, IP, Talos, Croatoa, Bricks, FF)
Villains - from any black helicopter line (i.e. Mercy, Cap au D, Nerva, St M, GV)
Facilities:
Stores/Quartermasters and Analysts/Fortunatas are available inside the Airline Terminal for heroes and inside the Heli-port Terminal for villains.
Spark Blade is the hero trainer outside of the airline terminal, while Rose Star (never far from his side) stands nearby to hand out international mission assignments. On the roof of the heli-port terminal villains can train with Arbiter Heathwick and get their international mission assignments from one of Viridians most trusted Arachnos Operatives, the mysterious masked female agent known only as Amethyst.
Mission content:
Both heroes and villains can use this zone as a jumping-off point to undertake freelance missions around the world (all instanced). Some missions could be co-op, others could be competitive (e.g. hero team competing against a villain team to be first to complete their conflicting PvE objectives), and the competitive missions could also be combative (PvE competitive mission, but with PvP enabled if desired by both team leaders). It should be possible to develop missions/instances that could be used for any one of these three possibilities.
The matchmaking and mission selection interface available through clicking Rose Star and/or Amethyst can pit hero teams/individuals against villain teams/individuals, but can also aid in putting co-op teams together inside the zone to tackle global threats. Both Rose Star and Amethyst are pragmatic enough not to be judgemental about the reputations of whoever they hire for their tasks, because it seems rather irrelevant when youre desperate for more super-powered operatives to deal with a global threat.
Each instanced mission/arc would have destructible terrain like in mayhem missions. The non-TF ones would be soloable. All missions/arcs are repeatable and auto-exemp higher level characters down to their level range.
Ideas for mission/story-arc instances that could be accessed from the airport:
<ul type="square">[*](L10-20) some Spetsnaz Commandos have gone rogue and taken over a nuclear missile silo near Moscow to hold Russia to ransom - Rose Star wants heroes to stop them, but Dr Aeon just wants the warheads plutonium for his next experiment.
[*](L10-20) in the hills near Athens some ancient ruins have been unearthed, but from long-buried tunnels the daughters of Medusa (Snakes) come forth to protect their relics; the Mu of Arachnos want the relics, but so do the Legacy Chain.
[*](L15-25) Sebastian Frost, Guido Verandi and Emil Marcone have each flown to Sicily for a meeting with the capos of the Mafia - see to it that they, and any other members of The Family with them, miss their appointments. If done as a competitive mission then the team that defeats two or more of these three Family leaders is the winner.
[*](L20-30) Vanguard wants some super-powered operatives to go to London to aid the Dawn Patrol against a Lost infestation on the streets and in the underground/tube system. There are bonus rewards for the team that deals with the infestation at its source first.
[*](L20-30) the Banished Pantheon have been sighted in some ancient Inca ruins in Peru, but what are they seeking? The Midnight Club has requested that someone go and find out.
[*](L25-35) the Coralax are enraged at the environmental damage caused by pollution to the Great Barrier Reef so are laying waste to Sydney Harbour as an example to all human despoilers that the sea is not so forgiving. Show them that surface-dwellers wont tolerate Coralax belligerence.
[*](L30-40) the Tsoo have muscled in on the ancient relic trade in Beijing and Tub Ci has gone there in person to oversee operations; Statesman wants heroes to arrest and extract Tub Ci and return him to The Zig, but Lord Recluse wants Tub Ci protected from arrest so that the Tsoo leader will owe him a favour
[*](L30-40) The Circle of Thorns have besieged the Temple of the Four Winds high in the Himalayas and the monks have sent out a mystic call for aid. Levantera and Borea, concerned for their mentors safety, have asked heroes to step in; Scirocco and Ice Mistral, seeing the chaos as a good opportunity to steal relics and secrets from the Order of the Four Winds, have sent villains in their stead.
[*](L35-45) W.I.S.D.O.M.s leader Foreshadow has requested that all available operatives head to Tokyo to defeat some battling giant lizards intent on wrecking the city (shameless Godzilla reference).
[*](L35-45) The Carnival of Shadows have gone to Giovanna Scaldi's home city to stake their matriarch's claim upon it - will you let them take Venice without a fight and thus expand their powerbase?
[*](L40-50) there is a rumour that the Prussian Prince of Automatons has his sanctum in an ancient stronghold in the heart of the German countryside; go there and discover if it is the true Nemesis in residence, or is it just another fake copy?
[*](L40-50) The Malta Group and their Knives of Artemis allies have kidnapped Aurora Borealis and Barracuda for reasons unknown and have taken them to a military airbase they control in central Africa. Captain Mako and Sister Psyche both want their sidekicks back, but at the same time would also happily keep the other captive held prisoner - who will get rescued first?
[*](L40-50) battle The Council in their Italian heartland on a TF to take out the original Nicti Cyst in Ravenna, which is guarded by an ancient minotaur that acts as host for one of the most powerful Nictus in the universe[/list]It would be relatively easy to add new mission content to this zone in future. At first it seems like a lot of new art would be needed both for the airport and the instanced missions, but parts of existing tilesets could be re-used (parts of Founders Falls for Venice, parts of Cimerora for the ruins near Athens, etc.). Mission doors would be either departure gates inside the terminal/heli-port or on the airliners/helicopters themselves.