Those endless mob hunts.
By
Assailant,
Posted on: 2008-09-23 11:15 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
So might this post be described as a...Suggestion? 
It's more something to discuss then to suggest. It is of course a suggestion as well. Sometimes things are not that clear cut. 
I think a lot of the badges are designed with full teams in mind - like, say, the ones for Warwolves and Vampyri - a full team can pick those up in a hour or so just by doing Council missions.
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Not to mention the skulls boss badge... I do not even think it is possible to complete that one by running skulls missions on a team with out getting out of the level range where you can get skulls missions from the news paper. Same for the trolls and warrior badges, that like many of them seemed adjusted to the hazard zoned of CoH.
Maybe if unlocking contacts and costume peaces was done on an account level, it would be more interesting. New charters would not have the badge but would have the contact/weapon. That way each charter would make more contend available for the following charter, thus promoting further altoholisme.
1. What's a charter? 
2. Awarding badges on an account base is all very fine and dandy... what happens with the Blue/Red threshold though? I mean, if you villain gains a badge that exists hero side, is that one awarded to the heroes too?
3. An overhauling is indeed required or at the very least some form of sorting/reordering/tabbing badges... I mean, at a 299/286 (H/V) split for the Achievement category it is getting pretty hectic going through those.
4. Also, some conditions for gaining specific badges should REALLY be re-evaluated: and that 4th Damage badge, especially villain side, where it is required to be awarded an Accolade that is much easier to get hero side springs to mind. Constantly. At the very least, the condition that impedes damage to be counted because it affects health awarded through other accolades should be removed.
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Ok I decided to make a list of some badges that need rethinking.
First category Unlockable contacts on CoV:
Some are easy. They consist of history badges exploration or badges that are easily obtained and come almost automatically at the appropriate levels. However here are the exceptions.
Veluta Lunata requires Pirate badge. This means you have to trap 10 ghosts in a special way. You also get the flintlock dual pistols. Well worth the time to do this one in my book. Not for the contact but for the flintlocks
Henri Dumont requires you to kill 200 scrapyarders. Well they are abundant in sharkville. Only problem is that you can outlevel him before you get the amount needed.
Kristof Jaeger requires you to kill 1000 longbow. Now this is doable as you encounter longbow at every corner. But doing that before you outlevel the contact is more tricky nowadays.
Crimson Revenant. Requires you to take down Ghost of the Scrapyard. Hard to do these days when not many people are online and interested in hunting GM's.
Slot Machine. Kill 200 marcone bosses. Bleh, hours and hours of running around using a macro to get the marcone capo is alot of work to unlock a contact even one as nice as the slot machine. When you do newspapers instead you would easily gain a few levels in the meanwhile. Guess what most people choose?
Arbiter Leery. Requires you to do a respec first. Ok this one is doable.
Number 204. Kill huge amounts of Toxic Tarantulas. Fly around for a few hours in Grandville and try not to outlevel contact before you get it. I am sure this is a nice contact. Never managed to do him though.
Viridian. Well for this one you need to kill left and right. Crey, rikti, freak tanks, lost bosses and lets not forget 200 Crey protectors. Hope you like farming missions for this one.
And that concludes the list for hard to get contacts. Anybody here around who can claim he done them all? I want these to be more accesable.
It does seem a little dumb to have contacts unlockable, when you can outlevel them before you manage to kill enough things to get them.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
I fully agree. Although you outlevel contacts constantly of course. But these contacts require dedicated work to obtain them. Of course there is Ourobouros but I am not sure they are all in the Ouro list.
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1. What's a charter?
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From Wikipedia:
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A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the recipient admits a limited (or inferior) status within the relationship, and it is within that sense that charters were historically granted, and that sense is retained in modern usage of the term.
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More seriously, I'm sure they meant character.
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4. Also, some conditions for gaining specific badges should REALLY be re-evaluated: and that 4th Damage badge, especially villain side, where it is required to be awarded an Accolade that is much easier to get hero side springs to mind. Constantly. At the very least, the condition that impedes damage to be counted because it affects health awarded through other accolades should be removed.
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OK the 4th damage badge takes a very long time to get for most people but there are other aspects which balance it out a bit, for example demonic aura/eye of the magus, demonic is quite easy to get on a level 25 villain but eye of the magus requires the dreaded 'farm 100's of illusions' badge along with others only available in level 40+ missions. The 4th damage badge does stand out as a little extreme but if you look at the total time needed to get all accolades for each side, it's fairly even and damage badges are pretty easy to get on any toon with a good amount of regen or a non-interuptable self heal (or a friend with a healing aura type power) and alot of time afk.
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The 4th damage badge does stand out as a little extreme but if you look at the total time needed to get all accolades for each side, it's fairly even and damage badges are pretty easy to get on any toon with a good amount of regen or a non-interuptable self heal (or a friend with a healing aura type power) and alot of time afk.
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Quite crazily I'd have thought that the devs wanted people to get the accolades through playing, not through afk farming.
Needing the 4th damage badge for any faction-specific accolade is pretty ridiculous. I could understand it if there was an accolade available to each side that used the 4th-6th dmg/healing/debt/inf/etc badges, but it's the hero-villain disparity that really marks this as an oddity.
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1. What's a charter?
2. Awarding badges on an account base is all very fine and dandy... what happens with the Blue/Red threshold though? I mean, if you villain gains a badge that exists hero side, is that one awarded to the heroes too?
3. An overhauling is indeed required or at the very least some form of sorting/reordering/tabbing badges... I mean, at a 299/286 (H/V) split for the Achievement category it is getting pretty hectic going through those.
4. Also, some conditions for gaining specific badges should REALLY be re-evaluated: and that 4th Damage badge, especially villain side, where it is required to be awarded an Accolade that is much easier to get hero side springs to mind. Constantly. At the very least, the condition that impedes damage to be counted because it affects health awarded through other accolades should be removed.
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1) The spell checker missed that one, charter => character.
2. No not avoiding badges based on awarding, but awarding un-locks. As in a contact like the slot machine, or the tomy-gun assault rifle. Any other character on the account would get the unlock as well, but not the badge.
Of cause in this example the gun should be awarded both sides, but the contact really only have meaning on one side. Though if the heroes had an identical badge with a contagt any hero side character should get the hero side contact un-locked.
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Quite crazily I'd have thought that the devs wanted people to get the accolades through playing, not through afk farming.
Needing the 4th damage badge for any faction-specific accolade is pretty ridiculous. I could understand it if there was an accolade available to each side that used the 4th-6th dmg/healing/debt/inf/etc badges, but it's the hero-villain disparity that really marks this as an oddity.
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And that is exactly the thing I wanted to point out. The 4th damage badge is one among many that is NOT obtainable with a playstyle that could be considered normal or even slightly abnormal. This one for example should not be neccesary for an accolade.
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2. No not avoiding badges based on awarding, but awarding un-locks. As in a contact like the slot machine, or the tomy-gun assault rifle. Any other character on the account would get the unlock as well, but not the badge.
Of cause in this example the gun should be awarded both sides, but the contact really only have meaning on one side. Though if the heroes had an identical badge with a contagt any hero side character should get the hero side contact un-locked.
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Not a bad idea actually. It would make the tommygun for villains for example feasable instead of impossible. (You try to hunt an elusive mob where you can only see if it is the right one when you READ its inscription!!!!! And lets not forget there is only 1 of them available on any city zone in the whole game). Heroes have it way easier here.
Though what to do with accolades like the atlas medaillon? I don't mind a bit of work for a nice benefit. Perhaps we could limit this to unlocable weapons and contacts maybe?
"I fully agree. Although you outlevel contacts constantly of course. But these contacts require dedicated work to obtain them. Of course there is Ourobouros but I am not sure they are all in the Ouro list."
If not, surely a request/suggestion will put them on the list of accessible flashbacks? Wasn't part of the point of flashbacks to allow you to play content you may have missed / outlevelled, and to achieve badges that you may not have known were there, or had been released?
[B][COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]@Winter Flare[/COLOR] - [url="http://sites.google.com/site/thenewguardians"] The New Guardians[/url] - [url="http://www.badge-hunter.com/index.php?/page/view_player.php?id=339"] 1211 Badges [/url][/B]
Well, I checked and guess what. Slot Machine is NOT on the ouroboros list. So are undoubtly other contacts you will miss due to this system. No idea why the developers thought that would be a good idea though.
Which brings me back to my original point. Reduce the difficulty in obtaining these contacts, weapon customization options etc to at least acceptable levels.
I agree for contacts, its stupid that to kill enough mobs to gain the contact you out level said contact.
However badges/kill counts for weapons and badges IMO is quite right. If they were much easier to get then where would be the achievement of earning them?
I still have to obtain any accolade that includes the 100 Master Illusionist decoys, and I remember with joy when I had finally killed enough Rikti monkeys for the old style Zoo Keeper badge.
The current alternatives are not all that good for the game either. Like having a low level character grouped and SKed to a level 50, to prevent XP gain. At least it is not good for anyone trying to run patrols in the zone for their "Kill 30 [insert mob]" missions.
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Number 204. Kill huge amounts of Toxic Tarantulas. Fly around for a few hours in Grandville and try not to outlevel contact before you get it. I am sure this is a nice contact. Never managed to do him though.
Viridian. Well for this one you need to kill left and right. Crey, rikti, freak tanks, lost bosses and lets not forget 200 Crey protectors. Hope you like farming missions for this one.
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The only one i've yet to do is the Slot Machine
Number 204, considering the huge amount of work it takes to get the Toxi Ts, especially before lvl 45, is such an anticlimax. Somewhat well written, but just short and boring.
Viridian's "The Conference of Evil" OTOH is my personal favourite arc in the game.
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I still have to obtain any accolade that includes the 100 Master Illusionist decoys
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Make that 500, i'm afraid 
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Number 204. Kill huge amounts of Toxic Tarantulas. Fly around for a few hours in Grandville and try not to outlevel contact before you get it. I am sure this is a nice contact. Never managed to do him though.
Viridian. Well for this one you need to kill left and right. Crey, rikti, freak tanks, lost bosses and lets not forget 200 Crey protectors. Hope you like farming missions for this one.
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The only one i've yet to do is the Slot Machine
Number 204, considering the huge amount of work it takes to get the Toxi Ts, especially before lvl 45, is such an anticlimax. Somewhat well written, but just short and boring.
Viridian's "The Conference of Evil" OTOH is my personal favourite arc in the game.
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Well Slot machine is fun but worth hunting for a hours and hours? In fact working much longer to obtain the contact then you will spend doing the contact? I have done it once and sadly that will be it. Just as i missed 204. I'ts not worth doing it like it is now.
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I agree for contacts, its stupid that to kill enough mobs to gain the contact you out level said contact.
However badges/kill counts for weapons and badges IMO is quite right. If they were much easier to get then where would be the achievement of earning them?
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The problem with weapon badges that some of them are easy to obtain while others are next to impossible. The best example is the Tommygun. For a hero 'easy' enough to get. Plenty of missions hunting the correct mobtype and the mob is to be found in IP for example in abundance (plus it is one of the favourite mobtypes to farm). However for the villains there are no easy hunt family mobsters farm missions. And trust me I tried to get it. Flew around in the only area where they spawn (the docks in nerva). Looking for them for a few hours. I bagged roughly 1 of them per hour searching. THAT is how hard they are to get. The difference between the same badge and unlockable weapon between the two fractions is Ridiculous.
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Well, I checked and guess what. Slot Machine is NOT on the ouroboros list.
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It is actually, just checked. It shows in the 30-35 range but you do have to have met the conditions for it to be unlocked, even if you've already out levelled it.
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Well, I checked and guess what. Slot Machine is NOT on the ouroboros list.
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It is actually, just checked. It shows in the 30-35 range but you do have to have met the conditions for it to be unlocked, even if you've already out levelled it.
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Ah, thanks didn't know that. In which case Paragonwiki is of a tad in this as well because I checked with them to.
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Number 204. Kill huge amounts of Toxic Tarantulas. Fly around for a few hours in Grandville and try not to outlevel contact before you get it. I am sure this is a nice contact. Never managed to do him though.
Viridian. Well for this one you need to kill left and right. Crey, rikti, freak tanks, lost bosses and lets not forget 200 Crey protectors. Hope you like farming missions for this one.
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The only one i've yet to do is the Slot Machine
Number 204, considering the huge amount of work it takes to get the Toxi Ts, especially before lvl 45, is such an anticlimax. Somewhat well written, but just short and boring.
Viridian's "The Conference of Evil" OTOH is my personal favourite arc in the game.
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Well Slot machine is fun but worth hunting for a hours and hours? In fact working much longer to obtain the contact then you will spend doing the contact? I have done it once and sadly that will be it. Just as i missed 204. I'ts not worth doing it like it is now.
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Tbh, I do that hunt on every toon for HPT. I'm quite content to go and do the arc via ouro if the mood takes me. Some of the secret contacts however have such a massive gulf in quality. Viridian/Doc Buzzsaw/Ghosty Night widow woman = fantastic...
Henri Dufail and Number 204 = terrible. Just plain awful.
So I guess you can view the hunts as a distinguishing feature for those who care about quality of content enough to take time away from xpees to hunt, or as a mindless chore stopping the player from reaching what is rightfully theirs (or something)
I for one don't have a problem with it, but I'm in no way belittling anyone who dislikes it, as I can understand the frustration
(Carni Hammer = Illusionist badge...on villains (when nobody runs it for the accolade) = harsh...but what a sense of a achievement that must be )
You know the drill. Arrest/Capture/beat to a puddle a number of special mobs and get your badge! Some are easy while others are rather difficult to find in enough numbers to make it possible during leveling up time. Most require dedicated time, tactics and boredom to hunt down though.
All is good and well though, because in the end you get your shiny badge. Is the badge worth the effort? Some say yes same say no. That's a choice for every one to make and is the difference between a foolhardy stubborn badgehunter and somebody else.
However, there are badges that do more then just look shiny. They give acces to nifty acccolades, neat weapon options and best of all new contacts.
And here is my problem. I like to have acces to different contacts now and then. For example the Slot Machine. Problem is that to unlock that contact, the game requires me to spend hours and hours doing nothing else then hunting down grey mobs. It goes faster in a team but not many teams are willing to spend hours without any xp. And those are the easy gangsters, there is also a badge that unlocks a weapon that has count em 1-3 mobs on the server at any given time.
My point is that this way, people won't experience everything this game has to offer. Because they can't stomach such a tedious grind. I would love to see some prerequisites for opening contacts, gaining special weapons skins and even acces to accolades (how many of those fake illusionist do we have to kill?) to be re-evaluated.