Well, paragonwiki usually says who's most likely to introduce a particular contact. (And Fusionette herself isn't contact, Doc Delilah, Penelope Yin and Faultline Jr. are.)
As for how to make contacts better... Well... "Better" is relative... For example, making them sell something more interesting, besides standard stuff... (Like Yin's unique SOs, or teleports...)
Short of a complete overhaul of the pre-issue 6 mission sets and changing the CoH contacts to conform more to CoV (which is 'better', in my opinion. Although I tellingly prefer playing Heroes) I'm not sure much else can be done with them.
The current state of the 'old' contacts is that they were supposed to represent the different origins but the mere fact that they often end up giving you the same missions, despite certain groups not making sense (Magic heroes vs. Clocks, for an early example) in the early game renders them a little redundant. But then the likelihood of the programmers and developers going back to the start and filtering down the number of contacts Blueside is unlikely. Zone revamps then yes, maybe, but as the contacts exist in standard zones then I am thinking that the likelihood of those zones being revamped and pared down is, again, very small.
Some later missions do include, in their own special ways, in-game contacts as NPCs. Specifically some of the Portal Corps missions feature familiar-faced hostages. 'We' have seen that as new missions are written, they are including more physical and literary references to Game World characters so again, the old stuff is unlikely to be revisited.
As far as point 1 goes - as long as I get their cellphone number then I'm happy. 
- especially the ones in Founders who send you to Perez and Galaxy an awful lot and then back over to Crey's Folly when you're just getting into the travelling groove...
So to finally answer your end question more precisely (!) - I think that contacts could be pared down more, especially earlier on. Having several different yet, ultimately, the same tech/magic/sci/mutant/natural contacts was poor design and it's these early mistakes that seem to have been learned from - giving us awesomeness with the Faultline, Croatoa, Midnight Squad and Cimerora arcs.
Of course all this is my humble opinion. YMMV.
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Well, paragonwiki usually says who's most likely to introduce a particular contact. (And Fusionette herself isn't contact, Doc Delilah, Penelope Yin and Faultline Jr. are.)
As for how to make contacts better... Well... "Better" is relative... For example, making them sell something more interesting, besides standard stuff... (Like Yin's unique SOs, or teleports...)
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They used too. Ages ago Contacts were the only source of level 25 SOs, you couldn't get them in the shops. The powers that be decided that wasn't fair and changed it.
(after I deliberately worked my way towards doing lots of some IP contacts arc to buy Magic SOs off her for inflated prices. Bah!)
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They used too. Ages ago Contacts were the only source of level 25 SOs, you couldn't get them in the shops. The powers that be decided that wasn't fair and changed it.
(after I deliberately worked my way towards doing lots of some IP contacts arc to buy Magic SOs off her for inflated prices. Bah!)
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Yes, I know. I meant something different though, - Yin's SOs are the only buyable sub-level 25 SOs (not counting merit purchases.) and have unique fluff text IIRC. Something more along these lines, - a "signature item" not too good to be imbalancing but useful nonetheless.
Or, as I said teleports... Would use existing market TP insp mechanics , with different prices for different zones. (say, Atlas - 100 inf, Faultline - 1500 inf, Peregrine, - 4000 inf etc.) That's fairly expensive for a lowbie, so other means of travel aren't made pointless, and level 35+ toon can go pretty much anywhere they please anyway.
4000 inf isn't a lot for a lowbie, 1 luck charm will see them have that 7+ times over. It's amazing just how quick you get inf at low levels these days to be honest.
However I like the idea of something special that they can give you. I'd go for a limit number of purchases of something you normally can't get.
Perhaps 1 "friendship point" per mission you do for them and a bonus for completing their arc (maybe 5).
Item..........Friendship point cost
DO level -1.....1
DO own Level....2
DO Level +1.....3
SO level -1.....4
SO own level....8
SO level +1....12
Though it might be more sensible to give merits for each mission done instead as the system is already in place.
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4000 inf isn't a lot for a lowbie, 1 luck charm will see them have that 7+ times over. It's amazing just how quick you get inf at low levels these days to be honest.
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Well, maybe they ought to be more expensive, although, I think, price of 1 DO should roughly correspond to price of 2 tp insps to 15-25 lvl zones. It would be noticeable expense but not really big enough to not to use them without INF transfers, etc.
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[ QUOTE ]
Well, paragonwiki usually says who's most likely to introduce a particular contact. (And Fusionette herself isn't contact, Doc Delilah, Penelope Yin and Faultline Jr. are.)
As for how to make contacts better... Well... "Better" is relative... For example, making them sell something more interesting, besides standard stuff... (Like Yin's unique SOs, or teleports...)
[/ QUOTE ]
They used too. Ages ago Contacts were the only source of level 25 SOs, you couldn't get them in the shops. The powers that be decided that wasn't fair and changed it.
(after I deliberately worked my way towards doing lots of some IP contacts arc to buy Magic SOs off her for inflated prices. Bah!)
[/ QUOTE ]
Didn't know that 
Always wondered why people would bother to pay more then in a shop.
With (ano)the(r) rise of PLing since MA, there is now even more reason to give contacts a purpose in the game. Make it so that people who play proper arcs get a little bonus over the PL goons. Encourage people to spend time doing the canon content, otherwise people get to 50 with no idea what the City of Heroes story is about.
This is bad enough, but you also get players to 50 and going... er... "where's the level 50 content. What now?" When it dawns that there isn't any level 50 content, and there's nothing to do at 50, they will likely become disillusioned with the game (unless they are truly brainless enough to actually enjoy farming).
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.
What like arc completion bonuses and merits?
I like contacts, it's cool to have somewhere to sell junk when I'm out and about... so I think there's positives to doing contact arcs. BUT...
1) I hate when arcs end before I've filled their bar.
2) I want to be able to aim for specific contacts, so I have those places to sell stuff/buy insps in the handiest of locations.
3) I don't see much point in them other than this. A lot of the time I'm avoiding them via TFs, Trials and Bank Missions. I could do most of the game with no contacts at all!
I also believe that contacts could play a much more interesting role by taking a more active part in storylines (perhaps as victims, or NPC sidekicks) - I know that more recent issues have done this - Fusionette and Percy Winkley, for examples.
What do you think? How can contacts be used better?
Please fight My Brute: http://2hero.mybrute.com
Mission Architect 54161 - Michael Mundano, Megan Malloney and the Secret Senate.
Mission Architect 91838 - Constantinople Jones' Family Secret. A One Mission Story arc.