Extreme Makeover: Dark Astoria edition
By
AzureSkyCiel,
Posted on: 2009-10-02 14:55 in Suggestions and Ideas
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Originally Posted by zachary_EU
People of Paragon city must have big problems with funerals.
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Not nessescarily. Paragon City is a big place, and in-game we only romp around a relatively small part of it. There has to be more cemetaries than just Moth in town. Considering the Pantheon, Vahzilok, and even Skulls love to pillage graves though, I suspect most people opt for cremation these days.
"Take the Yuan-Ti, bash them with a club made of frozen stupidity, then rip out their sense of subtlety with a rusty spoon, and then you have the Snakes of Mercy Isle" -Taltha Widowfang, drow stalker
Now playing at an MA near you: Dragonslayers #335375
/signed
Astoria TF = Pantheon God Super AV's (which would be nice a tall all god like) = Me SUPER HAPPY AND EXCITED!!!!!!!
The zones level doesn't really agree with a demi-god TF tho, concidering they would have to be super hard enemies like Rischman, maybe if they boosted the level range to at least 40, at the back of the zone, maybe expand it at the back to even 50 where you would fight demi-gods, because you have to agree a rischman at level 29 would be severely unfair =P
[QUOTE=Memphis_Bill;2301282]Not sure about the "shadow between you and the monitor" - I see that just causing tech support calls 
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Ah sorry let me restate that, I mean more of a silhouette, something that looks organic and at least close to being human. Depending on how large it is, they might also want to put in something to prevent it from showing up during a fight.
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They must be in the same unseen districts as all the schools, children, gas stations, buses, and sports facilities. |
Originally Posted by MartyRallner
Not nessescarily. Paragon City is a big place, and in-game we only romp around a relatively small part of it. There has to be more cemetaries than just Moth in town.
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And the airports, residential areas, malls... I better stop, because that's a new suggestion thread right there...
"Take the Yuan-Ti, bash them with a club made of frozen stupidity, then rip out their sense of subtlety with a rusty spoon, and then you have the Snakes of Mercy Isle" -Taltha Widowfang, drow stalker
Now playing at an MA near you: Dragonslayers #335375
I'm all for updating the zone, but a lot of the things you suggest really, really bug me. The fog SHOULD NOT be messed with. As the Goat pointed out, below the fog, the zone SUCKS. It's only a travel hazard the first time you visit. If you have any of the map explored, just go by that. All the buildings are clearly visible, and you can just follow the roads if it bugs you. I've taken all manner of characters through there.
Also, lay off the TFs. There is NOTHING worse than running a few arcs and finding out the last leg, the POINT, as it were, is unavailable to you. The Hollows and Striga are bad enough. We don't need more of that. Either axe the TF altogether, or add it as an alternate story not written into the main story arc chain.
But, really, what you need to get people in there is a POINT. Right now, there is no point in going to Dark Astoria unless you want to make your own fun. Putting story arcs that send you to instances in it would fix that.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Ok, looking at the opinions we've harvested so far, I think I can make some pretty conclusive points:
1. The fog. Don't $)*%&&$ touch it. As long as we make DA interesting, people will put up with it.
2. Multiple story arcs ending with a TF. Don't *&%^(&% do it. I agree that breaking the mold that the Hollows, Striga, and Croatoa are cast from is a good idea. Having a TF seperate from the arcs, where people can just walk in and participate, is a better idea.
3. Dark Astoria is supposed to be scary. So MAKE it scary. There's a lot of little things that could be added that could ramp up the terror factor in the zone and lead to a much more satisfying experience overall.
I missing anything?
"Take the Yuan-Ti, bash them with a club made of frozen stupidity, then rip out their sense of subtlety with a rusty spoon, and then you have the Snakes of Mercy Isle" -Taltha Widowfang, drow stalker
Now playing at an MA near you: Dragonslayers #335375
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That pretty much satisfies me on very much ever point. I'm not really sure what you can do to make the place scarier, though, as that usually involves overt, uncontrollable danger, which might be problematic. I cannot disagree with making the zone more atmospheric, however.
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Originally Posted by MartyRallner
Ok, looking at the opinions we've harvested so far, I think I can make some pretty conclusive points:
1. The fog. Don't $)*%&&$ touch it. As long as we make DA interesting, people will put up with it. 2. Multiple story arcs ending with a TF. Don't *&%^(&% do it. I agree that breaking the mold that the Hollows, Striga, and Croatoa are cast from is a good idea. Having a TF seperate from the arcs, where people can just walk in and participate, is a better idea. 3. Dark Astoria is supposed to be scary. So MAKE it scary. There's a lot of little things that could be added that could ramp up the terror factor in the zone and lead to a much more satisfying experience overall. I missing anything? |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Oh I like these ideas.|
Originally Posted by HWS9867
Revamping Dark Astoria would be awesome, but only if they make it even creepier. Do not take away the fog!!
I think it would be cool to just be sitting there and all of a sudden a random object (trash can, bottle or some other normal neighborhood object) would just kinda roll up to you from out of nowhere and stop at your feet followed by children giggling or something equally creepy. Or maybe if you're in 3rd person view you could see a random shadow pass between you and your monitor every now and then. Have some random spook spawns that just wait for someone to get into viewing range then run behind a building or down an alley and disappear. Maybe be walking near a window and have a random chance of the glass shattering (both sound and particle effects) would be even cooler if the shattering had a random chance to spawn an enemy or two out of the window. It would also be nice if they expanded the underground tombs section in the graveyard to go deeper into some catacombs and maybe at the very end of them would be the entrance to the banished pantheons home. Another idea I just had and had to add in. Going back to the window idea rather than normal NPCs I think it would be cool if it was a random GM/AV (think nemesis from RE, or Pyramid head from silent hill) that would work like an ambush and chase you across the zone. Would be even better if he could chase you into any mission within DA as well. You could get two badges from him. If you are the one being chased the time from his spawn til his unspawn/defeat will count towards a suvival badge (stay alive a total of 10 mins with DA monster chasing you) and a badge for helping to defeat him. |
Also, if a Recluse's Victory programming could be applied, one idea could be to replace day and night cycles with Dark Astoria falling even an even Darker state. "Night" falls and the world becomes even more twisted, spawn size and frequency increase as well as their perception range to PC levels (To give as sense that you're being ambushed/attacked) throw in hostile ghosts, maybe?. For an odd idea, have the fog disappear in this state as kind of an ironic thing. Like imagine this scenario: A new player is going through Dark Astoria the first time, grumbling about the fog. Then, the sirens sound and he thinks a Rikti Raid is occurring, but instead he gets his wish but sees Dark Astoria for what it's really become/becoming. Suddenly, he wants the fog back. NOW.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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Cool. I'm not that late to this one. No time to read the whole thread now so I'll jump in spastic for a bit of ranting
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Keep the dark. |
Originally Posted by MartyRallner
A) Scale back the darkness just a bit.
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I think there are a couple of good ways to deal with the fog.
- Keep the majority of fog low-lying so that the level above normal sight from the ground is clear. This will allow players to superleap, fly or tp above the fog and not have to worry about running into buildings.
- Vary the concentration of fog. Have it thinner in the first part of the zone and thicker (about how it is now) back near the graveyards. Also have the fog thicker around the Banished Pantheon groups.
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B) Villain diversification: Right now Astoria is a one-note town, and that note is Banished Pantheon. ...The Circle of Thorns... |
Dark Astoria is the most "Goth" zone in the game. It needs to be "Goth"-ed up.
Where are the vampires?
Where are the werewolves?
Witches?
Ghosts?
Where the heck are the zombies!
Move the mission doors (or some of them) out of the graveyards and into town proper. Now add a chance of zombies spawning on the graveyards. Don't spawn them right on top of characters. Spawn them in the distance so that they can slowly amble toward the players and make sure you can hear them before you see them!
The two major things that the zone needs are ::
- a normal mission contact set that you can walk into the zone and get missions from - like the Hollows, Striga, Fault Line, etc.
- a patrol/police scanner contact - like Megan (can't remember her names) in the Hollows.
- Horror-based Taskforce. Yeah, there are some cool mystic taskforces. Let's get a good horror one in the mix. I'm not talking slasher, but "monster" themed.
There just aren't many missions in Dark Astoria.
No real reason to go there.
The fog makes it hard to get around.
It's a cool zone that needs a good bit of DEV love.
Give us a good spooky place to hang out.
Heck. I'd love to see a bonfire in the game somewhere - and it's dark all the time in "Dark" Astoria.
I'd would much rather see work done on Dark Astoria rather than on Boomtown....or at least before Boomtown...
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I like the idea of a day "Wow, kinda spooky here" and night "OhgodIwantitbacktotheoldversionohgodohgodohgo d" cycle, but with the specifics you describe, a certain shirtless knife-wielding chap with trigonometry for a face would probably be calling either his agent or his lawyer. Remember, we're playing a superhero MMO, not a survival horror game.|
Originally Posted by AzureSkyCiel
Oh I like these ideas.
Also, if a Recluse's Victory programming could be applied, one idea could be to replace day and night cycles with Dark Astoria falling even an even Darker state. "Night" falls and the world becomes even more twisted, spawn size and frequency increase as well as their perception range to PC levels (To give as sense that you're being ambushed/attacked) throw in hostile ghosts, maybe?. For an odd idea, have the fog disappear in this state as kind of an ironic thing. Like imagine this scenario: A new player is going through Dark Astoria the first time, grumbling about the fog. Then, the sirens sound and he thinks a Rikti Raid is occurring, but instead he gets his wish but sees Dark Astoria for what it's really become/becoming. Suddenly, he wants the fog back. NOW. |
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Keep the majority of fog low-lying so that the level above normal sight from the ground is clear. This will allow players to superleap, fly or tp above the fog and not have to worry about running into buildings. Vary the concentration of fog. Have it thinner in the first part of the zone and thicker (about how it is now) back near the graveyards. Also have the fog thicker around the Banished Pantheon groups. |
(Forgive me, mods, for using something from Macrochan. Say the word and it's gone)
"Take the Yuan-Ti, bash them with a club made of frozen stupidity, then rip out their sense of subtlety with a rusty spoon, and then you have the Snakes of Mercy Isle" -Taltha Widowfang, drow stalker
Now playing at an MA near you: Dragonslayers #335375
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Point, and while maybe the air raid siren is a bit much, it might stand for reason if we let the Midnighters, Legacy Chain, and some Longbow set up shop to help the PPD. If they can keep an area "purified" of the darkness and having other heroes run beyond the foothold, I think they're going to need to do something to warn heroes when "night" if falling in Dark Astoria, and besides, what better way would there be to show that Dark Astoria is getting worse by the day, and it's all the more reason why Paragon need to act.
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Originally Posted by MartyRallner
I like the idea of a day "Wow, kinda spooky here" and night "OhgodIwantitbacktotheoldversionohgodohgodohgo d" cycle, but with the specifics you describe, a certain shirtless knife-wielding chap with trigonometry for a face would probably be calling either his agent or his lawyer. Remember, we're playing a superhero MMO, not a survival horror game.
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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.
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I've tried this twice now, to bring about change to DA once a long time ago and once more recently.
There is a small highly dedicated group that believe they are the only people who ever visit DA. I'm one of those people, well one of the few that enjoy DA and i would like to share it with everyone...though to ask any of the others they would deny I've ever been there. Anyway none of them want to see any changes they want their "secret zone" to remain theirs and thus they are vehemently against any move to change it.
If you were interested in my vision for DA you can check out my WIP AE mission "A story in Astoria" under @Roxanna though some changes were made to AE since I made that so the missions are a little less action packed than I would like. I haven't written the last mission yet and the second to last mission is much more tedious than I would like. Please don't write any reviews here.
anyway, I'd much prefer to see the BP take the lime light rather than this grand coalition of factions but either way best of luck to you ,OP.
Roxy On DA...Finally!
My hope is that once GR is released, they'll have two or three people dedicated to freshening up existing zones. I'm not holding my breath because they've shown a marked preference for new content over revised content. But one can still hope.
Freedom: Blazing Larb, Fiery Fulcrum, Sardan Reborn, Arctic-Frenzy, Wasabi Sam, Mr Smashtastic.