"Things to do" guide redux (i16, first redside draft).
By
GavinRuneblade,
Posted on: 2009-10-11 19:22 in Player Guides
Thanks!
Just a suggestion: the lists of things to do could use a little more formatting for readability. You might want to think about making them into Google Docs so that you can easily format them and update them and the links to them never change.
You might also want to check out similar guides listed in this post under Guideposts to look for / Long range planning.
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Yes, but I'm not quite sure what would actually improve readability rather than representing pointless chrome. Any suggestions? The redside contacts are a bit of a mess given that the format was intended originally for blueside contacts where only a few of them have arcs to offer.|
Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Just a suggestion: the lists of things to do could use a little more formatting for readability.
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| You might want to think about making them into Google Docs so that you can easily format them and update them and the links to them never change. |
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| You might also want to check out similar guides listed in this post under Guideposts to look for / Long range planning. |
"Thresholds CoH" is badly out of date, but strikes me as attempting to do something similar, but listing only the most important things rather than a mad completist's guide.
"Checklist of things to do each level" seems to me to have two things wrong with it. First of all, it's got a lot of stuff about where to grind XP, and even if you like grinding XP, that advice is probably long obsolete.
More seriously, however, each thing is tied to the _first_ level you can do it at (often wrongly given the lifting of the level restriction on Hazard Zones), not a sensible level - hence the listing of Positron at level 10, Transcendence at 12, Banisher at 15, Archmage at level 5, and so forth. To be fair, it often recommends doing them later.
The way I see it, those various defeat badges can be tied to the Accolade they are associated with. Why tell people to do Gearsmasher (for Freedom Phalanx Reserve) in central Perez at level 7? Unless some highbie brings you along for the ride, you won't be offing Fake Nemesis until 40th or above, and if by some miracle you have avoided getting Gearsmasher up until that point you can go and flatten Clockwork anywhere you like.
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As a player who could use such a resource, what would be helpful to me is to break it into chunks based on level. Rather like the way Oroboros is grouped. Doesn't have to be in equal sized ******, but breaking it out like that would help me say "hmm this character is level 23, let me check and see what I don't want to miss in his range".|
Originally Posted by Thunderforce
Yes, but I'm not quite sure what would actually improve readability rather than representing pointless chrome. Any suggestions? The redside contacts are a bit of a mess given that the format was intended originally for blueside contacts where only a few of them have arcs to offer.
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Having it all in one long list is rather like a wall of text forum post. I need the framework to help sort it out and make sense of it quickly when I'm doing two things at once.
Thanks for making this resource!
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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I did consider that. The difficulty is that - unlike the Ouroborous guides - the activities are not really split neatly across the level ranges. Of course a lot of it is in 5-10 11-15 and so forth, but a lot of it is not.
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
As a player who could use such a resource, what would be helpful to me is to break it into chunks based on level.
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Assume no sidekicking and use a break based on the initial level available or the level of the zone. For example, sure a level 1 can theoretically get all explore badges for grandville without a sidekick, but really, unless they're a stalker it would be so frustrating as to be pointless. Etc.
Then add notes to the ones that you can benefit from/accelerate by sidekicking.
The critical information is the stuff you can outlevel, like the Mayhem explore badges.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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Well, that's more or less the basis on which it's done, but I don't think any absolutely rigid rule works - the level ranges for many things are more like suggestions than hard limits. In particular the minimum level of many hazard zones is encoded in it in spite of that restriction vanishing with i16. |
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Assume no sidekicking and use a break based on the initial level available or the level of the zone.
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In theory it would be nice to distinguish hard and soft limits but in practice the only thing that really matters there is the dire warning about safeguard/mayhem badges.
But that's not the problem with splitting it up; the problem is simply that many activities would span any possible division and don't fit neatly. For example, "select second prerequisite for Stamina" can be done at level 8, so it goes in 5-10? But in practice you're going to do it in 15-20 or maybe 10-15. The respec trials starting at x4 levels is also suitably awkward.
I've had a first crack at it, rearranging a few items. I've also added a Day Job checklist sorted roughly by difficulty. I've only made these changes blueside for now.
That's quite a bit more readable. I was thinking about your comments on outlevelling things and varied levels. Might then the better way to organize be by Max level first, then min level? Sort of how we alphabetize names by last name, then first.
As an example of the change (not sure this is better, just tossing it out there for you):
Currently your list reads:
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1: Breakout: Jail Bird Exploration badge. 1-4: One of two regular contacts, one story arc each. 1-50: Epic AT contact chain listed separately below. 1-50: Halloween salvage gives costume slot from Granny Beldam (Nerva Achipelago). 7: Invention Enhancements become slottable. 5-9 NO FLASHBACK: Atlas Park Mayhem explore badge. 5-50: Force of Nature accolade: many Mayhem badges, Villain (Longbow). 5-8: One of two regular contacts, one story arc each, introduces Broker mechanism. 5-9: Three regular contacts, two badges, four story arcs. 6-12: Select prerequisite for travel power (traditional build). 12-50: Dual Origin Enhancements become slottable. 11-14 NO FLASHBACK: King's Row Mayhem explore badge. 10-14: Five regular contacts (one is unlocked by a badge). Two badges, eight story arcs. 10-50: University training. 14: Travel power (traditional build). 14-20 (or 30-50?): Ashley McKnight (Cap au Diable): Origin of Power story arc. To many contacts. 6-16: Select prerequisite for Stamina (traditional build). 16-19 NO FLASHBACK: Skyway City Mayhem explore badge. 8-18: Select second prerequisite for Stamina (traditional build). 15-19: Five regular contacts (one unlocked by missions from others). One badge, seven story arcs. 15-20: Virgil Tarikoss Strike Force (Cap au Diable). |
But by end-point first it would go:
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1: Breakout: Jail Bird Exploration badge. 1-4: One of two regular contacts, one story arc each (Kalinda or Burke). 7: Invention Enhancements become slottable. 5-8: One of two regular contacts, one story arc each, introduces Broker mechanism (names???). 5-9 NO FLASHBACK: Atlas Park Mayhem explore badge. 5-9: Three regular contacts, two badges, four story arcs. 10: University tutorial contact unlocked. 6-12: Select prerequisite for travel power (traditional build). 12: Dual Origin Enhancements become slottable. 10-14: Five regular contacts (one is unlocked by a badge). Two badges, eight story arcs. 11-14 NO FLASHBACK: King's Row Mayhem explore badge. 14: Travel power (traditional build). 6-16: Select prerequisite for Stamina (traditional build). 8-18: Select second prerequisite for Stamina (traditional build). 15-19: Five regular contacts (one unlocked by missions from others). One badge, seven story arcs. 16-19 NO FLASHBACK: Skyway City Mayhem explore badge. 14-20 (or 30-50?): Ashley McKnight (Cap au Diable): Origin of Power story arc. To many contacts. 15-20: Virgil Tarikoss Strike Force (Cap au Diable). 1-50: Epic AT contact chain listed separately below. 1-50: Halloween salvage gives costume slot from Granny Beldam (Nerva Achipelago). 5-50: Force of Nature accolade: many Mayhem badges, Villain (Longbow). |
Overall I think you might want to standardize on your style. For example you have IOs at level 7 only, but DOs at 12-50. It makes sense to just state the level they unlock on TOs, IOs, DOs, and SOs. Similarly anything that is an unlock, like a contact that appears at a specific level, or the Invention Tutorial, you can just state at the level it appears, I think. Then add a range only if you can outlevel it (some contacts I think work this way). Ones to add might be the unlockable contacts, for instance SlotMachine from level 30-34 (requires the Gang Buster badge), or Mu Drakhan.
Anyway, thanks for putting the work into this. Good luck with it.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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I would say use some special notation for "unlockables" (e.g. 7+ for IOs). If I only see one level, I'm going to think that it MUST be done AT that level or I will miss out.
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Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
Overall I think you might want to standardize on your style. For example you have IOs at level 7 only, but DOs at 12-50. It makes sense to just state the level they unlock on TOs, IOs, DOs, and SOs. Similarly anything that is an unlock, like a contact that appears at a specific level, or the Invention Tutorial, you can just state at the level it appears, I think. Then add a range only if you can outlevel it (some contacts I think work this way). Ones to add might be the unlockable contacts, for instance SlotMachine from level 30-34 (requires the Gang Buster badge), or Mu Drakhan.
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I'm new-ish. Again.
@Kahzi. Pinnacle, mostly.
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Originally Posted by Fulmens
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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A while back I wrote a guide for City of Heroes of things to do at each security level. I've updated it for i16 and had a first bash at a similar guide for villains. Since I have never taken a villain past about threat level 20, I expect there are some errors in it.
What's it meant to do? It's a sort of badger / content completist guide. The idea is that you can look up your security level in the guide and get an idea of what there is out there to do.
What's it not meant to do? Tell you where to grind XP. There's other guides for that and I tend to feel XP comes along whether you were looking for it or not. Also, yes, I know about Red Tomax and the Wiki. Thing is, the Wiki is very good at answering questions like "What is the level range on the Synapse Task Force?". It's not so good at answering questions like "I am level 20. Are there any task forces I can do?"
Guide for heroes:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~d...ingsshort.text
Guide for villains:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~d...ingsshort.text
Why links? So I can update them even when I can't edit this post.