Ralaruu And the Shadow Shard

This isn't a new idea by any means but I'm going to talk about it anyway.

So I just got done in the last couple days running my first two Shadow Shard Task Forces. Starting with Faathim the Kind and then I did a Sara Moore just a bit earlier.

Reading through the clues, and the text for each mission from the contacts, I've gotten a much better understanding of whats going on in the Shadow shard and honestly, it's just too friggen cool for words.

The story, the idea, Rularuu and his aspects.. All amazing, who ever came up with that stuff has got a fantastic imagination and the art, the style, it's all fantastic. The aspects, Faathim, Ruladak, Lanaruu.. All gorgeous characters and they are tons of fun to look at and fight. Some of the unique maps are amazing, the zones themselves are all gorgeous.

Simply put, we need more.

There are 4 or 5 more aspects not in the game, and I want to fight them all. Seriously, there is so much that can be done with this set of zones as far as missions, TFs, more zones, Trials etc. It's just fantastic and honestly I feel like the Devs could do another paid expansion after GR just for SS stuff.

I feel they should open it all up, make it all a co-op zone, (I could easily see this as something Lord Recluse would be interested in having his chosen ones being a part of for his own gain.) And develop it further. Not just adding missions, but add task forces, more contacts, and a couple new zones. I'd love to see the Cathedral of Pain as it's own zone.

That brings me to Rularuu. Up until earlier, I had no idea that Cathedral of Pain was Shadow Shard related, and that it had Rularuu himself in it. I didn't realize Rularuu himself was actually in the game.

That said I looked him up on Paragon wiki.







OMG! That's all I can think. He looks amazing, he's the biggest GM in the game and he's bigger than any of the current AVs, and he looks like he'd be tons of fun to go after with a team.

I know Cathedral of pain had a broken mission and the whole item of power thing didn't work out quite right, but it needs to be fixed and re-added, or they need to do something else with Rularuu because he is too damned cool to be sitting on the back burner of the server hard drive.

Honestly, I'm more blown away by the SS than I was before, I can wait to do Justin Augustine and Dr. Quarterfield, I just really want to see more of this fantastic idea brought to the game. Use the other aspects, use Rularuu, get more maps, give Heroes and villains a chance to explore this entire world of the Shadow Shard.

Just my 2.5 inf worth.

Rularuu's a GM, not an AV. That's why he's in that lineup of other GMs.

Perhaps Uuralur the Mirror might have something to do with I17?

i do agree that they need to expand content in the shard, as well as making it co-op (since there is canon story arcs that HAVE arachnos in the shard and mishs that make you go to a section of the shard)

I agree that the Shadow Shard should be a co-op zone.
It gets very little traffic and making it a co-op zone would increase it's use.

I either suggested or supported this idea when it was suggest before. Honestly, it was so long ago, I can't remember which but I think it came up in a QOL (Quality of Life) Zone discussion.

It's kind of sad that the base Mission Computers can't even give you the broken Cathedral of Pain mission. From my view point, it would be good to be able to run the Cathedral of Pain mission even if it didn't allow your SG to have a IOP (Item of Power). I really think that the Mission Computers should give you other missions that are specially related to SG teaming.
I can understand why the DEVs might not want to do this, but there are so many SG's that won't play with non-sg members that they might as well set-up some missions for the Mission Computer.

I'd like to see more Shadow Shard too. One thing I'd like is to pull the minimum number for the task forces down to 5 or 6, and the total duration down to a couple of hours.

As for the hero vs villain piece, I'd vote for doing it like Ouroboros. Both factions can get in and walk around and get missions, but they never see each other. It's not coop or pvp. It's just two instances of the same zone. The SS is much bigger, of course, but I'd rather see the zone split that way than have hovering stalkers AS me mid-jump, or have yet another "the world is in so much danger that we all have to work together" storyline. Although, technically, it is. If we are going to do that, it would be nice to do it in a more interesting way. Maybe give heroes and villains different mission briefings and slightly different goals even when they're on the same team, but that gets much more complicated.

i highly disagree to make the shard pvp related in any way, and i agree that once GR is out with side switching and stuff, non-co-op zones will be pretty moot.

i think just expanding the shard and making it co-op is the best way to go since the zones are huge

as for the CoP was removed, i do not think it had anything to do with IoPs and they werent an issue, and i remember someone saying that they talked to a dev about the issue and it wouldnt be a "simple fix" they would have to completely rework the entire trial.

I will support the Shard being made co-op.
Why? Simply put, it makes sense.

Boomtown or DA being made co-op? Why? Whats so dar kand scary that villains wouldnt simply rip the places of for profit as normal?
Shadow Shard? Oh, Helloooo dimension eater of doom and all powerful nastiness. THAT is something you go 'Yeah, truce' to, and team up to lay the smackdown on.

Another reason? You try getting Rularuu weapons once you miss Technician Naylor's arc, and dont want to run Scirroco's arc. Its a real s*d I tell you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

What happens to the MM pets when you jump on a geyser?

I am having all sorts of funny mental images of minions being thrown all over the shard...

I say they should just get rid of the propelled jump thing and make em like teleports between floating islands

I like the geysers & there is jet packs for puravhes. I dont think it needs changing as that is part of the zpnes appeal.

I'd like to see it opened to redside, the Ouroboros style suggested by peter peter would be a good way of doing it.

I'm so glad this thread showed up, so I can post a theory I came up with earlier today:

Who says Rularuu is a strictly a bad guy? If Faathim is an aspect of Rularuu (and he definitely is, considering the huge hole in the big guy's chest), then clearly Rularuu had some amount of benevolence.

This also makes the entire tale more tragic in several ways, with the Midnight Squad being forced to cage the equivalent of a bear who wandered into town and most of Rularuu's/the shard's problems being blamed on Lanaruu completely losing it, likely as a result of being unbound from Faathim's influence.

I like the idea of more Shadow Shard zones.

I like the idea that some SS zones should be hero only, and some should be villian only.

I think one SS zone should be co-op. I think one SS zone should be PvP.

I think, as well as opening up zones for each and every aspect of Rularuu, we should all remember that Nemesis' base is also located in the Shadow Shard, and it should get its own zone. Maybe even a taskforce where you end up going after the real Nemesis once and for all, darnit! What you see from the RWZ arc is just way too little.