Ralaruu And the Shadow Shard

First and foremost, the Shard needs to be "fixed" before any and all expansions to it are planned. First of all, drop the quasi-paper crap and put in a series of REAL story arcs that clue me into the story of the Shard without putting me through an 8-hour marathon with strangers who don't care about the lore anyway. They don't have to be the same as the TFs, but do share some of the same story with me otherwise. Once there's something to actually DO in the Shard, then we can talk.

Secondly, get rid of the cop-out teleporters. Just get rid of them completely. They're fugly, they're out of place and they are... Well, a cop-out to a better system. Get rid of the cop-out teleporters and expand the Mole Point network, while simultaneously making each Mole Point unlockable by visiting it, not by requiring that you be given a mission to go visit it. DO NOT unlock them all unless the person visits them first, but just have the scientist at the teleporter sign you in and that's all.

After that, fix the geysers. They're perfectly good as a travel medium, but it seems every day more and more start shooting off to the side. Just off the top of my head, the chain that leads to the farthest island in FBZ where the Horta Vine for the Cascades is located always shoots short on the second to last jump. It's supposed to take you from the previous big island to a small geyser island, which then takes you to the last island, but you don't land ON the small geyser, you land on the steeply slanted rock face of the small island, and unless you're VERY fast and VERY lucky, you simply slide off into the void. Several other "small island" geysers do the same, specifically the ones that take you on the chain to the Chantry. Go over them, make sure they shoot straight.

Then mark all the REST of them on the map. Currently, any geyser that shoots straight up to take yo to an upper island, like the ones in Crimson Falls, is not marked because it has no travel line. Mark those as just a circle so I know where to climb. Also, mark the borders between separate islands floating partially over each other better. Currently, such islands look like a single uniform island on the map, making all of the Cascades look like one land mass, whereas it's more like four levels of floating plateaus. Easier to tell where islands overlap and where you need to jump up to switch levels.

Only THEN can we talk about expansions of the thing.

One possible way to expand the Shard and share it with villains without going co-op or PvP is to institute "shadow zones." Suppose Villains get an entrance to it in a new zone, that goes in another new zone which then links to the Chantry, and potentially back to FBZ. Except, and here's the creepy part - you never actually meet any heroes as a villain. At first you think it's because the place is so big and there are so few heroes, so you venture closer to the hero outpost. You visit the cascades, but there are no heroes there, too. Cautiously you stride over to FBZ, but there are no outposts on the islands there. And the big bubble isn't there. And, in face, there is no FBZ. It's just a bare rock.

Huh? How is that even possible? If you log into a hero and go there, FBZ is where it has always been, but if you head on out to look at the villain base, THAT isn't there. What the? Well, the Shadow Shard is big. Possibly so vast that villains and heroes just ended up in places that look a lot alike, but actually aren't. Who says the Horta Vines always lead to the same place? Who says there's only one Cascades Archipelago? In fact, who says that each location of the Shadow Shard has only one instance? Who says it doesn't morph and change?

Think back to Silent Hill. You come from a school yard into a basement, go forward 20 feet, come out the other side and come out in the SAME yard... Only it's not the same, is it? You go into a room, turn a corner, hear sirens, go back and realise there is no door where you thought you came in. Only a solid wall that looks like it's been there for the past 50 years. You go into a lift, go through all three floors it has buttons for, but when you go back inside in deperation, you notice it goes up to the fourth floor. Was that there before? Why don't you have a map of this fourth floor?

Now think about the Shadow Shard in the same light. Each time you pass through a Horta Vine, you end up in a place that looks familiar. But is it always the same place? How can you tell? Is the whole of it always the same as you left it? You go through a teleporter to get into the Chantry, but are you sure that takes you INSIDE the actual structure? If the Horta Vine can take you across potentially thousands of kilometres, who says the Chantry teleporter doesn't take you to a completely different place, somewhere in the heart of an island? Are you sure those islands don't rearrange themselves after you've moved on and left them miles behind? In fact, they always look like they're stationary, but who says they aren't moving? Who says the whole Shard isn't always caught in a constant storm of relocating islands? As far as scientists have been able to tell, there is no bottom to the Shard. Who says Horta Vines don't take you to different planes in space? In fact, is there any guarantee that space works the same way in the Shard that it does on Earth? I mean, it looks like it does, but are you SURE that walking all the way around the Chantry puts you in the same exact place?

Some of that isn't actually even just creepy-voice speculation. Take something the old Build Engine could do. (Duke Nukem 3D). Let's look at two stacked rooms lined with a U-shaped corridor, a little like this:

        ________
        |  __  |
      __| |__|_|__
      |          |
      |    RR    |
      |    RR    |
      |          |
      ------------

Quote:

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.

I have one simple question.

What is the point of the zones?

I too want more Shard stuff. I'm in love with the Shard in a way that's entirely unhealthy. I'd spend much more time in there, if I had a reason to.

Yes, more Shadow Shard please!

I like the gravity geysers. They're fun and not at all hard to use or slow. Keep them but mark them all and adjust the aim as Samuel Tow said.

I also agree with Sam about the cop-out teleporters. Expand and improve the mole point network and dump the teleporters.

I think the shard would be a good place for a co-op raid event somewhat like the rikti ship. I don't think it should all be made co-op though.