Antarctic Zone

While playing the game a coupla nights ago (and incidently hearing the chalet music in the hero side Pocket D vault??????) it occured to me that a zone set in Antartica might make an interesting place to visit?


The zone would be loosely based on the movie "The Thing"

Players would book passage on a ship from Paragon City or the Rogue Isles and then arrive in the zone at a supply base on the outskirts of the zone.

The zone itself would use the snow and ice environment from the chalet sans trees with rough uneven terrain riddle with tunnels and caves (like the tunnels in Faultline). At the center of the zone would be an abandoned research station.

Two type of contacts would be available in the zone; the first would be a hero/villian neutral contacts that would send heros and villians on exploration missions around the zone to collect resources of some sort which the characters could trade in the same manner as MA tickets. These missions would involve exploring the caves and tunnels as well as points of interest (old supply bases, camp sites, vehicle crash areas, unusual geological sites, ect). These missions would also provide the general backstory of the zone.

The second type of contact would be specific to heros or villians. Missions would be appropriately themed to each type and as the heros and villians completed the various missions, the true story of the zone would be revealed as well as opening missions based in the abandoned reseach station which would ultimately culminate in a task force specific to heros or villians aimed at either stopping the ancient menace or gaining mastery over it.

As an option, the hero and villian specifc contacts could be hidden to new arrivals to the zone and as the characters completed neutral contact missions they would gain noteriety which would ultimately reveal the hidden contacts.

Crey seems like a good fit as an established enemy group for the zone along with the Devouring Earth. Malta could be involved as well. Winter Lord and his gang could be present as also as a sort of environmental hazard.

A new enemy group could be introduced for the zone, playing on the movie theme, these enemies would range from people who have been driven mad to enemies who have been infected (transformed, replaced, ect) by the ancient evil at the abandoned research base. The former would be normal except for thier madness fueled ability and the latter would actually transform into a hybrid monster of some sort.

Another idea I had for an antarctic zone would be a dual zone of sorts with antarctic missions ultimately opening the way into a second tropical "Land of the Lost" zone (although I havent given much thought to it beyond that and it would be a neat way toget dinosaurs into the game).

hmmm... what it needs is a reason why heroes and villains care.

that's my primary beef with people wanting non-city zones. it's hard to ave a good reason for a superhero to be in an area where there aren't people to save. and if there are people to save, it's hard to give a reason for them to stay there if it's so freaking dangerous.

an antarctic zone would be a great way to include the winter horde in the game in a normal manner or even make a new snow-themed group (to prevent repetition) and this group would be hostile to all in the zone (including other NPCs)

i would just make it a co-op zone instead of separating it so much with the contacts, ect

edit: didnt see docs post till i submitted, but a reason could be theres some sort of supervillain secret lair there (council maybe, could involve the lair of the center and actually involve him in the game)

They could maybe set it somewhere else with more people - like, say, Canada?

I love to have a snow/cold zone to explore. And Canada does seem like it fit better, there's cities there and more people too. Of course Antarctic does have penguins. hmmm

Rather than make an entire zone, perhaps it would be better to make several instanced maps and have a set story arc or TF/SF that takes place there. In theory, this would allow them to get more milage out of the individual maps without running into the Perez Park problem of no one using the zone.

Put a Rikti base in the zone. That'd get people caring... Though it might just feel redundant. maybe a massive nemesis base? ...No, steam doesn't like cold.

My hope for a cold weather zone has always been more realistic. No need to travel, no need to have impossible arctic areas in Rhode Island. Do something that's actually plausible in a world of superscience.

Anyone who knows a little about civil engineering knows that the Rogue Isles really aren't big enough to have enough fresh water for the number of people on them. So how could Lord Recluse get a ready source of fresh water and allow for more easy increases in his population?

Giant Floating Icebergs.

Cool stuff can happen in Iceberg Islands. Strange Sea critters attracted to the area by the change in temp. Strange things trapped in the Ice (where does the Lord of Winter go?). Longbow and Legacy Chain trying to slow down the Arachnos Ice harvesting.

All kinds of ideas, up to and including floating territory.

I could actually see a nemesis base. steam may not like cold, but then how is it those warhuls and jaegers can take repeated ice blasts that have to be aproaching absolute zero? wen you blow them up, it's actially from the WEAR AND TEAR. so it makes sense to me that a base could take the antarctic cold.


besides, the boilers would also eliminate the need for a furnace, cheapening power needs. the problem is, what do they burn?

true enough. hm. I may have to rethink my strategy when fighting Warhulks if eeach of them is a miniature nuclear reactor...

I would like a snowy city, I want ALL the city be clover in snow for Christmas.

The Rikti were supposed to be bottled up in the War Zone and deep below Paragon according to CoH story lore, I thought.

Not to say I'm opposed to metahuman activity actually happening somewhere BESIDES Paragon and the Rogue Isles. I mean, if I was a supervillain, I'd be terrorizing the OTHER side of the continent instead of the one swarming with superheroes. Or the other side of the world would be even better. Korean supervillainy!

If we could work in Coralax somehow that'd be groovy. Coralax, the great unused. Heck, make Antarctica into Atlantis. I don't think the Circle or the Mu are Atlantean, so we still have an ancient mystical city out there laying unclaimed by anything besides terrible sea monsters, looking for a way to wake old Leviathan back up.

on the subject of sea monsters, I think that if there IS some underwater zone later, there should be many roaming EB's and monsters. big snake type things, even if it's only targetable near the head, I'd love to be swimming along through some kind of canyon, then suddenly there's a issing and I'm tossed aside as a massive form dart past me, then flit up and flares it's angler fish light.