Having no responses was probably a bit of a downer after you spent time carefully crafting a post like this, in addition to thinking through the ideas that went into your post.
The lack of any real meaning to the contacts (beyond listing their respective origins and attaching them to particular villain groups) may have been an error, in retrospect, and your suggestions for grouping them would have given them some distinctive flavor. If something along these lines had been added at the launch of COX, it seems likely to have been well received by players.
I don't know whether a revamp of this kind would be attractive to many players at this point, though. My initial sense is that it would not, and I know that it wouldn't matter that much to me.
I've been wrong before, though; it may be that many players keenly feel a lack of any real meaning to having contacts, other than as a hoop through which they have to jump, and that giving the contacts more structure and providing some incremental benefits from working with particular contact groupings would, in fact, still be well received by players.
I pretty much agree with Shoe, he worded it so eloquently.
Any change like this is always hard to implement, especially after nearly 6 years. I'm also not exactly sure how the exiasting contacts could be put into your system, because although originally, it appears that the Devs had a picture that following thru a string of contacts would eventually tell a story, there have been other contacts added since that time.
For example, the contacts added for Croatoa tell a story as your progress from one to another (and they don't send you from zone to zone to find the next link). But they are different GROUPS under your system. Gordon Bower is Government, while Skipper LaGrange is Media. Working your way thru their arc would have you switching groups to gain Rep, which then adds a weird sort of complication to the process of working thru the arc.
Which group would hold the RWZ contacts? They aren't government or military because Vanguard in a Militaristic NGO (non-governmental organization). The same for Longbow.
What about the Midnight Squad? Some of them are Academic, but all of them? Ambassador Kuh'Reckt - governmental? military? Westin Phipps?
I could go on, but basically I am saying that our current contacts are a bit more varied than your system would allow.
I'm also not sure of your reward system. I know the idea is that a Tier 5 reward is something really "good", but some seem a bit OP unless really limited in duration. And your Resource Rewards mostly seem to be things that are already available in-game. 100% HP Restoration - I already have that on all my characters, it's called Rest. Radioactive Isotope Defense Debuff - my Rad characters call that Radiation Infection and they have it by level 6 at the latest. Patient Zero Uncontrollable Pet is a Shivan or War Wolf.
Basically the devil is in the details and I just don't think you can retrofit such a complex system onto the game now.
It would be great for a new game, though.
Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!
Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon
"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."
IF the idea was implemented as a way of consolidating existing early-level Hero contacts then I would be for this wholeheartedly. As it stands the early levels on blueside have little or no meaning, with multiple contacts giving out the same arcs/special badge missions.
I am heartened to hear about the changes to the Positron TF as a change, much-requested by players, that will be coming in i17. That TF was one of the original pieces of story and it will be updated. Seeing as the total number of missions for characters in the 5-10 range on Blueside isn't that far over the total number of missions given out by Posi at the moment, I doubt there would be a huge increase in memory required to 'rewrite' that content.
As it stands those early missions are a mixture of defeats and one-off specials which the paper system now deals with in a more concise way. The defeats are there for the purpose of making new characters explore their environment. I'd argue that places like Perez are defunct and so would make an interesting zone to implement the OPs idea. With Ultra Mode coming it'd be a neat 'Wow!' introduction to new and old players alike to see a revamped Perez with the lake/swamp surrounded by trees and with the taller buildings round the edge.
Negotiator, for badge hunters at least, is the only significant mission at this early stage and I'd like to see more made of it, with an update to it being Skulls vs Clockwork (which makes very little sense when it's described as gang warfare, to me anyway).
The 'major arcs' in the 10-14 range could also do with a little contact consolidation: The Bonefire Plot, The Clockwork Captive and the Vazhilok Pollutant Plot. Basically anything that is flashbackable (I know, it's not a word...) needs its own contact with, perhaps, the OPs idea for group affiliation contacts picking up the rest.
A lot of the newer contacts are written in this way, mainly because they tell the story of a zone (Faultline, the entirety of redside content). As the contact system grows on blueside some contacts become critter group storytellers and I like that. Also the word 'newer' is important.
To finish (At last...) I think it would take a lot of time to do this. I don't think it's as simple as a bit of housekeeping of files. I would love to see it.
I do not want to change too much of what there is currently but I do want to add to it. Please bear in mind that this just an idea constructive criticism, suggestions and opinions are encouraged. The labels used below are merely placeholders and examples: -
I propose introducing a Reputation system. Reputation is earned by performing assignments and missions for contacts. Each contact belongs to a GROUP each group is like a faction in other games. A players reputation with each GROUP is recorded against their character. The groups I propose at present are basically types of industry they are; Academic, Government, Media, Military, Scientific and Technical. The Academic Group represents philosophical, magical and educational organizations, the Government Group represents Federal organizations and governmental departments, the Media Group represents journalistic, radio and television broadcasting organizations, the Military Group represents the Army, Air Force and Navy, the Scientific Group represents research and scientific organizations and labs and the Technical Group represents the engineering, production and construction industries.
Reputation can at anytime be cashed in for an in game benefit (more on this later). Each one of these GROUPS is then divided into three SUBGROUPS these are; Backing, Contacts and Resources. Backing Reputation can be used to call in assistance in the form of manpower or services, Contacts Reputation can be used to grant specialist assignments and missions with added rewards and Resources Reputation can be used to call in assistance in the form of equipment and supplies.
Within each SUBGROUP there are 5 Tiers of benefit (each Tier maybe a temporary power, a short term buff, a temporary pet, an XP bonus, an invention or enhancement etc); the Tier 1 bonus is the easiest to earn but is also the least powerful (so to speak), whereas the Tier 5 bonus costs the most Reputation and is the most effective. So players can choose to save up their Reputation for the highest Tier effect or they can spend it earlier for a less powerful bonus. Once the Tier bonus has been used up the players Reputation effectively drops to 0 within that Group. In other words they have called in a favor and now must work hard to increase their Reputation once again to get more favors.
A couple of examples of the Tiers are listed below, the first one is for the Government Group, the second for the Media and the third for Scientific: -
Backing
1) Local Sheriff - Common MUTANT Vendor
2) Police Informer - Mob Confuse
3) District Attorney - Uncommon MUTANT Vendor
4) Government Database - Team Attack Buff
5) Federal Agent - Rare MUTANT Vendor
Contacts
1) Rank 1 Mission Contact - +25% XP Bonus
2) Rank 2 Mission Contact - +25% Influence Bonus
3) Rank 3 Mission Contact - +50% XP Bonus
4) Rank 4 Mission Contact - +50% Influence Bonus
5) Rank 5 Mission Contact - +100% XP Bonus
Resources
1) Mutated DNA - Restore 100% HP
2) Radioactive Isotope - Mob Defence Debuff
3) Patient Zero - Pet (Uncontrolled)
4) Emergency Response Team - Locational AOE
5) Biological Weapon - Mob AOE
What do you think?