New Mission Type: Gang Riots?

I got to thinking about "raids" in other games, and how TFs/SFs work in COH. I noticed that one of the big differences is that COH requires you to run from contact to contact, getting lots of missions that may require zone-to-zone travel. I wanted to imagine something *big* that could not be finished in 20 minutes, would require a coordinated effort between multiple teams and would be fairly challenging, on an epic scale.

So here, you essentially get a call to arms. Teams assemble at a contact, form their coalition, and enter an instanced map (probably at a tram), and enter this huge map where the gangs have started running amok. And it should be a mad-house. I mean, there should be so many enemies, so many hazards that you *really* have to work together. But the entire thing takes place on one large city map. There are hostages, explosives, trip mines, building fires, burning cars, smashed windows, fighting gang members, the whole nine yards. And you have to restore order.

I tried to make it as neutral as possible. If you're a hero, hey, it's what heroes do. If you're a villain, you're being paid to restore the order by Arachnos--or you're putting an end to this ridiculous nonsense that's interfering with your plans. (Unfortunately, some objectives just don't fit the villainous mold. What do you care if some John Doe dies in a burning building? Although this might be more enticing if the individuals inside the building were important: say, Dr. Geist, or someone similar.)

Anyway, I'm vetting this through you guys for refinement. If it has any merit, I'll promote it to the suggestions forum.

Introduction
The premise of this idea is that the gangs of Paragon are rioting in the streets, and that it's going to take a coordinated effort to restore order. This would not be a task-force of any kind we've seen to date. It would be something like a combination between a mayhem/safeguard mission, building fires, and rescue mission.





Details

• The primary objective of this repeatable mission is to restore order with minimal property damage and loss of life. The more property damage *you* cause, the lower your end-of-mission inf bonus.
• Primary foes in the mission blueside are Hellions, Skulls, Outcasts and Trolls. Redside foes are Snakes, Coralax, DE, Wailers and Arachnids. However, all foes have been scaled to support the entire level range. (New tech?)
• Multiple teams can participate in the mission, as a sort of "coalition." This would require new tech. They would all appear on the same instanced map, which is quite large, and the number and level of foes scales with the sizes of the teams.
• Safeguard/Mayhem Missions already involve destructible environments. Further, we've seen that certain objects, when destroyed, inflict damage on those within the effective casualty radius (ECR). This technology, already in the game, will be used. Essentially, if you destroy an explosive, it can kill a hostage you're trying to save, reducing your end-of-mission bonus. (You've failed a mission objective.)
• Explosives. The gangs will have piled lots of explosives against buildings, set traps and mortars, and used other means to cause as much destruction as possible. Players have two options: Use the explosives to defeat foes and increase the amount of property damage, or defeat the foes normally and disarm the explosives for additional XP. Explosives take damage from player attacks.
• Burning buildings. The rioting gangs will be setting buildings on fire, just as they do in Steel Canyon. The difference here, which would require a minor tweak, is that there are trapped civilians within the building. Once a building catches fire, a timer starts. Team members must get inside the building, rescue the hostages and get them to safety. If there are multiple teams involved, there may be multiple simultaneous building fires.
• Hostages. Hostages will be held throughout the map. Citizens must rescue them before they come to harm at the hands of the gangs. Number of hostages is variable, and depends on the number of teams participating.
• "Gang War" Ambushes. As the teams are trying to restore order, "gang war" style ambushes (lower level mobs of large numbers) will spawn and assault them to attempt to thwart their efforts.
• Restoring Order. As the team(s) defeat more villains on the map, order is progressively restored. PPD/RIP Cops begin returning to the streets. When the number of foes defeated reaches 95%, the big Finisher spawns.
• Big Finisher. Somewhere on the map, the big, final brawl spawns. This brawl contains an AV/EB from each of the gangs, plus his minions. The teams must arrest all the villains to restore final order. Once this is accomplished, all remaining villains will surrender or flee.

Anything that fills a map with loads of badguys to pound on is okay by me!

A villain equivalent could be to stir up the gang members and defeat enforcers sent to crack down on the activities.

Sounds pretty cool but the lag , oh the lag this would cause .........

I like the theory of this very much. I think that working it like a zone event could be viable. An alert is sent out for teams of heroes to report to the (insert zone) security chief. Given the gravity of the situation, the Security chief may require you to have a team of "X" number assembled before he will send you into the riot.

I am torn on whether to have multiple teams on one map or send each team to the train and give them their own instance to cut down on lag.

I also think you could include the Trolls in the groups used for this.

Red side you might be able to substitute the Snakes, Coralax, DE, Wailers and Arachnids. You could have an uprising/infestation that needs to be put down with arachnos hiring villain thugs to do the work. Shakes would be in Mercy, Coralax would be in PO and Shark, DE in Nerva, Wailers in St. Martial and Arachnids in Grandville.

Imagine a large area of the Isles with Coralax coming up out of the water onto every shore. Or Arachnids pouring out of every hole in the ground or sewer cover in the seedier parts of Grandville. Actually now that I think about it, I would probably use the Infected in Mercy instead of the snakes...most folks get tired of the snakes in Mercy. Wailers over running the Casinos in St. Martial.

A lot of potential fun in this idea...

Hmm... Sounds like an epic Mayhem/Safeguard Mission, almost. The Cursed Sorcerer approves.