A plea in the name of in-game events and Giant Monsters everywhere!
By
Aura_Familia,
Posted on: 2010-07-02 03:28 in Suggestions and Ideas
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Best Suggestion - 2010 ::applause::
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Originally Posted by Decorum
Maybe they need to hire a Legacy Dev, in charge of keeping all things old spruced up and shiny.
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Seconded|
Originally Posted by TwigDeath
Best Suggestion - 2010 ::applause::
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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.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Good idea, i usually like to do the events but sometimes when you need a team (Lusca) there's no one else to do it because they're off doing more rewarding things.
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Sadly, holding out the cup in the bum emote is often more rewarding than facing Lusca. I'd love to have a dev come in and rationalize the reward rate on that foe.
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Originally Posted by Slope
Good idea, i usually like to do the events but sometimes when you need a team (Lusca) there's no one else to do it because they're off doing more rewarding things.
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GMs were much more popular in the beginning and yes it was because of higher rewards. Back then the xp from the encounters wasn't level based as it is now. Just like when the Winterlords first showed up you could get lower characters multiple levels from one GM. The solution to this was to hugely reduce the rewards but this should have been a stopgap measure.
When proportional experience was instituted then the GM experience reward should have been raised again but they weren't. Currently on all except a couple of the GMs the time/reward balance is hugely out of proportion. For the most part you can actually get much more experience and inf by street sweeping even lower level mobs for the same amount of time investment.
So right now there are only 3 reasons to hunt GMs. Badges are a one time reward. After you've done it once there is no reason to repeat. Merits are a repeatable reward but most of the time it takes so long to gather enough players or else to get to an out of the way location (I'm looking at you Jurassic/Babbage/Adamastor) or even to complete (Lusca/Paladin) that few people consider it a good source of merits.
The only GMs who are hunted regularly are easily accessed, fairly easy to defeat depending on amount of players, and give out a good reward. Those GMs are Eochai and Jack. They are defeated quickly enough to make them worth fighting for the merits and they are also required for the Geas accolade.
The answer is simple and obvious and has been so for a long time. Raise the experience/inf back to what it used to be. Thanks to proportional experience rewards nobody will be going from level 1 to level 10 from fighting Lusca any more. And for higher levels the experience rate will be about the same a running a mission and will also grant a couple merits.
Don't count your weasels before they pop dink!
I'm really glad that there's all agreement going on here. You're right, Giant Monster went down the drain into a world of worthlessness only because they were - at one point - WAY too rewarding in their yield. That knee-jerk nerf to the situation is still around to this day and it's just plain sloppy and causes them to be disregarded completely.
A nerf/tweak to mechanics should not cause less care and participation, it should cause more; That's the key to balancing, do what has to be done to change what needs to be changed, but don't strip it of nearly-everything it was and everything that made it appealing in the first place. (See Burn.)
When it doesn't work out and then just gets ignored? That's the worst part. That has unfortunately effected me in more than just this scenario. (I'm looking at you i13 pvp mechanics...)
(Also I say "Ignore" loosely, for all I know they're planning the biggest re-revamp of pvp and Giant Monster and Zone Events we've all ever witnessed!!)
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haha, could you imagine. That would be like if the Praetoria versions of each dev took over.
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Originally Posted by TwigDeath
(Also I say "Ignore" loosely, for all I know they're planning the biggest re-revamp of pvp and Giant Monster and Zone Events we've all ever witnessed!!)
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And in an ironic twist of fate, as a celebration for Going Rogue's release, all the devs change their forum names to their Praetorian counter parts.
Just wanted to throw in my support for this. I can count on one hand the number of times there's actually been enough people and interest to take down a GM when I've been playing. I CAN'T count the number of times I've sat staring at a big ol' octopus in the middle of Independence Port and tried to get other people to help me make sushi, to no avail.
To me, the GMs are one of the coolest parts of this game; the idea of a mass of superheroes banding together to take down this giant that's terrorizing the innocent populace is straight out of the comics, and I wish that there was more interest in doing that. Anything that raises that interest level is okay by me.
@Leiter
The Sixth Column
"Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue."
Izaak Walton
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I like this idea. I still recall the first time I battled Lusca after they added the merits and was shocked to only get 2. Realisitcally each tentacle is a GM in and of itself so the prospect of battling 1 Lusca for 2 merits when I can battle Eochia 9 time for 18 boggles the mind. Let's not forget that most other GMs can also be taken down by one 8 man team, or less, while Lusca takes at least 2 teams if you plan to succeed in most cases. |
Originally Posted by Bionic_Flea
I think a lot of the giant monsters suffer not just from low rewards but from a "been there, done that" mentality. It's very cool and a lot of fun the first time you do it, but by the third or forth time it's lost it's luster.
Lusca in particular has extremely low rewards for the amount of time it takes to defeat all the tentacles and the head. I would award at least 1 merit per part. Another reward that would spur interest in giant monsters would be to have a guaranteed set recipe drop for your level from all pools. So you might win the lottery and get a Luck of The Gambler +recharge or you might get a Lethargic Repose. But I think just having the chance at getting a good recipe would encourage participation from players at all levels. |
The recipe drop sounds like a great incentive since I have always felt the "reward" for taking out a GM was pitiful.. Usually nothing more than an inspiration.
I'd leave spawn rates alone.... Vet badgers will tell you how frustrating it was TRYING to get all the GM badges back when Kraken rarely appeared in Perez and we all know how cut throat it can become during the Halloween event when Jack in Irons actually spawn.... teams spend ?? (hours?) taking down Eochias trying to spawn him and then when he does You better get there fast because the team that does locate him isn't about to wait for anyone to arrive before they attack.
One suggestion I made some time ago was add an accolade, with powers, for taking down every GM. Take out Kraken, Babbage, Lusca, Adamastor, Jurrasik, Eochia, Jack in Irons and the Kronos Titan and earn a badge as a
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| Giant Hunter: The city sleep a little easier knowing you are there to tackle even the largest and deadliest of foes. |
I could see them adding some merits to successfully completing some of the other events like the Arson fires in Steel and the Superdine Ravs in Skyway to boost their popularity. Another suggestion that MAY spark some increased interest in the Arson fires is unlockable costume pieces. I'm a Taxibot and on Fridays we get together in Steel to offer teleport in zone and we started tping people to the Arson fires and assisting them in earning the badges. At this point several of us have all 3. In game we have a soldier costume available along with a Police Office one so why not unlock a firefighter costume if a player gets all three of the badges for that? It would be 4 pieces.. Helmet, Bunker coat, Bunker pants and boots. Something similar could be done with the Superdine raids .. say after stopping 4 or 5 you gain access to PPD outfits and logos.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
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To be fair, that's not really true. Each time Lusca pops up, there's one tentacle far enough away from the head and the other tentacles that you can kill it off just like any other GM. So long as your team can kill a GM, you only need 1 team to fight Lusca.|
Originally Posted by Wicked_Wendy
Lusca takes at least 2 teams if you plan to succeed in most cases.
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Of course, it still takes a while.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
i agree that GMs are extremely fun to fight, but i also agree with the fact they give pitiful rewards, even soloing a GM will net approx 17k inf not in sg mode while soloing an AV not in sg mode will net like 130k inf
some GMs poeple dont fight because they spawn all the time (like kraken, ghost of scrapyard, paladins, ect) and other GMs poeple dont fight because they are too situational or require force spawning (caleb and arachnos flier come to mind)
the arachnos flier in particular when it does spawn, basically despawns in like 20 min, so unless you have a full team outside at the right time, your not gonna take it down, and when villains can go heroside and just run an STF and get the badge for the flier that doesnt pop a force field up or despawn
another point to bring up is the lack of GMs redside, there are only 4 GMs in all of redside (not counting the master at arms) and 2 of those 4 GMs are annoying enough to get that unless your a badger, your not gonna ever see them, the other 2 are spawned almost all the time, so poeple fight them so frequently that they just get annoyed with them
i agree with adding the rewards to provide incentive for GMs, and i would also like to add that they should make more GMs for redside
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I have to agree with you on RED side Necrotech. I keep Villain Events running and especially the Ghost of Scrapyard seems to occur constantly. The other night I saw the now all too familiar "Miners are striking in Sharkshead" notice and couldn't help but think.. "Yeah so when aren't they striking?" One the other hand Caleb seems to almost be a Myth. In 4 plus years of game play I have never managed to capture that badge on a single character. About a week ago I actually saw the post that he'd spawned in Nerva and I happened to be there collecting my 5 merits for getting all of the exploration badges. I thought GREAT I'll go find him and form a team. I knew he spawned above Thorn island so when I arrived a flew up and started looking. AND LOOKING AND LOOKING .. finally I asked on the badge channel if anyone knew a good location to search for him and of course when I arrived there Caleb was gone. I had a similar experience with the Flyer. I saw the post and started searching.. Never did find it before it despawned. |
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i agree that GMs are extremely fun to fight, but i also agree with the fact they give pitiful rewards, even soloing a GM will net approx 17k inf not in sg mode while soloing an AV not in sg mode will net like 130k inf
some GMs poeple dont fight because they spawn all the time (like kraken, ghost of scrapyard, paladins, ect) and other GMs poeple dont fight because they are too situational or require force spawning (caleb and arachnos flier come to mind) the arachnos flier in particular when it does spawn, basically despawns in like 20 min, so unless you have a full team outside at the right time, your not gonna take it down, and when villains can go heroside and just run an STF and get the badge for the flier that doesnt pop a force field up or despawn another point to bring up is the lack of GMs redside, there are only 4 GMs in all of redside (not counting the master at arms) and 2 of those 4 GMs are annoying enough to get that unless your a badger, your not gonna ever see them, the other 2 are spawned almost all the time, so poeple fight them so frequently that they just get annoyed with them i agree with adding the rewards to provide incentive for GMs, and i would also like to add that they should make more GMs for redside |
It's tough trying to add any more GM red side because of the number of zones. Hero side there are 18 and they have 9, not counting Sally, and 2 of those (Eochia and Jack in Irons) are in the same zone. With only 7 strictly COV zones to work with adding more GMs would result in nearly 1 in every zone we have. Unless its a seriously wimpy GM I doubt a one level in Mercy wants to round a corner and find themselves staring at a COV equivilant of Jurrasik. They could do something in ST. Martial... the Devouring Earth are there so why not a COV Jurrasik or even a brand new one. I posted a long time ago suggesting the Tsoo get one. Most Oriental cultures (at least the Chinese and Japanese) view dragons as a symbol of power so why not a Tsoo Ancient spirit in Dragon form? Then have Caleb spawn more than once a decade and stay around until someone defeats him and do the same with the Flyer... that would give Red side 5 GMs in 7 zones which is actually a much higher percentage than 9 in 18 Blue side.
�We�re always the good guys. In D&D, we�re lawful good. In City of Heroes we�re the heroes. In Grand Theft Auto we pay the prostitutes promptly and never hit them with a bat.� � Leonard
�Those women are prostitutes? You said they were raising money for stem cell research!� � Sheldon
Well Paladin and Kraken are very low level and lend support to adding a GM to Port Oaks. A coralax GM or ghost GM would be cool as they are both featured (but rare) spawns in that zone.
Paladin is such low level it almost supports adding a GM to mercy. I vote for a snake GM.
Adding more GM's is cool, but still have the ever present issue of no one wanting to fight them due to the instanced paradigm and low reward rates.
Caleb and the flier are almost cryptic in there presence. When they never get defeated, and rarely seen for that matter, it's almost like there's just no point to them at all - yet, they're there. They were a fore-thought at one point, and then just left to outdate themselves...
Also hell yeah to a Snakes monster in Mercy, now that'd be a interesting encounter for lowbies to group at take on.
Before they think of adding more useless GMs to either side of the game, I'd think they would figure out a way to make people want to fight them in the first place.
/signed to making folks want to fight them.
Instances aren't the issue. The Christmas event had folks doing it for most of the time because fighting the initial outside gm gave a chance to fight an instanced one, for a total of 10 merits.
There's a hint in that.
Blazara Aura LVL 50 Fire/Psi Dom (with 125% recharge)
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Ice 'Em Aura LVL 50 Ice Tank
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Fortunately that was the initial concern, trumping anything else that needs to be done with the GM's period. And when I speak of events, I'm talking the ones rarely looked at like Steel Canyon Hellion Arsons and Skyway City troll Rave
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Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
I'd think they would figure out a way to make people want to fight them in the first place.
/signed to making folks want to fight them. |
I don't know about you but I fought Jack twice. Once during a three team GM hunt and a second time with My Warshade. Both times were fun times had by all who were in attendance. Nothing gets you pumped like hunting monsters and nothing is more fun than trying to take down Jack in Irons with a bunch of level 20's-30's. It got to a point where I had to call in my high level friends for help. AND we still had a tough time. GM hunting is fun as hell and all those heroes who do the Fight once and ignore are missing out on the fun.
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That's how it was last time I did it. One team of eight. "Big ol' bag of HP" amount of time. Still fun, but then I'm kookoo for GMs. |
Fleeting Whisper has the method: To be fair, that's not really true. Each time Lusca pops up, there's one tentacle far enough away from the head and the other tentacles that you can kill it off just like any other GM. So long as your team can kill a GM, you only need 1 team to fight Lusca. Of course, it still takes a while. |
Dec out.
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Jack and Eochai were a blast to hunt down, sometimes I'll head to the north of Croatoa, such a cool area with all the battles going on, and sometimes a Jack or Eochai to watch over it all |
Originally Posted by Dark Lost
I don't know about you but I fought Jack twice. Once during a three team GM hunt and a second time with My Warshade. Both times were fun times had by all who were in attendance. Nothing gets you pumped like hunting monsters and nothing is more fun than trying to take down Jack in Irons with a bunch of level 20's-30's. It got to a point where I had to call in my high level friends for help. AND we still had a tough time. GM hunting is fun as hell and all those heroes who do the Fight once and ignore are missing out on the fun.
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That's cool that a group of 20-30's got together to take him down. I dunno, seems kinda.. Authentic, like how they were supposed to be fought :P
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| but then I'm kookoo for GMs. |
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Indeed. One of my favourite things to do when I started playing this game was to join teams gathering to smite Giant Monsters. Now the Giant Monsters spawn and I rarely see any teams forming to kill them. At one time I joined a channel that was purportedly for Giant Monster slaying, but it availed me not.|
Originally Posted by Decorum
Still fun, but then I'm kookoo for GMs.
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I like the idea of adding badges for killing the GMs multiple times. And I like the idea of adding some sort of Accolade. More suitable rewards might be nice as well.
As for the zone events - I like the Deadly Apocalypse event in theory, though it rarely seems to pan out. The Rikti Invasions and Zombie Apocalypses would be alright if the game could properly keep up with power recharging and activation when the player gathering gets particularly large.
(The Zombie Apocalypse would be a lot more awesome if the zombies didn't spawn right around players like the Rikti Invasion, but rather spawned from several points in a zone and shuffled out attacking players, civilians, and NPCs alike, creating more zombies as they went (I'm envisioning an effect similar to the Lost Curing Wand wherein the zombie attacks an NPC and the NPC disappears and runs off while a new zombie is summoned in its place). As is it just feels like a smellier Rikti Invasion.)
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
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Are there even ANY CONTACTS in Boomtown? I have no clue. Only time I go to Boomtown is either during one of the TFC series of task forces, or for the explore badges/beacons and plaques.|
Originally Posted by TwigDeath
(except when it comes to Boomtown, that place needs life so bad)
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Something I've mentioned before - they add a new zone called the "Netherworld" and drop the entrance to it right in Dark Astoria...have some big huge event for it. Maybe make the zone only open up once the event objectives have been completed (like a trial to open the pathway...)
Who knows.
However yes I do agree with the current GMs and zone events just being so ... mediocre now. However, everytime I see an event flash across my chat window, I'm all for it. I'm ready to seek out whatever GM it is that's just spawned or fight off said Rikti invasion...but blergh you can only do that so many times at the current rate of the rewards offered. Agreed the monsters don't act like monsters until they start attacking your toons. This can be solved with a destructible environment system like they use in mayhem missions. Also - remember when AE was first introduced, and the dropships would 'crash' into the AE buildings? Yeah, we should be able to take down those damn dropships during a raid, or have at least some kind of mission or SOMETHING where we can take one of those things down and get a badge for it.
Incentives? Here's my, comments and whatnots:
MORE MERITS for starters - you get FIVE (5) MERITS for getting the explore accolades, for crying out loud - why not 5-10 Merits for GMs? Last time I went out hunting GMs, I couldn't solo a single one of them and needed at least, AT LEAST 3-4 other teammates. Oh but then NO there's all those idiots out there that can solo the things. Well, if someone can solo a GM, and they fight a GM solo, let the GM drop ONE MERIT, or no recipe, or even less influence/infamy/prestige. I have no clue how they'd do this, but maybe there could be some kind of detection on the map which tells the GM how many are on the map, who's teamed and who isn't...this way if someone can solo a GM takes on the thing by themself, wala, you get instant less reward. Granted, that's not taking into account if the soloist can defeat the GM in oh, let's say 10 minutes. Would totally depend on time spent fighting the creature.
So you've got all those GM badges already, or want to get them on another toon? How about an accolade badge with an accompaning power. This would be absolutely fantastic to me. I have no clue what the accolade power would be, let alone the name of the badge. Just as long as it's not as useless as the Crey Cryo-Pistol, on par with perhaps Geas or TFC...I really don't know - just would be nice.
Mostly I just agree with a lot about what the OP mentioned. Definitely need some bigger rewards for GMs and events.
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Originally Posted by Tenzhi
(The Zombie Apocalypse would be a lot more awesome if the zombies didn't spawn right around players like the Rikti Invasion, but rather spawned from several points in a zone and shuffled out attacking players, civilians, and NPCs alike, creating more zombies as they went (I'm envisioning an effect similar to the Lost Curing Wand wherein the zombie attacks an NPC and the NPC disappears and runs off while a new zombie is summoned in its place). As is it just feels like a smellier Rikti Invasion.)
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This is an excellent idea, if they could bite citizens and transform them, that would instantly make it the most epic and terrifying event. The kind of chaos that only super powered individuals can handle. Such a good idea.
Also to Kyzock: I think if someone is actually able to solo a Giant Monster, it would take a tremendous amount of effort and time so the rewards reaped should be hardly tampered with if at all. I don't see it happen much these days, but maybe I'm wrong, if someone can solo a GM in mere minutes then the GM's need to be more powerful along with their increased rewards. They basically shouldn't be solo-able in my opinion anyways. I'm glad you agree, now let's get a dev to feel the same :P
Way back when, maybe a year or 2 ago, I coulda swore I seen someone with a post about soloing Lusca. Maybe it was 2 years ago I seen that post. I don't remember where, and am currently too lazy to search for it. Obviously it took the person FOREVER to solo Lusca. Which would mean whatever build that person used would have to had been expensive. I don't think the GMs are really soloable anymore. If they are, it wouldn't really be worth it.
Honestly I think it would actually be worth it to - at some point - rather than push new things, go back and rework the old. Nothing like Faultline revamp, that's asking for quite a bit (except when it comes to Boomtown, that place needs life so bad), but old things like those mentioned, from events to trials to giant monsters. Things that are currently there already, they just need.. I don't know, a revival for the modern day City of X player.
Dec out.
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