Dark Astoria Revamp

After reading Memphis Bill's fantastic idea for a rework of the Folly, I find myself eager to offer suggestions on ways to "Fix" Dark Astoria while potentially making TCS happy at the same time...

First we have to ask ourselves "Why?"

I think the answer is obvious, myself, but not everyone sees things the same. It's a fairly large city/hazard zone with wonderful ambiance and some great (themed) districts. It has the largest graveyard in the game and is the home (more or less) of the Banished Pantheon itself. It is, however, devoid of contacts or storyarcs specific to itself, and is, instead, utilized only as a "Go To" location from Talos Island. It is incredibly underutilized and terribly awesome. We need to change that.

So here are my suggestions for the zone.

1. 1) Add a Rift.
   
   "Rift?" you say! "What is a Rift?" A Rift, in this case, is a planar gateway in Dark Astoria. It leads between the dimensions and is the main method of travel between our reality and a place where the Pantheon finds itself trapped. A Snare in realities caused by BP interference with space and time, mystically rather than technologically.
   
   
2. 2) Add Contacts
   
   I'd like to see ten or twelve contacts with arcs added to Dark Astoria. something comparable to Croatoa's content. However that makes no sense since Croatoa contains only five contacts... See alteration 3.
   
   
3. 3) Mirror Zone.
   
   Heroes and Villains should both have access to Dark Astoria. Wipe the coffee/tea/milk off your computer monitor and read on, friends!
   
   Utilizing the Planar Rip as an explanation create two separate but equal versions of Dark Astoria. One for Heroes, one for Villains. Each would have the same number of contacts in the zone, both would be fighting against the Banished Pantheon and likely as not the Circle of Thorns. The big catch is this: The Villain Arcs use different contacts and different -methods- to accomplish similar goals.
   
   The BP need to sacrifice a group of people to widen the Rift. The heroes risk life and limb to get close enough to rescue them, while the Villains risk life and limb to get close enough to kill the hostages in a way which doesn't satisfy the ritual, for example.
   
   Make heavy use of the vanishing contact technology, here, allowing the Hero contacts to send you to the Villain contacts in their version of the zone. Make the Hero and Villain contacts important to both storylines, but also be sure to alter their personalities slightly to create a sense of disconnect between the two realities.
   
   
4. 4) Utilize the planar Rift as a gateway for Rogues and Vigilantes.
   
   They can hurl themselves into the parallel dimension to pass through it. Perhaps make a short "Grey Alignment Only" mission or mission chain to acquire some artifact or another which lets the transfer occur.
   
   
5. 5) Put a Gateway in Sharkhead Isle
   
   This would be the Villain entry point to Dark Astoria, it could use the "Vanishing Contact" tech to appear only when a villain is level-appropriate to travel through it, and should probably look like a rip, rather than a circular portal. I'd suggest getting a short animation of Dark Astoria to play through the center of the rip.
   
   
6. 6) There is no Point Six!
   
   It doesn't exist. I think this should be a plot point in a storyarc. have several points as "Goto" locations followed by a small hunt (go to point 1, defeat 10 BP, go to Point 2, Defeat 10 BP, and so on). Then, after five, have the player return to the contact and ask about the sixth point and get told "There were only five" though in the initial text the contact said six... It should lead to some minor confusion until you learn that the contact is a double agent! Oh Noes!
   
   Or something like that.
   
   
7. 7) A "Gray" storyarc for each Gray Alignment.
   
   I'd like to see a Vigilante storyarc in the Villain version of the zone and a Rogue storyarc in the hero version of the zone. Barring that I'd like to see Vigilantes and Rogues given a moral choice at the end of a storyarc specific to them in their native-alignment zone version. At the end of the mission Vigilantes will have the option of throwing either a criminal or themselves into the planar rift to stop the evil Gods from returning. Rogues will have the choice of an innocent or themselves.
   
   If the Rogue throws herself in, she gets transferred to the Hero instance and is allowed to become a hero, regardless of how many morality missions she's done. If the Vigilante throws the Criminal into the rift he can choose to become a villain, regardless of how many morality missions he's done.

1) A little more building decay. Take out the fog and DA is in great shape. Ever see the History Channel series "Life After People"? Add some ivy and moss growth on the buildings, pools of water around broken fire hydrants, oil leaks under cars, etc. Nothing like Boomtown's destruction, but there should be a "Decayed building" exterior that's inbetween Steel Canyon's immaculate buildings and Boomtown's desroyed ones.

2) Why is there never a point 6?

Yes.

Tossing a few more things out there:
A few episodes of Ghost Hunters and the like should provide ideas.
-The glowing-ball-of-light thing "orbs" is represented by Will-O-Wisps in Croatoa.

-Unfortunately, having someone appear, then disappear by walking through a wall might just look like a normal NPC with bad map interaction.

-How would you like to be in a mission map where black mist did the same thing as the white mist I mentioned before? Or formed into a human shape, addressed you by name*, then went through a wall.


*creepiest? Instead of charactername, it uses the first name on the account info. "Help me, Rebecca, Help meeeeeee...."

I was thinking a silent hill vibe. Remove almost all the static mobs, replace them with intermittant low-level ambushes. There's nowhere to hide in Dark Astoria, the dead will eventually find you!

Would be a very different vibe.

Vanishing Contacts would be great for spookyness, IMO. Finish a mission, and the contact just vanishes.

Modifying the radio to play spooky static would be cool as well. Perhaps add a few silent hill style tips.

But most importantly, every contact should vanish after their quest. For added spookyness.

Actually, I had the same view of the DA region. It, especially the fog, reminded me of the Silent Hil game series. Daemon entities, ghosts, etc all even feed into this. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want that sort of revamp or story arc. The idea of story arcs, contacts and other additions are a great idea though.

Story arc ideas? What about stopping the near success of the resurrection of the sleeping entity, Lughebu? Hell, maybe even make it a TF.

Here's an idea for an arc/tf/whatever.

The TF giver is a S.A.M. Agent whose brother was killed during the assault on Astoria. As a result, he's dedicated himself to banishing the Banished Parthenon once and for all. Unfortunately, he's less Van Helsing and more Harry Mason.

The arc has you dig through darkness, learning more about the Parthenon, While you investigate the ghostly (and undead) inhabitants of Astoria. Each soul you put to rest leads you closer to the horrifying truth.

All the while, a mysterious figure stalks you through the fog. Is he friend or foe?

Can you grant rest to the people of Astoria?

Can you prevent Mot from rising?

Who is that mysterious figure? And more importantly... what are his motives?

What happened to your contacts brother? (No points for guessing this one. *cough*)

Woooo, spooky...

I like them to replace the buildings with the gothic ones you see in Bloody Bay, with the same winding narrow streets too.
And knock a hole in the wall by the sea to make a swampy area, so the Banish Pantheon can get their voodoo thing on

Why not just utilize the new morality feature and have them both in the same zone. Let your character decide if he wants to murder the hostages or save them, then have it count towards your characters' "morality".

We don't have to make zones like the RWZ where the story has to be convoluted to fit both factions anymore.

A few things I'd like to add to this thread.

1) Someone mentioned BP ambushes. Can we make them like the zombie ambushes? Stand too long in one spot and creep up from underground? Pretty please?

2) Also, I believe a revamp to Boomtown is coming. Hint is because I was in AP earlier and one of the student pamphlets girls said "C'mon people, support us in our cause to revamp Boomtown." Thought to myself, awesome, where do I sign up.

3) Not really too sold on contacts being in the zone. Unless maybe they're ghost that want to R.I.P then disapear once their arc is finished?

Note - Can someone link me to Bill's CF revamp thread? Would really like to check that out.
Edit *Nvm, found it

I'd like an architectural review- the CoV buildings would 'fit' better than the CoH ones. Drape 'em with some spanish moss, maybe import some of the creepy forest details from Croatoa....done and done.

Aside from a facelift I'd like some kind of Hollows-style content- a spooky TF and some kind of repeatable mission generator wouldn't be too a ton of work and would go a long way to making the zone less of a 'ghost' town (haw haw).

Although I'd support basically anything that doesn't disrupt the main thing I love about the zone- giant spawns of highly flammable zombies to roast. =)


/edit- also , c'mon it's the perfect co-op zone.