Rework GMs

I was working on a post (since discarded - it didn't look like the point I was trying to make would get across, regarding rewards, time, teaming vs interest and the like.) But one of the illustrations I was going to use was the Lusca encounter.

"Back in the day," people used to swarm over to attack Lusca on a regular basis. I remember multiple teams joining to do so - then attacking the OTHER luscas while they were up. They weren't really interested in the XP or badge, it was a fun, social encounter (I base that on repeated "Hey, I got a badge!" and mid to late fight "How's the XP on this anyway?" type statements.)

It was at a point where the experience of the encounter was a reason to do it, and the rewards really DID balance out the risks (including the social rewards. No real pre-organizing needed, just get together and beat on future sushi.)

Now... XP's been nerfed, the merits aren't really worth it, and Lusca's treated like a piece of scenery. Which she is - she doesn't move, doesn't really "threaten" anything or the like.

Other GMs are much the same - they stand around, wander a bit, but really don't stand *out* much. I go after Scrapyard, for instance, because I need him and his followers badges to unlock a contact. The fight itself isn't too interesting (and is, frankly, more irritating than anything with his running everywhere and self-droning, not to mention timing out in the middle of a fight and "expiring," robbing people of the rewards they'd otherwise get regardless of damage.)

GMs should be more interesting, and the centerpiece of events. There should also be things that soloists and non-optimal teams can do to contribute to the event end, or "in" the event.

For instance - and I'm going to stay focused on Lusca here:

There are various ships in Independence Port doing their thing. Dockworkers working. Life is going on as usual. Suddenly, one of the ships puts out an SOS - it's being attacked! A hero going there will find a ship with a tentacle or three around it, the ship being rocked. If the creature isn't chased off in 10 minutes, the ship sinks and another ship is attacked. You have two options - you (or your team) can fight the creature if you do enough damage (and it will fight back!) or, if you can't overcome its regen/do enough damage/you're solo, you can enter the ship and rescue crew members (scaling if you have a team,) plus find the otherwise environmentally-hazardous cargo to put a mediport-type beacon on it and get it transported away. (Yes, the two can be done at the same time. Different badge/rewards, though.)

After that, regardless of result, another creature attacks the docks. You have to fight the creature and/or save the dockworkers (which could be an opportunity for a non-combat event, stabilizing badly injured dockworkers, either through healing powers or, if you don't have those, a med kit that the medics outside will give you, much like the steel canyon fires can be dealt with either by an extinguisher or ice powers.) Since the warehouse near the dockworkers is in flames, you can also work on your firefighter badges if you choose. (Great opportunity for teaming, as defeating the fires could extend the timer for rescuing the people inside.)

A third creature starts attacking one of the pumping stations near Terra Volta (center island.) This station helps refine cooling water for the reactor - this is critical! The creature's not just attacking pipework, but just its presence is blocking an intake. Again, either fight the creature, go inside to shut down overheating equipment/fight fires and/or fight off the Devouring Earth who have noticed and decided to attack as well.

If any or all of these have been completed in some form, Lusca appears (this time with a broken ship she destroyed when she surfaced.) A team can do the usual tentacle defeat, wait for resurface, etc. (with better XP/merit rewards than currently given - one merit per two tentacles, two at the end, and more worthwihle but not overpowering XP) or, if there aren't enough people interested, an individual can get into the broken ship to rescue the survivors before it sinks. Rescue all the survivors, get a temp power (missile strike) - the Navy won't attack with a civilian ship there, but it will if they're out of the way. (Like a warburg nuke, can take a tentacle or the head down to 1/3 health and reduce its regen - also usable elsewhere with somewhat lessened damage and -regen.)

Rewards depend on what you've done - you can keep the med pack (it works on teammates, too) if you have charges left over, or the fire fighting equipment (cold damage cone,) or the missile (described above,) etc - or all of them, if you've done them. Badges, of course, at multiple tiers (doing all the rescues/all the fires/all the fires plus steel canyon fires, though not part of the final event badge/got the missile) as well as the entire event (which doesn't all have to be done at the same time.)

Other examples:
Scrapyard - Is still a "mini GM" to me, really. Have his followers start causing mayhem - defeat the ones attacking cars/buildings, put out the fires they cause (or, alternately, add some of your own and let them take the blame!) Of course, reroute him so he doesn't kill himself on the BM's killfield, and if he's being (significantly) attacked (1/2 health or less) he doesn't despawn until he's either defeated, or regens more than 1/2 health and is left alone.

Kraken - I'm not 100% sure what to do with him. It's not a particularly interesting encounter. Beating on a GM that just stands around - eh. But it's another place to have him destroying something, or you can work on reestablishing a containment field (Vanguard learned where he came from and can send him back until the Rikti bring another - fight off attackers as you find/repair these and weaken him) or something similar. Little more challenge to come up with as it *is* a lower level zone.

The point, of course, is to make these *events.* Some (like defeating the monster construction) I think are fine, though the Paladin should be more interesting if he *does* get built.

In any case, these should have more "stuff" to get people interested and involved, even if they're not on a GM-defeat-capable team. Plus it would breathe new life into some of these zones by letting them have events (Perez/Boomtown, anyone?)

See my Guides and Tutorials

i dont mind GMs how they are currently, except for the horrid rewards

if you can manage to solo a GM, your reward will be like 20k inf (if your in sg mode), and 2 merits, for around a 30 min fight

AVs take less time to fight, and are in most ways easier to solo, but give approx 6x the reward of a GM (although no merits)

i think if the rewards for the GMs were slightly increased then it would be of more interest than just badges

a note though, i do like your idea for other types of zone events and the like, which can link to the GMs or be an alternate way of spawning them aside from the timer

People did it for the fun of it because it was a new thing then. If your reg date is when you started playing, Lusca would've still been brand new at that point. Changing the encounter wouldn't have any more of a lasting impact on its popularity. In fact, making it more involved would cause interest to decline FASTER, because winning would be a whole production instead of a quick thing to do if you're bored.

Great idea, I really like the idea of having GM's interract with the existing architecture.

Maybe when Deathsurge appears its: "Deathsurge has been sighted siphoning Cap au Diable's Power Supply". Players have 15 minutes to interrupt his siphon, or Cap GOES DARK! (no market or something).

Maybe Caleb and his army of Demon Lords diable the Black Line Helicopter somehow, and in order to re-activate it he needs to be defeated or scared off.

There's no reason that GM's cant interract more closely with other enemy groups as well, as for your Kraken quandry, maybe Kraken kidnaps a CoT leader, and the CoT threaten a full-scale retaliation on Galaxy City if their leader is not returned to them unharmed.

Personally, I find it an interesting idea. Sure, it'd be more work to kill them...but as long as the reward is worth it (and new badges always help), people will do it. If nothing else, Lusca obviously needs something changed. Killing that many tentacles for next to nothing just to be able to successfully attack the head (and get your measly 2 merits and badge) is not a good turnout for effort vs Reward.

Of course, this amount of work would probably take a whole issue's worth of goodies. Worth it though, I think. Interactive events like this breathe life into the game.

/signed

Sounds very cool!


^

There is a nice big thread suggesting ways to make GM encounters more fun: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=228186

/signed on this one as well.

Idea for the Arson Event:

The event starts as normal except it is also possible to enter a timed mission inside the building and attempt to rescue trapped civilians inside. This earns you Reward Merits and new Badges.

I'll /sign this too. GMs and zone events seem like a very superhero thing to do, they're a perfect fit for this game. Except that few people care about actually doing them. So yeah, a little reworking would be great!

Right now if the event goes along and doesn't get stopped, it times out and disappears. What I'd love to see instead is, the zone would get more and more overrun with the enemies from that event. For example, if the Hellions aren't stopped at that one building, then more and more of the spawns in the zone would become hellion spawns. That might inspire folks to gather up and stop the arson so at least the street spawns return to normal. Especially if the event enemies are much lower level than the zone enemies. (It doesn't really make sense to scale Hellions up to level 19. In game lore, they're just not that powerful.)

If not the spawn replacement thing, there should be some kind of consequences for letting events run completely unchecked. These things are supposed to terrify the civilians... but as it stands the threat is no worse than the thugs and monsters that walk the streets every day.

/signed as well.

I also agree with Triplash's suggestion of the zone being taken over by the enemies until they are beaten back.

I think it'd make the game feel more alive for lack of a better term.

Think about how cool it would be to have a GM waltzing around foggy Dark Astoria? Could it be the Cloverfield Monster? Who knows? I do agree that seeing the "regular" GM's has not brought the same "hey everyone, come to such and such and help us fight some GM" in the broadcast window and everyone comes running to help build the hysteria.

I would also suggest that having a somewhat random/event type breeding of GM's out and about can be fun at times, not just around Halloween, Winter Events, etc. I think that the dev's should come up with a few more types of GM's. Just like anything we try that is new, after awhile it will become stale if changes are not made to make the event of fighting a GM more enjoyable for all.

Bah!

Here's a suggestion a friend made one day, talking about CoH monsters...

The Dread Monster... MONDAY!

Every actual Monday, this 'Giant Monster' (who's actual appearance is that of an average-sized business man) will appear walking around in a random city zone (In Paragon or the Rogue Isles, or even Praetoria.)

MONDAY will be exceptionally tough, with strong resistance values, a huge amount of HPs, and a very high regeneration rate. He will not only have a good amount of strong AoE attacks, but also have access to some nasty control effect - stuns, holds, fear, and (worse of all) confuse powers, to represent the 'demoralizing effects of the beginning of the Work Week...) If it is actually defeated, it will respawn in an hour, in another random zone, for the entire 24 hour period of Monday. Midnight Tuesday morning, MONDAY will disappear for another week...

While he meant it as a joke, I could see a monster like this working in the game... perhaps a less silly variation, sure, but working nonetheless.