Discussion: May Producers Letter

I absolutely agree with leaving Atlas and Galaxy as separate zones. I would much rather see a new early-level zone added to CoV. Mercy Island bores me to tears, to be honest. There's nothing to do or see there. Half the island is a hovel, and the other half is a sprawling mess of a city. It's just depressing. It's really more like a hazard zone than a city zone -- very little personality.

In fact, all of the early CoV zones are like this. I think part of this is the lack of "Defeat X" missions to make the villain groups more interesting. Look at all the Luddites and Corulax in Cap Au Diable. Who are they, and what do they want? Is there even any story content behind them, or are they just there? It's been a while -- I really need to play through the lower-level content of CoV to get my bearings -- but I've honestly never gotten a character past lvl 20 on CoV because it's just so chaotic and dull. I don't feel plugged into the story. I rather feel like I've been dumped into a world full of random spawns and contacts with fixed story-arcs that offer no variety or sense of choice. Maybe there's some intention behind it to make the CoV experience feel different from the CoH experience, or maybe I'm just not as fond of playing a Villain as I am of playing a Hero -- it could very well be me who's not a good fit for the game. But here's the thing...I really want to feel like a villain on CoV-side, and honestly, all I really feel like in each and every zone is a two-bit thug. I commit a few random crimes, rob a bank, and maybe do a story-arc or two, and then I hit a new zone and the cycle repeats -- I'm back to being a common thug again. For a "Destined One" I sure don't feel like I'm being groomed at all for any kind of significant destiny.

First, thanks very much for committing to these monthly updates, they are a big deal keeping us informed about what is going on in CoX. And also I'd like to say that I greatly appreciate all the content that's been added within the last few years. The new(ish) Paragon Studio's team has been doing a bang up job overall with all the new content.

Some specific thoughts on you Producer's Letter:

1. I can sure see updates to content in Atlas Park & Galaxy City. Mercy, not so much, it's actually decent.

2. However, the mechanic villain side that requires us to do some number of newspaper missions before we actually get a contact in each zone is pretty much just grind. Can these be removed, as a requirement? Perhaps brokers could be merged with Tip missions somehow, to make the brokers more interesting. Of course, please keep the mayhem missions.

3. Missions in St. Martial desperately need updating, much more than Mercy, imo. Vivacious Verandi's arc, Chaos Unbound, I just happened to do at random via Flashback, and it was probably the worst I've experienced. I'd nominate that as needing a good revamp.

4. In general, mid level villain content seems like filler. Stuff just cranked out to provide something to grind, with little thought into the stories or how repetative they'd seem to players. See #3 above. I'd look at some of this higher level content redside before Mercy, personally.

OK, thanks for keeping us in the loop! Take care devs.

I would love to see Boomtown get the upgrade that we see in the villain morality mission Rich People are Dumb. Just a way to show that Paragon City is actually trying to get all parts of the city back to being "civilized".

I'd love to see Skyway City be changed to look like it does at the end of Admiral Sutter's TF. I like the idea of things that happen in a TF have effect on the city.

I think that Dark Astoria is ripe for a series of contacts a la Striga/Faultline/Croatoa. A TF at the end, where we can reclaim Astoria from the Banished Pantheon, would be great. Perhaps those with the TF badge/souvenir could have the fog turned off in DA, to show that they've cleared it?

I think it's possible they might use some of the revamped content to bring the older stuff into line with the post-GR game world - like adding some Praetorian enemies, and dropping a few hints about the Well and Incarnates, so the meta-story flows more smoothly from 1 through 50.

I'll be extremely happy if all the "run to this zone to meet a contact, who will tell you to run to this zone to meet a contact, who will give you a mission" missions are fixed.