Impatience creep

Someone in anOther thread commented on the irritation of 'running down a really long street' in Outbreak. Obviously, the question of what's too onerous is subjective, but I dOn't consider that particular street to be particularly long.

Aside from that issue, I know some people complain of contacts sendig them on missions in other zones and generally moan about any sort of travel. Now, the beta has new contacts being teleportable to, and has given all trainers the ability to edit costumes, so nobody needs to bother with the immense hassle of entering Icon anymore.

Are we experiencing a sort of impatience creep, whereby the devs reduce two-zone travel distances to missions, and then we moan about even goingbto other zones at all, so all missions are same zone, and then w moan that going more than halfway across a zone is too long?

What else is too much bother? Maybe all shops should be consolidated? IP could use another two tramstops. And put one in TV too?

I logged in to an old toon I haven't used for a while, and he's on an ar where he's being directed to Brickstown, Steel, Skyway from a contact in FF. I personally like that sometimes I have to travel a bit to get to missions (I don't even dislike the Shadow Shards immense distances, though the missions themselves are a bit poor). I get he impression that I'm in the minority however.

Will CoH gradually transform to an overworld version of the AE, where everyone has a Mission Teleport power?

Eco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

When I mentioned that, it was because of the travel for travel's sake nature of the old CoH progression design, not because of impatience.

I like moving around the world as much as anyone, but I have to feel like there's a point to it. Outbreak isn't a rich environment worth looking at by any stretch of the imagination, and if you go through it with only Sprint and happen to miss something or take a wrong turn, you're off in the weeds.

Big for bigness sake without much going on is what's wrong with a lot of old zones, and that's not impatience talking, it's a player who understands most of the game is done inside instances, but it's still really nice to see people and feel like things are active when they move around outside.

I dont like getting a mission at the top of the I-port and then being sent to the very bottom . . . . . that deserves a ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

I admit I did raise an eyebrow at the "Trainers=Icon" change.

I actually like traveling, and I like all 4 travel powers too. I do have my limits though. What bothers me most is the needless "go see a Security Chief or I won't give you any missions" issue, more because the idea seems pointless than because of the travel itself.

What's wrong with the Shadow Shard is not JUST the distances AND the fact that, if you use the geysers exactly right, many of them still do not work right, BUT ALSO that a large fraction of the enemies there completely negate defense-based builds, both the inherently defense-centered powersets and builds made to take advantage of IO defense bonuses. The combination of "hard to get to, long distances, major feature never worked right, AND a substantial portion of builds are often totally neutralized" is pretty daunting. Oh, and add in "really long TFs too."

I wonder if "Impatience Creep" is already claimed on certain servers....

I don't have a problem with traveling to missions, even if I have to cross several zones to get there.

We can travel at a faster pace than any other MMO out there, and our game world is a lot smaller than some of them.

I don't understand complaints about having to cross a zone when you have the ability to run at 90 MPH or cover 350 yards in a single jump. That's a damn sight better than having to WALK across an entire CONTINENT.

People really don't understand how easy we have it here. I LIKE getting the opportunity to actually USE those travel powers that make this game genre so unique.

I dislike the new Icon trainers simply because it'll take me an extra click to level up each and every time (which I do often) for a feature that I'll likely never use.

There really should be no complaint about travelling in CoH. We have travel powers. Most of the games you have to run everywhere, and sometimes at a very slow pace. But I don't think they've gone too far yet, except for making Trainers tailors, that was just stupid, and it makes no sense.

The only complain I really have about travelling is from Teleport, because this power is just FIDDLY to use. Not even Super Speed is quite that annoying.

But travel itself? Nah, I actually enjoy it. It means I visit more of the city and don't always end up looking at the same five doors. Far as I'm concerned, the worst thing City of Villains could have done is land-lock me into the same zone for 10 levels straight, sending me to the same five doors over and over and over again, time after time. It drags oh so much!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

... for some reason I'm reminded of the passengers on the "cruise" ship in the movie Wall-E and wonder if those impatient supers(players) would end up like that.

I like travelling as well.

Re: security cops missions
Take them out of the contact's must do list, have the contact mention the officer and place them on your contact list (or just clicking on the cop will do the same), and make the missions repeatable zone missions. Maybe even add an extra for some other type of enemy activity that is in the zone (your option which to take).

Maybe I'll make a character named "Patience Creep" and WALK every where, wearing a trenchcoat and nothing else. (nah)

I blame today's technology. We as a culture are so used to fast everything that actually having a few minutes between "events" is ridiculous to us. It was only about 15 years ago when web pages took about 20 seconds to load. Now, if it takes more than 5 seconds, we start wondering about what could be wrong with the router.

I like using my travel powers. We play a game where most people can create the perfect incarnation of a certain hero/villain idea that they have. Unfortunately, that leaves the expectation for most other things to be perfect, and we as players forget that perfection is almost non-existent, or at the most, is a matter of opinion.

On the one hand, having the trainers double as tailors seems silly to me. I expect it's more about encouraging people to spend money on costume parts than anything else.

On the other hand there are some story arcs, like Crimson/Indigo, that drive me nuts with all the travel across zones. One problem I have with that kind of thing is that it's so unrealistic. How many times do you need to risk your life for those two before they hand out a phone number? Like the number of a cheap disposable cell phone is such a big secret? And even then, you still need to travel back and forth all the time because they insist on passing notes to each other and having a superhero be the delivery boy. Maddening.

And running up and down the streets of Outbreak, at the slow speeds of a level 1 character, was such a painful waste of time because it's so unnecessary. There are some things about the new tutorial that I don't like, but I'm happy that I can get from one end to the other so quickly. More width, for exploration and experimenting with powers and so on would be nice, but the length is just fine.

I don't mind some traveling, even across zones, but the original game had a lot more of that than we needed. I don't miss it.

(And yes, I know other games are worse. Ever play A Tale in the Desert? You could set your character running south at night and go to bed. You'd still be in the middle of nowhere when you woke up the next morning. And I actually enjoyed some aspects of that. Different places had different people in them, and different local cultures, because it was too much trouble for players to go far from home.)

Some of the new Atlas Park missions send you to neighborhoods in the distant corners of the zone that I had never been to because nothing ever happened there before. Your contact in that neighborhood remains your contact for the duration of their arc, and then they send you to a contact in another neighborhood; it might be on the other side of the map, but when you get there you can stay there (unless you want to train or something).

Instead of being tedious and frequent, traveling gets to be a fresh experience. You're going somewhere new! As opposed to crossing an area almost in its entirety for the tenth time, to go in a random door.

Trainers can do tailor work too now? Wow. I mean, I can almost see the Atlas/Mercy/Nova ones having that availability (with the new certificate system and all- so folks can 'fix' their characters after getting them out of the creator) but... really?? I think it'd be better if they just had an extra contact in the zone nearby for that instead. I don't think Ms. Liberty or an Arbiter... and especially not Dominatrix would be keen on whipping out a sewing machine to help new characters get their pleats straight or something, yaknow?

No sir, I don't like it, I don't like it one bit. It's just a little silly regardless of convenience.

The ONLY impatience oriented thing I have ever had problems with is having to travel to a 'forced' contact. When you go to talk to one contact and BEFORE ANY IN THAT LEVEL RANGE will give you a real mission, you HAVE to talk to Lt. Wincott, a PvP zone rep, or Jim Temblor. I know they exist, I like running some of the older story arcs, and it annoys me that I just HAVE to talk to so and so first. All of those, especially the PvP ones, should be optional and not a barrier to continue play.

That's the only thing I'm impatient about for the most part in this game.

EDIT:

I actually don't mind having to travel around for stuff, sure it's nice when something is convenient, but having to travel places also forces you to explore areas you may not go to otherwise. I'm an exploration nut anyway so what do I know?

Not only do the trainers double as tailors, they tossed an Icon in AP too.