Underused set pieces
Originally Posted by Kelenar
So, what other cool bits of the setting are just kinda hanging out, nearly unused?
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Either they have really big plans for it, or it's one of the biggest awkward elephants they have hiding under their rug.
People have asked many times for it to be made hero/villain Co-op, for the trials to be revisited, for Fathim the Kind to GET A PANCAKING PHONE... all to no avail.
Yet they recently added more exploration badges to the zone, so they obviously haven't forgot about it... go figure. o.0
Also: Hero Corps did use to charge for changing difficulty. I'm actually glad they took that out, though I understand your point.
"I play characters. I have to have a very strong visual appearance, backstory, name, etc. to get involved with a character, otherwise I simply won't play it very long. I'm not an RPer by any stretch of the imagination, but character concept is very important for me."- Back Alley Brawler
I couldn't agree more.
you should be able to do freelance work for Hero Corps. It'd be like paper missions, maybe a bit harder, but with a bunch of influence as a reward.
@craggy see me on Union for TFs, SFs (please!) or just some good ol fashioned teaming.
Architect Entertainment, that is, in-game AE. It's got a solid backstory and a lot of unanswered questions. Is it Dr. Aeon's revenge on Television? Is it Aeon Corp.'s scheme to offset the problematic Power Transference System or follow up the commercial success of NutriPaste? Is Dr. Aeon's rivalry with Professor Echo somehow involved? Is Positron content to merely monitor its usage, or will he start actively investigating its purposes, especially with Crey Corp.'s involvement?
Besides, having the Architect Studio Manager bug new characters to visit then never have any other missions for them seems like a waste of an NPC.
Perhaps Hero Corps missions could be vigilante or rogue oriented, rather than straight hero. We already have the police band radio for those kinds of missions, and the fact that you Hero Corps does 'hero for hire' work is exactly what blue-side Rogues are supposed to be about, is the Tips are to be believed.
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Edit: Your point still stands, though. Hero Corps seems like a reasonable outlet for this sort of thing.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
Architect Entertainment, that is, in-game AE. It's got a solid backstory and a lot of unanswered questions. Is it Dr. Aeon's revenge on Television? Is it Aeon Corp.'s scheme to offset the problematic Power Transference System or follow up the commercial success of NutriPaste? Is Dr. Aeon's rivalry with Professor Echo somehow involved? Is Positron content to merely monitor its usage, or will he start actively investigating its purposes, especially with Crey Corp.'s involvement?
Besides, having the Architect Studio Manager bug new characters to visit then never have any other missions for them seems like a waste of an NPC. |
Basically Crey, who helped out with AE, are trying to get Aeon to let them access the data of the meta users of AE for the safe of their Reverent Hero Project.
Surprisingly, Aeon's refused.
I'd more likely wager Aeon isn't doing it out of moral integrity but rather fearing Crey using data of him in the AE systems to possibly create a someone even smarter than him.
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Unused potential: Dark Astoria and Boomtown.
Dark Astoria is both awesome and creepy, but also pretty much ignored outside of the occasional mission. They could make some really great zone events and mission arcs with the Faultline treatment.
I love Boomtown's post-apocalyptic atmosphere and music. I really wish they'd included some unique groups, particularly some survivor 'types' perhaps trying to set up their own community in an area abandoned for an entire decade. Apparently they're doing work on it, but it's been so long. Once again, the Faultline treatment would be great here.
Both zones have a unique feel to them, as well as GM's, but unfortunately exist in level ranges that already possess a ton of content, so it's not likely high on the list.
a Hero Corps agent who gives you work and never even mentions paying you.
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Because, in my mind, she always did pay my characters when they were doing missions for her. Here they are, running missions for a rep of the heroes-for-hire corp, of course they are getting paid, right?
It kinda bothers me, now that it was brought to my attention, that she doesn't even mention payment.
The fact that her missions don't give away extra influence never bothered me, however, not even a little. Because influence/infamy/information, for me, was never even remotely related to in-game money, the kind characters would use in-game to buy groceries and pay rent or such. I have no idea why people think it is - especially in a game world where we have tons of different currencies... You get no extra inf for robbing banks, for stealing Protean's money, or for doing any other of the things that should grant you a lot of that in-game money (including working your day job, for that matter).
I just figure all my characters can have as much in-game money I want them to have and I can freely describe them as either street-dweller thugs-for-hire or multi-billionaires living in fancy condos and owning high-tech companies (both make nice concepts for certain origins/powers)... Or anywhere in between... And it still has nothing to do with how much inf they have, which is only affected by how good my thugs or rich inventors or whatever are at being heroes or villains (or praetorians finding more about their truth, I guess).
As for another aspect of the OP: There are many groups that I hope will be better explored some day, but really, the FBSA divisions not actually being seen actively doing much of anything was one of my major disappointments years ago, right after I started playing.
There's this government agency for super-beings, they have different branches for each origin, with some cool sounding acronyms, data about every super-hero in Paragon, vaults full of relics, time-space gateways, mages and scientists... And all they do is send you after some low-level gangs and minor threats (well, and that Recluse's Victory deserted place)? Really?
Then again... This is the government... I guess inefficient use of the resources at hand is to be expected. I'm sure there's a lot of paperwork and red tape behind the scenes...
Playing CoH with Gestures
![](http://oi47.tinypic.com/30l2plt.jpg)
Perhaps Hero Corps missions could be vigilante or rogue oriented, rather than straight hero. We already have the police band radio for those kinds of missions, and the fact that you Hero Corps does 'hero for hire' work is exactly what blue-side Rogues are supposed to be about, is the Tips are to be believed.
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Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
I'd love to see an issue go through and re-tool all the missions hinting at future stuff, which are particularly noticeable in CoV. When CoV came out, the Devs had a lot of ideas for the future. Some of them are happening or are still being hinted at, some of them have been taken off the table. For example, there's lots of references in the lowbie levels redside to the Blood of the Black Stream, which was once going to be part of the Incarnate System and is now gone away. Marshall Brass gives the Echo down the Aeons arc, which deals with time travel and a man who has discovered a way to control Shivans. That's practicaly tailor-made for a Coming Storm tie-in, but all we get is the hints that Aeon and Echo are the same man (see: MA backstory). Also in this arc, they mention Dr. Brainstorm, the man who started powerset proliferation and is now simply "in hiding". Then, of course, there's all the stuff pointing to Rularuu (Darrin Wade) and that goes nowhere.
I also agree that there's very little on the FBSA and what they do. The only thing we've seen them do is respond to Galaxy's attack, really. That and lose powerful magical artifacts. There's a cool framework there, as in the Shadow Shard, and it just isn't being used.
The spectral pirates in Port Oakes are very underused - appearing in only one arc (from a contact who has to be unlocked to begin with) and one mission as the Sea Witch's flunkies, and being relegated to an obscure corner of the zone which I suspect a lot of people never ever see since nothing points you there.
Gadzul Oil. A shady foreign oil company with mystical connections. They could be cool - like the Syndicate crossed with the Circle of Thorns. Again, there's barely a mention of them.
I also think the Luddites and Goldbrickers are pretty underdeveloped. Sure, they show up in some missions and they add a lot of background uniqueness to Cap au Diable, but they don't seem to actually do much overall.
Oh yeah, and those Spetznaz commandos who appear in exactly one arc redside and are never heard from again...
The positive side of Crey Corporation
The "reveal" that Crey is evil has little to no weight since you don't get to see them in a positive light beforehand. I think there's a single mission somewhere that you rescue a Paragon Protector who was in the process of helping some people and that's it. Oh, and the old tutorial had a Crey security guard. In fact, it's interesting that redside gives Crey a chance to look positive since they are giving tours of their facilities in Nerva. The better the devs can make Crey look in the low level game, the stronger the revelation of their actions becomes.
The positive side of Crey Corporation
The "reveal" that Crey is evil has little to no weight since you don't get to see them in a positive light beforehand. I think there's a single mission somewhere that you rescue a Paragon Protector who was in the process of helping some people and that's it. Oh, and the old tutorial had a Crey security guard. In fact, it's interesting that redside gives Crey a chance to look positive since they are giving tours of their facilities in Nerva. The better the devs can make Crey look in the low level game, the stronger the revelation of their actions becomes. |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
Basically Crey, who helped out with AE, are trying to get Aeon to let them access the data of the meta users of AE for the safe of their Reverent Hero Project.
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Moreover, integrating AE into the CoH environment properly might give it more of a boost for storytelling instead of primarily powerlevelling. (That's a long shot, I know.)
Or at least introduce them in a neutral light so that their revelations later carry some weight. As things stand, players are basically introduced to a sinister mega-corporation in the mid-game that quickly turns out to be utterly malign. If it could be established how much Crey has worked itself into the city's power structure, then it would make more sense that it's difficult to dislodge once the revelations of its wrongdoings come to light.
I think the best idea I heard for Crey was having a Paragon Protector helping out in the tutorial.
I'd like to see more about the origins, as revealed in the origins of power arc. Maybe origin specific missions or something?
Lots of good stuff in this thread!
I think the best idea I heard for Crey was having a Paragon Protector helping out in the tutorial.
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Still, with the new phasing technology, it should be possible to introduce a Paragon Protector as, for example, a Vendor NPC that will be replaced once the player has run some Crey arcs that reveal the corporation's nefarious agenda.
![](http://i778.photobucket.com/albums/yy70/KojiroJames/neversurrendersig.jpg)
Some are these are also story ideas from ex-devs like Jack and Manticore, which mightn't be on the top of the priroity list for the current story and lore devs, who have their own ideas and stories they want to tell.
@Golden Girl
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Indeed, but this leaves open two obvious questions: What happens when players alert the authorities to this, and what is Dr. Aeon doing with this data himself in the first place? What should be the tip of the iceberg is currently floating along in the overall CoH narrative like a pool toy.
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I just realized today that, with the new low-level missions replacing Azuria and the gang, the whole FBSA (MAGI, GIFT, SERAPH, DATA, and ELITE,) are pretty much unused. A few old missions have you swing by to ask them for favors occasionally, but that's about it. Which is kinda a shame, since a government agency for the monitoring and containing of superpowered threats should theoretically be a huge deal to heroes and villains of all levels.
Similarly, Hero Corps. A company of for-profit heroes...! which apparently has nothing better to do than tweak your reputation for free. Also there's Colleen Saramago, a Hero Corps agent who gives you work and never even mentions paying you. Cheapskate.
Also! Rikti spies! They could be anyone. Except, more commonly, they're not. There is, I think, one one-off hero mission dealing with them, plus Kelly Uqua. Seems like the billboards scattered all over the city were kind of a waste if they're that rare. Or maybe they're just so good at hiding that we never noticed them.
So, what other cool bits of the setting are just kinda hanging out, nearly unused?
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.