Glowie / Hostage Finder

After getting back-to-back "Find the hostages" missions (one on an Oranbega map, the other on a Council map ), I would pay for a temp power that would highlight all the hostages and glowies on the map.

They relatively recently added the feature that highlights the "last" of something on maps like that but I'm not entirely sure it works in all cases. At least it seems like there have been cases where something should've been on the map but wasn't. Either way I doubt they'll bother to "help" us any further like that anytime soon.

Your suggestion has already been implemented into the game. It's just been implemented badly and works only sometimes indoors and never on outdoor instances. You're asking for a bug fix, rather than a new feature.

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.

I'm choosing to interpret the OP's post as: A temp power that has fudge-able mechanic explanation whereby you can 'locate' hostages and/or 'objects' required for mission complete.

'Locate last objective' and its buggy nature aside (apart from new maps and content), if coding allowed it then I'd be up for it being a temp power. Normally I'd suggest that it be a crafting recipe but now we're in micro-transaction land and it gives a marginal boost to some players' playstyles (especially soloers), I'd expect to see it as a purchaseable, limited-use temp power (which naturally requires re-purchase when it has run out, if desired).

I say coding because some of the legacy content has hostages that cannot be 'targetted' owing to the fact that they register as the 'Person' type, instead of critter type. I'm not sure how they'd show up if a temp power was used to locate them.

Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if ally/escort/rescues that DO use the critter target window (Such as, say, Fusionette) can be tab-targetted because they are set as allies. So coding is possibly a reason why it wouldn;t work and, unless all NPC 'hostages/allies' are created equal it could be a barrier. I'm sure someone with genuine knowledge on the subject may be able to shed light on this.

Glowies suffer from a similar problem - some of them are dummies (either a trigger for an ambush/event or just placed to make you progress through a map until you hit the right one). And with things like the new 'click-me-to-open-a-dialogue-window glowies', again are they technically glowies?

Fundamentally I think I see where the OP is coming from and would agree with the notion of such a 'power'. But I'm not sure the differing 'systems' of mission design would support it in a consistent way.

That would have been part of the Skills system that was dropped long ago.

As far as I can tell, it highlights only the last OBJECT you need to find - glowie, etc., as well as bad guys in red (for "defeat all"). To my knowledge, I have yet to see it indicate a hostage's whereabouts.

A better solution would be for them to give hostages a sound like glowies do ... maybe yelling help or whinning or the same sound as the glowies. Cause I just let a mission fail on purpose caus I fan though the stupid CoT mission for 40 min and couldn't find anything.

The reason hostages aren't shown is because they have a "mob" guarding them and the mission infor only shows what's left after all mobs are engaged at least once.

A fix for the hostage issue might be classifying the enemies around the hostage as the target not the hostage themselves. that way when you clear all normal mobs, they enemies around the hostage shows on the map. Just a thought.

I don't like this idea simply because if implemented it would do away with any "challenge" aspect of the mission. In effect, every mission would then just become kill some baddies. Yes these type mishes are frustrating at times but seriously do we really need to have the game any more watered down?

This sort of thing would be great for a new Super Senses power pool.

Lvl 1: Heightened Sense. Auto Power.
You can hear a sound to indicate nearby glowies, hostages, etc. Based on the sound, you should be able to identify what kind it is -- an object, a hostage, an npc, or a trap. In missions where you must find "the correct crate", the correct crate will have a distinctive sound to it. You get a moderate bonus to your perception.

Lvl 1: Super Sight. Toggle Power.
Red or green targeting recticles will show up around any glowies/hostages within perception range, even through walls. In missions where you must find "the correct crate", incorrect crates within perception range will show up as yellow instead of green. You get a slight bonus to the accuracy of all your powers as long as this toggle is on.

Lvl 14: Situational Awarness
Activation Power. All hostages/gloweis/enemies/bosses show up on your map. In some cases, you may be able to see the spawn points even if a boss has not yet arrived on the scene. You get a slight bonus to range on all powers for the duration of this effect. You must get either Super Sight or Heightened Sense and be level 14 before getting this power.

Lvl 20: Rapid Analysis
Activation Power. Effectively a limited version of Aim (in much the same way Provoke is a limited form of Taunt), this power will grant you a small bonus to accuracy and a significant bonus to perception for the duration of its effect. Objects (such as crates, turrets, bombs, etc.) that you attack will have a -resistance(smash/lethal) debuff. You must take any two of the previous powers (Heightened Sense, Super Sight, Situational Awareness) and be level 20 before you can select this option.

The best way to implement this would be to eliminate the *#($&#($* large Orenbega maps. And the medium sized one that has all the spawn portals in it. Those maps have little hidden nooks and passages that seem to be deliberately designed to make players rage quit.