Details on Dark Astoria Makeover?

It won't, since it's mainly a showcase for new mechanics that will be outdated next year.

It's kind of like when we got lead-outs in i5. Some people thought they were cool...for about five minutes. Now most people hate them, and everybody hates them if they're overused or used badly.

It has more variety than the older content, so it's better for replay value
After 7 years, an empty zone with nothing but zombie spawns in it doesn't hold up too well

DA needed story content. There was no debate about that. It was often-requested.

If I may draw an imperfect analogy: The old automobile does not have as much power as before. It needs new spark plugs and wires; it is, however, a classic automobile.

The new 2012 Speedmobile will blow the doors off anything on the road.
Yes, if you replace the old car with the 2012 Speedmobile, you have stepped up.

But is it necessary to replace the old car? Could you not have gotten the new car AND replaced the spark plugs and wires on the classic car with the classic look? You would have two cars that run well that appeal to different aspects of driving.

How would that not ALSO be a "massive step forwards"? And arguably bigger than the one that we are getting?

Even in the newest of zones this game's 'art assets' don't feel very 2011 when it is not uncommon for MMO 'toons' these days to have hands with fingers instead of ham hocks at the ends of their arms. Hair that moves is not unheard of, either. Nor are faces that are capable of expressing various emotional states. Oh, and more than a few MMO 'toons' can wear robes. Scandalous. If they really want to update the art assets, that's the place to start. That's the current weakest link. All this other stuff... who cares if you can see your toon's reflection in a window when that reflection has the same 2004 body/face/limitations as it had in 2004?

I'll express my opinion once again: all Dark Astoria needed was a series of story arcs and a TF or two to put it on par with Croatoa and Striga. Much less work involved futzing with 'art assets', and with the time/effort saved they could have worked on a whole new 50+ co-op Incarnate zone. Fans of the old Dark Astoria: happy! People who want 50+ co-op Incarnate content: happy! Everybody's happy!

Or not.

Going slightly off topic, but I would take CoH's costume system over locked assets and forced costume/stat linkage of other MMOs any day. Other games are able to have robes and other systems because all of the art assets are hard-linked together. I don't care about individually moveable fingers when every hand is poking out from the same set of 3 robes and 5 suits of armor.



If they could nuke every early zone and start over I'd support that. Hopefully Peregrine Island, Steel Canyon, Talos, and Brickstown are on that list.

Also EXTREMELY happy this isn't another Praetorian zone.

I think they do have plans for more zone revamps in future Issues - so a lot of the older stuff will be swept away.

That's a separate issue. At least the new stuff is shinier.

I don't expect the game to be here in seven years, but if it is I'm sure the stuff done now will need replacing then, too.

Yes, because the old car is just taking up space in my driveway as it rusts into pieces.

Exactly how much time do you spend looking at your character's hands?

Given that characters are usually obscured by FX or zipping around the screen, the environment is probably a lot more noticeable than the characters.

Great, two other zones no one goes to except maybe for a TF.

So... how does making new art assets for a new Incarnate zone AND adding story arcs and a TF to Dark Astoria equate to saving time/effort compared to just making new art assets for a new Incarnate zone ?

Dark Astoria needed content, it got it.

VIPs wanted smaller scale Incarnate content, they got it.

Freems and Prems look at new fancy looking Incarnate content and maybe ponder subbing.

Fans of old Dark Astoria access it through Ouroborus, they get that too.

And the devs get to move on to the next project... knocking out 2 big player requests at once.

If I pick a weapon-wielding character, around half the time I spend playing.

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.

And because all the old DA had were the zone spawns, that means that unlike Galaxy City, the echo of DA will give players access to everything that used to be in the zone.
Players aren't losing the old DA at all - the devs are simply changing it's entrance point - instead of clicking on a PPD SWAT officer in Talos Island, you'll now click on a portal in Ouroboros - what's on the other side doesn't change at all.

Fans of old Dark Astoria wanted missions and arcs. They will get the same old Dark Astoria locked in a museum, still with no new missions or arcs. How did that fulfill their requests?

Years of asking for new stories with Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley does not mean that Star Trek:Voyager fulfilled those wishes.

But I do understand. New Astoria is coming, like it or not, and it will not be dark, etc. The Devs have spoken, that is that. There is nothing left to cover.

The screenshots make it look pretty dark

Have you seen the pics? It will be dark.

No offense, guys, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

Agreed. And I am hereby requesting that one of those updated 2011 art assets be an abandoned neighborhood with an empty but working hospital, ghostly citizens that vanish when you get close, and fog.

kthxbai

Wrong zone, I was referring to the Atlas Makeover, ditching the 5 origin contacts for the Hasheby arc. Some of the problematic mechanics that they threw out have simply been replacing by new mechanical problems, for instance enemies in these 'open events' now respawn within a few seconds of being defeated, so say the Hasheby mission where you have to rescue 4 civilians from Hellions, you can just park yourself by 1 of them, kill the hellion and then just wait the few seconds for it to respawn. This is just silly and really breaks immersion ;p or even problematic, like the Arachnos missions where you can be mobbed by the same 2 spawns while trying to take down the transmitters.

The Astoria makeover I'm wholeheartedly looking forward to. I like the abandoned silent hill vibe the zone has now, but as has been said previously, it's a very one trick pony, the atmosphere is just creepy once then it is kind of a hinderance. Giving it a GWAR Death metal makeover sounds pretty cool in my opinion, I'm glad it'll be constantly night and won't have the fog.

I have yet to see these pics... are they in this thread somewhere?

there is now, it was in the van kreiger ustream thread, and good lord, i already appreciated vans work, but in copy and pasting his stuff, holy @#$% that man does a lot of work.

This one is the DD Trial map.

Don't tell me what I want.

I really like hazard zones the way they are. There are hundreds of things people who don't like hazard zones can do - and now I feel like hazard zones are slowly but surely going to slip away from me, condemning my new characters to lurk in oroborous to go back in time constantly to do nothing that affected anything. Which is exactly what they do now, but they don't have to go through a gate labelled 'TIME TRAVEL' to do it.

Heroes, Villains ♦ Reviews ♦ Retrospect

DD Trial?

So you want big empty zones with an occasional unique spawn (giant monsters/zone events) that players largely only go into for a mission and then leave?

Dilemma Diabolique - the new Trial in I22 - after First Ward, she's escaped to Primal Earth, and is trying to tap into the power of Mot to become death incarnate.