Faultline - Croatoa, the perfect story zone or what?

We have several story zones now - Hollows, Striga, Faultline, Croatoa, First Ward.

Croatoa strikes me as the best.
1. The content is self contained. You meet all of the characters and factions in the story and it all "wraps ups" in the zone.
2. The story progresses but it does not really change from the first to last contact - the central foes and focus remains the same.
3. You do not fight your allies every other mission.
4. While there is a tragedy going on, you do not create it, you make it better - you are a hero.
5. Nice temp powers custom for the zone which change some of the dynamics
6. The factions look very different from each other and everything else. You cannot confuse Croatoa missions with anywhere else.

edit: weird - no idea how Faultline got into the title. I can only assume the clockwork king wanted me to praise his princess

Must agree that i do love that zone and the xp is great too so its always used by my alts to level in

That being said i think the best zones with arcs in them are . . . . .

1. Faultline
2. Croatoa
3. Hollows
4. Striga [we dont seem to actually progress that much in this zone]

Strange. Most of your positives I see as great negatives. And that's not just because I consider the Hollows, Striga and Croatoa to be by fart he worst the game has produced both from a gameplay standpoint and from a storyline standpoint.

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Originally Posted by dugfromthearth 1. The content is self contained. You meet all of the characters and factions in the story and it all "wraps ups" in the zone.

That just makes the zone feel like it's been borrowed from another game and exists outside of official canon and the persistent world that MMOs are so proud of. It makes it, therefore, that much less interesting to me, and that much more of a one-off episode of an otherwise consistent long-running show which will never be brought up again and which had nothing to do with anything.

One of the things that so enthralled me as a new player to City of Heroes back in the day was this large, persistent super hero world which had rich backhistory and complex inter-faction dynamics where, when things happened, I could think for a moment, snap my fingers and go "OK, I see why that happened." Not so in Croatoa. Banished pantheon happened "last Halloween" seven years ago and then stuff happens.

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Originally Posted by dugfromthearth 2. The story progresses but it does not really change from the first to last contact - the central foes and focus remains the same.

There is no story to Croatoa and no progression to it. There is a setting, but no story takes place in it. It's a random events plot. You are told to do things that sort of happen but have no larger reason to have been done and result in no lasting effect. You clear a building of ghosts, and this effects the story by... Making sure that one building which will never be brought up again has no ghosts in it. For the moment.

Croatoa has a very, very thin story that, if stripped of all the filler, would be about five missions long, and most of it centred around Skipper LeGrange, with the rest of the missions being basic maintenance. I get that some "proper" story arcs are a "Your princess is in another castle!" plots, too, like Unai Kemen's To Save a Thousand Worlds. I get that, but those aren't that common, and even then they have more of a central plot. Croatoa just has missions not terribly different from Paper or Scanner ones, and then suddenly your contact has had you faff about enough to give you the next mission which actually advances the plot.

And it ends with a TF that I've never done and now that no-one wants to do it, I never will. I don't know how the story ends, if it ends or if it's any good, because I could never be arsed to farm the Quick Katie at the high point and I don't really have the option to do that now. I HATE zone arcs that end in a Task Force I will never do because all that does is rob me of closure and make me resent not just the lack of ending, but the entire story in general, and the zone right along with it. The Hollows did this, Striga did this and Croatoa did this. It wasn't until Faultline that it was done right in my opinion, and that's where a "zone arc" had an actual proper story, not an excuse to hunt Fir Bolg in an area where Fir Bolg don't seem to spawn over and over again.

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Originally Posted by dugfromthearth 5. Nice temp powers custom for the zone which change some of the dynamics

Personally, I see temporary powers as a gimmick that I'd rather not be saddled with. They take up tray space, consume inordinate amounts of endurance and just make me jump through hoops. Granted, none of those in Croatoa are all that bad... For the simple reason that I can take them out of my trays as soon as they drop and the missions remain winnable quite easily, but that's tolerance, not approval. It's a lot like the Rikti War Zone where you're forced to babysit an NPC ally nearly every mission.

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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 think the croatoa arc wraps up as much as any other except the new atlas park missions that clear the hellions.

You stop the major plot that is going on. That's all that other story arcs do. To get there you have to learn more about the zone and the creatures in it.

I will say that the one fault I have with the zone is that the guy you rescue in a mission (Wayne?) does not show up again. Recurring NPC's make for a richer storyline.

I do like Faultline - except I don't do the missions on the other side of the dam. mostly because I don't like running around in the tunnels. I think I completed it once, but I don't really remember.

Lets see for me Hollows has and always will remain an ignore it zone. Once upon a time in the old days, its size made pretty much anything but a kheldian with inherent travel powers a major pITA to be there. And the arcs really to me are not anything that couldnt be found in any other more integrated region of the city. Maybe if they added a full under world caverns map connecting all of paragon with all routes intersecting in the hollows, making it an interesting travel hub for sub world characters i could get behind it more.

Faultline, bar none has been the best revamp of any part of first year COH to date imo. Zone,story,NPCs, and the tie in the new posi tf all made for a great early immersion in lore for all future new players.

striga. Loved it since day one and still do today. It fits perfectly with coh lore, is pretty much a major story zone for kheldians, and has the best end boss fight tf in classic comic book villain style ever. Yes I mean the battle on top of a giant death bot inside a hidden volcanoe lair. I mean seriously how great is that.

Croatoa. Good zone. I enjoyed it alot when it first came out though I rarely run through it all the way anymore. Any useful temps from it I flashback for regular though. Useful for more magical origin characters looking for an alternative to mu based occult magic lore.

I am really stoked by atlas parks visual revamp and curious to see what the rumored dark astoria changes will be like.

I do really like Croatoa, but I kind of agree that the self contained story is both a positive and a negative. It doesn't rely on you knowing anything else from any other part of the game so you can go in when you please and you won't be lost.

But, ya, it doesn't really go anywhere, there's a lot of filler missions that don't really do or accomplish anything important and in fact, the fact that the story 'wraps up' in a Taskforce is actually something of a pain because for anyone just going solo, it just stops with a -very- vague hint.

And it does feel just very isolated from the rest of the game. I love the factions but you only get to see them for such a short time, that's kind of the lovely thing about a lot of the other gangs is groups like the Council, the Freakshow, etc, you see through several different areas and contacts so you get a really good idea of who they are. The 5 croatoa baddy groups just don't get a lot of exposure.

Yeah the GMs are a lot of fun, I definitely like the Crotoa monsters.

And adding on to what I said, once you finish the story arc, that it, it's never heard from again (Except tangentally during the holidays) There's no dangers from the spirit world encroaching on anything, you just move up to facing down the Nemesis Army, the Carnies, all the transdimensional threats, etc. So, it's a fun trip but it feels more like a short side trip that doesn't play into anything.

That I think is just sort of my problem. it's got a -wonderful- lore, the factions are fun to fight against, the characters are even kind of likable (though some of the missions are -gods awful-) But it ends and that's it, it just feels a bit wasted in potential.

It's a good story zone but not good for much else, like all the others mentioned in this thread. I want more stuff to do in zones, make them more habitable instead of just pit stops.

what

I'd say the new Faultline is my favorite, its got some varied fights and missions, its the first time you see some really strange maps (the tilted floors), and its likely to be your first fight against AVs, unless you jump on Posi really early.

I try to do Croatoa since I'm going to be needing those defeats anyway for Geas of the Kind ones, so I may as well level in the process. I agree its a nice zone and well contained storywise, which doesn't bother me since I have only a hazy grasp of the overall game lore.

I'd like Striga more if (1) it wasn't a bit overloaded with "defeat alls" and (2) the missions were in the same order for everyone. I usually do these things teamed with friends, and when we get the missions in random orders, we end up basically doing all the contacts twice to keep everyone up, which gets especially old after the 3rd or 4th defeat all. I agree its got one of the most fun TFs in the game though. I often do it anyway, though, because its got great temps (well, mainly the Wedding Ring) and I'd like to make sure I *can* do Hess if I like.

Hollows is actually kind of hard to get through without outleveling it now, as it has large missions and leveling is so fast with rest XPs (without much play time and with friends with altitis, most play I do benefits from that). I still consider the end trial one of the harder ones in the game till iTrials, nothing else requires *every single person on the team* to do something right to succeed. Plus the combination of the short timer and having to get there through tunnels past Trolls you are exemped down to and hard hitting, unslowable, respawning Magma Men inside makes recovering from deaths or a team wipe hard. Before Stealth IOs and level 6 travel powers and inherent Stamina and Assemble the Team, it was very rare to find anyone who could stealth to the door through the maze and get the team there at level 15, making it even harder. I still recommend everyone run the Cavern of Transdescence once, though, its neat to see.

I love faultline. The missions are fun, the zone is nicely atmospheric, the story is engaging, it builds up to a very nice finale, and I like the fact that it kicks in at 15, since there's not very much other interesting content in the 15-20 range. I'm pretty sure I've done the faultline arcs on at least 75% of all of my characters, probably more.

Croatoa is... eh. It's OK, but the missions and story aren't anywhere near as engaging as faultline, and I despise redcaps. There's a lot more 'filler' missions than faultline, and there are also a few *really really* annoying missions. Free 28721034 captives on that giant outdoor map, anyone? Basically that same mission again, one contact later? Stop 30 fir bolg? And the finale of Kelly Nemmers' arc is at least shorter, but on the other hand, redcaps. Bleh. And I have to agree that sticking the end of the story inside a task force is annoying.

The hollows and striga are kinda in-between, in my opinion. The hollows has the more cohesive story, I think, but I'd honestly rather just skip over those levels, and the zone is somewhat annoying to navigate (although I do have to admit I haven't done the arcs since it became possible to take travel powers so early). Striga is less like that, and is still reasonably interesting, but has to compete with all of the really nice content that's sitting in the 20-30 range these days. I still try to do the first arc for the temp power, though.

I haven't done first ward yet, but it's yet another of those 20-30 things - that level range is really starting to feel a bit crowded to me. I think you could also call the RWZ a 'story zone' - it's up there with faultline, for me. Certainly more of those arcs that I try to do on all of my characters.

Croatoa is a zone that's unique in that the zone tells its own story. You get one story from the missions and you get expansion upon that story if you take the time to travel around the zone and watch the NPC's and see how they relate to each other.

Honestly, the Katie Hannon task force is just as random as anything else in the zone. If Croatoa was designed today, it would be built with phasing technology and you would literally save Salamanca from being absorbed by Croatoa. That isn't an option, though, so we get the weird "stuck in time" syndrome instead.

In any case, Croatoa is my favorite zone from a strictly zone-story perspective. If you care about who the factions are and what they want then the zone is designed to reward the people who take the time to explore the zone in search of answers to those questions.

The only thing I truly don't understand is why the Cabal is digging up the magic roots, or at least trying to find a source of them. Otherwise, I feel that it's a model that many other zones could benefit from emulating.

Can you consolidate these 'or what' threads, please?

Never had a problem navigating the Hallows. I used to love running it, used to run th trial in it all the time.

Sadly, I got burned out on it. I keep meaning to send a new alt through it, but I get temped with my love of TFs and sewer runs.

So maybe Ill oro it at some point.

I love Croatoa. I do wish they'd add more to those fractions getting inside the rest of Paragon, maybe in DA v2.0.

I tend to skip to the last two contacts now tho as well.

Sam, if you're ever on Virtue and want to run a KHTF, I can run you through one more than likely. I tend to always unlock it.

Striga has never really got my attention. I just found the contacts boring. Love the Hess and Moonfire TFs tho!

Faultline...I admit it...while Ive run some missions there with other people, Ive never actually gotten a contact to Faultline. Even when I was running contacts keeping away from TFs, i dont recall being sent there.

I hate Striga - it's an annoying zone with perhaps the most disappointing TF I've ever been on. I only ever enjoyed The Hollows up to Frostfire. And while I like Croatoa as a backdrop and think its Giant Monsters are interesting, I largely don't care for the enemies found there and hate the faerie ring outdoor instances.

I find Faultline interesting, though I don't often seek to do the arcs there these days. I wish there was more done with those odd random tentacles that pop up.

I am biased, since i prefer magical settings and enemies, cro is definitely among my favorites, the level range is a bit crowded, so i have missed it a few times, but generally enjoy running it..though the redcaps do require a certain level of masochism to enjoy, i love their theme and concept. also, while i do think the hami seed is the new best giant monster, eochai and jack were always 2 dependable enemies for me to fight. and sally is a giant reptile/sorta dinosaur, so of course much love there.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Croatoa is great (I like Faultline too). I was curious about the origins of the "red caps" and found that they are real! Wikipedia says so here....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcap

Upon further research I found this.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papa_Smurf

omg. papa smurf is a vicious, dirty, knife wielding red cap.

I like Faultline the most of the story zones. It has a cohesive storyline with an actual ending (the other zones either just sort of fizzle out at the end or the single player arcs end by sending you to a taskforce contact in order to continue the story) that makes you feel like you've really accomplished something. While the story is self contained, it also fits in with the larger conflict with Arachnos. It introduces you to characters you'll be seeing again at higher levels (Penelope Yin, Fusionette, and Faultline.)

First Ward is probably my second favorite but with a two and a half major problems with it. The design and art in the zone (freakin' sharks in the freakin' water.) The zone largely stands alone, but does fit in with the overall Praetorian story. The storyline is interesting with some unique villians groups. The unique villian groups are also the half problem I mentioned in that they are significantly more difficult opponents than what you'd be fighting elsewhere at that level. Some people (like me) like having more of a challenge without just adding more mobs, but I know that some people find some of the groups (especially the awakened to be too much of a challenge.) One of the major problems is there is a LOT of just reading blocks of text or watching two NPC's talking to each other. This isn't a problem for a single player on the first time through, but running in a group or taking another character through it's a major slow-down to the pacing. A subset of this problem is that you are offered a number of morality choices during missions, but they make absolutely no difference on the storyline. The other (and biggest) problem is the zone doesn't have an ending. After the last arc I was left thinking, "That's it? You don't have another contact for me?" It may be intended that the MoM trial is the real ending for the First Ward story, but that's a long way off from the character's point of view. As it is you enter FW and the place is a crap hole. When you leave, it's still a crap hole.

I'll spare you from detailed thoughts on the other zones, just a few notes on the problems with the other the other story zones:

Striga : The single player arcs tend to have a lot of filler and they end by sending you off to taskforces to learn the rest of the story.

Croatoa: Taken in isolation the zone is pretty interesting and well designed. The problem is that it MUST be taken in isolation as the events there are totally unrelated to anything taking part in the wider world. Also, most of the individual missions are pure filler.

The Hollows: It looks great, but you end up without really accomplishing much. Frostfire is a HUGE jump in difficulty from any fights a character is likely to have had up till that point and players going after him without knowing what to expect are going to feel like they've been hit by a freight train. And I still don't know just what the Igneous are or what they want.