The old Blue side contacts NEED to GO
By
Agent White,
Posted on: 2012-04-18 11:15 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Yes, the old 'run to' plugs in the old content need to go.
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Well in defense of Dr. Trevor Seaborn, his 'Rescue the fortuneteller' mission is required in part of [The Atlas Medallion] endurance accolade and I'm shocked you actually managed to get him as a contact without Ouroboros! O_O
But I agree on the tedium of the contact's missions. It kind of feels like they don't really have anything important going on and just delegating you to someone else while they stand around looking 'pretty'. There's no serious crime so why the heck are you sending me to someone else for something to do?
Home server: Victory
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My first 50(0)! 18/11/11
@Oneirohero
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I hate hunts! They are bad for teaming! The last hunt I want to do someone else's hunt.|
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
So. I never finished Twinshot's arc, so what the heck, figured I'd do it on my new staff character. Have to take a break until she'll talk to me again at 15, though.
Ok, no problem. I'll go do Montague's arc. Hmn, not 15 yet. Oh well, he gave me a contact.... Enter Kyle Peck. Ok, haven't heard that name before, guessing he's old content. I should have known. I should have run a bloody mile at the sight of the ancient, non-descript civilian model. But no, like a trusting fool I walked up and thought he might give me missions. 'Go talk to the Hero Corps Analyst in Kings Row' ...... Ok, fine. Just a one off sur- 'Have you talked to Lt Winscott in the Hollows?' ..... No. No and I am level 13, he has nothing to intere- 'Go Hunt 10 Vahzilok in Steel Canyon'. Clearly Mr Peck is deciding to be very unhelpful today. Right. Fine. I'll ignore the...man and go to another contact he gives me, Dr Trevor Seaborn. Another one I don't know, maybe HE will have some actual content with, heaven forbid, a plot and a point. 'Go to Perez and fight Hellions, despite them being below your level' OR 'Go talk to the Skyway City Security Chief so you can hunt 10 Trolls.' What. The. Hell. Guys. What is it going to take to cut all this old junk out of the game for good? For one, the Hero Corp Analyst should be covered, surprised surprise, IN THE TUTORIAL. If, you know, the Tutorial covered anything at all, rather than being 'Look, Shiny new Shivans!!' I just....I honestly don't know what to say that is actually printable. For the love of sanity and sense, Get. Rid. Of This. Junk. It has NO place in a game that has the new Atlas, Mercy and Praetoria, let alone First Ward and the quality content like that. What the hell will new players thing, going from the polished and story-rich content to suddenly doing THIS crap?! All of my Why? |
One of the reasons why I haven't done the content in First Ward again is because of the silly hunts.
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In the blueside zones, you will see little phone booths with blue lights on top of them. There used to be missions where you had to touch those in a certain order. I occasionally miss those old patrol missions...then I realize that I'm lying to myself.
I don't mind seeing the Mr. Architect Entertainment contact go, really.
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Oh, god, I'd forgotten about him clogging up the contacts bar....yes, PLEASE make that...man an OPTIONAL contact. Or, y'know, have him call-out when you enter the AE, so that people going there can pick him up if they NEED to. Strewth.
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Originally Posted by Paradox Fate
I don't mind seeing the Mr. Architect Entertainment contact go, really.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Oh no, those are still there. And they're an utter waste of time
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Originally Posted by badmartialarts
In the blueside zones, you will see little phone booths with blue lights on top of them. There used to be missions where you had to touch those in a certain order. I occasionally miss those old patrol missions...then I realize that I'm lying to myself.
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Damn, this should have gone in Suggestions.... Oh well
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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The stuff like the hero corps popup, the PVP zone popup, etc? Sure. Those can be changed so they're not missions.
I have no problem with hunts. Or patrols, if the ambushes would actually catch up with (or be waiting for) you. "Patrol and look for Praetorian activity?" I don't think I've ever seen that ambush in 20 issues.
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Wait, there are actually supposed to be ambushes associated with those? I've never seen one any time I've had a patrol mission
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Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
The stuff like the hero corps popup, the PVP zone popup, etc? Sure. Those can be changed so they're not missions.
I have no problem with hunts. Or patrols, if the ambushes would actually catch up with (or be waiting for) you. "Patrol and look for Praetorian activity?" I don't think I've ever seen that ambush in 20 issues. |
Quote:
Wait, that mission that I've been looking for these many years...was a patrol?|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
The stuff like the hero corps popup, the PVP zone popup, etc? Sure. Those can be changed so they're not missions.
I have no problem with hunts. Or patrols, if the ambushes would actually catch up with (or be waiting for) you. "Patrol and look for Praetorian activity?" I don't think I've ever seen that ambush in 20 issues. |
Way back when I first played, a friend and I had worked out first characters up into the low forties, and were bumming around PI. We stopped and talked for a second, when someone in the high end of the forties hopped out of a nearby sewer entrance, and rand off. My friend told me we should move, because there's probably an ambush coming for them, and she was right, it was a pack of what I would later learn are Marauder's demolition crew.
I never saw that mission, or that ambush, when I got any of my characters to 50.
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A: You crash into another one.
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Yeah - though I'm not sure it exists NOW with the Hero's Hero revamp. (Actually, it may have been one of her one off missions.) |
Originally Posted by M_I_Abrahms
Wait, that mission that I've been looking for these many years...was a patrol?
Way back when I first played, a friend and I had worked out first characters up into the low forties, and were bumming around PI. We stopped and talked for a second, when someone in the high end of the forties hopped out of a nearby sewer entrance, and rand off. My friend told me we should move, because there's probably an ambush coming for them, and she was right, it was a pack of what I would later learn are Marauder's demolition crew. I never saw that mission, or that ambush, when I got any of my characters to 50. |
And as mentioned - I don't think I've ever actually seen the ambush either, for that or low level missions. Maybe once since I started at best?
Someone should have suggested these contacts be revamped back in 2005.
Oh, that's right. They did! 
Yes, all non-door missions should be removed from the old contacts
the door missions are fine
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Nah, it's a good chance for discussion about old school City of Heroes. |
Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Damn, this should have gone in Suggestions.... Oh well
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Just recently RobotPants and I were duoing with our low 30s corruptor and dominator. We'd finished the Croatoa arc (less the TF) but weren't high enough to start on the Rikti War Zone. We'd played the appropriate SSA, done some shiny new tip missions and still weren't level 35 yet. It seemed we'd reached a point where we had run out of 'new' content (or missed it) so we decided to check out good ol' Lou Pasterelli way in the back of Brickstown. Lou's been standing there, surrounded by purple-conning enemies (if you take him as a contact when you are level-appropriate) since April 2004. His legs must be getting tired.
Lou deals mainly with the Devouring Earth and has a few arcs involving them. His first mission, though, was to visit the Warburg PvP liaison in Kings Row. Hello, auto-complete!
Trying to get our missions to match was a crapshoot because they are pretty much handed out randomly, so we ended up repeating a few. Lou also had lots of hunts -- 'defeat 35 DE', 'defeat 35 Crey', sometimes they were generic, sometimes they required you to go to a specific zone (several hunts were in Crey's Folly, a hazard zone). When Lou gave out regular missions they were often 'defeat all' and some were stealth 'defeat all' -- you'd rescue the five scientists and the mission wouldn't complete until you found and defeated every last DE hiding in that sprawling, multi-level tech lab.
By the time we completed all of his missions I had gained two levels, in no small part because so many missions required wiping out every last opponent you came across.
In the end I didn't wish Lou to go hug the Hamidon and never come back. I think a lot of these old contacts can be used as filler and don't need to be removed. But they could stand to have missions tidied up:
- slim down the numbers needed for hunts. I'd max them out at 20. I don't think you need to eliminate hunts because they are typically presented as an option unless you have run out of other missions.
- remove the 'go talk to so and so' missions. Make these pop-up contacts you can safely ignore. Security chief, Wincott, PvP liaisons, Mission Architect, etc.
- reduce the number of Defeat All missions and have each one clearly labeled. I actually don't mind the occasional mission that needs to be full cleared, just don't pile them on.
That's about it, really. A lot of the old stories are generic but some are still good fun to go through and there's a simplicity that appeals after all the phasing, multiple objectives and stop-and-start of the newer content. A cleansing of the palette, if you will.
My question is why do those old contacts stand inside City Hall, when now all you get at the start of AP is Matthew Hashaby.
Sounds like someone's in need of rolling redside instead of blueside.
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If you have low level characters that pre-date the Atlas Park revamp they can still run the missions from the old contacts.
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Originally Posted by Fluorescent
My question is why do those old contacts stand inside City Hall, when now all you get at the start of AP is Matthew Hashaby.
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Eh, I like both sides equally for my own play-type, and this character made more sense Blueside, because I care about junk like that.|
Originally Posted by GuyPerfect
Sounds like someone's in need of rolling redside instead of blueside.
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Red sides contacts, however, all have an actual plot to them, except the obvious Brokers.
The Blue side contacts do NOT. The overwhelming majority of them are horrible throw-backs to Issue 0-1, where everything was hunts, Defeats alls, fed-exing and more hunts. They REALLY badly need an overhaul.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Most of the legacy arcs should be turned into a zone-arc (or even a mini-trial) where you stay in one zone (or just the neighboring hazard zone) and polished so that the street sweep (just one) leads to a nearby door or that the FedEx mission (just one) leads to a nearby door. And limit the kill-alls to just one mission per arc (and it not be a surprise kill-all) and incorporate some of the newer mission mechanics.
Also, get rid of the multiple contacts that give out the same arc (CoH isn't that crowded with millions of subs, and even if it were, the spawning of multiple instances would prevent crowds around a contact). This would help people actually be able to use the cooperative mission complete mechanic.
And if the one-off missions a legacy contact gives can't be incorporated into an arc, then shunt it off to the police radio... or nuke it if it's uninteresting.
And get rid of the 'origin arcs' which are spotty and unequal in relation to each other to begin with. (Nevermind also getting rid of the clunky origin-specific enhancements and their byzantine vendor network.) Just tell an interesting arc about a particular plot or foe... don't try to justify an origin.
I think that the Devs purposely want it to be hard to find the legacy contacts which now start in Kings Row because any new player who attempts them will quit CoH in disgust. For that reason, they should be revamped -- or even turned off until revamped (except the badge ones). At one time, their redundant missions were needed to provide enough content to get us to the next level... that's not the case any more.
And the mission for the AE contact? That should be an Account wide badge so that it never pops up again. It's the player that's introduced to the AE, not the character. Probably the same for the IO tutorial in the university.
There's *a lot* that could be done for a revamping of low level gaming to streamline the whole thing.
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I like the old blue contacts. Love them, in fact.
/unsigned, with anger
Lewis
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They're slowly replacing them with improved content - Steel Canyon got 2 new arcs in I22, and Talos has been getting new contacts since I17 - and I've got a feeling that Kings Row will be getting some attention in the future
@Golden Girl
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If I get a hunt, Contact -> Complete Mission.|
Originally Posted by newchemicals
I hate hunts! They are bad for teaming! The last hunt I want to do someone else's hunt.
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If I've used up my Complete Mission, then I move on to a different character for a day or two.
Sometimes it takes a while to "clear out" a contact when they have nothing but hunt missions at the end of their mission list. Nobody said OCD was going to be easy.
--NT
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Another problem with the old hunts; they often are offered at levels where finding non-red or purple enemies of the designated type is difficult or impossible. Or in the case of Peregrine Carnie hunts, finding them at all.
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Originally Posted by Fluorescent
My question is why do those old contacts stand inside City Hall, when now all you get at the start of AP is Matthew Hashaby.
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Originally Posted by Creole Ned
If you have low level characters that pre-date the Atlas Park revamp they can still run the missions from the old contacts.
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Arc #40529 : The Furies of the Earth
So. I never finished Twinshot's arc, so what the heck, figured I'd do it on my new staff character. Have to take a break until she'll talk to me again at 15, though.
Ok, no problem. I'll go do Montague's arc. Hmn, not 15 yet. Oh well, he gave me a contact....
Enter Kyle Peck. Ok, haven't heard that name before, guessing he's old content.
I should have known. I should have run a bloody mile at the sight of the ancient, non-descript civilian model. But no, like a trusting fool I walked up and thought he might give me missions.
'Go talk to the Hero Corps Analyst in Kings Row'
......
Ok, fine. Just a one off sur-
'Have you talked to Lt Winscott in the Hollows?'
.....
No. No and I am level 13, he has nothing to intere-
'Go Hunt 10 Vahzilok in Steel Canyon'.
Clearly Mr Peck is deciding to be very unhelpful today. Right. Fine. I'll ignore the...man and go to another contact he gives me, Dr Trevor Seaborn. Another one I don't know, maybe HE will have some actual content with, heaven forbid, a plot and a point.
'Go to Perez and fight Hellions, despite them being below your level' OR 'Go talk to the Skyway City Security Chief so you can hunt 10 Trolls.'
What. The. Hell. Guys. What is it going to take to cut all this old junk out of the game for good? For one, the Hero Corp Analyst should be covered, surprised surprise, IN THE TUTORIAL. If, you know, the Tutorial covered anything at all, rather than being 'Look, Shiny new Shivans!!'
I just....I honestly don't know what to say that is actually printable. For the love of sanity and sense, Get. Rid. Of This. Junk. It has NO place in a game that has the new Atlas, Mercy and Praetoria, let alone First Ward and the quality content like that. What the hell will new players thing, going from the polished and story-rich content to suddenly doing THIS crap?! All of my Why?