Make Your Case (Plummit)

So for those of you attending the Plummit this week and plan on attend on the "Make Your Case" forum about a future zone revamp; what zone do you plan on making a case for?

Since I can't make it - but if I did go - I'd probably suggest Port Oakes. Heroes got a zone revamp (well, heroes get everything,) and now I believe it's the villains turn to get a face lift. Most of the Rogue Isles uses the same tired brick buildings and I think to entice some player action into redside is to give one of the earlier zones (not the landing pad) a face lift.

Let's be honest, there's a lot that could be done with that Ghost Fort. Why Port Oakes for villains? It's the only SG registrar, it also has an arena, a Pocket D entrance, and a black market. Other than Cap Au Diable, it has the potential to be a hub for player activity, low and high. Port Oakes could be a mix of low and high levels. The Ghost Fort could be re-purposed into a level 30 - 45 area while the rest of PO remains levels 5 - 12.

Anyways, what zone would you make a case for?

Eden. Not only is a huge zone with plenty of cross-potential from Nemesis and Crey; villains could get a 35-40 zone of their own via the sharing of any DE updates and resources. This could be further shared to Praetoria where the DE run rampant giving a triple-play of content using similar factions to reduce the workload for creating new mobs and map types.

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Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Boomtown.

Why? Because it can be made into a hero and villain zone, with each faction trying to rebuild/destroy/take over the area using the new phasing tech.

PvP without the PvP. Heroes and Villains wouldn't fight each other, but missions and actions of heroes and villains in the zone can affect the appearance of Boomtown, maybe even what spawns where if they add contacts trying to vie for power in this section of the city. Maybe Hero Corps wants to help rebuild and add a new headquarters there, maybe the 5th Column or the Council are willing to make a deal with a supervillain for a decisive victory (which would be the next stage in their conflict's story). Really let things get crazy in there with the new tech.

Even though it's been remodeled already, I'd like to see this hero/villain approach applied to Faultline too, since Arachnos and the Sky Raiders already have a passageway/foothold on the north part of it. I'd like them to add it as a new zone for villainous activity in Paragon in the mid-levels. Not to the same extreme as using the phasing tech or having one side affect the other in any meaningful way, but at least let villains access it from the north side, and do some missions there as well.

But then, I'd like to see Heroes (or at least Vigilantes) helping the Legacy Chain, Wyvern, and Longbow bring justice to the Rogue Isles as well, so what do I know?

Basically zones where heroes and villains can both work in, but not like the RWZ or DA where they 'cooperate' for the greater good.

The moon. I mean, the zone transition to the moon doesn't even work any more. It's about time they fix that, and shine up the place a bit.

I don't think any villain zone needs a revamp per se, so much as just some tweaking. For the most part they do what they're generally intended to do, being part city zone and part hazard zone. Though given that most players don't street sweep now it also means that any part of a zone that doesn't have instanced missions, badges or zone events means it's pretty universally ignored.

Case in point, the huge forested area behind the Cap au Diable university. Huge space, nothing there but mobs.

Conversely, you've got the sunken portion of the graveyard in Sharkhead a lot more active now that Adamastor can be summoned there.

So, I think villain zones could just do with tweaks. Frankly, Sharkhead is close to a mirror for Talos but it just needs a lot of the assets moved closer together for that same convenience. Because it does have the ferry, the auction house, a trainer, a number of stores and -three- task forces but they're all far enough apart to not be convenient. All you need for that same hub convenience is moving the trainer and the VG portal up against the warehouse that faces the Ferry. Tada, you've emulated Talos' convenience.

As for hero zones. Eden and Boomtown would probably be my top 2, followed along by Perez. Then maybe Terra Volta.

Eden is just my favorite because I love the Devouring Earth. Hamidon is a wonderful end game monster and Eden is his influence creeping over paragon. A revamp is pretty simple, just letting the DE 'corruption' twist Eden into even more of a 'paradise'. Sadly, there's just little going on in the zone. The Eden trial is run sparingly, though much more when it's the Weekly Task Force. And it's the only way into The Hive. Most of the time you're sent there on Numina's Task Force or some other kill all.

Boomtown is just obvious because it's easily one of the deadest zones. There's literally nothing there but badges, Babbage, and the occasional door mission or hunt. It's ripe for a revamp, perhaps becoming a bit like Faultline with the mix of repair and rubble. And we've seen the Council vs 5th Column war is starting up again, so it's a perfect stage for them to duke it out on. It's location, unlike Eden tucked well inland, is also good for another Co-op zone.

Perez Park I don't think needs a revamp exactly, as just some story arcs to give you something to do there. I kinda like the look of the zone and it'd be a nice alternative to the Atlas arcs or the Hollows.

As for Terra Volta, I actually don't want to see it revamped so much as downsized. The entire purpose of the zone is to host the respec trials. it's a total waste of resources to keep it as an entire, separate zone. Merge it with Independence Port, just wall it off like the did with the Dam in faultline, and cut out 90% of the excess, leaving in the badges and plaques.

As for Eden/Boomtown. Anything in the 30-50 range. 30-40 or 40-50. Something to work as an alternative to Founder's/Bricks or Peregrine. I rather do like Peregrine, but at that point in the game unless you're PL'ing, doing a lot of TFs or teaming, you end up burning through nearly all (if not all) the contacts on one character.

Frankly, a co-op boomtown that's 40-50 would be just lovely and give both sides decent options.

I don't really want to see the Villain zones redone. I would rather see the various near-to-totally unused zones in Paragon City get converted into Co-Op areas like Dark Astoria was. I think they did a fantastic job with DA and making Co-Op zones is a more efficient use of development time, meaning more content for everyone.

We have a ton of zones that would be good candidates for this. Practically every Trial zone except for RWZ and the Hive could be used.

There is a major design direction change that I feel needs to occur with future Co-Op zones, though, which is to correct the biggest flaw in the Dark Astoria remake: the content needs to be made repeatable WITHOUT USING OUROBOROS. The fact that it's Co-Op is totally defeated when the only way to run it again restricts you to side specific teams.

I24 Proc Chance = (Enhanced Recharge + Activation Time) * (Current PPM * 1.25) / 60*(1 + .75*(.15*Radius - 0.011*Radius*(360-Arc)/30))
Single Target Radius = 0. AoE Non-Cone Arc = 360.

Personally, I'd rather not see any more Co-op zones in Paragon City. Future co-op zones should take place somewhere it makes sense for both sides to show up. Like the Shadow Shard. I would very much like to see that get a complete revamp (and I'm still vaguely disappointed that the Shadow Shard wasn't the focus of issue 22).

Brickstown:

While brickstown does have a pretty good feeling about it, as a zone it doesnt feel like it serves any real purpose apart from being known as the zone with the Zig in.
Personally i'ld revamp it with the Zig being the focus point. We need more Arachnos storylines mid level onwards so why not have them being a legit threat in that zone to break out some of their allies?

For a zone that is supposed to home the scum of the city, shouldnt there be more arcs focused on it? Its sitting at the right level span we need new content for also and on the plus side, preventing breakouts is easy to make heroic story arcs.

Steel Canyon is another zone that's just crying out for some ultra mode lovin'.

I'm voting for the shadow shard... very expansive, easy to port in villians and a group of baddies that could be the next main villian. The rularuu are under used IMO and could be a much more fearsome group for our up and coming incarnates.

People spend a lot of time in Talos, IP, Steel...
I think we need more cities using new buildings, reflective windows, and new parks and gardens like new Atlas.

We definitely need to get rid of those old civilians so low on polygons and replace them with character creator made civilians (from Praetoria, not new)

Also, I think monorail should be updated. I like Praetorian subway much better.

As the World Designer who will be on that panel, I give this thread a ‘thumbs-up’. Keep the ideas coming, not only because we’re reading them, but because it’ll get the creative juices flowing for Saturday.

If you mean revamp, giving more zones reasons to actually go there (see missions, tfs, etc) then I think boomtown and the shadow shard are prime candidates. I don't mind the revamps being made co-op.

I'm all for the Shard.

Huge zones, impressive visuals, utterly underused.

Co-op seems a must, although there are four zones to the Shard, so you could break it up as blue/red/co-op/whatever if you really wanted.

A good idea might be to expand on the Nemesis presence there - they kinda look the part. Those old hoverhorse models would suit well in a floorless zone. So would a massive (like Ghost-ship-sized/Castle Wulfenbach) airship base/giant monster/zone event. Take out the turrets to allow approach, take out armor panels to reveal door lock overrides, take out the overrides to open doors to access interior maps... like a Rikti Raid, but more small-team friendly, maybe.

For lower-level areas, a revamp of the Sky Raiders would make a lot of sense as well. Those Kora Fruit probably would sell well on the black market, and flying baddies would be a mortal lock. Imagine what a vertically-oriented version of the Sky Raider base might look like, all gantries and guns and flyers taking off and landing.
Of course, the human natives aren't easily angered, and seem a heck of a lot lower tech than the Raiders, but they're tough as nails and wouldn't take kindly to thieves. I imagine a repeating crossbow firing bolts tipped with Storm Elemental essence would do a Sky Skiff no small harm...

Just a thought.

Shard