Is Skyway City ... superfluous?

I think Skyway needs a revamp, but not removal. As has been pointed out, there are several contacts and access points there that are largely integral to the content now.

I agree, a revamp might be in order for Skyway. Maybe boost the level range, make it all a response to the events of the Sutter TF perhaps? Not totally ruined, but large damaged areas, where you might even fight Sky raiders or remnant IDF via a contact.

Heck, have the Sky Raiders trying to build some kind of base there, taking advantage of the madness. i dunno.

it does need something though.

There are some interesting ideas here, though I question whether they'd make it into the game in its current incarnation. So many good ideas, by both players and developers, are difficult to retrofit into an existing design.

Also, this thread makes me want to write up my "if the players had written the game backstory" idea.

EDIT: Why does "a Chinatown for the Tsoo" come up in every single suggestion for a zone revamp? Not that it's a bad idea (it's a pretty good one, in fact), but some places, such as Skyway City, seem like odd places to add something like that in.

There are two questions in this topic, really.

The question of inconvenience is pretty well covered by Chase. The zone was designed at a time when the model for MMO's was Everquest. It was taken for granted that players would do their leveling outdoors and explore the zones, overcoming the unique challenges posed by each zone. I've mentioned many times in the past that in the initial version of CoH, the instanced stories were considered to be window dressing, with insignificant mission completion bonuses. The game took place outdoors, where you would group up and street sweep to do serious leveling. The obstacle course of Skyway City was intended to offer all players a feeling of achievement at having "defeated" the terrain and to offer explorer-types the feeling of accomplishment that comes from finding cool, out-of-the-way things that players on rails to mission doors would never see.

That changed, obviously, which brings me to the second question or topic here, the question of obsolence.

The question of obsolesence is city-wide. It isn't restricted to Skyway. Most of the blue side is basically superfluous nowadays due to eight years of changes in the way the game is played and design decisions intended to deliberately speed up the lower-level game and move people into the middle and upper tiers. It's no secret that the game is an altaholics dream. I don't have references now,but I can recall red names stating in the past that something like 70% of the existing player characters were below level 30, when talking about what levels to develop content for. (I actually think the level was much lower than level 30, but since I don't have a quote to reference, I'm erring on the side of caution.) With an actual end-game now, the current design encourages people to get well on the road to engaging with that end-game or at least get out of Atlas Park and into the mid-game.

Who really bothers with Crey's Folly or Eden or Boomtown or Terra Volta? You want to talk about presenting a challenge to a non-aerial hero, then Terra Volta makes Skyway look like a cake walk.

Does anybody even really bother with Brickstown or Founder's Falls beyond the travel time required to move across them to a mission door?

It's not that Skyway is obsolete or that Boomtown is obsolete. It's that the outdoors is obsolete and the game below level 25 is obsolete. They exist almost entirely for flavor and nothing else.

I'd actually like to see a 'smaller' version of Skyway done, with part of it wrecked like it looks at the end of the Sutter Task Force. Tightening up the zone might not be a bad idea (not unlike what got discussed at the Pummit for Independence Port).

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Personally, I think that what "City of" really needs at this point is a Cataclysm-style of makeover where "zones" are disposed of entirely and the city is one big explorable world where only Atlas Park is specialized for a particular level range or type of content. The game is becoming less and less able to adequately support the whole "the timeline advances as you level up" model of the original game, as evidenced every time some new content is added that conflicts with the existing content or, worse, changes the existing content in some fashion that is either ludicrous or jarring in comparison to what existed prior.

I think the sampling of opinions in this thread backs up what I'm always telling developers at any company where I work: when trying to decide between options for design, always give the users both and allow them to choose.

Some folks want to get to 50 as fast as possible. Others (and I'm with this group) enjoy the lower levels as well...and we don't want to have to follow the same path with every character. *cough*currentnewstartingexperience*cough*

My vote would be to keep the zone in its current level range, but perhaps do something more interesting with it a la Zombie Man's suggestion.

I certainly don't want even fewer options for non-express levelling.

_redside_ content please.

I'd welcome a storyline that didn't include alien or supernatural big bads - move the Family into Skyway (there's already deserted neighbourhoods and drugs) and let us battle organised crime

I like to run and jump on the expressways and bridges but that's about it lol. Maybe tighten it up..throw a University there and a WW and it will be used twice as much as it is now.

I think that blueside has way to many zones anyway and red has to few.