FBSA and Radio Missions

A few other topics have brought up how redundant the FBSA contacts are now that Habashy and Twinshot are the sole opening paths, and how an important part of the lore, the FBSA and its departments' roles in managing superhero activity has fallen by the wayside for newer players since none of them have anything to say and only Azuria factors into any of the regular missions. There's been some talk about bringing their old missions back, but barring that (and if it were handled through Ouroboros, the lore would still be lost on post-Galaxy players), another way of working them back into the game and story crossed my mind: have each of them offer a repeatable set of origin-specific missions.

Ideally there'd be a whole series of new, unique tip-style missions for each one, but since that'll take time, maybe there's another way to manage that without having to write a whole slew of new arcs right out of the gate. Imagine if, early in the game, a pop-up advises a low-level player to talk to the city representative, and when they do, she gives a little briefing on each FBSA branch and representative and tells the player to talk to them if they're interested in working some cases. Each rep would then have their own intro text (and both the Galaxy and Atlas contacts could be used for the same thing, just with slightly different intros), and then they offer a rotating choice of radio missions (I like the tip missions more, but they're restricted content and centered around the alignment changes, so the radio missions would probably be simpler).

Unlike the radio, the contacts would offer the missions by enemy group or mission theme rather than just zone and level. So MAGI would offer radio missions revolving around the Circle of Thorns, the Tsoo and Banished Pantheon stealing artifacts or kidnapping sacrifices, SERAPH would offer missions that involve stopping the Trolls, Freakshow and Devouring Earth, DATA would focus on technological groups like Nemesis, the Council and Arachnos stealing prototypes and so on (with lots of overlap, since some enemy groups are involved with multiple origins).

All the zones and level ranges would be available from the contact. It might go like this...

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Azuria: "I sense a soul in search of a mission. The Modern Arcane Guild of Investigation has these open cases on file..."

(Click "Review the Case File")

"We have confirmed that Karn has escaped from Zigursky Penitentiary.

Karn has escaped the Zig? No doubt with the help of cronies among the Circle of Thorns. The streets won't be safe until you've brought the escapee back to the justice.

Zone: Steel Canyon (10 - 19)

OR

All units, be on the look out for the Amulet of Doom. Owner reports it was lost on the train.

You have to wonder how anyone could lose the Amulet of Doom on a train, but that does match the rumor that members of the Banished Pantheon were claiming to have it. A lot of cops could get hurt if they try to get the Amulet of Doom from the Banished Pantheon.

Zone: Kings Row (5 - 10)"

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If you try to select something from too high a zone, the contact will protest it ("At your current level, this could be a very tough assignment. Are you sure you want to try it?"), but allows the player to accept it, since some people might want the extra challenge without having to fiddle with their difficulty settings. Alternately, the player might be allowed to select the zone they'd like (presented with the question "which zone's cases would you like to work?"), or the game would auto-select the zone based on the current level (or, the most sensible but boring option, they all happen via Atlas Park instances, like the tip missions ). But either way, each time you talk to the contact they would offer a new pair of random missions, just like the radio does, so the player could keep browsing through them until they find something they like.

In essence, the FBSA contacts would work like the radio, except with a filter on the enemy groups and mission types to make each one fit into that department's theme. It'd bring the contacts back into the game world, it'd give the player a way to focus the radio missions around their own character's origin, and, most importantly, it'd create a framework in the game for gradually slipping new, FBSA-themed missions into the list as they're written, and perhaps even special badges (like "Agent of SERAPH" after completing so many SERAPH cases) and unique, origin-themed missions offered after a certain number of cases, the same way the tips have morality missions and the radios have bank heists.

If there's something already in the works for those poor neglected souls in the FBSA offices, nevermind, but if not, I think this would be a great way to give them something to do in the game without demanding too big a revamp all at once.

Sounds like a lot of work. Until that's ready just give us back our old starter zone origin story arcs from Galay and Atlas Park.

Well, true, turning those missions back on would be simpler...

What that whole message above really amounts to is just "create a random mission pool for the FBSA contacts" and then building up on that idea to turn it into a third, FBSA-themed mission track alongside the radios and tips. All the other details (such as linking it up with the radio missions) is just an idea on how to get there faster. If they get their own sets of missions right from the start, that's even better.

Yeah, I honestly miss those old origin-specific missions. Made your Origin MATTER.

I like this idea!

I'd imagine the contacts should just offer missions based on the character's level. I don't think they'd put in something that offers higher level missions.

The idea of offering origin specific radio (style) missions is a good one for giving the FBSA contacts a role with our characters again.

Me like!

I could go for it. Right now, the FBSA departments are pretty much just window decoration.

See my Guides and Tutorials

That's a good idea. Having a series of Meg Menson type missions from the FBSA contacts would be a great idea.

This is actually where I rant about storywriting. I get why newer missions are over-engineered and stuffed full of conversations, scripted events and cutscene captions. But not all missions need to be like this. I honestly feel that giving these contacts a collection of very simple missions with very simple objectives with just a justification why we're doing them would be A-OK for paper type missions. Sure, they may not be the greatest content, but this is a mission type I can make in the Mission Architect in around 5-10 minutes, text and objectives counted. Pick a map, pick a faction, have it a "defeat boss and friends" and give a short description for why you're doing it.

Here, let me try my hand at one:

Player Name, are you familiar with the 5th Column? They're some really bad people. Old die-hards from WW2. They started out as Axis spies here in America, but when the war ended, they simply went underground and consolidated their positions. We thought we'd gotten rid of them when the Council first appeared, but... Well, they've over a building here in Atlas Park, and they're kidnapping people. The 5th Column have been getting very bold since Galaxy City got hit, but this is their worst invasion yet.

Accept:

You're looking for the 5th Column raid leader, a Colonel Reinhardt. He has a history of indoctrination and his men are fiercely loyal to the man. Losing him will break the soldiers' morale and make the cleanup operation considerably easier. A clerk set off a fire alarm so most of the building's occupants managed to evacuate in time, but there are a number of people left in there. You'll need to rescue them, as well. I'd say that's your top priority. When you're done, try and find out why the 5th Column would risk such a bold move. Look for any evidence on their real objective here. It can't be as simple as just kidnapping random people.

Return:

Those documents you found are troubling. It seems like the 5th Column are developing a faster method of indoctrination and trying to affect people before heroes can rescue them. All the people you rescued are still in custody, so we can test them for indoctrination, but I can't imagine the damage that this might have done if you hadn't found those documents. I hope we can help these people, but I'm not optimistic. The 5th Column have a long and disturbing history of brainwashing their operatives irreversibly. Hopefully this new method they've developed will prove to be less comprehensive. Thank you.

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There. Took me around 10 minutes, and it's probably considerably more wordy than it really needed to be. I tried to do my best to introduce the 5th Column and include some of their basic characteristics, and it should be a simple mission. Defeat one boss and have the documents be on him, rescue two hostages. The end.

Quote:

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.

Definitely in favor of this. I've tried to click on those FBSA contacts in order to get something from them and it's useless. They're just standing there pulling a check for doing nothing. What the heck are we paying taxes for anyway?!?

The idea of FBSA focused, radio style missions coming from the old FBSA contacts is a wonderful idea. It would also give characters a chance to be non-FBSA affiliated by simply not acting as a gopher for those FBSA contacts. An excellent option for the anarchists in the group (myself included).

Strongly /signed

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha ...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...

I don't think this is a bad idea, but do we really need yet another random mission generator in the game? I mean, we've got the radio/paper missions, we've got tip missions, we have the alternate missions when we're not running story arc missions for a given contact.

Seems like the biggest wrinkle in this option would be to give players a chance to run at an even higher effective difficulty level, where +4/x8 isn't difficult enough. I'm not sure that's a benefit worth re-purposing the FBSA contacts for. If anything I'd prefer to see static arcs from those contacts that tie into the existing Atlas story lines. So the SERAPH contact might give you a mission to identify that there is an Arachnos mole in the FBSA, for instance, which ends up revealing that the mole is actually in SERAPH.

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Pauper