Where would you add stuff?

Lil hypothetical.

Let's say the Devs give you 3 things to place in the game. A story arc, a zone, and a taskforce. Can be anything, so don't worry much about specific content.

The main question is: Where would you put each of these? They can be blueside/redside/goldside, co-op, or even one for each (blue/red). But what level range would you add these to?

shadow shard zones from 1 until they start now

so you could play a space based character from the start - guardians of the galaxy, Silver Surfer, etc

No more new zones. I'd spend the time fixing old zones. Yes, yes. I know. Every one wants a moon or water zone. If I thought they could pull it off to my satisfaction sure. Currently they can't.

TF would be something low level that deals with a massive gang war between the Hellions, Skulls, and the Tsoo.

Story arc for Kings Row involving Blue Steel or the PPD at the very least.

I'd say...

A Kings Row zone-spanning series of arcs (maybe a story about the Clockwork King's origins)
A Steel Canyon zone-spanning series of arcs (maybe a large-scale gang war arc)
A Founders' Fall zone-spanning series of arcs (maybe a story about Hamidon and the DE)

The arcs that tie a whole zone together, like Faultline, Croatoa and Dark Astoria, have made for some of the best stories in the game so far, and giving a few more zones their own plotlines would help pace that sort of content more evenly from 1-50.

Story arc in Kings Row involving PPD response to gang violence and your role as a street-based hero in cleaning up crime. Another story arc would be in Port Oakes involving you dealing with the Family and the Coralax.

I wouldn't add a new zone, and instead focus on revamping Kings Row. Port Oakes would get a Mercy-esque revamp that would make Arachnos allies in certain areas, like the Arachnos building, and neutral in others, like Fort Cerberus. The Family and local gangs would con neutral as well. Coralax, ghosts, CoT, etc. would con enemy.

The TF would be in Kings Row/Port Oakes and be a climax of sorts to the story lines in those zones. A gang war brews that only gets worse when the Clockwork King takes advantage of it to unleash his Paladins on Kings Row. While in Port Oakes, the Coralax begin to rise from the seas, attacking anything in sight in search for a specific item linked to the Leviathan, which can grant you incredible power.

Right now, I'd have to say a new villain zone. I'm not really sure what the level range would be, but it would probably represent a stark contrast to the others in the Isles. I'll have to add this to my "Retaking the Rogue Isles" thread at 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.

Zone Revamp: Steel Canyon. Make its buildings even more brilliant, add in optional phasing tech to clear out the trash mobs so that there's an actual "cleared" section of the city thanks to your hard work. Leave in the fire events.

Story Arc: King's Row. Make it a level 20-30 something task force that deals with street level crimes and street level thugs. Put in faux detective work by talking to various NPCs about shake downs, etc. Stress the slum and in the end, highlight a point that though you've carved out a piece of hope in that section of the city the battle is seemingly never-ending. Focus on getting the player to feel for those who are still in this section of the city, and channel their inner Sisyphos with the perpetual state of things. Street level vigilante type stuff.

Task Force: Steel Canyon. Bring home the Freakshow as dangerous anarchists, not the l33t silly guys we've come to expect. If Steel Canyon lives up to its analogue as Metropolis then it would make a wonderfully juicy target for people who are so destructively insane. Use it to tell the story of both the Freakshow and the Canyon's role in Paragon.

I would tweak the Wentworth's/Black Market interface a bit...by making it quicker to find out how many items are for sale. For example, you type Apocalypse: Damage and you get a pop-up of a recipe and crafted, number for sale and last five.

If I'm dreaming in Technicolor (HD?), I'd also have a seperate Market channel like LFG (aware of The Market, but this would be seen by everyone and might encourage new users to get Market access) where players could buy/sell items. Of course, these forums aren't used for that purpose so...

Lastly, mousing over your character would tell you how many sold items/bought items s/he has as well.

Gameplay wise, Port Oakes and Kings Row.

I would create a storyarc for villains that give them access to Skyway City which would be revamped into a non-coop zone that all players have access too.

Synapse's TF would be revamped along with a villain equivalent to take down the Clockwork King for their own nefarious purposes. Vigilantes would be allowed to infiltrate and scuttle the task force for their 'allies'. (All this would mean is different text at the end. Like the Cap SF) Rogues would be able to steal something valuable during the hero TF.

Boomtown, an arc involving CK interested in something from Crey, and a TF involving CK getting his body back.,

New Zone would be the Preatorian Version of the Hive with a new and improved Hamidon Raid. The Zone would have critters from 40 - 54, new DE, including GM versions of the New DE. The story arc will introduce you to the Preatorian Ouroborus squad, which has time travel but is not based in some pocket dimension. Instead, it looks like it does in the 1st Mender Ramiel mission -- collapsed, run down, in the water, and surrounded by Hammy tentacles. The arc will hop through time, showing us the history of the struggle between Tyrant and Hamidon with a final mission that you take on a "weakened" Hamidon like in Lady Grey's TF. You can do it solo with NPC assistance or refuse help and either bring a team or take your chances alone.

Completing the TF will grant you access to Preatorian Ouro pillar of fire and ice so that players can run the Praetorian arcs, even with Primal characters.

I would add a matching villain - Praetorian TF in the 20 to 40 range that finishes the story of Calvin Scott and Provost Marchand on Praetorian side with the villains invading Praetoria.

1. I would place all task forces in ouroboros so people could solo them or run them with any number they want, instead of having team size minimums.

2. I would increase the number of astrals earned in the magisterium trial. (one for each AV defeated)

3. I would turn off the anti-tp in Pocket D. There's absolutely no reason why I shouldn't be able to use my team transport or mission tp from there.
(if tp foe is still an issue - fine, prevent that - but don't prevent my temp powers. )

If I'm picking, redside needs the love more.

New 40-50 Zone
New 10-20 Task Force
New 30-40 Story Arc

As for the Shadow Shard, revamping and co-oping it seems to be low-hanging fruit for new content, but this might be a case where it's just as hard to fix a bad zone as it is to make a new one. I like the ambiance and there's a lot of story potential, but I never actually enjoy spending time in the Shadow Shard. The landscape is a nuisance, at best. The enemies are either annoying or brokenly hard, depending on the powerset I'm playing.

My first suggestion matches what we are discussing about the Shadow Shard. A non-cooperative zone, but with content and access for both sides. I don't think the map needs an overhaul, but maybe add 1 (non-huge) extra incarnate zone. Navigation might be solved as part of the story.

See, I figure Rularuu is soon to play a bigger role in the story to come. The foreshadowing is all over the place and it seems like it will be incarnate related. Gravity was already funny in the Shard since it is a dream-like dimension. Operating from a point of of view that maybe Wade's tampering may have partially 'woken' Rularuu, perhaps his 'seat of power' has become a problem (the new iZone). Maybe he is starting to re-form or something?

If Rularuu is already planned to be involved in future story arcs in some way, maybe this could be the setup. If we wanted to turn tables a bit, the heroes' plan to stop/destroy Rularuu fails (since he'd have to be involved in future content) and it ends up being something the villains do that allow a better outcome. Of course, this would also have some boon or pay-off for them, even if it is only a story-arc-wrap-up mission that contains excessive gloating.

However, the effects are felt throughout the whole Shard. Anyone entering is finding that they can use a dream-like flight to get around. For this, they could use the new temp power tray tech and see if they can make it work on a zone-wide scale. If they wanted to 'advertise' or 'recycle' current assets, the dream-flight could use a rumored, sorcerous power which is sort of a flight/tp combo.

Far as I can tell, that'd take relative little work on the zone-scale. Finding a way to add the temp power zone-wide, making 1 new smallish iZone (or converting existing zone into one, like the Storm Palace, maybe), and making a villain entrance. Most of the work, assuming minimal actual zone changes, should be creation/revamping of the mission content.

My other suggestions are a little simpler. Firstly, lack of love redside is why it's population is lower which is why it doesn't get love. The community-at-large is unlikely to migrate there randomly, so only 1 side in the dev/community equation has the power to change that. I doubt it'd be easy, I have no delusions about that. However, I think the story potential is awesome. Any writer who could tackle redside and learn to make good content that is self-driven and lacking cliche would have learned a unique flexibility that would have lots of potential in it's own right. I want a reason to look forward to more of Viridian's great work.

Secondly, more awesome story arcs like the UN lady in Steel. Anywhere in the whole game would be great, but higher level -where some gaps exist- would be best. I love teaming and TFs, but sometimes I just want to solo a toon for a little while and I never really found radio missions and tips too exciting. I rarely miss those new Steel arcs, but many of my toons feel no attachment to Praetoria, skipping the Wards entirely.

Zone: Redside Shadowshard, 45-50
TF: Redside 30-35 TF located in Nerva Archepelago.
Story Arc: No idea. Probably somewhere later level redside, since usually my interest pitters out and the only arc I do around those part is the whole patron arc.

Redside kind of needs the TF and Zone.

You say one tf and one arc. I'm going to be greedy, but I'll only take half of a zone.

An area in Boomtown/Baumtown is being rebuilt for inter dimensional refugees (mostly but not limited to Praetorians). It won't go so far back as to interfere with Kahn. A wall gets built to separate the rebuilt area from the unreclaimed areas. It's a coop zone in the sense that both heroes and villains have access (throw in a black helicopter), joint project to keep the refugees safe and frankly locked in until we're sure of their loyalties. (Praetorians go to this rebuilt area as vigilantes or rogues as opposed to heroes or villains into separate zones.)

At launch, there's a brief task force (think the size of the Penny Yin TF), coop, dealing with someone trying to sabotage the project. There's also an incarnate task force (8 members) dealing with the flood of refugees fleeing Praetoria before it's Devoured, also coop.

There also is a hero arc 20-25 and a villain arc, 20-25, heroes trying to stop some bad guys from stealing secrets from the refugees, villains stealing them. And hero and villain incarnate arcs.

If it proves popular, over time, mini-task forces and mini-arcs fill in the ranges of 25-50. But four arcs and two task forces seems enough for launch

I'd pick Brickstown blueside because it's so unused for a city zone, and so full of dull legacy content. For content, I think I'd go with an arc and TF about the Freakshow trying to get new weapons and cybernetics from Praetorian refugees; the end being you stop them from getting a huge amount of them but they make away with enough to equip an elite bunch of Freakshow with new improved tech. This would allow for the addition to the game of high level upgraded Freakshow with more modern hi-resolution models and a variety of new powers/looks.

On redside I'd add a TF and missions from the opposite perspective in Nerva or St Martial where your character tries to help the Freakshow with their project, fighting off some NPC heroes in the process, and walking away with some nifty Praetorian-themed temp power as a story arc award.

Revamp one of the Hero zones (like Boomtown) and add a new Villain zone. There are several islands down south on the Rogue Islands map that I've been wondering about.

*sighs* I wouldn't even know where to begin. I could make a case for virtually every zone in the game, and almost every level.

*brightens*

There's a challenge... give me a zone and I'll offer a suggestion of a story arc or TF for it.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite