TomatoPhalanges

The Dr. Aeon Strike Force is honestly exactly what I was hoping we'd see from Homecoming the moment we discovered the team would be continuing with building new content for the game. More Villain-focused content is always very welcome in a Hero-centric world, and I think Task Forces and Strike Forces are the lifeblood of this game's replayability and content depth. The amount of effort that went into this is so so impressive and encouraging, with all the exciting new boss mechanics pushing what we thought was possible from the game, new unique environments that rival some of the best on offer in previous missions, a whole new difficulty system that will have compound effects in the future of the game in what I think is a very positive way, and a distinct enrichment of the writing, enemy diversity and lore of one of the less well-explored factions in the game. Thank you, Cobalt and Crew, for all of the amazing work on this project, and I'm so excited to see what new content and retroactive changes to legacy content this amazing first step will lead to in future ❤️

I think the first step would be an IO set (or sets) from those 'surviving 8' TFs, and I really like BB's explanation of one implimentation, but I'm more excited about the idea of IOs as rewards for story arcs as well, and promoting players to seek out a variety of contacts that give higher-quality mission arcs (say, for example, the ones with EBs or AVs at the ends of them could be the ones designated as having IOs attached as rewards) That said, on a starting level, designing IO sets for each of the TF commander TFs or an IO set that spreads across the whole bunch would be an excellent starting point. As was mentioned, it'd provide additional short and long-term motivation and reward for grinding out those longer TFs like Citadel, and sometimes rewards are enough to make something just a little more fun (tho I think its fair to say that those particular TFs may be in need of some slight reworking anyway). I think the 2-set starting with the two parts of Posi is a fun little coincidence that works remarkably well for both tutorial and breadcrumb purposes. It teaches players how useful sets can be, and encourages players to not only finish the Posi TFs but also seek out the rest of the set as they continue onwards. Plus, that's a fun little spike of power (that took a little effort to get, too, unlike DFB buffs) to get fairly suddenly at such a low level, and one that'll smooth out fairly nicely as the player levels up. Loving the conversation, guys!! Glad to see a few people enjoying the concept and running with it. Giving out better rewards for higher-effort activities in the levelling process is definitely fun to theorize and suggest over.

When I was a young warthog City of Heroes newbie back in roughly i11/i12, I remember very distinctly that I had zero interest in slotting enhancements for exactly the reasons you're saying. TOs felt like the most inconsequential improvement on my abilities and after I gave up on maintaining them it took me a long time to both to actually look at DOs and SOs and realize just how much stronger they were. Let's not even mention how long it took me to then cross the gap over to IOs.

I think that having the set mirrored in the blueside, redside and goldside would be a good way of managing the amount of work it'd take. You're right though, I should definitely try doing some number crunching. I was hoping the discussion here will lead to some sort of concrete thing to put forward to the devs, and the proc idea is a good start to that, so thanks!

If an IO is only able to have one of it slotted, and it's locked to being available at one level of power, what would prompt people to farm it? Unless you're suggesting trading of them, which I would probably make impossible anyway as it defeats the entire purpose. As for the level concern, I think to some (myself included) the value of an IO at that level is more in the fact it doesn't need replacing quickly, rather than the power of it. Adding into the mixture the concept of finding other pieces of the set at higher levels through other mission arcs, scaled to being, say, 30 or 35 or whatever level range is appropriate for the mission, and I feel you have an incentive that is gentle enough to not force anyone's hand into un-fun ways of play, but strong enough to give some excitement to the 'gearing' process of City of Heroes as you level.

Exactly! Encourages you to seek out completing the set as you progress through the levels, and see a variety of content. The same way of working is what I'm suggesting with the mission arc IO rewards, though perhaps in smaller sets (maybe 3 or 4)

The main reason I'd level-lock would be to avoid giving the sets TOO much value and leading to people to just run repeat content rather than go seek out other new things slightly more appropriate to their level. Edit: The Positron suggestion is exactly the sort of thing I'm referring to, though! Except, say, its just an individual IO, and there's a Synapse IO, and so on, and they're all part of a full set...

I should state that these IOs are not going to be as powerful as your average IOs would be at higher levels. They're just meant to incentivise you to go through different paths in the game. Not to mention, by level locked I mean a particular IO enhancement would only drop as a level 15 IO or 20 IO, and there'd be no way to get a stronger version of that particular enhancement scaled up to 50. It would be an objectively bad idea to hold onto these IOs forever, but they would provide a nice incentive in the moment for completing content.

Hi folks, So some of you may have seen the idea I put forward in the comments of the latest announcement regarding the SO changes. I'm excited about what they mean for the satisfaction of completing mission arcs, but I believe that the team can go a step further. While mission arc completion rewards are already a thing, outside of the TF/SF system they're mostly generic and identical across the board, save for a few Temp Powers and criteria towards Accolade badges. I propose the implementation of a handful new sets of IOs that are exclusively available at locked levels, and can only be obtained once, via the completion of specific mission arcs. The number of benefits this would have to the game would, in my opinion, be immense: 1, Power. As it stands in the game, your levelling experience is dictated almost entirely by your powersets and the points within them that you get significant improvements in your abilities. Those are the points of most excitement as you level- getting that one power you really love, or that changes your entire playstyle to the point of encouraging you to respec. While that's exciting, and fun, and a big part of why I love CoX, it's not, in my opinion, enough to make the levelling experience as fun as it could be. Little bonuses at the end of mission arcs are an exciting method of bumping up a player's power in small but significant and tactile ways- and the SO implementation that is coming up is a good example of that. 2. Teaching. As has been complained by a few people at this stage, the IO system is a little obtuse and hidden for newer players to get into, and can end up confusing them or demotivating them to the point of not caring. I feel that providing 'free' IOs from completing content would give people a taste of the power of set bonuses, and motivate them to seek them out more. 3. Most significantly: Diversity. In my concept of the idea, there would be, say, a number of IO sets with individual IOs scattered throughout the game's most significant and/or fun story arcs. Say, for example, the new Skull questline in Kings' Row. That could give an IO reward that would be perhaps a damage/recharge enhancement, and be part of a larger single-target set, but that IO could be set to always be generated as a level 15 enhancement. That individual enhancement could only be found in a handful of arcs, with perhaps two blueside, one goldside and one redside- though you couldn't slot two of the same enhancement, much like the Archetype-themed IO sets. Having a strong variety of IO sets and a good spread of placements of these rewards within arcs would promote players to seek them out based on desires for their build, which would lead to players completing more variety of content than they otherwise would in their levelling process. To stop TFs and SFs from falling behind as desired content, this could all be punctuated with a similar set that's hyper-general (say, a general damage IO set) that drops off of the sub-50 TFs and SFs of the game, one IO each. Naturally, there are negatives to consider. Running a piece of content you've already run could potentially lose some value to players if these IOs were super common within the game, as you'd only be able to find the IO once, and it's level-locked, so you can't find an improvement on it. The solution to that, I feel, is simply to have a tactful hand as to the spead on the IOs throughout the levelling process, so that you simply aren't able to bounce from one IO mission arc to the next. Another concern, as with all new kinds of power, would be balance. Were a specific IO set unbalanced, it might cause players to ignore certain content due to a specific set of the IOs being underpowered, even if that set was more designed with their builds and ideas in mind. This is still a fledgeling concept, but I feel like it has some value, and I would love to propegate a discussion on the concept of diversifying rewards for mission arcs and providing players reasons to complete more out-of-the-way arcs than they ususally do in their levelling process. Thank you for reading!

Maybe!! Time will honestly tell... I think the thing I'd love to encourage is the guaranteed SO's concept being a stepping stone into some levelling IOs that might come from specific mission arcs - which would encourage variety in levelling routes and give people some little IO set bonuses to hunt down as sub-goals while levelling.

I don't entirely disagree - you're probably right on the power creep thing. It's more an expression of concern than anything coming from the world of WoW... As for SOs being compelling, I don't find them such currently... I'm interested in the idea of making them more compelling though, something that the guaranteed-SOs-from-mission-arc-completion concept encouraged as a thought for me.

First-take thoughts on the upcoming Enhancement experiments- I think the primary goal with enhancements should be to use them as an exciting tool, rather than to streamline hassle out of the equation. The idea of getting SOs as guaranteed rewards from the ends of all mission arcs is very compelling, and I would conceptually find it super engaging to get one-time level-locked IO rewards from more significant storylines as you level up the ranks, perhaps with connected storylines feeding into the same set as eachother. In this sense, I think the upcoming SO changes are excellent. On the other hand, I have a couple concerns. The first is the power creep that's happening with the game. With SOs and DOs available easier at low levels for players, lower-level content is going to become more trivial than it already is. While yes, there is something to be said about power fantasy being a significant element of the fun of City of Heroes, power is more fun when it's worked up too. A big part of the gameplay fun of this game is getting from being a flimsy level 1 hero to a massive level 50 with a buncha IOs and incarnate powers. That's awesome and thrilling, and it'd be so incredibly easy to fracture or weaken by giving lower-level players too much power. I'm not saying the proliferation of SOs at low levels is a bad thing- meaningful upgrades are extremely satisfying - but it's something that needs to be tempered if you ask me. Whether numbers as they are on the beta now are good or not remains to be seen of course- this is entirely surface-level concerns that I'm expressing. The second (and arguably stronger) primary concern is the Enhancement Upgrade feature. It's my opinion that it would be a negative influencer on the game, in its current implementation. As I mentioned, I think the idea of being rewarded with guaranteed SOs and IOs for achieving things is very compelling, and (were my unique IO story arcs idea considered) could lead to different characters having very different levelling routes plotted out based on what arcs drop what rewards, or even just the simple goal of completing stories rather than moving on before they're done more often at low levels. That said, it feels like the enhancement upgrade button would weaken the impact of SOs as rewards, going entirely against this. While yes, it's just streamlining something people can already do, I feel like this is a particular thing that should stay un-streamlined. People making the effort to visit a vendor and buy their enhancements gets them moving around the world just that little bit more, and gives them another task they can set out to do to improve their character, no matter how small. It also means far chunkier bursts of power gain, as players will often wait to do all their upgrades at once due to inconvenience of visiting a vendor. This is more satisfying (to me) than slow, incremental growth that'd happen by whacking an upgrade button every few levels to bump your SOs all back up to relevance again. Going to buy my enhancements feels like a significant event as I level my character, and I feel significantly beefier after I walk away from that investment. I don't know that it'd feel as significant hitting a two-prompt button whatsoever. Anyways, hope my concerns don't come off as simply spouting hot air, as I'm more of a casual player than some who enjoy making builds. I'm excited to see how things play out, and think that overall the changes are for the better! Thank you as always for all your work, Homecoming team ❤️