Which zones do you play in and which zones do you rarely/never enter?

[Erydanus]

2 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

I think this was precisely the point of the design behind the CoV zones. 

Yes I understand that, my point is the dude FORGOT THIS WAS AN MMO. That would be fine for a single player RPG, but not for a community driven game. It's a design flaw in my opinion. The best times I had in CoV was when I was in a super group and we were hunkering down in our base - but I already knew everyone from CoH and forums I visited. I don't think I ever made new friends and acquaintances in CoV and I blame the unpleasant zone design to be part of that.

 

 

[Rathulfr]

1 hour ago, Erydanus said:

Yes I understand that, my point is the dude FORGOT THIS WAS AN MMO. That would be fine for a single player RPG, but not for a community driven game. It's a design flaw in my opinion. The best times I had in CoV was when I was in a super group and we were hunkering down in our base - but I already knew everyone from CoH and forums I visited. I don't think I ever made new friends and acquaintances in CoV and I blame the unpleasant zone design to be part of that.

 

 

 

There wasn't one "dude": this was a design decision by Cryptic Studios.  There was a group of developers collaborating on the design of CoV zones: multiple hands touched it along the way.  Together, they decided corporately that this was what they wanted: I doubt that all of them, corporately, forgot it was an MMO.  Was it a bad corporate decision?  Probably.  But it wasn't a decision made in a vacuum.  Add it to the list of lessons learned, after the fact. 

 

You can see how they swung in the other direction when they designed the Going Rogue zones, which were very different.

 

[MetaVileTerror]

I still scratch my head when people call the Redside zones "unpleasant" or "depressing."  They're so ALIVE and /vital!/  To me, they feel like places in the real world, rather than the whole-zone-is-one-theme generics of Blueside.  All the little nuance and stories that the details tell.  The ways that the NPCs are used to populate key areas, like Tart and Vixen in Port Oakes.  The Etoile Isles feel like a place I could visit (or indeed, /have/ visited and/or lived in).

My least favourite zone is Steel Canyon.  It just feels so fake and arbitrarily large, and it's such a pain in the ass to navigate.  At least Skyway has some out-of-harm's-way paths with some nearly-Redside levels of attention to detail.

[Murcielago]

8 hours ago, Shred Monkey said:

Quoted for truth.  Also 2XP option. 

 

One Frostfire map gives like 8-10 levels with 2XP, so how many people are gonna be in the hollows when they out level the content just a few missions?

I gave up 2XP so I can enjoy the content. Praetoria is amazing but with 2XP it is so easy to outlevel it in a few days of playing. 

[Tahliah]

I haven't really thought about it until now, but I do tend to avoid certain zones because I find them a pain to navigate (Bricks comes immediately to mind with all those underground mission doors, which, oddly, I don't mind in Faultline).  The same goes for redside, where I pick up fly as soon as possible since I rarely play over there and hate dealing with the doors in and out of . . . whatever.  Is Port Oakes  supposed to be some sort of weird pod thing?  A docked space ship?  Shrug.  I find it tedious and annoying to navigate.

 

I love gold side and think Praetoria is gorgeous and the storylines are extremely interesting.  That said, it's pretty difficult to get through on most of the toons I favor (squishies: blasters, trolls, defenders), so I tend to roll only MMs there (love them!).  So I guess I kind of avoid it, at least on anything but an MM.

 

Talos is my all-time favorite zone for travel, shopping, dayjobs, etc.  I think Founders Falls is beautiful, but I only really go there for TFs or the Winter event (on live it was less crowded with present openers than, say, PI). 

 

I don't care for either of the Wards for the reasons others have stated and also because I play on a laptop, and both zones are sloooooow to load for me (including entering and exiting missions).  That's a real turnoff for me and aggravating for my teammates. 

 

Otherwise, I go where the content takes me.  I do make a point on most toons of hitting the Hollows, Faultline, Striga, Croatoa . . . love those zones and arcs.

[Call Me Awesome]

One thing to keep in mind is that a large percentage of us have made the low level slog dozens of times over the years and we're tired of it, that's why most of us use DFB to level into the mid-teens or beyond where characters start to mature a bit and then play up from there.  Personally I've probably leveled a couple hundred alts in the old level 1-15 content and I burned out on it badly.  Hollows in particular, while it does have some interesting content used to be an absolute nightmare to navigate on a low level character and we have bad memories of that hellhole.

 

For me the main issue is I don't enjoy playing low level characters, I much prefer once the build has matured a little and the character is a bit more capable and fun to play.  Typically this is in the 14-16 range for me when things start coming together.  The late 20's to 50 are my favorite levels while the 1-10 levels are by far my least favorite.

[boggo2300]

On 11/5/2019 at 11:31 AM, MetaVileTerror said:

I still scratch my head when people call the Redside zones "unpleasant" or "depressing."  They're so ALIVE and /vital!/  To me, they feel like places in the real world, rather than the whole-zone-is-one-theme generics of Blueside.  All the little nuance and stories that the details tell.  The ways that the NPCs are used to populate key areas, like Tart and Vixen in Port Oakes.  The Etoile Isles feel like a place I could visit (or indeed, /have/ visited and/or lived in).

My least favourite zone is Steel Canyon.  It just feels so fake and arbitrarily large, and it's such a pain in the ass to navigate.  At least Skyway has some out-of-harm's-way paths with some nearly-Redside levels of attention to detail.

I'd call them more annoying and messy than anything else, and honestly the zone populations break immersion for me even more than the ridiculous street populations blue side

[boggo2300]

1 hour ago, Call Me Awesome said:

One thing to keep in mind is that a large percentage of us have made the low level slog dozens of times over the years and we're tired of it, that's why most of us use DFB to level into the mid-teens or beyond where characters start to mature a bit and then play up from there.  Personally I've probably leveled a couple hundred alts in the old level 1-15 content and I burned out on it badly.  Hollows in particular, while it does have some interesting content used to be an absolute nightmare to navigate on a low level character and we have bad memories of that hellhole.

 

For me the main issue is I don't enjoy playing low level characters, I much prefer once the build has matured a little and the character is a bit more capable and fun to play.  Typically this is in the 14-16 range for me when things start coming together.  The late 20's to 50 are my favorite levels while the 1-10 levels are by far my least favorite.

Have you done it lately?  if not I'd suggest you run Habashy and Shauna's arcs, good for a badge, and much more entertaining and interesting than running DFB over and over again

[Wilky]

Atlas Park at 90% (farming AE)

PI sometimes and TFs lvl 50(only) sometimes….rarely

 

Honestly, if you could regroup all the TF contacts into AP, id be only there :)

Just put all the contacts Under statesman statue :)

 

Why!? Altitis and i just enjoy playing the game with Pine's Hero Designer. I do builds and make those real in AP, logoff and make an other.

 

Enjoy !

[DougGraves]

11 hours ago, Call Me Awesome said:

Hollows in particular, while it does have some interesting content used to be an absolute nightmare to navigate on a low level character and we have bad memories of that hellhole.

 

The thing is that the old hollows arcs are great for teams because they are mostly defeat all with little story.  Whereas the newer arcs tend to be story focused and are better solo.  A team going undercover as a reporter with no combat is lame.

 

So I don't want to solo the hollows myself, but it would be nice to get teams there.

[Broken_Prey]

I try to play in most zone the only zones I actively avoid is IP and the shadow shards. They're just too big, but that doesn't mean I won't to the TFs in the zones. 

 

I try and take each alt on a different path, sometime that's PLing up or running off to the hollows. 

[tidge]

Blueside: I find myself missing (because of outlevelling) certain zones. The 'central' candidates are Skyway and Founders Falls. I will go out of my way to get the Store missions from both Brickstown and FF before I outlevel them. The next generation zones like the Hollows, Faultine, Striga, Croatia are all fun, but easy to miss. I will admit that I don't like the Talos Island map: I hate having to zoom in to see the center, and I hate when missions end up in the far flung corners.

 

The only Hazard zone I avoid is Boomtown. The inherent mess of the zone just isn't for me. The only reason I go there willingly without a mission is by wandering either one of the Sewer Networks.

 

I like Bloody Bay the most of the PVPzones. Each has a different flavor but that's the one I like best.

 

Redside: I prefer the designs here, although I try to get out of Mercy ASAP.  I seem to outlevel Nerva without trying.

 

Gold-side: I love seeing stars at night! If not for Gold arcs I would never have visited the underground outside of instanced missions. The Wards are best experienced by doing all the arcs, but it isn't for every toon.

 

The Shadow Shard is a place where I have played a bit...but it is dull.

[Gulbasaur]

2 hours ago, tidge said:

The Shadow Shard is a place where I have played a bit...but it is dull.

It really is, isn't it? If the task forces were more interesting, it might be worthwhile, but they just feel like filler from start to finish. They've got the worst kind of artificial difficulty and are, well, dull.

 

Visual design is good. Enemy design is good. But... there's just so much of it and so little variation.

[Call Me Awesome]

26 minutes ago, Gulbasaur said:

It really is, isn't it? If the task forces were more interesting, it might be worthwhile, but they just feel like filler from start to finish. They've got the worst kind of artificial difficulty and are, well, dull.

 

Visual design is good. Enemy design is good. But... there's just so much of it and so little variation.

I absolutely despise the Shard, unless you have Fly navigating it is a nightmare (come on, "geysers"?  They don't even work right) and the zones are so huge it takes forever to cross them.  Not to mention all the "kill 50 of x" at point WTF with no indication of where "point WTF" is unless you have Reveal and expose the map.

[Clave Dark 5]

Croatoa's probably my favorite zone.  Even if I'm not teaming there (I rarely solo), I usually take the time to go badge hunt just to enjoy the scenery.  I played red-side mostly back in the day and every time I set foot over there and zip down some Sharkhead side street I'm all "oh yeah, there's that one place, nice seeing it again" but of course it's tough to get teams red-side, so I'm not there even half as much as I'd like to be (probably time to roll another Mastermind I can solo there decently). 

 

I often forget about all the off-to-the-side blue-side zones like Striga, so whenever I get on a team going to those places I end up feeling silly having to ask "er... how do I get there?" like a n00b.  Never had that problem red-side!

 

Ultimately, I think I like the zones of either side that have some natural areas to them, not sure why.  Croatoa's a good example of that, here you're in town, then suddenly a pumpkin patch and then in a mysterious woods and now some hills with... uh wooden platforms for some reason.

[Akki]

Galaxy City... (too soon?)
I played the Hollows so much on live I never want to go there again. (unless its for badges... I need all the badges)
Boomtown I forgot was a place.

Also the CoV maps are fantastic. Everyone should spend some time redside. The Rogue Isles have some of the most interesting nooks and distinct areas. Seriously they are better maps (except Granville. That place is a mess)

[TyrantMikey]

23 hours ago, RialVestro said:

I remember going into Hazard zones being a lot more common back in the day. It was kind of a big deal whenever you reached a level requirement to get into a hazard zone and they usually tended to be a lot more interesting than the regular zones. Now days it kinda seems like these areas are totally skippable and people only stick to the main zones. I can't even remember what the access level was for those hazard zones anymore.

 

I use to know them back when it was more common to play in those zones. Now the rare times I have been in there I didn't even know what to tell low level players who wanted to join the team. I just can't remember all those minimum requirements anymore after 8 years away from the game.

 

Hero side also seems to be the only side that even has such hazard zones... excluding PVP and Co-Op zones of course. I mean there's no villain only hazard zones like there are hero only hazard zones.

 

All that said... even back in the day I absolutely hated the Hallows. That is by far the WORST hazard zone the developers ever came up with. The main issue... which isn't so much an issue anymore but it use to be... The minimum level to get in the Hallows was before you even had access to travel powers. That zone is impossible to navigate without travel powers. My first time going in there I fell down a crater and couldn't get back out. Eventually got someone to TP me out and never went in that zone again. Even Faultline, BEFORE it was fixed up wasn't that bad but players actually had travel powers before they went to Faultline so the giant craters were never a problem there. I'm pretty sure the minimum level to get travel powers was lowered specifically because of the Hallows hence why it's not an issue anymore. Still the state of that zone is so bad that I've outright refused to ever go in there again. My SG base has a beacon to every Hero and Co-Op zone EXCEPT the Hallows because I freaking hate that place and will never go there.

Ah, yes, back in the days of the Taxi Service. The True Heroes of Paragon.

[Oubliette_Red]

I tend to run missions with friends so in general, I end up in different zones (blueside and redside) every time I'm on.

 

My all-time favourite zone thought? Striga Isle.

 

It's got a good range of mobs/factions from Warriors up to Council, mobsters to monsters. Back on Legacy it was one place where a friend and I RP'd a lot, made me wish that Stephanie Peeble's 'Mermaid Tavern' was a dive we could actually enter.

[Coyotedancer]

I'll qualify this first off by saying that I spend the lion's share of my play time either running solo, or duo/trio small-teaming, and that I typically play fliers.

 

I'm really fond of a couple of the hero "side zones"; Striga and Croatoa both have excellent story arcs. 

I like Talos and Founders, and usually end up spending a fair bit of time there.

 

I love the look of the Shard, and will go out there sometimes just to explore and to stare at things. 

It hurts a tiny piece of my heart that the old devs just never DID much with the place, and what they did do was borderline-awful.

 

I like pretty much all of the red-side zones, with Nerva being a favorite.

There's a REASON why my "Creepy Oranbegan" characters are all connected to the Temple in Primeva. XD

 

I'm also really fond of the revamped Dark Astoria. It's visually interesting, and the arcs are all good fun.

 

... And I think that Praetoria (All of it, from Nova to Night Ward-) is just gorgeous work.

I don't care what anyone has to say about gold-side being a "ghost town"... Imperial is just a flat-out beautiful city zone. 

 

What am I not so fond of? I've never liked any of the "gritty" blue-side City zones (Kings, Bricks, Skyway). I find them a lot more depressing/dull/ugly than anything in the Isles. I'm also not a fan of Boomtown or Faultline. (I'm okay with the Hollows, oddly, but that may be because it's feel is more "natural disaster" than "Dingy City meets the Midnight Bomber. Plus, bonus smog!" )  I also find the War Zone ugly and awkward... But at least it has a reasonably interesting spaceship in the middle of it. 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2019 by Coyotedancer

[DougGraves]

On 11/5/2019 at 10:29 PM, boggo2300 said:

Have you done it lately?  if not I'd suggest you run Habashy and Shauna's arcs, good for a badge, and much more entertaining and interesting than running DFB over and over again

 

Yes, but running DFB for a 5th time is more fun than running Habshy and Shauna's arcs for a 5th time.  I can only assume that people without altitis have no idea how often we create and play low level characters.

[boggo2300]

4 hours ago, DougGraves said:

 

Yes, but running DFB for a 5th time is more fun than running Habshy and Shauna's arcs for a 5th time.  I can only assume that people without altitis have no idea how often we create and play low level characters.

Not for me, I only ever run a DFB once for the badges it's a pretty boring mission in my opinion

[MetaVileTerror]

And another thing!

The music Redside.  

I prefer it by-and-large to the stuff Blueside, which reused a LOT of music assets.

[Call Me Awesome]

4 hours ago, MetaVileTerror said:

And another thing!

The music Redside.  

I prefer it by-and-large to the stuff Blueside, which reused a LOT of music assets.

I wouldn't know, first thing I do on installing is turn off music... I'm not a big fan of most game's idea of atmosphere music.

[MetaVileTerror]

Aaaaand ANOTHER thing!
The densely packed, realistically inconsistently-built buildings which most of Redside have make it fun and easy to do parkour, as opposed to the towering skyscrapers of more than half the Blueside zones.

[Crysis]

Can’t remember the last time I was even near Boomtown, let alone inside the zone.