Send us to Hazard Zones again

[thunderforce]

On live (maybe not in later issues), origin contacts would send you to talk to the first contact in hazard zones. Now, they don't. This seems a curious omission, especially given it would offer an alternative to fighting the crazy spawn levels in King's Row. I suggest this be reinstated. (Yes, I'm aware you can go talk to them anyway, but right now I'm more thinking of the new player experience since I'm teaming with friends who are new.)

[Greycat]

Aren't they generally in "Find contact?" I'm fairly sure at least Jim Temblor is. I'd have to check on WIncott. Other than that (and DA and RWZ,) I can't think of any real "hazard zone" contacts other than the security chiefs that send you on hunts.

 

That said, they can certainly get buried under new contacts and they're not as *obvious* as they were (Twinshot pops up, I don't remember seeing anything like that for Wincott off the top of my head.)

[Wild Claw]

7 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Aren't they generally in "Find contact?" I'm fairly sure at least Jim Temblor is. I'd have to check on WIncott. Other than that (and DA and RWZ,) I can't think of any real "hazard zone" contacts other than the security chiefs that send you on hunts.

 

That said, they can certainly get buried under new contacts and they're not as *obvious* as they were (Twinshot pops up, I don't remember seeing anything like that for Wincott off the top of my head.)

Hrmmm...

 

David Wincott in the Hollows.

Stephanie Peebles on Striga Isle.

General Hammond in Firebase Zulu.

Levantera in the Rikti War Zone.

Senator Decimus Aquila in Cimerora.

 

That's all the ones I know about in Hazard and Trial Zones. There are several other contacts that used to pop up that I don't see anymore, but they're not in Hazard/Trial Zones. (Faultline isn't a Trial Zone anymore, so I didn't include Jim Temblor in the list.)

 

 

[Greycat]

You know, I don't remember seeing Hammond pop up even on live near the end. Then again, it's been a long time...

[MTeague]

I'm fine with getting notifications to go to the Hollows, or Faultline, or Striga, or Croatoa, or any place with an actual QUEST CHAIN.

Do not send me to Perez Park or Boomtown or Crey's Folly or Eden.

 

Once a contact has "Talk to the Security Chief" as an option I exit out and don't talk to them again. 

The very last "Security Chief" mission I did sent me to the Abandoned Sewer Network to defeat 40 Rikti.

Never again.

Never.

[thunderforce]

Faultline's not a hazard zone now, but I'd include it in my list - it's got the usual pattern of 4 contacts, 2 in each of 2 5-level ranges.

[Wild Claw]

I don't have a clear memory of ever being 'propositioned' by the others, but I do know that you used to get sent to David Wincott and Stephanie Peebles at some point.  Although my memory of Peebles was a 'go visit this person as part of an arc', not a 'get introduced to them as a contact'. I get the feeling those arcs have been truncated at some point, probably back in live during the Going Rogue overhall that re-arranged where a lot of contacts and missions got relocated with the removal of Galaxy City proper.

 

 

[thunderforce]

The Wiki still has some of this stuff, but yes - an existing contact in the old origin contact scheme that Habashy etc partly replaced would give you a mission to go and talk to the Hazard Zone contact who would offer, but not require you to do, their first mission.

[Rathulfr]

No, thank you. 🙂

 

[thunderforce]

7 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

No, thank you. 🙂

 

How would it affect you? If you don't DFB to 20, and if you do the origin contacts not Habashy... you would have to jetpack from the statue of Atlas to the Hollows gate and back again. Is that really so onerous a requirement?

[Rathulfr]

1 minute ago, thunderforce said:

How would it affect you? If you don't DFB to 20, and if you do the origin contacts not Habashy... you would have to jetpack from the statue of Atlas to the Hollows gate and back again. Is that really so onerous a requirement?

Yes, I believe so.  Thanks anyway. 🙂

[thunderforce]

Just now, Rathulfr said:

Yes, I believe so.

OK. Are there any sensible objections to this proposal?

[Rathulfr]

Just now, thunderforce said:

OK. Are there any sensible objections to this proposal?

What about my objection was not sensible?  I merely indicated my opposition to your suggestion.  That seems sensible enough to me. 🙂

[thunderforce]

3 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

What about my objection was not sensible?

The claim that this would impose an onerous requirement, or indeed, affect you in any way that isn't utterly trivial. (If it would affect you at all; I don't know how often you level heroes 1-10 through the origin contacts.)

[Greycat]

IN general, this might be good to turn into a "Revamp the find contact box." List zones, highlight them when they're new or have a new contact, give it a compact list so if you want to ignore a zone  you can just leave it compacted... *shrug*

[Doc_Scorpion]

4 hours ago, Wild Claw said:

I don't have a clear memory of ever being 'propositioned' by the others, but I do know that you used to get sent to David Wincott and Stephanie Peebles at some point.  Although my memory of Peebles was a 'go visit this person as part of an arc', not a 'get introduced to them as a contact'. I get the feeling those arcs have been truncated at some point, probably back in live during the Going Rogue overhall that re-arranged where a lot of contacts and missions got relocated with the removal of Galaxy City proper.

I can't speak to Stephanie Peeble, but David Wincott was removed as part of the Hollows Revamp.  The players felt that too many characters were getting "trapped" in the extremely [censored] awful mess that was The Hollows (and missing out on the 6-15?) content in the rest of the game.  (The Hollows was the DFB of it's day, everyone ended up there and most bailed as soon as they got a travel power at 14.)  In some ways, it was a kind of messed up decision because the Revamp removed the stuff that made the Hollows such a [censored] awful mess.

[Wild Claw]

14 minutes ago, Greycat said:

IN general, this might be good to turn into a "Revamp the find contact box." List zones, highlight them when they're new or have a new contact, give it a compact list so if you want to ignore a zone  you can just leave it compacted... *shrug*

Just as a note: I'm slow-leveling a character right now, and just yesterday had to go find Peebles because she didn't show up in the "find contact" list at all. Wincott did, but Peebles didn't for some reason. I don't think Temblor showed up either, but I'm not sure I'm remembering that correctly.

[Greycat]

I'm fairly sure the last time I saw Temblor he was waaay at the end of a list of them to scroll through. (Part of the problem with the find contacts box.)

[Rathulfr]

4 hours ago, thunderforce said:

The claim that this would impose an onerous requirement, or indeed, affect you in any way that isn't utterly trivial. (If it would affect you at all; I don't know how often you level heroes 1-10 through the origin contacts.)

I made no such claim: you did, and I merely accepted it as sufficient.  🙂

[thunderforce]

7 hours ago, thunderforce said:

 Is that really so onerous a requirement?

 

7 hours ago, Rathulfr said:

Yes, I believe so.

 

4 hours ago, thunderforce said:

The claim that this would impose an onerous requirement.

 

4 minutes ago, Rathulfr said:

I made no such claim: you did, and I merely accepted it as sufficient.  🙂

Yes, you did. I asked if it would be an onerous requirement; you said yes (in spite of that being obviously ridiculous). I don't know what you're playing at, but I'm done playing it with you.

[Rathulfr]

Just now, thunderforce said:

Yes, you did. I asked if it would be an onerous requirement; you said yes (in spite of that being obviously ridiculous). I don't know what you're playing at, but I'm done playing it with you.

I'm not the one getting wrapped around the axle because someone disagreed with my suggestion; however, you appear to be.  I said "No, thank you."  You took that and ran with it, and I just tagged along for the ride.  Thanks! 🙂

[thunderforce]

4 hours ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

I can't speak to Stephanie Peeble, but David Wincott was removed as part of the Hollows Revamp.  The players felt that too many characters were getting "trapped" in the extremely [censored] awful mess that was The Hollows (and missing out on the 6-15?) content in the rest of the game.  (The Hollows was the DFB of it's day, everyone ended up there and most bailed as soon as they got a travel power at 14.)  In some ways, it was a kind of messed up decision because the Revamp removed the stuff that made the Hollows such a [censored] awful mess.

I remember the Hollows myself (been playing since EU launch), and yeah, it was ghastly, but between the revamp and early travel powers (and Super Sidekicking so half the team isn't comedically mis-levelled), it's fine now; certainly better than the mish-mash the early origin contacts send you to.

 

On reflection, another thing about the current situation is AFAIK you just can't get introduced to the first contact in each Hazard Zone. That's odd, and is kind of hiding them away. (Another option might be to make it possible for them to be introduced either by origin contacts or by detectives in the normal way, rather than these special "go and talk to XYZ" missions).

 

Also, someone on Discord was pointing out that whether you do the traditional or new villain contacts, or do the new hero contacts, you get merits early. You don't if you do blueside origin contacts because - Negotiator aside - none of them have anything. Sending people off to do some arcs early shows them the structure of arcs and means they net some merits just like everyone else.

Edited April 1, 2020 by thunderforce

[Tugzug]

I just want contacts to send me where there are interesting story arcs. If a hazard zone has a cool arc, sure. If it doesn't, then pass.

 

I think the original devs never wrote much content for the hazard zones after the first few issues, so a lot of them have that old-school simplicity to them. When they got really good at writing, they had already phased out many of the hazard zones...

[Coyotedancer]

'Not sure about Wincott and Hammond and Jimmy and the rest these days, but you don't actually NEED an outside introduction to Peebles. She's a "walk-up" contact that will hand out missions to anyone in the right level range. Just head to Striga and click on her.

[tidge]

21 minutes ago, Tugzug said:

I just want contacts to send me where there are interesting story arcs. If a hazard zone has a cool arc, sure. If it doesn't, then pass.

The original Hazard Zones had a masochistic charm about them, including "Dear level 8, go and defeat 10 Hellions... it should be easy because they are usually in groups of 12" to "See if you can survive getting to the mission door." The modern (Homecoming) game has moved past all this with easy XP and easy to-door travel. I still think the zones have some charm and that they don't need a complete do-over as was done in the past (Hollows, Faultline, Dark Astoria). Keep in mind that each of those redone zones got more than just dedicated arcs, but each was made easier to travel in. The problems with intra-hazard-zone travel (because of mazes or just baddies) is IMO one of the defining issues with the zones. It isn't so bad in Eden while you have not just your travel power but plenty of powers to deal with the villains there... but even Terra Volta can snag less experienced travelers.

 

I do feel that each of the Hazard zones could use at least one arc explaining some of the goings-on that we witness. For example, are the Devouring Earth tunneling under the walls of Terra Volta to Independence Port? Is the Family helping the Sky Raiders smuggle tech in (or out) of Terra Volta? Are the Freaks trying to snatch some of it? There are a lot of Lost there, but the Rikti only show up when they have designs on the Reactor? Has this group of Lost just been dumped here for some reason?

 

Crey's Folly ends up with quite a few door missions, so I'm less 'curious' about that zone. Eden seems like such a wasted zone: The Devouring Earth are clearly pouring out of the Hive...and Crey looks to have fallen back from their Hive facilities... so what is Nemesis plotting there?

 

Of the lower level zones (Perez Park, Boomtown) slightly more caution might be needed for level-appropriate content because of the size of the zones and the travel requirements. We know that the Circle of Thorns was planning a major Incarnate-level overhaul to Perez Park (I was not looking forward to that) but surely we could get some kind of action that doesn't duplicate what the Hollows offers?

 

If anyone has some AE missions that they think could serve as an 'arc' for any of the Hazard Zones, drop me a line.