Send us to Hazard Zones again

[Grouchybeast]

33 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:

'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.

David Wincott is the same, he'll talk to you without an introduction.  I've levelled up a couple of new characters in The Hollows recently just for a change of pace.

[Coyotedancer]

1 minute ago, Grouchybeast said:

David Wincott is the same, he'll talk to you without an introduction.  I've levelled up a couple of new characters in The Hollows recently just for a change of pace.

Good to know. The last one I took through the Hollows picked up Wincott from the Contact Finder. 

 

When I'm on this afternoon, I'll take one of the higher-levels out to the Shard to see about Hammond.

[MTeague]

Perez Park probably won't change much because so many missions already send you there, and it's prime hunting for certain kind of "kill X foes" for lowbie enemies of that level range.

 

Boomtown though.

I think Boomtown is BEGGIN' to get a complete overhaul.

 

I know, I know.  Graphic updates, contacts, making it all make sense in terms of a storyline that crosses an entire zone.... that's a tall order.  It would take a long, LONG, time to do properly.  I get that.  But if any zone gets it, Boomtown is a good choice. 

 

- it's basically deserted. 

- only really used for a Numina kill X council, so no worries if you scaled up the zone to be a lvl 30's zone instead of a teens zone.

- I think there's a few other "go rescue some kidnapped councilmen" missions that wouldn't be too hard to at least reposition closer to the entrance, or one particular corner, if it would be a problem with a zone rewrite. 

 

And really, it's been how many years, and it's still a smoldering ruin? 

And those buildings at 60 degree angles still havent' finished falling down yet?

I would like to see something done with the zone, if at any point the devs want to do something like a Faultline style overhaul.

 

[Tugzug]

Boomtown could totally use the Faultline treatment. I'm also a fan of more higher level zones; you tend to zoom past low levels even if you don't do DFB, so a higher level remake could be cool. Now that said, despite there being a Council Base there, I'm really not interested in Striga 2, do if it does get a revamp, I hope the Council aren't they main antagonists.

[Coyotedancer]

Confirmed! General Hammond in Firebase Zulu is also a "walk up" contact.

You don't need an introduction to him, just come through the portal and click on the guy...

 

That said, his missions are pretty dull and I'm reminded how much the underuse of the Shard's potential hurts a little piece of my soul.  It's such a gorgeous place... It deserves batter. 😞

[thunderforce]

On 4/28/2020 at 5:06 PM, Coyotedancer said:

'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.

You never did; they were all able to be walked up to (although normally you wouldn't). I'm not proposing this because you can't do the Hollows (etc), because you can; I'm proposing this because it's odd to have contacts there's no way to get introduced to.

19 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:

That said, his missions are pretty dull and I'm reminded how much the underuse of the Shard's potential hurts a little piece of my soul.  It's such a gorgeous place... It deserves batter. 😞

Yes; the Shards could really use the standard "2 in 40-45, 2 in 45-50" contacts with arcs, and not just repeatable missions - but I think most of the plot ended up in the SSTFs.

[EmmySky]

I can confirm that if you are the right level range, David, Jim and Stephanie are on the 'Find Contact' button.  I use that a lot for the teleport to contact option, especially for hazard zone contacts.  

 

You do have to wade through a boatload of First Ward contacts once you hit 20, which is why I dont use it as much after Jim and Stephanie, too much garbage to skip by.  Maybe they could clean that up and streamline it so they are easier to find?

[Virtual Green]

19 hours ago, Tugzug said:

Boomtown could totally use the Faultline treatment. I'm also a fan of more higher level zones; you tend to zoom past low levels even if you don't do DFB, so a higher level remake could be cool. Now that said, despite there being a Council Base there, I'm really not interested in Striga 2, do if it does get a revamp, I hope the Council aren't they main antagonists.

+1! I always thought it was a missed opportunity to not make Boomtown the 5th Column's own Striga, I was pretty disappointed to find out the base established there belonged to the Council. Let us punch Nazis more openly, devs!

[SwitchFade]

Fellow heroes, Heroines and trolls of all forms!

 

The answer here is truly:

 

Revamp contacts, introductions and choices.

 

Refresh the contacts window into a "Hero Signal" akin to Dick Tracy's watch.

 

Grant us a summary list similar to what ouro has, that names the story arc and when selected puts the compass on contact.

 

Relink contact hand offs to give a choice of anything in the level range, with the story arc description in the hand off text body, like a preview of the next comic issue "next week Dr Stinkyfoot fights the vile Garbage Gobbler!"

 

Show out leveled contacts as grey, and direct people to ouro to "reread a past comic issue!"

 

Create a small one box text tutorial on entering the City that simple shows the new "Hero Emergency Transmitter," how to use it and why.

 

Now, we all get story arc "comic issue" descriptions of what contacts have, we get hand offs or just use the Hero Transmitter and we know where to go to reread an old issue.

 

This will help Vets and most important, it will give new players a very rich and engaging experience!

Edited April 30, 2020 by SwitchFade

[ShardWarrior]

I wonder if writing new story content for hazard zones would make for a fun Homecoming contest?  Have players develop story arc(s) and contacts for a particular zone and have a vote on the forums to choose winners.  Winning stories can get added to the zone.  This would have to be simple and have certain guidelines as in there cannot be any new environmental assets needed and such, just a new contact or two and the overall arc and mission content.

 

I have no idea how much work it is to add a contact and missions into a given zone.  However this at least takes some work off of the Homecoming staff.

Edited April 30, 2020 by ShardWarrior

[Chris24601]

On 4/28/2020 at 12:20 PM, tidge said:

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?

I kinda liked this idea. As it was explained in the AMA it would have technically been two separate zones; the normal 8-15 level zone with some of the forest maze cleared out would still be there, but there’d also be a level 50+ floating outdoor Orenbegan city floating high above it.

 

Heck, in terms of geometry, we technically already have at least part of such a city in the form of the map used for the conclusion of Scirocco’s Mallus Mundi arc.

 

Place it high up in the sky (above the ceiling so you can’t actually reach it directly) so it can been seen, but not reached from Perez Park.

 

Then add “Orenbegan Embassy” to the TUNNEL portals and make it a separate zone with some DA-style mission portals scattered around the Orenbegan city (you could put one at each ritual sight in the Mallus Mundi mission) and some level 50 contacts with story arcs/repeatable missions nearby those and you’ve got yourself a whole new zone to put missions in that would fit with those original plans.

 

Alternately, use that outdoors Orenbegan map and the “visit the Nemesis base in the Shadow Shard” map as part of a Shadow Shard revamp so you can actually visit the bases that the CoT and Nemesis are using for their Shadow Shard incursions.

 

Swap out the generic soldiers in Firebase Zulu for Vanguard troops and make the Shadow Shard accessible to both factions through the existing Vanguard depot portals as a co-op zone.

 

While you’re at it, add click portals/doors between the main islands to make travel easier for the non-flyers.

 

Add some new contacts with story arcs, relocate/revamp the repeating mission contacts, give the existing Shadow Shard TFs the Positron treatment, and maybe even make Cathedral of Pain accessable via a contact/portal in Firebase Zulu and you’d have yourself a Shadow Shard update.

[Coyotedancer]

1 hour ago, Chris24601 said:

I kinda liked this idea. As it was explained in the AMA it would have technically been two separate zones; the normal 8-15 level zone with some of the forest maze cleared out would still be there, but there’d also be a level 50+ floating outdoor Orenbegan city floating high above it.

 

Heck, in terms of geometry, we technically already have at least part of such a city in the form of the map used for the conclusion of Scirocco’s Mallus Mundi arc.

 

Place it high up in the sky (above the ceiling so you can’t actually reach it directly) so it can been seen, but not reached from Perez Park.

 

Then add “Orenbegan Embassy” to the TUNNEL portals and make it a separate zone with some DA-style mission portals scattered around the Orenbegan city (you could put one at each ritual sight in the Mallus Mundi mission) and some level 50 contacts with story arcs/repeatable missions nearby those and you’ve got yourself a whole new zone to put missions in that would fit with those original plans.

 

Alternately, use that outdoors Orenbegan map and the “visit the Nemesis base in the Shadow Shard” map as part of a Shadow Shard revamp so you can actually visit the bases that the CoT and Nemesis are using for their Shadow Shard incursions.

 

Swap out the generic soldiers in Firebase Zulu for Vanguard troops and make the Shadow Shard accessible to both factions through the existing Vanguard depot portals as a co-op zone.

 

While you’re at it, add click portals/doors between the main islands to make travel easier for the non-flyers.

 

Add some new contacts with story arcs, relocate/revamp the repeating mission contacts, give the existing Shadow Shard TFs the Positron treatment, and maybe even make Cathedral of Pain accessable via a contact/portal in Firebase Zulu and you’d have yourself a Shadow Shard update.

 

I'll admit it, I loved the idea of the Circle raising a bit of the old city and actually having some zone space of their own, too... But then, I'm biased. XD

 

I'd still love to see it happen some day.

[kenlon]

With the upcoming SO drop changes, doing the low level hazard zones might become a decent way to level again, so anything that makes them more useful/relevant would be nice. Adding additional story arcs there would be great.

[KelvinKole]

Bumping to propose an idea for hazard zones. I do think the hazard zones feel wasted, and like there's a good opportunity to revamp them and get some variety of location. I was thinking....could we create events, like rikti invasion, wherein the inhabitants of the hazard zone are making an organized push through the gate and only the heroes of paragon city can stop them?

 

A message comes over the broadcast "Security has been overrun in Boomtown, the gates are under attack."

 

Multiple leagues may be needed to cover all the gates in each zone, and the event is failed if one of the gates "falls." If successful, a substantial award is given to all participants; merits, rare drops, etc.