Siren's Call

[Greycat]

Yep. PVP zone.

 

On live, this was one of my favourites - before we got the "+5 powers when exemped" code and, really, IOs in general. It was the last zone that didn't just turn into a T9 fight. I had fun there.

 

That said, this zone could use some help. No, this is not "Make a pvp zone a pve zone." I think they should generally be left alone (though a non-PVP without the rewards, but with story and standard PVE rewards, could be interesting.)

 

There are two big annoyances with the zone.

1. The battles you're supposed to help out with are... not very dynamic. Pip comes up on the map. Rush there. A few stragglers that were on the wrong side of the lines are cleared up. The two sides stare at each other for what feels like an hour. About when you're ready to fall asleep, someone finally attacks. Yes, players can initiate attacks, but it doesn't seem to actually trigger the *battle.* It is... just flat out boring. There's nothing else to do in the zone but grab the explore badges, stand around for the time-in-zone badges, and do a set of repeatable, fairly generic missions (available in every PVP zone to buff or debuff damage or resistance.)

 

As a goal, this just... wasn't done well. Bloody Bay? You have the meteors, at least, so you have to keep moving, and the only place you're generally pinned down is the firebase.  Same with Warburg (codes) and RV (turrets and heavies.)  The battles need to be sped up - and yes, I get "giving players time to get there," but this is a bit much - or something else needs to be added to the zone that can be fought over. (Or at least gives a *goal.*)

 

And of course, goals mean rewards, which... er.

 

2. The bounty system.

All right, so there *are* two "goals," of sorts. One is to get control of the zone, which ... takes... a... while. Your reward for this? Two tiers of temp powers which are.... ok. They'd probably be in the cheaper tier of P2W.

The other is "Bounty," which you get by defeating other players and participating in (or, apparently, at least being there at the end of) victorious battles. Your side loses, you get nothing. Your side wins, you get 100 bounty. Don't leave the zone, or it vanishes.

 

At 1000 bounty - which, sure, is easy if there's another player, usually, and you win, but the zones aren't exactly *lively* (and I just spent over an hour getting this...) you can pick from - wait for it - a *medium inspiration.* Not even a special one. Plain old medium inspiration.

 

At 6000 bounty, you can get... an SO. Now, yes, the zones came out when SOs were what you mainly slotted with, and getting SOs at 20 (the level the zone opened) would be great. Now? Or even "Most of the time on live?" With these rewards, it's not worth *playing* for bounty. (Which would make #1 less rewarding, if addressed.)

 

The only other reward (which you can only get from 20-30) is by doing the easiest mission - completing a patrol - and getting a temporary Combat Invisibility power. Which is useful and along with the 5 merits for all the exploration badges is pretty much the only reason I tend to go in there.  (Oh, and a gladiator, if ... wait, nobody does that. Is that even active any more?)

 

 

Compare with:

Bloody Bay: A few minutes of grabbing meteor shards, a little time taking down a firebase, and you get a useful (to varying degrees) Shivan pet, 5 uses. Do the patrol, get Hyper Stealth.

Warburg: Three different missile types that give buffs/debuffs/damage (I think. It's been a while.) And a temp phase shift.

Recluse's Victory: Longbow/Arachnos heavy. (Maybe not as impressive, but it does carry a good bit of firepower.)

 

As a 50, I'm fairly sure I could get *all* these rewards in the time it would take me to earn one SO through battles in SC. No wonder besides being a PVP zone that it's abandoned...

 

So what to do?

 

I'm not completely sure, but the zone could use a revamp. Speed up the battles, as mentioned. No more staring menacingly (or, not, really, they just kind of stare) across the field at each other until someone swats a fly and the rest think it's time to attack.  Maybe give the player a little more agency in them (at the risk of triggering a battle and having an enemy player hit them right at that moment.) Put more in the zone to do - turrets would probably not make much sense, but things to help or hinder the other side - set up (or destroy) sensors, transmitters to call for aid, or similar items that you'll have to "complete a set" of.

 

And of course fix the rewards. The insps are fine... but maybe put them at 150-250 bounty. Complete zone missions (without losing your bounty from "leaving" the zone to go into a mission...) and get some bounty. SOs... eh, if you're going to keep them, put them as extremely cheap. Common (non set) IOs, as well. Keep the multi-thousands-bounties for *good* things, random IO set rolls which could include PVP IOs. I'd say "let your imagination run wild" here. Eh, and let's add a temp power - nothing *huge* (these are repatable,) but there are already PPD officers and Crab spider temp powers. Maybe the Crab and a ... nullifier or warden.

 

Or see what else we can come up with.

[Greycat]

Chewing on this a little more:

 

I don't know if this is doable or not, but part of the "goals" of other zones are, as mentioned, getting contestible items (rocket launch codes, shivan shards, bunkers, heavies.)

 

So, on top of the current standard four PVP missions (buff/debuff damage and resistance for each side,) how about "Go through the walled off city to get components?" These would be components for monitoring (hero) / spying on (villain) the zone (better tracking of bounty targets, indication of stealthed characters - not nullifying it, to be clear, but maybe an alert if one's within 30 yards or something, indicating directions of travel for friendly/enemy reinforcements for the battle, that sort of thing,) or... well, something else.

 

You choose to enter the mission, fight to the end to retrieve the component and get it out. (This could also be done to sabotage a completed buff, perhaps.) Up to... say, 75-85% completion, an opposing player can enter and face you at the end, either up to "even" teams or the missions could be limited to 1-2 players. If it completes past that, they can't enter the mission, the boss group at the end spawns, and the player fights that.

 

To keep someone from just stealthing to the end, make the last room need a key, perhaps.

 

You then take the component to some location in zone to set it up/repair a device/something. (Also, obviously, something the opposing side can contest.)

I'm not sure if this is technically doable or not (watching for a player to come in to determine if they can spawn the end groups.) But it would give a goal and another setpiece to PVP in.

 

 

Edit: Should that *not* be feasable, perhaps (still more.. 🙂  ) missions where you affect communications for one side or the other - which determines if the "get a component" missions have a more difficult guard at the end (they're alerted) or not (communications are disrupted.)

Edited April 11, 2020 by Greycat

[0th Power]

I think the big problem with all the pvp zones (for me anyways) is the need for a very specific build. If I could be mildly successful with my pve build I would go to the zones more often. 

[macskull]

The bounty rewards 100% need tweaking, especially considering Siren's Call is a ghost town even on Indomitable.