Miscellaneous QoL enhancements

[Krajeek]

Hey guys,

 

I guess I should post these individually, but I'd like to get consensus feedback and not fill the forums. I have a few game enhancements I think would improve the game significantly.

 

1) Costume options from various factions. Not a complete outfit like is available for Halloween, but just one part to help you build someone from the faction. Maybe a blocky cybernetic arm from the Freakshow, a strapped chest piece which the Cimerorans have, a Goldbrickers rocketpack, etc. Maybe have them unlock across the account but cost a lot of reward merits (50+), etc.

 

2) A base item to store account-specific influence and reward merits. The mail system is being overloaded with mailing stuff to other characters, and most SGs are account-specific, so this should reduce lag on the server and allow for easier centralized maintenance on an account.

 

3)  Make DfB unite hero and villain. Right now, it's nigh impossible to run DfB redside, and a threat like this would affect both zones. Let people join up from either faction. If somebody wants to make it specific, they can form a limited team already, but some villains don't want to talk to a seagull and become a hero just to run the trial.

 

Any constructive criticism is welcome. If any of these ideas have merit, I can form a thread about the unique idea. Thanks in advance.

 

- Kraj

[agentx5]

1)  Uh... sure?

 

2)  That or maybe just allow a batch quanitity instead of just one item at a time.  (i.e.: 10 Diamonds, 10 Hero Merits, 1000 Reward Merits)

 

3)  This definitely needs to happen, IMHO.

[Aberrant]

It always baffled me that with both DFB and DiB they made the contacts for them Longbow and Arachnos, necessitating two versions of each, rather than choosing a neutral faction like Vanguard and just making them co-op. They're identical other than the NPCs and dialog.

[Greycat]

2 hours ago, Aberrant said:

It always baffled me that with both DFB and DiB they made the contacts for them Longbow and Arachnos, necessitating two versions of each, rather than choosing a neutral faction like Vanguard and just making them co-op. They're identical other than the NPCs and dialog.

Why? They're meant for starting or low level characters, before they'd have hit the tip system to change alignment, so they would naturally be in their "home" environment.

[Aberrant]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

Why? They're meant for starting or low level characters, before they'd have hit the tip system to change alignment, so they would naturally be in their "home" environment.

Well I wouldn't call Villains invading Paragon City sewers as their home environment just cause Arachnos is there. Just seems odd to have functionally the same content partitioned off into Hero and Villain side when other similarly structured trials were co-op like Summer Blockbuster, Dr. Kane's House of Horror, Lord Winter's Realm (though granted these were weird seasonal events). I assume back on live Redside was a bit more active than it is here, though my memories of it on Defiant EU certainly don't feel that far away from now. Just that they took an odd half step above the most economical option of identical trials led by a neutral faction, obviously not wanting to spend too much time on them by making unique trials per side, by changing out the trainers and captions but nothing else. Since they're so similar I feel it would have been sensible for them to be a merged co-op trial. But since they're separated, it's odd they didn't change just a little more like the setting, framing or enemy groups.

 

For instance Villain side DFB could have been an excursion into the sewers and tunnels of Mercy Island. Same basic setup, could have used largely the same map, swap out a couple groups for Infected and Snakes, maybe a 'goody' group like Longbow or Legacy Chain, and say that the Hydra had expanded out to the Rogue Isles. Would have been a good way for the Mercy Island Snakes and Infected to stay relevant since Kalinda, Burke and the other OG Mercy Island contacts were removed with Mercy's low level revamp. They're reinstated now with Homecoming, but with Mercy's Issue 21 revamp use of these contacts was completely disabled, so new characters never fought Snakes other than in Mercy's open world, losing the setup for Stheno's return at level 45-50 with Operative Grillo's arcs. 

 

Similarly with DiB, I feel it could have been run as a joint operation with Vanguard. I don't think there's much sense in them being separate trials, especially with how much less often it's run compared to DFB. I've only seen Villain DiB when I was working on cataloguing the dialogue (there's a lot, not all of it good, particularly with the Commander and Scientist. At least the Shivans have some interesting things to say and are a talkative bunch! Haven't got around to finishing that as I'm too rubbish to solo the Shivan Decimators at the end >_<), and I don't think I've ever seen someone advertise it redside when I've been playing, which is a shame cause it's a neat experience and hints a lot about the Coming Storm. 

 

But then again, who knows what technical issues or time constraints there could have been that may have forced their hands!

 

Edit: Found a Dev Diary about designing Drowning in Blood which is an interesting read: https://www.pcgamer.com/city-of-heroes-dev-diary-balancing-story-and-combat-in-bloody-bay/

At least with DiB, they apparently wanted to tell more of a story which is understandable, but due to the pace of these trials I doubt many stop and have a dialogue with these NPCs. Seems a bit of a waste for the story to be here rather than in a solo-able story arc where you have the time to stop and read it. 

Edited July 27, 2020 by Aberrant
Added Dev Diary.

[ImpousVileTerror]

"Funny" thing about Death From Below and Drowning in Blood; the two factions already DO run the same map!  

All that happens is that the game hides the Longbow for Villains, and hides the Arachnos for Heroes.   If you manage to glitch out and enter these instances without a faction, it's possible to get -both- Arachnos and Longbow NPCs at the same time.

I'll try to snap a screenshot next time I do it.

[Aberrant]

@ImpousVileTerror Oh yeah, forgot about that. Maybe a "We have this new phasing tech to test, let's use it for everything!" situation.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Aberrant