When Dark Astoria Changed.....

[Sakai]

did the Devs ever give a reason for making the fog go away?  Saddened me a bit when I saw that.  Love everything else about the revamp except for that.

[Greycat]

Not that I recall, other than perhaps years of people complaining. (And now having missions in there, I suppose.)

 

Personally, I liked it too. It fit nicely with the ghost residents appearing and disappearing. Yes, even with my first 50, who used teleport - and was in there frequently.

[DR_Mechano]

7 hours ago, Sakai said:

did the Devs ever give a reason for making the fog go away?  Saddened me a bit when I saw that.  Love everything else about the revamp except for that.

Sadly no. It also really changed the vibe of Astoria.

 

Original DA was very much Silent Hill inspired, with the thick fog and the ghosts vanishing the moment you got too close to them, the fact we only sort of knew what was going on.

 

Modern DA is kind of more end times Cthulhu inspired what with cultists in the street, the red sky, the fog being removed etc. I kind of preferred the original look if I;m honest.

Edited November 7, 2020 by DR_Mechano

[Li_Sensei]

I always thought it was because Dark Nasty went from 'Lurking Threat' to 'Overt Threat'.

 

That sort of change in intent behind the zone meant I can see the sense in that change.

[MoisesG]

I just remember slamming into the buildings when super jumping, lol.

Good times, good times 🙂

[CrudeVileTerror]

That's nothin', @MoisesG!

My main uses Teleport.

 

Still, I'm glad Echo:  Dark Astoria is a thing.  I have a very special fondness for that zone.

[MoisesG]

8 minutes ago, CrudeVileTerror said:

That's nothin', @MoisesG!

My main uses Teleport.

 

Still, I'm glad Echo:  Dark Astoria is a thing.  I have a very special fondness for that zone.

OMG there no way i could use TP in Echo Dark. lol.

 

Yes, lots of fond memories, that zone was so scary feeling, and hunting for the GM spawn was always fun.

[Sakai]

Maybe we could get little spots of fog brought back in random locations to add to the mystery. 

 

That sounds like a Suggestion thing. Hopefully I will type one up. 

[srmalloy]

38 minutes ago, MoisesG said:

OMG there no way i could use TP in Echo Dark. lol.

That has me flashing back to flying around DA (pre-revamp) with my map view expanded, using the map for navigation, the same way I'd use the map when flying bombers in Aces High, because looking out the cockpit windows didn't tell you squat about whether you were flying in the right direction.

[OmegaOne]

3 hours ago, Li_Sensei said:

I always thought it was because Dark Nasty went from 'Lurking Threat' to 'Overt Threat'.

 

That sort of change in intent behind the zone meant I can see the sense in that change.

If I recall correctly it was exactly this. The eruption of Mot in the cemetery changed what was going on in DA, at least on a supernatural level.

[UpandAtom]

I think it was supposed to be a Mot's magical netherworld miasma spread out everywhere, but Mot waking up congealed it into Mot's physical body.

Most likely the devs just decided they were going to get rid of it for whatever reason. Wanting to lift the veil so you see Mot's big body erupting out of the ground? Players smacking into buildings? Maybe some kind of technical reason to remove it? Dunno.

[MoisesG]

what if they just make it cloudy when the GM has spawned, and let the air clear once the GM has been defeated?

[Greycat]

36 minutes ago, MoisesG said:

what if they just make it cloudy when the GM has spawned, and let the air clear once the GM has been defeated?

... eh? There's no GM in current DA, only the current echo - and the fog's part of what we like in echo.

[Vanden]

Mot ate it all

[Solarverse]

It still exists in Echo

[Sir Myshkin]

Dark Astoria was one of the least used zones in the game pre-revamp. Much like the Dev plan was for things like Faultline, Boomtown, Dark Astoria was given a face lift to bring folks back into it (and also Story). One of the most common themes for why folks avoided the zone was, in fact, the fog, and also the fact that it tied into a level range that already has a lot of other busy work going on. DA was a very easy zone to miss/outlevel with very little effort involved.

[Techwright]

I know it'd be asking a lot, but I'd dig having a rolling fog.  That is, it moves slowly through the area, clearing in some areas, so you can see the layout, while building to a blinding fog in other spots, before subsiding and the effect moving elsewhere.  Get it right, and the fog moves like a creepy, living thing.

[Solarverse]

On 11/7/2020 at 9:19 PM, Sir Myshkin said:

Dark Astoria was one of the least used zones in the game pre-revamp. Much like the Dev plan was for things like Faultline, Boomtown, Dark Astoria was given a face lift to bring folks back into it (and also Story). One of the most common themes for why folks avoided the zone was, in fact, the fog, and also the fact that it tied into a level range that already has a lot of other busy work going on. DA was a very easy zone to miss/outlevel with very little effort involved.

Which makes me wish they had left Hollows the hell alone. Left it as an actual Hazard zone and left the mobs like they originally were. All they did was add in some bullshit mobs that did not belong there and added 1 new contact that gave you the same missions over and over that lead nowhere while dumping down the difficulty of the mobs. They took my favorite zone and turned it into a child's playground.

[EmmySky]

5 hours ago, Techwright said:

I know it'd be asking a lot, but I'd dig having a rolling fog.  That is, it moves slowly through the area, clearing in some areas, so you can see the layout, while building to a blinding fog in other spots, before subsiding and the effect moving elsewhere.  Get it right, and the fog moves like a creepy, living thing.

This becomes difficult when you wanna avoid fog going through a wall and instead bouncing off of or swirling around the existing zone geometry.  It would be super cool....I would love to play with that puzzle but this games code is a bit out of my wheelhouse.

[Darmian]

Well, I know they aren't entirely simpatico but you CAN lay down patches of fog where you like when base building so...

[Techwright]

17 hours ago, Solarverse said:

Which makes me wish they had left Hollows the hell alone. Left it as an actual Hazard zone and left the mobs like they originally were. All they did was add in some bullshit mobs that did not belong there and added 1 new contact that gave you the same missions over and over that lead nowhere while dumping down the difficulty of the mobs. They took my favorite zone and turned it into a child's playground.

I wonder, development always strives for improvements, but what of taking it the other direction to "fix" a weakened change?  Using your viewpoint of the Hollows as example, can such a change be reasonably undone in the current game?  Maybe using new storyline to "push out" the "mobs that did not belong there", and create a hazard reflective (but perhaps superior) to the original?  It sounds a bit like the "correction" the OG game did to remove 5th Column and replace with Council.

[Solarverse]

44 minutes ago, Techwright said:

I wonder, development always strives for improvements, but what of taking it the other direction to "fix" a weakened change?  Using your viewpoint of the Hollows as example, can such a change be reasonably undone in the current game?  Maybe using new storyline to "push out" the "mobs that did not belong there", and create a hazard reflective (but perhaps superior) to the original?  It sounds a bit like the "correction" the OG game did to remove 5th Column and replace with Council.

That zone has potential to be made the go-to place for level 6-16. They could maybe even add to the Flux (Frostfire) story arc by taking David Wincott, Flux, and Julius and combine them in to a 2 or 3 part Task Force. Change the zone back to a real Hazard zone by making the enemies a bit tougher (starting at level 10 mobs all the way to level 20 mobs) and increasing the size of the mobs like they used to be. Then they could do away with the mobs that really just don't belong there and bring the zone back to being what it once was by only having Trolls, Outcast, Igneous and CoT. Add a few missions here and there, make Bedrock, Gunther, Snap, Greased Lightning, Rundum and Mantle Elite Bosses. Change Frostfire and Gundor and make them AV's in this Task Force and it gives players a whole new reason to enter The Hollows for more reasons than just nostalgia. Now they have a Task Force that combines three contacts and give a whole new reason to take out Frostfire and Gundor while adding a bit of challenge to not only the missions, but the zone as well. Then they could drop that silly contact that literally takes you nowhere in the game and that zone will now be the go-to place to go after running the DFB a single time.

 

That zone needs to be dangerous again like it once was. The Hollows was made for teams, not solo play. People who want solo play has Kings Row for that. The mobs used to be stronger, more of them and the zone was filled with them. Almost everything you fought in there was red con or purple con. You just didn't do it by yourself unless you have simply out leveled the mobs. It was a Hazard zone for a reason and it needs to be a Hazard zone again IMO.

 

To keep this on topic (Sorry OP, did not mean to hijack your thread) they could do something very similar to the original Dark Astoria.
 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Solarverse

[Lunchmoney]

7 hours ago, Solarverse said:

That zone has potential to be made the go-to place for level 6-16. They could maybe even add to the Flux (Frostfire) story arc by taking David Wincott, Flux, and Julius and combine them in to a 2 or 3 part Task Force. Change the zone back to a real Hazard zone by making the enemies a bit tougher (starting at level 10 mobs all the way to level 20 mobs) and increasing the size of the mobs like they used to be. Then they could do away with the mobs that really just don't belong there and bring the zone back to being what it once was by only having Trolls, Outcast, Igneous and CoT. Add a few missions here and there, make Bedrock, Gunther, Snap, Greased Lightning, Rundum and Mantle Elite Bosses. Change Frostfire and Gundor and make them AV's in this Task Force and it gives players a whole new reason to enter The Hollows for more reasons than just nostalgia. Now they have a Task Force that combines three contacts and give a whole new reason to take out Frostfire and Gundor while adding a bit of challenge to not only the missions, but the zone as well. Then they could drop that silly contact that literally takes you nowhere in the game and that zone will now be the go-to place to go after running the DFB a single time.

 

That zone needs to be dangerous again like it once was. The Hollows was made for teams, not solo play. People who want solo play has Kings Row for that. The mobs used to be stronger, more of them and the zone was filled with them. Almost everything you fought in there was red con or purple con. You just didn't do it by yourself unless you have simply out leveled the mobs. It was a Hazard zone for a reason and it needs to be a Hazard zone again IMO.

 

 

Put all of that in a suggestion thread of its own.

[Solarverse]

15 minutes ago, Lunchmoney said:

Put all of that in a suggestion thread of its own.

Nah, I don't do suggestion threads anymore. You are more than welcome to though and I'll support it. I just don't particularly care for how those forums can make even decent folks act viciously, heh.

[Techwright]

19 hours ago, Solarverse said:

Nah, I don't do suggestion threads anymore. You are more than welcome to though and I'll support it. I just don't particularly care for how those forums can make even decent folks act viciously, heh.

Oh, that.  Naw, that wasn't viciousness, that was folks trying out your new aggressive savage melee.