The new Steel Vahz arc is fun on a team

[DougGraves]

I have no idea what the story is.  I was on a team so I just played through the missions.  It was a tough but fun challenge.  We were at +0 and we had many people defeated including a couple of wipes.  It felt fair - we just needed to be more careful. 

Great maps, very thematic.  And it has Freaks that are apparently on red side but I haven't seen on blue side, so a bit more variety than freaks normally get.

[Ukase]

I agree on the maps. I had more fun solo than on a team. On the team it seemed to take forever. Like 5 hours. It was only 75 minutes, but it felt much longer. Solo it was 40 minutes and lot more fun for me. 

[MoisesG]

I like this arc, and also like the fact that the second arc at 30-39 has you switch to villain side for extra variety.

[Scientist]

Have only done the villain arc so far, but I'd agree it was lots of fun on a team.  There is really a lot of nuance (and humor) in both the dialogue from talking to NPCs, which teammates don't get to read, and even conversations between them you have to have NPC chat on to see, though, so I suggest doing it solo at least once to see all that.   On someone sturdy, some of those fights are no joke. . . 

[Arnabas]

I love seeing alignment choices integrated into actual missions. I would like to see more of that.

 

[LiquidBandage]

A few nights ago we had a team of seven running at +2x8 and we completed it in 1hr54min killing most and exploring a bunch. 

[The_Warpact]

Me and the VG ran them back to back tonight, we all had a good time.

Great story, the enemies were fun, and it was thought out.

PLUS,  got to kill the Kraken in Perez by chance and I never see that booger out and about and finished in IP and killed Lusca.

Got 16 badges in all so very pleased.

 

Good job @Piecemeal we had fun.

[Coyote]

I like the Heroside arc a lot (haven't tried villain yet). It's very well written, with good dialogue and and a good story.

I also like that it has unique enemies (and one with a pretty unique tactic)... if every story arc had 1 or 2 unique enemies, it would make it a lot more interesting to run as many arcs as possible.

[Hew]

I ran the blueside 20-29 on an 8 man team as lead. Thank you to the teammates who indulged me in reading EVERYTHING at each step. 

 

Also, tank buster in the rave! Woot!

 

I very much loved the arc.

[InvaderStych]

Ran the blueside (20-29) arc solo so I could indulge in some reading and map exploring which was ...

 

... difficult on a /SR scrapper at lvl 20 - without the AoE def toggle, oooof, I probably could have waited a few levels ...

 

... but it was also a ton of fun.  Nice to see new ideas in play with mobs and maps; many great moments in the npc dialog.  I can see running this one in-level fairly often as various toons come and go.

[Arnabas]

On 12/1/2020 at 9:34 AM, InvaderStych said:

Ran the blueside (20-29) arc solo so I could indulge in some reading and map exploring which was ...

 

... difficult on a /SR scrapper at lvl 20 - without the AoE def toggle, oooof, I probably could have waited a few levels ...

 

... but it was also a ton of fun.  Nice to see new ideas in play with mobs and maps; many great moments in the npc dialog.  I can see running this one in-level fairly often as various toons come and go.

It bordered on too much reading for me. I love having dialogue and stuff to read, but this had a lot, and it came fast. I had to stop periodically and then scrtoll back and read for five minutes before continuing on with the mission. 

[BurtHutt]

On 11/28/2020 at 8:41 AM, Scientist said:

Have only done the villain arc so far, but I'd agree it was lots of fun on a team.  There is really a lot of nuance (and humor) in both the dialogue from talking to NPCs, which teammates don't get to read, and even conversations between them you have to have NPC chat on to see, though, so I suggest doing it solo at least once to see all that.   On someone sturdy, some of those fights are no joke. . . 

I ran with a team on hero and vill sides. The hero side had the difficulty cranked up and it took forever to do - so long that I had to leave. My friend continued with the team and it looked like it about 3+ hours. Way too much running around and it brought back nightmares of old CoH missions....traumatic, indeed.

 

The red side was less running around and a bit shorter.

 

I feel both arcs should have been TF/SFs due to the time and commitment (and lack of reward?). Just a suggestion.

 

The biggest piece I'd like to relay is that the team cannot interact in the mission to the same level as the leader (can't read all of the material, comments etc). I really think it might help it cut scenes were used to relay a sentence or two. Another big help might be using load screens to relay story as well. I'd suggested using load screens to help relay the story with a couple of lines - they can be unique to the mission. I had also suggested using player artists to draw a mission specific splash page and use that as the load screen/zoning screen between parts of a mission - a fun new wrinkle to add to the game. There are a few very talented artists on the forums here and some said they'd be into this.

 

 

[Coyotedancer]

On 11/28/2020 at 8:41 AM, Scientist said:

Have only done the villain arc so far, but I'd agree it was lots of fun on a team.  There is really a lot of nuance (and humor) in both the dialogue from talking to NPCs, which teammates don't get to read, and even conversations between them you have to have NPC chat on to see, though, so I suggest doing it solo at least once to see all that.   On someone sturdy, some of those fights are no joke. . . 

I've only done it solo... and only on the red side... but agree based on what I've seen so far.

 

I was soloing it at a modest +1 on a native-level 34 Rad/Ice Stalker with an attuned and maybe 75% complete IO set-build. (No slouch, in other words, and probably a little tougher than a Joe Average average mid-level character) and there were still bits that were definitely dicey for her. The ambushes and adds tend to spawn right on top of each other, so you'll find yourself facing very large groups of goons out of nowhere in the middle of fighting several of the assorted bosses and EBs. Be prepared for that. 

 

Also, bees are cowards and your friends will run off to the far corners of the map chasing swarms of them... Leaving you to potentially face quite a few Angry Things alone. <_< Be ready for that, too.

 

Also, Bile is a klutz. Who gets stuck on landscape objects. A lot. 🤣 

[Sakai]

Just finished up soloing the blue side on my Dark/Dark troller.   It was a challenge but a fun one indeed. 

 

When I started being sent to random zones I thought "Dear Lord NO" but quickly stopped caring about it as I normally do. 

 

The missions were entertaining and the story was wonderful. I always disliked the Vahz for a variety of different reasons. When Posi was revamped I disliked them a little less.  After this arc I look forward to taking my next hero through the old stories with glee. 

 

Well done and thank you.  More please. 

 

Is it true the red side arc is a continuation of sorts for the blue one?