"Historian" mission contacts

[Fade]

Of all the new content that the Homecoming team have added to the game, I find that the most ingenious are the exploration tip missions- guides to getting difficult-to-find badges that are integrated into both the game systems and the narrative of the world. Theoretically, you can now get all of the exploration badges in the game without needing to use an outside reference like the wiki or an addon like Vidiotmaps.

 

What I realized last night, as I worked on receiving the Atlas Medallion on another alt for the umpteenth time, is that the same convenience of exploration tip missions isn't also present in the history badges. The history badges illuminate a lot of Paragon City's... well, history, and a few are prerequisites for actual mechanical advantages, so I think they should get a similar treatment to the often hard-to-find exploration badges.

 

The tip missions are great for exploration badges - beat up some local bad guys, receive a little contextual reason to visit a location and get an exploration badge for your trouble. I don't think that same format works as well as a reason to visit and read the history plaques, but I have another solution in mind.

 

What I'd like to see implemented are a series of mission-giving contacts, one for each history badge, stationed in the various universities throughout the city (and Rogue Isles, and even the Praetorian zones for badges like Headjuiced and The Last Word). Each one could give missions to go to the various plaques, just like the exploration tips, but instead of plucking a history lesson from the clutches of a bad guy you just arrested, you'd talk to a thematically appropriate citizen. For example, a professor teaching Civics found in the library of the Founders Falls university could give missions that talk about the Might for Right Act, and direct players towards all of the plaques for the Expert badge.

 

Ideally, these contacts wouldn't have any prerequisites, may or may not show up in the "Find a Contact" feature (I'm interested in hearing opinions about this part), and importantly wouldn't be required to get the history badges - someone running Vidiotmaps or using the wiki should have an unaffected experience if they don't want to use any new features.

 

I think writing some missions that direct players to the history badges would be a nice way to experience some of the lore of the game. Perhaps even more importantly, they'd give players an in-game way to engage with those badges, rather than practically requiring the use of a third party resource. But how do *you* feel about this "historian contacts" idea? Would you use a feature like this? And should the contacts give one mission per plaque, or should they give one single mission that asks you to go to each plaque sequentially?

 

Tangentially related: I'm not the first to ask for the following, but I don't remember where I saw the following suggestion before - otherwise I'd link to it directly. I'd like to see the requirements for the accolades (both history plaques and exploration badges) taken out of the Echo maps and moved to other spots around the city. The actual locations for these plaques are sort of arbitrary, so even plaques that say "On this spot..." could be placed in other zones and the story stays intact. Perhaps the old spots could become new history badges, and a historian contact could be placed in Ouroboros to guide players to any time-travel-required spots? It would sort of be a meta-history badge in that regard.

Edited June 8, 2021 by Fade
Formatting these fancy-schmancy new-fangled hyperlinks

[Parabola]

Yeah, I like the idea and would use it. Tracking down the plaques for history badges is a pain even with vidiot maps as it's so easy to miss one and you get no indication of which one you've missed.

 

I'd suggest a single contact per badge who gives a chain of missions that direct you to each plaque. You could even weave a door mission or two into the chain to spice it up. You could end up with a series of mini story arcs ranging across levels appropriate to the zones the plaques are in, that give a merit reward as well as the history badge. That would give an incentive to take this path while still allowing the badges to be collected directly using vidiot maps.

[Faultline]

This is planned but not before page4, page3 will add the remaining Tour Guides for the 15ish zones that have exploration accolades but no tour guides. The mission team is working on other content for page3 that has priority over the historian badges.

[Fade]

Very cool to hear! Let's say "great minds think alike" on this one 🙂

[Tiger Shadow]

Some of these history badges can send you to 4 or more zones. Since I don't want to run back to Atlas Park between each mission, let's have the contacts give you their phone numbers early. Or just have the missions chain, like a good portion of Keith Nance's arc does.

[0th Power]

I like it!

 

 

[Greycat]

 

Nearly two years just to add an "I like it?"  Anyone saying "Threads should be necro-able to add important information!" - that's not important information.

[0th Power]

33 minutes ago, Greycat said:

 

Nearly two years just to add an "I like it?"  Anyone saying "Threads should be necro-able to add important information!" - that's not important information.

I necro’d it because it was brought up in the other newly posted thread.   I was going to explain that in the post but everything I typed seemed like I was over explaining.  So I went short and sweet. 
 

Also, in my own mind, what I like is important…