Challenge Zones

[The_Warpact]

So hear me out before anyone starts getting their knickers in a bunch.

 

The "Challenge Zones" are actually the current pvp zones minus the pvp. Before, I go further the regular pvp zones are still there but, get sort of the Echo treatment and can only be accessed through the arena. So they still exist just in a different way. (Gotta be fair to the pvp folks too, I used to be one on live!)

 

The Challenge zones would be set up to introduce max lvl challenges by whatever the zone lvls are. Imagine the new ASF/801 series but in a zone form. Because, face it the hardest zone right now is the new Dark Astoria and frankly most of my toons can easily defeat anything in there.

 

With IOs being available at any lvl the need for more challenging content across all lvls is needed. Lastly all zones are co-op except one.

 

So Sirens would still have the Arachnos vs Longbow function but spearheaded by max lvl AVs and different buffs/debuffs/badges when one side wins or the other.

The "Battle for Sirens Call" could still be a zone war but heroes and villains would have to target pve enemies and AVs to stop an all out war breaking out that would engulf the world.

The "Bounty" option could now be a special AV thats introduced at the conclusion of the Battle for SC.

 

 

Bloody Bay could be the same but with max lvl enemies and enemy AVs now guarding the meteors. With zone GM events dropping the defenses around the meteors for a period of time. Example, defeating Shivan Oblititerator to drop meteors enemies or just fighting the now buffed enemies around the meteors. Now that being said the reward has to get boosted because the challenge has increased, say 10 shivans now instead of 3 or a special buff (toxic/nrg def) or a special debuff (-def/-regen added attacks).

 

 

Same with Warburg but high lvl Arachnos/AVs guarding all the stuff to make it a better challenge. Obviously Marshall Blitz would have to the big bad AV, and have him as the final thing to defeat to unlock the nuke launch. As with an increase in challenges the reward would have to be increased.

 

Finally, Recluse Victory, obviously max lvl uber AVs. Since this possible future is in a constant of flux based on who wins, so is zone access.

One week it will only be unlocked for heroes and the next it will only unlock for villains. Just as the battle inside determines who wins the future outside it is also determined by who can access it. Sort of like the TF of the week but on a weekly rotation. Then obviously new buffs/badges would have to be introduced. 

 

Zone bases would be turned into access points based on side. With Rogue/Vigilantes accessing either villain or hero. Obviously, if you're a hero you're not going to be able to access a villain base and vice versa. 

 

This is just a basic shell of an idea, but, the start. Any ideas? Critique? Got to hell Warpact don't mess with my mostly empty pee-vee-pee zones!

 

[KaizenSoze]

I generally like the idea. I need to think about it a bit more.

 

I hope you have your best fire proof outfit on for when the PvPers find this thread. 🙂

 

My thought along these lines that they should overhaul the high level hazard zones. Eden and Crey's Folly. Make them coop and level capped like a PvP zone, w/o PvP of course.

 

This gave me an idea, but I'll create a separate thread.

[Bill Z Bubba]

15 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Because, face it the hardest zone right now is the new Dark Astoria and frankly most of my toons can easily defeat anything in there.

 

Because everything you fight there caps at +1 due to level shifts?

 

Got nuthin on the idea, though. I haven't been in one of the PvP zones since the last time an SGmate needed badges.

[The_Warpact]

1 minute ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Because everything you fight there caps at +1 due to level shifts?

Incarnate T4s make everything easy...too easy in some instances. 

[The_Warpact]

3 minutes ago, KaizenSoze said:

 

My thought along these lines that they should overhaul the high level hazard zones. 

I was actually going to add at the bottom that something needs to be done like this for hazard zones.

[Crasical]

Kind of sounds like a lot of work to replace 'mostly empty pee-vee-pee zones' with a new type of mostly empty zone?

[The_Warpact]

12 minutes ago, Crasical said:

Kind of sounds like a lot of work to replace 'mostly empty pee-vee-pee zones' with a new type of mostly empty zone?

Considering most complaints are not enough challenging content, empty zones, and not enough end game stuff. I'll betcha it will get more folks into them than pvp will ever do.

[Crasical]

7 minutes ago, The_Warpact said:

Considering most complaints are not enough challenging content, empty zones, and not enough end game stuff. I'll betcha it will get more folks into them than pvp will ever do.

 

See, I'm actually not so sure about that. It's probably impossible to get real numbers, but I wouldn't think that the very hardcore 801/pylon times/Aeon SF on Relentless crowd is much bigger than a single-digit chunk of the playerbase.

[MTeague]

Honestly the biggest challenges in the game always felt to me like First Ward Night Ward, done at level. Where your character REALLY IS lvl 25-40. (ie, not exemplared down, when you don't have full winter sets slotted, etc)

[The_Warpact]

14 minutes ago, Crasical said:

 

See, I'm actually not so sure about that. It's probably impossible to get real numbers, but I wouldn't think that the very hardcore 801/pylon times/Aeon SF on Relentless crowd is much bigger than a single-digit chunk of the playerbase.

You're not confusing arena pvp with zone fite clubbers are you?

I think the arena pvp *is* a bigger chunk of what is considered actual pvp vs zone.

As far as zone though, it might be dependent on which shard you're on too. I constantly see (and I know the forum is a small percentage) that people want the items I listed.

Coupled with how many ppl are running TF/SF, Hami, RWZ, iTrials, I think Challenge zones would fit right into that as long as the rewards jivved with the other rewards upon completion. 

[The_Warpact]

16 minutes ago, MTeague said:

Honestly the biggest challenges in the game always felt to me like First Ward Night Ward, done at level. Where your character REALLY IS lvl 25-40. (ie, not exemplared down, when you don't have full winter sets slotted, etc)

I agree with this, some of the Night Ward lvls at higher diff are brutal.

[Rudra]

Challenges are coming. The new difficulties are being proliferated. Over time. If you want a challenge zone for you being an uber incarnate, then ask the devs to look at the Battalion incarnate content the original devs were working on as a new zone instead of revamping current PvP zones into incarnate level challenges. Non-incarnate characters are still sent into those zones already. Not saying your idea is bad for challenge zones, just saying ask for a new zone or 3.

 

 

If memory serves, the original devs even let a full team of maxed out incarnates fight a lone Battalion minion, and the minion wiped them all out. So you would definitely get the requested challenge.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to add second paragraph.

[The_Warpact]

@Rudra mine was more of a "its already built, lets just revamp it" idea.

Pvp zones, hazard zones, etc are unused portions of the game that need a face-lift to catch up to HC not Live.

Although I'm not disagreeing new baddies, harder content, etc is always good.

[Rudra]

Except hazard zones are not unused. As I'm leveling blue side, I'm constantly being told by my contacts that the only missions available for me are to go into a hazard zone I am barely high enough level to be in and somehow survive on the assigned task. PvP zones though, you gotta take that up with the PvP'ers. I'm just saying it would create less conflict with existing game content and usage, though it would take a lot more work, to just make new zones for challenge zones. And let's face it, revamping existing zones will also take a lot of work. So why not just go for new zones?

[arcane]

If this ever were to be a thing, the PvP versions of the zones should not be the versions made into “echos”. I don’t even PvP anymore and I still see that as a bit too blatant a middle finger to them.

[Bill Z Bubba]

5 hours ago, Crasical said:

See, I'm actually not so sure about that. It's probably impossible to get real numbers, but I wouldn't think that the very hardcore 801/pylon times/Aeon SF on Relentless crowd is much bigger than a single-digit chunk of the playerbase.

 

Anecdotally, once everyone got the new badges, talk of running more DASF disappeared amongst the people I run with.

[Greycat]

Eh.

 

I think we'd see... maybe a month as everyone tries it, the badgers get their badges... then they'd be mostly empty.

 

Not fond of having the PVP zones only accessed through the arena, though. I like easy access at level like it is now.

[Ghost]

On 1/21/2022 at 7:31 AM, KaizenSoze said:

 

 

I hope you have your best fire proof outfit on for when the PvPers find this thread. 🙂

 

 

All 5 of them?

 

Sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂

[golstat2003]

On 1/21/2022 at 8:35 AM, The_Warpact said:

Incarnate T4s make everything easy...too easy in some instances. 

 

Which I think is the point for existing zones. The idea was that the devs of Live would have had more content (including higher level zones) that take that level shift into account. The idea was supposed to be you get stronger and progress to new iTrials, iTfs and iZones.

 

For obvious reasons that never happened (aka game shut down before they could get there).

[Apparition]

10 minutes ago, golstat2003 said:

 

Which I think is the point for existing zones. The idea was that the devs of Live would have had more content (including higher level zones) that take that level shift into account. The idea was supposed to be you get stronger and progress to new iTrials, iTfs and iZones.

 

For obvious reasons that never happened (aka game shut down before they could get there).

 

 

Yep.  Paragon Studios intended to flood the game with so much Incarnate only content... more and more Incarnate trials, more and more Incarnate only zones, an Incarnate only Praetorian Hamidon raid... that they felt that people would eventually stop doing the pre-Incarnate content and only do the Incarnate content, so Incarnate abilities working outside of Incarnate content would eventually become of trivial concern since no one would be doing it anyhoo.

 

Unfortunately, NCSoft removed the floor from underneath Paragon Studios, and here we are.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Apparition

[golstat2003]

On 1/21/2022 at 1:25 PM, The_Warpact said:

@Rudra mine was more of a "its already built, lets just revamp it" idea.

Pvp zones, hazard zones, etc are unused portions of the game that need a face-lift to catch up to HC not Live.

Although I'm not disagreeing new baddies, harder content, etc is always good.

 

Also I would rather they do this for the existing empty hazard zones and make them co-op as some one suggested. More bang for the development buck. 🙂 

 

EDIT: Or just outright make new zones.

Edited January 24, 2022 by golstat2003

[The_Warpact]

38 minutes ago, Apparition said:

 Incarnate only Praetorian Hamidon raid... 

This turned me on.

[Rudra]

4 hours ago, golstat2003 said:

 

Also I would rather they do this for the existing empty hazard zones and make them co-op as some one suggested. More bang for the development buck. 🙂 

 

EDIT: Or just outright make new zones.

Again, hazard zones are not empty. Not any more than most any other zone. Hazard zones are still used. I may be in the minority, and given the preceding comments, it really looks like it, but I spend time in the hazard zones. Leveling blue side, I pretty much have to since my contacts keep telling me to go in there and street sweep mobs I often have to hit and run to survive. If you replace the hazard zones with incarnate level challenge zones, then you also have to run down all the level 8, level 23, and level 30 missions that send players into those zones or we're going to wind up being given impossible tasks. How many times can you auto-complete per day? Once every three days I believe? And especially at level 23, I'm given nothing but Terra Volta street sweeps as my missions? Back to back to back to... you get the idea.

 

As for the zones themselves being empty, I can't count the number of times I've flown across Steel Canyon, Skyway City, Sharkhead Isle, or other zones only to realize I was the only player (I could find) in the zone. (Hello, Kallisti Wharf. Are you still lonely? Just waiting for the next costume contest?) Are you going to replace them with challenge zones too? Just add new challenge zones. You have to rework existing zones to remake them into challenge zones anyway, so just make new zones.

 

(Hells, Kallisti Wharf doesn't even have mobs or missions. You could just populate it as a challenge zone and it would require much less work than what is currently being asked for.)

 

Disclaimer: I'm not saying I think anyone would advocate replacing SC or other zones, comment was made to make a point.

Disclaimer: I just saw the EDIT comment on quoted comment. I apologize for having not considered that was in the comment.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to add two disclaimer notes.

[Cancrusher]

@Rudra I actually like the idea of using Kallisti for that.  It's not like it's doing anything useful, in the meantime.  🤷‍♂️  

[golstat2003]

6 hours ago, The_Warpact said:

This turned me on.

 

I can imagine this being like a FFXIV type encounter, where the boss just spit hella things at you that you have to dodge, split damage on, etc etc. Basically pushing the enveloper. 🙂