Level scaling radio missions

[Mineren]

The title says it all.  It would be nice if the various zones where you can do radio missions would scale to your level.  It wouldnt be much, but i think it would do a few things...give some empty zones some much needed love, give players new scenery from just 50+ PI radio missions.  In general breath new life into some good ol radio mission teams for people.

 

[Rudra]

There's Borea in the RWZ for repeatables. Though they are timed.

 

There's Grandville's paper missions for repeatables. (Just talk to Null the Gull if you need a quick alignment change.)

 

There's Ephram Sha for blue siders and Maharaj for red siders in Dark Astoria for repeatables.

 

There's Marcus Valerius in Cimerora for repeatables.

 

And that is just for simple repeatables. Ouroboros has several short arcs teams can run. They even have single-shot missions.

 

There are more options than just running around PI. I'm not saying I'm against this suggestion. I honestly haven't decided if I care either way. Just saying there are more options than running PI radios.

[Mineren]

Yeah i undestand your points and there all good suggestions...however, if you spend time in the lobby or run pi mission groups (Not a dig or trying to sound rude or anything like that).  You will see allot of people want to just go into normal zones and do radios...not war zone or cov zones (personally dont do the villian zones) and some of the stuff you suggest require a higher lvl toon to run it...i invite all levels to come have fun.  All im saying is it would sure be nice to go to like bricks or wherever...heck atlas and run lvl 50 radios with people...breath life into lifeless zones.  

[Rudra]

The only higher level one on the list is Cimerora. Anyway, was just saying there are other options. I like to check out other zones too. I do flashback missions/arcs for those, but I do understand. Flashbacks don't allow people to join mid-arc and some may need to bail in the middle of the run. So I do get it. Was just tossing out some ideas. Like I said, I'm undecided on the post. Currently more in favor of, but still undecided.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to add "to join".

[Andreah]

The OP means that you could go to say, King's Row and run the radios there at level 50? Or that you could go to King's Row, pick up a radio mission there, and exemp yourself down to it automatically? 

 

I think the former, but I am not sure. However, if so, the problem is that many of the enemy groups in those radios don't scale to 50 smoothly, or at all. They would need a lot of developer work to fill them out and balance them. I'm in favor of this, I suppose, but I don't know if it would make a good use of the time and effort.

 

Finally, both Hero and Villain sides have a unlockable contact that will allow you to run any of the Bank Safeguard or Mayhems from all the zones. Maybe these contacts could also offer you the radio/paper missions from those zones similarly exemplared. Just a thought.

[Mineren]

Actually the system for scaling is already there...when u can choose to go +1 to +4.  As for the enemies...they dont have to have a greater range of abilities then they already do really.  And yeah it would be some work im sure...since im not a programmer, but couldnt hurt to ask and look into.  Ive been talking to people in game and they just never thought about it before...but everyone so far..lol..has liked the idea of more places to go for end game content.  The way i look at it is...sometimes u just want to go on for an hour or so....grab some random missions with people..new and old friends and beat things up.  Lol so the more scenery the better.  Lol  has to be easier then designing new radio missions in zones with new tasks lol.

Edited July 17, 2022 by Mineren

[Rudra]

27 minutes ago, Andreah said:

The OP means that you could go to say, King's Row and run the radios there at level 50? Or that you could go to King's Row, pick up a radio mission there, and exemp yourself down to it automatically? 

 

I think the former, but I am not sure. However, if so, the problem is that many of the enemy groups in those radios don't scale to 50 smoothly, or at all. They would need a lot of developer work to fill them out and balance them. I'm in favor of this, I suppose, but I don't know if it would make a good use of the time and effort.

 

Finally, both Hero and Villain sides have a unlockable contact that will allow you to run any of the Bank Safeguard or Mayhems from all the zones. Maybe these contacts could also offer you the radio/paper missions from those zones similarly exemplared. Just a thought.

Didn't even think of the scaled radios/papers using the zone appropriate mobs. Good point. I was honestly just assuming the papers/radios would use PI/Grandville missions, just in the other zones. That doesn't really make any sense though, now that I think about it.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to have a less favorable view of the OP if the papers/radios still use the zone's actual radios/papers with correct mobs. Unless it also forced you to exemplar/malefactor down. Which might be a better option.

[lemming]

3 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Didn't even think of the scaled radios/papers using the zone appropriate mobs. Good point. I was honestly just assuming the papers/radios would use PI/Grandville missions, just in the other zones. That doesn't really make any sense though, now that I think about it.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to have a less favorable view of the OP if the papers/radios still use the zone's actual radios/papers with correct mobs. Unless it also forced you to exemplar/malefactor down. Which might be a better option.

I'd be for it if it did exempler everyone down to the max level for the zone.  I'm not sure if I'd use it much, but it could be interesting and a different way to get the bank missions before you get the guy in Steel as a contact

[Andreah]

1 hour ago, Mineren said:

Actually the system for scaling is already there...when u can choose to go +1 to +4.

This doesn't work so well as you might think. going up a couple of levels is not the same as picking a mob out thirty or forty levels above where it exists. Someone has to create new version of those mobs with level appropriate sets of powers and abilities and ensure they've been balanced against players at those same levels. Some enemy groups span the entire range of levels, but not all of them. It's a lot of work.

[Stormwalker]

22 hours ago, Rudra said:

Didn't even think of the scaled radios/papers using the zone appropriate mobs. Good point. I was honestly just assuming the papers/radios would use PI/Grandville missions, just in the other zones. That doesn't really make any sense though, now that I think about it.

 

Yeah, I'm starting to have a less favorable view of the OP if the papers/radios still use the zone's actual radios/papers with correct mobs. Unless it also forced you to exemplar/malefactor down. Which might be a better option.

 

I do like the idea of being able to go into a zone, grab radio missions, be automatically exemp'd down to an appropriate level for that zone, and run them that way.  That would be a cool option to have.

[Blackfeather]

Being able to exemp and do any kind of radio mission would be neat! Even a level 50 might want to do missions in lower level zones.

[Nightfall357]

Personally, I really like the idea. Going back and fighting old villain groups at 50 would be a lot of fun. Hell I'd be totally up for fighting different villain groups in other zones via the radio/paper! Something to break up the usual PI radios. We could open up the other zones to enemy groups that will be available to your level range. For example, a level 50 can run level 50 radios in Kings Row that has some different enemies than aren't usually seen in KR but are scaled to the appropriate level range. That can lead to some creative stories/reasons for the villains being there. My thinking is that this would be geared more toward higher levels since it would make little sense to do level 10 radios in Founders Falls but, in my opinion, would incentivize groups to spread out to other zones. It might even get newer players to poke around those zones and find contacts that they can do story arcs on because most players that I see only hang around populated areas like AP or PI. I wonder if its possible to tie together this concept with introducing the team with story arc contacts as apart of the mechanism. Instead of bank missions they could introduce you to various story content contacts or dovetail into missions in neighboring zones. I guess I'm spitballing here but the more I think about it the more I'd like to see something like it happen. It seems to me that this is a rather large untapped resource that could be implemented in a variety of different ways and get us players to explore CoH's zones more and since a lot of people rush to 50 anyways why not open up the game more to those level 50s?

[Rudra]

Just like several groups do not scale up to 50, most level 50 groups do not scale down either. And having them stay at their level while level 50s run radios/papers in lower level zones is going to get lower level characters wiped out. That already happens when a level 35+ gets a story mission in like King's Row and ignores their ambush. Then suddenly, there are level 35+ mobs aggroing on lower level characters until they finally despawn. Not a frequent occurrence, I admit, but as someone who has been taken down by super purple mobs I was not expecting in zone, it does happen.

 

I can get behind making radios and papers exemplar/malefactor characters/teams down to their level, but not the use of high level groups for doing radios/papers in lower level areas.

 

And while I have no problems with players power-leveling from 1-50 however they want, it is because they choose to power-level that they do not see the other zones and get to experience the story arcs. The two Skullz arcs in King's Row are fantastic arcs, for example. That will never be experienced by players that choose to AE farm to 50 or PI radio team to 50 until they decide to go to Ouroboros and experience the stories and other zones that way. That is not a complaint. That is simply what happens when a player chooses to power-level.

[biostem]

Even if you scaled Skulls or Hellions to be 50+, do those enemies have enough attacks/resistances to be on par with "genuine" 50+ enemies?  I'm not against the suggestion per se, but will a Skull with a pistol attack and brawl really a worthy challenge?

 

EDIT:  This would be a great opportunity to come up with some higher-level Skulls, Hellions, Vahzilok, Prime Earth Clockwork, etc...

Edited July 20, 2022 by biostem

[Stormwalker]

Just now, biostem said:

Even if you scaled Skulls or Hellions to be 50+, do those enemies have enough attacks/resistances to be on par with "genuine" 50+ enemies?  I'm not against the suggestion per se, but will a Skull with a pistol attack and brawl really a worthy challenge?

 

They definitely aren't.

 

This is part of why I'm in favor of having the option to exemp down to the level of the zone's radio missions, rather than trying to scale the missions.

 

The other reason why I prefer that approach is that I usually level up via story arcs, so I don't get to see very many of the radio missions, so it'd be cool to be able to go back and have the experience of doing the radio missions in each zone.  I mean, I know they're not really that unique, but it's still an aspect of the game I miss out on.  Especially since, AFAIK, there's no way to do radio missions via Ouroboros.

[Rudra]

25 minutes ago, Stormwalker said:

Especially since, AFAIK, there's no way to do radio missions via Ouroboros.

There isn't. Ouroboros is strictly story arcs and stand-alone badge missions. (Edit: And old form task forces.) No repeatables like radios/papers (since those were put in to give players an alternate means of leveling through the zone) and none of the ancillary missions contacts may have (filler missions). Which means it also precludes the Atlas Park starter missions except for the Arachnos invasion arcs.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Rudra

[brattycommissar2]

49 minutes ago, biostem said:

Even if you scaled Skulls or Hellions to be 50+, do those enemies have enough attacks/resistances to be on par with "genuine" 50+ enemies?  I'm not against the suggestion per se, but will a Skull with a pistol attack and brawl really a worthy challenge?

 

EDIT:  This would be a great opportunity to come up with some higher-level Skulls, Hellions, Vahzilok, Prime Earth Clockwork, etc...

i know for a fact that there are ae versions of many low level groups that are 50 appropriate--- also, primal clockwork already have a level 50 version with the psi clockwork iirc? but yeah i'm 100% above and beyond into the idea that you can do, at level 50, without exemping, radios / papers in any zone and get missions to deal with enemies appropriate for that zone. i would LOVE this, love love LOVE this. like half of my work in ae is just making pseudo radios that fulfill this purpose! it's so fun to tinker and do things like fake harder coralax, trolls, etc... would love official versions of it though! if only for costume reasons and making it more accessible to everyone

 

edit: also just in general there are already a lot of high level versions of groups that could be used in radio / paper ways for other zones. nemesis, crey, psi clockwork, rikti tbh, tsoo, family, and more

Edited July 20, 2022 by brattycommissar2