Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #2: Newspapers/Radios/Etc Repeatable Missions and Chaos?

[Troo]

I'd be game for an extra pick or two.

It might also be good to hightlight a zone for these type missions from time to time (similar to WST).

There are a lot of content types which likely don't get run as much due to.. reasons. Some data mining could reveal a lot.

 

[Zappalina]

On 11/1/2022 at 6:31 AM, SeraphimKensai said:

Well the Cease and Desist Letter didn't work and we're back for week 2 of these unofficial sessions. Now that you're totted out and and ready to get back to work being the villain of your very own story, or pretending to be a hero just for the influence what do you do when you've stopped the Council for the 1,000th time at some derelict office?

 

This one is by request so it's not entirely my fault. How would you improve radios/newspapers? What other NPC groups? Other maps? Other objectives? Or do you avoid newspapers/radios and just do other content in general?

 

• Have a break the villains out of the prison missions in them.  Then they get led out, That way the peeps that like the prison doors badge can get it - I know they exist in the game so  more of those.

 

• I would have a new map like the fall down the holes ones but don't do lead out in those.  Maybe a multi layered mission like the House of Horror one, enter a building, go to a basement, go to a cave and then end up in a cemetery.   Maybe go into a cave, fall down a grate like the Striga maps have, go to a tunnel fall down a hole end up in a boss room eventually kill the boss - more maps.   Maybe even differently incorporate some of the Kallista Wharf maps.

 

 

• The what to heck is the Boss doing in this mission map? - like have a Random Rogue Island Villain or Hero that isn't above EB level pop up in a mission on Spanky's boardwalk where they're chilling with the family and off duty and them boom, you pop in and they're like aww shucks! now you're messing with my free time, 

 

 

 

[Timeshadow]

On 11/1/2022 at 4:12 PM, SeraphimKensai said:

I was trying to think of a means to make them more engaging and I came up with an idea...the Nemesis (not the NPC group or AV), but what if as you start doing scanners/radios you get an NPC spawning into the occasional mission that's just out to counter you, like they were going to rob so and so instead, or they heard the distress call and knowing your MO they decided to make your day hell.

 

Didn't Champions Online do something like this? If I recall, you could even design the nemesis yourself, right down to their powersets. It was a pretty neat concept but I don't recall how well they actually pulled it off. 

 

I think it'd work well for story driven players and the added variety would be much appreciated.

[Burnt Umber]

I may be a bit late to comment here but here it goes.

 

Mostly my experience has been with Paper/Mayhem Missions.  I think they work pretty well. My only gripe is that a number of low-level enemy groups, like Skulls, Outcasts, Trolls, etc., are absent or rarely encountered.  Although this is partially balanced by having redside specific gangs, like Snakes or Goldbrickers, those groups oversaturate  paper missions and can overstay their welcome.

 

I really don't have much in the way of experience with Radio/Bank missions.  They don't feel well integrated to the Blueside progression. And bank missions seem to be pretty much skipable save for the badges.  At the same time, I'm not sure how one could change radios without having an uproar from people who do PI radio missions predominately.

[DougGraves]

I do radio missions when I am waiting for a team and want something quick to do.

 

Not having to do street sweeps and move zones makes them much faster and more fun than a lot of contact missions.

 

 

[TraumaTrain]

Red side, I'd like to see paper mishes sacking Longbow, Wyvern, and Legacy Chain HQs. (There is an occasional one to rob a Longbow officers' club, but that's it.)

 

I'd also like to see outdoor maps in paper mishes.

[Luminara]

Easier acceptance and abandonment/dismissal of tips:

 

Why do I have to click twice to accept a mission, and twice to dismiss or abandon it?  Why do I have to click three times to accept a morality mission, and why is there no option at all to dismiss it?  It's not like the text to accept/dismiss/abandon is half the size of the goddamn screen, I'm not accidentally clicking it, I don't need a fucking babysitter asking me if I'm really, really, really sure.  Streamline that shit.  If you can lock my ass into a scanner/newspaper mission with one click, you can do it for tip/morality missions, too.

 

And why can't I dismiss tips inside a mission instance?  I know, code, but seriously, why can't I dismiss tips inside a mission instance?  Or in a hazard zone?  Why do I have to run all the way to the exit, or move to another zone, to dismiss a tip?  I can access the player market from hazard zones, but I can't dismiss a tip?

 

Tips need the scanner/newspaper treatment, too, in regard to zoning.  I go Vigilante on most of my characters simply because fewer Vigilante tips send me to another zone at 50.  I'm running tips for the same reason I run scanner/newspaper missions, for a quick fix for my addiction, not to experience the sights of the city.  It's triply annoying at 50 because I'm in PI most of the time, the base portal and trainer are at the completely opposite end of the island as the zone entrances... and those entrances only offer an extremely limited number of destinations.  I'm not going to fucking Brickstown, then to Boomtown, then to Skyway City, then to PI, then to some other zone three fucking stops away from where I am just for a tip mission.  Lock those motherfuckers in the zone already.

 

As for scanner/newspaper missions, why don't they always offer a variety of tasks, rather than 3 "Rescue this dipshit who you have to lead to the front door, AS SLOWLY AS OLD PEOPLE FUCKING, because he's too stupid to walk in a straight line without breaking both of his legs" missions?  This shouldn't happen, the missions offered should always be three different types.

 

And why can't I open the scanner/newspaper window without closing the abandoned mission window?  I can open a tip window after dismissing a tip, without closing that window.  Consistency in the interface would be glorious.  Someone get on that.

 

And why is it always Council, Carnies, Malta and CoT in level 50 scanner/newspaper missions?  We have at least half a dozen more enemy groups.  Throw some Rikti in there!  Give me some Void whatevers!  I can fight level 50 DE in tips, but I can't fight them in scanner/newspaper missions?  Come on.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THIS SHIT IRRITATES ME!

 

Whew.  Thanks for letting me get that out.

[Akalabeth]

I like papers and radios the way they are however I question people that are against AE powerleveling yet think getting powerleveled in PI radios by taking a low level is much different.