Making the Shadow Shard fun

[Major_Decoy]

WE

3 minutes ago, biostem said:

Maybe just keep them and instead place in some mini-portals, then.

 

Sure, but please don't make them random...

Oh, I was just imagining popping down the top of one geyser and popping out near where it would have sent you.

 

And ideally, it wouldn't be any more random than jumping down broken "elevator" shafts or using the portals in oranbega missions. (which is to say "not normally random, but occasionally weird stuff happens")

[tidge]

Dr. Quartfield is a TF that I will generally solo, here is what I find to be the most annoying about it:

1. The open-zunt hunts within the Shard itself
2. The final mission Orenbega map

(1) is annoying, mostly because at least one of the necessary hunts is in part of the zone where the necessary enemies don't always spawn, and partially because of the nature of the enemies: Rularu fly away, Crey and Nemesis become nigh-immune to attacks. I'm not a fan of the in-zone travel, but that is the schtick of the zone and can live with it. Simply NOT restricting the defeats to "Point Zulu" (or wherever) would improve this part of the TF, as it is the most annoying pure-grind IMO.

 

(2) is simply personal, but I hate "rescue the hostages" on that map with a passion. When solo, if the TF goes over two hours, it is usually because I've spent 30+ minutes on that final map trying to find the last objective.

[Col. Kernel]

More interesting and unique missions and story arcs for the Shard would be excellent!  Having story arcs that grant a 1 week buff at the end would be cool.  I'm talking about 1% - 5% buff to one thing (e.g. Fire/Cold resist, Acc or ToHit, Ranged Def, etc) to represent that the Shard doesn't work the way the rest of the game does.  This would incentivize spending some time there semi-regularly.

 

Grant villain access through Aeon Corp - this is something I would dearly love to see.  Does the shard become coop or competitive?  I could see some competition w/o going full PvP, say competing for access to missions/contacts/neighborhoods by accruing points for your faction.  Vig get Hero points and Rogue get Villain points.  All Shard current TFs become full coop.  Or just make it a full coop zone.

 

Leave the gravity geysers alone, they're fine the way they are.  If you don't like them buy a jet pack.  There are other large zones that people don't gripe for teleportation portals in.

 

I really like some of the other suggestions - particularly the one where gravity on any given island can be in a different direction that the other islands.  Sadly, I don't think the game engine will support that.  The other thing that isn't going to happen that I'd like to see is for the islands to drift.

[srmalloy]

12 hours ago, Col. Kernel said:

Leave the gravity geysers alone, they're fine the way they are.  If you don't like them buy a jet pack. 

I noticed this evening while (for lack of anything better to do while my dinner cooked) getting the exploration accolades for the four Shadow Shard zones that FBZ seems to be the most damnably finicky about landing intermediate hops with the gravity geysers — the Chantry and Storm Palace have more well-thought-out jump targets, instead of the twitch-gaming platformer that the devs made FBZ and, to a lesser extent, the Cascade Archipelago into.

[Major_Decoy]

13 hours ago, Col. Kernel said:

Leave the gravity geysers alone, they're fine the way they are.  If you don't like them buy a jet pack.  There are other large zones that people don't gripe for teleportation portals in.

 

It's not about convenience. They are most assuredly not fine. Gravity Geysers are how the Shadow Shard is meant to be navigated, it's just so much more fun than flying or teleporting. But they don't work quite right. They should launch you, have a clear and clean trajectory, and you should have some idea of how to progress from where you land. This is not how they work.

 

I want the geysers to work, but they don't, and I'm not sure that they can be made to work. Well... maybe with how travel modes work now and with speeds not stacking, just the highest value taking precedence, maybe they can use that to give the geysers a special power that sets your travel speeds to the specifics necessary to make it work?

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Major_Decoy said:

I want the geysers to work, but they don't, and I'm not sure that they can be made to work. Well... maybe with how travel modes work now and with speeds not stacking, just the highest value taking precedence, maybe they can use that to give the geysers a special power that sets your travel speeds to the specifics necessary to make it work?

Yea, the number of times I've hit a geyser and faceplanted into some rock is quite often.   When you can work with them, they are a quicker way across, but they are finicky

[lemming]

15 hours ago, tidge said:

(2) is simply personal, but I hate "rescue the hostages" on that map with a passion. When solo, if the TF goes over two hours, it is usually because I've spent 30+ minutes on that final map trying to find the last objective.

I mean, it's an annoying mission, but it's a kill all, not a hostage rescue. 

 

You may be thinking of the rescue Ourobengans from Malta from Tina.  Which is an awful mission.

 

Final mission could be instead a fight to stop them from putting together a portal.  Maybe something similar to Cathedral of Pain where there's a pillar being protected that you need to clear the defenders, then destroy within a time frame before more defenders pop up.

 

Or:   Pillar that is powering up in the center, so you must destroy it before it is fully powered.

 

It's being powered by a stream of natterlings that are going into it (kinda like the Croata mission with the Fir Bog from Skipper LeGrange, but they come thru portals that open up that you can disrupt.   So, you'd have players hitting the pillar and others making sure the natterling portals get stopped quickly.

 

Tricky bit will be to balance so that a solo char has a chance if we want to keep this TF as one that can be solo'd without too much trouble like current version.

[Luminara]

On 4/15/2023 at 12:35 AM, Asymptotic said:

What would you change to make the shadow shard fun?

 

Replace geysers with ski slopes.  Mile-long slaloms, six mile race courses, reverse gravity on uphill runs, massive ski jumps, switchbacks, crossovers.

 

And litter the place with weird things.  Trains floating in the sky.  Rularuu warming their hands by an Animus Arcana in chains.  A lone Nemesis Jaeger running past and jumping into the void, only to reappear where it started, and exclaiming with glee the entire time.  Reflections sitting at a table, drinking coffee and talking about being reflections.  The occasional Giant Monster, untargetable and without attacks, looking confused as it slowly sinks into the ground and disappears.  It's a dream world, make it dream-like.

[gameboy1234]

On 4/16/2023 at 7:26 PM, Major_Decoy said:

But they don't work quite right. They should launch you, have a clear and clean trajectory, and you should have some idea of how to progress from where you land. This is not how they work.

 

I want the geysers to work, but they don't, and I'm not sure that they can be made to work.

 

I'll agree with this as well.  The problem isn't that the gravity geysers aren't a cool idea, it's that they just don't work right mechanically too much of the time.  If they could be made to work, 100% of the time for everybody (or roughly 99.9% of the time, at least) then fine keep them.  Otherwise some other more reliable mechanic should be used.

 

I'm not sure what the geysers could be turned into.  Maybe not use travel powers at all but instead just put the player "on a rail" and move them to the spot, at speed and you have zero control over your character during that time.  At least it would work, even if it's a bit less interesting.  Some camera control during that flight would be cool too, so you kind of get a cut-scene of yourself being blasted across the dimension.

[MoonSheep]

what about an FBZ zone event where you need to defeat a GM on each of the main ‘islands’ that then grants a badge and a temporary power; +20% rech, dmg and +100% regen for 24 hours in game play

 

have the GMs suitably spicy for some challenge, could lure more people in

[Hedgefund2]

Just getting rid of hunts would be enough to increase my enjoyment, or rather decrease my pain, by about half.  For Dr. Q you tend to be dealing with blues as you're 45 to their 43ish, it gets worse after that when you're 50 hunting, at worst greys and at best, more blues.  Those hunts a time sink with zero risk/zero rewards.  Well, maybe not 0 risk, I've seen people die to ambushes.  The Storm Palace is the only zone that's a threat to a 50 and there's no hunt there, Faathim just has a series of open world clicks.

[Skyhawke]

On 4/15/2023 at 12:35 AM, Asymptotic said:

What would you change to make the shadow shard fun? 

 

 

[High_Beam]

And all SG Girls of Nukem High Squad did it in about 1 hour 40 minutes, but we all had the value added tools.  TT, MT, ATT and a fairly balanced team to deliver pain unto the Rularuu.  But the fact that not one but two of the four Shard TFs can be done solo (albeit slowly) without even having to be challenged by an AV or EB is kind of . . . silly.

 

I think that in addition to reducing the overall length (mission-wise) of all of these they could use it as a chance to explain or expand the lore of the shard.  Doctor Q is supposed to be the start, getting used to the zone, I get that but really, do we need another Numina hunt series.  That is part of the annoyance I have with the Shard TFs is all of the padding hunts.  Instead give us a taste of the lesser aspects of Rularuu like Alorre the Watcher or Kuularth the Scavenger, or show us the Factory Cubes.  First TF, get to know Rularuu, a couple of minor aspects fought, Rularuu feels threatened in his prison.  Sara Moore, clean up and shorten some with your Ruladak battle at the end still there (its actually a cohesive story).  Augustine, add a few more of the aspects, shorten.  Same treatment with Faathim as Sara Moore.

 

Now this is key, at least in my mind, it needs to remain as a thing that occurs/occurred before the Who Will Die SSA because of how that one rolls (no spolier).  That way the door is still open with regards to any possible movement relating to The Battalion as the Shard and Rularuu are factors (according to AMA Lore at least).  But even if you dont go there, its a nice capstone really.

[High_Beam]

23 hours ago, Hedgefund2 said:

For Dr. Q you tend to be dealing with blues as you're 45 to their 43ish, it gets worse after that when you're 50 hunting, at worst greys and at best, more blues.  Those hunts a time sink with zero risk/zero rewards.  Well, maybe not 0 risk, I've seen people die to ambushes.  The Storm Palace is the only zone that's a threat to a 50 and there's no hunt there, Faathim just has a series of open world clicks.

Watch out for snakes!