Can we crowdsource the updates needed for old contacts/missions?

[FFFF]

So I concede that developer resources are scant, and there are many things that may need to be fixed/updated before looking at old contacts, missions. I think new power sets and costume parts will be the priority for much of the current player base, along with bug fixes.

 

However, the old (think prior to City of Villains / Issue 6) missions feel really dated compared to other parts of the game. Compare a mission arc you get from Tunnel Rat in Praetoria versus what you'd get from say Tristan Caine. It leads to a bad player experience, particularly new players. You go from the exciting mission where you infiltrate the Skulls from Shauna Stockwell to Rescuing hard to find physicians from the Vahzilok. The disparity is jarring.

 

Is it possible we can help in some way? Is it possible to use AE to create new updates to missions, old story arcs, old missions, and have these made to replace the old stuff in the game. There's a lot of talent in the player base, and I think it would be great to see those talents applied to changing something that may never receive dev attention. I'm not particularly good with Mission Architect, but I'm willing to QA and play test. Also, given the fact that many contacts give out the same story arcs, there may not be as much to replace as we think. Further, I would love to see updates to certain contacts in the game. Among the most I'd love to see replaced: Steven Sheridan, Serafina and Unai Kemen.

 

Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback for this idea/suggestion.

[Techwright]

The title use of "crowdsource" brought me here thinking you were referring to financial contribution to acquire the workers needed to do said updates.  I'm guessing that's not how you're using it?  'cause that would probably be a red flag to NC Soft.

 

As to our contributing, last I knew, there was a standing invitation from the development team for others to apply to join their efforts.  I'd help, but my IT skills, such as they are, do not lie in the realm of coding.  As to the AE, there are those who do create content to demonstrate what could be done in the game.  I've heard there's one or two that in time past created alternatives to the Citadel Task Force for example, though I never played through those.

[FFFF]

I'm using crowdsource referring to labor/effort, not monetary contributions. Just so there's no confusion here.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

but if we overhaul the quest chains in that manner where will it end?

 

Making long TF's shorter?

Reducing repetitive kill all quests?

no more flying around clicking on phone boxes?

Quests that take place in a different zone than the contact?

less Street sweeping tasks?

Making origins matter by pairing you up with specific contacts that have specific foe groups?

Nobody wants QoL when u can have farms pharms and more farms

Give us farms or give us death!

 

(this post is created in jest and is purely sarcastic in nature, any attempts to take it seriously will result in embarrassment and an extra 10 points to Ravenclaw)

[Oubliette_Red]

21 hours ago, FFFF said:

So I concede that developer resources are scant, and there are many things that may need to be fixed/updated before looking at old contacts, missions. I think new power sets and costume parts will be the priority for much of the current player base, along with bug fixes.

 

However, the old (think prior to City of Villains / Issue 6) missions feel really dated compared to other parts of the game. Compare a mission arc you get from Tunnel Rat in Praetoria versus what you'd get from say Tristan Caine. It leads to a bad player experience, particularly new players. You go from the exciting mission where you infiltrate the Skulls from Shauna Stockwell to Rescuing hard to find physicians from the Vahzilok. The disparity is jarring.

 

Is it possible we can help in some way? Is it possible to use AE to create new updates to missions, old story arcs, old missions, and have these made to replace the old stuff in the game. There's a lot of talent in the player base, and I think it would be great to see those talents applied to changing something that may never receive dev attention. I'm not particularly good with Mission Architect, but I'm willing to QA and play test. Also, given the fact that many contacts give out the same story arcs, there may not be as much to replace as we think. Further, I would love to see updates to certain contacts in the game. Among the most I'd love to see replaced: Steven Sheridan, Serafina and Unai Kemen.

 

Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback for this idea/suggestion.

 

According to one of the Devs, the way AE missions/arcs are created is not compatible with how the rest of the in-game content works. I'd already asked about this in a previous thread. It's too bad too, as there are some excellent AE creators out there working to build their arcs that live within the game's lore.

 

Regarding fixing mission arcs, I'd rather see Praetoria's contacts not put me on ignore should I happen to ding a level past their range. Which is all too easy. Shouldn't have to toggle XP throughout your entire run to avoid cutting out contacts and missing entire chains.  :(

 

[Jiro Ito]

Lots of people like the old missions though.

[FFFF]

37 minutes ago, Oubliette_Red said:

 

According to one of the Devs, the way AE missions/arcs are created is not compatible with how the rest of the in-game content works. I'd already asked about this in a previous thread. It's too bad too, as there are some excellent AE creators out there working to build their arcs that live within the game's lore.

 

Regarding fixing mission arcs, I'd rather see Praetoria's contacts not put me on ignore should I happen to ding a level past their range. Which is all too easy. Shouldn't have to toggle XP throughout your entire run to avoid cutting out contacts and missing entire chains.  😞

 

That’s too bad. I was hoping for plug and play from AE to live.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Oubliette_Red said:

Regarding fixing mission arcs, I'd rather see Praetoria's contacts not put me on ignore should I happen to ding a level past their range. Which is all too easy. Shouldn't have to toggle XP throughout your entire run to avoid cutting out contacts and missing entire chains.  😞

 

To the best of my knowledge, all contacts do that. It's just that in Praetoria, since it was designed to be more challenging than red or blue side, you gain xp faster than you do red side or blue side even when solo, so you out-level the contacts faster.

 

(Edit: Though while this was a problem back on Live too, it has since been compounded with HC's even faster rate of leveling.)

Edited August 7, 2023 by Rudra

[Oubliette_Red]

2 hours ago, Rudra said:

To the best of my knowledge, all contacts do that. It's just that in Praetoria, since it was designed to be more challenging than red or blue side, you gain xp faster than you do red side or blue side even when solo, so you out-level the contacts faster.

 

(Edit: Though while this was a problem back on Live too, it has since been compounded with HC's even faster rate of leveling.)

 

Blue and red-side are more forgiving, if you were of the appropriate level when you picked up their arc, you can usually complete it. On goldside, you will be ignored by your contact as soon as you outlevel them, regardless of where you are in their arc. It's already happened to one of my characters during my latest play-thru on goldside, it was their final mission which was a solo, so my team mates were able to do it but the contact told me to pound sand.

 

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Oubliette_Red said:

4 hours ago, Rudra said:

To the best of my knowledge, all contacts do that. It's just that in Praetoria, since it was designed to be more challenging than red or blue side, you gain xp faster than you do red side or blue side even when solo, so you out-level the contacts faster.

 

(Edit: Though while this was a problem back on Live too, it has since been compounded with HC's even faster rate of leveling.)

 

Blue and red-side are more forgiving, if you were of the appropriate level when you picked up their arc, you can usually complete it. On goldside, you will be ignored by your contact as soon as you outlevel them, regardless of where you are in their arc. It's already happened to one of my characters during my latest play-thru on goldside, it was their final mission which was a solo, so my team mates were able to do it but the contact told me to pound sand.

The problem there is that the solo morality missions at the end are by necessity not considered part of the story arc that unlocks them. So just like any other mission not part of an already started story arc from any contact, leveling higher than the contact's assigned level range immediately cuts off access. I've lost access to part of the Doctor arc because I out-leveled the contact blue side trying to get it to see the second part of her story. Same thing with the mystic in Perez Park mission. Finally get the contact to stop giving me the wrong missions, only I out-leveled the contact and now have to use Ouroboros to get the desired mission. If the game was able to flag a solo-required mission like the Praetoria and Dark Astoria ones as part of the team allowed arc, even if it meant forcing a team disbandment when the active player accesses the mission, then that wouldn't be a problem gold side. (Edit: Which I don't think the game can actually process that way or else those missions would probably already be part of the story arcs. I'm not a dev though, so I'm guessing here.)

Edited August 7, 2023 by Rudra