Focused Feedback: Co-Op Striga Isle & New Story Arcs

[The Curator]

Co-Op Striga Isle & New Story Arcs

• Striga Isle is now a co-op zone that villains can enter using the Smuggler's Submarine line.

 

'Buried Secrets' - Oberst Straxt

Oberst Straxt of the 5th Column is seeking unscrupulous villains to infiltrate Striga Isle in order to collect old caches left behind by that organization when the Council took control of the island.

 

• CONTACT: Oberst Straxt
• LOCATION: Striga Isle /thumbtack -293.2 -25.5 -1028.0
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Villain, Rogue - Level 20-24
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Insider - 27.90
• Will offer repeatable tasks in addition to their story arc.

 

'Just Prototypical' - Dr. Francois

Dr. Francois, the famous roboticist, has been freed from his recent bout as a Sky Raider prisoner, working on a giant mech project. Easily intimidated, the doctor can aid an enterprising villain in a daring heist against the Sky Raiders.

 

• CONTACT: Dr. Francois
• LOCATION: Striga Isle, /thumbtack 104.5 -0.0 -1209.6
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Villain, Rogue - Level 20-24
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Insider - 27.91
• Will offer repeatable tasks in addition to their story arc.

 

'Negotiations of the Living Dead' - Night Widow Ragana

With the Council in shambles there's a power vacuum on Striga. The Warriors, Family and Sky Raiders want to split the Council territory among themselves, and plan to meet to negotiate terms. Arachnos prefers to have the Council in charge and have sent a Night Widow to handle the situation. Night Widow Ragana needs some expendable and deniable resources to break up the negotiations - permanently.

 

• CONTACT: Night Widow Ragana
• LOCATION: Striga Isle, /thumbtack -507.2 8.0 -1079.6
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Villain, Rogue - Level 20-24
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Insider - 27.92

 

'The Most Dangerous Prey' - Orpheus

Orpheus, a Warrior bard of some repute, has specialized in hunting the undead. He is now offering his expertise to those he deem worthy. Since you have recently contracted a mysterious ghost-related curse upon your name, you seek out his help.

 

• CONTACT: Orpheus
• LOCATION: Striga Isle, /thumbtack -2376.0 0.8 -1957.3
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Villain, Rogue - Level 25-29
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Undesirable - Arc 27.93
• Will offer repeatable tasks in addition to their story arc.

 

'The Last Witch of Striga' - Mage-Killer Tatiana

Mage-Killer Tatiana is hunting a powerful witch. In order to draw out the near-mythical protector of the island, Tatiana needs someone to stir up trouble among the Banished Pantheon and deal with the local chapter of the Legacy Chain.

 

• CONTACT: Mage-Killer Tatiana
• LOCATION: Striga Isle, /thumbtack -2640.7 66.7 -3346.5
• ALIGNMENT / LEVEL: Villain, Rogue - Level 25-29
• OUROBOROS / ARC: Undesirable - Arc 27.94

[Lazarillo]

As a Striga Isle fanboy, I can't wait to get in and actually try these arcs.  My immediate reaction though based on current play of level 20+ villains is to wonder how much that range really needs more content.  It's already packed!  I get why Striga kinda needs to be in this range, so in light of this new stuff, slight tangent, I know, but how about looking into increasing the caps and/or moving the level range on, say, Dean MacArthur/Leonard, Bobby Curtins, and others?

[Fira]

That is probably obvious but Coop Zones tend to have issues with alignment-tagged missions.

Eg. 'Hero' missions cannot be entered/teamed in a Coop Zone by a Rogue because they're considered native Villain alignment at the time.

This just matters right now for like a DA intro mission and a handful Cimerora ones.

 

Does that also mean that all Striga missions had the Hero tag dropped ? Are Hero/Villains free to coop team for them ?

[Seed22]

Oooh I'll for sure get around to doing these on my recent Fire/Dark corr. I know I should test em, but I wanna remain spoiler free so I'll leave it to other more capable testers.

[twozerofoxtrot]

On 11/23/2023 at 1:40 AM, The Curator said:

Night Widow Ragana

 

So is it canon now that all Night Widows are of pasty complexion with an ocular implant on the right?

Or is she just a Nocturne fangirl?



Actual Feedback: If this isn't a deliberate design choice to align Ragana's appearance with Nocturne's, I'd recommend diversifying her appearance somewhat to help differentiate her from the only other Night Widow we can see in the game (other than, you know. Her.)

[brass_eagle]

So I'm still working through the arcs. Always awesome to have new content. But can I ask--

 

Do we have to stick with contacts that have a 5-level range? Trying to run zone arcs without outleveling is a personal gripe of mine. I don't like it in Faultline, and I don't like it in Croatoa. Can't the contacts just span the level range of the zone: 20-29?

 

I like to team and progress. Feels bad having to turn off xp to "plan" to take the arcs (even if you aren't using double xp).

Edited January 21 by brass_eagle
speeling

[Lazarillo]

So I finished Oberst Strax's arc on a new Crab Spider (to also test customizations and such), running the whole thing with XP off, at level 24.  A couple notes:

1. This arc is so...simple.  Mission briefings that are like four lines long.  Plant bombs, collect tech caches, normal missions against normal level 20 enemy groups.  The bosses have one little nonsequiter and then a taunt when you start fighting them.  Ships, warehouses, and abandoned lab...have we gone back to i6 villain content?  I LOVE IT. Like, it's nice to just unwind with some straightforward missions, and this is fun and nostalgic and classic Striga Isle, y'know?
2. And even with that, though, there are some really nice touches.  Little references to hero arcs, stupid one-off stuff that made me laugh ("Our museum!") and Strax doesn't have a lot to say, but what he does really sells that 5th Column evil jackboot jerk vibe.  Again, this is stuff that's very "Classic CoH" and might not be for people who were more into some of the game's later arcs, but it made it really fun for me.  And I admit going into the final mission I was curious what sort of enemies would make up the base's "automated defenses".  I was kinda dreading just a boring map full of turrets, but what was actually presented was something I hadn't thought of...but was solid.
3. There were a couple small bugs here and there.  After finishing the arc, all the Clues remain in the dropdown and no Souvenir (which would normally sum things up) is awarded.  I am not sure if the Clues will eventually disappear once the arc is outleveled, but either way, it needs a little cleanup.  Also, one of his repeatable missions was to do a Council hunt, and the mission even says "Defeat Council in Port Noble" on the nav, but the objective was "Defeat 20 Warriors".  Also, the Clues for what's found in the first couple of missions describe the items indirectly, "this box contained...[x]" and describing the items in the past tense, while in the back half it was more direct presentation of the items themselves that were described.  Making them consistent (I think the latter works better) might sound a little nicer.  It also gave 20 merits!  For 6 missions, but only one was a "defeat all"...I'm not complaining but that does seem a touch high.
4. So all that said, I think we need to address the elephant in the room and remember that anyone can be a badguy, but villains have standards.  The setup here is not good.  Now, granted, I haven't gotten to the remaining arcs yet, and it's quite possible that this is going to go somewhere pretty fun and interesting (or at least build off of it while maintaining the classic/simple vibe I liked from it), but just going "anyway, so here you are taking a job from a Nazi guy" is not how these arcs need to start.  It's far too limiting in terms of concepts that would actually start the arc. In the patch notes thread I suggested one alternative might be to do it like how Brother Hammond's arc has the PC "team up" with the Luddites by making it clear they're just playing along to exploit the contact and screw them over.  Something like that, admittedly, might distract a little from Strax's simple but apt dialogue, though.  Another option might be (if possible) to set up a different, mutually exclusive first Contact for the arc that gave the same missions but under the guise of trying to beat both the 5th and the other groups to the goodies?  Set it up through Arachnos even, using the little never-followed-up-on teaser that Ernesto Hess was a plant for them (something that may come up in later arcs, I hope it does!).  Regardless, "thanks for working for me, here's your money" is not really a good way to end an arc, nor motivate a character, when the person you're working for is in the 5th Column.  That really needs to be addressed for this arc to be something I actually want my characters to seek out.

Edited January 21 by Lazarillo

[Heronator]

3 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

In the patch notes thread I suggested one alternative might be to do it like how Brother Hammond's arc has the PC "team up" with the Luddites by making it clear they're just playing along to exploit the contact and screw them over.  Something like that, admittedly, might distract a little from Strax's simple but apt dialogue, though.  Another option might be (if possible) to set up a different, mutually exclusive first Contact for the arc that gave the same missions but under the guise of trying to beat both the 5th and the other groups to the goodies?  Set it up through Arachnos even, using the little never-followed-up-on teaser that Ernesto Hess was a plant for them (something that may come up in later arcs, I hope it does!).  Regardless, "thanks for working for me, here's your money" is not really a good way to end an arc, nor motivate a character, when the person you're working for is in the 5th Column.  That really needs to be addressed for this arc to be something I actually want my characters to seek out.

I definitely have some characters with no compunctions about working with Nazis, but I wholeheartedly agree here. Particularly that this is Rogue, rather than full Villain, content, I think that there ought to be an expectation of less-evil villains doing the content. In particular, the Brother Hammond angle also works for villains who ARE evil enough to work for the Nazis anyway, because for such characters it also wouldn't (generally) be out-of-tone for them to manipulate someone else for their own ends.

[BurtHutt]

I haven't given this a play through yet but wanted to comment on some general items (some of these already noted).

1) I could be wrong but this level range has a lot of content. I'm not sure why this range was added - only the Devs know this.

2) I really wish the content would become more unique and not play off what's been in game for so long. How about new enemies, factions and material that is completely original. And good grief...more Nazi stuff?! Really?! For the love of mankind...

3) All of HC's missions/SFs have had too much info dumped as you play. The speech bubbles, text, dialogue boxes etc. It has been awful in team settings. I don't know if HC is still doing this but I've abandoned playing the HC arcs and the Aeon SF. They are not fun in a team setting and I play MMOs to team. 

 

Those are my initial concerns and feedback. 

[Lazarillo]

17 minutes ago, BurtHutt said:

3) All of HC's missions/SFs have had too much info dumped as you play. The speech bubbles, text, dialogue boxes etc. It has been awful in team settings. I don't know if HC is still doing this but I've abandoned playing the HC arcs and the Aeon SF. They are not fun in a team setting and I play MMOs to team. 

I'm still working my way through it, but so far, this has not been an issue.  The writing in these arcs so far has done a great job at saying more but speaking less, as it were.

[Lazarillo]

Finished Doctor Francois' arc.  Second round of feedback:

1. Once again, as indicated by my previous post, things are refreshingly succinct.  Not too wordy, but not too terse, using just enough to sell what it needs to sell, so to speak.  Francois is charming.  Like a puppy.  I want to kidnap him again just to keep him safe from all the other villain groups.  Everything I loved about the first arc is still in full force here, without the...baggage Strax brings.
2. Speaking of Strax, a slight follow up, but when I logged in this morning and started Francois' arc, I noticed the Clues from the previous arc were gone and the Souvenir was added.  Not sure if that got hotfixed or was triggered by logging, or starting the new arc, or what.  But worth noting for QA purposes.  I did not have the Clue-retaining, no-Souveniring issue with Francois.
3. Finally, just a couple points of minutiae (hi, Pincher!) for some of the missions.  Second mission, going to the Mermaid?  Yesplzthx.  Again, that's just fun for atmosphere's sake.  Maybe have the various barroom-brawling enemies as "yellow bracket" spawns that aren't openly hostile to you unless you engage them first.  Gives it a wild vibe without making it feel like they're all there to stop you.  Change the mission objective from dealing with the "competition" to something like "Pincher's unwanted company", or something and make only the Warriors around her actively hostile.  For the 3rd mission to take the 5th Column base, consider reusing one of the two that was raided during Strax's arc.  That'd be a nice use of continuity, IMO.  And then in the Sky Raider lab mission, I think the base commander could use a name.  Also "cargo ship" is two words.  One of the clues has it all together, "cargoship".  The final mission was fine, although Pincher mentions teleporting you both out at the end.  She does it to herself, but are you supposed to be force-booted from it or anything?  If not, changing her line to something like "I'll meet you back at base with the goods" or something might work better.

[Kaasha]

Loving the new arcs and the fact that Striga is now a co-op zone.  One issue I did see is with the Moonfire and Hess TFs.  As a villain, I can go to the contacts and start the TFs.  However, neither one shows up on LFG.  I get that these are technically TFs and not SFs but if we are able to start the TFs as a villain, shouldn't we see them on LFG as well?   I would think one of these solutions would be needed.

1) remove the ability for villains from being able to start the striga TFs

2) or reclassify the striga TFs (like how the Lady Grey TF or ITF are classified) so both heroes and villains can see them on LFG.

[arthurh35353]

Exploration badges don't work for villains/rogues?

[edit]

No, my bad. I'd had some from before. Fully explored worked.

Edited January 21 by arthurh35353

[Lazarillo]

Continuing on to the third arc (Ragana).

1. I've realized there's a habit of these contacts being in rather "hidden" locations.  That's a nice touch, and it makes sense for each of them.  I do sorta get where the suggestion came from about her looking a little too much like Nocturne.  To be certain, it's not a bad design, but a little repetitive in light of that.  Also, just calling her "Ragana" in the contact window sounds odd to me.  I understand from the Contact profile she's supposed to be undercover (if badly), but we know from the beginning who she's working for so something like "Operative Ragana" or "Night Widow Ragana" might sound better.
2. The briefing for the first mission is a little confusing.  It sounds like the alliance of factions will break up after at most, three weeks, but it would be bad for Arachnos if they succeed, so we need to break them up now.  Conceptually, I get the idea behind it but maybe clarify the basis a little better.  Maybe change the comment about the Fateweavers' predictions to being "they won't last long" to "but the Fateweavers have foreseen there's a real likelihood of them succeeding, in the face of all logic saying they'd never work together long enough", or something like that. Also, the conceit that she doesn't know the PC was behind the previous attacks on the Sky Raiders and such is pretty amusing, though it does then beg the question of why she intended to reach out to the player in the first place (and/or why she had Francois put us in touch).
3. After the previous arcs were so good with their nods to continuity, I was so sure Hess would come up here, and that he didn't was a tad disappointing.  Just a tad.
4. Overall, this one felt a little campier than the previous ones, but no less charming.  It could probably use a little more polish, though.  A few things like mission objectives not being properly capitalized, or things that maybe should've been Clues relegated to system text instead.  Clues also remained again after the arc was over, though they did go away after re-logging, and I did get the Souvenir right up front. Regardless, this continues the theme of "simple but fun" of the previous arcs. I'm still really enjoying them. 

And since Ragana's arc was pretty quick, onward to Orpheus as well:

1. First thing I note a couple points about the Contact himself.  Also, based on the promo blurb about his arc, and even some of his opening dialogue, it seems like you're supposed to be going into this suspecting that the Banished Pantheon are after you.  But there hasn't been much in the storylines that would really have them singling the PC out for a curse (heck, in some ways, Ragana's arc probably ends with you being as close to good terms with them as anyone can ever be with the BP), and the introduction to Orpheus suggested he needed the player's help, rather than the other way around.  Maybe set it up a little more by having the BP boss toss out a "you've served your purpose, now we'll carve out your soul!" or something in Ragana's final mission?  Finally, he was willing to give me his repeatable hunt missions (including the one that's sort of leading his arc but not part of his arc) at 24, despite the promo saying he's supposed to be 25-29.  Not sure if that's intentional.  Regardless, after seeing the arc fail to start, I auto-leveled a bit and continued on.
2. Having the first door mission be a "secret" defeat all might tick some people off, though there've been blessedly few so far in these storylines, and at least the objective updates to make it clear, so I didn't take too much issue with it.  Mission 2 confirms that the BP boss from Ragana's arc was indeed the source of the curse, which felt like an aside to me, but Orpheus' dialogue seems to make it sound like it's supposed to be a sort of "A-ha!" moment.  In the 3rd mission, putting the boss at the start of the mission and then making him chase you invincibly until you destroy the objective at the back as a bit of a jerk move.  Consider spawning them together, or despawn him at first and have him re-ambush the player after the chained objective.  Also, using a Nictus Cyst for binding BP spirits (when the ambient dialogue also implies the Council is using them not knowing what they really do) either needs to be followed up on in a major way, storywise, or the destructible object should probably change.
3. I was surprised after the third mission to see Orpheus' bar only half full, but don't mind him being two arcs combined into one.  Given how much the Warriors love their artifacts, him saying he doesn't care for magic felt a touch out of place.  Two objectives here, I did the defeat all, because I'm a villain, but not a jerk, and yeah, I owed Orpheus.  But then I clicked the glowie anyway.  Not sure if that had an effect the following mission (Orpheus seemed like a bit of a jerk, but he got better in the end).
4. Once again, simple and solid, and campy, and fun.  As mentioned, I think the only thing this arc really needs is maybe some a few small bandaids on the writing so that there's a little bit better continuity between where things left off for Ragana, and where they start here.

[The Caretaker]

To note about the succinct nature of the arcs: I asked Headhunter to "break himself in" making arcs in Striga (An area he is passionate about) that mirror the legacy content in design, function, and general mood.

 

Therefore:

We added more content to Striga because we wanted another place for villains to go, and this groundwork was laid somewhat in Stribbling's arc with M1DWAY.

We kept the brevity and wit of the legacy arcs to keep one set from outshining the other.

It gave us time to consider the things needed for Co-Op'ing zones. (Moonfire and Hess are known factors)

And most importantly, the amount of burned-in knowledge Headhunter gained was immeasurable.

 

Carry on, noble testers! Your feedback is most welcome.

[Megawatt]

My only feed back so far is i am not entirely sure working for a -current- 5th Column member is a great thing, if Straxt was FORMER 5th Column seeking to get the caches and such so he could go merc or sell it and set him self up to retire that would i think be better but i just now started his arc.

 

Edit: and if this is an 'I want eeeeeevil' sort of thing then having an alternate first contact in the zone would be great.

Edited January 22 by Megawatt

[Lazarillo]

Wrapping things up, with Mage-Killer Tatiana:

1. Starting the arc as a player who knows who that is, oh no.  Oh no no no, ohnononono.  Y'all better not make me!  It could make for an interesting callback to an off-the-cuff line from earlier in the arc, but that ain't how I roll!  The comments about the Shivan Meteor being used by the Pantheon in this arc make me think it should maybe tie back to the ghosts/BP segment of the previous arc, in place of the Nictus-style Shadow Cyst.
2. When scanning "rocks" on the second mission, the clickable area seems to be kind of finicky depending on camera angle.  Might want to see if that can be adjusted.
3. You made me.  You bastards. She still shows up in-zone, dunno if she's meant to disappear like some of the Goldbrickers after the Aeon TF.  I really wish I coulda betrayed Tatiana and changed sides at the end there.  I wanna keep Striga a haven for the unwashed rabble, not beat up on someone who's still reasonably good to said rabble (even if I honestly got my tail kicked just as much).  As a note, the boss uses the player version of Hurricane (which does Repel), rather than the typical NPC version (which does Knockback).  Dunno if that's intentional or not.

 

31 minutes ago, Megawatt said:

My only feed back so far is i am not entirely sure working for a -current- 5th Column member is a great thing, if Straxt was FORMER 5th Column seeking to get the caches and such so he could go merc or sell it and set him self up to retire that would i think be better but i just now started his arc.

I like this alternative.  Means his disposition wouldn't have to change much, but it'd be a bit more stomach-able.  Alternatively, make it so you can just skip the first to arcs and start with Ragana.  It'd mean skipping Francois too, and he's one of the highlights, but it'd still get some Striga life into characters.

 

1 hour ago, The Caretaker said:

To note about the succinct nature of the arcs: I asked Headhunter to "break himself in" making arcs in Striga (An area he is passionate about) that mirror the legacy content in design, function, and general mood.

Since he hasn't popped up in this thread to say it directly, tell him "Mission Fragging Accomplished".  Even if some of this was a little more "dark sided" than I really would've liked, it's IMO some of the best new HC content yet.

 

A few final points, summaries, takeaways, and general zone feedback, some of it reiterating previous points but maybe worth bearing in mind.

1. These story arcs are really written in the style that I enjoy most when playing this game.  I know I'm a broken record but I really can't state my appreciation for that enough.  Thanks to Headhunter (now that I know who wrote 'em!) and keep up the good work.
2. I wanted something from Ernesto Hess.  I'm a little sad I never got it.  I feel like redsiders should at least be able unlock his TF, and maybe even make it a co-op experience.  The Heroes don't have to know why we're going along with it.  Maybe have Ragana give him an introduction?
3. The start (having to work for the 5th Column) and the end (having to do that) are the weakest parts, probably, for a more Rogue-oriented player like myself.  It'd be nice to have some sort of option or small rework to soften these two things.
4. Finally, I'm going to re-suggest the point that I made based on observation even before playing the arcs, because I'm even more sure of it after doing them: there is so frigging much villain content in the 20-29 range, and so much of it is really among CoV's best, that this just overcrowds things even further.  It makes sense, for these arcs to be 20-29, given Striga's setting and the villain groups involved, but I do think introducing even more to do in this range makes it bear looking at moving or extending the level range of some of the other arcs so that you don't have to permanently lock your level to sub-30 to experience all the great stories in this range.
5. EDIT: Oh, wait, one more thing I was gonna mention but forgot.  Near as I can tell, the only trainer in the area is the original heroic one, Ravenstorm.  Given we duke it out with him twice over the course of the various missions...maybe that's a little bit of a stretch to ask of him?  Add, perhaps, a villainous trainer hiding out in a corner like some of the early contacts, to help out the scallywags that come over.

Edited January 22 by Lazarillo

[The Chairman]

1 hour ago, Lazarillo said:

1. EDIT: Oh, wait, one more thing I was gonna mention but forgot.  Near as I can tell, the only trainer in the area is the original heroic one, Ravenstorm.  Given we duke it out with him twice over the course of the various missions...maybe that's a little bit of a stretch to ask of him?  Add, perhaps, a villainous trainer hiding out in a corner like some of the early contacts, to help out the scallywags that come over.

 

Haven't tested yet (copying characters as I type this), but 100% agree with this. If I have to fight Ravenstorm here, it would make sense to have an alternative trainer for Redsiders in this Zone.

[Megawatt]

1 hour ago, The Chairman said:

 

Haven't tested yet (copying characters as I type this), but 100% agree with this. If I have to fight Ravenstorm here, it would make sense to have an alternative trainer for Redsiders in this Zone.

My thought is an undercover Arbiter or some kind of mercenary observer type near the sub.

[ZorkNemesis]

Is it normal that these missions aren't giving story arc exp rewards at the end?  I'm getting the merits (which I think are a little high at the moment, but I know the 20s are a placeholder, right?) but finishing the story arc isn't rewarding the massive exp bonus that every other story arc would.

[Dispari]

On 1/20/2024 at 8:10 PM, twozerofoxtrot said:

So is it canon now that all Night Widows are of pasty complexion with an ocular implant on the right?

Or is she just a Nocturne fangirl?

I have always wondered why Nocturne is a vampire, and never thought that the cybernetic eye or pale skin tone was meant to be indicative of all Widows.

[KaizenSoze]

2 hours ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

FOR SHAME, HOMECOMING.

We're better than this. 😠

He's just a junior Security Officer, give them some time to grow up.

[gameboy1234]

Part way through the Oberst Straxt arc.  Overall it's great.  I don't mind the tone of the missions, I think the text would work for all my villains and rogues.  He's paying so why not work for him?  And yeah, the shorter tighter mission text is nice, even helps Straxt to sound like more of a jerk.

 

The only thing I'd mention is that in several of the early missions you're told to plant bombs and burn the structure down (warehouse, ship, etc.).  I'd be nice if at the end of the mission the whole place did burst into flame.  Bonus points if you give the player a "detonator" power that allows them to trigger the explosion, which requires planting all bombs first.

[ZorkNemesis]

50 minutes ago, gameboy1234 said:

I'd be nice if at the end of the mission the whole place did burst into flame.  Bonus points if you give the player a "detonator" power that allows them to trigger the explosion, which requires planting all bombs first.

 

In the case of the Family's Boat, I believe the stated idea is for the boat to sink en route to wherever it's going.  Having those bombs go off while the ship is still in port wouldn't accomplish that.

[twozerofoxtrot]

A few notes I thought worth mentioning as I work through the arcs, pertaining to Dr. Francois (aka Doc).

 

- In Doc's final mission, the order of crate activation was randomized throughout the ship, with the first crate "ready for pickup" being about 2/3 through the level. This was narratively inconsistent with Pincher working her way through the ship ahead of you shrinking the crates, and also resulted in a lot of back and forth through the map that felt tedious. 

 

- When Doc's arc ends, there's no narrative handoff to Ragana. You just get her as a contact, he doesn't even say something like "..speaking of Arachnos, I've been contacted by someone who wants to meet you." Nope, you just Ragana unlocked without explanation. Could do with a minor narrative touch-up to help link those two contacts together as smoothly as the other ones across Striga do.