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

[twozerofoxtrot]

Not sure if bug or feature, but if you're playing a relatively squishy character and are having trouble with the final fight, it's pretty easy to drag the two heroes to the Unnamed who will proceed to cryptstomp them.

 

Then, when the witch is vulnerable you can drag her to the Unnamed as well. She'll beat it but you can swoop in while she's distracted and weakened and give her a good whallop without getting your endurance drained to the floor.

 

Just make sure you hide behind the walls after doing your pulls.

[Reiska]

Would it be possible to make the 5th Column guy's arc optional/skippable and allow players to just jump in at the second step?  Seems like that'd resolve a bunch of people's concerns.

 

Could even implement it with an alternate single-mission "arc" where your villain essentially just does the "sorry, I don't work with your kind" speech and bashes the fash.

 

I can understand that this wouldn't be able to make it in for this page most likely, but figured the suggestion would be valuable.

 

EDIT: because some people apparently didn't understand me correctly, I'm not saying the first arc should be removed, I'm saying players who aren't comfortable doing it should have the option of skipping it without being locked out of the rest of the zone's content.  That's all.

Edited January 28 by Reiska

[SupaFreak]

Just giving feedback from someone who doesn't read the text and is strictly action-focused because like it or not, our kind exists in MMOs.

Playthrough of 'Buried Secrets" thoughts

• I immediately felt 'old school' vibes and thought it fit right in with the arcs presented Hero-side.  Even commented on that to my wife while on second mission.
•  
• I appreciated the diversity of maps and that it didn't feel like I was doing the same mission over and over in that regard  - and that the maps were medium in size.
•  
• I prefer arcs that are right around 5 missions so I don't have to be committed to it long, which again falls in line with the Hero arcs.  So, that was also nice.
•  
• Since I generally go through Ouro Flashbacks, I did so here - speed running it as fast as I could.  Not making me travel far was great.  Was able to pull it off in @20 minutes.
•  
• I don't know if you're aware or even care about speed running these, but there are those of us that do it.  20 mins for 20 Merits is about the standard of old arcs.  MPM or Merit Per Minute, we say around here.
•  
• Note: Towards the end of Live, it seems like they were defaulting any new story arcs to 6 Merits no matter how long it took.  That put them on the "Do Not Play Again" list for me - which sucks because some had cool mechanics within.  Yes, I am that petty in regard to that.  It is a factor to consider so people don't exploit arcs to do Merit runs for.  Balanced well.

I don't want the author of these arcs to feel their story-telling work is unappreciated by me, because even though I don't read it - I DO appreciate it's there for the Lore crowd.  Angle them for feedback on that aspect.  Both the Lore & Action crowds are essential to pretty much any MMOs success - at least in my opinion - and both need appealed to.

 

I can say on a scale of 1-10 Action/Reward-wise this is about an 8 - unable to be higher because it *should* have less new mechanics to fit in with old Striga (Hero) arcs.

Will I be playing it again from time to time once it hits the servers?  Absolutely.

 

Edited January 29 by SupaFreak

[SupaFreak]

More feedback from speed / action perspective.

Playthrough of 'Just Prototypical" thoughts

• More 'old school' vibes.  Good, good.  Touch of newer mechanics on finale.  Great.
•  
• Maps and enemies again diverse enough.  Excellent.
•  
• Knocked it out in 15 mins 1st time, likely to be faster now familiar with it.  20 Merits?  May want to tone that back close to 15, IMO.

I can say on a scale of 1-10 Action/Reward-wise this is about a 8.5/10 - New mechanic of text on screen and new glowies popping up was nice.

Will I be playing it again from time to time once it hits the servers?  Absolutely.

[SupaFreak]

More feedback from speed / action perspective.

Playthrough of 'Negotiations of the Living Dead" thoughts

• More 'old school' vibes with a slight touch of newer format but not mechanics, per say.
•  
• Maps and enemies again diverse enough.  Excellent yet again.
•  
• Knocked it out in 14 mins 1st time, likely to be faster now familiar with it.  20 Merits?  May want to tone that back close to 15, maybe 12.  I'm testing these on Controller when I should be doing them on Stalker who will likely cut minutes off the time.  Transferring copy of him now - will likely playthrough first 3 again after I do the others and give final results.

I can say on a scale of 1-10 Action/Reward-wise this is about a 7/10 - Zone hunts always knock it down a notch.

Will I be playing it again from time to time once it hits the servers?  Maybe.  Depends on if rewards change.

[SupaFreak]

More feedback from speed / action perspective.

Playthrough of 'The Most Dangerous Prey" thoughts

• Less 'old school' vibes on this one.  The tricky 'kill all' after destroy object & the BP Mask threw me for loop.
•  
• Maps again diverse enough to keep it fresh.
•  
• Was a bit of extra traveling on this one.  Ran 2x because the BP mask really threw me off and cost me time on first run.
•  
• Knocked it out in @12 mins 2nd time (will post screenshot on wrap up).  20 Merits?  Max 15 IMO.  Trust me, I hate say lower reward - but if you leave as is - I know where I'll be going for Merits.  The fastest avg. I have on old school arcs is roughly a Merit a minute.

I can say on a scale of 1-10 Action/Reward-wise this is about a 7.5/10 - Really dig the ease to speed the missions but the travel from door to door takes it down.

Will I be playing it again from time to time once it hits the servers?  Maybe.  Depends on if rewards change.

 

Edited January 29 by SupaFreak

[SupaFreak]

More feedback from speed / action perspective.

Playthrough of 'The Last Witch of Striga" thoughts

• Back to 'old school' vibes on this one except for the finale with colored text on Nav.
•  
• Maps once again diverse enough to keep it fresh.  Nice job on the BP ritual one with blending & randomizing the ritual groups.
•  
• Was a bit of extra traveling on this one as well.  Beginning is easily offset by MT or TT to 1st mission then Ouro/Base to crystal back to contact afterwards.
•  
• Ran this one 2x as well because I lost a lot of time on the 1st run locating the *sniff* sweet witch I had to take out.  BTW, the final map is gonna be great for teams.
•  
• Knocked it out in @16 mins 2nd time (will post screenshot on wrap up).  20 Merits might be right about on the mark.  18 minimum, IMO.  Less than that, it's never worth it.

I can say on a scale of 1-10 Action/Reward-wise this is about a 8/10 - The zone clickies (while nice change of pace) are annoying when trying to speed.

Will I be playing it again from time to time once it hits the servers?  At least once, yea.  The final mission is just too good.

 

I'm going to go ahead and run the first 3 again with my Stalker and see how greatly I can reduce the times.  I will post 1 single Reply with screenshot of time and contact with final thoughts once complete.

[SupaFreak]

Collective summary from speed / action perspective of new Striga Isle story arcs as completed by Level 50 Claws/Reflexes Stalker fully IO'd out.

 

Buried Secrets

Oberst Straxt

Time 15:32

Replay Value:  8/10

"Most old school feel.  Very basic."

Suggested Merits: 16 to 18

 

Just Prototypical

Dr. Francois

Time  12:50

Replay Value:  8.5/10

"Personal favorite of the 5 because of the final mission."

Suggested Merits: 14 or 15

 

Negotiations of the Living Dead

Night Widow Ragana

Time  9:37

Replay Value:  7/10

"Easiest one to speed through."

Suggested Merits:  10 to 12

 

The Most Dangerous Prey

Orpheus

Time  12:42

Replay Value:  7.5/10

"Might have most travel time between missions."

Suggested Merits:  14 or 15

 

The Last Witch of Striga

Mage Killer Tatiana

Time  16:04

Replay Value:  8/10

"Memorable final mission."

Suggested Merits: 18 to 20

 

So, ran each one 2x and came across no technical issues.  As stated in first reply, I was not paying attention to text (except for the in-mission pop-up text in Prototypical) so no idea if there were misspellings I missed or inconsistencies in story.

 

A+ on diversifying all arcs with diverse missions, maps, enemies and objectives.

 

From an action standpoint, they're all really well done for having a mostly "old school" feel.

 

I hope you all don't mind me testing them in this manner, but it's best it's done now than when they hit the servers to find out people are exploiting certain ones for Merits over and over.  Wish that were done and fixed with A/E before it went Live.

 

I'm out for this session.  PEACE!

 

* forgot to mention *
I really appreciate that each arc only had 1 "Defeat All".

 

 

Edited January 29 by SupaFreak

[Heronator]

Some minor text issues in Buried Secrets:

 

Mission 2: The Warrior boss, Treasure Seeker Jones, says "Striga is a goldmine if you just dig a little underneath the surface." Gold mine is two words.

 

Mission 4: Straxt's post-acceptance text reads "The banished pantheon can't possibly know what they have stumbled upon." Banished Pantheon is a proper noun, and should be capitalized. There is a similar issue in the arc's Souvenir.

 

And the below "issues" are not strictly wrong, just things that stood out to me reading all of the text. They're wrong in my opinion, but opinions differ.

 

Mission 1 & 2: Both of the collection clues ("Ore Samples" and "Crystal Fragments") are written completely in past tense in an odd way. Item-based clues are usually written in the present tense, as if you still have the item in question, rather than being written from the perspective of having already given the item away.

 

Mission 2: The "Crystal Fragments" clue makes mention of multiple crates, when you the player only collect one glowie.

 

From the Souvenir: "but why did they need research on volcanic activity, ore samples and comparisons to distant soils in Italy, inert dark crystals and weapon prototypes to employ them?" I believe there should be a comma after "inert dark crystals" (the "Oxford Comma", which is the default in American English).

 

Also from the Souvenir: "The oberst claimed that it was all very much outdated but still too dangerous to end up in the wrong hands, but surely there must be more to it. A mystery for another day, and another paycheck." "surely there must be more to it" feels like it ought to end in a question mark, given the next sentence.

[SaxyGuitar]

I've only skimmed this forum so I apologize if someone already said it. But I made a lvl 24-25 fort to play with fate seal and I thought doing some of the Isle missions would be a good place. How ever I can only do the repeatable missions the 1st contact gives. I don't get recommend to the next one, I don't see the other ones in "Find Contact"

 

It'd be cool if I miss the 1st contact I could still easily find the other contacts.

[Shocktacular]

This wasn't in the first post in this thread, but it's in the combined patch notes: 

• Added ability for villain characters to queue in LFG for Ernesto Hess and Moonfire's Task Forces

Does this mean that villains will be able to run these TFs or just join them? I ask because I had a group do the Moonfire TF tonight and we were all wondering how an all-villain team could possibly complete it since there's one part that requires visiting a contact in Skyway City.

[SaxyGuitar]

13 hours ago, Shocktacular said:

Does this mean that villains will be able to run these TFs or just join them? I ask because I had a group do the Moonfire TF tonight and we were all wondering how an all-villain team could possibly complete it since there's one part that requires visiting a contact in Skyway City.

 

I'll see if I can test this tonight. Thank you for the heads up.

 

-So I forgot about this tf and it's a contact you talk to in the city. This will be interesting.

Edited February 2 by SaxyGuitar
Added the last sentences.

[Yuro]

13 hours ago, Shocktacular said:

This wasn't in the first post in this thread, but it's in the combined patch notes: 

• Added ability for villain characters to queue in LFG for Ernesto Hess and Moonfire's Task Forces

Does this mean that villains will be able to run these TFs or just join them? I ask because I had a group do the Moonfire TF tonight and we were all wondering how an all-villain team could possibly complete it since there's one part that requires visiting a contact in Skyway City.

I believe the contact in question was swapped out for a contact who's in Striga.

[SaxyGuitar]

That'd make sense. I can see them using the new Villain contact instead he is also a science just not sure what field haha.

[The Chairman]

2 hours ago, Yuro said:

I believe the contact in question was swapped out for a contact who's in Striga.

 

Is that a change on Beta (haven't had a chance to check)? I don't believe it's that way on the live servers.

[Lunar Ronin]

4 minutes ago, The Chairman said:

 

Is that a change on Beta (haven't had a chance to check)? I don't believe it's that way on the live servers.

 

Aye.

[lemming]

57 minutes ago, The Chairman said:

Is that a change on Beta (haven't had a chance to check)? I don't believe it's that way on the live servers.

Yes, in prior testing it was pointed out and the devs got a contact in Striga instead of the contact in Skyway

[ZekeStenzland]

On 1/26/2024 at 8:25 AM, Super Atom said:

 

 

 

Have finished Straxt and am halfway through Francois so far. Started as L20 Soldier (Villain).

• Minor grammar nit: In Buried Secrets Part 1 mission text, the tenses seem odd in the sentence starting "The uncouth Warriors...". "... have been digging..." sounds like they were digging in the past and continue to do so, but "... absconded..." sounds like they just absconded at some time in the past and are no longer absconding with anything. I dunno, I suck as an editor.
• Changed to Rogue, picked up the Ghost Hunter plaque in Talos. Changed back to Villain. Picked up all the other Ghost Hunter plaques in Striga and was properly awarded the Ghost Hunter history badge. Also, picked up all the exploration badges there and was properly awarded the Striga exploration accolade and merits.
• Nice mix of mission maps and villain groups so far. I especially liked that they weren't all "kill all" missions, and was able to stealth one or two.

[Greymistbc1]

So, I've run Striga contacts at least 30 times (alts!!).  It is, by far, my _least_ favorite zone.
Really, I only do it for FOMO the Wedding band and Wolf Whistle.  And because it's the main bridge between Faultline and Croatoa.

I hate Striga for two main reasons:
1.  Chain guns. They are everywhere.  Brap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap. 
Did you one-shot the guy? His corpse goes Brap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap-bap. 
Oh, and btw, most of these missions you have to find glowies in a maze.  
So it's  open menu, adjust sound up, close menu, find glowie, open menu, adjust sound down, close menu, kill mobs.  Repeat.

*Please either change the sound or give us the ability to macro/hotkey volume.*

2.  Kill 10, kill 20, kill 30...  Do a mission where ambushes magically see through your stealth... kill 20.
My usual pattern for Striga is to run a few missions, then Auto-complete when I get to a hunt, then log and park the toon for three days when I get to the next obnoxious mission.  I generally end up doing this at least 3-4 times, per toon.  It's just not fun.

My hope is that these new arcs have fewer chain guns and fewer pointless barriers.

[Marshal_General]

When are we going to get to fight that giant robot from the Moonfire TF?

 

That is the Striga content I have been wanting.

[Lazarillo]

47 minutes ago, Marshal_General said:

When are we going to get to fight that giant robot from the Moonfire TF?

You're thinking Hess, not Moonfire.  But I'd be all there for a chance to fight it, regardless.

[Lazarillo]

Also, I was holding out for one more patch before I commented on this, but now that there's a release candidate, I just want to say it's extremely disappointing that being the 5th Column's obedient lackey is apparently going to be the only way into the new zone content.  I was pretty hyped for this, but Striga's prolly DoA for my Redsiders if that's how it's going to be. 😞

Edited February 13 by Lazarillo

[SteelRaines]

So I did just tried this arc.

How I tried it was by making a new character (Rad/Rad Scrapper) on Red Side. Leveled to 20. So right at the start of of the level range.

I auto-enhanced it to save time.

First thing I checked was that the ferry from Striga to Blueside wouldn't let me through. And while I could approach it, I couldn't go anywhere. Which is good.

 

When I started doing the arc... well I only got to the second mission of the Buried Secrets arc. The "Punish the Warriors" mission. It said to go to a warehouse. When I went there, it was an empty dock.

 

Hmm.

 

That ended my testing, as I didn't want to do too much Beta shenanigans.

[Cobalt Arachne]

3 hours ago, SteelRaines said:

When I started doing the arc... well I only got to the second mission of the Buried Secrets arc. The "Punish the Warriors" mission. It said to go to a warehouse. When I went there, it was an empty dock.

 

Hmm.

I'm gonna blame this one on the Rikti...

I'll look into recovering that building, Striga has enough problems as it is.
Thanks!

[Monos King]

Some notes:

• First time hearing of Mteru. Was that a dark astoria lore thing?
• Seeing Shiva elements be used for other things was nice
• Seeing Nictus elements be used for other things was really nice
• Spoiler

  Is Peebles actually dead?

• Would be cool to see Zukhara reference Tatiana in some way, or have unique dialogue if you've done Tatiana's arc.
• Legacy Chain references were cool to see

Overall, loved the arcs. Love how villside kind of goes in a reverse order of events to the heroside versions. One complaint.

 

5 uses for a fluff temporary power is super lame. Temps like this that aren't really strong are essentially functional souvenirs, like Psychic Cleaver or Fettering Nimbus. They should have way more charges than this, at least 30. Temps with small amounts of charges are honestly a design flaw in my opinion, unless they are extremely powerful summons or unique/useful abilities. Binding only has the strong immob on the Unnamed, so it doesn't warrant this at all.