Focused Feedback: Rikti War Zone Revamp

[The Curator]

Rikti War Zone Revamp

Vanguard Base Expansion

• The Vanguard base in the zone has been expanded and revamped with several additional new sections added and the base now directly connects to the surface from several points.
• The Architect Entertainment functionalities within the zone have been moved inside one of the Vanguard base's new areas.
• The AE building has been replaced by a Vanguard vehicle depot with lifts that connect to the base underground.
• The Rikti Pylons found throughout the zone now con as Level 54 rather than ignoring level mods.
• Added training Rikti Pylon dummies found outside the Vanguard base that match the old pylons.
• Also added four training dummies that con 51 through 54 found outside the Vanguard base on the surface.
  • The color of the lights near the dummies helps inform how they con.
• Vanguard Quartermaster and Combat Nurse added near the training dummies on the surface.
• Merit vendor NPC has been replaced by a merit vendor kiosk.
• Benevolabs hologram vendor has been added near the merit kiosk's location.
• Portal mission doors in the zone have been changed to use the new Portal Corp section of the Vanguard base.
• This Portal Corp section also houses connection to the new travel network for Shadow Shard access from Rikti War Zone.
• Vanguard shooting range targets are once again target-able and can be attacked by players for role playing purposes.
• Info NPC by the base exit now using a Vanguard outfit.

 

Shadow Shard Portal

• Now accessible via a new travel network that links: Rikti War Zone, Peregrine Island, and Firebase Zulu.
• This new travel network has a unique icon that can be found on the mini map as 'Shadow Shard Portal'.

 Look for the red icon! 

[4th.survivor]

Would it be possible to add Technician Naylor's portal in Nerva Archipelago to the Shadow Shard Travel network without breaking his quests or anything else that points there? Would be a nice touch, imo.  Cheers

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 11/22/2023 at 8:41 AM, The Curator said:

The Vanguard base in the zone has been expanded and revamped with several additional new sections added and the base now directly connects to the surface from several points.

- The motor pool maze could seriously use some signage.  And has anyone found more than the one (very obscure) connection to the surface at the far end of the maze?

 

 

On 11/22/2023 at 8:41 AM, The Curator said:

Also added four training dummies that con +1 through +4 found outside the Vanguard base on the surface.

• The color of the lights near the dummies helps inform how they con.

 

Not seeing any differently colored lights, though the dummies con correctly.  Ah, the lights are in the floor and kind of hard to see from where I was firing from, back near the guard rails.

 

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 11/22/2023 at 8:41 AM, The Curator said:

Also added four training dummies that con +1 through +4 found outside the Vanguard base on the surface.

• The color of the lights near the dummies helps inform how they con.

 

 

+1 to +4 relative to what?

I took a lvl 29 and checked (while there was a lvl 50 present) and they all conned purple, though the light were correct (yellow, orange, red, purple).

When I take my lvl 50 (while there was a another lvl 50 present), they conned orange, red, purple, purple (though the lights were correct as above).

The other 50 was not incarnate and did not have a level shift (I asked to make sure).

[lemming]

1 hour ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

- The motor pool maze could seriously use some signage.  And has anyone found more than the one (very obscure) connection to the surface at the far end of the maze?

There are a couple iirc, but yes, bit of a maze.  I haven't checked in a bit, but will head to beta in a bit to recheck some items and may as well do that as well

[Cobalt Arachne]

The surface's functional test dummies are tooled towards the level 50 player environment, which is typically when players are caring about/running number tests.

 

At least personally, I haven't seen players who are still working on leveling that are also focusing much on their numerical benchmarks.

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

The surface's functional test dummies are tooled towards the level 50 player environment, which is typically when players are caring about/running number tests.

That does make sense, in which case the patch notes might say "level 51 to 54 training dummies*" (or something like that) rather than "cons +1 to +4".

*As they do have levels currently.

[lemming]

3 hours ago, lemming said:

There are a couple iirc, but yes, bit of a maze.  I haven't checked in a bit, but will head to beta in a bit to recheck some items and may as well do that as well

There's the stairs and you can exit via the vehicle pool area with some vertical ability. Others?

[Doc_Scorpion]

1 hour ago, lemming said:

There's the stairs and you can exit via the vehicle pool area with some vertical ability. Others?

There's one vertical at the end of the motor pool maze, and another in the motor pool area behind Serpent Drummer.  Plus the stairs makes three so far.

[VertigoIguana]

On 1/20/2024 at 6:52 PM, Cobalt Arachne said:

The surface's functional test dummies are tooled towards the level 50 player environment, which is typically when players are caring about/running number tests.

 

At least personally, I haven't seen players who are still working on leveling that are also focusing much on their numerical benchmarks.

 

Is there any chance a static level-50 dummy could be added as well? Reason: Testing with MMs and level shifted pets has always been thrown off by them conning even to the pylons. A straight level 50 pylon would be more accurate for those cases.

[Cobalt Arachne]

8 minutes ago, Killerhawk said:

 

Is there any chance a static level-50 dummy could be added as well? Reason: Testing with MMs and level shifted pets has always been thrown off by them conning even to the pylons. A straight level 50 pylon would be more accurate for those cases.

There shouldn't be much difficulty in adding that; I'll look into it.

[Sovera]

I was testing a character on the dummies and they work, but I can see it being a nuisance if more than one person wants to test, and the whole thing of how long does it take for a dummy to respawn.

 

Would it be feasible to have an instance we could go with pylons so we could just go in and out?

 

 

Or, hold on, what about a dummy with the same HP that we can place in our base?

[Cobalt Arachne]

16 minutes ago, Sovera said:

I was testing a character on the dummies and they work, but I can see it being a nuisance if more than one person wants to test, and the whole thing of how long does it take for a dummy to respawn.

 

Would it be feasible to have an instance we could go with pylons so we could just go in and out?

 

 

Or, hold on, what about a dummy with the same HP that we can place in our base?

That's a fair concern!

The dummies and training pylons are set to respawn within a few seconds; Let me know if they're not immediately respawning upon defeat.

 

Instanced dummies...

That's something we can look into but won't be Page 7.

[Cobalt Arachne]

I've added a level 50 dummy to the level ranged area, and also added dividers so that it's not possible to accidentally hit more than one with AoEs.

 

[VertigoIguana]

15 minutes ago, Cobalt Arachne said:

I've added a level 50 dummy to the level ranged area, and also added dividers so that it's not possible to accidentally hit more than one with AoEs.

 

Thank you!

[Sovera]

Cobalt Arachne best Arachne.

[Crimsanotic]

I suppose this is the best time to perhaps ask for the huge model vanguard NPCs to have their boots fixed? Ever since their inception, the minions have had the boots with pad while all other variants have the boots without the pad, but it should be the reverse (as is the case with male and female NPCs).

[Cobalt Arachne]

20 minutes ago, Crimsanotic said:

I suppose this is the best time to perhaps ask for the huge model vanguard NPCs to have their boots fixed? Ever since their inception, the minions have had the boots with pad while all other variants have the boots without the pad, but it should be the reverse (as is the case with male and female NPCs).

I can look into this; You mentioned it's just the Minion-class Vanguard costumes that have this issue?

[Crimsanotic]

All of the huge models. Minions have the kneepads but lieutenants and above don't have them.

[Doc_Scorpion]

On 1/21/2024 at 5:04 PM, Cobalt Arachne said:

The dummies and training pylons are set to respawn within a few seconds; Let me know if they're not immediately respawning upon defeat.

Happened to be topside in the RWZ on other business, and noted the leftmost dummy was not present.  Waited over a minute (I timed it), and it did not respawn.

Also confirmed that jumpers can reach the surface from the base via both vertical shafts, thank you for that!

Edited to add:

Confirmed range targets are targetable.
Confirmed the portals work, to and from both Firebase Zulu and Peregrine Island.

Edited January 23 by Doc_Scorpion

[Cobalt Arachne]

55 minutes ago, Doc_Scorpion said:

Happened to be topside in the RWZ on other business, and noted the leftmost dummy was not present.  Waited over a minute (I timed it), and it did not respawn.

That's a little different, if they're not there that's due to players being nearby when the zone loads. They won't spawn in that situation until all players have moved far enough away to unload the spawn trigger. (This won't happen on live servers because all zones are loaded before players are allowed in)

If you destroy a living dummy/pylon it should re-spawn immediately once the spawn is set to active; If you just destroyed one and it doesn't respawn quickly (10 second timer), let me know.

[Oklahoman]

Wandered around the expanded base at lunch and I liked it.

 

Made me wonder if maybe we could have a portal from the base to Point du Hoc?

[Psi-bolt]

This might seem a minor thing but one of the things I've always loved about this zone is when you leave the base via the teleporter, the area music for the base starts playing.  Always fit the atmosphere for the area.  Since I gather the underground part of the base is part of the same area as the above ground, I'm guessing the music doesn't play because it doesn't recognize you've moved between areas.  If this could be returned I would love it.

[MidnighterClubPatron]

Overall I love the changes. Especially the exits where you don't have to go through the green portal. Also those doors that go between the portal corp portals are super nice! (would be nice to have in the standard portal corp building in PI, lol)

But some suggestions!:

• Would it be possible to prevent the noises from the exterior from being heard inside the AE area? As it stands the helicopter, howitzer shots, and Rikti portals can be heard through the presumably several feet thick of concrete. coordinates for ease: [-64.3 -73.0 -2359.5]
• The noise from the portal corp portals is also bleeding in the main area with Lady Grey. Making an already kind of noisy area even more so. loc: [272.3 -69.0 -2335.0]
• In other AE areas there's a power suppression room. It would be nice to have in the vanguard one, if only for consistency. Obviously not super necessary.

[Doc_Scorpion]

-Is it my imagination, or were the open sets of doors in the motor pool moved?  I thought they were over open platforms, and now they're over vehicles...

- The training dummies lights and con levels do not match.  The lights are W, Y, O, R, P.  The dummies con Y, O, R, P, P.

- Tested the dividers using Earth Control.  Stalagmites and Stone Cages hit just the targeted dummy.  Salt Crystals hit both the targeted dummy and an adjacent dummy.  The animation effects of Volcanic Gases extended beyond the dividers, but only the targeted dummy took damage.

- Tested the dividers using Radiation Blast.  Irradiated and Neutron Bomb were both stopped by the dividers.