Hollows, how do you feel about the zone?

[Solarverse]

Me personally, I honestly wish they would revert the Hollows back to its original state. It never needed a rehaul in my opinion. I miss the original, so many great memories there. All those extra contacts were never needed nor wanted. The ONLY reason people go there now is to do the Trials and Frostfire.

 

I'm just curious...if the Devs came out and said, "Hey! We are reverting Hollows back to its vanilla state!" would you be excited, or would you try and stop the change?

 

How do you feel about Hollows as it stands now?

 

How did you feel about Hollows then?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

I like it. I've been leveling a Dominator playing through the hazard zones (Hollows, Faultline, Striga and Croatoa) and I really enjoyed the Hollows. It was fun to play through although I wish the Minions of Igneous weren't all so resistant to immobilize and speed debuffs. They're a massive pain int he ass for low level ranged characters.

[Yomo Kimyata]

I like it a lot as is.  I send my alts there from about lvl 8 through the mid teens. Much better content than most KR or Steel missions.

[Shinobu]

 

Before they changed it it was pretty much like Boomtown or Crey's Folly now -- a big empty zone of nothing.

[Zolgar]

How I feel about Hollows now?

 

It, like so many other zones blueside, is kind of superfluous. It's a hold over from a forgotten age of MMOs where there wasn't really a 'story line', and you had tons of options for where to go and what to do as a character leveling up. It's a hold over from when leveling took forever.

 

These days, even without double XP running, it's so fast and easy to level that you have to make the conscious choice to not out level contacts, you have to decide "no, I'm not going to go do a Positron TF because I want to do the Hollows storyline."

 

The 'new' design is good, the storyline there is decent. That people only go there for FF and CoT now has nothing to do with the redesign, it has everything to do with the current leveling curve.

 

How I felt about it back then?

"Aw shit,  Hollows missions?" *sprints across zone, avoiding baddies, only to find mission door camped by purples who kill him before he can get to the door*

[Solarverse]

 

 

How I felt about it back then?

"Aw shit,  Hollows missions?" *sprints across zone, avoiding baddies, only to find mission door camped by purples who kill him before he can get to the door*

 

That was EXACTLY what I loved about it back then! It was called a hazard zone for a reason, now...it's just another zone to me.

[THEDarkTyger]

 

 

How I felt about it back then?

"Aw shit,  Hollows missions?" *sprints across zone, avoiding baddies, only to find mission door camped by purples who kill him before he can get to the door*

 

That was EXACTLY what I loved about it back then! It was called a hazard zone for a reason, now...it's just another zone to me.

 

Yeah, well, most sane people hated when missions were placed deep in them pretty much blocking off progress because you can't reach the door...

[n00baka]

I loved the redesign when they did it, and I love it now. Sure, I have rose tinted memories of hovering over the map to get to a mission door, but I know they’re rose tinted because I like the current zone better. And it’s still a Hazard zone. Street sweeping there is more dangerous then other zones as the spawns are larger on average.

 

My only gripe is that I will still out level the zone before finishing all the contacts in it. Even starting as low level as possible, and doing the bare minimum of missions, I’ll end up level 15 before finishing with With the Troll contact (who I can’t remember the name of atm). Ouro and turning off XP has been the only thing letting me finish that story line.

[Solarverse]

 

 

How I felt about it back then?

"Aw shit,  Hollows missions?" *sprints across zone, avoiding baddies, only to find mission door camped by purples who kill him before he can get to the door*

 

That was EXACTLY what I loved about it back then! It was called a hazard zone for a reason, now...it's just another zone to me.

 

Yeah, well, most sane people hated when missions were placed deep in them pretty much blocking off progress because you can't reach the door...

 

Haha, I guess you can call me coo coo then, lol.

[OEM61]

I'm trying to remember the "old Hollows" and compare that to how it is now, but I am mostly coming up blank.

 

I remember doing missions for Wincott, then Flux, then Julius, then Talshak.

 

I do that now.

 

The other contact, Meg, is newer, but she is not part of the storyline.

 

It seems easier to me now than I remember, but I chalk that up to little things like P2W enhancements and such, but I do not remember any major overhaul to the zone itself.

 

It's been a few years, though.  Maybe there was a change in level or something that I just do not recall.

[Lunchmoney]

What changed?

[Rhinoxx]

I think this zone misses a wandering unique Giant Monster - in my mind, every Hazard Zone should have some sort of unique threat that either caused it to become a HZ or has evolved there since exactly because it's a deserted wasteland of doom. A giant version of the lava guys that erupts from the epicenter of the blast and trails around with an entourage of rock people - I suspect that could be done with existing assets if it's possible to scale up one of the bosses?

These guys are called "minions of Igneous" after all - I suspect Igneous is a big honking titan from a bygone age.

[Lunchmoney]

I think this zone misses a wandering Giant Monster

Kraken spawns there.

[n00baka]

I think this zone misses a wandering Giant Monster

Kraken spawns there.

 

Pretty sure Kraken only spawns in Perez Park.

[Rhinoxx]

I think this zone misses a wandering Giant Monster

Kraken spawns there.

 

Yes I can see I was not clear enough in my post - I apologize for this - it has now been corrected for accuracy 

[Lunchmoney]

I think this zone misses a wandering Giant Monster

Kraken spawns there.

 

Pretty sure Kraken only spawns in Perez Park.

You are right. I was wandering in Perez whilst reading this thread and my brain just went to Hollows..... Stupid baby brain...  :P ::)

[n00baka]

It happens! I just got a little excited thinking something new was occurring in the Hollows I missed, but then got sad but hopeful!  :D

[Fista]

Giant monster or some zone event.  Not sure which I'd prefer.

[jubakumbi]

Feelings?

 

I personally don't have an emotional attachment to any zones, areas, characters, in any MMO because in most case they always change - living worlds.

In a comic book based game with multiple dimensions and 'things', even moreso, IMO.

 

I have _always_ looked at changes, glitches, and bugs in MMOs from the character's PoV - the Gods, they are Fickle - been like this since I played/made MUDs.

 

At a fundamental level, I don't understand how the pull of nostalgia that can make a person want to change the rules, 'dial back the clock', or 'make things they way they were', because my brain does not do that, it looks at the current rules/reality and decides the next move, rather than defaulting to changing the rules/reality.

 

I am not lying or trying to troll when I say I don't 'get' people wanting to go 'backwards', my brain chemistry really does not understand, other than from the general intellectual perspective of 'they like it'.

 

I don't dwell on or get riled by changes in games, they don't bother me years later...

Watched Battletech grognards grouse over a single rule for 30 years.

Watched the ED and other arguments here for years.

Seen Magic The Gathering players burn cards over game changes.

The list goes on and on, been a gamer for 40 years.

 

I have had favorite things get changed and become non-favorites, I have had non-favorites become favorites, for those that might want to accuse me of being 'lucky enough for MMO changes to not _ruin my main I poured time and emotion into_", been there, just means I get to make a new favorite or get new things for my current, a new puzzle to solve.

 

Yeah, I am Crey Crey to many humans, or so I am told, but I see nostalgia as a mental trap that prevents one from growing...even if that thought is not mainstream.

[Jeneki]

The ONLY reason people go there now is to do the Trials and Frostfire.

And to take screenshots sitting in Atta's chair.  :)

[Solarverse]

For me, what I loved about it before is the fact that it was hard. It was scary and it kept me on the edge of my seat. I was so terrified of that place, I bought Hover just to get across the Gultch. The mobs were higher level, and there were more random Trolls who threw instant dead rocks at me. Everything in there was hard...however, with teamwork, everything in there was completely beatable. For the level that zone was made for...it was downright hard. Which was why it was called a "Hazard" zone.

 

I never understood why it was changed. Nobody was forced to go there (although it was a hot spot for people) and they had Kings Row as another option if they felt like Hollows was too difficult. The Hollows was not for everybody. Some people want it easy. Some people want it to be challenging. The people who wanted it easy already had an option. Sadly, now that Hollows is gone, the people who want a challenge no longer have that option. I feel as though the game has been dummied down for people who want things easy.

 

How do I like it now? Meh...now, I go there for Frostfire only. If somebody is trying to form a Frostfire team, I happily oblige them. Chances are, you yourself has ran Frostfire with me a time or two and simply did not know it. However, that is the only use I see for Hollows now. This game went from being challenging to easy. I miss the way that it was before all the changes.

 

That's just me though....and one thing I have learned, how I see things and feel about things, almost ALWAYS is just the opposite of how all of you see things and feel about things. So much so I am thinking about changing my name to Opposite-Man.

[mousestalker]

The whole zone leaves me feeling rather...

 

hollow.

[jubakumbi]

... hard ... scary ... hard... downright hard ... I feel as though the game has been dummied down ... This game went from being challenging to easy. ...

 

IMO, people often outgrow something and then feel this way.

Just an opinion.

 

The hollows was never hard, IMO, just dangerous to navigate, which is annoying, not hard, IMO.

 

I see the the refrain of "This game went from being challenging to easy." on every single game board on the Internet I visit.

 

The rub for me is that what so many people refer 'back' to as 'hard' was just tedious and/or time consuming, tricking the brain into making it seem more valuable, IMO, or was nothing more than a puzzle you had to simply learn to avoid or that once learned, made it trivial.

 

What so many gamers want, IME, is the 'feeling of playing it the first time', after they mastered it.

 

Monotonous and time consuming do not count as 'hard' to me.

 

I see wanting to 'make games hard like they were' as chasing smoke...

As the saying says, "you can never really go home" ...

[Solarverse]

... hard ... scary ... hard... downright hard ... I feel as though the game has been dummied down ... This game went from being challenging to easy. ...

 

IMO, people often outgrow something and then feel this way.

Just an opinion.

 

The hollows was never hard, IMO, just dangerous to navigate, which is annoying, not hard, IMO.

 

I see the the refrain of "This game went from being challenging to easy." on every single game board on the Internet I visit.

 

The rub for me is that what so many people refer 'back' to as 'hard' was just tedious and/or time consuming, tricking the brain into making it seem more valuable, IMO, or was nothing more than a puzzle you had to simply learn to avoid or that once learned, made it trivial.

 

What so many gamers want, IME, is the 'feeling of playing it the first time', after they mastered it.

 

Monotonous and time consuming do not count as 'hard' to me.

 

I see wanting to 'make games hard like they were' as chasing smoke...

As the saying says, "you can never really go home" ...

 

The thing is, not every zone was like that though, only the Hazard Zones. The Hollows was changed to make travel safer, so therefore doesn't really feel like a Hazard Zone any longer. You do make some good points though...although I can't say I have outgrown this game...I'm not sure that could EVER happen!  :D  I still love the game with a passion...I just miss Hollows the way it once was.  :(

[Vanden]

I think this zone misses a wandering Giant Monster

 

The Hollows would be a perfect place to put a Hogger-like mob so we could have some CoH equivalent of the Hogger raids in WoW.