Is it time to retire the Freedom training mission and rebuild Galaxy City?

[Scarlet Shocker]

It's been a very long time in actual years since Galaxy City was destroyed with the launch of Freedom and the new training mission.

 

It's been a long time in game terms too.

 

And yet I notice that Outbreak and Breakout seem to have a good following of new heroes coming on-line and learning the ropes the old school way. I don't run the Freedom mission often at all but that seems anecdotally to be less popular.

 

Does it add anything much to gameplay and/or Lore, especially in light of Homecoming having overall control of the game's direction and development.

 

Certainly there are a lot of people who enjoyed starting in Galaxy, and it was a blow to a lot of players when it was consigned to history. Perhaps it's time for the Paragon City governors to restore it to its former glory. That's not without precedence as we know from Faultline and many other places that have had rebuilding work undertaken. It would be an ideal space for new heroes to prove their mettle and make sure that the bad guys were driven out of Galaxy for good.

 

There's another point; Galaxy Girl. She was a human once, and sacrificed herself to save our city.* It's rare that any city government would allow such a monument to be destroyed and not be reforged. It's one of those things that is as true in real life as in fiction - we celebrate our iconic heroes and there would be strenuous efforts made by any self-respecting city officials to ensure their fallen heroes are honoured.

 

It could in fact become a serious mission arc: Reclaiming and rebuilding Galaxy City and ensuring it becomes safe once more.

 

This isn't so much a suggestion, more of a wish, an appeal. I have no clue what our devs have in store, but it is surely time we got Galaxy back!

[Skyhawke]

I'd be down for a new story arc with a TF at the end to reclaim Galaxy, but the Freedom Tutorial ties into the Coming Storm and is referenced throughout the game (I mean, you'd put Twinshot and Doc Graves out of work!). Add, not subtract.

[merrypessimist]

31 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

I'd be down for a new story arc with a TF at the end to reclaim Galaxy, but the Freedom Tutorial ties into the Coming Storm and is referenced throughout the game (I mean, you'd put Twinshot and Doc Graves out of work!). Add, not subtract.

 

And nothing of value would be lost.  I want to actually see some of the coming storm stuff, but I don't think the current (volunteer) devs have the time, money, or tools to support advancing that massive dangling plot thread. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

40 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

I'd be down for a new story arc with a TF at the end to reclaim Galaxy, but the Freedom Tutorial ties into the Coming Storm and is referenced throughout the game (I mean, you'd put Twinshot and Doc Graves out of work!). Add, not subtract.

 

If you've read much of my input on the game I've never advocated for removal of content even if I personally think it's dreadful. I'm totally on board with your response but I'd still love to see Galaxy restored to it's rightful place!

[kelika2]

nah.  its probably best to use the invaded galaxy city for various co-op task forces for all levels.

villains can skulk around the sewers trying to get samples for later villainy stuff but like every heist with something super natural something goes wrong and the rest of the sf is just trying to get out alive.  required to complete the mission ambushes constantly coming at you, shivians amassing someplace underground blocking the only exit, etc. levels 8-15

 

heroes can use instanced versions of adjacent zones fighting off the shivans that are breaking containment, level whatever to whatever

 

add in some mid level stuff and then work your way up to heroes and villains going inside the meteor for other stuff and things.

 

if you want galaxy city back you can ask the devs to make ouro zones active, bring back the contacts inside those ouro zones and whatnot

[Apogee]

Boomtown and Faultline raise their hands "Get in line"

[R TO THE CORE]

Galaxy City holds so much nostalgia for me! I would love to see something happen with the zone whether it be an additional starting zone or lvl 50+ content! However Atlas will always reign supreme for the starting zones!

[UltraAlt]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

Galaxy City

 

I miss Galaxy City as well, but, even if it is brought back, I think all new heroes should start in Atlas. This keeps the funneling in for new players and helps avoid new players from becoming confused then they first start playing.

If someone want to take their character to Galaxy City via tram and run missions there, that's fine by me. I would honestly at least check that out, but I tend to bypass contacts until my characters are at least past level 8 at this point and, honestly, most times until the character is in the 20's somewhere.

 

After running/hunting the lake in Atlas, I have started to go to Galaxy City through the Ouroboros to run the lake there if there isn't anyone recruiting for a DFB and there doesn't seem to be enough low levels out there to start one.

 

I'm assuming whomever reads this may or may not know all of this already. But for those that don't, I'm including it.

 

Funneling

But back to why I'm saying to drop all heroes in Atlas when they enter the game.

The reason that Galaxy was destroyed was for funnelling purposes. You may have read threads talking about this before.

 

Galaxy City was part of the game at the beginning because of the large number of new players and characters entering the City.

As the game aged and CoV and COH:GR were added, there are additional zones for new starting characters; both of these only had one starting zone - and no origin missions. New character creation on the Hero side was thinning out, and, so the DEVs destroyed Galaxy City  to funnel all new characters into the same map/zone. They also started steering players away from the Altas Hero Origin missions into the new contact content that was no longer Origin related.

 

These things were done to concentrate where players would be sent to do missions. A new player coming in would know nothing about the Origin arcs. They would have no reason to go look in City Hall for the contacts. They would join team and run missions with the same contact as everyone else.

But no one is going to want to go through Twinshot's first couple of missions repeatedly so that a new player on the team can catch-up in the contact arc (more likely in an Origin arc, but people didn't really do that that often either). 

 

So now onto the Origin part of this.

Originally heroes started with only the Origin contact for their Origin. This was the same in Atlas Park and in Galaxy City.

Spawn into Atlas Park as a magic origin character, get sent to the Magic origin contact in Atlas Park, and run magic Origin missions in Atlas Park.

Spawn into Galaxy City as a magic origin character, get sent to the Magic origin contact in Galaxy City, and run magic Origin missions in Galaxy City.

There was no other contacts in Atlas Park or Galaxy City other than the origin arcs related to your character - unless you were on a team running someone else's origin arcs.

 

The upside and downside of Origin arcs.

Run your characters origin arc and get drops that are related to your characters origin since you are fighting enemies related to your character's origin.

Run someone else's character's origin arcs and you get drops from enemies related to their origin.

 

The Origin tree and how it affects drops and contact selections

There is an origin tree of sorts, I'm pretty sure all the dual origin enhances are set up by the origin tree. That is to say; magic origin enemies enhances drop dual enhances that are magic + 2 of the nearest related origins (mutant and natural ... I think), but neither of the farthest way magic origin (science, tech, I think).

I think the circle goes - Magic - natural - tech - science - mutant - Magic. 

So magic branches to natural and mutant. Science branches to tech and mutant, etc.

 

This gets explained far deeper into the Origin arcs, but you will start to see it happen if you try to follow an Origin contact chain. Halfway through an Origin contact's missions, they will offer you two contacts - one going to one of the other closest origins in the tree. So halfway through a Magic Origin contact's missions, they will give you a choice of a natural origin contact or a mutant origin contact. Once you have reached that Magic Origin character's last level or sometimes after you have outleveled them they will send you to the next Magic Origin contact.

 

So when that first split happens, if someone you are running with is mutant origin, you might have the same mutant contact missions (I think there are 3 origin contacts for each level range. They provide the same missions, but I'm unsure if you can complete them cooperatively or not.) as your mutant origin teammate and get a chance on getting some dual origin enhances that are half magic; likewise if they run your magic origin missions, they will have a chance of getting some half mutant dual origin enhances. If your teammate is science or tech origin and you run their origin mission, you are out of luck; the dual origin enhances that drop will be unslottable for you.

 

The Origin arcs contacts are only gone from Galaxy City. They still exist in Atlas park.

I think I mentioned it earlier, but there was never a non-Origin contact in Galaxy City that I know of.

If Galaxy City was returned, the only additional missions would be that first round of each Origin Contact (there might be a second round, but I think you get sent to another zone after the initial Origin arch has completed).

The Galaxy City origin missions were different from the ones in Atlas, but I don't recall them being all that different. You fight the same foes, do door and hunts, and there might be a go talk to or go read this mission thrown in like the Origin arcs do in Atlas.

 

If you want to run Atlas origin contacts, they are in the basement of City Hall and are on you contact list - up to a certain level. If you don't get an origin contact before whatever the cut off is (20's somewhere I think), I'm unsure if you can get back into the Origin arcs .. which is weird because they are Origin contacts all the way to level 50.

 

I have started an Origin quest (but I alt jump so much that I get distracted from working on the project) but haven't followed the contacts on an Origin chain past the low 30's on Homecoming.

 

 

 

 

So that is where I'm coming from in regard to Galaxy City.

I think it would be fun to have access to it.

I think it would only have the 5 Origin contacts with one set of missions each. I certainly hope Haserby (sp?) or Twinshot (sp?) wouldn't be there.

I think it would be confusing to to drop new players/characters in Galaxy City, so I would suggest to continue starting all new character in Atlas Park as stated.

 

 

[UltraAlt]

4 hours ago, Apogee said:

Boomtown and Faultline raise their hands "Get in line"

 

 

They are both still there.

You can still get contacts and run missions in Faultline.

There are probably still missions in-game - most likely from an Origin contact - that will send you to Boomtown. Plus to Giant Monsters spawn there.

 

EDIT: Yeah. You can still get an Origin Contact mission that sends you to Boomtown (didn't take long to find that one with a level 14 character. Turned in a fed-ex to a contact in Altas, and it was the next mission up - Technology Origin contact).

 

 

Edited Thursday at 07:51 AM by UltraAlt

[SirBronco]

I’m not sure but I always liked Galaxy more than Perez Park. I could see them flipping places with each other since there isn’t much going on in Perez Park these days either. Just my two cents. 🤷‍♂️🤔

[Apogee]

10 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

 

They are both still there.

You can still get contacts and run missions in Faultline.

There are probably still missions in-game - most likely from an Origin contact - that will send you to Boomtown. Plus to Giant Monsters spawn there.

 

 

 

I was alluding to the fact that after 20+ years they (and other destroyed zones) have barely been revitalized by Paragon City.  Sure, some work has been done but they are still a mess of shattered streets and toppled buildings. Let's get those neighborhoods repaired!

this is a paid opinion for the Make Paragon Great Again PAC, cosponsored by the Family run Steelworkers Union of Paragon, all rights reserved, trademarks property of their respective owners, etc, etc, ad nauseum

[UltraAlt]

38 minutes ago, Apogee said:

I was alluding to the fact that after 20+ years they (and other destroyed zones) have barely been revitalized by Paragon City.  Sure, some work has been done but they are still a mess of shattered streets and toppled buildings. Let's get those neighborhoods repaired!

 

I think you need to talk to this guy's dad.

 

 

I hear his father is runs the construction company that is responsible for repairing the City after aliens, giant robots, and kaiju attacked, but that was a long time ago. He might be running his father's construction company now.

[Snarky]

10 hours ago, merrypessimist said:

 

And nothing of value would be lost.  I want to actually see some of the coming storm stuff, but I don't think the current (volunteer) devs have the time, money, or tools to support advancing that massive dangling plot thread. 

there are a decent number of badges in those arcs...

[Snarky]

i think funneling players to Atlas is a good design choice.

 

It would be great if Echo Galaxy ( with an entrance from Atlas!) was turned into a 1-10 Hazard Zone with a rowdy street hunt mechanic thrown in, maybe based off a few contacts to start the event(s)....?  badges!

 

edit... or not Echo, but the reclaiming of beat down Galaxy, a continuation of Outbreak!

Edited Thursday at 12:10 PM by Snarky

[Skyhawke]

Ok, pure spitballing a nutso idea because I have clue zero if it could be done, but run a story arc to begin to/restore Galaxy and in the plaza in front of FC HQ, there's a statue of your character ala the one from Number Six's arc whenever you visit the zone. Every person in the newly rebuilt Galaxy sees their statue, not someone else's. Doable? Dunno. Kinda neat? Maybe.

[tidge]

I'm (still) bitter about the destruction of Galaxy City and the loss of a favorite starting zone, but I don't see a strong reason beyond nostalgia to bring it back as it was. I agree it could have potential as a new 35-50 co-op zone.

 

The loss of Galaxy City was (for me) just one more piece of evidence that the Live devs didn't care about preserving some fundamental "evergreen" aspects of the game (see also "Who Will Die?, Dark Astoria, Praetoria) and would ditch anything in order to tell narrow content about very specific NPC characters' 'development'. I'm mostly neutral on the Live changes to Mercy Island.

 

I have no objection to the Faultline or Hollows Live revamps, as those didn't fundamentally change those zones (as engaged by level-appropriate characters). Similarly the HC changes to Atlas Park and Mercy Island are practically invisible (if not sweating going to another zone for AE). I am cold on the changes Live+HC to the Rikti War zone, but I get why Live revamped it.

[Snarky]

38 minutes ago, tidge said:

I'm (still) bitter about the destruction of Galaxy City and the loss of a favorite starting zone, but I don't see a strong reason beyond nostalgia to bring it back as it was. I agree it could have potential as a new 35-50 co-op zone.

 

The loss of Galaxy City was (for me) just one more piece of evidence that the Live devs didn't care about preserving some fundamental "evergreen" aspects of the game (see also "Who Will Die?, Dark Astoria, Praetoria) and would ditch anything in order to tell narrow content about very specific NPC characters' 'development'. I'm mostly neutral on the Live changes to Mercy Island.

 

I have no objection to the Faultline or Hollows Live revamps, as those didn't fundamentally change those zones (as engaged by level-appropriate characters). Similarly the HC changes to Atlas Park and Mercy Island are practically invisible (if not sweating going to another zone for AE). I am cold on the changes Live+HC to the Rikti War zone, but I get why Live revamped it.

Whereas i want Fort Darwin back lol.  My first experience in CoH was busting out of the Zig and hitting Fort Darwin.  Yes, it was corny.  But damned.  It was home. 

[PoptartsNinja]

One of City of Heroes' greatest problems was splitting its playerbase. Splitting the playerbase was genuinely harmful and hastened the death of the game. Unfortunately, the OG devs did it all the time: first with Atlas Park and Galaxy City, then with CoV, then with Praetoria. When something had to give after Praetoria and they needed to start concentrating players to avoid the "nobody plays this game!" new player death spiral, they chose to get rid of Galaxy City.

 

I'd love to see Galaxy City return--but not as a newbie zone. If it gets resurrected (with or without a facelift), I'd love to see it brought back as a new mid-level zone--perhaps as a precursor to Faultline; or a follow-up after it, with some streamlined content with a minimum of "go to another zone and" missions similar to Overbrook and Faultline's setup.

 

I know the current dev team is mostly focused on high-level content to give the 50s more to do, and the odds of the city's lower-level content getting an overhaul is pretty slim--but the midlevel content could really use some streamlining. I can think of at least one contact in Founders' Falls, for example, who sends players to no missions withinin Founders Falls itself--and I know that's not a rarity. We could use a mid-high level zone that is a bit more... contained.

Edited Thursday at 01:47 PM by PoptartsNinja

[Captain Fabulous]

I'll echo a lot of the sentiment here, I'd love to see Galaxy City come back, but not as a starting zone. I mean, I would love for it to be a starting zone too, I have a lot of fond memories playing low level content there. But the game has evolved and IMO it just doesn't need another starting zone.

[Apogee]

6 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I think you need to talk to this guy's dad.

 

 

I hear his father is runs the construction company that is responsible for repairing the City after aliens, giant robots, and kaiju attacked, but that was a long time ago. He might be running his father's construction company now.

 

Sorry, I don't know the reference

[Go0gleplex]

I can see bringing back the zone but rather than as a beginner zone it is more an upper-mid level dealing with shivan and arachnos remnants lurking around trying to retain their foothold.  And of course Crey is there for 'research' purposes while the Family is trying to corral the construction contracts and such by any means necessary.   Potential is there for expansion and I do miss the zone which I think is better organized than Atlas which suffers from trying to cram too many different land use types into a smaller area.

Edited Thursday at 08:12 PM by Go0gleplex

[El D]

If HC does something with Galaxy City, it needs to be something new - just bringing back the old starting zone would probably leave it as another mostly empty blueside map, initial nostalgia burst aside. As it is, even if underutilized Galaxy's Last Stand at least offers the most modern tutorial showcasing game mechanics that neither of the original tutorials do. Overall, I have doubts that any of the 'destroyed' blueside zones will ever get major revamps by this point. Between the amount of work it takes to redesign an entire zone map, then set out NPCs and mob spawns, write dialogue, mission arcs, plaques, badges... It's a lot. Then multiply that by the sheer number of 'this area of Paragon has been in total ruins for 20+ years' zones and it turns from Mt. Everest to Olympus Mons. It'd be a big ask for a fully funded staff working full time. 

 

All that said, I fully support something being done with Galaxy City, I'd just expect it to be more manageable, content-wise. Some new mission arcs or a big task force could easily work, whether that takes place amid the ruins against the Neo-Shivans and advances the Coming Storm or involves Ouroboros to flashback to the original Galaxy City and teaming up with Galaxy Girl and Dauntless (and/or some of the other Galaxy heroes honored with statues - Cassiopeia, Wayland, M1). Ouroboros flashing back to historical heroes and city zones 'before they fell' could actually be a really neat way to do a pseudo-revamp and tell a lot of stories CoH has never really touched on in the process.

[Zhym]

15 hours ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

It could in fact become a serious mission arc: Reclaiming and rebuilding Galaxy City and ensuring it becomes safe once more.

And the perfect contact for that arc (or TF)?

 

Back Alley Brawler.

 

Dude needs something to do anyway.  Why not have him head up reclaiming Galaxy City?

 

[Skyhawke]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

Whereas i want Fort Darwin back lol.  My first experience in CoH was busting out of the Zig and hitting Fort Darwin.  Yes, it was corny.  But damned.  It was home. 

 

To this day, I hate starting where villains do now.  I also loved starting in the Fort and working my way outwards.

[lemming]

Kind of a non-starter when they show what is going on in the new mission where you explore what is going on in Galaxy.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Pay_Phone