Increase Story Arc Level Caps - Here's my pitch

[Completist]

CoH has a TON of content that is impossible to see without disabling XP. Why not increase the story arc/contact level ranges so that you can access them for a wider breadth of content? I want to be able to complete lower-level story arcs without outleveling the contact. 

 

I anticipate a few hasty responses to this:

 

• Enemy groups don't go high enough: Some content doesn't work because enemy groups are limited to a specific range of levels. 

OK. So maybe every arc can't just last until 50. But they could at least be expanded beyond their current one-zone range, typically only 5 or 10 levels. Atlas Park could at least stay viable until 15. Or, (and I realize this one requires more work,) story arc instanced missions could auto-sidekick people down to the max level of the enemy group, the way TFs work. 

 

• You can just disable XP.

While this is semi valid, it isn't reasonable. Dirty casuals like me want to progress while they do content. I've done the completionist, disable-XP-and-do-all-the-content thing. IT IS VERY LONELY. 

 

There is a reason that the vast majority of mission teams you see are running in P.I. and Grandville. Those are the level ranges were you can play as intended: progressing slowly enough to actually follow the story content to conclusion. It simply doesn't work at low levels; you outlevel the contacts and get sent to another zone. And that's a shame, because some of those early arcs are fast and fun and dramatic--killer content that we mostly miss out on. 

 

And let's be honest: It feels bad to throw away XP just to see the story. I earned it, why shouldn't I get it? (A "bank" on XP that prevented your effective level from increasing until you chose to would mitigate that, and doesn't sound too hard to implement. But that's getting away from the main thrust of this post so I'll move on.)

 

• You can run them in Ouroboros.

Not really! Have you tried it? It's pretty annoying. Flashbacks work like TFs, locking out characters of too low level. You can't just hop into a pickup group in the middle of an arc.  Great for story completionists but too much hassle for people still on the grind. Also pretty lonely. 

 

• It's a lot of work for something many people don't care at all about.

That is true.

 

Not everyone has the dream, like I do, to be able to pick any contact of my level and do their missions without getting arbitrarily kicked to the curb if I level up too much.  To level meaningfully by following one contact's missions to conclusion, one after another.  To be able to hop into a new zone and team up with somebody many levels higher who might be doing the same missions as me.

 

Or even just see a bigger variety of missions when I'm inevitably tagging along with characters in the mid-40s range.

 

I think it is a worthy goal. There's so much content that is only seen by a tiny fraction of characters; it's a waste. 

 

Changing it seems "simple enough": just raise the contact level caps as high as they can go. For example, those Atlas Park 1-5 contacts could go 1-15 instead. Those Faultline arcs that players are somehow supposed to cram into 15-19 can be stretched to 29, the max level for Lost enemies. Etc. Later, if faction caps can also be increased, say, by turning Lost into Rikti or introducing higher-tier Hellions, story arcs could be stretched even further, opening up more content for characters of every level.

I can't see any reason why you wouldn't want to, e.g., allow a 40th level character to complete a mission for his level 20 contact, but feel free to comment if you think otherwise. Maybe if a later-level story arc refers to an earlier one, you would need to keep those arcs' level-ranges sequential. But that has to be the exception rather than the rule.

 

And if the devs think it's not worth their time and effort, I volunteer! Point me at the code and the tedious individual number-changing.

 

I'll do it. That's my pitch. 

[Rudra]

14 minutes ago, Completist said:

• Enemy groups don't go high enough: Some content doesn't work because enemy groups are limited to a specific range of levels. 

OK. So maybe every arc can't just last until 50. But they could at least be expanded beyond their current one-zone range, typically only 5 or 10 levels. Atlas Park could at least stay viable until 15. Or, (and I realize this one requires more work,) story arc instanced missions could auto-sidekick people down to the max level of the enemy group, the way TFs work. 

Enemy groups don't go that high. And when you run up against the max level for a group, extending the arc's range beyond just means you'll be fighting enemies you outclass automatically. As for the auto-sidekick part? If it could be done? Great. However, there is a reason why the TF system exists and is also used for the flashback system.

 

16 minutes ago, Completist said:

• You can just disable XP.

While this is semi valid, it isn't reasonable. Dirty casuals like me want to progress while they do content. I've done the completionist, disable-XP-and-do-all-the-content thing. IT IS VERY LONELY. 

It is only as lonely as you choose to keep it. Ask your friends to run around with you, and it becomes less lonely. Also, there is nothing "semi-valid" or unreasonable about turning off XP to experience all the content given how much content we have.

 

18 minutes ago, Completist said:

• You can run them in Ouroboros.

Not really! Have you tried it? It's pretty annoying. Flashbacks work like TFs, locking out characters of too low level. You can't just hop into a pickup group in the middle of an arc.  Great for story completionists but too much hassle for people still on the grind. Also pretty lonely. 

You can run them in Ouroboros. That is why Ouroboros was added in the first place, to be able to play content you missed. So there is no "not really" to being able to run content in Ouroboros. You may find it annoying, but that does not invalidate the Ouroboros response. And as far as the TF system part goes, see two comments in this post above. As far as the lonely part? See the preceding comment in this post.

[srmalloy]

5 hours ago, Completist said:

CoH has a TON of content that is impossible to see without disabling XP. Why not increase the story arc/contact level ranges so that you can access them for a wider breadth of content? I want to be able to complete lower-level story arcs without outleveling the contact. 

 

I anticipate a few hasty responses to this:

Add another one: You've got 1000 character slots; why should you be fixated on doing them all on one character?

[Alverant]

I get what you're saying. I disable XP a lot just to get through everything. Ouroboros is a pain because you have to do the whole arc in one sitting.

I'm not sure how it could be done, but being self-side-kicked automatically when you enter mish doors may solve the issue.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if they trimmed the missions down on hero side to just the badge and story arcs, or at least put them near the start of the list.

[Rudra]

2 minutes ago, Alverant said:

Ouroboros is a pain because you have to do the whole arc in one sitting.

No, you don't. I mean, you definitely can, but there is nothing forcing you to. If you are running solo, complete it whenever you want. If running with friends, then just continue next time.

[srmalloy]

18 hours ago, Rudra said:

No, you don't. I mean, you definitely can, but there is nothing forcing you to. If you are running solo, complete it whenever you want. If running with friends, then just continue next time.

People who joined CoH a few issues in missed some of the player responses to some of the problems with the content. One of these was that the Positron Task Force was the Quarterhell of its time, and groups would often do it over a weekend -- running through around half the TF on Saturday (or Friday evening), then all log off and come back the next day to finish it. And that's still a mostly-hidden feature of being in Task Force mode -- that logging out doesn't crash you out of the task force; you have to actively quit -- so you can do a couple missions in the arc, switch to another character, run their missions, then come back to the first character and run a couple more missions in the arc, taking breaks whenever you want to, until you finish the arc.

[Psyonico]

On 6/3/2025 at 11:32 AM, Completist said:

There is a reason that the vast majority of mission teams you see are running in P.I. and Grandville. Those are the level ranges were you can play as intended: progressing slowly enough to actually follow the story content to conclusion.

Most PI/Grandville mission teams are radio teams, not story arc teams, so your premise here is flawed.

 

the one exception being Maria Jenkins, but I can assure you people aren’t running that arc for the umpteenth time for the story, they’re running it for Portal Jockey.

[Completist]

On 6/3/2025 at 7:02 PM, srmalloy said:

Add another one: You've got 1000 character slots; why should you be fixated on doing them all on one character?

Not a bad question, but in this case I'm addressing the overall story arc ecosystem. The game progresses so fast (at least for the first 40 levels) that you usually can't complete a contact in the time you have with them. For example today I made a new guy and played through Matthew Habashy's arc with a level 3 stranger. Stomped through a few missions, had a good time, and then couldn't share progress on the subsequent contact because she out-leveled it. In a bigger team with better XP we'd all have been kicked to the curb. A small example, but indicative of the overall issue. 

 

Content is already a mixed bag. Running unpredictable missions from a contact who you might outlevel before getting their merit-granting arc isn't ideal.

 

On 6/3/2025 at 1:54 PM, Rudra said:

You can run them in Ouroboros. That is why Ouroboros was added in the first place, to be able to play content you missed. So there is no "not really" to being able to run content in Ouroboros. You may find it annoying, but that does not invalidate the Ouroboros response.

 

OK, sure, you can, but it has an opportunity cost. Running Ouro missions means missing out on the level-appropriate missions your contacts could give you; being locked into TF mode and unable to hop into a MSR or TF; and can't play with friends or teammates of lower level. Ouro is a great feature for content completionists but it is not the ideal way to play. 

 

On 6/4/2025 at 6:32 PM, Psyonico said:

Most PI/Grandville mission teams are radio teams, not story arc teams, so your premise here is flawed.

 

the one exception being Maria Jenkins, but I can assure you people aren’t running that arc for the umpteenth time for the story, they’re running it for Portal Jockey.

 

I'll grant you that. And maybe at the end of the day it's okay that people want to do the same stuff over and over again. 

 

But that is kinda what I'm getting at. If story missions were more accessible and more reliably rewarding (wider level ranges is one way to help accomplish that), maybe you'd see more than just a fraction of the playerbase running them.

 

---

 

So you guys have plenty of criticism, but still, do you think it would make the game worse somehow to open up access to story missions? Or is it just not worth the trouble?

[Rudra]

3 minutes ago, Completist said:

Running Ouro missions means missing out on the level-appropriate missions your contacts could give you

No, it doesn't. At all. You can run anything in Ouro' you have already out-leveled. At level 50, you unlock access to everything in Ouroboros that you have met the unlock conditions for, like required badges. So you can do Ouro' runs before level 50 for anything you out-leveled, and if you want to make sure you don't out-level current contacts, turn off xp while doing so. And at level 50, you can do all your current contacts and everything in Ouroboros without out-leveling your current contacts.

[Psyonico]

I was merely pointing out that your supposition on Pi/Grandville teams is incorrect.

 

but more on point: because this game is 21 years old and the vast majority of its player base are veterans, a lot of people just “race toward the end” and increasing level ranges of arcs won’t change that.

 

Also, let’s just say the level ranges are increased for the arcs where enemies can be increased.  You’re just pushing the “problem” of out leveling content down the road… so instead of out leveling arc A because you hit 25, you end up out leveling arc B at level 30 because you ran arc A in the new range and arc B can’t be increased past 30.

[lemming]

Personally, I like the idea of being able to go to any contact and do their missions at their level.  Doable without having to mess with a lot of mob files, though has it's own tricky bits.