Story arc observation

[Daydreamer]

Yea, I was taking a close look, and I'm pretty sure the area names come from horror film directors.  Took me a few minutes to realize that Romero Heights wasn't named after the creater of Daikatana...

[schild]

Yes, it's named after the italian horror director.

[geldonyetich]

(Granted, the gaming Romero is scarier than any movie I've ever seen.)

[jpark]

I noticed a complaint on the main boards for CoH about a group member hogging clues.

??

Does it matter who gets the clues in a mission?  I have never thought about this.  If it's my mission- someone gets a clue - we eventually complete the mission.  No big deal.

Or is it?

[geldonyetich]

Some clues, when recovered, grant an experience reward to the one that recovered it.    Sometimes quite a substancial amount.   This can chafe a bit when it's your mission and you're wanting that experience and the snake you invited along decided to snag the experience for himself.

[Glazius]

At what exact moment in time is a mission caliberated for the party size and level?

Currently, I am under the impression it is set based on the size of the party when the mission is selected by the leader of the group.  Any confirmation on this or disagreement?

Some have argued it is set by the first member to enter the instance, others have argued it is set at the time the contact gives you the mission.

Here's how I understand it.

The base level of the mobs and their distribution are set up by the game when you get the mission.

Bringing more people into the mission increases the number of mobs, adds more lieutenants and bosses (bosses show up reliably in the groups at about 4 team members) and increases the mob level (+1 for >4, +2 for 7 or 8, not sure there).

This is actually dynamic. So if you clear out the first few groups of a mission, then invite your seven friends in, the succeeding groups will be sized for eight people. It also works in reverse - if you wipe out some mob groups, then four people leave your group, the succeeding mobs will be scaled for only four people. Neither change happens until the relevant people are actually in the mission zone - so if you wipe the first few spawns easily, THEN your seven teammates show up, things are going to suddenly get a lot harder.

The real problem is when you bring in eight, get wiped by an overspawn, and then four people quit in disgust - the remaining for still have to deal with that overspawn (though succeeding ones are scaled better). You can rezero a mission by selecting a different active one and choosing to abort the mission in progress when the game asks you to. Then going back into the mission won't result in overspawn.

So far I've found three or four to be an optimal group size - especially for the task force missions that let you bring in a force that small.

--GF

[Xilren's Twin]

Thats rather interesting.  I am a souvenir addict.  As it stands, I am working through level 24, have jut been given all my level 25 contacts (they wont give me any missions yet), and I have:

Souvenir update: as of lvl 22 I have the following:

Skull Bandana - Hellions and Skulls
Water Dept ID Badge - Vhaz
Etched Peice - Clockworks
Damaged Powersource - Clockworks
Rage Ampoule - Tsoo & Trolls
Hypodermic Needle - Vhaz (including Doc)
Tsoo Dagger - Tsoo, Family and Warriors
Iron Hand's Badge - Freakshow
(and I blew the Wheel of Destruction last mission - Banished Pantheon).

In checking around both the boards and with other players, it seems it really doesn't matter what origin you are, all players can get these story arcs.  Not sure why so many players seem to miss them unless the just advance past them without realizing it.  Being a primarily solo player, I always attempt to do every mission I have (no matter what the foe group) so as a result I dont think Ive missed any. One nice thing about completing one is I believe you get a reward on top of the reward for the normal completion of the last mission; i.e. when I finished the Tsoo dagger last mission, I got a double reward of 1600 exp and influence.

My main dissappointment is that there really aren't very many overall arcs.  From what I've ready they tend to taper off the higher you go so if you get them all you might end up with 16-20 or so total.

To me, this would be an easy content add for cryptic; a lot more story arcs with souveniers at the end, else every character will get the same ones if they choose to pursue them.  Heck just rip off half a dozen comic book plots.  Since the missions themselves aren't that different from a one of mission, it seems like it would just be some story writing and linking.

Like the story arcs; just want more, lots more (like 20 per origin instead of 20 total in the whole game).

Xilren

[kaid]

You can only get two story lines active at one time. Often your contacts you chose when you get options influance what story lines you will be able to do. Also at lower levels outleveling missions is a problem especially if you do not concentrate on clearing your own missions all the time.

I finally did two story lines now that I have been grouping with just one other person and we have been concentrating on really working the story line missions because they are interesting.

So far at level 15 I have the etched clock work piece and the skulls bandana.

Once you get nearer to 20 leveling starts slowing down and that allows you to actually complete more and more story lines although due to choices of contacts it is likely that one person cannot hit them all.


kaid

[eldaec]

You can only get two story lines active at one time.

90% sure a dev shot down this rumour a few weeks back.

I am, however, too lazy to look up the quote.

Also, I've had clockworks, skulls, and vahz clues in my clue section all at once.

[kaid]

At least in beta the devs said only two active story lines at a time not sure if they opened that up more. As for having different clues in your list that can happen as some of the story lines cover more than one gang.

My skulls bandanas had both hellion and skulls info and even had some clues talking about the family and the trolls.


kaid