We pretty much just got an alternate 6-40 leveling path with Grabs. So yeah, now they can work on endgame.
How much more exp do they really give now ? I can just remember that i did 2-3 grabs ever in the past and mostly i had to pull the whole group of lows through it, and took maybe 15 minutes or whatever, and so it was more like leveling in VB-Crypts compared to Open World leveling in Canada or MI where you can maybe make 4-5 times more exp.
I cannot give hard numbers, but the change makes using the Alerts to level a much slower experience, indeed it incentivizes going out and doing missions.
Only "A day at the mall", and perhaps "Fighting City HAll" are good for a quick Xp burst, otherwise it is now best to just run them once for the 15% Xp buff.
______________________________________________________________ My Characters
TBH, I'm glad they're changing formats to make it more necessary / viable to run missions for XP ... that is where the 'meat' of the game is, after all.
But they should have let it be until they had a better leveling multipath, imo.
Also, I think the idea of having Vibora start at a lower level is a great idea, if for no other reason than to give players a bit of a sentimental tug when they return at level 40 for the apocalypse (also, as a side note, way to give away the whole Valerian Scarlet dealie by making her the villain in some alerts ... yeah, I know people may already know, but some people don't read everything I imagine, and I liked pretending to be surprised by the 'twist' when I first did the quest line.)
The "difficulty" in plotting out Vibora Bay low-level missions, that being said, is to figure out how to work it into the later storyline to show how the heroes have, unwittingly, aided Therakiel's plans. I'm not sure bringing the Queen City quest chain down from 22 is a good answer, though reducing it to the 16-22 level (putting it on par with the PSI stuff in MC) would be good.
6-15 chains should feature, imo, fighting the posergangs, which would explain the supernatural surge in later levels ("'ey! How's we gonna beat them superbums?" "Oh, I have a way. You know that ritual that might go wrong but makes us REAL Werewolves I bought at the minefield? Let's try that!" "Sure, ain't no way we're getting ahead otherwise, right?") Also, another quest chain I think would be great to flesh out at a lower level (maybe the 16-22 range) would be the "Set Us Up the Bomb" where you go into a super-secret police command center that's overrun with Zombies (a la Resident Evil.) I don't recall them ever saying HOW or WHY the zombies got in there, and I think it might be a fun story to explore.
TBH, I'm glad they're changing formats to make it more necessary / viable to run missions for XP ... that is where the 'meat' of the game is, after all.
But they should have let it be until they had a better leveling multipath, imo.
Also, I think the idea of having Vibora start at a lower level is a great idea, if for no other reason than to give players a bit of a sentimental tug when they return at level 40 for the apocalypse (also, as a side note, way to give away the whole Valerian Scarlet dealie by making her the villain in some alerts ... yeah, I know people may already know, but some people don't read everything I imagine, and I liked pretending to be surprised by the 'twist' when I first did the quest line.)
The "difficulty" in plotting out Vibora Bay low-level missions, that being said, is to figure out how to work it into the later storyline to show how the heroes have, unwittingly, aided Therakiel's plans. I'm not sure bringing the Queen City quest chain down from 22 is a good answer, though reducing it to the 16-22 level (putting it on par with the PSI stuff in MC) would be good.
6-15 chains should feature, imo, fighting the posergangs, which would explain the supernatural surge in later levels ("'ey! How's we gonna beat them superbums?" "Oh, I have a way. You know that ritual that might go wrong but makes us REAL Werewolves I bought at the minefield? Let's try that!" "Sure, ain't no way we're getting ahead otherwise, right?") Also, another quest chain I think would be great to flesh out at a lower level (maybe the 16-22 range) would be the "Set Us Up the Bomb" where you go into a super-secret police command center that's overrun with Zombies (a la Resident Evil.) I don't recall them ever saying HOW or WHY the zombies got in there, and I think it might be a fun story to explore.
I assume us busting gangsters THAT early would make them more organized, thus on par with the Queen City questline.
Well it should lead to the Gemini gang's prominence I imagine, since it can be inferred that without Gemini running things, the other gangs proceed apace. I like the idea of beating up the posergang, though ... just the thing for an urban hero ... and frankly it'd be nice to see Black Mask, Dr. Ka, and Redsnake y'know, doing something.
Actually, if I had my druthers, Chief Buford would start you on the trail of the Dogs including a gauntlet-style fight in their Dogz Pound club, Black Mask would have you battling, say, more "agent" style villains (like low-level Argent, maybe) and Redsnake would have a great rivalry with, say, the Red Banner (maybe move the Burt Jackson missions to Vibora and/or split them up or retool / reshuffle them.) Dr. Ka would make a good mission giver against the New Shadows, and everyone should have negative things to say about Robert Caliburn, setting him up as the villain he's inferred to be in the Vibora Apocalypse introduction.
You have the choice of either starting with the Queen City storyline as your tutorial (Grim girtty heroes can go there and compare batwings), or your introduction into the Champions Junior League and the training in their version of the Danger Room (Classic capes can start there and argue about politics).
Once you hit level 6 you're thrust in a beefed up Qulaar invasion. This takes you to MC at lvl 8 and the choice of either doing Westside, or the four Crisis because the spit is hitting the fan. At the end of the Crisis chain you're aware that it was a coordinated series of events designed to distract the heroic forces of the world, and put you on Doc D's radar.
At 15 and ready to hit the Desert and Canada. And/ or to take on the newly revamped Nemesis system.
That's overall a pretty cool set of ideas, though I'm not sure I like them, personally.
I think starting the tutorial in either MC or VB would be a good idea, but I think in MC it's a simulation of the Qularr (since there's no Star Wars medal scene, it's bupkis anyway) and maybe in VB they do a "blackout" where criminals run wild all over the streets.
Actually, that would be a pretty good lead in to level 6-15 quests where you decide which mentor's leads to investigate to find out who's responsible for the Blackout (probably Juryrig via interference from Therakiel.)
Ideally, if they can't / won't create a new zone, I would love if they would add some missions and separate the quest chains.
Defender (Purple Gang / VIPER or ARGENT)
Quest chain that sets player heroes against some low-level tech thieves that turn out to be Kevin Poe and his ilk; Missions should include Defender sending the heroes to investigate the tech theft (using the Warlord Map) from Harmon Industries, confronting haywire security robots and then running afoul of a Purple Gang boss (not Kevin Poe) who will then reappear in several more missions in the chain. While the primary focus of this set of missions will be Purple Gang, heroes will also encounter VIPER who is sharing tech with the Purple Gang, to help them take out PSI.
Kodiak (Black Aces / Maniacs)
Quest chain sends heroes right into investigating the jailbreak, and finding out Zoe Loft's involvement in it. After breaking up the initial jailbreak meeting, the Black Aces will start trying to poach the new recruits; Heroes will have to stop the assorted chaos caused by the two gangs, including attempts to blame crimes on the opposing gang. The culmination of this quest chain will see Heroes having to bust up a summit reminiscent of Hi Pan's meeting, but only using Aces and Maniacs, with no other hero to assist.
Sapphire (Cobra Lords / Foxbat)
Quest chain sends heroes right to the Cobra Lords to investigate random fights; There is something more behind the missions, evident early, but nothing is said. Eventually, the heroes find out that the Cobra Lords are pressing kids from the High School by selling them performance-enhancing drugs (leading to the supercharged Cobra Lords.) We find out that a student or group, being supported by Sapphire is endagered by this. Foxbat, given his crush on Sapphire, sticks his nose in to prove he's better suited to handle things than the hero she'd sent to do the work.
This should ideally lead the heroes from 6-15.
I think the whole Hi-Pan arc should be saved for after this, and given as an alternative to pursuing PSI (the natural outgrowth of the Defender series of missions.)
Honestly, ideally, I'd want to see them rotate the starter heroes every 3-4 months, have someone different handing out missions maybe.
This, very much this, although knowing me I'd probably try to do all the quests with a single hero or something like that.
The Level 6-15 Westside area Needs a revamp anyway. And not just because of us older players have burned through it so many times that we can almost word for word quote the NPC dialogue. But to also reflect the Tutorial Revamp. The tutorial is now basically a simulation of The Invasion which was the old tutorial. However, Enemy NPC dialogue still makes reference to the Tutorial as if the Invasion had just happened. Where the tutorial, on the other hand, now makes it seem like happened years ago (which it did for the older players). Specifically the mission in the Sewers to break up the meeting needs to be changed to reflect the change of the tutorial.
Comments
My super cool CC build and how to use it.
How much more exp do they really give now ? I can just remember that i did 2-3 grabs ever in the past and mostly i had to pull the whole group of lows through it, and took maybe 15 minutes or whatever, and so it was more like leveling in VB-Crypts compared to Open World leveling in Canada or MI where you can maybe make 4-5 times more exp.
Only "A day at the mall", and perhaps "Fighting City HAll" are good for a quick Xp burst, otherwise it is now best to just run them once for the 15% Xp buff.
My Characters
But they should have let it be until they had a better leveling multipath, imo.
Also, I think the idea of having Vibora start at a lower level is a great idea, if for no other reason than to give players a bit of a sentimental tug when they return at level 40 for the apocalypse (also, as a side note, way to give away the whole Valerian Scarlet dealie by making her the villain in some alerts ... yeah, I know people may already know, but some people don't read everything I imagine, and I liked pretending to be surprised by the 'twist' when I first did the quest line.)
The "difficulty" in plotting out Vibora Bay low-level missions, that being said, is to figure out how to work it into the later storyline to show how the heroes have, unwittingly, aided Therakiel's plans. I'm not sure bringing the Queen City quest chain down from 22 is a good answer, though reducing it to the 16-22 level (putting it on par with the PSI stuff in MC) would be good.
6-15 chains should feature, imo, fighting the posergangs, which would explain the supernatural surge in later levels ("'ey! How's we gonna beat them superbums?" "Oh, I have a way. You know that ritual that might go wrong but makes us REAL Werewolves I bought at the minefield? Let's try that!" "Sure, ain't no way we're getting ahead otherwise, right?") Also, another quest chain I think would be great to flesh out at a lower level (maybe the 16-22 range) would be the "Set Us Up the Bomb" where you go into a super-secret police command center that's overrun with Zombies (a la Resident Evil.) I don't recall them ever saying HOW or WHY the zombies got in there, and I think it might be a fun story to explore.
I assume us busting gangsters THAT early would make them more organized, thus on par with the Queen City questline.
Actually, if I had my druthers, Chief Buford would start you on the trail of the Dogs including a gauntlet-style fight in their Dogz Pound club, Black Mask would have you battling, say, more "agent" style villains (like low-level Argent, maybe) and Redsnake would have a great rivalry with, say, the Red Banner (maybe move the Burt Jackson missions to Vibora and/or split them up or retool / reshuffle them.) Dr. Ka would make a good mission giver against the New Shadows, and everyone should have negative things to say about Robert Caliburn, setting him up as the villain he's inferred to be in the Vibora Apocalypse introduction.
You have the choice of either starting with the Queen City storyline as your tutorial (Grim girtty heroes can go there and compare batwings), or your introduction into the Champions Junior League and the training in their version of the Danger Room (Classic capes can start there and argue about politics).
Once you hit level 6 you're thrust in a beefed up Qulaar invasion. This takes you to MC at lvl 8 and the choice of either doing Westside, or the four Crisis because the spit is hitting the fan. At the end of the Crisis chain you're aware that it was a coordinated series of events designed to distract the heroic forces of the world, and put you on Doc D's radar.
At 15 and ready to hit the Desert and Canada. And/ or to take on the newly revamped Nemesis system.
Wait? Whaaaa..?
I think starting the tutorial in either MC or VB would be a good idea, but I think in MC it's a simulation of the Qularr (since there's no Star Wars medal scene, it's bupkis anyway) and maybe in VB they do a "blackout" where criminals run wild all over the streets.
Actually, that would be a pretty good lead in to level 6-15 quests where you decide which mentor's leads to investigate to find out who's responsible for the Blackout (probably Juryrig via interference from Therakiel.)
This, very much this, although knowing me I'd probably try to do all the quests with a single hero or something like that.
Not that this isn't a good thread...
That's just my 500 zen, though.