How do you feel about Lemuria and Monster Island?

rancidmojo · December 2019

I was wondering why none of my nemesis seem to attack the other day when I spoke too soon. On three different alts I got jumped by minions and they all dropped clues. 2 of the clues went to Lemuria. Both times I noticed no one else was in the zone.

Is Lemuria kinda dead? I jaunted over there earlier today just to see and no other players were around at all. I will admit that I do missions other than Lemuria or Monster Island just so I can outlevel them and not go there. I just don't care much for those zones. They kind of take the immersion of playing a superhero out of the game for me. YMMV, I just wondered if anyone else plays or does not play in those zones.

(Monster Island is okay in some ways, but I still avoid it)

ealford1985 · December 2019

Monster Island is the best place...why would you avoid it?! If you aren’t trying to level up there you are missing out. A lot of kill or find missions on the map that don’t require you to enter some base.

I usually finish off leveling on MI.

Lemuria is just not hangout friendly, it looks nice and all but it’s so all over the place and depth that people either don’t go there or finish up the basic missions and leave.

rancidmojo · December 2019

I've been able to get to level 40 without touching MI. That's not a bad thing, there should be optional ways to get XP at every level in my opinion. I wish there was more to do in Vibora Bay besides the supernatural stuff, too, but they'd probably have to raise the level cap.

spinnytop · December 2019

Lemuria has been unpopular for a long time. Something about the fact that you swim through it turns people off. I think it's because it makes the zone feel longer than it is, and travel times longer than they are. Other than that I think it's a very neat zone with some very neat quests.

Monster island is also cool. As far as immersion... well, people use that word in lots of weird ways to the degree that it barely means anything anymore. It certainly doesn't mean "realistic" in the context of video games... and of course in the context of comic book super heroes, "realistic" gets all but thrown out the door. Really it comes down to the individual character - for some characters, running around a city busting up gang members makes no sense, and they should actually be able to start on monster island because that setting fits them much better.

As a place to level, Monster Island is always one of the two final stops that my characters make, the other being Vibora Bay. Monster Island especially tends to have bunches of quests all in the same location, so it's very efficient. I usually go there around 27 ( I think that's when quests there start ), and I stay there until 35, at which point it's time to head into the Vibora Bay Apocalypse!

markhawkman · December 2019

So, a few quick numbers:
West edge of MC: -1513 545 -1319
Defender's Kiosk: 5647 202 -1746
East edge: 11130 333 -2038

Monster Island south: 206 310 -5708
Monster Island north: 712 920 4916

Lemuria south: 2085 2350 -467
Lemuria spawn: 2360 2294 388
Lemuria north: 1332 2313 5769

So yeah, based on horizontal distance Lemuria is smaller than Millenium City. It's not as flat though.

vinxbr · December 2019

I kinda like Monster Island, most of my toons i end leveling there too (depending on they'r theme, i like playing in eviroments that have some relation to my characters theme XD)

Lemurian, to be honest, i had actually forgoth that place existed. Seriously, last time i played there was around 2 or 3 years ago. uhm, maybe i should make more fish toons

mordray001 · December 2019

Monster Island is kind of neat as far as environments go... though it's rarely a good fit for any of my toons backgrounds/themes... it can be fun to explore the place and fight the new foes, but without a good motivation to be there and the strangeness of the situation tends to leave me not really interested in this distant place with it's strange people and their rather localized issues.

Lemuria is even more of a strange place from my perspective... not only doesn't it make sense to me... even with magic I find the entire situation just plain absurd... and it only reminds me why I hate flying in this and most games and the 3D maneuvering only makes the fights frustrating... that said... I love just diving around that place and exploring it... it's a very neat place to visit, but I don't want much of anything to do with it beyond that.

jaazaniah1 · December 2019

I love Lemuria! I go through the entire chain of missions there on every 4th character I create. I have an aquatic themed character who's next on the list for a visit there. My only complaint is that there are not enough missions in Lemuria to completely level to 40 once I get there. I wish the zone was both larger and had more missions. I enjoy it probably for the reason that many others hate it, the more 3D aspect to the combat. Maybe the reason the devs have never finished the Lemuria cosmic level encounter they have tinkered with is that they are afraid of all the player whinging that will happen if the fight is in the water? Here's hoping the update the Mandragalore lair as well!

darqaura2 · December 2019

When I use to level new alts, Lemuria was actually an interesting place. Unlike a lot of folks I liked the 3D movement. Added a bit of thinking to questing through the zone. Granted though there are some stinkers there. Monster Island is just meh to me, but I can understand why a lot of folks like it. I rejoiced years back when Vibora Bay became a thing.

gemini2099 · December 2019

I love both MI and Lemuria.

jonsills · December 2019

My issue with Lemuria isn't the3D per se, it's the fact that it can be so very frustrating to find locations. Sure, there's a map marker - but is it above you, sitting on top of a giant leaf, or below you, in a cave concealed by the shadows of rocks and those damned leaves again? So I swim around, inadvertently drawing aggro from random mobs that I accidentally find while trying to figure out where the hell I'm supposed to be. I'd rather be on Monster Island, where that's only an issue if I fly and don't pay attention to where I am. (Most of the sky mobs are over the Manimal areas, so just watch for the hovering vulture-men and steer around them when you can.)

spinnytop · December 2019

Also the caves.

avianos · December 2019

Monster Island is always my last Location when I level up new characters even thought there are some specific missions I hate (Professor Rat, inspecting multiply times the hidden viper laboratory, revisiting multiple times the worm cave and the mission given from Dr. Silverback than gives you a Viper Disguise in order to defeat manimals and apply a Card Device that has TOO LONG OF A CD)
Beyond those horrible missions its a pretty cool place, full of green earthly natural colours compared to the constant Snow from Canada and Brown and grey from Desert, it's a pleasant location to fighting against mad scientists and rescuing Manimals

Lemuria while cool and has a lot of good EXP Gain from the missions, is extremely obnoxious due to under the sea and moving constantly in XYZ-axis and getting some horrible Kingdom Hearts 1 Atlantica and Ocarina of time Water Temple flashbacks.
Has a some interesting designed missions around the Occult of Bleak ones and gives GOOD EXP
It has a lot of underused enemy factions (Robot Pirates and Ghost Pirates)
I have done all Lemuria missions for theme and completition sake on 2-3 character

Vibora Bay suffers from Old-MMORPG Bad design syndrom. Big spacy empty instances, Slow burn and paste missions, grindy, fetch quest missions who barely give any EXP and propably weren't even updated! If you want to hit lvl 40 go back to MI and Lemuria
However I love it because I'm a fan of aesthetics location, Werewolves, Vampires and supernatural cryptids in general and its a better place to be than Millennium City
COOL LOCATION AND THEMES - HORRIBLE AND OUTDATED MISSION DESIGN! Yet I completed the full mission arc with multiple characters
Now doing all the missions for theme and completition on certain characters wasn't really worth it, this place hasnt been touched at all

spookyspectre · December 2019

I usually level my toons in Lemuria and really like the zone. I wish it had more of a draw for other folks. I used to have an underwater costume for all of my toons but got a little lax with that.

captainhunter1 · December 2019

jonsills wrote: »

My issue with Lemuria isn't the3D per se, it's the fact that it can be so very frustrating to find locations. Sure, there's a map marker - but is it above you, sitting on top of a giant leaf, or below you, in a cave concealed by the shadows of rocks and those damned leaves again? So I swim around, inadvertently drawing aggro from random mobs that I accidentally find while trying to figure out where the hell I'm supposed to be. I'd rather be on Monster Island, where that's only an issue if I fly and don't pay attention to where I am. (Most of the sky mobs are over the Manimal areas, so just watch for the hovering vulture-men and steer around them when you can.)

spinnytop wrote: »

Also the caves.

Indeed.

Many of the missions there are 'hidden' in the coral caves and make it very difficult to find them.

I've proposed fixes to this (and many other issues) in my sig below. These are super easy fixes that even an unpaid intern could do.

That said, I love the environments in both Monster Island and Lemuria. I wouldn't have spent all the time working on the improvements for them if I didn't!

jaazaniah1 · December 2019

The key is to do Lemuria often enough that you remember where all those hidden things are! The only one that still bugs me is The Rare Fish Project, where you have to catch the Lyrefish in the kelp forest.

markhawkman · December 2019

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

The key is to do Lemuria often enough that you remember where all those hidden things are! The only one that still bugs me is The Rare Fish Project, where you have to catch the Lyrefish in the kelp forest.

that one's annoying because you can't see the target and if you get too close they run. My best results were to use the net and hope a fish was in range.

senzsun · January 2020

I tried once to get to VB without touching Lemuria or MI at all (except when nemesis clues obliged me to).
I could have gone all the way between Millennium City and Vibora Bay by doing the whole of Canada, had it not been that the stream of missions runs dry at around lvl 32 (Celestar, the Constable, and Ravenspeaker, won't give you the Bigfoot/Lynx Fold missions until you get to at least 34 I think).
So you either bide your time doing Adventure packs, Alerts, and the likes, or you go to MI (it's still too early for Lemuria). Then since you're on MI, you might as well stay there. Some parts of it I really like, others bore me a bit, but I love it as a place.

What I'd really like though is an extension to Millennium City. I'm just mad about the place, especially the seedy quarters. If they opened up the part ith all those destroyed buildings, preferably with some grimy industrial settings, that would be perfect in my eyes.
And of course I love VB. It's just so polished.

mordray001 · January 2020

What difficulty were you on? I usually over level by the simple act of running most missions on Elite... I say most because some bosses just become obnoxious on Elite. The wind powered Nighthawk imposter comes to mind... I hate that fight. Toss in the occasional grab for the exp boost and levels practically fly by.

senzsun · February 2020

mordray001 wrote: »

What difficulty were you on? I usually over level by the simple act of running most missions on Elite... I say most because some bosses just become obnoxious on Elite.

Ah! I'll give that a try. Those high-end CW missions are worth a good two-levels, so that might just open the door to VB.
I must confess that trying to avoid MI and Lemuria completely was more a proof of concept thing - MC to VB in single bound. Now plotting on ways to go MC-VB directly!

magpieuk2014 · February 2020

I love Lemuria. Such fabulous world design, rich in game lore, and I like the 3D aspects (except when they've put the mission down the end of a cave with no breadcrumb trail to help you find it). I wish it was more popular, I really do... once spent a very happy weekend playing the Open Missions with some friends; it reminded me of the old days of Tabletop RPGs and a world which existed between that group only, not an MMO.

I like MI too: finishing up the Michael Perkins storyline is my favourite way of levelling a character to 40.

Open world VB is great, but underworld missions are god awful. That one where you've got to find all the ingredients of the voodoo potion is high on the list of most annoying game missions ever. All they need to add to it some Researchers that need rescuing.

jaazaniah1 · February 2020

Fortunately there are often repeats of ingredients requested, so once you find them the first time it is easier the 2nd time. Only rarely is some really strange ingredient requested. At least it isn't as long as some of those Loonnggg crypts.

When was the last time anyone did the Unity 2 missions?

magpieuk2014 wrote: »

Open world VB is great, but underworld missions are god awful. That one where you've got to find all the ingredients of the voodoo potion is high on the list of most annoying game missions ever. All they need to add to it some Researchers that need rescuing.

magpieuk2014 · February 2020

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

When was the last time anyone did the Unity 2 missions?

Not since they got nerfed into pointlessness. Another one of the endless number of CO loose ends. UNITY should have been a model for Super Groups, about collecting intelligence and technology from those troubleshooting missions and building it up to collect bespoke kit, XP and currency gains for alts, for benefits for keeping on playing. But it's not going to be fixed this late into the game cycle.

spinnytop · February 2020

I would do them if there was less travel involved. Sometimes I actually run out of the main big stuff to do for SCR on a given toon when I really just wanna play them ( my Might toon lately ). Just so much travelling for 5 minutes of combat tho...

l7zerge · February 2020

The Lemuria zone is pretty dead, but I still have fun doing missions there for a while, even if doing it on my fire based toon feels pretty silly. It's just really interesting compared to most zones, it's got a lot of verticality and lots of color and interesting things to look at or explore.

Monster island feels a bit basic in comparison, but at least the mission design is usually pretty efficient and doesn't involve too much instancing. If you do things in the right order it has a good flow to it as you work your way around the island

jaazaniah1 · February 2020

I wonder how much complaining there would be about the 3D aspect of Lemuria if the devs ever put a cosmic there?

markhawkman · February 2020

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

I wonder how much complaining there would be about the 3D aspect of Lemuria if the devs ever put a cosmic there?

*pokes ghost sharks with stick*
We've seen it!!!

bulgarex · February 2020

IMHO the dev decision to focus so much on making Lemuria an underwater zone has unnecessarily limited its potential. In the source material for the IP that was only background environment. The air-filled domed city, and the underground warrens of the Mole-Men, were much more integral to its concept. OTOH Atlantis has been the inundated city inhabited by aquatic humanoids for thousands of years of the official Champions time line.

For me Monster Island has almost the opposite problem. There's just so much going on there, involving so many different factions, that it strains my credulity for it all to be happening simultaneously, especially with UNTIL and Bureau 17 exercising oversight. But if those threats were instead doled out periodically, defending Monster Island could become the basis for a long-term campaign.

spinnytop · February 2020

I agree. Dome cities are cool. Also I can use Power Skating in them.

markhawkman · February 2020

We actually can see working habitats in CO. Yes they're a lot smaller than a proper dome city, but they seem to be meant to be dome cities.

https://twitter.com/marhawkman/status/1231074676597755906

avianos · February 2020

If Lemuria was primary an underwater city like Atlantis, it would get instant Redemption and popularity

Now that's a good new Zone-update idea, at the size of QWZone

guardiannexus · February 2020

avianos wrote: »

If Lemuria was primary an underwater city like Atlantis, it would get instant Redemption and popularity

Now that's a good new Zone-update idea, at the size of QWZone

I agree. There needs to be some visual tension with the citizens, a story arc showing people aligning with the bleak ones.

Also, if I could add this, Have the crisis missions not optional and not needing a group to beat them. Lemuria crisis has/had a feature that you could blow up ships outside or go inside them and sabotage them on the fly in the mission and a Crown of Crim to battle in front of a damaged Powerhouse gate. Closets thing I get to a space battle.

I miss doing those.

markhawkman · February 2020

If we could have a social zone inside the domes that'd be cool.

spinnytop · February 2020

avianos wrote: »

If Lemuria was primary an underwater city like Atlantis, it would get instant Redemption and popularity

Now that's a good new Zone-update idea, at the size of QWZone

Lemuria lvl 40 daily quest zone would be hype! \o/

jaazaniah1 · February 2020

Pretty clearly we need Grab-Burst-Smash missions set in Lemuria. Need something so people dip their toes in the water.

markhawkman · February 2020

jaazaniah1 wrote: »

Pretty clearly we need Grab-Burst-Smash missions set in Lemuria. Need something so people dip their toes in the water.

OOH use the mission script from soul siphon but re-theme is as villains trying to steal nukes from the wrecked submarine?

Or the bank robbery script but with a submerged ruin having artifacts plundered?

senzsun · July 2020

So here I am raising another character to 40 and decided this time I would do the whole of Lemuria rather than MI before progressing to VB. I did the first mission as soon as I was allowed onto the sub (at level 31 I believe), completed a whole lot of stuff, and then ran out of missions before even gaining a level. So I went back to Canada to finish off the level and came back to do the next batch of Lemuria missions. I was really beginning to enjoy Lemuria now and looking forward to tackling stuff I hadn't done before and meeting NPCs like Amphibian. But the same thing happened. The mission tank ran dry and I had to go back to Canada AGAIN to level up, except this time when I got back to Lemuria there wasn't a single new mission available.
Thinking this was getting a bit tedious, I took a peek at the Wiki. What's that? All the remaining missions bar two are level 39 or higher? That really has spoiled the immersion. A map with essentially a 5-level gap between missions is a showstopper for me. Even MC which deliberately phases the districts doesn't have that. I really, really did try to give Lemuria some love.
I'm out of Canada missions now, so very much against my will I'm going to have to raid MI to progress. Tip to anyone tempted to give Lemuria another try: wait till level 35 to start.

Or is there a whole clutch of missions that both I and the Wiki have completely overlooked?

thegrandnagus1 · July 2020

Since someone necro'd this I guess I'll answer the question: every in game world/zone should have some worthwhile solo-able daily, IMO.

And to repeat a point I made in a different thread: give people a CHOICE of rewards. If you only offer one type of reward, then if someone is not interested in that specific reward then they also are not interested in that content. But if you offer a choice, then more people will be interested in doing the content.

jaazaniah1 · July 2020

The best way to use Lemuria for leveling is when you have the 2X XP bonus. You can do all the missions without having to leave the zone, to fill gaps, though you will run out of missions before you reach 40 and will have to finish in one of the other zones. I do wish it had some more missions so that one could get all the way to 40 there.

Make Lemuria Great Again!

holloweaver · July 2020

@thegrandnagus1 : well Lemuria OM are not really solo-friendly and the rewards had not been updated (compared to the Desert, for example).

pantagruel01 · July 2020

Lemuria OMs are perfectly soloable, but not a lot of reason to do them.

thegrandnagus1 · July 2020

pantagruel01 wrote: »

Lemuria OMs are perfectly soloable, but not a lot of reason to do them.

Yeah. My dream would be have one of the NPCs in each region give you a "daily" OM to go complete in that region... and it actually be worth it.

Or hell, have Defender give a 'mega daily' to go complete an OM in every zone! That would be cool

holloweaver · July 2020

pantagruel01 wrote: »

Lemuria OMs are perfectly soloable, but not a lot of reason to do them.

Plunder the Sea can not be soloed by everyone.
Last time I tried this OM it was as broken as Nadir of the Invaders, in the Desert.

pantagruel01 · July 2020

holloweaver wrote: »

pantagruel01 wrote: »

Lemuria OMs are perfectly soloable, but not a lot of reason to do them.

Plunder the Sea can not be soloed by everyone.
Last time I tried this OM it was as broken as Nadir of the Invaders, in the Desert.

"Soloable" doesn't mean "Soloable by anyone who wants to"; builds that don't have significant self-healing will find both Plunder the Sea and Ship of Fouls pretty hard. However, there's nothing about them that makes soloing them impossible and plenty of builds can.

holloweaver · July 2020

pantagruel01 wrote: »

holloweaver wrote: »

pantagruel01 wrote: »

Lemuria OMs are perfectly soloable, but not a lot of reason to do them.

Plunder the Sea can not be soloed by everyone.
Last time I tried this OM it was as broken as Nadir of the Invaders, in the Desert.

"Soloable" doesn't mean "Soloable by anyone who wants to"; builds that don't have significant self-healing will find both Plunder the Sea and Ship of Fouls pretty hard. However, there's nothing about them that makes soloing them impossible and plenty of builds can.

Good because I didn't said there were not soloable.

fizzex · July 2020

My first three toons are still Test Toons; Lemuria is fine for my Automaton, Monster Island is fine for my Soldier and my Archer can go anywhere. Other than those all of my others only go to MI to speak with Ironclad for the perk and have not gone fishing - I stay in Canada and run the 8 or 9 repeatables while using XP Boosts; a 37 went to the Desert for the first time because of the fireworks mission.

miorum · July 2020

On Monster Island:
MI is fine, but considerably better in the end than in the start -- I'm not a big fan of Manimals and the jungle setting. It picks up once you're past the Hyena-Swine nonsense and start helping out Gadget Boy etc. The amount of quests you can pick up for an entire area to deliver all at once on completion ('quest stacking') is at least good.

On Lemuria:
The biggest problem I have with Lemuria is the fact you have to go through three separate loading screens to even end up there (Once to MI; then into the submarine, then to Lemuria proper). Every. Single. Time.

And then for a good few quests, I have to go back through a loading screen to the submarine for delivery. It's fast on modern machines, but it kills the flow and feels pretty poorly designed now.

On top of that, I don't remember there being anything else to even keep the player from having to leave the map (iirc there's no Auction access, no Bank, no Mail or even Nemesis console - even the PH is past a door away from the main part) -- so if you need anything of interest you better have a Teleport device handy if you want to avoid two loading screens. Ugh.

The actual Zone is very pretty and I prefer it over MI. Better, more interesting mobs and better story. There's a bit of a weird level progression, but nothing a few Grabs can't fix.

metalheart · August 2020

I would like to see a gravity based cosmic or event in Lemuria and raid boss in VB. We have already seen account wide opening of VB. Generally people need to be pushed to these places. An event npc could simply pop with a teleport to VB. Let people get there raid boss and out.

As for monster island I don't care much for it. It already has decent stuff.

mithrosnomore · August 2020

Monster Island is just strange. Unless there is an actual issue, why is anyone even there? In-game justification, I mean.
UNTIL can watch the place from afar. They have technology for that. Satellites can keep watch from afar and a few robots/drones could wander/fly around and keep a watch on things from the ground, and then there could be a monitoring station on a nearby island and/or a ship off the coast and that would be better than what they have now.
If they detect that Moreau or Viper or whoever are up to no good there then they call on us to help. Fine.

Robots could be damaged, of course, and it could be incidental, but, again, a drone or another robot could check that out. Tracking tags could be used to keep robots out of the general areas of the big monsters. Drones and satellites could still keep watch over those areas so if there is something happening it would be noticed. Not like Elder Worms or Viper or whoever wouldn't have their own problems with the cosmics if they tried to work out of their territory.

Arrange a deal with the manimals to stay off the island as long as the robots/drones are left alone.

When our "heroes" show up to fight Qwyjibo and Dino-Mom, we aren't the good guys in that scenario. Monster Island is their home and they are no threat to anyone except maybe some idiots that needlessly built a base there.

MI shouldn't even be a location in my opinion. It should be a number of disconnected mission maps.

I realize that they were/are working from the Champions sourcebooks, but they own the source now, so it could be whatever they want.

Too late now, of course. No one is going to do the work at this point or scrap what they have, but there should have been a ship to serve as the mission hub and then we would fly to the island and appear on the right map for our mission, and then if that led to a next mission then we show up on that map and so on until it was done.

Basically how I would use Gateway station to launch space missions.
No "space map" that we would wander to find missions, but instead specific missions leading us to specific locations.

For MI that could be an outdoor area, a cave network, an ancient ruin, a villain base, whatever. For the heroics, one could be set-up around the idea that an UNTIL team had taken a helicopter out for a check on something and it crashed, and now Qwyjibo is approaching that area and we have to turn him away while UNTIL locates and rescues their people. Something else for Dino-Mom, but that would be the general idea. And at least that way we have a story-based reason for doing what we are doing there.

For space that could be an "open space" area (where we might fight a spaceship or multiple ships, for example), an asteroid or lunar type rough surface, an alien city (new or ancient), or an indoor map representing the interior of a building or spacecraft, a cave network, or whatever else.

Each location would have a number of repeatable missions for people that enjoy those areas, and yes, that would include making a burst/grab/smash for each type of location as well.

Don't like Lemuria? No problem, do not queue for the 'Fight the Evil Lemurian' smash. It will rotate out soon enough.

markhawkman · August 2020

Well... we have reasons to want to kick Viper, the Lemurians, and aliens off the island.... we don't want any of them using it as an evil base

Also the dinos are called "Telio-saurs" because they're genetically engineered monsters created by Telios.

The manimals are creations of a different evil genius.

captainhunter1 · August 2020

mithrosnomore wrote: »

Monster Island is just strange. Unless there is an actual issue, why is anyone even there? In-game justification, I mean.
<snip>

As Mark said above, there is a LOT of evil doing and plots that could effect the entire world happening on Monster Island. It isn't just an 'animal sanctuary'.

Hence the need for our heroes to intervene there.

How do you feel about Lemuria and Monster Island?

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