Harold Hammerstein
Caldari
Icarus Aerospace
   |
Posted - 2009.11.17 14:56:00 -
[1]
TLDR:
- Had a lot of fun
- rewards could do with some work
- some bugs & mission text issues
- more level 4s for only Assault Frigs / HACs / ect, please?
I wrote this as a review of sorts so here goes...
CCP - I have really enjoyed the level 4 epic arc. So far I have ran the Caldari "Prenumbra" arc to completion. The ships that I used were a Hawk Assault Frigate (t2 tank & guns), a Buzzard Covert Ops (t2 tank, probes, hack), and a vanilla Raven (t2 tank, best named t1 guns). I completed all missions solo, on a character with ~ 10 million skill points.
None of the combat missions took me into lowsec, and I found them a lot of fun - and they did not require a 2+ Billion ISK faction fit Navy Raven. I especially enjoyed using a Hawk to complete the "Right Tool for the Job" and "The Breakout". I found myself manually in control of my ship as I weaved, twisted and turn around the Gallente. This was a refreshing change from the usual keep the Raven stationary, and spam missiles at the right targets.
The low sec missions were tense with the drama provided by player pirates. But thankfully with proper planning and a bit of mapping - I had worked out a route by hand looking at maps to avoid systems with a high number of kills, and the right ship (something with a covert ops cloak) these went smoothly; but were not completely without drama. Are those combat scan probes on d-scan?! quick, quick cloak! And the roaming gang - spikes in local!
The Final mission in my arc was the most challenging mission I have ever done (so far). I first scouted it out in the buzzard, found that I could wrap around - so I made bookmarks. The mission turned into a 2 hour guerilla style battle in the end with my Raven making tactical jumps, sniping targets. It was a lot of fun! I was nearly falling out of my chair at times.
All in all - I think you have made a great story with a nice variety of missions. However I have some criticisms
1. The reward is nice. but... A nice "POS" lab module is going to be the holy grail for a select few, but it's an instant listing on contract for most. Perhaps - a choose your own reward of comparably valued items regardless of "good" or "bad" story paths - a different pool of items? A nice shiney combat module or a new ship?
2. Mission bugs. I ran into two - The Federation detention facility was not in lowsec! But why in the mission text, is it listed like that? The hacking in "Right tool for the job" was bugged for me, after I hacked the ship yard - the can disappeared. I had to petition it to get my item.
Suggestions
1. I enjoyed flying the Assault frig so much - I would LOVE to see Level 4 type difficulty missions geared only towards different classes of hulls: the Frigate class (Assault Frig, stealth bomber) and the cruiser class (HACs, Recon, ect)
2. in that same vein - low-sec missions geared to frig / cruiser hulls; with a balanced risk/reward. No sane person is going to risk a 100+ million ISK battleship for a few million and some loyalty points. They might risk a cruiser however.
3. some sort of official "decoration" that you can share - say "Hey! I won the level 4 epic arc" gold star on your character sheet. Everyone likes getting gold stars...
Thanks for a great game! 
|