So I'm going through the Level 1 Epic mission arc with brand new character Korneilia and I have to say I'm impressed and disappointed, more the former than the latter.
Impressed:
- I like how the missions are challenging for my couple day old character without being impossible (like having Worlds Collide thrown at you upon just getting your first Frigate... I'm not bitter...)
- I really like how the missions form a narrative and lead you to be part of an unfolding story.
- I like how you get sent a few jumps to another agent to work for them in a different part of space, and how sub-plot points get developped in the overall story arc.
- I like how missions were varied into kill stuff, retrieve stuff with killing, retrieve stuff without killing, and dropping something off(!).
- I like the background blurbs in the mission descriptions explaining concepts like the origins of Serpentis Corporation or the tension between Gallente and Caldari
- I like the rate of rewards for a new character; having bought a Rifter, modules, several skill books, I still have over a million in the bank. When I started, a million was a far off dream for weeks.
Disappointed:
- The missions are still lacking a lot of variation in terms of mechanics. I've seen some improvements, but nothing that screams EPIC to me. I want missions to be adventures!
That being said, I'm not done yet. I'm not sure where I am in the overall arc, but it feels approaching mid-way.
Last night I had my toughest mission yet. I'd skilled up for armour plates and an afterburner so I was feeling like hot shit when the mission called for me to go kill some Serpentis priates. I warped into 3 little frigs and shot them up real good. Then a second spawn of five frigs showed up.
Wait.... is that... a Destroyer? Two Destroyers?! Crap!
The Destroyers went to town on my little Civilian Shield Boosting ship and I had to do the ol'warp out to repair and come back trick a few times, each time staying long enough to kill one more rat. Once the Destroyers were down, the next wave spawned with a bigger red cross... a cruiser!
Fortunately, the cruiser lacked the tracking to adequately get me and I swept away the enemy with authority.
Overall, enjoying this enough to know that the Level 4 mission arc is going to get a try in the coming weeks.
Posts
I think maybe the "Epic" terminology is a bit misleading... But I'm enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see a pile of missions strung together with a cohesive storyline and purpose.
I remember doing one of my first level 1's and I warped out in a a "oh crap" moment, repaired my Ibis' shields and then went back in to try again. I felt guilty! I didn't know if this was allowed, frowned upon, or if it was standard practice.
ReplyDeleteah, to be a noob again :)
Ah Kirith it makes me happy to see you bring yourself down to my level! Reading you freak out over two destroyers and a cruiser... priceless.
ReplyDeleteI completed the epic arc and had generally the same reaction. But I was a little more on the let-down side. It was only epic in length… to the point that I was very ready for it to be over long before it was. Monotonous. Had its moments, but overall very monotonous.
So that's why I died so fast! Do I just hit the afterburners and try to stay as close as possible?
ReplyDeleteA small fast ship against a bigger ship with turret weapons (lasers, projectiles, or Hybrids) should try to "come under the guns" which means getting in close so that the guns can't track you as your transveral is faster than their tracking speed. Never make a straight run at a bigger ship; the transversal drops to near zero and you're dead.
ReplyDeletei remember when i faced the lvl1 epic arc missions... and i remember it was quite sweet compared to the normal missions you should face once the epic arc is finished.
ReplyDeleteMore than "epic" the beauty of that long story was that it was a story. You took a mission you finish it and then they give you another which is related to the previous one... they make you travel quite a lot, you see different scenarios, you fight different things.
Indeed they had to add more variety and drama inside - meaning that probably to make it more beautiful they could create some special moment inside the missions... you start the mission with the objective that say "blow that station"... and in the meanwhile you're doing it something changes and your agent contacts you and give you a different objective (get something from another structure, take a gate, kill a particular ship and so on...
Till the end, like all the missions, is instead quite linear. go there, do this, get loot.
Good as you said... but not epic yet :)