News Flash – Faultline Floods!

From the cable news magazine, TOPDOWN – PARAGON CITY:

Various heroes in the Faultine Trial Zone described massive flooding over the past several days. Experts believe that strange seismic activity on the moon created catastrophic tidal surges on Earth, causing the Overbrook Dam to burst. Forceful tides were also reported along the Paragon Harbor, but damage along the wharf was relatively minor.

The ruptured dam in Overbrook has caused parts of the zone to flood, with water levels reaching 10 to 20 feet deep in places. Paragon officials have sent in emergency repair crews to shore up and repair the damaged dam. Additionally, they are concerned with filling in old fissures caused by previous earthquakes before the flood waters spread and cause more damage, possibly rendering the war walls ineffective.

During an emergency inspection of the site, Professor Hank Neville, a renowned geologist from Paragon City University, was attacked by unknown assailants. Luckily, the assault was interrupted by the timely arrival of the hero Remedy and a detachment of Freedom Corps troops. The professor escaped unharmed. Based on various reports, it is believed the attackers were agents of Arachnos.

Arctic Sun, a reserve member of the Freedom Phalanx, explained to us that the Federal Bureau of Super-powered Affairs now suspects that Arachnos agents infiltrated the zone over a year ago, salvaging components and equipment from abandoned Super Group bases. Furthermore, the Phalanx believes the Arachnos villains may have been pushing other villain groups out of the area; hunting them down if they didn’t back off.

When the PPD were pressed for comments, Sergeant Weinberg said, “Arachnos? Yeah, well, we aren’t confirming or denying anything at this point. The investigation is still ongoing. But… There has been a noticeable decrease in the number of attacks by those freaky Vahzilok zombies on construction crews over recent months. And, y’know, I haven’t seen a Circle of Thorns fanatic in weeks…”

Anonymous sources in MAGI and DATA fear that Arachnos’ spies are seeking a locking mechanism for temporal anchor technology. The Freedom Phalanx declined to comment on this speculation.

Paragon authorities recently removed the security clearance restriction for the Faultline region in an effort to revitalize citizens’ interest in Overbrook. However, due to the dam’s precarious state and the recent Arachnos activity, opponents to Measure X argue this move may have been premature.

Fortunately, a small detachment of the Paragon Police Department and Freedom Corps have stepped in to monitor the area from a newly-established check-point. In addition, the New Overbrook Hospital has been opened, providing a strong support network for local heroes. Whether these measures will prove to be enough for Paragon to reclaim New Overbrook is still unknown, and will certainly be a hot topic during the next political season.

Redesigning a Zone

Faultline has undergone some pretty radical changes since its original state as a Trial zone. You’ve heard the story behind the rebuilding of Faultline, the arrival of Arachnos, the dam leaking, the tides… Now here are Cryptic Studios game designer Melissa ‘War Witch’ Bianco’s development insights and perspective on the changes.

Trial to City Zone
Trial zones were designed for large teams of roughly 5 to 8 players. With that in mind, Faultline spawns were these large groups of 10 – 20 mobs loaded with plenty of Lieutenants and Bosses to make them really challenging. It really wasn’t designed for casual solo play or small teams. So we changed it. We adjusted the spawns in most of the zone for 1 to 3 players, but added a Hazard area (for teams of 3 to 5 players) in the newly opened dam. This way, the more difficult spawns were separated from the easier groups, and players could make a conscious and informed decision when they went to fight them.

New All Access Entrance
Since the transition from Trial to City zone, players are no longer ‘locked out’ if they don’t meet the appropriate level range – Faultline is now a city zone and so it is accessible to all players. This was done to encourage players of all levels to come and check out the new zone.

Travel to Faultline
A new (if not slightly out of the ordinary) entrance to Pocket D has been added.

Sneak Preview - In Issue #9, look for a Green Monorail to appear in Skyway City just steps from the Underpass.

Conveniences
Now that Faultline is a city zone, it comes with a Trainer (Mirror Spirit), a hospital, stores, and a Reputation contact. 

New Villain Groups
The Circle of Thorns have left Faultline (in part because the energy they were tapping into, drawn from the interaction of the earth, tides and the waters of the damn, was lost, and in part because Arachnos hunts them down on sight) so we needed to bring in some new blood. Obviously, having Arachnos agents in the zone brings about interesting game play for heroes who would normally not see them on a day-to-day basis. But we also brought in the following:

• The Lost (for very specific story reasons).
• Freedom Corps (minor presence for story and atmosphere).
• Paragon Police (they needed to keep New Overbrook safe for citizens moving back to Faultline and keep the construction workers safe).
• Sky Raiders (ever the opportunists, whatever Arachnos is looking for, they want a piece of it).
• Freakshow (Faultline is the perfect stomping ground for the Freakshow).

In addition, the Clockwork and Vahzilok have remained in Faultline.

New Zone Level Range
One of the biggest issues with the original Faultline security level range (11 to 19) was that when players first came into Faultline, the only travel powers they had were the initial ones (like Hover). In a deeply treacherous terrain such as this, dropping into a 200 foot crevice with only Hover to get you back out while simultaneously trying to dodge several aggressive Circle of Thorns warlocks can make for a very scary and sometimes frustrating experience. Bumping the zone to security levels 15 to 25 ensures that all players have a chance at choosing the most efficient travel power available to them before they get there.

Geometry Upgrades
Faultline was one of the most visually intriguing zones in the game, but from a gameplay standpoint, it was a difficult and sometimes frustrating experience. The deep crevices were hard to navigate or get out of, the heavily slanted roadways were awkward to fight on, and we didn’t have a lot of real estate to place spawns because the crevices narrowed so tightly only a few bad guys could be placed in certain areas. We wanted to make the play space more efficient, so we did the following:

• Added labeled (A, B, C, etc.) Construction Elevators so players could easily move from the lower to higher areas.
• Added catwalks and ramps over the crevices.
• Evened out the roadways to make them less awkward and easier to play on.
• Flooded the zone and leveled it slightly to make it less difficult to navigate and give us more play space.
• Opened up the dam (and added two distinctly different routes to access it).
• As mentioned above, added a hospital so if a player is defeated it is not such a chore to get back to his friends.

Atmosphere
The old Faultline had no real ‘life’ to it, other than the spawns. The buildings were vacant and other than clumps of bad guys roaming around, there was really nothing going on.

So we got creative:

• The Donut Shop is a perfect place to hang out and spot a uniformed officer taking a break.
• The Restaurants have ‘atmosphere’ - if you stand close enough to the doors you can overhear the patrons inside.
• Citizens have made their way back into Faultline, at least as far as the New Overbrook neighborhood, since that is where the new apartments are.
• With the underpass in place, vehicles have access to part of the zone again (even if they have to go through a check point first).
• Construction workers provide a daily sense of progress (even if they’re thwarted constantly by the local villains and complain about the lack of danger pay).

More Plaques and Badges
None of the old Faultline badges were removed, although some of them had to be moved when the geometry of the zone changed. In fact, more badges were added.  Players are encouraged to visit Faultline for the obvious touristy badges, and for some they will need to try a little harder to find.

Updated Spawns
The animations we had available to us when we first built many of these zones cannot compare to the animations that we have now. With that in mind, we scrapped all of the old clumped, threatening, rumbling, and loitering spawns and added new and interesting ones:

• Clockwork terrorizing Construction Workers and blocking their escape within arcs of electricity.
• Freakshow using welding equipment to make adjustments to their pals.
• Arachnos, Freakshow and Sky Raiders patrolling their turf.
• …And much more.

Missions!
Faultline now has missions in the zone that revolve around the ongoing redevelopment and further the storyline of the villain groups present. In keeping with the Striga model, all mission doors are ‘neighborhood-centric’, so we are not forcing players to run to a door that is in an area well above their level.

Easter Eggs
Oh yes. There are Easter eggs.