Lengthy developer post on the design decisions behind the revamped I9 Hamidon raid.
Most of the players we talked with in game generally said the same things about Hamidon raids. We used those common gripes about Hamidon to compile a list of top issues we wanted to address.
- Hamidon raids are repetitive and tedious
- Hamidon raids are laggy and very taxing on systems (low FPS)
- Hamidon and Mitos often disappear during the end phase of a raid
- Hamidon raids are a hotspot for griefing
- Hamidon raids reward Leeching
- Certain AT/Powerset combinations were viewed as critical while others felt they had no real purpose
- Hamidon raids take too long and the reward is often viewed as not being worth the time/effort
- There’s no ability to choose reward
- There’s no way to recover from a mito spawn (if it happens, it’s game over!)
- Hamidon raids are only available to heroes
The basic solutions (read the article for full details):
- Hammy can’t be held to the point of powerlessness.
- Mito spawns have been changed so that they’re not the disaster they have been.
- Villains have a special zone (the Abyss) to find Hammy in.
- The three Mito types have been redesigned both to synergize and to have special vulnerabilities to certain ATs, so that everyone has a role to lay.
- Have to defeat the various DE in the zone around Hammy — but that’s the only limit, so Hammy can respawn any time (freeing up schedules).
- New “Essense of Earth” inspirations will provide some special protection.
- Capped the number fo folks in the Hive and Abyss to 50 — which will help with lag and which will spawn extra instances as need be.
- HO reward table at the end — it’s not just a random pick. Plus a rare Recipe. Only one of each can be gotten in a 24 hour period.
Sounds possibly interesting enough to try out …