CoH / CoV PvP zones

So I ran around in the PvP zones last night, on the theory that since their are no villains in game yet, this is the perfect time to get the explore badges from them without much threat to life and limb. All in all none of the zones were that exciting, my favorite is also the least safe, but still a neat addition to the game.

I have heard rumors that there is a fourth, Recluse's Victory, but I have no idea how to get to it or where it is found. Given that it is an alternate future sort of thing, it might be via Portal Corp but I've been unable to find any means of access so far.

Bloody Bay
This is the lowest level PvP zone and accessible from a helicopter at the south end of Skyway City, not far from the entrance to Overbrook / Faultline. The zone auto-exemps / sidekicks you to 25.

Largely a forested zone with a small city area in it, the zone is probably the dullest of the three, but that also goes with being the lowest level. Because I was exemped in, the mission contact for the zone wouldn't talk to me so I can't say anything about what the PvP missions there are like, but I had heard they were pretty neat.

The big gimmick for the zone though is the 'Shiva Strike'. Years ago Cassiopea I think blew up an asteroid that was on a collision course for earth, however six large fragments from the asteroid crashed down here and are causing odd effects. It turns out the fragments are part of some giant alien space creature and it is animating the remains of bodies by the fragments into wierd blue blob monsters. So both Longbow and Arachnos want to research this process.

The task then is to talk to the scientist'ish contact by where you arrive in the zone, get an 'ore extractor' temporary power, and visit the six fragments to take samples with the temp power. Then it gets trick. After you have six samples ( one from each fragment ) you have to find one of the firebases that have processing facilities and disable all of hte automated defenses. This is almost impossible with one person. The turrets rebuild themselves fast enough that I wasn't able to get all 8 disabled ( four on the building itself, four spread out around it ) and into the building to use the computer in time. But if you do manage it, it turns the samples into a piece of processed ore, which you take back to the scientist for your reward, a 'summon shivan' temp power with 5 uses.

I do think that once this goes live, there will likely be a lot of CoV stalkers just camping at the fragment spots waiting to assassinate people. When you approach a fragment it should spawn some Shivan to defend itself, if you approach one and nothing spawns, that means there is someone there invisible camping at it and you might want to leave quickly.

Siren's Call
If I do PvP, it'll probably be in this zone. This is accessible from the east side of Steel Canyon. A port city area, it's story is that it used to have a War Wall defending it but when the hero Sunburst lost control of his powers some while back, he self-destructed and blew a hole in the War Wall which hasn't been repaired yet leaving the neighborhood vulnerable. I don't actually remember what level this zone auto-exemps / sidekicks you to, but it is between the other two.

The gimmick for this zone are the 'neighborhood battles' or hotspots in the zone. They'll light up as red mission targets on your mini-map and when you get to them large groups of Longbow and Arachnos will be fighting. Heroes and Villains then can leap in to lend a hand and sway the battle one way or the other and earn 'bounty' points which they can trade in for inspirations or temp powers. There is a meter at the top of the screen showing which side, heroes or villains, are winning the battle.

I like this simply because of the structure. It basically, with the hotspots, says "If you want a fight, go here" and seeing the big hordes of Arachnos and Longbow duke it out is pretty cool too.

Warburg
Neat neat looking zone. Lots of tall gothic architecture buildings. You get here from a helicopter in Kings Row, right over by Blue Steel on the roof of the PCPD building. This is an island in the Rogue Islands which is a secret weapons manufacturing lab, really a missile lab. The zone auto-exemps / sidekicks you to 38.

The gimmick for this PvP zone is that you can get access to launch missiles into orbit yourself. To do this you need to go down into the WEB tunnels beneath the island, find a scientist and escort them back out to the surface and to one of the researh bunkers ( which they will light up as an escort target ) on the islands surface. Then they will give you a security key. You need three security keys, so need to rescue a scientist three times, and then you head back down into the tunnels to find an arming station ( a computer terminal ) which will arm a missile for you and give you a launch code. Now you have a limited amount of time to make it out of the tunnels, back to the surface, and to where there is a missile silo on the islands surface to activate your launch code and fire the missile into orbit and get a temporary power to call down an airstrike.

Personally, this is my favorite looking zone. I like the gothic architecture and really had fun playing in the WEB tunnels beneath the island. The downside is that, unlike the other zones, it is open PvP. Heroes can attack heroes. I got offed by a group using a pair of storm defenders to herd people in the tunnels. Thankfully, player kills don't cause you to debt, but they took my security key when they beat me up and that made me very sad.