SOE EE FINALLY COMPLETE!

[Ragdo11706]

Yea, it still doesn't explain why we have 4 grapple points for the beast in the PaP area. 

 

Whatever happens to the book in Neros Lair you activate. It's still there afterwards. 

 

I really don't feel like the Margwa Heads are just an aesthetic change to the character.

 

 

[Tac]

21 minutes ago, S1ippery Jim said:

The producer, like most people at the time, did not know the means used to complete the easter egg. 

How does that have any impact on whether it's done?

[GRILL]

I think it's clear that sometimes a star studded cast is not the best option.  Chances are, they did all the mo cap and recording vocals long before they had the map finished, and the Easter egg steps fully fleshed out.  The price of getting the actors back in the studio was not feasible, hence the jarring silence @LiamFTWinter was talking about.

 

Also that Destiny reference is spot on, "I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain". Please, the Richtofen I know had just as much on the line, and not only had time to explain - but also make recordings of himself explaining! And talking about monkeys stealing spleens!

 

We've waited 3 years, and to be honest I'm satisfied with what I've learned from the excellent Giant radios. But to be tempted with such potential, I can only hope there is more. Unless we are waiting again until DLC 1.

[Hells Warrrior]

Bottom line, SoE is the following.

 

• A decent map
• Piss poor for training spots
• Easter Egg "concept" appears to have been well thought out but "poorly" implemented
• Character quotes awful
• Shittiest Easter Egg yet (beats Tranzit)
•  

No reason exists why the game files could not have been encoded, no reasons exists why the game files are named poorly. If you want to know what they are, you comment them.

 

/** This is the boss step to EE **/

/sounds/fhewvhoehveorvheorihveo.mp3

Now the comment /** This is the boss step to EE **/ is contained within the scripting and not visible as it "should" only be retained in the dev files, on disc it should be encrypted which is easy to do. For being 2.5/3 years in the making, it's just shite tbh.

 

What's the point of the docks? One sacrifice and then no point to it, same with all 4 sacrifice areas - where is the thought process, where's the mindset of using the entire map, you don't make it huge and then nothing.

[Ragdo11706]

36 minutes ago, Hells Warrrior said:

 

 

/** This is the boss step to EE **/

/sounds/fhewvhoehveorvheorihveo.mp3

 

Forgive me, I'm not entirely sure how the coding works. How did this give away what was needed to complete that step.

 

As for the point about all the wasted space, I know exactly what you mean. There is a rather peculiar green light inside the Boxing Gym.

 

If a Lil' Arnie is thrown in this spot, the first time the jar doesn't shatter. Instead it just floats straight up in the air, any thrown after that shatters like normal. I did try to find other spots where this occurred but being in the early 40s  wasn't the best thing to do. 

 

Again I'm going to mention it, but WTF is up with the Book in Neros Lair. That's still there once the Quest is completed?!?! 

 

The new perk Widows Wine wasn't used for anything. The Civil Protector has no use other than helping you & Reviving you. We still haven't figured out the proper way to Upgrade the Mar-Astagua. Finally the Margwa Mascot Heads you can get are just there for aesthetic/cosmetic purposes.

 

One final thing I'd like to mention has to do with something in the Footlight District. If you go up on the balcony to where you jump across to knock down the toupee, and look towards the Tram there's this clear globe that just seems really really out of place. I'll try & get a screenshot of it in a bit.

 

[Hells Warrrior]

15 minutes ago, Ragdo11706 said:

Forgive me, I'm not entirely sure how the coding works. How did this give away what was needed to complete that step.

It didn't, what I'm saying with this, is that in script files "master" you put comments in so when other devs go in or you go back in you know what certain things are. So to hide the sound file better, you call it something random "like" 

 

/sounds/fhewvhoehveorvheorihveo.mp3

When someone then digs into the files, they have no idea what they are called, you don't call them /sounds/ee/boss_step.mp3 or whatever it was called.

[Ragdo11706]

Ohh haha gotcha. Thanx for making that easier for me to understand. Yea that's pretty stupid on Treyarchs part.

 

They should know by now it's a footrace to see who can be the "Worlds First" to complete their Main Quest. Things like this & the amount of data leaked from the Beta, makes it seem as if they do it on purpose. 

[The Clay Bird]

Well it does seem apparent that Blundell's vision for zombies and EE's is not "complete the EE and get one big reward"  but rather the "each EE step gives you a small but useful reward"  a la Origins.  Problem with this is there's no motivation to ever do the EE again if there's no grand reward.  I've done the Moon and Shangri La easter eggs dozens of times.  Never completed any of the BO2 EE's more than once besides Mob, which was unintentional as a teammate just did all of it on his own without telling us lol.

 

Anyway, @Hells Warrrior i have to disagree about the training spots, I think the ritual areas are all good training spots, as well as the rift/widows wine area.  Wish there was a more viable camping strategy as well though, as not everybody likes the constantly running in circles option of zombies.  I think all zombie maps should have a spot where you can camp and make it to 30.  not necessarily any higher than that (buried was a little too easy to camp) and you can still train if you want to go for really high rounds

 

Overall i'm still really liking the map, I LOVE the atmosphere and the jazz noire vibe to it.  sledgehammer needs to take a lesson from treyarch on how to make a special and unique atmosphere in a zombies map.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, LiamFTWinter said:

this easter egg was easily the most disappointing ever 

 

no quotes from any character once you've opened the pack a punch not even the playables, we get an interesting character like the shadow man and he stops talking once you activate the easter egg

 

nothing to really figure out, it was all just trial and error and making the game harder rather than actually solving anything, keep in mind we were on the final step on day 1 and the only reason it took us until now to solve this step is because there was no direction in anything we had to do, no riddles, no quotes, nothing

 

4 steps total and 2 of them were charging an egg in the most simple ways possible 

 

wasn't this supposed to be the biggest easter egg ever? what happened?

and then the ending gives us something destiny got a lot of heat for by giving us the "I have no time to explain" excuse, where did the story progression go? 

 

this and the giant both felt underwhelming with easter eggs and they both felt like ways to set up DLC

 

 

@PortlyLlama80 These are all the reasons why I don't want it to be the end of the easter egg, I am not grasping at straws I just want something more than disappointment. Nothing wrong with that, not my fault they dropped the ball EE wise and I want more.

[Hells Warrrior]

25 minutes ago, Nightmare Voyager said:

not my fault they dropped the ball EE wise and I want more.

I agree, the EE is a disappointment. 3 years for 4 steps to an EE which is the "biggest" one yet? My arse, Treyarch don't usually fail to disappoint and game wise they haven't. EE wise it's like they said with a week to go until it went gold "oh shit the Easter Egg".

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Well we still don't know what the margwa masks are for, the special donut cart tripmines, the easter egg on the giant (the full one) and the many codes. 

[DeathBringerZen]

37 minutes ago, Stop Mocking Me0 said:

Well we still don't know what the margwa masks are for, the special donut cart tripmines, the easter egg on the giant (the full one) and the many codes. 

 

I doubt the Margwa masks are anything more than cosmetic, same with the silly and pointless donut tripmines. As for the Giant EE, there is already 2 small ones that offer side quest style rewards and with no first step in sight I cannot see there being a proper EE on The Giant to be honest. I always assumed it would be us waking the test subjects but I have seen nothing in-game that could start the process and no narrative from any of the characters suggesting we need to hurry and do so.

 

On the topic of the SoE EE. I have several issues with it. First one being that it seems to be 4 players only. Why are we going down this road again Treyarch? After MotD and Origins I was hoping to see the end of these ridiculous 4 player EE's, and with Mob being possible with 2 players and Origins solo I had high hopes the campaign team were going to seriously deliver this time around but no, here we go again with the ridiculous player capping. I doubt I will ever do this EE more than one time despite the semi-decent reward because I don't play 4 player games very often.

 

My second issue with it is the fact that the campaign team have literally just reused all the mechanics from MotD and Origins again. Is this the new EE trend? Killing zombies in multiple spots around the map with a little bit of trial and error thrown into the mix? More stupid steps that don't make sense and are not story driven? If this is going to be how EE's are throughout all the maps then this season is going to be just as bad as the BO2 season was. Stop making us fucking kill zombies in EE's steps. We do the side quests to get away from the killing them so why are you so lazy as to lack the imagination or creativity to make steps that don't require a zombie soul to power some random, stupid bloody artifact!?! Did the people who made all these artifacts back on ye olden times not figure out another method of powering mystical objects outwith using the souls of the undead? Jesus Christ...

 

My last issue is the swords. They are absolutely terrible. Never try using one is higher rounds unless you can't be bothered playing anymore because it's ultimately going to cost you your game. I loved the idea of them before the map came out but having actually had a chance to properly mess with them I can safely day I doubt anyone will ever seriously use them in a high round game.

 

 

All this aside I love the map. Easily one of the best zombie maps to date. Great visuals, brilliant atmosphere, fitting music and ambience. It's a fantastic map to get us started with only let down by the horrifically bad EE and rubbish sword. Also not a fan of the bizarre second PaP features. WTF are they all about!?!

 

Garbage aside I give this map 8/10

[NaBrZHunter]

I have to say, I like the extra PaP effects. I don't like the wonder weapon-in fact, I rarely do. Even the classics, I love because they are the classics, but given a choice, I would always pick a good MG over any WW any day-even the staves. So it's nice to see that the rifle-types are now able to actually wreak some havoc that used to only belong to the WW-toting folks who won the race to the box or the build table. 

 

Now the the effects themselves...pretty silly. Fireworks? Heh. Turned? OP'd, but still, fantastical. Flame, zap and thunder are more like it. I would have been good with just those three. Maybe tack a grenade effect in there as well, Mustang & Sally/Death & Taxes style.

[LiamFTWinter]

Unless the giant easter egg has no new dialogue there isn't one at all other than the fly trap 

 

The Giant is a great map for gameplay other than the random perks, the easter eggs are a let down though, I was expecting more than a fly trap with new locations after all this time.

 

Shadows is one of my least favourite maps ever, It feels like everything was made for your first playthrough, the rituals and complicated pack a punch are amazing the first 2 times but 20 times after you get really bored but it's something you're forced to do if you want to enjoy the rest of the game. 

 

Could go on for ages about how disappointing it is 

[NaBrZHunter]

53 minutes ago, LiamFTWinter said:

Unless the giant easter egg has no new dialogue there isn't one at all other than the fly trap 

 

The Giant is a great map for gameplay other than the random perks, the easter eggs are a let down though, I was expecting more than a fly trap with new locations after all this time.

 

Shadows is one of my least favourite maps ever, It feels like everything was made for your first playthrough, the rituals and complicated pack a punch are amazing the first 2 times but 20 times after you get really bored but it's something you're forced to do if you want to enjoy the rest of the game. 

 

Could go on for ages about how disappointing it is 

I'm thinking maybe they're deliberately leaving out EE commentary, kinda like the did in SOE because people are file digging...which is really a shame. TBH, though, that would make me happy. Kinda throw a wrench in the plans of all the folks cheap-assing EE steps out there.

[DeathBringerZen]

1 hour ago, LiamFTWinter said:

Shadows is one of my least favourite maps ever, It feels like everything was made for your first playthrough, the rituals and complicated pack a punch are amazing the first 2 times but 20 times after you get really bored but it's something you're forced to do if you want to enjoy the rest of the game.

I agree on that overly frustrating PaP method definitely. It's quite annoying having to do all of that on solo everytime I want to play, but thankfully I will never use the swords in a solo game so I only really have to do the sacrifices.

 

Personally I think the main issue here is that the campaign team don't seem to engage with the community like the old zombie team did. They don't have proper channels to relay feedback and even with the channels they do have available, they don't seem to interact with people on them.

 

I feel this seasons zombies is going to be put out no matter what we think of it and I also think that the EE's will carry on this same trend regardless of our feelings towards them. It was the same story with Exo-Zombies. Every EE was complete and utter garbage with meaningless rewards but as each DLC passed the EE's remained just as poor, in some cases poorer than the previous. Raven didn't listen or didn't seem to care and I expect this to be the same with BO3.

 

What is it with Call of Duty developers refusing to interact with their community? Bungie talk to us all the time about Destiny whether it's their community managers or even Developers posting on the Bungie forum or reddit but CoD dev's just don't seem to care about anything other than daily hotfixes for MP.

 

I thought zombies was helping to keep CoD afloat these days?

[TheBiggerMuff]

It just doesn't make sense that you can do 99% of the Easter Egg on solo except for the last step. Doesn't make sense

Edited November 13, 2015 by TheBiggerMuff

[xanman86]

We we did the EE last night but it glitched out somehow and we did not get to retail our perks after going down, did not get the XP for doing it, and did not get the calling card. Pretty frustrating after finally completing it for the first time. We got the cutscene and the sky cleared up but we didn't get any of the perks of completing the EE. 

 

Video:

http://www.twitch.tv/xanman86/v/25598594

[The Clay Bird]

52 minutes ago, DeathBringerZen said:

I agree on that overly frustrating PaP method definitely. It's quite annoying having to do all of that on solo everytime I want to play, but thankfully I will never use the swords in a solo game so I only really have to do the sacrifices.

 

Personally I think the main issue here is that the campaign team don't seem to engage with the community like the old zombie team did. They don't have proper channels to relay feedback and even with the channels they do have available, they don't seem to interact with people on them.

 

I feel this seasons zombies is going to be put out no matter what we think of it and I also think that the EE's will carry on this same trend regardless of our feelings towards them. It was the same story with Exo-Zombies. Every EE was complete and utter garbage with meaningless rewards but as each DLC passed the EE's remained just as poor, in some cases poorer than the previous. Raven didn't listen or didn't seem to care and I expect this to be the same with BO3.

 

What is it with Call of Duty developers refusing to interact with their community? Bungie talk to us all the time about Destiny whether it's their community managers or even Developers posting on the Bungie forum or reddit but CoD dev's just don't seem to care about anything other than daily hotfixes for MP.

 

I thought zombies was helping to keep CoD afloat these days?

 

I agree, and it's really strange since Vonderhaar does such an excellent job engaging the MP community about what we like/dislike as well as providing context and meaning behind what they implement and why.  If JB or even someone else like Peter Livingstone, or someone else on the zombies team would interact with the community on a semi-regular basis to hear what we like what we dislike, etc. Maybe they could tweak some things in future iterations of the game to align with what people like the most

[Stop Mocking Me0]

Well hell death bringer, we should have seen that coming a mile away what with the electric tentacle in the original trailer. They wouldn't just give us a mode like that and not use it to power everything. 

 

As for the pap effects, I actually approve of those. I mean I can't really say anything as I don't own the game yet. But from what I've seen that firework effect looks super fun.

[TheBiggerMuff]

I still am not sold on the no Solo EE thing. Come on you can get 4 worms and do all 4 rituals and get 4 swords all on solo, but the last step doesn't work.. Retarded

[DeathBringerZen]

6 hours ago, TheBiggerMuff said:

I still am not sold on the no Solo EE thing. Come on you can get 4 worms and do all 4 rituals and get 4 swords all on solo, but the last step doesn't work.. Retarded

My feelings exactly. Such an absolute joke of a step. It's like the sharpshooter step on Buried all over again... a forced 4 player step that does not appeal to people who want to run a high round 2 or 3 player match. I just don't get the logic behind these side quests these days. They don't even understand their own community and seem to be obsessed with 4 people playing at all times.

[Rissole25]

It's kind of funny isn't it. Everyone (not literally everyone) wanted the Campaign team to take over, saying Mob and Origins were so much better than the rest (right in some aspects). They wanted Jimmy out. And now it seems like everyone is denouncing them and this map and want the old Zombies team back.

 

I won't lie, it definitely has flaws (don't get me started on the fact you can literally see the edge of the water down by the docks). But I just thought it was something worth pointing out.

[Tac]

52 minutes ago, Rissole25 said:

It's kind of funny isn't it. Everyone (not literally everyone) wanted the Campaign team to take over, saying Mob and Origins were so much better than the rest (right in some aspects). They wanted Jimmy out. And now it seems like everyone is denouncing them and this map and want the old Zombies team back.

 

I won't lie, it definitely has flaws (don't get me started on the fact you can literally see the edge of the water down by the docks). But I just thought it was something worth pointing out.

Oh man, I hope no one's calling the old team back in!

[Ragdo11706]

I do have to agree with Liam & DBZ about the Rituals. It gets to be rather redundant after you've done it 50x. It's one of those things that I know a lot of you guys hate as well as myself.

 

That is being forced to do something in a map every single f*****g time we play it, just to use a basic feature since W@W. This is my biggest disappointment with SoE. The swords I completely understand. Once there upgraded are pretty amazing, if used properly.

 

Origins had it right, with powering the generators to use the PaP. Not too hard nor time consuming. Hopefully in the maps to follow it won't be so bad. Although if they do end up releasing 2 maps per DLC, 1 New & 1 classic. I'll definitely understand why. Especially if every new map is going to follow the trend of MoTD & SoE.