One of the complaints about Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is that there is very little content for high-level characters. As I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, the designers of KoL are really interested in keeping the experience fresh for people.
Hobopolis is their first answer for high-level content and a true multiplayer experience. In Hobopolis, which is linked from your clan dungeon for a certain fee (10 Million Meat, plus one million every time it is reloaded) your entire clan may participate in a "Dive".
And, true to the multiplayer ideals, Hobopolis is most quickly cleared by a combination of players from different classes, working in different zones at the same time. The pic on the left is a Color-KoL view of what Hobopolis looks like when it's about 1/3 of the way complete.
There are five sub-zones in Hobopolis, one for each KoL-inspired element: Hot, Cold, Sleaze, Stench and Spooky. Each zone has a boss and special loot that drops. As you finish sub-zones (or eschew doing so, in favor of a super-hard final boss) you gain loot that may only be purchased in the Town Square with "Hobo Nickels". All of these items are designed for Level 17+ characters, and can give large bonuses to Mysticality, Muscle or Moxie.
Part of the fun of Hobopolis is moving between several subzones to line up a special adventure. For exaple, there is an adventure called "I refuse" in the Heap (Stench zone) which is only findable when the "Stench" of the zone is 7. How do you raise the Stench level of the zone, you ask? Well, you can either adventure in the Purple Light Zone (Sleazy) until you intimidate a Hobo into moving to the Heap, or you create a Trashcano in the Heap, either of which will raise the stench level by one. So, players are typing out levels in the chat, while looking for an adventure and moving back and forth, in concert with someone's instructions. Luckily in RHoP, we have a number of veteran divers that know the score, and help direct the n00bs around so they manage not to screw up the level. Or the count. Or adventure in the wrong zone. It's so easy to do the wrong thing in Hobopolis. I guess that's the charm.
There are other high-level zones in KoL.... The El Vibrato constructs, the bombed-out frat or hippy areas, the new splish splash Fishy zone... (Not the BadFish zone... that's altogether different :) ) but Hobopolis is by far my favorite.
Come visit Rotini's House of Pasta and try it for yourself!
4 comments:
And what exactly is the BadFish zone like... I am truly intrigued!
yes Rotini i too would like to know about the "badfish" zone, whats it like, how do i get there, and is there a bus back once i'm done :P
The Badfish zone is like the Twilight Zone.
Just fishier.
How would you know?!
I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who's been to the BadFish zone =P
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