Apparition

Per the Homecoming Discord, if all goes well, the Pineapple beta server should receive a patch on Friday with a fixed up Rikti mothership raid trial with a minimap, a timer, NPC movement, and all of the missing Rikti. If that patch lands on Pineapple Friday, then I will host a second (and hopefully final), Rikti mothership raid trial test this weekend. Objectives: Confirm the presence of Rikti Magi, Chief Mesmorists, Headmen, and Rikti Priests (!). Confirm that the minimap works. Confirm that the timer works. Confirm that NPCs have movement. Test to see if people far out from the bowl receive Vanguard merits. I am announcing this now to give people time to make toons on Pineapple. We only had eleven people show up for the test Sunday, and I'd really like to see more this weekend. A couple of taunters (Tankers, Brutes, what have you), would be nice, to confirm that they'd get Vanguard merits while pulling.

Those, to be frank, are excuses. You just don't want to do it. I'm a loner IRL with little organizational skill, and yet I lead Hamidon raid teams for years, and have lead (and continue to lead) Rikti mothership raids for years. If you don't want to do it, that's fine. I understand. I didn't exactly want to lead raids before either. But there comes a point where if you want something bad enough, you either have to step up and take the reigns, or step aside.

Yes, yes I have. It may not be "fun," but it's completely and utterly necessary. Sorry. There's absolutely nothing preventing you from forming and running your own Hamidon raid.

Yeah, when Homecoming first started, it took about eight hours to download everything so I let it go overnight. I imagine that's changed now that it's not being overwhelmed.

It's awarded when the TF completes.

The two co-op zones that I know have a 200 player cap are Pocket D and Kallisti Wharf. In any case, I figured Pocket D would be a good test zone since a lot of people use it to form and launch Incarnate trials in anyway. Leandro actually did share with us last night how the timer works. I'm at work ATM so don't have access to my logs, but I'll post something up tonight.

Providing easy storage access and TPs to every zone in one area isn't utility nor a QoL improvement?

Agreed. That wouldn't work for the zone Rikti mothership raid (because you could just be on the other side of the zone), but that is definitely a great idea for the trial.

Yep, it was a great test trial raid. Thanks to everyone that came! New issue: No Chief Mesmerist spawned. Confirmed known issue: No Rikti Magus spawned. Once those two issues along with the lack of movement by NPCs are fixed, and a minimap is added, I can see this being a great addition to Homecoming. For someone that asked: The trial automatically loads you into the Vanguard compound at Point du Hoc, and there is a hospital bed there. Should you die and can't get a rez, going to the hospital will take you to the Vanguard compound at Point du Hoc. I really like it. I like that everything in the instance is level 54, so it adds a bit more challenge to the Pylon phase. I like that the dropship now spawns after the downing of the first Pylon. Oh, and it was confirmed by Leandro during the trial test that the "Join in Progress" option in the LFG window doesn't work and never did. So, should someone want into a Rikti mothership raid trial after it starts, the league leader has to invite him or her.

The Rikti mothership raid will be made available as a LFG instance, which should remedy this issue. See this thread.

Oh, I have a problem with level 50 leechers as well. Now that the Rikti mothership raid will be an instance, they can be more easily dealt with by kicking them, which is nice. The Rikti mothership raid was designed for level 35+. That's just a fact. You had to be level 35 to access the Rikti War Zone in the first place for two years. The purpose is for Vanguard merits, which only those level 35+ and with the Member of Vanguard badge can obtain. There are also plenty of other avenues for PLing that don't impact up to 47 others. In any case, the Rikti mothership raid trial test on the Pineapple server will start in about five and a half hours.

This will start in about five and a half hours, y'all! Map of the standard Rikti War Zone:

Well, I'll be bringing a Beam Rifle/Sonic Resonance Corruptor. A couple of more people with AoE mez protection (Force Field, Sonic Resonance, or Clarion Core Destiny), would be good. Barring that, a couple of Darkness Affinity/Dark Miasma to rez the dead (if there are any). A couple of /Darkness Affinity Controllers with Clarion Core Destiny would make my day. :D Other than that, buffs are nice, as is DPS. On a normal Rikti mothership raid, some taunters (Tankers/Brutes/Scrappers) would be handy as well, to pull in Rikti to the bowl, but that will not be possible with this test. The only AT that will not be helpful is Mastermind, because of the inability of NPCs to move. Controllers' and Dominators' pets will be ineffective as well, but that doesn't hamper the whole AT.

So, thinking on it today, here's the tentative strategy, (pending any curveballs the new trial may throw our way): 1. Form up in Pocket D. 2. Once the league is settled, we'll queue up. 3. Once we are in the Rikti mothership raid trial instance, we'll meet up at the Point du Hoc Vanguard compound, (if we're not already placed there when the trial starts). 4. Buff up, and then take down Pylon 11. 5. Taking down Pylon 11 will spawn the Rikti dropship. So we'll start the dropship hunt phase, and take it down. 6. Once the dropship goes *boom*, we'll meet back up at the Point du Hoc Vanguard compound. 7. Buff up again, and then take down the remaining Pylons, beginning with 12. 8. When we take down Pylon 1 and the mothership's shield drops, remain at the Pylon 1 site. 9. Buff up a third time. Then one or two people from every team will place a bomb, and everyone else will head directly to the bowl. Now, here's where I am open to suggestions. One of the current known issues with the beta trial is that NPCs won't move. So, pulling Rikti to the bowl like we normally do will not work for this test. So, here's what I'm thinking: If we have a large-ish league, half of the league will remain in the bowl after taking down U'Kon Gr'ai, while the other half will sweep the rim of the ship. If we have a small league, then we'll all just remain in the bowl after taking down U'Kon Gr'ai, and when Rikti stop spawning we'll head out to the rim of the ship and take down the remaining Rikti. Thoughts?

Just FYI - There's a new instance version of the Rikti mothership raid available on the beta server. You can read more about it here. The new Rikti mothership raid trial requires testing. So, I will hold a Rikti mothership raid trial on the Pineapple beta server tomorrow, Sunday, September 15th, at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT. If you have a character on the beta server or are willing to make one, you are more than welcome to attend. We will form up in Pocket D. It took me about a hour last night to make a new character, level it to level 50, acquire and slot enhancements, acquire and slot enhancement boosters and catalysts, and acquire Incarnate powers. If you choose to make a character for this test, I strongly recommend using this tool. Hope to see some of you there. If not, I will see you on Thursday!

Time to put it to a test.

I will host a Rikti mothership raid trial on the Pineapple server on Sunday, September 15th, at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT. This is, of course, for testing purposes of the new Rikti mothership raid instance trial. Minimum level requirement is level 35+, which should not be a problem. :D We will meet up in Pocket D. Once the league is nice and settled, we will queue up. Be aware that I still use the minimap on the regular Homecoming servers to find Pylon 20 as I am terrible with directions, and since there will be no minimap available, we may go off course a bit but we will get there. :D Hope to see y'all there.

Rikti mothership raids had a level 35+ requirement from Issues 10 through 15. It was removed when Paragon Studios removed the level requirements from all of the hazard zones in Issue 16 which, IMO, was a big mistake. I spent issues 16 through 23 leading Rikti mothership raids and fighting those trying to PL and leech from them. PLing and leeching through mothership raids negatively affects up to 47 others. PLing and leeching through AE affects one or two.

Champion and Excelsior for life.

Yeah, I'd rather not run Rikti mothership raids concurrently with Hamidon raids, but I'm an East coast player with many West coast friends. 11 P.M. ET is too late for me, and 7 P.M. ET is too early for west coasters. 8:30 P.M. ET/5:30 P.M. PT it is.

There was also two scheduled Rikti mothership raids last night that ran concurrently with the Hamidon raids. The mothership raids had a full league, with most of them being level 50s, and none under level 41, (as far as I could tell). That's probably why not enough people showed up for a Hive 2 raid. Also, Borderlands 3 released last night. I was actually surprised that the Rikti mothership raids had a full league for both raids.

What server do you play on?

I lead two Rikti mothership raids on Excelsior server last night. There was no griefing, the lowest level PC I saw there was level 41, and it went very smoothly. In fact, I personally netted 1,694 Vanguard merits per raid on average between the two raids, which is by far the most I've obtained in several dozen Rikti mothership raids since June. Zone caps FTW.

We had two successful Rikti mothership raids this evening, both with full leagues. Personally, I netted 3,389 Vanguard merits between the two, which is more than any other two back-to-back Rikti mothership raids I've been on since Homecoming started! Zone cap be darned. A huge thanks to everyone that came! I hope to see y'all next week.

It only requires planting two bombs to spawn the GM, so two teams.