cranebump

Heh, heh. "We have FAILED this city!" (I find that sentiment amusing) Not so sure about a focus group, but actual flesh-and-blood "ambassadors" might not be a bad idea. I'm talking knowledgeable and helpful player contacts new players can be directed to if they want some human contact, either live, or via the boards (and with the players' consent, of course). We have enough experts on all subjects to help players experience the game, however they want to play it. While I side with the "really, bruh...do a LITTLE bit of research" crowd, direct contact with our TF experts, Mission/Lore gods, AE designers, slow play specialists & build pros might be a nice resource we could develop as a community to support and keep new players. Outside that, the best teacher is experience. So the old pros can help new players by doing the things they advocate for. Like mission play? Form contact teams at all levels. Are you a task force pro? Do what Blapperella does, and lead regular runs of not just the common ones, but the ones people miss out on (Who Will Die?, for example - 20 merits a pop, usually 3 mishes). I have a couple toons who have access to all the bank mishes. I could form groups just to run through the banks, using the SC contact right next to the truck there (I've thought about it, but haven't done it yet).* You offer enough alternatives, you'll get some folks. As JEJ once said, "If you build it..." *my current, active contribution are creating SFMA arcs and doing reviews of same.

I tend to agree with the folks who advocate trad play in this specific instance, because I think a new player should really have other modes of play to compare to, with different skill sets that you can't necessarily develop simply through farming. (bolded, because I have no issues with farming, in general)

A trio to get the summer well underway: Kicking the Habit [ID: 38516] by @Echo13 A high level arc (L50-54), explicitly designed for an SG (Invictus, if I have it right). We’re called in by Detective Howards to deal with a situation involving the Destroyers (and their Fixidine trade) and the Scorpion Gang (who’ve got their own drug, ‘Kick’). Howards and his crew need help dealing with the trade (and gangs) expanding into Atlas Park. After beating up the lowlifes, you’re pointed upstream to bigger fish (specifically, a perp named ‘V’). A trail of “convenient” (as the Det puts it) clues leads you to a bigger picture involving some unusual bad guys, who look like statues when you confront them (but who pack a punch once they “emerge”). A few typos, but nothing serious (which I can totally relate to, and often provide in my own arcs [and review]).:-) Clean, clear missions, neatly laid out. Some good, tanky bosses. Straight and to the point. Plus the author has a slew of longer story arcs that might be worth a whirl, if you want to run your own SG through what looks like an interesting narrative. Looks like some good world building there. Kudos. A shadowy Seal of Approval (‘cause there’s more here than meets the eye, if Howards is right [and he probably us]).:-) PLAY IF: You want to whoop some drug dealers (who’re part of something much bigger). Maybe look into Echo's other stuff if you want some extended SG material. Fox on the Run - Crey Labs [ID: 55140] by @Catbird Global: @Kartanian (hope I got this right) A L50+, 2-mission Vigilante/Rogue mish designed for well-slotted Incarnates (it disclaims). The Titanium Owl has a lead on some lucrative data. It’s a straight-up smash and grab, with a lot of Power Tanks. Set it to max and fill the map up. NOTE: It’s listed as having AV’s, but it’s an AV rescue, rather than a slugfest. Direct and straightforward. It is exactly as it says. Has a contact with some definite character, and a friendly invitation to look up the designer in game (whose sig I have placed above). Extra points for using Sweet’s classic pop tune in the title (which came out about the time I started getting into “my own” music back in Junior High (yes…I am old…). A power-armored Seal of Approval for this quick hitter. PLAY IF: You want to trounce Crey (and have a couple of decent boss fights-the custom Crey bosses have some serious armor. Defenders of Talos [ID: 44578] by @Jiro Ito This L20-27 arc from an accomplished (and award-winning) designer has you seeking out an SG that disappeared in the wake of the 2002 Rikti War, working with 2nd generation contact, Black Trojan (which could double as a very lucrative brand name for a certain set of merchandise [hey...it worked for Johnny Walker...).:-) The lad wants to find out more about a purchase he made involving tech belonging to his Pa, the OG Black Trojan. So it’s off we go to a Warriors base that includes choppers we’d like to get to (but Ahnold didn’t gives us those instructions, so c'est la vie).:-) No spoilers. It's a good arc. Has nice tie-ins to: an in-game vendor; an instantly recognizable mish entry pop text (Anton’s about to have a very bad day). Excellently developed character in Young BT. Uses some unique maps to great effect. Well-written, both in terms of narrative, and mechanics (pristine, grammar, spelling and so on). A couple of nice twists thrown in at the end, leading to a sort of bittersweet finale (which I lean toward in my own stuff, so I dig that a lot). Fine storytelling! An old-school-refurbished-to-a-new-sheen Seal of Approval. PLAY IF: You appreciate a solid, very well designed tale. Worth your time!

Nerf the Toy Bat!

Melee critters will default to 40% if they don't include a ranged attack. Something like SS will give them access to "Hurl" to cover that gap. Unfortunately, something like Claws doesn't have that. For myself, I'd activate "Throwing Knives" anyway, since, if they're set to melee, they'll default to that when the players close the range gap. Either that, or you make their secondary a ranged Lethal (I'm thinking basic Arrow attacks here). Bear in mind, I'm not any sort of authority on designing farm mishes. I do know fire farm critters have some ranged built in so they'll return 100% XP, and do little harm (if any) to a Fire Farming Tank. Assuming the players are running with high S/L resistance (and why wouldn't they, right?), they should still be fine engaging with critters who have throwing knives and the like. Plus a farm Tank with dedicated Taunt can just drag them in anyway (I would think - again, not an expert on farms [but I have designed a ton of critters). Summary: I'd just give the mobs a ranged attack. S/L Farmers should be built to handle it.

Mr. Rivers [SFMA] A dead man owes an old debt to a shadowy creditor. Your task? Collect it. Without losing your soul L30-35 Mostly stock villains (with a couple of interesting cameos from RI Villains). Design Notes for the interested/curious:

Perhaps a string of bosses on a small map with narrow passageways. There’s some warehouses and caves that might work. The objective at the end could be an “escape hatch” hidden behind an object, or maybe beneath rubble, depending.

True. We should've all just laid back and enjoyed the faceplanting while the tank was giggling away, unscathed. And not targeting Clamor.:-/

No, they didn't. They ended up doing clean-up crew a lot (with me). Maybe we did have some noobs. Thought about asking early on (when I pointed out the bypassed objectives). Wish I had.

I did respond to your points in a civil, discussion-type manner. I conceded that I could have spoken up more forcefully. Twice, I think (though, again, I don't think it'd have made a difference, because my other messages to the team were ignored by the soloists). I fervently think there should be some consideration to your team members when you're, you know, playing on a team. Judging from what you wrote, below, I think you somewhat agree with me on that. Of course, I DID use some, er, "colorful language" to describe the whole. I think it's fair to call that out as overwrought. I was more annoyed than angry, but I can see how my tone was completely more the latter than the former. So that's on me. That said...there really was some douche baggery going on there. And not for the first time (especially the reactor room fiasco). My takeaway is to ask how we're approaching the reactor glowies when I get signals early on that this may be one of those teams. At least I'll know where to position myself when the tsunami comes. Agreed. But I feel like diving off the team would pretty much make me the thing I was venting about -- a crappy teammate. I just don't dive off any team unless there's people being abusive toward others (especially the team lead). So if I'd called out what I saw using anything close to the language I employed above I'd, again, just be turning into what I don't want to be. I should mention that most of the team was fine. Unfortunately, those were the people stuck playing free safety. And who got faceplanted in the reactor room. On the whole, it wasn't the best experience for us squishies at the end. If I'm totally honest, though, I've seen worse (I think we all have). I'm just seeing that reactor glowie activation/ambush thing more often lately. And the fact it was fine for the solo tank that our "reckless" approach might not've been good for the majority of the group just rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed self-absorbed (or at least clueless). By the way "persecution complex?" Bit much for what was essentially a plain ol' rant. Think I still have a ways to go to reach persecution status. But maybe a few more "reckless Yins...":-)

Excellent idea. I would say that it hasn't happened enough to put me off randos. A vast majority of teams are great. This one just got under my skin. I haven't reached the Snarky level of bad luck. Yet.:-)

Pretty much. If I'm running crowd control, and FS comes out, I learn to wait for it before laying down anything. Best use of it I saw was by a tank, who approached mobs in the same manner every time. I just trailed, waited for them to gather, then dropped everything once it was moved. Got it down to a science after a bit. That tank was a tank's tank. He ran a couple of different toons, switching out during the run. Don't know the global, but the first names of each were "Jabs." That player was awesome.

Please see Section I, subsection 17-A, paragraphs 3 and 4.:-) Hm. So, here's my thinking: By focusing on my reaction to the event, you're ignoring the event itself. Which, while not excusing the offenders, makes me the focus of the issue, rather than the behavior that incited my response. Granted, this doesn't overtly give a pass to the jackassery I witnessed, but by making it all about what I might have been able to do by speaking up firmly early on, your angle seems to make me responsible for any subsequent shitty behavior on their part. This, when we know that (a) I did (politely) mention the bypassing of objectives, and (b) the behavior of the soloists was not changed in any way (as evidenced by MA's rather clueless remark upon completion). I don't think any amount of verbiage on my part was going to change things, because the small amount I offered didn't. The idea that, by just being forceful I could somehow modify what are likely ingrained habits is laughable. I'd offer that NOT engaging forcefully got me the best possible outcome I was gonna get under those circumstances. Of course, we'll never know. (You did mention badges, above, but there weren't any badges to get. So the standard protocols of "Badge Run" as a pro forma tactical reminder just don't apply -- this was about a lack of awareness on the part of the soloists in the event of what was not announced as a speed run. Whether this was intentional or not, I can't say. It sure seemed like it, though.) Anyway, you seem to want to win an argument here, so I'll just concede on all points. Which fits in neatly with the entire incident now that I think about it -- nothing I say is going to change what you think or do (and you'll notice, above, I already said I probably could've been more forceful, thus recognizing your initial argument). I just didn't want to be a complete asshole by attempting to usurp leadership on a group to which I was merely an invitee, and did not wholly consist of MA's. I make nice when I'm on a team. And we finished the TF. I guess that's all that matters. But it shouldn't be.

Well...you really just verified the implication here by this response. Further, you also excused the poor (and inefficient) play of the jokers I ranted about. This is pretty typical, though. Forgive the jackasses who caused the problem, then blame the person who points out their fuckup. For the record, I DID let the party know we had hostage groups that weren't freed (and thanked those who came back to assist my low DPS Troller). I also later commented in team chat that we had Council Raid Leaders left standing (which a few us cleaned up, per usual [and slowly). So, I DID mention the objectives were still active. As for the reactor room, well, is what it is. Didn't announce "please hold off on the glowies" because I was trying to do my part. And I'm not entirely sure a request on the part of someone who's not the leader would've had any cache, anyway. These guys were going to play how they were going to play. Didn't matter if anyone else was around, which seems a pretty mannerless way to play. We succeeded, but the choices of a few caused things to be a LOT tougher than they needed to be. The one thing I wish I'd asked was if anyone had never run the TF before. Then I'd have felt justified in being more vocal than I was. But then, I don't have much Magnificent Asshole in me. Well...most of the time.:-) Perhaps next time I'll be a bit more insistent. Provided I'm not too busy mopping/catching up to type. FYI: point taken. I should probably speak up more than I did. Sound advice. But my gang was 2 mobs down the road. So we'd probably have had to run back and sweep up something we could have taken care of fairly easily. They skipped out on the first TWO hostage groups, partially clearing, but not checking to see if the hostages were free (then racing ahead). If we'd have just taken a second, we could've mopped it up then and there, avoiding the initial splitting and saving ourselves some time (plus our "free safetys" could've actually participated in the bulk of the subsequent piecemealed battles). The main thing for me is the thought some of my team had that it was okay to just leave shit (that was tied to mission completion) for everyone else to deal with. In this case it seemed, at best, unnecessary or inefficient. At worst, it felt disrespectful. Honestly, I've seen this before. But the whole "reckless" comment just got under my skin. I don't expect perfection from a PuG (though it does happen more often than not. But we had faceplants we could've avoided with even just a wee bit of selflessness and team play.

All's well that ends well. I'm not even sure the last room bothered me near as much as the running past objectives, especially the first two groups of hostages in map #1, and the Council Raid Leaders. It's not like you can finish the mission without accomplishing these first. Hell, in the opener, you can't go inside the police station until you take care of the outside objectives first. The soloists made it slower by flying ahead and, in some cases taking team members who were following the tank, expecting, I guess, that the tank knew what he was doing. The whole "let's fill the reactor room with shit!" is obviously a thing at the moment. It may well be new folks. I guess I'll have to ask questions now, like I do with Pos1 (i.e., Clearing sides first?)

First, I'll answer your question: No, and I didn't notice they were doing it until there was one left. Second: the implication here is that it's someone else's fault for not informing the person about the glowie clickies. While I agree with that sentiment if you're running with new people, and you're in charge of the team, and you actually want to make it smoother, a) I wasn't in charge (and didn't want to be, or I'd have formed the team myself), and b) I cannot confirm we had new people. Maybe some of them were. The Kheldian certainly played like a noob.

You know, if people WANT to do it that way, then it’s all good. But how about letting the rest of us know about it? Or make sure the group can handle it. We were just not a party that melted things. Especially the support toons relegated to cleanup. I can more or less mez things indefinitely. But my little pew-pew gun takes forever to bring down purps at that level. Irony is we’d have been speedier if we’d have worked on the mobs together. Assuming speed was the goal. I’m not sure what our strategy was, but I think it was “none.” Or rather, some people had a plan to screw everyone else. (I still can’t figure out why the Kheldian kept charging ahead. They seemed determined to leave an exquisite corpse, at least once a mission).

Really, I TRY to be positive, but this stuff… (sigh) if I may indulge for a moment… Yin run. Everlast. Supposedly we’re a team, but our gaggle has 3 people who are basically soloing, including both tanks (one slightly less so than the other, who is obviously there TO solo, and whom we shall call The Magnificent Asshole). First mish: we engage first mob holding hostages, and they leave squishy support types to finish off the rezzing purple Freak tanks. At one point, there are only 2 of us, so I have to inform everyone there’s still hostages back here. We get a bit of help, but our soloists do the same thing with subsequent mobs, so I end up on the clean up crew again, trying to, you know, complete the actual mission objectives. Once inside the po-po station, the Magnificent Asshole tank (who has evidently joined this team to smell his own musk) runs off again. He is joined by a Peacebringer who becomes his Magnficent Shadow. But Shadow is either a noob or a complete dumbass, because he dies multiple times during the TF. I am happy when it happens, and I laugh and mumble, “You shoulda waited, you feckless cretin.” Moving along: Same thing happens on subsequent office map. They run off. PB gets ass handed to him in the Freak-filled L1 room. At one point, when I finally catch up to the Magnificent Asshole, I see him start to get slammed a bit, and I actually hold off on my support attacks for a second, because by now I wish he’d faceplant. But he pops his tank heal. I dutifully lay down some Arsenal support to obscure the fact that I wanted his toon to die and get mapserved. I pray for such divine justice, but, well, no such luck. Council map: same thing (what did you expect?}. They run past the mission objectives (council raid leaders), to do…I don’t know wtf. Evidently something. Once again the people actually teaming have to clean up their droppings. By now, I really hate these f***ers, but I’m wordlessly trudging through it, because anything I say won’t fix douche baggery. I pray for a lightning strike to fry the Magnificent Asshole’s hard drive. God ignores me (again!) Finally, the finale. We get ported to the reactor by one of our front runners. I begin to think we might actually do something as a full team. No. Far from it. We plunge in, knock out the AV well before the mobs annnnd… Someone clicks all 4 gd glowies. Before we’ve cleaned out the mobs. Before we’ve even come close to cleaning them out. Triple aggro. We’re all running around like slaughtered, headless chickens. For a moment, me, the squishy Troller, seems to be the only one targeting Clamor upon her return. For my pains (and because I don’t know what’s behind my freakin back in that mess) I catch a big fat slamma jamma from something (still not sure what…I think it was a diesel train) and I faceplant. I rez, pop a purple, eat some greens, duck into a corner (I have ONE small blue to use), and reconstitute, resummon and reload. I head back into the fray and mf’in Clamor’s STILL just hangin’ around. I’m not sure what everyone’s doing, but eventually they run out of lesser targets and we all FINALLY focus on the same thing (thanks, God…bit late, though). We finally take her down, exit. Someone comments on how fast it all was (though it was not announced as a speed run). I comment on the triple aggro at the end. True to his nature, the Magnificent Asshole responds with how much he enjoyed the “reckless”nature of it.” I comment that “you might want to clear it with everyone else first.” (Of course, what I want to say is: “F*** YOU! Of course YOU like that sh*t! You’re a f***ing tank! You can wade around in that sh*t waving your dick while the rest of us get clamped in the firebox YOU likely made!” F*** you, sir! F*** you, indeed!) The sad thing is, such “Magnificence” isn’t even all that rare at the moment. Of the last dozen or so Yins I’ve been on, I’d say fully a third of them have had someone click the reactor room glowies while the big end fight was not under control. It seems to actually be a thing. I would therefore like to request that such runs be advertised in some way. I’d prefer to call it a “dumbass douchebag run,” but “reckless” will do. So if “reckless” is your thing, please let others know up front that the task force will be all about you and what you find fun (like porting us all into the rear room so you can activate all the ambushes at once and watch the squishies die). Yes, we can figure out your douchiness on our own pretty quickly once we’re running. But it’d be nice to have a chance to dive off the team beforehand, for those of us who don’t want to stare at your ass tracks in the distance (not to mention clean up what’s come out of it, now that you’ve sh*t on the whole TF). In short, don’t hide your selfish jerkitude. Announce it up front, you gd, mamma-dint-raise-yew-raht POS. You know you’re a Magnificent Asshole. Might as well embrace it. (Now returning to more positive frame of mind [slowly…slowly…])

Hoo boy...

Well, you can teach intellectual property and all that. But when you're dealing with a huge swath of folks whose world has always included high-speed internet and endless media choices via the multiple screens through which they've experienced the world (not to mention various apps that do a lot of mental work for you), it's no wonder the concept doesn't register. Then again, a LOT of things don't register, now that our attention spans have dwindled to near zero.

This.

Just when I thought I was out...

You'd think this would turn folks away, but...no...:-)

Pretty much any of them (though there's a special place in my heart for RAD/RAD).

Hellion: Have you ever actually stolen a purse? If so, leadership over our entire organization is now yours!