Focused Feedback: Rikti Mothership Raid

[BlastLord]

If you do this on Hami you'd be awesome and I do like the trial version of MSR.

[BlastLord]

I would love to see more Raid Trials for low level players like for example Clockwork VG invading King's Row which the raid would be called "Clockwork Mayhem" the mobs will be purple and with several waves with 3 bosses, a total of 24 players would be good which I hope my suggestion would be a good idea.

[Robotech_Master]

2 hours ago, Torcel said:

Agreed.  Loved having the whole ship just relocated to us!

 

New issue: No Headman spawned either.

 

Suggestion: Remove the range requirements for V-Merits.  Right now, if you're not in a relatively small radius of the kill (about the size of the bowl, really), you don't get a V-merit when things die.  This means that pullers in particular get fewer merits (and I think other rewards) than those who stay in the bowl the whole time.  Since anyone in the instance should be actively participating in the raid, though, it would make sense to me to give the V-Merits to anyone on the team in zone.

Or at least double or triple the range limit, and do that in the zone version, too, so people would get the merits from out on the saucer rim but not halfway across the zone. I wondered why everyone was talking about getting 1300 V-merits on raids where my Tanker only got 800 to 900. Thought I was just unlucky. Meh. 

[Oklahoman]

14 hours ago, Apparition said:

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.

That was me - thanks for confirming! Also sounds like people gathered in Pocket D for the raid, so that answered another of my questions. I'm still not really clear what zones have higher zone caps than RWZ, but so long as there is at least 1 that everyone can get to, we're golden.

 

I tried to make it for the raid but just couldn't make it work with RL. Plus, for me, the Beta server is VERY choppy for some reason. Not sure I could have effectively participated anyway.

 

So the comments I am left with, without actually having tried it on the beta server, are:

• I would rather all levels be able to participate in the raid. Let league leaders deal with that.
• I'd like the Nav bar to show how much time is left. I'm not enjoying the mystery aspect now of how long the raid will be.

That's it! Looking forward to this going onto the live servers. Thanks again to everyone who does anything to keep these servers going and improve them!

[Apparition]

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.

[Demon Shell]

12 hours ago, Robotech_Master said:

Or at least double or triple the range limit, and do that in the zone version, too, so people would get the merits from out on the saucer rim but not halfway across the zone. I wondered why everyone was talking about getting 1300 V-merits on raids where my Tanker only got 800 to 900. Thought I was just unlucky. Meh. 

This is why I've only ever pulled for a raid once. I wound up with like half the merits as normal.

[Leandro]

I don't think the range limit applies on instanced missions, that's something to test on the next run.

 

The timer is 10 minutes to start with, 3 minutes for each bomb before maa spawns, 10 minutes when maa spawns, 5 minutes for defeating him. So the vast majority of raids last 28 minutes, with the caveat that time dilation due to lag can make it seem longer.

Edited September 16, 2019 by Leandro

[Bionic_Flea]

1 hour ago, Leandro said:

I don't think the range limit applies on instanced missions, that's something to test on the next run.

 

The timer is 10 minutes to start with, 3 minutes for each bomb before maa spawns, 10 minutes when maa spawns, 5 minutes for defeating him. So the vast majority of raids last 28 minutes, with the caveat that time dilation due to lag can make it seem longer.

Wait . . . so if we timed it to click say 12 bombs at the same time we would have close to an hour on the Ship?

[Leandro]

The script processes them sequentially, even if you got all 18 on the same tick it'd still give you time for the first, maa for the second and nothing for the rest.

[Bionic_Flea]

Coding is a cruel mistress . . .

[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.

[swordchucks]

19 hours ago, Apparition said:

I will host a second (and hopefully final), Rikti mothership raid trial test this weekend

How are you going to be coordinating this?  I've been bitchy about the change and feel obligated to help out with the testing a bit, so I'd join in on this if I'm available when you're doing it.

Edited September 18, 2019 by swordchucks

[Apparition]

7 minutes ago, swordchucks said:

How are you going to be coordinating this?  I've been bitchy about the change and feel obligated to help out with the testing a bit, so I'd join in on this if I'm available when you're doing it.

 

The same way that I coordinated the first.  Have everyone meet up at Pocket D, see who shows up, invite them to a league, and queue up when we're ready.

 

If the patch lands on Pineapple this Friday, then the second Rikti mothership raid trial test will most likely be Sunday at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT again.

[Clave Dark 5]

On 9/15/2019 at 8:04 PM, Apparition said:

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.

I can see this might be a bit more problematic than the way it currently works.  The last MSR I was on, Tuesday, had a number of DCs, including me.  Had to log back in, character select and wait to zone in.  But this way I was still in the bowl and just had to call out a local "I DCed, can get an invite plz?" and boom, everything was golden.  With this though, I have to recall who was the league leader and how to spell their name, which is in tiny tiny letters on the league rosters. 

 

I mean, of course there are ways around this, but it's still another hurdle to get past.  But I can recognize that if the "join in progress" has always been broken, then fixing it might be beyond possibility.  I've quite enjoyed the MSRs on Indomitable (thanks Eda!) an d hope this doesn't change the dynamic too much.  The one good thing I can see it add is often after a run or two, they break up, but I've seen some people would be happy to make another run (I'm often one of them), so this may provide us that option.

[Auroxis]

Would it be possible to keep the old RWZ accessible via Ouroboros? Just so people can compare their character's performance with the countless hours of tests made on the old pylons.

 

Edit: Looks like the zone pylons were reverted back, thanks!

Edited September 21, 2019 by Auroxis

[swordchucks]

On 9/18/2019 at 12:30 PM, Apparition said:

will most likely be Sunday at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT

That's the part I was after.  I must have missed it where you declared the time for the first one.  If I'm available, I'll join in.

 

11 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I mean, of course there are ways around this, but it's still another hurdle to get past. 

Can Leagues be set up like Task Forces, so you stay in even through DC?  Of course, you couldn't bring in new folks if you did this, and losing a team or league leader would be complete chaos, most likely. 

[gameboy1234]

From another thread:

 

15 minutes ago, PrinceTycho said:

I might be missing something, but doesn't the LFG system require everyone in the league to be in the same zone before kicking it off? If all zones are going to have the 50 player limit, this may actually be kind of difficult to put together.....

 

Seems like a valid point to me.  Are we going to have problems forming up any given raid due to zone limits? It seems like it might not solve any problems with RWZ MSR (for example) if the 50 player limit still applies.  We still have to get all those folks in a raid in the same zone to start.  Any other raid, regardless of which raid, seems like it might have this problem if all coop zones are limited to 50 folks.  I think perhaps rather than making RWZ an instanced raid resources (dev's time) might be better spent figuring out how to let the coop zones have a bigger limit.

 

[Apparition]

10 minutes ago, gameboy1234 said:

From another thread:

 

 

Seems like a valid point to me.  Are we going to have problems forming up any given raid due to zone limits? It seems like it might not solve any problems with RWZ MSR (for example) if the 50 player limit still applies.  We still have to get all those folks in a raid in the same zone to start.  Any other raid, regardless of which raid, seems like it might have this problem if all coop zones are limited to 50 folks.  I think perhaps rather than making RWZ an instanced raid resources (dev's time) might be better spent figuring out how to let the coop zones have a bigger limit.

 

 

As I posted in that other thread:

 

The only zones with a 50 player cap are The Abyss, The Hive, and Rikti War Zone.  Most zones are capped at 100.  Atlas Park, Kallisti Wharf, and Pocket D are capped at 200.

 

I held a test of the Rikti mothership raid trial in Pocket D on the beta server last weekend because I figure that's where many will form up on the regular servers as it is one of the two co-op zones with a 200 player cap and many people already use it to form Incarnate trials in.

[Megajoule]

Not to dismiss the effort that's been put into this by Leo, but I really do feel that this particular issue could have been solved just by capping the RWZ at 100.  Leave the Hive and Abyss at 50.

[Myrmidon]

On 9/18/2019 at 11:30 AM, Apparition said:

If the patch lands on Pineapple this Friday, then the second Rikti mothership raid trial test will most likely be Sunday at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT again.

 

Sunday isn’t a play day for me, otherwise, I would definitely lend a hand testing.

[EyeLuvBooks]

20 hours ago, Megajoule said:

Not to dismiss the effort that's been put into this by Leo, but I really do feel that this particular issue could have been solved just by capping the RWZ at 100.  Leave the Hive and Abyss at 50.

I would have said 60 or 75 because you still can't form a whole second league but if people wanted to form an overflow then they could.

 

I wanted to point out that simply raising the cap would solve one other problem: Griefing. Last night I was attempting to enter the RWZ and the zone was full. The league leader politely asked people not in the raid to move to the other RWZ which had alreay spawned. Not only did they not move they apparently delighted in the trouble they were causing. So myself and one other were locked out of the raid.

 

Yeah...THAT was fun...not.

 

Simply raising the limit in the RWZ to 60 (enough for a full league, an overflow of 8 and 4 others not involved) would solve the problem with fewer headaches. I LOVE our dev team and all of their hard work. I'd kinda like to spare them unnecessary coding if possible.

[Apparition]

27 minutes ago, EyeLuvBooks said:

I would have said 60 or 75 because you still can't form a whole second league but if people wanted to form an overflow then they could.

 

I wanted to point out that simply raising the cap would solve one other problem: Griefing. Last night I was attempting to enter the RWZ and the zone was full. The league leader politely asked people not in the raid to move to the other RWZ which had alreay spawned. Not only did they not move they apparently delighted in the trouble they were causing. So myself and one other were locked out of the raid.

 

Yeah...THAT was fun...not.

 

Simply raising the limit in the RWZ to 60 (enough for a full league, an overflow of 8 and 4 others not involved) would solve the problem with fewer headaches. I LOVE our dev team and all of their hard work. I'd kinda like to spare them unnecessary coding if possible.

 

Besides from testing, the instance Rikti mothership raid trial is mostly complete from what I understand.  And the trial instance prevents even more griefing as you would be able to get in without being locked out, and those that grief (like the person that spawned the team teleporter in the middle of the mothership bowl last night), can be more easily dealt with.

[Apparition]

Since the patch went live in the wee hours of the morning, I will host a second test tomorrow at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT in Pocket D.  I hope to see some of y'all there.

[EyeLuvBooks]

9 hours ago, Apparition said:

Since the patch went live in the wee hours of the morning, I will host a second test tomorrow at 7 P.M. ET/4 P.M. PT in Pocket D.  I hope to see some of y'all there.

Sadly, I will be unable to attend due to prior commitments. However I look forward to seeing feedback. Based on the suggestions for the Instanced version of the MSR, once the bugs are worked out (there are always bugs...) then it should make the RWZ much more playable

[Apparition]

We held the second Rikti mothership raid trial test this evening.  Unfortunately, only five others showed up for a total of six people.  However, we formed a league of two teams of three people each, and gave it a test thanks to the LFG queue system change anyhoo.

 

 

1. Confirm the presence of Rikti Magi, Chief Mesmorists, Headmen, and Rikti Priests (!)

 

Rikti Magi, Chief Mesmorists, Headmen, and Rikti Priests were all found and accounted for.

 

2. Confirm that the minimap works.

 

This was the biggest issue.  Yesterday afternoon after the latest beta server patch landed, I made a level 40 Blaster and did a Rikti mothership raid trial all by my lonesome, just to test that my level 40 Blaster's combat level would be adjusted to level 50.  It was.  I pulled up the minimap, and it showed 20 Pylon dots.  It didn't have the Pylon numbers next to them like the regular zone map, but good enough.

 

Tonight, we loaded into the Rikti mothership raid trial instance.  I opened up the minimap... and there were no Pylon dots.  I used the Reveal power, and it showed the map, but still no Pylon dots.  All it showed was the mothership itself.  I checked with everyone else.  Three of us had no Pylon dots at all, just the mothership.  Two had the Pylon dots.  One had the Pylon dots, with the Pylon numbers next to them.  The three that had no Pylon dots at all were two Corruptors (including myself), and an Arachnos Soldier.  The ones that had the Pylon dots were a Brute and Defender.  The one that had the Pylon dots and the Pylon numbers was a Brute.  It made no sense to me why I could see the Pylons on the map yesterday but not today.  The only differences for me were archetype and alignment.  So I noted everyone's alignment as well.  My Blaster yesterday is a Villain.  My Corruptor today is a Rogue.  The other Corruptor is Vigilante.  But the Arachnos Soldier is a Villain.  So that seems to discount the alignment idea.

 

After the Rikti mothership raid trial ended, out of curiosity I queued us again.  Everyone could see the Pylon dots, and the Pylon numbers.  So it seems to have been random that half of us couldn't see the Pylons on the map at all the first go around.  Odd.

 

3. Confirm that the timer works.

 

The timer does indeed work!  As does the active Pylons counter.  After time ran out, an extra twenty seconds or so was added to the timer, but that was expected.

 

4. Confirm that NPCs have movement.

 

Both Rikti and the various pets moved.  Confirmed.

 

5. Test to see if people far out from the bowl receive Vanguard merits.

 

Everyone in the instance seems to receive all Vanguard merits.  When we were about to take down Pylon 1, one of us moved to the far southern end of the map, and still received the Vanguard merits when we took it down.  During the bowl phase, a couple of people moved far out and still received Vanguard merits the whole time.  So I'd call that a success.

 

6. Confirm that everyone is combat level 50.

 

As I wrote above, I made a level 40 Blaster and tested this myself yesterday.  My level 40 Blaster had a combat level of 50.  So I'd say this is confirmed.  However, that said, this seems to have possibly opened up another issue.  I don't know if this is intentional or not, or related to the combat level 50 sidekick or not, but everyone was equipped with at least a Tier 3 Alpha, and all of the mobs still conned +4.  The Incarnate level shift from the Alpha seems to have been negated.

 

7. Other issues and notes.

 

This may be normal because we haven't done any Rikti mothership raids with Rikti Priests since before sunset, but U'Kon Gr'ai was a resilient bugger.  We got him down to about half health, and all of a sudden he was back at full health.  U'Kon Gr'ai was healing faster than Wolverine. :D  We only noticed one Rikti Priest nearby.  This may be because we were only a league of six people, and/or we may have missed a Rikti Priest or two, but if it was indeed only one Rikti Priest that healed U'Kon Gr'ai back up to full health in one hit, that may need to be looked at.  It may also be possible that the Rikti Priests may have super-long range healing if it was more than the one Rikti Priest we spotted healing U'Kon Gr'ai, which also may need to be looked at.  In any case, at some point U'Kon Gr'ai stopped receiving heals after we killed the Priests in the area, and we took him down.

 

The mothership's shield never displayed to anyone, but a couple of us intentionally tried to bump into it, and sure enough, the shield was there.  Well, at least until the Pylons were destroyed. ;)  That's also an occasional issue on the regular servers though, so nothing in particular to the trial.  The shield did display in the trial when I did that test by myself yesterday.

 

There were plenty of Rikti all over the ship, and my team of three had about 600 Vanguard merits each at the end of it, so I'd say that "rumor" of the Rikti mothership raid trial only "spawning a few Rikti" is squashed.

 

All in all, it was a good and fun test.  One definite issue with the minimap sometimes not showing Pylons, and two possible issues of the Incarnate level shift from the Alpha not being applied and Rikti Priest super-healing.

 

Thanks to everyone that came out and gave the Rikti mothership raid trial a good test!