Task Commander TF - Reload

[DrRocket]

Before it seems I am just criticising the game, I want to declare that I do enjoy the game and recognize the many fixes and improvements in it that i smaking the game so much more fun to be played by the many different types of players.

 

Now lets talk about the TFs, I was making fun with other players that Citadel sends you to Independence Port for many of the missions and he is stationed in Talos, then get this Penlope who is based on Independence Port has most of her missions in Talos. Synapse is in Skyway and most of the missions are in Steel Canyon. Numina, good grief, is the great tour of Paragon.

 

So while I am not criticing the game by any means, I believe at the time this and otehr TFs were made, the concept of "time sinks" were needed within reason but content did not quite exist for it was in the process of being created; this makes the difference from a newly established game versus a long ago established game.

 

With the revival of COH by Homecomming, there has been many QoL improvements such as ATT, TT, MT, rocket boards, etc which mostly concentrates in making the inter mission travel less grindy. Kudos for the effort!

 

But if the time and effort is available why not relook at the TFs and limit the missions to the zone the hero is at, Positron all happens in SC, Synapse Sky, Penny IP, etc. It would be a QoL type improvement, also goes easier on new players trying ot learn the maps. I just got a friend to get into the game, and he is a first timer, and Positron sends the team to faultline...

 

Another improvement can be on the nature of the missions within the TF, be nice to reduce the copy-paste feel, Citadel go to IP hit council base get 1 computer, next mission the same as before but 2 computers, next mission the same as before but 3 computers, and yes the next missoin same as before but 4 computers. Why not just have the go for the 4? and do away with the other 3, best yet change the other 3 to something else all together would be great. Just the Augistine TF, tha tone is repetitive and just down right ugly, kill 50 mobs here, then again somewhere else, why 50? Numina at its worse had 20. Just thinking aloud, I don't think the game needs time sinks anymore, so why not remove the old time timesink tricks?

 

Thank you

[Lines]

The Freedom Phalanx TFs are old content from launch. Back then, the endurance test (both of the players and of their connections) was the big challenge. Navigating the city was also a major part of the philosophy (Hence Numina). You'd have to plan a week ahead, block out your calendar and commit a solid few hours to get through the original Posi TF.

 

The philosophy of the game changed a lot later, between CoV or the Faultline Overhaul, and many of the conveniences you mention started to get added. But that old content was slow to catch up, except for Posi and Penny Yin.

 

I quite enjoy exploring the city between missions. It's time I spend chatting and being social and I've never gotten bored of flying around the cities - especially redside. I think it would be a shame if the game goes too far down the 'QoL' conveniences. Heck, it's too far down that route for my taste as it is (The TUNNEL system bothers me immensely). But some of the TFs really do take the piss, especially Citadel which has you ping ponging back and forth between Talos and IP. There's certainly a demand for it.

 

 

In actuality, these TFs need a rewrite to bring them up to the quality and pace of the new Posi. Posi is a pretty solid 'gold standard' for what a TF going forward should look like.

 

Though isn't Penny Yin all in IP these days? Not sure which TF you might be thinking of there...

[EmperorSteele]

Dr. Rocket probably meant the old Sister Psyche TF.

But, yeah, I'd like to see the other main TFs get the Posi/Pen Yin treatment. A bunch of a defeat-alls, all in the same cave (Literally the same cave in at least one instance) should NOT be main, fore-front group content. I think SCoRE/Homecoming already tweaked Manti by removing a superfulous mission or two, and making the final boss battle more entertaining. The other TFs could use a tweak also.

 

If we wanted to do more than just "tweak", there's room for improvement in the stories, also. The Freedom Phalanx are the premier supergroup of the in-game world. And yet, all they do is stand around asking you to do things that are just beneath their notice. I think that if the TFs were to be revamped, they should do a better job of hand-waving the Hero's absence during the mission, or say why they can't get involved directly. For instance, have Synapse be running around Paragon doing other things while you stop a Clockwork incursion into Skyway. Citadel is wanted by the Council/5th column, so he stays out of the fighting and you're going on his behalf.

I DO like Numina's "Round the world flashback tour", but maybe curtail the number of missions leading up to it. That should BE the TF: Short missions/hunts/collections and/or talk-tos in Atlas, KR, SC, IP, etc, instead of JUST hunts at the end of an already exhaustively long TF.

[Lost Ninja]

Wasn't the Numina TF originally the end game content before they added 40-50 blueside? Hence the tour of the city style to it.

[Chirikiti]

I loathe most blue-side TFs and content in general, because of this very thing. The entire side seems to be designed with making as much useless time sinks as possible. The 'if we make everything artificially take a very long time they'll have to subscribe longer'-school of game design

 

Seriously some of these are terrible, and the story contacts are worse. You can better believe that if your told to go to a different zone with only 1 access point the mission will be at the furthest end of the map, every time.

Or how about this- Top of IP map, go talk to this person (at the very bottom of the map)...oh they send me on a mission...at the very top of the map...oh now I have to actually return to said person at the bottom of the map....annd back to the top again. O_o

 

 

My easy solution was to continue/go back to running Villain-side (I had to do all of Hero side at least once) and ignore blue content until I have access to the highest end stuff (miss libs etc). And never again will I run Crimson, Tina, Harvey, Unai again, these go on and on and on and on and all over. Ugg.

 

 

[ShardWarrior]

On 12/2/2019 at 10:56 AM, DrRocket said:

then get this Penlope who is based on Independence Port has most of her missions in Talos.

All of Penelope Yin's TF missions are in IP. 

[Rapunzel]

Tweaking/Updating Citadel would be great, and I wouldn't mind the others being given a brush up as well.

 

But I love the city tour aspect of Numina. Maybe I'm sentimental, but "touch every part of the city you protect" delights me. I could see revamping it to have the tour be the task force - include more zones and expand the tour sense while getting rid of more of the missions leading up to it.

[Marine X]

Then on top of all the other issues with the old TF remember that the Rail Services were split at the time they were written, there was green line that went to some zones and yellow line that went to others.

 

Station Stop	Old Yellow Line	Old Green Line
Atlas Park	X
Kings Row	X
Steel Canyon South	X
Steel Canyon North		X
Skyway City North	X
Skyway City South		X
Talos Island		X
Independence Port		X
Croatoa		X
Brickstown		X
Founders' Falls		X

 

Had to always go from Indy Port to Steel or Skyway, go to the opposite end of the zone to other Station in order to get to Talos, arghh!

( I believe the Smuggler's Ship was added with Striga Island in Issue 3 )

Edited December 5, 2019 by Marine X

[Broken_Prey]

The Devs on live seem to learn over time people hate to travel. They put stuff later in game to make it easier, like ouro.

 

I would love this. All TF and even story arcs for that matter should take place mainly in the zone of the contact and a hazard zone. Sure the go talk to someone can be in a different zone.

 

So if we were to look at the TF I would like some like this

Positron-Doesn't need to change
Synapse-Starts in Skyway and ends in Boomtown
Yin-Doesn't need to change
Citadel-Starts in Talos Island and ends in Striga Isle.
Manticore- Brickstown to Crey's Folly
Numina- Founders' Falls to Eden, get rid of the hunt missions. 

 

1 hour ago, Marine X said:

 

Station Stop	Old Yellow Line	Old Green Line
Founders' Falls		X

 

 

IIRC They added Green line to Founders' later in the game too. 

[Yomo Kimyata]

Old Tfs are old. Developers had different motivations then. Now it is a volunteer session. 

 

Do you want badges, or exp, or content?

[Razor Cure]

On 12/6/2019 at 12:37 PM, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

Do you want badges, or exp, or content?

We cant have all 3? MarketCrash sure does.