Improving Task Forces/Strike Forces (Share ideas and thoughts)

[Sakura Tenshi]

The Short and Dirty:

once the team has gotten down what they'd like with getting the code stable, I think for content they should look at revamping old Hero TFs (mostly Citadel, Synapse, Numina, and Manticore to a lesser extent) and adding new Villain SFs. And so I'd like to hear to open this thread to ideas on how to improve existing TFs/SFs and maybe come up with new Redside ones.

 

The Big, Long, Reasoning:

So, the recent NoEXP option nerf got me thinking a bit, and long story short, I think one way people might be a bit cooler about that sort of thing is if Merit Rewards were a bit more plentiful (from which we could buy a lot of our needed IO sets but not all, which is important), which in turn led to my initial idea that perhaps what should be done to help with this is expand the Weekly TF/SF to include a second TF/SF for both sides as well as even a storyarc (done through ouroboros) to help increase flow of Reward merits. The problem I realized with that is that Blueside has 16 Task Forces to draw from without coop stuff like Lady Grey, Imperious, etc. Meanwhile Redside doesn't even have half of that at only 7 Strike Forces unique to redside*. And while I have no doubt the Redside ones are mechanically and narraively superior, it doesn't make up for the fact that if you want to do a TF where you're a villain with friends, you only have seven stories to choose from. But Blueside should not be left out in the cold either, especially since, as mentioned, of those 16 TFs, only 6 or so have a decent narrative and structure and most are extremely repetitive in their design, and in Manticore's case had only the most minimal of updates to it (the end fight), and even some of the ones updated could use a fix (mostly Penelope Yin's because there's no noise tanks, which is a damn shame)

 

*I am also discounting the Ouroboros 'TFs/SFs' as those feel more like precursors to Signature Story Arcs than a proper TF.

 

The actual discussion point:

So with that said, how about some ideas for new Strike Forces for redside or even improvements to existing SFs and ideas on how you would like to see existing TFs improved both writing and mechanically.

 

• For blueside in general, one thing I'd like to see improved upon with the likes of Citadel, Manticore, Synapse, Moonfire, and Hess is the inclusion of more than one enemy group to break mob monotony and inject a bit more excitement into the story such as what they're doing there. Positron is ultimately a prime example though Numina could be seen as an example of how it can go wrong (why the hell were we even fighting half these guys anyway when we knew only two groups in Paragon would be able to give the spirit of Woodsman trouble?). For example I could see Citadel's TF be improved with the additional pressure of both the Fifth Column and Arachnos getting involved for their own reasons and perhaps by dealing with them they inadvertently help us get closer to solving the case. For Manticore it'd be easy to see them hiring our Freakshow thugs to try to stop the players or 'release' some test subjects of captured devouring earth to fight us, or even have Malta swoop in at one point (being higher than the TF's level range) and force us to make a hasty retreat. 

[ineffablebob]

I was thinking about this the other day when running the Citadel TF (which was the weekly at the time). We don't really need massive changes to these older TFs, though a few extra flourishes would be fine. What's really needed is just streamlining. Cut 3 or 4 of the Citadel missions, don't swap from IP to Talos on every mission, perhaps change a couple of the defeat-all to defeat-boss. One power station is plenty for Synapse, and one patrol-Steel-Canyon. These should be fairly minor changes that would be great quality-of-life improvements that don't require a huge amount of development time.

[Xiddo]

I really like the feud between Dr Aeon and King Midas in Cap. I feel like they're an underused lot and I wish reds had a lower level SF. So here's the scribblings of a madman.
Yes, I know it'd require making a Midas but hey - why not. I reckon sets would be: SS/ radiation emission/ Goldbricker gun (the atomic bit becomes clear)

 

Heart of Gold - a rough SF

Zone: Cap Au Diable

Minimum size: 4

Level range: 11-16 (in line with Posi 2)

Merits: 18-25
Missions: 8

Contact: Mr Rodney

 

Brief: Money's tight. You need some cash, fast. Word on the street is The Goldbrickers are onto something big, but they're fed up with Arachnos sticking their oar in and pushing them down. And they need you to help them out. But they haven't got the manpower to bring down the top gun without playing dirty. So you make a deal. A deal that takes puts you between two old enemies: King Midas & Dr Aeon

(Note: This is set after the arc 'Midas Touched')

These are rough!!!! (however the longer I spent the more the mission briefs were written)

 

Mission 1: So, we ain't letting you in right away. We need some compromise, some favours, some good willing from you. We just don't trust you yet, why should we? But maybe you can do something about that. The Luddites have really been giving our squads problems. If we're going to succeed, we need a bit of respite. Find out where they're holed up and take their numbers down

Obj:

Part 1 - Kill 30 Luddities

Part 2 - head to warehouse and clear out the luddites

 

Mission 2: We're not a forgiving bunch, we've seen you around these parts. Working with Arachnos before, you've taken a few of us in. Now, show them where your loyalties lie. Get one of our boys home.

Obj: kill all, rescue, 1 ambush.

Enemies: Arach

Map: Small (2 floors max) indoor Arach lab

Mission 3: Great, while I ain't inviting you to my sister's birthday: we're getting there. We need some cash for the next bit - and it won't harm your standing with the boss... We're gonna rob the Cap Au Diable bank - if you survive... You're in.

Obj: Rob the bank

Enemies: PPD + LB ambush (including EB of Dragon's Tail) when you get the gear.

Map: Cap Bank

Mission 4: It's no secret the boss hasn't been feeling himself recently. But we found a way to fix that, and maybe give us all the edge we need to be the top dog in Cap Au Diable. We're going to need to cause a distraction... But we need some stuff first...

Obj: Defeat 20 Clockwork in Cap

Mission 5: We've recently met a guy. He used to be hero until he left the good guys. And after some 'polite' conversation he told us about this machine he got after helping out Penelope Yin... Well he decided to give it to us, and the tech guys have supercharged it... Take this, get in and out of that lab, grab whatever Positron has been working on, and make sure no-one sees you... And when you see that big toaster: RUN. It won't be on your side for long.

Obj: Optional: Head to location, click on glowie, summons Babbage + shed load of clockwork to location - they are all listed as allies for 1:20 mins before also becoming enemies.

Then loads of LB, PPD & Posi will spawn after 20 seconds. They will fight each-other, so you can slip into the empty base and get the clickie. [If you don't do this, the base will be FULL of Longbow, PPD & Positron] Clickie inside base. 1 ambush, kill. You can, ofc, choose to fight Posi + Babbage.

Enemies: Longbow, PPD & Posi (Optional Clockwork)

Map: Outdoor Steel Canyon Mayhem map

Mission 6: I won't lie to you pal: we didn't think you'd survive that but boy are we glad you got what we needed... Turns out: old mop head has been doing some experimenting. He's been trying to recreate the suit he made before. See, he's worried Longbow and the PPD won't cut the mustard against some of those big bads out there. This suit though, it'll sort King Midas right out. Trouble is: we're going to need a LOT of power to jump start it all. If only we had access to a huge, unnatural power plant eh...

Obj: Escort the weakened King Midas to the lab (he can be harmed, but is an EB, doesn't engage), get him inside, click on glowie, fend of ambushes of Arachnos troops while the machine does it's magic for 1 minute. Inside the lab there are goldbrickers who will help you. When the time is up,King Midas comes out, in a Posi/GoldBricker mashup, the Arach troops are bye bye. Speak to him, mission ends.

Enemies: Arach/ Luddites/ CoT (outside), Arachnos ambushes

Map: Cap, outdoor map

Mission 7 (you don't return to contact, it's just there right away, like King Midas gave it to you): Thank you for helping me reclaim my health yada yada. We're going into full production of these suits now. Let's get the Goldbrickers glistening. I want you to oversee the process, and then we're taking out the good Dr....

Obj: Talk to Goldbricker scientists, after you've spoken to 3, lots of Gremlins will spawn (come on, we're using the PTS here), King Midas radios and tells you to protect the crew.
Fend off 5 ambushes of gremlins then an Arachnos ambush comes. Lead by Arbiter Orr (EB). Beat him until he's at 3/4 health but he says to stop and gives you a choice... Aeon knows the deal and he ran to old 8 legs. But Recluse is impressed, he'll let you back into the fold if you double cross the Goldbrickers and melt down the golden king... Recluse's offer is too much to resist...

Enemies: Cap Monsters & Arachnos ambushes

Map: Lab with a big warehouse size room.

 

Mission 8: Dr Aeon radios through, saying words you can only assume are insults but the line is crackling. He demands you tell him where Midas is hiding. It's time to end this. Put the Goldbrickers in the Smelter. Get back in the web, hopefully he has a short memory...

Obj: Kill all Goldbrickers. Defeat King Midas.

Ally: Dr Aeon (EB)

Enemies: Goldbrickers

Map: Office building, 3 floors.

 

Badge: Good as Gold

Edited February 19, 2021 by Xiddo
Spelling

[ineffablebob]

You should put that in an AE arc @Xiddo(or as close as you can) and maybe it'll get a Dev Choice!

 

I do think it's important to point out that there's a difference between modifying the existing TFs and creating new ones. Modifying the old ones should be quite a bit easier than creating whole new ones, so I'd love to see the Dev team put some effort into revamping older TFs first. More efficient time management.

[Xiddo]

Will have a look, I did think after I wrote it out I could give it a bash... Been a while since I did any AE! Cheers @ineffablebob 🙂 
 

On 2/16/2021 at 8:02 PM, ineffablebob said:

Cut 3 or 4 of the Citadel missions, don't swap from IP to Talos on every mission, perhaps change a couple of the defeat-all to defeat-boss. One power station is plenty for Synapse, and one patrol-Steel-Canyon. These should be fairly minor changes that would be great quality-of-life improvements that don't require a huge amount of development time.

I agree with your streamlining of Syn for the patrol. However I think I'd only remove 1 of the power stations - how else will I get the badge for gears 😉 Also it's 58 merits, kinda expecting it to be a bit of a slog still. I'd also partly expect it to be more Skyway focussed than Steel. And, to me, the Clockwork are gonna be closer to the Faultline cos of Yin. Skyway otherwise feels... Kinda unused?
Honestly I just think Citi is so boring because A. the council are hardly a challenge B. the maps it chooses are on *the otherwise of the world* (side note: I cant remember the last time the first 2 missions havent been at the same entrance?) C. it swaps around so much from IP to Talos. So hard agree on the zoning.

 

Oddly I'm fine with TF's like Numina. With the travel powers we have, and someone on google, it's pretty quick. Except for the Terra Volta hunt, man that annoys me.

I aint getting started on the Shadow Shard adjusting, maybe don't kick the hornets nest. 

I feel blueside on the whole has fine TFs bar the obvious contenders of Syn/ Citi/ a bad Numina team, which is why I'm focussed more on redside. And as OP said:

On 4/1/2020 at 12:58 AM, Sakura Tenshi said:

The problem I realized with that is that Blueside has 16 Task Forces to draw from without coop stuff like Lady Grey, Imperious, etc. Meanwhile Redside doesn't even have half of that at only 7 Strike Forces unique to redside*. 

 

[EmperorSteele]

Pretty sure we had this as the weekly discussion a while back.

Anyway, Synapse could stand to be a little shorter. I mean, we're working with the fastest person in the canon, you'd think he could check out some of the warehouses/powerplants while the team does the others. I also had another idea, which would be unpopular/complete nonstarter because it would "require" certain types of players: the TF should focus on how to find the Clockwork King by discovering that his minions aren't electronic, but telekinetic, psionically-powered puppets. If a player on the team had any psychic-themed powerset (Mind control, illusion control, psychic blast, psi melee, empathy, etc), then they'd be able to suss this out and skip half the TF, because they'd know how to track CK. Otherwise, you'd need characters with electric powers to confirm that the clockwork aren't really electric to skip a few missions, and past that, a science-origin character to maybe skip 1 or 2 missions. This might have to come with a merit reward reduction, though, as the ability to turn a 90 minute TF into a 60/45 minute TF shouldn't give the same reward (the reduction would only occur if you use the clues to skip missions). I'd also involve Blue Steel in some way, since he's partially responsible for CK's current state.

Citadel: Yeah, keep it all in Talos, and make the story more obvious to the players. I've run Citadel more times than I can count, and I'm not sure what's going on, other than we fight Citadel copies at one point? I think? Maybe that's another mission? If not, we should be, since that's the whole schtick, it's "Citadel's children", after all. And this could easily just be like, 5 missions.

Manticore's okay, it could stand to lose a mission or two (I think it was actually updated before sunset, I don't recall the double-boss-fight-with-a-rez when i played it on Live). Numina is fine, IMO.

[MsSmart]

My 2 cents:

 

There are issues still with TF teams having players leaving in mid TF, and placing the team members in dire straights, or the leader gets disconnected and another lesser level player is now the leader and you can't pass star around.

 

I would like to see were TFs are a bit friendly and you can invite replacement players into the team or augment you team on the fly, for instance you spent half an hour (if lucky) trying to form a synapse, so you go at it with 6, hoping that you can get 2 more along the way. This would make the team forming much more friendly and less boring).

 

You should be able to pass star around (leadership) as you can in leagues.

 

In general TFs should not be stupidly repetitive, nor be travel intensive based, there should be no kill-all, when defeating the boss its should only include the direct minions in its own group, not the entire warehouse room.

 

Take Citadel for instance, you go kill all, then we start to ha, ha, ha make it different... Kill all get 1 computer; same map, kill all but oh yea this is different - get 2 computers; then we really knock ourselves back with difference: Kill all, same map, but hold onto your britches, get 3 computers! and then, oh my God this is really different! Kill All, same map, and oh boy if this is different get 4 computers!, then to make maters worse, Citadel must be getting kick-backs from the travel agents, go to IP farthest corner, then go to Talos, farthest corner, then back to IP (yes you guest it, farthest corner)....

 

Synapse, just brainless kill-all after another, and sprinkle needless excessive travel of course...

 

hugs

 

Sue