unlabelled defeat all missions

[drdread]

Something that annoys me about this game (way back when it was live) were the missions that were timed or defeat all but weren't labelled as that. They fixed the timed missions, to make sure they were described as timed before accepting them. However, the unidentified "defeat all" missions are still present and unimproved.

 

To be clear, I am not against a mission whose stated goal is: "Defeat all villains in the base". My issue is with missions whose goals are: "Save the hostages" or "Find the evidence". You click on the glowies and rescue the NPCs, but the mission isn't over. You now have to go back through the map to find the enemies you missed. I sometimes log in for a quick mission, but I have to abandon and redo these missions because I don't have an extra 10~30 minutes to look for stragglers.

 

In my opinion, these unmarked "defeat all" missions were designed as a time sink for players (useful when billing by the month). Now, they don't really serve a purpose other than annoy players like me.

 

My suggestion:

1. Remove the defeat all flag from the missions who aren't explicitly "defeat all", or....
2. Add "Defeat all" somewhere in the description.

 

What do the rest of the player base think? Should they be changed, or am I just a whiner?

 

[Aberrant]

I'd be in favour of either option to be honest. Nothing worse than thinking you've finished a mission, then sighing because you've just realised you have to scour an original CoH cave map of Circle of Thorns! Would definitely be a great change!

[MTeague]

These do not bother me, but I am a Map-Clearing Fool anyway when I solo.  Even if it's a Malta map or a giant Oranbega map. 

Very rarely, I'll let some mobs go when it's a giant Portal Corp map.  

 

Still. I know teams do NOT generally work that way, and it would be nice if there were some verbage to give you a heads up.  Even if it was a generic line like "There might be more to this one. Keep an eye out for more instructions if the situation changes" or something like that.  That wouldn't have to "spoil" anything specific, but the player could still know up front, the starting instructions are not all there is to it.

 

(and maybe in a colored text like that, so it stands out in the description)

Edited May 12, 2020 by MTeague

[Zeraphia]

Who can forget the ever-iconic "Investigate Electrical Anomaly" first mission from Synapse, that has nothing in its directions to "kill all the clockwork." This mission confused me because I thought that there may have been a glowie or special boss group, but no, the mission is almost purposefully misleading. 

[Psyonico]

Yeah, all defeat all's should be labeled as such, it is so annoying to be in a task force that you've never done before only to find out after clicking all the glowies that the mission is a defeat all.

[Call Me Awesome]

5 minutes ago, Zeraphia said:

Who can forget the ever-iconic "Investigate Electrical Anomaly" first mission from Synapse, that has nothing in its directions to "kill all the clockwork." This mission confused me because I thought that there may have been a glowie or special boss group, but no, the mission is almost purposefully misleading. 

This one caused confusion on a team I was on a couple months ago.  I think I was the only veteran player on the team and it wasn't until about halfway through that I realized they couldn't figure out where the glow was and I had to tell them it was a kill all... like so many of the happy happy joy joy missions in that TF.

[SurfD]

Sort of tangentially related, but it would be nice if there was some more "universal consistency" on the "highlight last few remaining mobs on the map" code as well.  Always drives me nuts that it basically seems completely random as to what triggers this functionality, as some "kill all" missions trigger it and some don't, and nothing is more annoying than scouring a massive map for that one mob you missed.

[Lost Deep]

7 minutes ago, SurfD said:

Sort of tangentially related, but it would be nice if there was some more "universal consistency" on the "highlight last few remaining mobs on the map" code as well.  Always drives me nuts that it basically seems completely random as to what triggers this functionality, as some "kill all" missions trigger it and some don't, and nothing is more annoying than scouring a massive map for that one mob you missed.

I'd like to see consistency on 'show objective' triggers in general. I have previously cleared a map, only found one of three glowies, and then had to sweep every single side-room and nook trying to find the spots, listening for the humming that I'm pretty sure was louder on live? I get that part of the appeal is exploration, but the point where exploration wears out its welcome is much sooner than the point where the radar turns on.

[SurfD]

Also true.  It's odd that the "mission objective" pings seem to have no rhyme or reason to when they turn on either.   Sometimes you are running a mission, collect 1 of 3 glowies and immediately the other 2 pop up on the map. Other times, nothing.  Sometimes the "go to this person" map pin pops up immediately, other times, you spend 5 minutes trying to hunt the person down as they hide in a corner somewhere.   No apparent consistency at all.

[madhobbit]

I mostly play Stalkers, I get a mission to defeat the XXXX Boss. I enter, stealth my way to the boss(which is the bread and butter of a stalker). I defeat the boss and his small support group. Then the mission turns into a defeat all. If I had seen it was a defeat all, I could have cleared on my way to the boss. It is mostly a  RP complaint. The one I really hate is the escort missions , Have to turn off Hide, then become a Scrapper on the way out.

[Ura Hero]

One of my pet peeves for missions.  Objectives that are not clearly defined.  I understand why they did this during initial development (they were following the Everquest model of play where everything was supposed to be EPIC and take forever to accomplish), but there is absolutely no reason it should still be this way.

[drdread]

20 hours ago, Ura Hero said:

I understand why they did this during initial development

That's a good observation. Many of these missions were end-game content, as the max level was 40 when the game was released. The first expansion, issue 1, increased the level-cap to 50. The devs were probably trying to churn out as many 30-40 missions as they could before release.

[tidge]

I'm all for updating the mission text to indicate when a mission is a defeat all: "Clear XXX of Baddies", "Stop All XXX".

 

The non-identification of mission objectives (or stragglers) when there is more than one remaining is problematic, but I can see that being very complicated to fix. I've suffered my share of "where in the Orenbega/Office are those last hostages?" misery.

 

One aspect of the "defeat all" missions that plague me: The maps which spawn wandering enemies. I hate having to wander all over previously cleared areas just to track down a minion-class or two. If there are more than one spawn, they won't show up as the red triangles. The maps that grief me the most on this point are the outdoor maps where the enemies wander around the treetops.

[huang3721]

Today I played hide and seek with several Hellions. The lower right and lower left part of this map has several floors. Also, it is an unmarked defeat all map.

 

 

30 minutes wasted😡

[Noyjitat]

I agree but some aren't defeat alls like those in the shadow shard many think are defeat alls but its just one or two npcs that ran away from the glowie. Sometimes part of the spawn its broken too and npcs that should have been standing with the rest of the group next to a glowie are in another mob.

[Parabola]

It might be nice on defeat all missions to have all the enemies show on the map from the start. That would solve the problem of wandering groups or runners. You could then be sure each floor was cleared before moving onto the next.

[Saiyajinzoningen]

still less annoying than the outside find the hostage missions

 

[Parabola]

3 hours ago, Saiyajinzoningen said:

still less annoying than the outside find the hostage missions

 

That one on the city map in the freaklympics drives me insane every single time. It hasn't once gone well.

[Sovera]

20 hours ago, parabola said:

It might be nice on defeat all missions to have all the enemies show on the map from the start. That would solve the problem of wandering groups or runners. You could then be sure each floor was cleared before moving onto the next.

I predict hot salty tears and gnashing of teeth at such a simple solution because it would be too easy and we don't deserve easy.

[tidge]

This weekend I had a (correctly labeled) 'Defeat All Longbow' mission... but what a PITA. It was Regent Korol's 'Defeat All Longbow' (and stop Reeves from escaping).... I should have let him escape.

 

The map contained the very tall, multi-level 'waste processing' Arachnos base room... filled with Longbow Spec-Ops. I spent an hour mopping up that map (at +0/x1!) because of their cloaking tech and tendency to fall off the ledges and ramps. The mission also includes new Longbow spawns... very frustrating.

[Zepp]

There are too many defeat all missions for levels 1-10... I understand the thought when creating them (before they realized that a significant number of players would be playing solo some or all of the time) but it makes those missions pointlessly tedious for Trollers and Fenders.

[drdread]

9 hours ago, Zepp said:

There are too many defeat all missions for levels 1-10

 

Also many of these have pointless secondary targets. "Save the scientists and defeat all enemies" Why bother adding saving the scientists if you have to clear the map anyway?

[Chuckers]

On 5/24/2020 at 1:10 PM, Saiyajinzoningen said:

still less annoying than the outside find the hostage missions

 

That map makes me want to tear my hair out.. if I had any left. I street sweep that map and I swear that some of the hostages don't show up until you've killed x number of mobs. That last one is almost impossible to find. 

[Chuckers]

54 minutes ago, drdread said:

 

Also many of these have pointless secondary targets. "Save the scientists and defeat all enemies" Why bother adding saving the scientists if you have to clear the map anyway?

Immersion and sense of urgency? 

[drdread]

7 minutes ago, Chuckers said:

Immersion and sense of urgency? 

 

Story-wise, make sense.

Game design-wise, redundant.