Star Allergies: Causes, means to address?

[Ghost]

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

Well, I advertised for a lowbie Port Oakes bank team, and actually got 5 peeps (2 of them were exemplared 50s). Couldn't get to 8. And when I broadcast for mishes leading up to the bank?  Crickets. 

 

I'm planning on running the character to Blueside via Tips. I'll continue to seek teams, but don't have super high hopes. 

 

It's enough to make one develop a star allergy...:-)

Gotta take into account when you're trying to put your team together.

What else is going on ?

Mass runs on the weekly's ?

A costume contest ?

A couple just filled lowbie TFs/Teams ?

 

Whenever I do feel the urge to put together a team, I am usually able to get us to 7/8 players - 6 is my goal (am actually thinking of purposely putting together 4 person teams, for the challenge)

For the first time ever, I tried putting together a Posi 1 earlier today, and got absolutely no  one.  After 15 minutes, I gave up.  No biggie.  Ill try again later today after I watch my team dismantle West Brom (EPL fans will get it ) 🙂

 

 

Edited April 22, 2021 by Ghost

[cranebump]

3 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Gotta take into account when you're trying to put your team together.

What else is going on ?

Mass runs on the weekly's ?

A costume contest ?

A couple just filled lowbie TFs/Teams ?

 

Whenever I do feel the urge to put together a team, I am usually able to get us to 7/8 players - 6 is my goal (am actually thinking of purposely putting together 4 person teams, for the challenge)

For the first time ever, I tried putting together a Posi 1 earlier today, and got absolutely no  one.  After 15 minutes, I gave up.  No biggie.  Ill try again later today after I watch my team dismantle West Brom (EPL fans will get it ) 🙂

 

 

 

Wasn't an evening run (U.S.) so traffic was relatively light. Plus, it was redside. 

 

THU is usually my evening gaming night. Might see what I can scare up tonight.

[RogerWilco]

On 3/18/2021 at 2:06 AM, TemporalVileTerror said:

Develop a more robust language to describe the sorts of teams we're looking for so that people can have more confidence about forming a team which they are comfortable leading and won't feel as much pressure at the possibility of a player saying "I didn't sign up for this."

 

 . . . that's quite the run-on sentence, but I hope I was still clear.

 

The LFG system in World of Warcraft only became good after they did some real investment into it, and had a GUI where you had all kinds of options.

This would be hard and controversial to implement on Homecoming, but is indeed the way to go.

It should not be the same as WoW's though, but indeed include things like "I want to read all the text".

 

It should also allow you t sign up with alts, and then switch to the right one when a group starts, removing you from any others. Or something like that, it would require a lot of thought to get right.

Edited April 23, 2021 by RogerWilco

[RogerWilco]

On 4/19/2021 at 1:52 PM, Snarky said:

The LRSF and MLTF are very bad examples for your point.  Your friend is ignorant.  Nothing wrong with that, it just means they do not know something.  They can learn.  Unless they are stupid.  That is a problem then.  Pointing all of that our may seem a bit....Snarky.

 

Seriously though.  The LRSF and MLTF are not kill alls.  They are VERY objective driven TFs.  If you know the content you know exactly where to go, when, who to kill, get it done.  It is not "speed," it is efficiency.  Unfortunately this makes it difficult for people new to the TF to ever learn it.  They have no idea where people are going, what they are doing, or why the "Mission Complete" sign popped up.  I came in late to the game (Good vs Evil edition) and loved to solo.  Those two TFs in particular left me confused due to my...ignorance....for quite some time.

 

You could take a group of friends through the LRSF and slowly kill every mob on the way to each objective.  These are pretty big maps.  Plan a dinner break.

 

I don't even know what LRSF and MLTF are.

I've played on live since 2011, i21 I think, but mostly Villains and Praetorians, because that is what one of my friends really liked. My highest level hero on live was level 20, and highest level villain was 49.

I just got my first level 50 hero yesterday, and she was a Praetorian until level 43.

 

I mostly play with friends that have been part of The Conclave gaming community for decades. We have played all kinds of games together and have used Teamspeak, Ventrillo and Discord since 2002. Everything from Battlefield to RPGs to tabletop to MMOs. I have ran 40 man raids in World of Warcraft. I would not want to run any group without voice chat unless absolutely necessary.

 

I find LFG a bit scary but that might be because of my varied experiences in other MMOs and games.

 

The little experience I do have with LFG, the groups have a high pace, and I hardly know what is going on. I very much like to enjoy the content, there are many parts of CoH I have not yet seen. I would want to read everything and kill everything and look in all the nooks and crannies. I am not here for the result, but for the journey. I often turn XP off, so I can finish story lines and areas before I out level them.

 

I think the LFG is one of the most dated parts of this game.

 

I will probably join more groups and task forces, now that I have a level 50, and that might change my perspective, but I wanted to share the perspective I currently have.

Edited April 23, 2021 by RogerWilco

[Paradox Fate]

20 hours ago, cranebump said:

Well, I advertised for a lowbie Port Oakes bank team, and actually got 5 peeps (2 of them were exemplared 50s). Couldn't get to 8. And when I broadcast for mishes leading up to the bank?  Crickets. 

 

I'm planning on running the character to Blueside via Tips. I'll continue to seek teams, but don't have super high hopes. 

 

It's enough to make one develop a star allergy...:-)

 

Same. Tried kicking off a Operative Renault SF due to it being the Red Side Weekly Strike Target. In two of three cases throughout the week, I received no reply at all when forming them.

 

I figure it was due to the ITF being the far more attractive option, but I cannot help myself to wonder at times why I even bother.

[Snarky]

10 minutes ago, RogerWilco said:

 

I don't even know what LRSF and MLTF are.

 

I think the LFG is one of the most dated parts of this game.

 

Lord Recluse Strike Force.  Miss Liberty Task Force.  I struggle to play WoW for (I am guessing) the same reason your first forays into these Task Forces will be confusing.  Everyone has done them a gazillion times and are busy accomplishing the mission goals and avoiding the time sinks.  And I am wandering around going "Bueller?  Bueller?"  Since I have played WoW sporadically and never done a season of completing a ton of group content I am lost in most Dungeons.

 

LFG never worked/worked well in City of Heroes/Villains.  We form teams then do content.

 

 

[Snarky]

4 minutes ago, Paradox Fate said:

 

Same. Tried kicking off a Operative Renault SF due to it being the Red Side Weekly Strike Target. In two of three cases throughout the week, I received no reply at all when forming them.

 

I figure it was due to the ITF being the far more attractive option, but I cannot help myself to wonder at times why I even bother.

It is harder to form Redside Strike Forces.  Always has been.  If I do go to form one I put tongue firmly in cheek and start posting stuff like "You said you wanted Redside Content.  WHERE ARE YOU?  Operative Renault Strike Force FORMING  X merits blank Badge.  C'mon down and be the villain you know the world needs!"

[Darmian]

I can get a decent team with an Ocean's 11 call out.  We're going to rob 9 banks across Paragon, come get your share (share includes Invader Accolade = Task Force Commander). Or you could just hang out with Citadel,

Edited April 23, 2021 by Darmian

[Icono04]

1 hour ago, RogerWilco said:

It should also allow you t sign up with alts, and then switch to the right one when a group starts, removing you from any others.

This would be brilliant and a definite improvement. But probably too late in the game's life to make a difference - at this point we are all so used to forming teams manually via the LFG channel rather than with the LFG menu tool, that we will continue to use the channel even if the tool gets improved.

[RogerWilco]

35 minutes ago, Icono04 said:

This would be brilliant and a definite improvement. But probably too late in the game's life to make a difference - at this point we are all so used to forming teams manually via the LFG channel rather than with the LFG menu tool, that we will continue to use the channel even if the tool gets improved.

I wasn't even aware of a tool. 🤔

 

When Blizzard got it right in WoW, it was very quickly adopted, after a few false starts with poor implementations.

[Icono04]

OK, maybe "tool" was an overstatement 🙂  I was referring to the LFG queue thingie which is located between the words "Email" and "Tab" on your menu bar. "Tool" was intended to distinguish it from the in-game chat channel which is also named LFG.

[InvaderStych]

On 3/17/2021 at 5:57 PM, MTeague said:

Feeling like you don't know misc task forces "well enough" to lead. 

 

Count me in the camp that often will use this as an excuse to spend a session either soloing, or jumping on a team that's doing an arc/TF that I'm interested in on the toon I've decided to play at the moment.  Additionally, I tend to consider myself not really good enough at the game in general to focus on maximizing my toon's contribution and concentrate on leading at the same time.  This may or may not be true, but since various parts of my brain hate me I waste mental energy giving it thought.  It's silly, lol.

 

But here's the thing I discovered, bearing in mind I play Excelsior so the high pop might contribute to my experience.

 

Outside of MO/Challenge runs, a few of the more difficult TF/SF's, iTrials, Hami Raids, and maybe MSRs because of the league size - the team leader doesn't necessarily need to be the person who knows the content best, or who's got the phattest set of macros, or the most efficient attack chain.  There is just not a lot of content with complex mechanics to work around or that need involved tactics.  75-80% (estimate, don't burn me at the stake, lol!) can be played with pretty much whatever tactics a given player has found for the toon they've built.

 

All I really need to do is be willing to recruit a group, pick what's going to be run, be familiar enough with the interface to swiftly deal with contacts/active mission selections, and pipe up in chat from time to time with things like "Left Side First," or "Great Work Everyone!" and such.

 

I figured this out running the final assault on Mot for the first time.  There's a lot going on in that mission, and even though I did a solo scout run and reset it I still wasn't in a position to "lead" it in any meaningful definition of the term.  Seemed like it would be a good run for a team so I went for it.  Worked out great.  We didn't faceroll it, obviously because Ancients of Sorrow are brutal, but a solid run with bits of banter here and it seemed a good time was had by all.

 

Here's my thing.  I've only played two games that are MMOs; this one and the Old Republic SW one from ~10 years ago.  The latter I only played because it was a gift from a buddy who thought he was going to get into it deeply (he didn't) and because it was achingly beautiful to look at. I was done with it pretty swiftly.

 

So, as a resident of the City who doesn't have a deep history or experience with MMOs, the "reputation" that the genre has garnered when it comes to "endgame" and "raids" and the like can be ... let's see ... intimidating isn't the right word.  What's a single word way to say "Off-Putting?" The Cynical Misanthrope and the Anxiety Monster in my brain get together and start talking about this when I think about leading something, and I have to sternly remind them that - thankfully - that sort of gamer is rare to the point of irrelevance among this wonderful community.

 

Every time I've decided to round up a team it's been just fine, or usually even better!  The only real complainer I can recall in my year here so far was someone who was kinda out of line anyway. I might even get crazy one day and try leading things more that are more involved than the TFC set and DA teams, lol.

Edited April 23, 2021 by InvaderStych
added a tidbit or two