Revamp of Synapse TF?

[SirBronco]

Just wondering what people  would think if they were to revamp Synapse TF into two parts like they did the Posi TF? It is a LONG TF and could be better if they revamped it. They could put in another boss right before the Boomtown mission. Then part two would be Bertha and 1-2 missions in Boomtown. Take out the Steel Canyon mission and then finish with the 3 Skyway missions. Think it would be a lot less tedious. What does everyone else think? Just my two cents. Thanks.

[ForeverLaxx]

I'm sure many people would like to have most, if not all, of the "Old TFs" revamped to better fit both the narratives they're trying to tell and to cut back on a lot of the unnecessary fluff missions that only pad out TF times. All those old TFs were originally designed to be tackled over multiple days, after all, even if no one ever really did it that way (fun story: the first Posi I ever did on live was done over the span of 48 hours, with one other person, when our schedules aligned. You couldn't get booted from the server for being afk at the time, and we weren't aware that logging out wouldn't force us to restart, so we just afk'd in game until we both were around at the same time).

 

That said, it's as much work as building an entirely new TF from scratch, doubly so if you want the Posi treatment where it was split into two different TFs. Right now I think the devs' limited volunteer time hasn't reached a point, or the number of volunteers hasn't reached the point, where they could feasibly tackle something like total TF revamps. It would be nice, though.

Edited May 1, 2021 by ForeverLaxx

[Clave Dark 5]

I'm all for revamping them all, mainly to get rid of the fluff, but to hopefully replace that with actually more engaging content.  I don't want them to be shorter, just more exciting than "go hunt kil 20 ____" and "now go zone to click on a contact then have to zone back" silliness.  Drop in another AV or a different enemy group/map, make it more interactive somehow, just not more "oh hey we found another cave of Council who need to get a beating!"

[SirBronco]

Don't get me wrong, I like all the TF's and run them on multiple  characters. Synapse is the only low level one that seems a bit long. Fun story ForeverLaxx. I don't  mind the patrols, fluff missions,  etc. Variation is good. Even the Numina hunts aren't  horrible. Citadel and going from zone to zone to zone can be bad. However the TF is short, so doesn't bother me much. Also with many members having team teleport these days it definitely isn't  as terrible as it once was. Thanks.

Edited May 1, 2021 by SirBronco

[kelika2]

If its done like Positron where its still long, but split in two yeah I can go for it.  But every villain SF has some turnoff mechanic or encourages speeding.  I love synapes because its city of heroes in its prime.  wading through seas of minions.  i cant get into villain SFs/newer because everyone speeds and skips everything

[Ironblade]

2 hours ago, SirBronco said:

Just wondering what people  would think if they were to revamp Synapse TF into two parts like they did the Posi TF?

I would be opposed to splitting it into two parts.

As for revamping it, I would wonder how long a revamp takes compared to creating a new TF from scratch.  If it's not a major difference, I would prefer new content rather than revamping old content.

[Lunchmoney]

5 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

mainly to get rid of the fluff,

Why do you want to get rid of the story?

[Heraclea]

I would just as soon create an alternative to Synapse and Citadel from scratch, and allow either to fuflil that tier in the Freedom Phalanx accolade progression.  For a replacement for Synapse I'd suggest something that continues the Skulls/Family story line out of Kings Row, which now is a dangling plot thread.  Skulls and Family fit the 15-20 tier well.  Move Back Alley Brawler to KR and make him the contact, he fits the zone well and would make sense in the role.  

 

In some ways Synapse and Old Posi are nice chunks of  XP for levelling characters.  Old Posi lacks the CoT ambushes and simulacra fights where the wrong team can come to grief.  New Posi 1 is the main consumer of Super Inspirations for me, which may be unfair to new players.  

[The_Warpact]

I think all of them need revamped in some way, I question some of story line on why some things are the way they are.

Take Synapse TF...why exactly are we doing clockwork wouldn't it make more sense to have a storyline involving the Crey?

Yeah i get his "electrical sense" is picking up strange stuff but thats sorta lame.

 

I personally would like to see the heroes line up with TFs involving their enemies instead of random events putting you in opposition to storyline that are weak.

 

I say let @Piecemeal get his villain on and do some new writing, and the old TFs be regulated as content in Echo Galaxy City as flashbacks.

[Black Zot]

2 hours ago, Lunchmoney said:

Why do you want to get rid of the story?

 

Three-quarters of the "story" in the Synapse TF is pointless filler to make excuses for more timesink defeat-alls.  You could tell the same story with less than half the text and missions, and it'd be far more entertaining for the loss of all the deadweight.

Edited May 1, 2021 by Black Zot

[Lunchmoney]

16 minutes ago, Black Zot said:

 

Three-quarters of the "story" in the Synapse TF is pointless filler to make excuses for more timesink defeat-alls.  You could tell the same story with less than half the text and missions, and it'd be far more entertaining for the loss of all the deadweight.

Given that the triple defeat all is protecting 3 power stations in the city, how would you change that? Just protect 1?

[Black Zot]

22 minutes ago, Lunchmoney said:

Given that the triple defeat all is protecting 3 power stations in the city, how would you change that? Just protect 1?

 

Exactly.  Multiple consecutive iterations of the exact same mission are a thing to be avoided in game design. 

 

In the comic books this game is trying to replicate, such events would be condensed into a splash page of the hero group hitting the last station and about a page or two of individual-action panels as they mop up and make some quips about this being the third/fourth/whathaveyou near-identical raid they've broken up, then move on to the actual story with a lead on a named Clockwork or two.  If the writers do bother to show multiple locations' worth of small-fry battles, it's invariably a case of "we're on a time limit, so we'll split up and take them all out at once", and the viewpoint will swap between subteams as they do the same thing with slight variances in background art.

 

The Synapse Task Force, as currently implemented, is a case of taking a story arc that should be over in about 3 issues and stretching it out to 8 or 9 issues for no good reason.

[Piecemeal]

Oh, believe you me, Synapse's Task Force is on my kill sheet.

 

But I have a lot of ideas on how I want to handle revamps in the future, so no promises.

[Techwright]

14 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

Oh, believe you me, Synapse's Task Force is on my kill sheet.

 

But I have a lot of ideas on how I want to handle revamps in the future, so no promises.

 

You're now my favorite Dev!  Oh, looky there! Is that an empty line on that kill sheet?  *Slips Piecemeal a ton of Infamy and a picture of Dr. Quarterfield*

[Piecemeal]

1 minute ago, Techwright said:

 

You're now my favorite Dev!  Oh, looky there! Is that an empty line on that kill sheet?  *Slips Piecemeal a ton of Infamy and a picture of Dr. Quarterfield*

 

Everyone knows this is inevitable.

[merrypessimist]

Sooner is better, Piecemeal. 😁

[Piecemeal]

1 minute ago, merrypessimist said:

Sooner is better, Piecemeal. 😁

 

When that gets revamped, chances are good a lot of other things are coming with it.

 

So again, no promises, and "Soon" could be any time between tomorrow and the heat death of the universe.

[Techwright]

1 minute ago, Piecemeal said:

 

When that gets revamped, chances are good a lot of other things are coming with it.

 

 

Okay, that's an interesting statement.  Is it meant to say that the Dr. Q TF has "tendrils" into other materials that would have to be fixed, too, or that it is perceived as one piece in a major production (but with no game-breaking "tendrils")  I realize you may not be able to talk details, just curious whether there's a cascade effect to tweaking Dr. Q TF

[Piecemeal]

[Sarrate]

7 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

"Soon" ... the heat death of the universe.

 

You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Lunchmoney]

I guess I'm just not a fan of reducing everything to be as quick as possible. 

Don't have an hour to 90 minutes to play? Don't do a TF that takes 90  minutes to play 🤷

[Heraclea]

3 hours ago, Piecemeal said:

So again, no promises, and "Soon" could be any time between tomorrow and the heat death of the universe.

 

You realize that the heat death of the universe is coming up in June.....

[Snarky]

i have done a 45 min Synapse.  more than once.  on PUGs.  Two things drive these short times. 

 

1) getting lucky and getting small maps on the kill alls.  A minor tweak the current Devs could make that would be a huge quality of life improvement is default the Kill Alls to small maps.  

 

2) Being on a team of people who want to get this done.  I am odd, I like the old TFs.  But I still want to get them done.  Badge, Merits, GJ, Goodbye.  No matter what fix the Devs make there will always be players that do not facilitate fast TFs.  

 

Take the Old Posi.  Split into two, revamped.  I have still been on crap PUGs that take 45-50 minutes to do Part 1.  Upping the Difficulty level when you beg them not to.  Rushing to the City Hall steps no matter how carefully you try to explain/beg for not going onto city hall steps.  Pulling everything they can with no ability to handle the agro and no idea they cannot handle the agro.  Not necessarily stupid, but ignorant.  Just bone headed ignorant.  Get you killed and drag out the TF for long time ignorant.  Make you hate PUGs ignorant.  hmmmm, i slipped into ranting somewhere.  Might as well go with it.  "Hey You!  Get Off My lawn!"

[Clave Dark 5]

9 hours ago, Lunchmoney said:

I guess I'm just not a fan of reducing everything to be as quick as possible. 

Don't have an hour to 90 minutes to play? Don't do a TF that takes 90  minutes to play 🤷

I never said "kill the story!" I said replace the fluff with more, better story.  I hate speed running too, mainly because it tends to be a few people ignoring the rest of the team to rush ahead.

[Techwright]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

 I have still been on crap PUGs that take 45-50 minutes to do Part 1.  Upping the Difficulty level when you beg them not to.  Rushing to the City Hall steps no matter how carefully you try to explain/beg for not going onto city hall steps.  Pulling everything they can with no ability to handle the agro and no idea they cannot handle the agro.  Not necessarily stupid, but ignorant.  Just bone headed ignorant. 

 

Ugh, I feel your pain, several times over.  There's a reason I won't run Posi 1 more than once per character, and you just named it.  You remember it is said some people just want to watch the world burn?  Well, some people just want to let the CoT out.

 

I would add a sub point to that "pulling everything" line:  charging in all macho-like  to deal with the shadow copies with no game plan, and completely forgetting they have everything in their powers that your team has.