Revamp of Synapse TF?

[Eldyem]

Storyline-wise, Synapse's TF has always felt incredibly unsatisfying, and a part of it is because I have no idea what the actual stakes are, plus the Clockwork King's backstory kind of has me rooting for him a little. I'd be fine with the slog if I agreed with the end-goal, but because the TF both drags on and glosses over key points, I kind of feel like a bad person at the end.

Why does he want the city's power? What is Babbage? Why do we never address what Blue Steel did? The whole arc is built around the twist, but the twist is unsatisfying and answers essentially none of my actual questions and actually just raises a lot more. The Clockwork King gets way better characterization in essentially every mission he shows up in outside of this task force.
 

3 minutes ago, Techwright said:

 

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. 

In all fairness, the shadow clones are only bosses. The worst situations with them are when several have elec or ice power sets and the debuffs stack heavily; otherwise a group should be able to zerg rush them so long as you all target through the tank. They have barely any health in the grand scheme of things.

[Clave Dark 5]

52 minutes ago, Techwright said:

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. 

That describes about half of my runs.  I just laugh, it's sort of like watching a cat jump for a window sill and biff it.

[Lunchmoney]

1 hour ago, Eldyem said:

Blue Steel

 

[Snarky]

1 hour ago, Eldyem said:

Why does he want the city's power? What is Babbage? 

Just a robot that likes a girl....

 

 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjcj4rZqarwAhVpCTQIHXoSAEwQwqsBMAJ6BAgHEAo&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dz0NgUhEs1R4&usg=AOvVaw3rFVqbkLFiUFTHt9RD6Mh7

Edited May 2, 2021 by Snarky

[MTeague]

I always got the impression it's supposed to be a time-lag thing. 

Yea, NOW, when we have all content available to us now, and you might be encountering it in any order at all, i agree, it's a bit janky.

 

But if Mind of a King and Synapse are stories you do very early, where the Clockwork King is still seen as a tragedy/waste of potential but ultimately a menace who needs to be stopped, it makes more sense.  LATER, as you do more arcs where he appears and learn more about him, and see him in a more sympathetic view, attitudes can shift. But I think Synpase TF is supposed to be in the "most people don't know any of that yet" part of the timeline.

[Eldyem]

8 minutes ago, MTeague said:

I always got the impression it's supposed to be a time-lag thing. 

Yea, NOW, when we have all content available to us now, and you might be encountering it in any order at all, i agree, it's a bit janky.

 

But if Mind of a King and Synapse are stories you do very early, where the Clockwork King is still seen as a tragedy/waste of potential but ultimately a menace who needs to be stopped, it makes more sense.  LATER, as you do more arcs where he appears and learn more about him, and see him in a more sympathetic view, attitudes can shift. But I think Synpase TF is supposed to be in the "most people don't know any of that yet" part of the timeline.

I understand where it is timeline wise, I just feel like the plot is incredibly disjointed. If I haven't done Mind of a King, the idea that they're stealing electricity for an evil plot (or even capable of plotting) is borderline nonsensical. At this point, my character should just think they're annoying wind-up toys that steal scrap to make more.

I just don't feel compelled by the Synapse TF, so I feel a little bad for the Clockwork King because I can come up with all sorts of hypothetical, non-evil plots, and also because on some level, post-reveal, I have absolutely zero idea what he could possibly want with that electricity. I get that his motivations are supposed to be nonsensical/crazy, because he's nonsensical/crazy, but Synapse expects me to jump to conclusions here and, considering the Clockwork King's actual backstory, that makes me feel a little bad for him (in hindsight).

Like, I just find this plotline incredibly uncompelling and bland on top of being a slog. If I'm going to sit through an extremely long task force, I want to feel like it's necessary and urgent, and the current plotline fails there. Nothing about it (content, storyline, length) is enjoyable to me outside of the Babbage fight, and any rework needs to address that it's kind of a failure on every point (in my opinion, at least).

[Paradox Fate]

I believe it's also the sheer amount of clockwork we have to bash.

I don't mind them, per se, though they are just annoying to deal with when it comes to the defeat-alls when one has to also deal with those small gears which the boss ones spawn upon their death after a few seconds.

 

You always have to wait for them to spawn and kills your momentum. And that eats a lot of time after a while.

[Clave Dark 5]

I'd kind of thought those little guys didn't count?  I mean, that's the feeling I've gotten from my runs through, but maybe that means my teammates were carrying me by taking the time to wipe them up when I wasn't looking.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Clave Dark 5

[Paradox Fate]

1 hour ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

I'd kind of thought those little guys didn't count?  I mean, that's the feeling I've gotten from my runs through, but maybe that means my teammates were carrying me by taking the time to wipe them up when I wasn't looking.

 

I don't think they are required, but they can harass your backline easily. And the bosses also can summon additional cogs before they go down, so you got half a handful of smaller things you have to deal with. With each boss.

[Lunchmoney]

The Gears are required. Back in the day they would often get stuck in scenery and a GM would have to poke the system to clear it.

Of course, that could have changed.

[Clave Dark 5]

59 minutes ago, Paradox Fate said:

 

I don't think they are required, but they can harass your backline easily. And the bosses also can summon additional cogs before they go down, so you got half a handful of smaller things you have to deal with. With each boss.

Generally, if your team is having any real problem with those adorable little tykes, your team is probably doomed, ha ha. 

[MTeague]

2 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

Generally, if your team is having any real problem with those adorable little tykes, your team is probably doomed, ha ha. 

well I mean, it can depend if X percent of your team is a 50 exemplared down with wild and crazy set bonuses from purple sets, or if your team is a bunch of folks actually doing it while they're actually lvl 16 or so, no lvl 20 powers available because they just don't HAVE those powers yet, and barely any slots to speak of. 

 

And especially back when they might only have had dual-origin enhancers slotted in the few powers they do have, and whiff a lot. 

Less of an issue now that you can use SO's right out of the gate.

[tidge]

I don't mind the defeat all in the Synapse TFs as much as I dislike the 'run around Steel Canyon and click on things', and then pop into Boomtown, and "btw lets send you to another zone" after that.

 

For revamping Synapse: I would strongly prefer the first few missions (the defeat alls, the talk, the hunts, the clicks) to be replaced with an instanced map of Steel Canyon similar to how the Penny Yin TF has an instanced version of Independence Port. Fight groups of Clockwork, talk to somebody, click on things... but all on the same map. If 'Bertha' is so important to the story arc, send us to an instanced map to fight with her.

 

The Clockwork Court is a neat idea... but the execution of it feels off to me. Partially because of the 'go back to Positron while Babbage spawns'. I would revamp the penultimate mission to be in a single map where the TF has to defeat different members of the clockwork court to assemble/unlock the one-shot temp power (that was stolen from Positron). Again, taking a page from Penny Yin's TF where three of the missions require explicit defeats of spawns to progress.