How to have a bad time in Synapse ...

[excessionoz]

Synapse - *a horrorshow* </clockwork orange>

 

The first guy recruited asks "where do I go?" That kind of set the tone for the entire task force.

 

However, I was one of the worst offenders! read on.

 

During the recruiting I ask "does everyone have 3XP?", then realise my 2XP has run out.  I have to go to Atlas Park to restock the buff.

 

After waiting *ages* to get an eighth plsyer, nobody turning up.  Ask the team if all ready, then I start the task force, setting up the challenges.  Three seconds later, someone says "do you still have a spot?" Sheeesh, 15 minutes of spamming LFG and nothing then as soon as I kick off ...

 

First mission goes okay, nearly have someone die. I’ve set the time limit to 90 minutes and the death count to 5, these are just TF challenge settings, they don’t affect the reward for the TF, although some (many?) people do think that these challenges make the task force harder.  

 

Second mission (defeat 30 clockwork) the ambush goes without anyone dying.

 

Third mission the first of four defeat-all missions, I manage to die on my Brute (street justice/stone level 27), when a whole bunch of clockwork jump off the ledge onto my head and I try to fight them alone, somewhat incompetently. and pay the price.  

 

Next mission I die again, after teleporting into a Group before the tank has got aggro. doh!

 

We finished the four defeat all mkssions, then we do the phone hunt in steel canyon. I use my ATT and TT to get the team to boomtown for the big bertha mission, and she goes down a treat. Mission finishes and I ask "does anyone else have TT to get us to steal canyon??":

no
no
next time I’m at P2W I will buy it.
*sigh*.

 

Long Tom mission two people die, then of course there’s no TT to the Skyway missions.  Team scamp[ers off to skyway via various means. We  do the first mission in the warehouse and it’s a huge warehouse, I mean *gigantic* so it takes ages to find all the hostages.

Next mission is pretty simple and then it’s time for Babbage.

I do the /loc command then announce in LFG that babbage is up in Skyway with the coordinates from the /loc.

 

We get zero responses/help and it takes at least five minutes or so to take Babbage down with the seven players in the team.

 

It’s time for the Clockwork King mission. We get to the mission where I ask "does anyone have stealth and TP?""

 

Glorious silence.

 

That’s right not a single person has stealth and teleport of any kind. My brute did not take superspeed (/stone, go figure) so has no stealth capabilities, nor does he want it.  59 of my 63 characters have stealth in on way or other, and all have ATT plus a majority have teleport-other (aka Recall Friend). So very annoying that I can't hare off and TP everyone to tghe end room.  I have teleport other and ATT but lack the stea;th or the Granite armor required to tanker-stealth (ignore the opain and charge through)

 

This must be the first of the last hundred+ Synapse runs where I’ve had to fight from the entrance to the Clockwork King.

 

The task force finally over the Clock count is at one hour 58 inutes. and the death count is at six. No less than four of those were mine, including the once because instead of hitting fold-space I hit self-destruct!.  What a dummy.

 

Anyhow that was my worst Synapse experience in the last year.  I hope the tale had dome entertainment value.

 

please not i have little to no feeling in my fingers, so I mash mutiple keys at once and make many typos, so excuse the typos.

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by excessionoz

[Judasace]

I don't really see where the "bad time" comes in. So you couldn't speed through the content and actually had to use your travel powers, know where things are in the game and fight the mobs in the missions?

 

I've had much worse times on TFs where it wasn't advertised as speed, everyone runs off in their own directions, squishies die a lot, people run off to objectives while everyone else is fighting...yeah,  those are bad times. Your sounds like what a TF was actually intended as.

[Xenosone]

The pvp zone patrols give you stealth and you can get it 3 times. After level 15 theres no reason to not have stealth of some kind.

 

About people not paying attention to lfg, that happens alot. I recruited for an all rad Yin and so of course a demons/pain mm offers to join, takes forever to zone into Ip and then gets kicked because I checked to see if he had rad. 

[Mr. Vee]

I was expecting the OP to just be '... run a Synapse'

[Yomo Kimyata]

I was soloing Synapse on a blaster yesterday.  Home stretch, about to spawn Babbage.  Advertised in LFG channel, got together a league and we took him down quickly.  I thank everyone and go to hit the quit league button.  My brain was yelling "NO!" but my hand was on autopilot.

 

Quit out of my task force with one real mission to go.

[RebornRose]

Awww, you didn't have a gneiss time, Ex?    I'm sorry to read that. (For real, I was Ms. Moxie😁)

 

I thought it wasn't such a bad time.  Sub 2 hours (by like 2 minutes).  Nobody rage quit.  No overt team team drama.(That I saw...I didn't have the star so everyone might have been complaining about how the cute tank was hogging all the attention>)

 

But I feel you; it was long.

Sometimes you luck out and get the small maps, and teammates with the powers that make stealthing a breeze, and sometimes you get...a chance for lots of recipe and salvage drops?

Ironically, I was gonna run to p2w to get TT, but my twinked funds had run too low and I didn't want to waste the time of having to do all that.  These are the viscissitudes of hyperleveling a character you created earlier that day, but what can you do?

I think I only died the one time, but the lack of buff support was...painful at times. (I was sucking wind by the 2nd or 3rd defeat all, damn endurance draining wind-up toys!).    

 

Anyway, I had a good time, even with the difficulities above, and I would totally do it again.

 

Peace!

 

P.S> Here's a pic of us all whaling on the CK! We'll always have Skyway!

 

 

 

 

 

[0th Power]

25 minutes ago, Mr. Vee said:

I was expecting the OP to just be '... run a Synapse'

me too

[ForeverLaxx]

It's a sad time when a normally executed Synapse, experienced "as intended", is considered a bad thing.

[excessionoz]

Compared to the sub-1 hour Synapse runs I have been on recently, it just seemed glacial.

 

There was no team drama, the team was fine.  It was a lack o utility and my personal frustration that my -normal- role of team-taxi was upended due to lack of stealth.  Thanks for the clue/hint about pvp patrols granting stealth.

 

I didn't wnt to slash my wrists afterwards ---  it just wasn't very slick, and I was the faceplant patsy, which is extremely irksome and galling.

 

Anyway, I wrote for the amusement of all, not whining about players, or mechanics, or evem the stupidoty the whoel Synapse TF experience ...

 

Bedtime. 🙂

 

oh, yes, as moxie says, i was on "I'm Gniess." 🙂

 

 

[Heraclea]

Synapse is one of those things to run as close to level 15 as possible.  In this situation you don't really want to stealth through many of the missions anyways, and won't save that much time doing so on any but the last one. 

[Ironblade]

6 hours ago, excessionoz said:

That’s right not a single person has stealth and teleport of any kind. My brute did not take superspeed (/stone, go figure) so has no stealth capabilities, nor does he want it.  59 of my 63 characters have stealth in on way or other, and all have ATT plus a majority have teleport-other (aka Recall Friend).

I feel for you.  I just checked my characters and, out of 18, just ONE does not have Teleport Target (a brute).

All but three of my characters (and tanks who don't need it) have stealth capability.

Everyone has Assemble The Team, Mission Teleporter and Team Transporter.

[Snarky]

That was a normal time on live.  You can get a celerity+stealth and cram it into the inherent run.  That and a small purp will let any Brute run to the end of a map unless you are +4 Rikti or some such nonsense
 

Dont feel bad.  I have seen these go past two hours.  It is only recently that sub 1:30 times became common 

 

 

or do feel bad.   Sure

[AerialAssault]

Honestly doesn't sound like a bad time to me. Everything is precision optimised and speed-run to all hell these days.

 

One of the most bizarre experiences I had in a Synapse was when our team was two missions in and someone says "Uh guys, can we pick up the pace a bit? I have to take my grandma to the hospital in 20 minutes."

 

Bro, even the best team of speed runners would be hard pressed to do that, that's not happening on a pick-up group.

[RebornRose]

2 hours ago, excessionoz said:

Anyway, I wrote for the amusement of all, not whining about players, or mechanics, or evem the stupidoty the whoel Synapse TF experience ...

I get it!

 

Honestly, I'm a big fan of your post-TF nightmare stories, so when I saw that you were talking about our TF, I couldn't resist.  It's actually quite an honor to know that I got to participate in one of Excession's "TF Horror Stories".

 

See you around the city!

[Apparition]

One of the worst PUG experiences on Homecoming I have had was on a Synapse TF almost two years ago.  I led on a Blaster.  I had two Tankers and two Brutes join.  I don’t like to do anything with more than two melee characters on a team as melee heavy teams tend to be slogs in my experience, but it’s a PUG group so what are you going to do?  Once we had eight people, we rolled out.

 

When we got to the first mission, the two Tankers and the two Brutes almost immediately started arguing with each other over who would be “main tank” on the TF.  This went on through the first two missions.  I am thinking to myself, “It’s a Synapse TF, not a raid or Incarnate trial.  Come on.”  By the time we got to the third mission, personal insults over tanking started flying.  By the time we got to the fifth mission, one of the Brutes mysteriously disconnected.  Sixth mission, one of the Tankers had had it with the tanking insults and quit the TF.  By the time we got to the Clockwork Lord mission, there were only five of us left as the last Brute also mysteriously disconnected, leaving only the one Tanker remaining.

 

Thankfully, we did manage to complete the TF after about two and a half hours.

[Mina]

Just offering my opinion. I played the subscriber COH from 1 week after start to the sad bitter end. I just returned to this version a week ago. Many, many things have changed and are very confusing. I am old and you know, old people do NOT do well with changes. lol AND to be honest, I almost always played with my husband/or SG mates and rarely, rarely PUGs.

Some of the changes I like...early travel, guides for easy pick up influence and so forth. But when, for goodness sake, did SPEED become the entire focus of the game? And WHY?? I just don't get it. I've been on a few early TFs, with PUGs. Some good, one, I've already complained about, so I'm not repeating. I miss NO communication during missions. None. The entire team breaks off in different directions. At mission ends, the entire team disappears to the next mission. And starts running the mission. TT has worked ONE time for me. I did change my settings after I was teleported into a mob and died 2 xs. But TT Never worked, Only single teleport. Get to the next mission and the team has teleported to the last mob, leaving me to wait at the door or fight through all the mobs left. I find there is absolutely No communication on any groups.

Sooooo, my opinion is it sounds like your TF was run, the way the game was designed. If you want to just speed up to 50, just hang out in one of the farms. There's enough offers broadcast.

[ZemX]

"Okay folks!  Remember to stick together and NOBODY go near the steps to City Hall until we're all ready.  Got that?"

[Marshal_General]

7 minutes ago, ZemX said:

"Okay folks!  Remember to stick together and NOBODY go near the steps to City Hall until we're all ready.  Got that?"

But I gotta run inside to pee!

[MTeague]

I understand I'm in the distinct minority here. 

But if I joined a Synapse and NOBODY had Stealth or Team Teleport, I would actually Squeee for joy. 

 

I'm very much an anti-speed-runner, vastly preferring Kill Most / Kill All.

And I actually enjoy travelling about the city oldschool style.

 

"One man's trash...."

[TheZag]

I was on an ITF and our team had 13 deaths.  I was on my ice/storm corruptor and accounted for 12 of the deaths.  Probably the most fun ive had since ive been back.  The rest of the team had fun also and the 2 emps were probably working harder then they ever had.  I think they made a rez macro to target me.

[ZorkNemesis]

6 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

 

 

Quit out of my task force with one real mission to go.

 

I did that by accident while running Operation World Wide Red through Ouro.  Dropped Kronos in Sharkhead Island for the hell of it (morbid curiosity to see if I even could), had to league up to deal with it since my squishy blaster ass wasn't going to beat it (phrasing!), quit the league afterward not realizing i'd be booted off the arc.  All that time gone.

[Verfall]

So stealth and TT are mandatory for doing tf's now? And this is why I try not run random tf's...

 

I have fully IOed 50's that don't have that stuff cause, well, I don't care if they have them. Doesn't break the game. To expect that stuff while running PUGs kinda makes the person expecting it kind of sound like a D. Reading the first post I was waiting for the "Horror" and all I saw was minor inconvenience.

 

Seriously, if you are forming a TF and don't announce "We are going to stealth" before you start, than shut up and deal with the hand you just dealt yourself. I'm indifferent either way if I PUG a TF, but expecting everyone to read your mind before hand is asking a bit much. Take the few seconds, ask the questions, suffer less stress later.

[Rumors]

Sounds like a perfectly normal Synapse to me.  But I kinda loathe the impatient crack bunny speed a lot of PUGs in this game and other games seem to have these days.  Like, are we here to play the game or just skip as much game to get to the rewards?  To be fair, Synapse is a bit sloggy and I do wish it'd get shortened.  But like...  I wanna actually play the missions as intended!  I tend not to own Team Teleport or stealth powers since I rarely ever need them or use them.  I sometimes have the ATT from Steel Canyon Safeguard/Mayhem, but don't count on it.

 

 

Anyway, you want a bad Synapse?  I got a bad Synapse.  A really friggin' bad Synapse.  First time attempting it back on Live years ago and was with all, or maybe just mostly, SG mates and people from the main server channels (Jello Shooters on Protector if memory serves).  Good solid group, people I could rely on, and not a single bit of difficulty or drama from any of them typically.  So, why was this the nightmare of all nightmare TFs?

 

MAP SERVER ERRORS!

 

Every other mission it seemed we'd go into the mission and get greeted with a skybox and a map server error.  The entire team.  When it happened the first couple of times, oh how innocent and naive we were to think it was just a fluke.  Oh how naive we were!  By the time we realized it wasn't going to stop, we were already embedded in a sunk cost fallacy, especially since not all of us had time to sit down and casually run Synapse at other times.  I'd contacted the GM for every map server, waited 5-15 minutes for them to respond, and for them to reset the mission, sometimes twice, before we could finally go on.  By the end of it, one of the GMs had gotten us like three or four times and was, in polite GM speak, like "Oh, it's you guys again."

 

I don't remember the completion time, but I wanna say it was something close to 4 hours.  Four long, miserable hours, about half of which was getting nuked, rebooting the game, waiting for GM responses, talking to the GM, then doing their thing, and sometimes having to turn around and pester them immediately because hey it wasn't working still.  I'm pretty sure we lost two or three people during the run.  They were the smart ones.  But, I at least got my TF accolade, so yay for that?

Edited June 14, 2021 by Rumors

[excessionoz]

I should write an article about my way of playing the game, but there is no point really, because it's a player's choice situation almost every time, wihich is what makes the game worth playing, the different situations and different groups.

 

Contrary to my implications, I actually enjoy doing TFs with non-sg members, as well as the (usually smoother) SG experience.

As fopr 'need for speed' -- Synapse is a chore, a grind, or as some people say 'the S word' to be avoided.  Stealthing through the last mission is part and parcel of my normal Synapse experience.  I do the TF's for the merits and the badge for TFC ... xp is secondary 😛
 

I am sure that much more horrific experiences in game abound; for me, that synapse was unusually long full of my mistakes, and remarkable,.  YMMV, and that is how things should be.

 

[Ironblade]

20 hours ago, MTeague said:

I understand I'm in the distinct minority here. 

But if I joined a Synapse and NOBODY had Stealth or Team Teleport, I would actually Squeee for joy. 

 

I'm very much an anti-speed-runner, vastly preferring Kill Most / Kill All.

And I actually enjoy travelling about the city oldschool style.

For me, it's situational.  Sometimes I'm doing a TF because it's the weekly and I want those merits or because I need the badge for TF Commander.  In those cases, I want it done as fast as possible.  Although I still set every TF after Synapse to at least +1 to keep it from being boring.

Sometimes, I'm doing the TF just to do the TF.  Last night, I did the Renault SF with my girlfriend and one of her friends.  I didn't ask but, looking at the enemies, I think we were running at +1 or +2 and team size of about 6.  We cleared every map except the outdoor one with Banished Pantheon where you're looking for Gharbu.