PUGing less

[Without_Pause]

I would only do +4/x8 before level 45 in rare cases. I've done FF twice. One did have a high number of deaths, but leveling took care of things in the end.

[arcane]

On 11/8/2021 at 1:51 PM, A Cat said:

Nerds and geek culture in general is pretty acceptable in the mainstream now. In other words, REEEEEEEEEE GET OUT NORMIES

The mainstream is pretty universally shit now tho, ain’t it

[Snarky]

9 hours ago, ZacKing said:

I don't know what shards you all are playing on, but I PUG quite a lot and I can count on one hand the number of times there's been a bad experience.  Overwhelming majority of time it's a lot of fun with great players.  

I have an insatiable desire to game.  If not soloing a project I am teaming like crazy.  Volume of PUGs = more opportunities to find the crazy times.

 

My threshold for what i consider stupid is also not spectacularly high.  Particular is +1 (or +4???) Posi or Synapse.  And that happens.  Which I find....moronic, stupid, and unfortunate.  The fact that the next issue will reward us for running these at + makes them less stupid (if you got the chops to run it....) and will lead to more dumb teams who cannot handle it trying to get the rewards.  In my opinion.  So....more stupid PUGs.  sigh.  thankfully I have the Cosmic Council.  

[Neiska]

@Snarky - I feel your pain hon. (hugs)

 

I find myself playing and pugging less and less. Mostly I log in and look for things to do or groups to join, and they just aren't there, or I see a full friend list that says "offline."

 

I still have rp dates and SG events I log in for, but as far as mission stuff goes, 95% of the time I find myself multi boxing by myself. I used to offer spots to low levels to tag along, but even that I am doing less, as people don't seem to really appreciate it anymore.

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, Neiska said:

@Snarky - I feel your pain hon. (hugs)

 

I find myself playing and pugging less and less. Mostly I log in and look for things to do or groups to join, and they just aren't there, or I see a full friend list that says "offline."

 

I still have rp dates and SG events I log in for, but as far as mission stuff goes, 95% of the time I find myself multi boxing by myself. I used to offer spots to low levels to tag along, but even that I am doing less, as people don't seem to really appreciate it anymore.

I may be in pain but I keep grinding lol.  I am working on a solo EVERY contact (red/blue/gold....stopping exp, side switching etc) and gaming in nearly every event Cosmic Council runs.  That part is not painful.  Why I do the huge projects?  self loathing?  sigh, we vampires hate ourselves.  I also PUG some when I want a giant monster, zone event, or posi 1, synapse etc.  and PUGs are still kit or miss.  and when they miss?  daaaaaaaaaaaaaam

[Without_Pause]

I believe the official time for a Carnie mission I did with a PuG was around 90 minutes. I almost made a joke about not getting merits for that kind of time frame. I've had little desire to PuG after that and enjoyed going back to soloing. 

[Without_Pause]

On 11/9/2021 at 12:50 PM, Without_Pause said:

I would only do +4/x8 before level 45 in rare cases. I've done FF twice. One did have a high number of deaths, but leveling took care of things in the end.

A tale of two cities.

 

Lead a couple SFs(Virgil/Silver Mantis). We run through them quickly enough. Conversation was had. Globals were shared. Side bonus, we exited a mission no less to get the Ghost of Scrapyard badge. Fully T3ed with the four accolade stat boosters is within reach.

 

Saw someone advertising FF at +2. We did the door mission before it fine enough, and I saw the lead didn't have 2x XP. Well, that works for FF. Except, they flipped it to +4 for FF. Faceplant-O-Rama happens. Tells happened. I ask them if they are close to leveling. Nope. And yes, they knew what they were doing. "But don't worry, we'll level." Yeah, about that whole "we" part. If you are at +4 and someone is under you, they could be seeing +5s and their leveling does nothing to change that. It is your leveling which does, and you are leveling at the normal rate. Did sane people do FF at +4 back in the day? Well, no for this very reason! We had two support characters. A tank even asked about who was keeping them alive and thanked them. A Water/dark Corr spoke up. That Corr would eventually quit once they got sick of the faceplants. Spoiler alert, support characters aren't fond of being on faceplanting teams. More open dialog happened from said tank when the lead does level. Ultimately the lead quit although thankfully after they leveled twice. We finished although with various token faceplants in a very fitting way.

 

What I'm saying is, I'm about 1:1 ratio with adding global friends on red side as compared to adding global ignores on blue side. So, red side = best side.

 

(goes back to soloing)

[ZemX]

23 minutes ago, Without_Pause said:

Did sane people do FF at +4 back in the day?

 

I feel stupid for asking but... what the heck is "FF"?

[Hardship]

52 minutes ago, ZemX said:

 

I feel stupid for asking but... what the heck is "FF"?

I believe in this context it is the "Frost Fire" story arc in The Hollows.

[Without_Pause]

Correct.

[ZemX]

Ah ha!  That explains it.  Don't see it advertised very often and generally don't run it much myself.  Even though that map with all the ice is kind of fun.

[Chrono-Bot]

I totally wussed out when the team leader asked us if we wanted to do Frostfire at +4 (I believe I said 'no! I have children!') and then we only did it at +2 and we were fine and by the end he was green to us and I had to admit I was 'Booboo the fool'. 

 

It was a nice team though. 

 

Although that said my reticence was based on a Frostfire I'd done a few days earlier that was strikingly pre-Flight endurance fixes in its effort. I'm fine. We're fine. Everyone's fine.

 

Oh god.

[Apparition]

On 11/11/2021 at 1:01 PM, Without_Pause said:

A tale of two cities.

 

Lead a couple SFs(Virgil/Silver Mantis). We run through them quickly enough. Conversation was had. Globals were shared. Side bonus, we exited a mission no less to get the Ghost of Scrapyard badge. Fully T3ed with the four accolade stat boosters is within reach.

 

Saw someone advertising FF at +2. We did the door mission before it fine enough, and I saw the lead didn't have 2x XP. Well, that works for FF. Except, they flipped it to +4 for FF. Faceplant-O-Rama happens. Tells happened. I ask them if they are close to leveling. Nope. And yes, they knew what they were doing. "But don't worry, we'll level." Yeah, about that whole "we" part. If you are at +4 and someone is under you, they could be seeing +5s and their leveling does nothing to change that. It is your leveling which does, and you are leveling at the normal rate. Did sane people do FF at +4 back in the day? Well, no for this very reason! We had two support characters. A tank even asked about who was keeping them alive and thanked them. A Water/dark Corr spoke up. That Corr would eventually quit once they got sick of the faceplants. Spoiler alert, support characters aren't fond of being on faceplanting teams. More open dialog happened from said tank when the lead does level. Ultimately the lead quit although thankfully after they leveled twice. We finished although with various token faceplants in a very fitting way.

 

What I'm saying is, I'm about 1:1 ratio with adding global friends on red side as compared to adding global ignores on blue side. So, red side = best side.

 

(goes back to soloing)

 

As I have posted before, red side players tend to be better on average for a few reasons.  Quality versus quantity. 😛

[Clave Dark 5]

On 11/8/2021 at 4:56 AM, Snarky said:

 I even have a Controller in the mid 30s!

[Akalabeth]

I asked for a SG on Excelsior the other day when I was playing and a couple were mentioned like Cosmic Council and I was told there were recruitments in the evening but I never saw one then.

[High_Beam]

So Like Snarky this is also my experience.  Back on live on Freedom I was in the Babes of War and for the majority of those years its was what you would want.  Consistent teams, ability to do difficult content, plus friendship, camaraderie and fun.  I mean there was a point were 8 or nine of us from the DC/NORVA/MD area met up in Baltimore, had a great lunch talking about game and RL and drank beers and got silly.  In-game there was the playing of the game but also the simple silly things like chatting and cracking wise for 30 minutes before jumping to smash the Envoy of Shadows.  However the last year of live was not fun.  Total Drama Island erupted in the group and there was a metric ton of un-cool stuff happening and by this time I was one of the leaders of the group so I had to spend most of my time sorting out the stupid, breaking up fights and trying to keep the group together.  I ceased being fun and conversely I ceased teaming.

 

I would log on and deal with issues then I would hide so I wouldn't be spotted and I PUGged a lot because I still wanted to play but I couldn't stand a lot of my SG Mates.  I created a second account so I could play without being recognized.  Yet I also felt bad and missed my few friends that were still playing.  Then the game was shut down and I moved on, at first a few of us went to Champions Online but that game sucks once you leave character creation.  I got an E-Mail or two from certain members of the group asking how things were.  The that stopped shortly thereafter, we moved on.

 

When I found out about the SCoRE servers and then Homecoming I immediately came back and made core promises to myself; to do the good things I did on live and not do the bad things.  So I embraced archetypes I hated back in the day (mostly melee types), I PUGged as much as possible and didn't get twisted about semi-sucky teams (Sucky teams still get a full barrel), I don't obsess over badges (too much) because they used to lead to me getting mad when the badge getting failed.  And as a whole, the experience was good.

 

But the social aspect was missing and that is an important element.  I don't mean standing around in Atlas Park for an hour chatting in General making comments (though it has its place) I mean running around fighting bad guys and in those few seconds or minutes in between making a witty remark, or responding to someone's witty remark or congratulating someone leveling or just hearing someone say anything that isn't a spam rant.  Like Snarky I found a SG on Excelsior, the Girls of Nukem High and I am a happy player because of it.  They remind me of the good things of the SG I was in on live yet aren't them so its like being young in the game again.  We have scheduled fun events (though not as many as Snarky's group) and whenever I am on I am guaranteed to find a group of Nukems and their allies on who I can immediately team with and I always have fun.  We sock evil in the eye and make jokes and have fun.  I eventually also joined another SG at the same time, a pirate themed SG comprised mostly of members from Nukem or other SGs we are allies with (here are like 8 I think) and we just run around doing missions and acting piratey because its fun.

 

Do I still PUG?  Yes because sometimes you aren't going to get someone who wants to run through a specific Task Force again with me just because I have yet another alt I am running up and they just want to finish their main.  But almost every night I get a solid three hours in of just SG/Ally fun.  Find a SG because the worst thing that can happen is you don't like it yet you have lost nothing.  But you might find one that sticks.

 

PUGs aren't evil, they just aren't as good as SG teams.  Remember the Suicide Squad are essentially a PUG, they are forced to team up because of circumstances and most wouldn't care if you were on fire.  The Justice League is a SG because they want to be.

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, Akalabeth said:

I asked for a SG on Excelsior the other day when I was playing and a couple were mentioned like Cosmic Council and I was told there were recruitments in the evening but I never saw one then.

Cosmic has a Discord that is used to join.  It is in my posts on Excelsior board.  (On a phone right now so not easy for me to grab).  Basically read the rules and then post that you agree in the discord chat it says to do that in. Officers monitor that and will get you fitted in pretty quick

[Ukase]

5 hours ago, Akalabeth said:

I asked for a SG on Excelsior the other day when I was playing and a couple were mentioned like Cosmic Council and I was told there were recruitments in the evening but I never saw one then.

Here's the lowdown on Cosmic Council: 
They will invite anyone that wants to join, except for certain folks that somehow have gotten on their naughty list. 
But, in order to join, you have to visit the Discord, via invite: 
 https://discord.gg/DVksJ4N 

Once you get there - you should investigate the Public Welcome and Rules channel (seen on the left when using a PC) 
And in there, you will see this: 

 

 

 

The bad news is - ordinary members, nor senior members may extend an invitation to you. This privilege/burden is reserved for High Council members. (I don't think they're stoned, pretty sure that's just the highest rank.) So, you once you post in the gateway that you have read and agree to the rules, one of them SHOULD get with you within 24-48 hours. 

There are 4 HC members. It's rare that one of them doesn't log in on any given day. Granted, if your play time is out of alignment with when they log in, it can be more difficult to get the invite, but I would expect them to reach out via tell and determine when a good time for you to accept the invite would be. 
 

If you're someone that is curious about who some of these people are, and are wary of joining, I would encourage you to try and join the Really Hard Way Magisterium efforts on Saturday nights, at 9PM Eastern. NOT THIS JULY 2nd, holiday weekend!  SG folks get invited a few minutes before the general public, but usually, a member will drop to make room for a non-sg member that would like to do the iTrial. All you have to do is show up in Echo Plaza (reached via Long Range Teleporter, or the van on Hero side in Pocket D. ) If you lack the threads to get the requisite super inspirations, someone will provide them at no cost to you. If you aren't quite t-4 in Lore, then I suggest you join us for the Cathedral of Pain effort on Mondays in Pocket D. (9:30pm Eastern) 

The good parts about the SG rules are (in my opinion) - there's really no minimal activity required. If you don't play very often, you might find yourself removed to make room for other folks who want to join, but all you have to do is reach out when you return to get an invite. 

Once you join, you'll get set up in the discord, and you will be given an invite to the Private Cosmic Council chat channel - which you can use/observe even when you're on a different shard, or a different character that's not in the SG. And, your characters that aren't in the SG can still participate in any events. 

 

[Ironblade]

28 minutes ago, Ukase said:

If you're someone that is curious about who some of these people are, and are wary of joining, I would encourage you to try and join the Really Hard Way Magisterium efforts on Saturday nights, at 9PM Eastern. NOT THIS JULY 2nd, holiday weekend!

Ouch.  Talk about throwing someone into the deep end.  That's some of the hardest content in the entire game.  😛

 

Anyway, @Akalabeth  I'm also a member of Cosmic Council even though my personal SG is on Everlasting.  My girlfriend was already a member and I was always commenting how funny Ukase and Snarky were on the forums and she said they're in CC and always play on Friday night so I joined.  I play on Excelsior every Friday evening and occasionally at other times.  It's a well-run SG.

[Riverdusk]

Have to say I'm in the camp of not having too many bad PuG experiences.  In fact, it seems to be much less often than it was on live.  I attribute that to the player base being, on average, a lot more experienced now a days, and honestly the game having gotten easier.    Anyway,  I also try to not look at them as bad PuG teams, but as an extra challenge.  😉

 

 

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, Ironblade said:

Ouch.  Talk about throwing someone into the deep end.  That's some of the hardest content in the entire game.  😛

 

Anyway, @Akalabeth  I'm also a member of Cosmic Council even though my personal SG is on Everlasting.  My girlfriend was already a member and I was always commenting how funny Ukase and Snarky were on the forums and she said they're in CC and always play on Friday night so I joined.  I play on Excelsior every Friday evening and occasionally at other times.  It's a well-run SG.

The Really Hard Way is….okay yeah deep end.  I started with Cosmic on a Dark/Dark Brute.  It was not pretty.  Long animation melee class in that battle is just horrid.  I play a Beam Rifle Blaster for that trial now.  The rest of the Saturday night content is surprisingly easy if you are good at following instructions on Discord.  And the instructions are very precise. Badges, fun, save the world, cause mayhem

[Ukase]

22 hours ago, Ironblade said:

Ouch.  Talk about throwing someone into the deep end.  That's some of the hardest content in the entire game.  😛

 

Anyway, @Akalabeth  I'm also a member of Cosmic Council even though my personal SG is on Everlasting.  My girlfriend was already a member and I was always commenting how funny Ukase and Snarky were on the forums and she said they're in CC and always play on Friday night so I joined.  I play on Excelsior every Friday evening and occasionally at other times.  It's a well-run SG.

There's nothing deep about the water that is RHW. It's super trivial now, if folks can maneuver their characters to avoid the AoE crackle. And, even if you can't, the rebirth and barrier buffs almost guarantee you can live through a couple of ticks until you can get out of the way - unless of course, you don't get out of the way. 

I remember in the Army, there was a test I was given on the Bradley Turret. You had to literally stick a paper clip or a pin in a tiny hole from outside the turret, and then, go in the turret and activate some controls to slew a certain direction a certain number of degrees. But, if the pin/clip didn't stay inserted all the way, you wouldn't hear this beep and you wouldn't be able to verify a certain condition. The problem was, you couldn't be sure the pin was inserted all the way until you came back out of the turret. 

I failed this test. Not because I didn't know what steps to take, but because the steps gave me trouble. A big chap like myself, climbing in and out of a tiny turret, over and over - not my strong suit. I look at RHW the same way. Most folks know exactly what to do, they just have trouble doing it. 
That doesn't make the water deep, just makes some folks poor swimmers. 

[Ironblade]

2 minutes ago, Ukase said:

There's nothing deep about the water that is RHW. It's super trivial now, if folks can maneuver their characters to avoid the AoE crackle.

I contend it's not trivial since we failed last week, with a core of highly experienced players.

For some reason, our damage output seemed way below par despite having six corrupters.

[Bionic_Flea]

12 minutes ago, Ukase said:

That doesn't make the water deep, just makes some folks poor swimmers. 

When the water is knee-deep, swimming is not required (although some will still drown).

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Bionic_Flea

[Ukase]

5 hours ago, Ironblade said:

I contend it's not trivial since we failed last week, with a core of highly experienced players.

For some reason, our damage output seemed way below par despite having six corrupters.

When you do these trials - are you using the league window or the team window?
Sometimes, I use the team window just to see what kind of team reds are active. Sadly, the range on these is only 20 feet, and after the first crackle and the inevitable scatter, often folks are never in close enough proximity to make full use of the inspirations. 

What's interesting to me is the fact that it's 16 target max, but you only have 8 folks on a team...I guess that includes pets, but the game has a bad habit of never quite spelling these things out specifically.