graveyard shift arc brick wall...

[Snarky]

I did the Graveyard Shift Vahz arc redside.  very nice.

 

now trying to complete it Blue.  

 

"investigate Pathogen's Warehouse"  step inside.  Metal grate door blocks entire mission.  "need key"  Glowie beside door.  unresponsive.  No clues, nothing to interact with.  Stoooooopid.

[TheZag]

Did you try knocking?  Also see if admin/password works.

[Snarky]

3 minutes ago, TheZag said:

Did you try knocking?  Also see if admin/password works.

Admin/password???

 

i am 10 feet inside door. Zero enemies. Second door and glowie. Neither do anything

[Ukase]

When you click on the door - you should get some dialogue where your contact is working on his end to get you access...or something along those lines. 

[The Caretaker]

The glowie next to the door has a weird clickbox. But that's the key to the door. Click it, let the dialog go, and you're good.

 

Clarification: The "screen" of the display is not clickable. The frame of it is.

Edited November 20, 2021 by The Caretaker

[dtjunkie]

Just wait a minute or so. The contact will say some stuff and THEN you can click the glowie.

[Snarky]

after 4 tries i finished this mission.  I just soloed all goldside through Ouro.  I hated it.  Hate goldside.

 

Hands down this mission was worse than any mission goldside and worse than some arcs.

 

1) completely unclear instructions that no gaming in the city will prepare you to figure out. (touch only the side of the screen?  and others...)

2) lets add smoke and obstructions

3) later lets add fire and make everything practically unseeable

4) changing (and mostly unclear) objectives

5) add a timer!

6) add glowies later that werent there before so you think you searched a room, but surprise, the map changed!!!

7) keep screwing with the team by adding random debuffs, damage, and end drain

😎 is there any way to actually physically harm the player (just a note i found on the wall in the back....)

Edited November 20, 2021 by Snarky

[Major_Decoy]

There are medical supplies destructables scattered throughout the map that, if you destroy them, will give you a buff to cancel outthe debuffs, damage, and end drain. I did not discover the purpose of those until my third run of the arc.

[Glacier Peak]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

after 4 tries i finished this mission.  I just soloed all goldside through Ouro.  I hated it.  Hate goldside.

 

Hands down this mission was worse than any mission goldside and worse than some arcs.

 

1) completely unclear instructions that no gaming in the city will prepare you to figure out. (touch only the side of the screen?  and others...)

2) lets add smoke and obstructions

3) later lets add fire and make everything practically unseeable

4) changing (and mostly unclear) objectives

5) add a timer!

6) add glowies later that werent there before so you think you searched a room, but surprise, the map changed!!!

7) keep screwing with the team by adding random debuffs, damage, and end drain

😎 is there any way to actually physically harm the player (just a note i found on the wall in the back....)

Sounds like you're not a fan of change. This is one of the newer arcs created by the Homecoming team that doesn't cookie cut the same generic mission style and map layout. They are truly unique to the game and I would recommend reading through the story arc clues and in game dialog to not just appreciate the work that was put in to it, but also get a better understanding of the objectives for each mission and the purpose.

[Snarky]

42 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

Sounds like you're not a fan of change. This is one of the newer arcs created by the Homecoming team that doesn't cookie cut the same generic mission style and map layout. They are truly unique to the game and I would recommend reading through the story arc clues and in game dialog to not just appreciate the work that was put in to it, but also get a better understanding of the objectives for each mission and the purpose.

I actually loved the villain version and wrote a glowing review when it came out.  This is my first time through Blue version.

 

This sucks.  I am not a fan of change that goes to the suck.  

 

[GraspingVileTerror]

While I wouldn't use the same colourful language as @Snarky, I do feel a lot of the new additions would be much better served with more avenues to learn than mere frustrating trial and error.  I realize some people have a strong desire to blindly stumble around as they explore and experiment, and that's a valid form of entertainment for those people.  But we are quite a varied selection of players here.  Having some more legible and sensible in-game guidance for these new mechanics could go a long way to improving their appeal.  At the moment, I agree that this content feels more esoteric than engaging in several places.  To the point where I don't even feel like it's worth trying the new Strike Force on Beta right now; the recent additions have primed me to expect it to not be a productive or enjoyable experience for me.

[Peacemoon]

4 hours ago, Snarky said:

after 4 tries i finished this mission.  I just soloed all goldside through Ouro.  I hated it.  Hate goldside.

 

Hands down this mission was worse than any mission goldside and worse than some arcs.

 

1) completely unclear instructions that no gaming in the city will prepare you to figure out. (touch only the side of the screen?  and others...)

2) lets add smoke and obstructions

3) later lets add fire and make everything practically unseeable

4) changing (and mostly unclear) objectives

5) add a timer!

6) add glowies later that werent there before so you think you searched a room, but surprise, the map changed!!!

7) keep screwing with the team by adding random debuffs, damage, and end drain

😎 is there any way to actually physically harm the player (just a note i found on the wall in the back....)

I couldn’t disagree more, it is one of my favourite missions to do. I did it on my first attempt and thought the instructions were clear and easy to follow. 
- nothing wrong with smoke and obstructions, it makes you play better (or die).

- I had no problems seeing stuff with a bit of fire. I just moved through it.

- the objectives tell you that you need to find x. There is even a marker on the map for the area you have to go to. The whole idea is to fight your way through enemies to turn off the sprinklers.

- timers are divisive, but I enjoyed the thrill and excitement it created. 
- the whole idea is to go back to the entrance, so of course you are searching rooms you already searched; but you didn’t need those items back then!

- the debuffs aren’t that bad, the only one that is real tough is the one that stuns you, but that doesn’t happen often.

 

The mission also does advise that it is going to be really tough.

 

**For reference I did the mission as a Thugs/Empathy MM.

[Dr. Voltage]

I recently did this for the first time, on a ar/dev blaster at x8. I didn't have any issues, managed to get my badges. Not knowing what was going to happen next or trying to evade huge spawns with a short timer really put some stress on my decision making. That made it interesting. 

 

I thought the mechanics were a little janky, kind of like a well polished AE mission. But I don't think it was terrible by any stretch. 

Edited November 21, 2021 by Sejanus

[Greycat]

I'm not sure what anyone's calling "new" as far as mechanics. All those things have been there before. Hell, there's a map in a Shard TF that doesn't let you see more than a few feet in front of you. Hazy map? We've had that in Kings Row (last 'dyne lab, Eagle Eye) and ... whatsisface, talos, the mediport conspiracy arc.

 

Glowies have had weird outlines before. (see: "Touch crotch of guard to get through zone gate.") >.> Move your cursor around.

 

Changing objectives - heck *we* can do that in AE. One thing happens. Click. Other objective kicks in. Actually gives some pacing to a story. Happens in regular missions, too. Timer? Again, mediport arc, Hess TF and more.

 

Damage, debuffs, end drain? Again... we've dealt with this for ages, starting with the Vahz wasting disease when we didn't have IOs or temp powers to counter it. Redside? Get hit with smoke bombs and psi debuffs that kill your vision. And yes, there are items around that, as soon as you destroy the first one, you should notice the BRIGHT RED text saying what buff you've gotten.... like in the tech lab when you destroy the lab machinery.

 

Just did this on a team of 4. Little bit of a challenge? Sure. Horrible, die in a fire arc? Not even close.

[Snarky]

for me it was really frustrating in that the first time in i could not get the first door (before any fights) to open or the glowie to work.  then i ran it, completed it, and did not know a radio had randomly appeared in a room in the mission.  so i did not know how to contact the guy and finish the mission.  so i re ran the whole Fing thing.  that time the radio appeared next to me...

[Clave Dark 5]

10 hours ago, Snarky said:

after 4 tries i finished this mission.  I just soloed all goldside through Ouro.  I hated it.  Hate goldside.

 

Hands down this mission was worse than any mission goldside and worse than some arcs.

 

1) completely unclear instructions that no gaming in the city will prepare you to figure out. (touch only the side of the screen?  and others...)

2) lets add smoke and obstructions

3) later lets add fire and make everything practically unseeable

4) changing (and mostly unclear) objectives

5) add a timer!

6) add glowies later that werent there before so you think you searched a room, but surprise, the map changed!!!

7) keep screwing with the team by adding random debuffs, damage, and end drain

😎 is there any way to actually physically harm the player (just a note i found on the wall in the back....)

Ok, but other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

[KC4800]

You should have done this mission when the zoombies did actual damage instead of just annoy you. You got off light, IMO.

[Chaos String]

The first time I played this arc, several things happened that made a very bad impression.

 

1.  There was a countdown timer.  By itself, this is fine.  Give me some duress.

2.  I had to click a bunch of glowies while being ambushed.  Now, this is annoying.  But it's fine.

3.  I needed to read a lot of exposition in order to make a moral choice.    Okay.  Wall of text aside, I enjoy character growth.

 

The problem was, I had to deal with ALL THREE OF THOSE THINGS AT ONCE.  That's right, I had to read like 18 lines of text to make a character-defining moral choice WHILE A TIMER TICKED DOWN AND WAVES OF ENEMIES AMBUSHED ME.

 

Or so I thought.  Turns out that I had missed a glowie.   When I ran the arc again with another character, I was able to click all the glowies and stop the timer/ambushes before making that moral choice.

 

But I was very reluctant to run that arc a second time after how mind-bogglingly stupid it seemed on my first run through it.

[Snarky]

41 minutes ago, Chaos String said:

The first time I played this arc, several things happened that made a very bad impression.

 

1.  There was a countdown timer.  By itself, this is fine.  Give me some duress.

2.  I had to click a bunch of glowies while being ambushed.  Now, this is annoying.  But it's fine.

3.  I needed to read a lot of exposition in order to make a moral choice.    Okay.  Wall of text aside, I enjoy character growth.

 

The problem was, I had to deal with ALL THREE OF THOSE THINGS AT ONCE.  That's right, I had to read like 18 lines of text to make a character-defining moral choice WHILE A TIMER TICKED DOWN AND WAVES OF ENEMIES AMBUSHED ME.

 

Or so I thought.  Turns out that I had missed a glowie.   When I ran the arc again with another character, I was able to click all the glowies and stop the timer/ambushes before making that moral choice.

 

But I was very reluctant to run that arc a second time after how mind-bogglingly stupid it seemed on my first run through it.

This seems to be the problem in the writing.  To me.  The redside version was plot driven and cool.  The blueside seems to be a giant puzzle box that is extremely complicated (and easy to screw up due to coding mechanics as much as gameplay) that is hard until you figure it out.  So…. Then it is like a Rubiks cube.  Okay, thats done, next.  Meanwhile the redside is still cool because it told a story well rather than try to screw the player one good time

Edited November 21, 2021 by Snarky