The worst thing you can do?

[zenijos10]

Recently, I read a post (sorry, I don’t remember the topic or the poster) where someone said the worst thing a player can do in this game is drop early from a task force (paraphrased).  

I’m not sure I would care much, in fact I’m sure if there is anything that a player could do in this game that would make me mad for longer than second or two, but maybe not. I’m curious to hear where everyone else draws the line. Maybe I forgot something.

 

What do you think? Barring actual crimes, what’s the worse offense a player could commit offense in game in your eyes?

[tidge]

That was "next to joining a SG, raiding the loot, and then quitting" (which probably the worst thing a player could do in-game, without using the chat function)

 

 

[DoctorDitko]

3 minutes ago, tidge said:

without using the chat function

Yeah, I think most of the Worst Things in this game involve typing!

[blue4333]

Playing an Empathy defender with only 1 attack power, and the full Medicine pool

 

Or petless masterminds

 

😝

[Sovera]

Sticking to radio missions.

[Techwright]

I'm not sure if it's THE worst, but ranking high on my list is the causing of master badges to fail for the entire league because one consistently (and probably willfully) does their own thing, ignoring the "Master of..." Incarnate trials leader's repeated directions.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Techwright
Rewritten for greater clarity

[Andreah]

I started composing a post for this thread, but it depresses me.  The sorts of things that would fall to the depths to meet the standard are so rare I don't think there's value in my scrounging through them. Further, I don't want to indirectly disparage anyone's playstyle or build choices like this, even in partial jest. 

 

I'd rather talk about the best things people could do.

 

[Shred Monkey]

2 hours ago, Techwright said:

I'm not sure if it's THE worst, but constantly ignoring a league leader to do your own thing on "Master of..." runs through Incarnate trials, so that the master badges fail for the entire league tends to rank high on my list.

 

I was going to say this one.  Intentionally trolling a "Master of" badge attempt.

 

Not quite as bad, but I have a pet peeve about people who stealth the final mission of a TF and kill the final boss before everyone gets there.  

 

[TheOtherTed]

I don't know what the worst thing one could do is, but the worst player behavior I encountered involved team leaders who didn't lead.  Some notable cases:

1. The team was badging werewolves on Striga, and without a word the leader (a tanker) bounded away and zoned as soon as he hit his quota.  I was sidekicked to him, and got slaughtered before I realized what had happened.
2. The leader (another tanker... hrmmm...) wouldn't wait for the rest of the team to rest and regroup (the leader had just recruited a couple of replacements).  He got himself (and the one scrapper who followed him) killed by who knows how many council.  He chided me, playing a kin defender, for the lack of heals, and, well, I let him know what I thought of him and quit.  Something similar happened with a blaster leader, so I guess I can't blame tanks entirely.
3. The team was steamrolling a CoT cave, when I suddenly realized our fearless leader wasn't with us.  Turns out he was door-sitting.  He responded to our queries with "coming," but didn't move an inch.  The third time this happened, we decided in local to bail and form our own team.

[tidge]

59 minutes ago, Shred Monkey said:

Not quite as bad, but I have a pet peeve about people who stealth the final mission of a TF and kill the final boss before everyone gets there. 

 

I definitely agree about this, yet there is an adjacent behavior that looks like this, yet isn't this: sometimes an early-in-mission player gets into the last mission, stealths to the final (or starts at the beginning) and begins fighting "scrub" mobs... all without engaging the final boss. A common example of an end-arc boss where this happens is in the Manticore TF because:

• The final mission is often in Independence Port (a big zone), after a "Defeat X" in Crey's Folly (team is probably scattered, zones don't directly connect)
• Final door map is often big
• Final boss spawn point may not be all that far from non-AV spawn points (e.g. clear for Assemble the Team)

Players may not know what is going on in the other end of the map (I've been on both sides of this), so I only mention it to suggest that there be some communication to avoid jumping to conclusions.

[Ukase]

16 hours ago, zenijos10 said:

Recently, I read a post (sorry, I don’t remember the topic or the poster) where someone said the worst thing a player can do in this game is drop early from a task force (paraphrased).  

I’m not sure I would care much, in fact I’m sure if there is anything that a player could do in this game that would make me mad for longer than second or two, but maybe not. I’m curious to hear where everyone else draws the line. Maybe I forgot something.

 

What do you think? Barring actual crimes, what’s the worse offense a player could commit offense in game in your eyes?

I believe I'm the chap that stated the worst thing a player could do would be to quit a tf. 

When I posted it, I didn't want to get into one of my famous 20-zillion paragraph posts, but I'll elaborate a tiny bit here why it's a peeve of mine. 
Back before debt had a cap, I was on my first ever 50, an emp/elec defender. I ran into a couple of guys - both tanks - who loved to herd freaks or anything that was susceptible to taunt. 
But, before that - we'd joined another small group to do a positron tf (before it was revamped into 2 parts). 

There was a lot of mez, which resulted in a lot of dying. Can't heal if I can't do anything. And the only way to get status protection at the time was to hit the hospital and get with the npc there before you made your way back to the mission. 

I understand that nobody likes a team that has a lot of defeats - it slows things down and isn't terribly fun. Back then, I had no idea what the term "team composition" meant. It never occurred to me there would be a striking contrast between a fire tank and an invuln tank. I probably thought every defender was an empath - and they may very well have been back then. 

But..the small group we picked up, after the second defeat, they all quit. Then my own sg folks, the pair of tanks - they quit, too. They didn't discuss it with me. It never occurred to them that I could use a blast to pull one or two, rather than the trite method of tank jumping in the midst of a mob and hoping for the best. (There was no discord, and honestly, there wasn't time to type anything with all the desperate button mashing.) 

To this day - I haven't forgotten that feeling of being an emp/elec defender and being the only one on a task force. Everybody quit. They didn't discuss it, they didn't explain why - (in hindsight, I get it) - they just bailed. 

So, when I say quitting a tf is the worst, I mean quitting when the going gets tough, not referring to folks who may have to quit because the tinpex should've only taken a half hour, but for some reason you've found yourself extending beyond an hour. I get that real life happens and you can get called away.

I'm specifically referring to folks who quit because they think it's too hard. And it may be too hard, depending on team comp. But these situations should be discussed before someone just quits with the ever-so-fake polite "glhf". 

[KC4800]

The worst thing you could do? Just stop logging in and playing with your friends.

[Oubliette_Red]

9 hours ago, TheOtherTed said:

I don't know what the worst thing one could do is, but the worst player behavior I encountered involved team leaders who didn't lead.  Some notable cases:

1. The team was badging werewolves on Striga, and without a word the leader (a tanker) bounded away and zoned as soon as he hit his quota.  I was sidekicked to him, and got slaughtered before I realized what had happened.
2. The leader (another tanker... hrmmm...) wouldn't wait for the rest of the team to rest and regroup (the leader had just recruited a couple of replacements).  He got himself (and the one scrapper who followed him) killed by who knows how many council.  He chided me, playing a kin defender, for the lack of heals, and, well, I let him know what I thought of him and quit.  Something similar happened with a blaster leader, so I guess I can't blame tanks entirely.
3. The team was steamrolling a CoT cave, when I suddenly realized our fearless leader wasn't with us.  Turns out he was door-sitting.  He responded to our queries with "coming," but didn't move an inch.  The third time this happened, we decided in local to bail and form our own team.

 

Regarding #2, if the tank runs out of support range then they better be able to tank whatever they spank. This goes for glass cannons that also run off solo away from the team, if you're in range I'll pick your ascot up, otherwise you better have a pocket full of skittles.

 

[UltraAlt]

On 6/19/2022 at 3:16 AM, blue4333 said:

petless masterminds

 

I don't know about this.

My level 20 Demons/Electric mastermind is doing pretty good, but they do have a whip and lead teams .... so the team is actually their minions.

I'm probably going to keep them level locked at 20 and then after a while level up a bit in order to 6 slot all the whip powers and then level lock again.

[arcane]

31 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I don't know about this.

My level 20 Demons/Electric mastermind is doing pretty good, but they do have a whip and lead teams .... so the team is actually their minions.

I'm probably going to keep them level locked at 20 and then after a while level up a bit in order to 6 slot all the whip powers and then level lock again.

So you’re purposefully playing a very bad defender. Playable in this easy meta? Obviously yes - that shouldn’t impress anyone. Making the contribution you could if not for your own RP reasons? Nope, you’re not - don’t sugar coat it 🙂 

Edited June 20, 2022 by arcane

[Placta]

Forming a Doctor Q task force and going AFK for a long time without setting the final mission.

 

They can't advance without you.

They won't want to drop because that would mean doing most of a Dr Q for no merits/badge.

Because you're in TF mode you won't get logged out.

Is vote-kicking an option for normal teams? If not, the best hope is to wait for a GM and see if they can do something.

 

DISCLAIMER: Author does not endorse this action and assumes no responsibility for consequences should someone actually do it.

[Luminara]

Quitting anything isn't the worst anything that anyone can do.  Sometimes, it's just not gelling, and there are no magical success fairies who will swoop in and sprinkle win dust on us when it seems that all hope is lost.  If a team isn't working, leave.  If the *F isn't moving, leave.  If the SG isn't what you need, leave.  Adamantly refusing to let the suffering end simply because one has imposed an imaginary social contract on oneself is pointless.  Expecting that everyone else will continue to futilely beat their heads against the wall is delusional.  And outright telling others that the worst thing they can do is give up, is manipulative, because you're pinning your expectations on them, trying to force them to stay so you can succeed.

 

People don't always work well together.  Bad days, distractions, lack of familiarity with content or powers, poor communication, there are any number of reasons groups of players can't or don't mesh, or even coalesce long enough to function as a unit.  Sometimes it's your fault, and the best thing you can do is walk away rather than continue to drag everyone else down with you.

 

As for the worst thing someone can do, I see a lot of personal grievances, not much in the way of actual bad.  So I'm going to say that the worst thing anyone can do is forget that all of this didn't exist just a few years ago.  When Co* was gone, it was gone, and a lot of us here spent years trying to fill the gaping hole it left behind, unsuccessfully.  We have it all back now.  We lost some years, we lost some friends, but we still have this.  Failing to remember that, to keep in mind just how precious and rare this is and how much it means, taking it for granted, that's the worst thing any of us can do.  No petty annoyance will ever come close to being as bad as no longer cherishing what we've recovered.

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

21 hours ago, KC4800 said:

The worst thing you could do? Just stop logging in and playing with your friends.

 

Ouch. I feel attacked and triggered. Ok, not really. Truth is truth and I know my place in the universe.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Bill Z Bubba

[Bill Z Bubba]

18 hours ago, Krimson said:

One of my friends has severe MS. I'm not gonna give him a hard time because of that. I lost another to disability as well, and I'M disabled, so my days are numbered too. 😄

 

No one is safe from the certain end. All we can do is learn to love it, be ready for it, and get trashed AF on the way. 🙂

[arcane]

4 minutes ago, Krimson said:

But I don't drink any more. 🙂

I think the electric lettuce is covered implicitly

[Bill Z Bubba]

9 minutes ago, Krimson said:

But I don't drink any more. 🙂

 

Shrooms, pot, acid, coke.... doesn't have to be alcohol.

[Peacemoon]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

I don't know about this.

My level 20 Demons/Electric mastermind is doing pretty good, but they do have a whip and lead teams .... so the team is actually their minions.

I'm probably going to keep them level locked at 20 and then after a while level up a bit in order to 6 slot all the whip powers and then level lock again.

To be fair if you’re a MM in a team I think its

perfecty reasonable to consider your teammates your lackeys (with sometimes increased AI)!

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Bill Z Bubba said:

 

Shrooms, pot, acid, coke.... doesn't have to be alcohol.

Hallucinogens and video games are stressful together lol

[Bill Z Bubba]

1 hour ago, arcane said:

Hallucinogens and video games are stressful together lol

 

You're doin it wrong.

[Rokkeb]

I ignore the spammers. They are the most annoying people in the game. Way worse than people who leave a TF imo. 

 

The guy who spams about going and fighting him in pvp and you get 100million if you beat him. Ignore, because he just spams his message over and over. 

 

People who spam looking for AE farms if I see your lfg more than twice in like 2 to 3 minutes, ignored. 

 

The guy who advertised for radio missions then spams LFG 3 times that his radio mission is full every single time he fills that 8th spot. And spams his recruit message until it's filled. Ignored.

 

I hate spammers, don't want to group with them, don't want to see them. Definitely don't ever let them in my AE farms.