Why is it that every time I do the Flux arc in The Hollows, everyone leaves right after Frostfire?

[Diantane]

Its like at a wedding reception and the cake is cut, everyone goes home after that. As soon as Frostfire is over, I call Flux and end the arc and immediately teleport to Lockhart in Steel Canyon and get the first mission. Yet I'll lose 6 to 7 of the team members. Every time! Sure everyone likes to level as long as they get several hour long breaks after one to three arc missions. Why is that? I'll go from level 9 to 39 in a day doing arcs.

 

Yesterday I lead the team through a few of the smaller arcs and even all the way through the five hour Provost Marchland arc (have done it three times in one day with three characters). Only a handful of great players have the endurance to keep up. Sure it's a grind, but no more than grinding fire farms.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Diantane

[TheZag]

I know of alot of people that play up to the frostfire mission solo and then make a team of 8 for that mission only.  The team breaks up after or runs someone elses frostfire mission.  Basically they have been conditioned that frostfire over means team over.  Slap on top that so many run the FF mission to the point that its almost a speedrun and the missions after would be at a 'normal' pace.  Slower missions mean slower xp and people drop even though staying on the team would be faster than solo xp.

 

There will be more reasons out there too but i think the big one is people trained that FF over means team is over.

[Diantane]

How could you redo FF a bunch of times? Do you keep making new level 9 characters?

[lemming]

Speedrun the FF mission?   What about ice slide play time?

[tidge]

It certainly could be that Frostfire is capable of giving enough XP to a team of 8 that the team has out-leveled the zone.

 

There is another subtle effect that not every player gets arc rewards like the mission owner (not using Orobouros) does.

[Diantane]

Yep, yesterday I received 137 merits doing arcs. Course they will sit on that character most likely forever (reward?)

[TheZag]

1 minute ago, Diantane said:

How could you redo FF a bunch of times? Do you keep making new level 9 characters?

 

Yes,  not myself but i know someone that will get 3 to 6 characters the FF mission and keep alting and running it over and over.

[TheOtherTed]

Some people have reasons to stay in The Hollows.  In fact, since we're no longer automatically sent there, I'd assume that anyone who is in The Hollows wants to be there.  Some might be chasing the "Transcendent" badge, others might be seeking a nostalgia rush, and others might actually like The Hollows for its setting and story.

 

Zipping off to Steel to pick up an unrelated arc would lose the "Hollowers" in your group, and others may bail just because it looks like the team is breaking up anyway.

[Diantane]

On one character I turned off my XP and lead teams on every nostalgic arc there was. They were all overjoyed to experience them again.

[Lazarillo]

Frostfire is the last mission in Flux's arc. What else in it are they supposed to stick around for?

As for Laura Lockhart, they may simply not have an interest in that (it's a more solo-oriented arc, after all).  And on the flip side, it becomes difficult, often, to stick to the Hollows because the outright frakumulatous amounts of XP that tends to come from running Frostfire at x8 also often means you outlevel the next contact there, too.  As another alternative, it could be that, with Frostfire, specifically, they were there just for the badge.

 

All in all, seems like there are more reasons to go "hey, that was fun, thanks" and be on one's merry way afterwards, than the opposite?

[Diantane]

Why couldn't a FF like arc be created on AE to be even better? I mean, that's what AE is for isn't it?

[Ukase]

There are many reasons to leave after the completion of Frostfire. 

1. Got a few levels, need to train, and because most will go from level 10-11 to level 13-14, they'll need new enhancements, and sometimes choosing them can take some time. Sometimes, they'll need to transfer inf, or sometimes, they may have to market enough to get the inf to buy them. 

2. It could be that the teaming wasn't that fun for them. Some folks are so focused on their own fun, they may not realize that others have to deal with certain challenges in the mission that others are oblivious of. Like a brute/scrapper/tank with some AoE. They don't like to waste an AoE on one character, so they move to the next group, often leaving these leftovers for other teammates who may not be well-equipped to handle them. Or, it could be any number of things, like someone told a bad joke, or nobody was chatting at all, and they found that to be boring, like a team full of soloists. Sometimes, folks die - a lot, and who wants to be on that team, where people think defeat is a routine thing, not realizing that while you're defeated waiting for a rez, others are carrying your weight, or simply not much is getting done while they wait for you. There's a zillion things that could be going on that might trouble a teammate. They may not say anything, because they realize it's their problem. 

3. Frostfire can be over in a few minutes, or it can take maybe an hour, depending on the team's style. And when it takes longer, some folks are just out of time. Even with 2xp, I've never taken a character from 1-39 in a day outside of a farm. I simply don't play for extended periods of time anymore. Maybe an hour, 90 minutes is as much as I can stand. The body was designed for movement, not being stationary for such lengths of time. It's just not healthy. (That's why folks toss and turn when they sleep - to move.)

4. It's possible that you may not have expressed the next mission on the agenda before the mission was over. If the mission's over, and there's no talk of what's next, why should they stick around? 

Could be any number of reasons. 

[Ukase]

4 minutes ago, Diantane said:

Why couldn't a FF like arc be created on AE to be even better? I mean, that's what AE is for isn't it?

Go make it. 

[Lazarillo]

28 minutes ago, Diantane said:

Why couldn't a FF like arc be created on AE to be even better? I mean, that's what AE is for isn't it?

AE had rewards nerfed to slow farmers, which has somewhat ironically led to only farmers wanting to use it due to the general feeling of a low "return on investment" for non-farmers.   Thus few people use AE for what it's "for" anymore.

[Diantane]

54 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Go make it. 

I'm not the one that grinds Frostfire 🙂

[Diantane]

56 minutes ago, Ukase said:

There are many reasons to leave after the completion of Frostfire. 

1. Got a few levels, need to train, and because most will go from level 10-11 to level 13-14, they'll need new enhancements, and sometimes choosing them can take some time. Sometimes, they'll need to transfer inf, or sometimes, they may have to market enough to get the inf to buy them. 

2. It could be that the teaming wasn't that fun for them. Some folks are so focused on their own fun, they may not realize that others have to deal with certain challenges in the mission that others are oblivious of. Like a brute/scrapper/tank with some AoE. They don't like to waste an AoE on one character, so they move to the next group, often leaving these leftovers for other teammates who may not be well-equipped to handle them. Or, it could be any number of things, like someone told a bad joke, or nobody was chatting at all, and they found that to be boring, like a team full of soloists. Sometimes, folks die - a lot, and who wants to be on that team, where people think defeat is a routine thing, not realizing that while you're defeated waiting for a rez, others are carrying your weight, or simply not much is getting done while they wait for you. There's a zillion things that could be going on that might trouble a teammate. They may not say anything, because they realize it's their problem. 

3. Frostfire can be over in a few minutes, or it can take maybe an hour, depending on the team's style. And when it takes longer, some folks are just out of time. Even with 2xp, I've never taken a character from 1-39 in a day outside of a farm. I simply don't play for extended periods of time anymore. Maybe an hour, 90 minutes is as much as I can stand. The body was designed for movement, not being stationary for such lengths of time. It's just not healthy. (That's why folks toss and turn when they sleep - to move.)

4. It's possible that you may not have expressed the next mission on the agenda before the mission was over. If the mission's over, and there's no talk of what's next, why should they stick around? 

Could be any number of reasons. 

1. I usually take care of the enhancements right after Frostfire. I tell the team that can train and slot during this ingame break.

 

2 & 3. Some teams are very quiet. Others are talkative and even full of jokesters. We usually start FF in +3 so we're not "arresting" grays in the end. Sometimes we have an abundant of defender shields and heals and set at +4. Yes, some missions go pretty badly. Team wipes over and over again. This reason is usually the combination of AT's. Like a lot of controllers that do little damage and can't hold a purple yet. Those are the times it takes an hour (more if players keep quitting). But when a few vets join the team, it runs through very smooth and fast. I'm a retired tractor trailer driver of 45 years all over North America. I know all about being stationary for long periods of time (10 hours per day in the driver's seat). 

 

4. At the start of FF I always explain about why the difficulty is set high, how to kill the imps quickly (kill lead scorcher) and that we will be going straight to Steel arcs with a ten minute break right after Frostfire. Few take me up on that. Most ignore it. Don't know how to be any more polite. Luckily there are always many more players that want to do the future arcs.

 

 

[Luminara]

Have you tried a different brand of anti-perspirant?  Perhaps a mint or some sugar-free gum?  Summer's Eve?

 

Also, there's a badge for completing all of the Hollows story arcs, and switching to Steel Canyon immediately after Frostfire leaves two arcs untouched, thus no badge.

[DougGraves]

You just have to tell the team before FF that you will be doing another arc after it.  About half the team will stay.

[Diantane]

So every character you make needs every badge?? As they cliche, "I don't need no (smelly) badges"

[TheOtherTed]

19 minutes ago, Diantane said:

So every character you make needs every badge?? As they cliche, "I don't need no (smelly) badges"

Some people like badges as much as you don't.  Granted, the "Troll Task Force Member" badge is kind of meh, but the "Transcendent" badge is great for spookier characters.

 

People also like story, and there's a not-absolutely-terrible story behind the disappearance of Wincott's son.  I mean, it's kind of terrible, but that's just my opinion.

[Techwright]

7 hours ago, Lazarillo said:

frakumulatous

I better never see that placed down on a Scrabble board. 

(Google wondered if possibly the search was for "fork emulators".) 🤣

[Marshal_General]

Two words.

Ice slide.

 

None of the other missions have it. I will often do Frostfire just to slide around.

[UltraAlt]

19 hours ago, Diantane said:

As soon as Frostfire is over, I call Flux and end the arc and immediately teleport to Lockhart in Steel Canyon and get the first mission.

 

Many people will join a Frostfire mission due to nostalgia and the fact that it is a really fun mission + good for lower level character leveling.

So many will leave once a FrostFire is done period.

 

After that, I would say that people are leaving because you aren't doing any more of the Hollows arcs. If they followed you through the rest of the Hollow arcs (or even just Flux on the way to Frostfire), they may want to check out what else the Hollows has to offer.

Flux is not the last contact in the Hollows.

 

The rest of your post is just self-aggrandizement

[Shred Monkey]

I think a lot of people have limited playtime or just an internal clock where they want a break after an hour or 2.  But people don't stop in the middle of a mission, so if you do a long mission, many will stop at the end.  

 

[High_Beam]

For me, the Hollows annoys the crud out of me like Faultline but with less interesting story.  Flux and Frostfire, I only care about the badge so as soon as that's done, I am gonski, but I make no bones about it, the cats that call for help I let them know that I am only there for it; and that is when I am not flashbacking it solo.

 

Now if a dude calls for a mission running team that involves more than a specific mission and I am down with that, then I am not jumping.  And that is the key, a lot of the Frostfire teams are advertised as Frostfire teams and conversely that is the assumption, Frostfire and out.  Hollows Missions, Unlock Caverns would be a better advertisement to maybe get others to stay, I mean a full team smashing the Defeat Atta mission would probably be a blast for a skilled lowbie/exemped team.