General Task Force Changes

[UltraAlt]

What would make other Task Forces more fun?

 

For sure, there are those that will say difficulty immediately, but that has/is being addressed for end-gamers.

I understand full well that it appears that heading on (if not more) than 50% of most servers are populated by level 50+ characters.

 

I'm trying to address the game task forces and not endgame task forces.

 

Yin comes to mind as a non-endgame favorite, and I think that is largely due to how long it takes to run and how easy it is to get from mission to mission.

The move to the the first 2 missions is short, usually at least one player on the team has TT to get to the third mission, and the 4th mission is at the same contact. And, of course, no hunts.

 

Ease of travel

 

Running from zone to zone also has an impact on favorability for play at this point.

I really used to think it was cool to race around from zone to zone with a team, but, let's face it, players don't like doing that any more and avoid it by using TT as much as possible. 

 

For this reason, I think task forces should limit jumping out of the zone of the initial contact and each zone needs its own level related taskforce. I would limit it to the way that it is handled in Posi 1 and Posi 2; to one zone and back or from one zone to another.

 

Each Zone get a Taskforce

 

I think this is easy enough to understand. If we are limiting the run around in zones, we should give each zone it's own Task force.

Obviously, Posi 2 covers this for Faultline already.

If we strip out zone jumping, there are still zones that don't have one.

 

Here's an easy fix for one.

 

The Hollows :: Make Flux (Frostfire Arc) a Task Force and replace the hunts with another door mission (one or two of Megan's with stolen weapons?) or the ambush replacement idea below.

People treat Frostfire as a mini-task force at any rate. This would make sure it can be played when it is outleveled (without going through it in the Ouroboros).

 

I would suggest this easy fix for any zone with an arc that ends with the battling of an AV that doesn't have a task force (or strike force) already.

 

No more Hunts - change to all ambushes

 

I think that hunts should be changed into required X arrest ambushes. That is to say, you can't complete that phase until X arrests are accomplished but they come to the team versus that team having to hunt them down.

 

I think the system is set-up to send ambushes after the team leader (this triggers when some hunts start), so if the team leader zones or by a set timer the X arrest haven't been accomplished a new wave of ambushes comes after the leader. This continues until that phase is completed. The Leader can then talk to the contact to start the next phase. Some hunts chain, so this could mean wave after wave of various enemy ambushes, which I think would liven up Task Forces.

 

This would mean that, when he team exits/starts a mission, the ambushes come to them and there are enough of them to fulfill what would have been hunts.

 

If the object is really to get information out of one of the enemy group, quite obviously there were plenty of them to interrogate during the previous door mission. (maybe even add a contact in the mission to "spill the beans" once defeated)

 

Make all Task Forces last 30-60 minutes on average not to exceed 2 Hours

 

First off, I know difficulty will change and obviously speed-running (aka bypassing combat to achieve goals) something will affect the time it takes to finish. 

Secondly, since I'm targeting non-endgame task forces, I'm talking about XP runs.

 

It seems for the most part that the lower level task forces are set by leaders to be +2 or what the team can handle, so that is the gauge that I'm setting for the time length.

 

Yin fits into this time constraint.

Posi was broken up into Posi 1 and Posi 2 which both fall within this time constraint.

 

I think that the other game/leveling task forces should be reworked or split up into parts (eg Posi 1 and Posi 2) that fit into these time constraints.

 

Part of this is aimed at PUG'ing because players are less likely to stay grouped to finish the mission at a future time if they aren't all on the same SG or friends playing together. A PUG player is less likely to join some kind of content that they know is going to take much more an an hour to accomplish. Reducing the time commitment needed would increase the likelihood for people to join.

I think this would increase the participation for the task forces after Yin as that is the last of the task forces that falls within this time constraint window.

 

 

 

[UltraAlt]

17 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

I would suggest this easy fix for any zone with an arc that ends with the battling of an AV that doesn't have a task force (or strike force) already.

 

Taskforce for each Origin AV not clearly specified

 

Posi 1 covers Magic.

Posi 2 kind of covers the battle with Dr Vazh, but that has its own origin mission arc as well that could be a Taskforce. This would cover Mutant origin.

Hess covers Natural.

Citadel is Tech as well

Synapse covers Science ... I think ... since the cockwork king is a human brain with a mechanized body.

 

It's probably too late to integrate indicating which origin a task force is related to.

 

I think there are related mid-level arcs with AVs related to defeating the main origin AVs (Dr Vazh, the Clockwork King, etc.)
Those would all be good arcs to make accessible as task forces (for easy access versus using the Oroborus)

 

You are more likely to get people bailing from an Ouroboros arc than you are from a task force.

At least that has been my experience.

 

 

[VioLight]

Anything like "Change all hunts to ambushes" should have a story reason for doing so.

 

I think I only see maybe 1 out of every 20 ambushes that "should" happen. They're slow.

 

But I like the idea of zones having their own story.

[Major_Decoy]

3 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

Posi 1 covers Magic.

Posi 2 kind of covers the battle with Dr Vazh, but that has its own origin mission arc as well that could be a Taskforce. This would cover Mutant origin.

Positron 1 & Positron 2 are about two attempts to blow up the dam and one to poison all the water. The Clockwork are mutant origin, the Vahzilok are Science Origin, and the Circle of Thorns, of course, are Technology.

[UltraAlt]

48 minutes ago, Major_Decoy said:

Positron 1 & Positron 2 are about two attempts to blow up the dam and one to poison all the water. The Clockwork are mutant origin, the Vahzilok are Science Origin, and the Circle of Thorns, of course, are Technology.

 

I'm assuming that's a joke.

 

By the time Dr Vazh gets directly involved and you fight him on an origin missions, it is through Olivia Chung or other Mutation Origin contact

SEE :: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Olivia_Chung ). You fight Dr Vazh at the end of Posi 2.

I can see your confusion as Science Origin arcs do combat Vazh at points, but they also appear even at lower levels in the Mutation Origin arc.

 

The Origin arcs that the Clockwork King show up in are given by Wyatt Anderson or other Science Origin contacts.

SEE :: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Wyatt_Anderson#Destroy_the_Clockwork_and_recover_the_research_data

I can't see at all how a A bottled brain on top of a mechanized body would be considered a Mutation, though the Mutation arc does put you in direct conflict with the clocks at one point.

 

As for Posi 1, you can see how the Magic contact Azuria takes a prime seat in this Task force. She send you to the 3rd mission, you give the book, and you fight to rescue her in the final mission versus CoT.

 

 

[Major_Decoy]

The Clockwork are powered by the Clockwork King's Psionics, which is why psi does extra damage to them, it's the entire point of an arc.  

He was a mutant first and it's his mutant power that powers all his constructs.

 

Dr. Vahzilok is science because he's a Frankenstein pastiche. Yes, the Vahzilok Plague is given my mutant contacts, but that doesn't mean he's a mutant. Vahzilok drop Science Enhancements. He is a science based enemy.

 

I'm sure I don't even need to justify Circle of Thorns being technology.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Major_Decoy
edited to add the science drop

[Rudra]

Circle of Thorns are magic. That is their whole schtick.

 

Edit: As for the Clockwork, when you first encounter them, the character and contacts are under the assumption that the Clockwork are technological. As you progress through their story, you find out that they simply can't work. They are all created and maintained by the Clockwork King's immense psychic ability. Clockwork look like tech, but they are mutation.

 

The Vahzilok are science.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Rudra

[SuggestorK]

and your Example Hollows already have something its even WST this week.... "Caverns of Transcedence" sure u can debate that its a Trial and not a TF but in the end. same rules apply to both.

[Turric]

I am in favor of all this.

 

In my humble opinion, the next page update should be about streamlining the existing task forces.

[UltraAlt]

On 9/15/2022 at 8:23 PM, VioLight said:

Anything like "Change all hunts to ambushes" should have a story reason for doing so.

 

I think I only see maybe 1 out of every 20 ambushes that "should" happen. They're slow.

 

I should have addressed this before, but most "hunts" do have an ambush that targets the team leader, but the teams tend to zone to the next area before the ambush can arrive.

This is more noticeable if the team just stays at the door after a mission when the next mission comes up as an ambush. Sometimes the "hunt" ambush is even large enough to cover the hunt requirement.

[Rudra]

I'm rather opposed to being spoon fed my mission objectives. I guess I'm just weird like that. If the need is to find information from a faction and you have to search out X number of targets before you finally find that one individual that happens to know about what you need to gather information on and isn't at the location in question working on it, then it makes no sense for that faction to actually send individuals with such critical information straight to you.

 

"This project is critical and we can't let the heroes stop us! So send a small team to stop the heroes and if they fail, send another small team to stop the heroes. And make sure to send some of the operatives working on the project as part of those teams. We need someone with such critical information present to make sure the heroes can never get that critical information. The heroes will never be able to find out about or stop the project if we have project members as part of the small team assault! Muahahahaha!"

 

Yeah, doesn't make sense to me.

[kelika2]

I dont see what origin has to do with anything

[Wavicle]

In general I like these ideas, but specifically the Hollows I disagree. Flux should remain a regular contact.

I think SOME zones can have just a Trial instead of a TF (Hollows, Eden, etc)