Review Task/Strike Forces and adjust them to better respect a player's time...

[biostem]

There are many Task or Strike Forces, particularly the ones created earlier-on in CoH's lifespan, that have a bunch of redundant/repetitive missions, that seem to be there more to pad out the length of said TF than to actually add to the story in any meaningful way.  For instance, Citadel has a bunch of "defeat all" missions back to back, as well as several "investigate X" missions that become "defeat all" once you interact with the objective.  What is gained by having them setup this way, other than to waste the players' time?  If you were to change the "Investigate" missions to complete once that goal is achieved, or outright remove a few of the "defeat all" missions, would the story that is trying to be told be lost?  Does Numina really need you to defeat 10+ members of 13 different factions?  Would limiting it to maybe only defeating 5 enemies of a few groups that can be found in the same zone hamstring the story that's being told?  I get that I can simply *not* run these TFs, but I feel like many people do these simply because they are prerequisites for accolades...

[Akisan]

2 hours ago, biostem said:

Does Numina really need you to defeat 10+ members of 13 different factions?

 

I'd be happy if Numina (and other contacts) would stop making us hunt Council in a bunch of zones.  Many of the areas where Council used to have large presences are now contested with 5th Column.  In places like Steel Canyon, it's really hard to complete hunt missions for Council (and there's a lot of those, btw).

 

As far as removing defeat-alls & just number of missions in general, some of that is for pacing.  Citadel has a lot of consecutive defeat-alls to drive home that the Council are cranking out new bases way faster than they should be.  Posi has a bunch of hybrid-enemy missions all over the place to show the sheer amount of villain in-fighting happening.  Numina has the crazy hunt mission chain because it was the capstone TF - level 40 heroes at the (then) XP cap got a nice, nostalgic trip through all the city zones.  Yes, some of that *could* be cleaned up, but at the same time, that'll definitely come out of the reward merit value of any affected TF.

 

If the reason for these changes is to remove the slog to get accolades on new toons, perhaps it would be better to review how these accolades are gated.  After all, I've noticed that certain accolades are significantly easier to get blue-side vs. red-side, which may not be WAI. (A good example would be Atlas Medallion vs. Marshal.  Atlas medallion is easy to acquire, and can be obtained in the 20s, Marshal requires the player to run LRSF, which is 45+.  They have the same boost, 5% endurance, and grant each other when you swap alignments).

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, Akisan said:

Yes, some of that *could* be cleaned up, but at the same time, that'll definitely come out of the reward merit value of any affected TF.

Teams typically split up the hunt missions which basically make them trivial.  How would limiting them to only a few groups in the same zone diminish the story being expressed?  Do players really feel the in-fighting or such you mentioned, with how things are run nowadays?

[Greycat]

11 minutes ago, biostem said:

Teams typically split up the hunt missions which basically make them trivial.  How would limiting them to only a few groups in the same zone diminish the story being expressed?  Do players really feel the in-fighting or such you mentioned, with how things are run nowadays?

 

The ones who care about feel and lore vs "GIMMEMERITSTENMINUTESORLESS," yes. If a threat is supposed to be city wide, if the infighting is supposed to be across multiple groups, then yes, sticking everything into one neighborhood (zone) diminishes that feel.

 

The point about the council made earlier? That's something that could be looked at, sure. (Especially when you rush to get there and find the Council you've targeted has just been smashed by the 5th column that don't count.) But isolating everything (or even most things) to "just that zone" just makes things feel choppy and isolated. Maybe if you're looking at mission arcs, sure, but task forces should feel more epic than just another arc and involve more than just "The bad guys have bothered these five city blocks."

[biostem]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

The ones who care about feel and lore vs "GIMMEMERITSTENMINUTESORLESS," yes. If a threat is supposed to be city wide, if the infighting is supposed to be across multiple groups, then yes, sticking everything into one neighborhood (zone) diminishes that feel.

The vast majority of teams, in my experience, don't stop to read the mission text, much less contemplate the greater scope/ramifications of the TF at hand.  Sending your team members to different zones to get the "defeat X" missions done in no way reinforces the plot, and the groups are hardly interacting with one-another anyway - you're literally picking off random mobs.  An instanced mission on an outdoor map, where you actually see all the groups interacting, would get the point across much more effectively...

[SeraphimKensai]

Of the Freedom Phalanx TFs, the only one where it's difficult to have a sub 1 hour completion time is 1 hour. Yes it's doable, as I've done it with several premade teams, but your average pug is typically going to clock in over an hour.

 

1 hour in my mind is usually the gold standard for how much time is reasonable to allocate to playing. Sometimes I can play longer, sometimes I can play less, but that seems like a reasonable time to shoot for if the Synapse TF in particular ever had some fat trimmed.

[srmalloy]

10 hours ago, biostem said:

For instance, Citadel has a bunch of "defeat all" missions back to back, as well as several "investigate X" missions that become "defeat all" once you interact with the objective

I'd be happy, as an intermediate update to the Citadel TF, to have him use some of his processing power to make a more efficient set of mission assignments, so you start by hitting Council bases in IP, then move to Talos Island for the remainder of the TF, instead of the constant back-and-forth that was clearly put in, back before the availability of Team Transporter and Mission Teleporter, to pad out the amount of time required for the TF.

[Uun]

6 hours ago, Akisan said:

I've noticed that certain accolades are significantly easier to get blue-side vs. red-side, which may not be WAI. (A good example would be Atlas Medallion vs. Marshal.  Atlas medallion is easy to acquire, and can be obtained in the 20s, Marshal requires the player to run LRSF, which is 45+.  They have the same boost, 5% endurance, and grant each other when you swap alignments).

The opposite is true for others. I often switch to red side to pick up these accolades.

• Task Force Commander requires you to complete 7 task forces. Invader requires you to collect 9 exploration badges from Mayhem missions. Both grant +5% HP.
• Freedom Phalanx Reserve requires you to defeat 100 each of 3 specific mobs (one of which doesn't spawn below lvl 40) and collect 8 exploration/history badges. High Pain Threshold requires you to complete a lvl 30-34 badge mission, defeat 200 each of 2 factions, pay off 200,000 debt and collect 3 exploration/history badges. Both grant +10% HP.
• Portal Jockey requires you to defeat 14 specific Praetorian AVs, collect 2 in-mission exploration badges and 1 history badge. Born in Battle requires you to complete a lvl 30-34 badge mission, defeat Ghost of Scrapyard, take 1,000,000 damage (this is time consuming, but not difficult), defeat 100 of 1 faction and collect 3 exploration/history badges. Both grant +5% HP and +5% endurance.

[Astralock]

29 minutes ago, Uun said:

The opposite is true for others. I often switch to red side to pick up these accolades.

• Task Force Commander requires you to complete 7 task forces. Invader requires you to collect 9 exploration badges from Mayhem missions. Both grant +5% HP.
• Freedom Phalanx Reserve requires you to defeat 100 each of 3 specific mobs (one of which doesn't spawn below lvl 40) and collect 8 exploration/history badges. High Pain Threshold requires you to complete a lvl 30-34 badge mission, defeat 200 each of 2 factions, pay off 200,000 debt and collect 3 exploration/history badges. Both grant +10% HP.
• Portal Jockey requires you to defeat 14 specific Praetorian AVs, collect 2 in-mission exploration badges and 1 history badge. Born in Battle requires you to complete a lvl 30-34 badge mission, defeat Ghost of Scrapyard, take 1,000,000 damage (this is time consuming, but not difficult), defeat 100 of 1 faction and collect 3 exploration/history badges. Both grant +5% HP and +5% endurance.

 

Yep.  It’s fairly balanced.  Invader and High Pain Threshold are both much easier to obtain red side than Task Force Commander and Freedom Phalanx Reserve.  Vice versa for Atlas Medallion and Portal Jockey.  

[UltraAlt]

 

[JasperStone]

2 hours ago, UltraAlt said:

 

Dang ... how did I miss this?

[lemming]

9 hours ago, Uun said:

The opposite is true for others. I often switch to red side to pick up these accolades.

• Task Force Commander requires you to complete 7 task forces. Invader requires you to collect 9 exploration badges from Mayhem missions. Both grant +5% HP.

Slight nitpick: Just six.  Penelope Yin or Sister Psyche count for the third TF.

 

Of course, getting all the Mayhem Explorations can be done in 20 minutes

[Uun]

25 minutes ago, lemming said:

Slight nitpick: Just six.  Penelope Yin or Sister Psyche count for the third TF.

I counted Positron as 2 TFs.