Good News. New Players. Bad news. Teams suck.

[GM Crumpet]

On 5/14/2023 at 9:43 PM, carroto said:

Yesterday I was on a Keyes badge league, usually just going for one badge per run.  We kept failing them (the badges usually, but sometimes the trial) over and over, usually immediately.  Not even getting close to success, it was like a bunch of people were not even trying, or reading chat or whatever.  Just facerolling their way through the trial.  I wondered if it was due to new players.  Then again sometimes you just get a bad mix of players.  Maybe new people, maybe people for whom English is a second language, maybe people who just want incarnate salvage and can't be arsed, maybe kids who just like mashing buttons...

I had that the weekend. The league leader wanted the badge and we were all noobs and killed Anti Matter as soon as he appeared. Sometimes the best instructions in the world go out of the window in the attack frenzy. We were also trying to get the badge on Magisterium  where you defeat all three AV's within 10 seconds of each other. We failed that badge too mostly because (I think) the lore pets kept attacking after we stopped at 2% health. It happens unfortunately.

[Hyperstrike]

3 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

I did a Lady Grey for the first time ever yesterday and it was a speed run. I was so confused. I just followed along behind and hit things until the teleport to the end boss each mission. I got the rewards, but I prefer a more leisurely approach. I'm in it for the XP, recipes and salvage, and threads. I understand doing something over and over gets boring, but personally I like to feel I've accomplished something . I didn't feel like I'd actually done the TF, just the potted highlights. I mostly avoid speed runs of anything for that reason, but if I join a team and then they announce a speed run I think "Well I'm committed now" and go along with whatever the team leader says.

Not "potted".

Cliff's Notes.

 

[Oklahoman]

5 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

We were also trying to get the badge on Magisterium  where you defeat all three AV's within 10 seconds of each other. We failed that badge too mostly because (I think) the lore pets kept attacking after we stopped at 2% health.

 

The TRIPLE THREAT badge is annoyingly hard, even with a good league doing almost everything right, on account of the damned AV regen. As a league leader you are already following Chimera bouncing around, Negas shield, and 3 AV hit point levels - and the regen tick on each AV is a complete blind spot. For me, it's about getting the league into a position to be successful, then just hoping for the best. It's almost indistinguishable from pure luck. I'm sure if everyone is tuned into Discord it helps, but I prefer the old fashioned way. I guess I'm a COH purist.

 

EDIT: Also, isn't it 5 seconds, not 10?

Edited May 22, 2023 by Oklahoman

[ZemX]

On 5/16/2023 at 8:05 AM, High_Beam said:

On 5/15/2023 at 9:22 AM, Oklahoman said:

Last night I had a 50+3 character in the league who had never done a BAF or DD and was completely lost the whole time

Fifties from the Farm are not what I call experienced.

 

Incarnate Trials just aren't that exciting for some.  I think I've done a handful like... ever.  And I never farm.  Not like getting to 50+3 and all T4 requires running Incarnate Trials anymore.

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, GM Crumpet said:

I did a Lady Grey for the first time ever yesterday and it was a speed run. I was so confused. I just followed along behind and hit things until the teleport to the end boss each mission. I got the rewards, but I prefer a more leisurely approach. I'm in it for the XP, recipes and salvage, and threads. I understand doing something over and over gets boring, but personally I like to feel I've accomplished something . I didn't feel like I'd actually done the TF, just the potted highlights. I mostly avoid speed runs of anything for that reason, but if I join a team and then they announce a speed run I think "Well I'm committed now" and go along with whatever the team leader says.

I do not think I have ever run a Lady Grey that was NOT a speed run.  It is so confusing!  I still feel "unsure" in the hostage mission.  THey changed the thing before I fully understood it and now I am even more confused.  I run it about 4 times a year.  My favorite memory of it was a couple dudes from Cosmic Council wanted to 3 man it.  At +4.  So.... we did.  It went FAST.  Until we got to the last boss battle.  Hero 1 has a Dull Pain type power and everytime we burned him a certain point he topped himself off.  Took a while there (like 15-20 minutes in that fight!)

[BlackSpectre]

Re: Teams sucking...

 

I've gotten to the point that I no longer expect anything other than players who don't read chat going off by themselves to do their own thing... while in a team, no less! It baffles me a bit (why join a team at all?), but that's life. I don't expect  the team to implement any kind of coordinated strategy. I don't expect teammates to work together. And I certainly don't expect anyone to know what they're doing or even care.

 

Worse, I do expect people to go ballistic when even the most gentle, diplomatic suggestion is expressed. I expect everyone to have an inferiority complex and to imagine anything I say to be a put down or an attempt to bully them. I expect immediate negative reactions to just about any chat no matter how innocuous. 

 

BTW, although I have seen a lot of this in COH, none of this is specific to only City of Heroes. It spans across every game and social group on the internet (and off). Back on Live all of this used to bother and perplex me, but no more.

 

In general, I expect every team or league to fail. If they don't I am always pleasantly surprised, and I express my gratitude to the team when success occurs. Frankly, I can usually carry every team, so it doesn't really matter what the other players do. 

 

The good news is that for most content a chaotic, disorganized team can still complete missions. Trials (and some task forces and even a few missions) do require the team to do certain things together in order to have success, so it can definitely be dicey. But... meh. If a trial fails, then I just start another league and try again. No sweat. I usually enjoy the attempts anyway. To see a league go up against a real challenge is actually kind of exciting, even if the challenge is the players themselves.  

 

Anyway, I don't let it bug me anymore. If it ever does, then I just form a new team/league. It's the nature of public Pick Up Groups (PUGs). To expect anything else flies in the face of reality.

 

The alternative is to Friend players who match your play style, and attempt to group together as much as possible. It's called making friends, and once you have a core group of at least 4 players everything goes smoothly... often too smoothly. I do enjoy PUGs every once in a while just to bring a bit of uncertainty to the whole endeavor. It mixes things up a bit which can be a good thing in the long run.

 

Bottom line is... don't let the people in the game upset you. It's a game. It's meant to be fun. 🙂 

[JasperStone]

On 5/11/2023 at 6:26 AM, JasperStone said:

Did a Posi 2 recently

Good Team 

I especially loved the hero who was called ...

"The Clockwork Viscount"

dressed as a clockwork

...

during a Posi 2 .....

And

....

I did a KM ITF last night with a teammate costumed as a Cyclops

...

A Cyclops

...

On an ITF

Can't tell you how many times I tried to target him🤣

[Techwright]

Thought about quoting several but I'll just sum up:  Several are stating that various trials and task/strike forces are bewildering, all the more so because they are run at speed, which doesn't help the inexperienced.

 

Obviously, the ideal would be for natural born leaders to step up and offer these as training events, slower pace, greater focus on guidance.  I for one would be all for this.  There are events I don't run because I too find them confusing or in some other way overwhelming.  I'll admit, for example, that I've only ever done one Summer Blockbuster.  It was not explained to me in advance and suddenly being thrown into a role alone with no idea what was going on, and the team depending on me was not fun.  I didn't much want to experience the other three roles as a result.  I'd much rather have a training mission with better explanation up front. 

 

The other thing is that we've been handed a nice opportunity and I've not really seen the result on YouTube.  That is: someone who is experienced making videos to train those who aren't in things like badge trials and speed runs through Lady Gray Task Force.  Though I've seen folks post videos on YouTube of their experiences, it is usually solo runs through warehouses.  Perhaps these days folk post videos to other social sites exclusively.  The point is, I'd love for more who know how to do so, to post "trainer" videos on badge trials, speed run TFs, and other parts of the game in which players have stated feeling intimidated or unsure.   Come to think of it, that would go for team and league leadership as well.

[Glorious]

23 hours ago, Snarky said:

I do not think I have ever run a Lady Grey that was NOT a speed run.  It is so confusing!  I still feel "unsure" in the hostage mission.

You only need to free Infernia and Glacia.

 

1. Find and free Infernia, which will spawn Glacia somewhere on the map.

2. Find and free Glacia, which will spawn the boss Dra'Gon.

3. Defeat Dra'Gon.

 

Sometimes the mish will fail if Infernia and/or Glacia is killed (I think), but that's pretty rare and doesn't really matter.

 

Edit: I jumped on test to record the mission, if that makes it clearer:

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Glorious

[Clave Dark 5]

2 hours ago, Glorious said:

Edit: I jumped on test to record the mission, if that makes it clearer:

Sorry, just not fast enough to be a "speed run"

[Snarky]

2 hours ago, Glorious said:

You only need to free Infernia and Glacia.

 

1. Find and free Infernia, which will spawn Glacia somewhere on the map.

2. Find and free Glacia, which will spawn the boss Dra'Gon.

3. Defeat Dra'Gon.

 

Sometimes the mish will fail if Infernia and/or Glacia is killed (I think), but that's pretty rare and doesn't really matter.

 

Edit: I jumped on test to record the mission, if that makes it clearer:

 

Thank you!