If you're going to play at the highest level in the game...

[Scarlet Shocker]

31 minutes ago, Snarky said:

I love Red, but Red is dead baby.  Except for Freedumb in it's heyday there is not much Red. Even there it was normally just Mercy popping.  Try to form a DFB Blue, run one, see how many you can do in an hour.  Now try it Red...   uh huh.  And GOLD?  You tried to team GOLD?   In the end was it just you and Wilson?

 

 

All true

[BlackSpectre]

On 6/17/2023 at 12:50 PM, Oklahoman said:

I've mentioned before I wish we had some sort of "test trial" you had to complete to go from 49 to 50.

 

 

Wow! What a great idea, Oakey! 

 

The best method I've found to wake up players who have been passed the league star by the BAF bug is:

 

1. /macro "PASS BACK STAR" "tll $name, PASS THE LEAGUE STAR BACK TO ME PLZ. TYPE '/LML $NAME' TO MAKE ME LEADER."

 

The /TLL command automatically sends a tell to whoever is the league leader... so no need to find out who the  leader is, right click, or type their name. Fast. Bam!

 

The "type /LML" bit helps out players who, for whoever reason, can't find you in the league list (and there are many).

 

2. Wait 5 minutes (until right after killing all the bots).

 

3. /macro "Spam it!" "tell $target, PASS THE STAR TO ME PLEASE"

 

Spam this 6 times (8 will get you banned for 2 min).

 

I realize that the original tell I send is a lot of words. Spamming it will make it look like a wall of meaningless text. For the reading impaired, you need to go more simple.  Also you need to tell them who to give the star to, "to me", don't skip that step... yes, I know, but so many players ask... 

 

4. Wait until after Nightstar is dead and then spam it again.

 

5. If still no response, just give up. Finish out the BAF, but if you're going to do another run...

 

6. Tell the league to disband after this run, and send you a tell to get invited to the next BAF run. Disband and reform.

 

It's at this point, when players are abandoning the league like rats from a sinking ship that the severely clueless player usually wakes up. They see all the players quitting the league in droves. Their first thought is "What's going on???". It's then that they start checking their chat, find all the messages asking them to pass the star, see your message telling the league to disband... and often they'll send you a tell apologizing. I'll reinvite them at this point if they want to do another run. Otherwise, with no apology, I tend to avoid inviting them. Half the time they're too embarrassed to stick around anyway. 

 

Dealing with a clueless player who doesn't read text is kind of the price of leading BAFs. I don't get upset, nor frustrated. I know exactly the steps to take, and what to do if they're unresponsive. This is only for BAFs though. There's not much a single, clueless player can do to make the BAF run fail. At worst, you'll just disband and reform. But for other trials where all players need to be on the same page or the trial will fail... yeah, that can get frustrating.

 

It would be really nice if, one of these days, the devs fixed the bug that makes the star change hands after loading into the BAF. Who knows? Maybe if they tackle that they'll fix the other big bug that can make players wait indefinitely for the green button to pop up if the league is less than 24 peeps. Or the other bug that scrambles the league if it's locked. I bet they're all related...

 

Edited June 22, 2023 by BlackSpectre

[BlackSpectre]

On 6/20/2023 at 8:48 AM, Scarlet Shocker said:

 

I mostly play on Excelsior,

 

so I have seen calls for the WST and Radios - I rarely see mission teams. I did get some interest here on the forums but nobody showed for a regular gold side team.

I've put shouts out plenty of times but there's very little response unless it gives great XP (Tina Mac et al) or is a badge.

 

There are plenty of calls for DFB and if you go to PD it's often rammed in the AE.

 

I've mostly stopped playing recently because I'm finding the experience quite despondent these days.

 

You mean you can't find mission teams or people to play with?

 

It is an issue for me as well sometimes. For me, it's timing. I usually only have a limited time to play, between 7-10 PM PST. So although I'm more than happy to meet new people and make new friends, peeps aren't always logged in at the same time. 

 

In addition, I have a group of 3 regular friends who log in every now and then. When they do, I need to go help my SG... so it puts a cramp in making new friends sometimes. In all my years of playing, no one has ever offered to help me go help my SG. Meh.

 

Worse, those 3 friends sometimes lure me into playing other games... gasp! Again, limited time.

 

During the summer I have more time, but I'm also doing things like going on vacation, tackling big projects I've put on hold, and a lot of other more mundane stuff. The more I think about it, the more it seems this little app by @Michiyo 

 would really help here... you could set it to look for certain names of players (not sure you could search for global names though...

[ivanhedgehog]

On 6/17/2023 at 7:11 PM, Techwright said:

Don't you wish we could put up an announcement upon a character's first login stating that this game is the journey and not the destination, therefore choose wisely?

they made it so you have to be a level 50 and have unlocked incarnates to get the best rewards. why wouldnt people hurry to 50 to get the much desired rewards instead of being short changed?

[srmalloy]

12 hours ago, Techwright said:

I see this, and first thought is:  "How many cats does it take to change..."

It's indeterminate; it depends on how many light bulbs you have on the table to be pushed off.

[Chronicler J]

iTrials as "high level" content. My sides. But I sympathize with low competency. It's rampant. 

[GM Crumpet]

2 hours ago, Chronicler J said:

iTrials as "high level" content. My sides. But I sympathize with low competency. It's rampant. 

Some are easy like BAF, some are annoying like TPN and Keyes, some are fun but a bit complicated like DD, Underground and Magisterium, some are a nightmare and need putting out of our misery like MoM. Even worse if the leader is insisting on doing a Master of run on some of the more complicated ones. I don't think I've ever completed a MoM and the last couple of times the leader was insisting on a Master of even though we were barely able to survive Penny. It's not that obvious how to beat her and when the league leader is spending all their time complaining instead of allocating specific roles and making sure everyone knows what they should be doing it just gets frustrating.

The thing is, apart from Tinpex that's really all there is after you hit level 50 and finish the incarnate arcs. Yes you can go back and do all the arcs through Ouroboros, but then you get the situation where all those powers you've got used to suddenly become unavailable. It's why I play an alt then retire them when they hit tier 4 on everything. For me the fun is the journey, plus the people I team with along the way. I mostly solo, but I do enjoy joining a pug now and then, and doing the trials and tinpex.

Edited June 23, 2023 by GM Crumpet

[Uun]

Yesterday I joined a Cathedral of Pain. We had to disband after about 10 minutes. People refused to read chat and were incapable of understanding "take to 10% and hold".

[GM Crumpet]

8 hours ago, Uun said:

Yesterday I joined a Cathedral of Pain. We had to disband after about 10 minutes. People refused to read chat and were incapable of understanding "take to 10% and hold".

Yeah, I don't get why people can't follow a simple instruction. I wouldn't mind so much but it's not the longest or hardest trial in the game

 

[biostem]

8 hours ago, Uun said:

Yesterday I joined a Cathedral of Pain. We had to disband after about 10 minutes. People refused to read chat and were incapable of understanding "take to 10% and hold".

I wonder how difficult it would be to create some system where a league leader can put a request for people to acknowledge something in chat, and if they don't, then that person gets kicked.  It would have to be visible to all to avoid selective and hidden bullying from any league leader, but could go a long way to make sure people are attentive and responsive.

[BlackSpectre]

14 minutes ago, biostem said:

I wonder how difficult it would be to create some system where a league leader can put a request for people to acknowledge something in chat, and if they don't, then that person gets kicked.  It would have to be visible to all to avoid selective and hidden bullying from any league leader, but could go a long way to make sure people are attentive and responsive.

 

Not difficult, but most people also think kicking people for playing in a daze is unfair. The vote-kick system, for example, has never worked to actually kick a clueless player off the league for me.  

 

What might be nice is a big notification box that pops up in the middle of the screen with a standard text and audio message "CHECK YOUR CHAT" or something like that. The message would be limited to using it twice. After twice, the league leader would be unable to send it again to the same player until after the current trial has concluded.

 

 

[biostem]

9 minutes ago, BlackSpectre said:

Not difficult, but most people also think kicking people for playing in a daze is unfair. The vote-kick system, for example, has never worked to actually kick a clueless player off the league for me.  

 

What might be nice is a big notification box that pops up in the middle of the screen with a standard text and audio message "CHECK YOUR CHAT" or something like that. The message would be limited to using it twice. After twice, the league leader would be unable to send it again to the same player until after the current trial has concluded.

That's not a bad idea, but still wouldn't get the person to check the *specific* chat that the league leader needed them to be looking at...

[BjorJlen]

1 hour ago, BlackSpectre said:

 

Not difficult, but most people also think kicking people for playing in a daze is unfair. The vote-kick system, for example, has never worked to actually kick a clueless player off the league for me.  

 

What might be nice is a big notification box that pops up in the middle of the screen with a standard text and audio message "CHECK YOUR CHAT" or something like that. The message would be limited to using it twice. After twice, the league leader would be unable to send it again to the same player until after the current trial has concluded.

 

 

 

   Maybe also add an audio component to it as well, like the old days' of Yahoo's "You got mail" feature. And maybe even state which specific chat it is too. I am sure it can be done, as we do have "some" audio features in the game, like the MM Beast's howling. I know it might be a stretch, and would require some work (arounds?), but it certainly wouldn't hurt to at least try...

[Scarlet Shocker]

3 hours ago, biostem said:

I wonder how difficult it would be to create some system where a league leader can put a request for people to acknowledge something in chat, and if they don't, then that person gets kicked.  It would have to be visible to all to avoid selective and hidden bullying from any league leader, but could go a long way to make sure people are attentive and responsive.

 

 

This may add another, but unhelpful, level of complexity to the game. I don't denigrate the idea in itself but there are some issues that would need to be addressed.

 

The UI/UX is very very old, designed for old screens when resolution was shite. And you had to get everything on it, on a 14" monitor.

 

Even now it's often seriously had to keep track of what's going on, and that goes double for leagues.

 

I'm an experienced player- - I've played since oughtsix with a few short breaks but I have NEVEREVEREVER been able to be 100% certain where my mouse pointer is.

 

It is super easy to get lost, and in big teams with lots of UFX sometimes you can't even see your fucking target, let alone anything that others are saying. It can be overwhelming for experienced players, even with big screens, good GPUs and trick mouses.

 

And then you want to ask somebody who might not be comfortable in chatting locally to say s/he's not actually sure what's going on? Hell I'm not sure what's going on in many many iTrials - they happen magically and have so many borked mechanics (ok let's reference Rock in TPN again as the prime example) that if you mention it in most other games (and this too) you will get "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOB" shouted at you.

 

This game is sadly past its best and though we are grateful to have it back it will never meet the standards of the first quarter of the 21st century. That's evolution. But we are where we are and we have to accept that it can be horribly confusing even when you think you know what the fuck's going on. So if you don't you don't have a chance in hell.

 

 

[biostem]

10 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

This may add another, but unhelpful, level of complexity to the game.

I have no doubt that the entire UI can be clunky/counterintuitive.  I wonder if a simpler ability to allow a league or team leader to "ping" the chat, with a fairly obvious audio and visual indicator which leads the viewer's eyes to said chat area, would be more helpful, then...

[Scarlet Shocker]

9 hours ago, biostem said:

I have no doubt that the entire UI can be clunky/counterintuitive.  I wonder if a simpler ability to allow a league or team leader to "ping" the chat, with a fairly obvious audio and visual indicator which leads the viewer's eyes to said chat area, would be more helpful, then...

 

That might work... but I'd also suggest the users  would need the option to turn it off too, for the avoidance of griefing/overuse which then takes us back to square one.

 

And... would it make a difference? We've seen many leagues fail to start properly, despite people whistling and IM'g those who ignore the timer or had an urgent AFK

 

I fear sadly there's no easy fix and the effort to do so might be vastly overcomplicating things without fixing the underlying problem.

[Troo]

On 6/17/2023 at 12:50 PM, Oklahoman said:

I've mentioned before I wish we had some sort of "test trial" you had to complete to go from 49 to 50.

 

yes please, but not in a 'play my way' vein, more like a rite of passage.

to level up milestones like first 30, first 40, first 50

[Ironblade]

On 6/23/2023 at 3:26 AM, GM Crumpet said:

Some are easy like BAF, some are annoying like TPN and Keyes,

Thank you!  TPN and Keyes are the ones that I pretty never run again once I have the badges.  They have you doing the same thing again and again - but during a single run of the trial.

 

 

On 6/23/2023 at 3:26 AM, GM Crumpet said:

some are fun but a bit complicated like DD, Underground and Magisterium, some are a nightmare and need putting out of our misery like MoM.

Well, now you lost me.  MoM is one of the trials that I'll join if I happen to be around when someone runs it.  I just make sure to take someone who can handle the non-stop psi damage, like an electric tank or dark defender.

[Ironblade]

On 6/17/2023 at 3:50 PM, Oklahoman said:

I've mentioned before I wish we had some sort of "test trial" you had to complete to go from 49 to 50.

 

The Secret World had something like that.  You had to qualify as tank, DPS or healer before gaining access to the high level raids.  Part of the healer test was keeping an NPC alive who was literally standing in a fire and would not move.

[Arbegla]

12 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

 

The Secret World had something like that.  You had to qualify as tank, DPS or healer before gaining access to the high level raids.  Part of the healer test was keeping an NPC alive who was literally standing in a fire and would not move.

 

Sadly the ambiguousness of CoH makes role 'learning' hard. Its a great system, because anyone can do anything, some just do it faster. But it makes 'training up' hard, because the same task a tanker can do, a defender might not be able to handle, or even differently, the task an Invuln Tanker can't handle, a Dark Tanker would just walk through. There's so many variables in this game its what makes it so unique.