Task Forces and Challenge Settings

[Panache]

Over the weekend, I joined a Posi 2 PUG; the player running it was on a level 40something, the group was a mix of levels. A few minutes into the first mission, the Dark/DP Defender said, "man, I'm not hitting as much as usual". The TF lead responded, "oh, that's probably because I shut off all enhancements. I figured this is a low-level TF, so it wouldn't matter much".

 

The fact that this TF didn't instantly disband is a small wonder, but the point here is: DON'T DO THIS.

 

If you're going to set your TF up with a challenge setting--especially one that isn't about results (# of deaths, completion time, etc.) but is about how the other players' characters actually function--say so. Springing this kind of limitation on a group is an absolute d*** move.

 

Later in the TF, the same leader suggested that if the AV fight was too tough, we drop our Lores. 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Panache

[MrAxe]

Make like a vampire and get outta here! Seriously though I'd have wanted to quit too.

[Arbegla]

In defense of the team leader, there is an additional badge for completing certain tasks with those difficulty settings enabled, but he definitely should have said something first.

[Sanguinesun]

Agreed, he should've advertised that to begin with. 

[lemming]

46 minutes ago, Arbegla said:

In defense of the team leader, there is an additional badge for completing certain tasks with those difficulty settings enabled, but he definitely should have said something first.

Those badges are just for Ouro, not for most task forces.   Some Task Forces have Masters that do similar, but they're normally just activated by a check box.

[Ironblade]

7 hours ago, Panache said:

Over the weekend, I joined a Posi 2 PUG; the player running it was on a level 40something, the group was a mix of levels. A few minutes into the first mission, the Dark/DP Defender said, "man, I'm not hitting as much as usual". The TF lead responded, "oh, that's probably because I shut off all enhancements. I figured this is a low-level TF, so it wouldn't matter much".

 

The fact that this TF didn't instantly disband is a small wonder, but the point here is: DON'T DO THIS.

 

I am astonished.  I would have quit the task force INSTANTLY, since you can't turn that off once it's set.

 

 

7 hours ago, Panache said:

Later in the TF, the same leader suggested that if the AV fight was too tough, we drop our Lores. 

 

Ah, so the leader really was stupid.  He's running a level 16 task force with crazy settings and isn't aware that lore pets are not available.

 

 

2 hours ago, Arbegla said:

In defense of the team leader, there is an additional badge for completing certain tasks with those difficulty settings enabled, but he definitely should have said something first.

 

Nope, no defense.  Doing a task force with that setting does NOT give an additional badge.  That setting only gives badges in Ouroboros arcs (and not even all of those).

[Hedgefund2]

Just so you know there's an icon in your buff bar that lets you know if you're playing debuffed.  

 

 

I find it to be a good practice to scan the buff bars for anything unusual.  This especially after I was on a MC where the leader had clicked "players debuffed" and it took a couple of minutes of whiffing and drawn out fights before the team said something.  That numnut leader - was me!  It was a mis-click.  I certainly very carefully peruse those buffs when I began a tf now.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Hedgefund2

[Luminara]

7 hours ago, MrAxe said:

Make like a vampire and get outta here!

[Glacier Peak]

14 minutes ago, Luminara said:

[Laenan]

Same thing happened to me today- enemies buffed on a Posi 1. Usually not a problem, IF you tell the players ahead of time. So please do that. But it was quite confusing and I didn’t understand why we were getting wrecked so hard, until we spotted that little yellow icon.

[biostem]

On 8/7/2023 at 12:01 PM, Panache said:

The fact that this TF didn't instantly disband is a small wonder, but the point here is: DON'T DO THIS.

No, the point is, COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM!  The leader not disclosing this from the get-go was certainly their fault, but the other team members not asking about how it will be run is also an issue on their end, (much less so, though, given that running withOUT enhancements is definitely NOT the norm)...

[Panache]

I've never joined a TF with the expectation that I (or any of the non-leader members) would need to ask if there were any challenge debuffs being applied to the team. I don't intend to start, I'll just bail if/when someone decides to do this again.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Panache

[Mezmera]

5 minutes ago, Panache said:

I've never joined a TF with the expectation that I (or any of the non-leader members) would need to ask if there were any challenge debuffs being applied to the team. I don't intend to start, I'll just bail if/when someone decides to do this again.

 

Yes something with challenge settings like that on anything below level 50 it should be organized by the lead through a group of friends that would like to do such an obnoxious undertaking on a level 13 character.  It should also be widely advertised if the lead is doing it through pugs.  

[InvaderStych]

On 8/7/2023 at 9:01 AM, Panache said:

the player running it was on a level 40something

 

On 8/7/2023 at 9:01 AM, Panache said:

 

Later in the TF, the same leader suggested that if the AV fight was too tough, we drop our Lores. 

 

Um ... 🤣

[Snarky]

On 8/7/2023 at 9:01 AM, Panache said:

Over the weekend, I joined a Posi 2 PUG; the player running it was on a level 40something, the group was a mix of levels. A few minutes into the first mission, the Dark/DP Defender said, "man, I'm not hitting as much as usual". The TF lead responded, "oh, that's probably because I shut off all enhancements. I figured this is a low-level TF, so it wouldn't matter much".

 

The fact that this TF didn't instantly disband is a small wonder, but the point here is: DON'T DO THIS.

 

If you're going to set your TF up with a challenge setting--especially one that isn't about results (# of deaths, completion time, etc.) but is about how the other players' characters actually function--say so. Springing this kind of limitation on a group is an absolute d*** move.

 

Later in the TF, the same leader suggested that if the AV fight was too tough, we drop our Lores. 

This is literally why i do not play the game as much anymore.  it is my fault.  i cannot (will not) try to be in the same universe as people that think like this

Edited August 9, 2023 by Snarky

[Captain Fabulous]

1 hour ago, Snarky said:

This is literally why i do not play the game as much anymore.  it is my fault.  i cannot (will not) try to be in the same universe as people that think like this

Yeah I was on a shitty PUG yesterday. I finally just had to leave, I couldn't take it anymore. This usually isn't the norm for me, but it does really suck when it's happens. And I wish I could blame it on the lead, but it was easily half the team, doing their damnedest to not even attempt to work together and making things 10x harder than they needed to be.

[macskull]

Happened to me (sort of) a couple days ago. I have been playing more the last few weeks and everything has been going smoothly, except for this one... joined what was advertised as a speed ITF, weren't able to get a full team and started with 7. Team immediately has problems with mobs going everywhere and is stuck for a solid 10 minutes in the caves on the first mission hunting down a single minion to free the last sibyl. During that time teammate #7 dies twice and quits the team, leaving the 6 of us to finish. We finally get out of the caves and... someone triggers the ambush on top of the mountain. We finally manage to free Sister Solaris, I turn off Steamy Mist, and she latches onto a Nictus boss and starts to follow it away from us. Team leader didn't believe me (and to be fair I wouldn't have either if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes) so we ended up sitting there for a while as I tried to chase down and kill the floating death ball at which point she finally started following me. Second mission went okay, third mission was slow and someone just killed the general in the pack of EBs instead of the whole spawn, leaving me to take out the entire group on a Controller. Last mission was also slow but we managed it. 25 minutes was fast for an ITF in Issue 13, maybe, but now?

[Ironblade]

@macskull  OMG your animated GIF is AWESOME!!!!

[Zect]

In principle, I agree. Always communicate with other players, and set and respect expectations.

 

In practice... let's just say that if you "accidentally" toggle on enemies buffed players debuffed, and some idiot runs off to play the Rambo (because some people still pretend that soloing on a TF is impressive in 2023), dies, and ragequits in a huff, I will applaud loudly. Heroes getting humiliated never gets old!

[lemming]

In regards to thinking someone is stupid,  I constantly run across people that were told how something works, and it either was changed, or it worked through an elaborate game of telephone to be a bit warped.

 

And we're also getting people that played the game on live and they sorta remember some stuff which got changed on live, but after they quit.  That can warp some expectations as well.   It's why I often will go to the beta server to spin up some tests just to double check my memory since ~18 years of time has passed on some of this...

 

Of course, there are some things that people do because there was one way to do things to avoid a bug and it's now fixed, but they still do it the "safe" way just in case it reappears.  Which to be fair, happened on live quite a bit, most likely due to merging branches of code.

[macskull]

On 8/9/2023 at 11:20 AM, Ironblade said:

@macskull  OMG your animated GIF is AWESOME!!!!