The Disagreeable Dr Quarterfield and The Mortifyingly Cruel TF

[cranebump]

59 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Remind me never to ask you what happened to your bottom lip...

You had lips? Wouldn’t THAT be Great. 🙂

[Luminara]

If you misspelled my name, I'd torture you, too.

[Hyperstrike]

1 hour ago, Luminara said:

If you misspelled my name, I'd torture you, too.

Okay Barry.

[Luminara]

8 minutes ago, Hyperstrike said:

Okay Barry.

🔪

[ivanhedgehog]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:09 PM, Doomguide2005 said:

     The silver (okay maybe tin-plated 😜) lining is there's no AV or even EB to face along the way or even at the end (don't recall any EBs anyway, I know there's no AV).  For a Solo or duo of friends with Flyer/Teleport character(s) and or with many of p2w teleport powers and knowledge of the TF it's eminently doable even without a super tight endgame build. And 122 merits is nothing to sneeze at for the effort.

I solo it when its the weekly tf.

[cranebump]

5 hours ago, srmalloy said:

My memory is a bit vague on the details, but I seem to remember Jack making a comment about how TF teams would defeat open-world mobs as they traveled between missions to increase their experience... something that I don't remember ever seeing in practice.

Not unless he was talking about ambush spawns, which happen in Pos (clockwork). I. Any recall if any other TF spawns them. ‘Course, you can just run away from them.

Edited September 5, 2023 by cranebump

[srmalloy]

38 minutes ago, cranebump said:

Not unless he was talking about ambush spawns, which happen in Pos (clockwork). I.

Synapse has Clockwork ambushes, too; I've been hit at the NW phone check-in during the second patrol mission. And I'm pretty sure that Citadel has an ambush in the 'Defeat 40 Council' mission, but the players are generally moving fast enough that the ambush never catches up. But, no, this was another of his unrealistic expectations that the team for a TF would proceed to a mission as a group, street sweeping as the opportunity presented itself — an expectation that I'm sure died the real death within a month of launch.

[Doomguide2005]

49 minutes ago, cranebump said:

Not unless he was talking about ambush spawns, which happen in Pos (clockwork). I. Any recall if any other TF spawns them. ‘Course, you can just run away from them.

Numina still spawns ambushes for most (all?) of open zone hunt portions.  Citadel and Moonfire both spawn ambushes with their delivery missions.  And of course there's Babbage during Synapse.  Probably others I've forgotten as it's literally been years since I saw them last.  In part that's do to many of the same things that make Dr. Q so much faster these days.  Teams simple leave the ambushes in the dust to most likely despawn. 

 

Edit:  I miss the older sometimes nasty ambushes that occured through out the game.  The first time I ever saw Malta was while my newbie self was leveling up in KR as several were in pursuit zipping across the map some distance off.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Doomguide2005

[cranebump]

1 hour ago, srmalloy said:

Synapse has Clockwork ambushes, too; I've been hit at the NW phone check-in during the second patrol mission. And I'm pretty sure that Citadel has an ambush in the 'Defeat 40 Council' mission, but the players are generally moving fast enough that the ambush never catches up. But, no, this was another of his unrealistic expectations that the team for a TF would proceed to a mission as a group, street sweeping as the opportunity presented itself — an expectation that I'm sure died the real death within a month of launch.

Actually, I might've been thinking of Synapse and not Pos. The teams so seldom bother fighting them, they're pretty much inconsequential.

[High_Beam]

11 hours ago, cranebump said:

Actually, I might've been thinking of Synapse and not Pos. The teams so seldom bother fighting them, they're pretty much inconsequential.

Well on Synapse, one ambush roll sin when you get the Defeat XX Clockwork usually in Steel Canyon.  Sometimes 1/4 of the kill can be handled in that ambush.

 

On a couple of Citadels we caught the Ambush at door exit because all TT were charging but close.  Maybe while waiting for Fareed talk as well.  Fuzzy.

[cranebump]

59 minutes ago, High_Beam said:

On a couple of Citadels we caught the Ambush at door exit because all TT were charging but close.  Maybe while waiting for Fareed talk as well.  Fuzzy.

That sounds about right. I’ve been caught in the middle of them a couple times. I sorta like them. Reminds me of dem old daze, when I’m sitting there between solo mishes and boom—bunch purps roll by from someone else’s high level mish. I imagine we get less of these since regular mishes aren’t run as much?

[High_Beam]

2 hours ago, cranebump said:

That sounds about right. I’ve been caught in the middle of them a couple times. I sorta like them. Reminds me of dem old daze, when I’m sitting there between solo mishes and boom—bunch purps roll by from someone else’s high level mish. I imagine we get less of these since regular mishes aren’t run as much?

I know right.  Funny too because back on live there were cats who would run around cleaning up abandoned ambushes.  Freaked me out when I was like level 20 in Steel Canyon and a level 50 Devouring Earth ambush came tear assing by.  But the best was we Babes of War were having our Sunday meeting in Skyway and out of nowhere, some cats level 50 Malta ambush just staggers into the midst of the Hottie Heroines Lingerie Pillow Fight . . . I mean SG Meeting.  Too funny.  Taught Vrabel's boys a lesson in fashion, and faceplanting.

[Luminara]

3 hours ago, High_Beam said:

roll sin

 

[Hyperstrike]

17 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

Gonna need a dump truck for that many dice...

[Black Zot]

On 9/6/2023 at 1:30 PM, Hyperstrike said:

Gonna need a dump truck for that many dice...

 

[Scarlet Shocker]

TFs were conceived to take time. They were meant to be played over several sessions, generating community and team cohesion, and to give the players a "rich playing experience" with commensurate rewards (an SO IIRC)

 

we had to run everywhere because a new game by definition lacks content - so making folks travel from a-b with shank's pony means they play but are not soaking up that content.

 

Task forces were designed by their very definition to require more than simple casual input. It needed a team effort, dedication, and a commitment to see it through over a few evenings.

 

And you'd get great (comparative) XP from doing the Shard TFs simply because of the massive defeats you scored - so in theory it was worth it and all the time you're spending 4 nights on an Shard TF you're not soaking up the newest content that the Devs struggled to publish.

 

We ran everywhere, we had to meet contacts across the maps, we had to do pointless missions just to get them to talk to us. But despite that, it's still the best MMO ever.

[Hyperstrike]

18 minutes ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

TFs were conceived to take time. They were meant to be played over several sessions, generating community and team cohesion, and to give the players a "rich playing experience" with commensurate rewards (an SO IIRC)

 

we had to run everywhere because a new game by definition lacks content - so making folks travel from a-b with shank's pony means they play but are not soaking up that content.

 

Task forces were designed by their very definition to require more than simple casual input. It needed a team effort, dedication, and a commitment to see it through over a few evenings.

 

And you'd get great (comparative) XP from doing the Shard TFs simply because of the massive defeats you scored - so in theory it was worth it and all the time you're spending 4 nights on an Shard TF you're not soaking up the newest content that the Devs struggled to publish.

 

We ran everywhere, we had to meet contacts across the maps, we had to do pointless missions just to get them to talk to us. But despite that, it's still the best MMO ever.

 

If being asked to take a dozen hours to complete a TF makes me "way too casual" causes me to never do something more than once?

C'est la vie.

Dunno about the rest of you, but I have work and familial obligations.  Especially NOW.

[Black Zot]

1 hour ago, Scarlet Shocker said:

TFs were conceived to take time. They were meant to be played over several sessions, generating community and team cohesion, and to give the players a "rich playing experience" with commensurate rewards (an SO IIRC)

 

A paradigm that was obsolete before the game launched, much like the notion that 3 minions should pose a threat to the average player character.

[macskull]

5 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

 

If being asked to take a dozen hours to complete a TF makes me "way too casual" causes me to never do something more than once?

C'est la vie.

Dunno about the rest of you, but I have work and familial obligations.  Especially NOW.

That's kinda why being in task force mode doesn't kick you from the team when you log out - it was designed to support a single team running content across multiple play sessions. Of course, that's not something that happened often, but luckily now even the longest content in the game (4* content with a PuG that doesn't know wtf they're doing) only takes a few hours.

[Scarlet Shocker]

For the record, I wasn't defending the policy, simply trying to explain it's raison d'etre

 

If I remember right, Shadow Shard was designed to be, if not quite end-game, tougher content for more experienced players, so it stands to reason that it should give that experience. Also with a much less mature game it gives options that occupy players time on a single task. One of the big issues with MMOs is creating content fast enough for the players. Devs can spend months designing new content only for players to rinse through it in a couple of hours so all content has to be challenging and repeatable. Sadly, that sometimes means that enjoyment is the consequent sacrifice of that.

 

Sure, people don't often have time to commit to something like that, but that in itself does allow for a sense of achievement when you do get it done I guess.

 

Ultimately, we now have a great deal of content in the game from superb high quality right down to... let's just say less good. It is what it is. Do it, or don't do it. But bitching about it serves no real purpose for what is effectively a 20 year old game.