New troll move

[srmalloy]

The murder motel in PI has a new troll annoyance to deal with — the yahoo who thinks it's funny to drop a Vanguard MDC target dummy into the courtyard to draw fire from people not paying close enough attention to where their target shifts when the mob they're targeting goes down. They've resummoned it at least once.

[Rudra]

I get the complaint, but what is the suggestion? I'm not getting what you want done.

[Ghost]

Maybe they are doing it to mess with the afk MMs

 

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, Ghost said:

Maybe they are doing it to mess with the afk MMs

 

That would cause problems for active MMs too. Not as much as an AFK MM who wouldn't even notice and leave their pets attacking the target dummy, but still causes all MMs problems. As well as Controllers and Dominators since they can't command their pets. If an MM is on a ToT league at Murder Motel, there are sufficient targets that it is basically a waste of time to keep ordering pets to attack specific targets until high priority targets appear. Can't spam heals, throw buffs, or use attacks if you're constantly telling your pets to attack a new target each time the current target dies, especially considering how fast those spawns die.

 

Edited October 19, 2023 by Rudra
Edited to add ", especially considering how fast those spawns die".

[TheZag]

I went to PI one time so far for a ToT league.  My particular team had 5 people,  2 of which were afk masterminds.  It took forever and a day to level up from 34 to 35.  Basically any other team activity has faster rewards.  Dont go to a PI ToT if you are after rewards,  most other content is faster.  Go if you enjoy killing halloween enemies with a bunch of people and get a sprinkling of rewards on the side.

 

Dont MDCs have limited health and a league would easily destroy it?  And if it isnt getting killed,  wouldnt that mean its barely taking hits that would have otherwise went to halloween enemies?  Sure it will take some hits from several people and many hits from those that arent paying attention,  but adding a tiny fraction of time to an already molasses slow process isnt a big deal.  I wont be summoning one,  but i wouldnt sweat it if they show up either.

 

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, TheZag said:

My particular team had 5 people,  2 of which were afk masterminds.  It took forever and a day to level up from 34 to 35. 

Setting up a MM with Aggressive/Stay pets and going AFK is inherently slower; MM pets do not have stellar tracking ranges, and left to themselves will fail to focus on targets, doing smaller amounts of damage to more targets, reducing the XP return. The point is that it doesn't matter to the MM; they can just leave their pets out soaking up XP for a longer time. This does, however, gimp the teammates of AFK MMs to a degree, since the MM pets are not contributing equally compared to non-AFK team members.

[Rudra]

1 hour ago, srmalloy said:

Setting up a MM with Aggressive/Stay pets and going AFK is inherently slower; MM pets do not have stellar tracking ranges, and left to themselves will fail to focus on targets, doing smaller amounts of damage to more targets, reducing the XP return. The point is that it doesn't matter to the MM; they can just leave their pets out soaking up XP for a longer time. This does, however, gimp the teammates of AFK MMs to a degree, since the MM pets are not contributing equally compared to non-AFK team members.

Well now, that's just ridiculous in my book. The aggressive I can understand. The stay? Not so much. Even if you're a bots MM, follow is so much better than stay because your pets are free to wander and pursue targets they were shooting but moved beyond their default aggro range. Which brings more targets into their range so they at least stay productive. I was wondering why I would pass by Murder Motel and see MM bots just standing in the middle of the parking lot and only occasionally firing....

 

... of course... keeping the pets on stay will at least keep them in the radius of any auto-firing heals the MM may have going.... I still think that is a bonehead thing to do though.

[Clave Dark 5]

5 hours ago, TheZag said:

My particular team had 5 people

Well there's your problem right there, you have to join in the full league chaos to see the levels melt away.

[FrauleinMental]

I haven't tried this, since I don't have one, but does the target dummy count as an enemy for purposes of Kinetics powers (Transfusion, Transference, Fulcrum Shift)?  I've had issues where if my primary target drops during the casting of Transference or Fulcrum Shift the power fails (I think they fixed that for Transfusion a few Pages back), so a more durable target that I can use just as FS fodder might be an interesting thing to try because targets do melt away in ToT leagues.  Would that be a net gain or a net loss to the league, though?

[Dona Eis Requiem]

3 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

9 hours ago, TheZag said:

My particular team had 5 people

Well there's your problem right there, you have to join in the full league chaos to see the levels melt away.

 

I've had this happen as well. Sometimes, there's just not enough people to fill that team yet (if yours is the newest addition to the league). Other times, there have been several teams left unfilled for some reason. Getting stuck with the AFK'ers really botches it if you're there for the XP. 

I just take my lowbies and go ToT alone on those days and have much better gains.

 

I haven't lead a league so any opinion as to why this happens would be only a guess. 

Some days you win, some days...not so much.

[Clave Dark 5]

My luck's been uncommonly good then, across hours and hours of the even this month.  Keep trying!  We've got lots of leagues running and doing all the banners etc. very smoothly.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Clave Dark 5

[Jiro Ito]

9 hours ago, FrauleinMental said:

I haven't tried this, since I don't have one, but does the target dummy count as an enemy for purposes of Kinetics powers (Transfusion, Transference, Fulcrum Shift)?  I've had issues where if my primary target drops during the casting of Transference or Fulcrum Shift the power fails (I think they fixed that for Transfusion a few Pages back), so a more durable target that I can use just as FS fodder might be an interesting thing to try because targets do melt away in ToT leagues.  Would that be a net gain or a net loss to the league, though?

 

Yes it does.  It's super handy as a Howling Twilight target to safely rez your squad after a team wipe.

 

For OP, it's kinda funny, trolling the leeches.  

[srmalloy]

25 minutes ago, Jiro Ito said:

For OP, it's kinda funny, trolling the leeches.  

For me, the problem was that it had been dropped about thirty feet in toward the courtyard center from a back corner, so when I was dumping cone attacks into the mobs spawning from the two doors in the corner, and whenever my actual cone-centering target went down, the game picked the MDC as my next target because it was closer — and I was hanging back to get a good spread on the cone.

[SwitchFade]

@srmalloy, so you're saying you didn't get a treat, you got tricked?