Amygdala

Server just went down for maintenance.

Thanks everyone who came out for monsters!

It appears that the Champion server is experiencing technical difficulties such that globals, missions and bases are not working.

A few of us are forming a blueside monster hunt. Send me a tell (I'm on Citrinitas) if you're interested!

Also having this issue on Champion.

We're starting to form in Pocket D now. Walk-ins will be included after 3pm Eastern if space is available.

Just a heads up, I plan on doing this a little differently than last time in the sense that we will likely attempt all four badges between the four runs.

The line up will be as follows:

First run - Bunker Buster (for anyone who missed it last week) and Avoids the Green Stuff
Second run - Anti-Anti-Matter and Avoids the Green Stuff
Third run - Loves a Challenge (focus) and Avoids the Green Stuff
Fourth run - Loves a Challenge (focus) and Avoids the Green Stuff

(The last two runs we'll focus on Loves a Challenge, i.e. not touch the terminals and try not to let anyone die. Avoiding the Obliteration Beam is still a good idea for this, so we could still end up with the badge during these runs if we haven't gotten it already. In contrast to the previous Green Stuff runs, we will be using Lore Pets to help bring him down faster.)

Whether rules are 'needed' or not largely reflects member preference. Since there are several members in both channels, it can be safely assumed that both styles of moderation are effective. What's important, in my opinion, is not which style is 'better', but that a choice exists so that people can pick the channel that suits them. The fact that the channels have different qualities is a good thing.

I'll be doing this again this Saturday, August 6th at 3pm Eastern in Pocket D. Please try to arrive a couple minutes early so we can start at 3pm. We will start with Bunker Buster (for anyone that missed it last week) and Avoids the Green Stuff. We will do three to four runs total. If we have a strong group, I'll make one of the runs an Anti-Anti-Matter run as well.

Also, some people have voiced that the above time is not ideal for them. Please let me know if you would like me to shift the time and I'll see what I can do for next week.

Sign up below! Thanks!

Team 1
1) @Amygdala - Sonic/Pain Corruptor
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Team 2
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Team 3
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Our first Keyes badge session is now complete. We did 4 runs total and did manage to get Bunker Buster on the first try. Unfortunately, were unable to get Avoids the Green Stuff, though we came extremely close several times. Overall people today should be extremely proud of their work today. It takes most groups several attempts. The fact that even on our first run only one person got caught in the beam was impressive to say the least.

Below are some notes:

What Worked Well

Bunker Buster
- Started at Bunker Lepton. There were 3 teams total; each team was assigned to a door. We beat them down to about 10% health, counted to 3, on 3 fired Judgements, etc. Rinse/repeat for remaining bunkers. Badge was awarded at the end of the trial.

Increasing Beam Visibility
- Lore pets were not used.
- Cameras zoomed all the way out at all times.
- Rebirth powers were changed to anything but green.
- Melee were asked not to melee the terminals during Anti Matter's regeneration, but instead use Judgements. (This prevented melee folk from being caught in the corners and allowed them to see the beam more effectively).
- Kept all players on the ground as much as possible to keep beam footprint on the ground. This means: No flying, and all hopping should be kept to a minimum.
- Anti Matter himself was also kept on the ground to limit the tendency for players to fly/jump up to fight him, causing the beam area to spawn in mid air.

Avoiding the Beam
- Powers with long animations or rooting effects were not used or limited around the time the beam struck.
- Captain Drej called out a 10 second warning before the next strike via macro.
- Anti Matter was moved to each set of terminals before he reached the health thresholds (80%, 50%, 20%). This limited the duration of time frozen, reducing the chance of getting hit.

Trial in General
- We were able to get over 19 people on each run with no one kicked. Having those over 19 join via the queue worked extremely well to avoid this problem. We also had people wait until triggering the cutscene until teams were sorted.
- We were able to complete the reactors fast. There was a team dedicated to collecting temps. Other teams went to clear around terminals at relevant reactors. We were able to secure many reactors before Anti Matter showed up.
- For Reactor Genesis, we were able to secure all 10 terminals before Anti Matter showed up twice in a row. Amazing job there!
- We had one run done in 17 minutes! Awesome!

Room for Improvement

- People are still getting caught in the beam, mostly due to a visibility issue. I had a couple report they could not see the beam effects on the ground prior to firing. Perhaps we could designate a few 'safe people' to put on follow before the beam strikes.

- On our third run we would have had it except for poor timing. Time was frozen and the beam struck. Not much you can do. On future runs we may have to call for a cease fire if the timing between the time freeze and beam is close.

I think that is it for now. Please post if you have any other ideas and continue to reflect on our work done today. I will be posting a sign up for next week soon and will probably bump the time to 3pm Eastern since that seems to work for more people.

Thank you very, very much for coming. Everyone did an exceptional job.

I agree. Now would be a good time to clarify the rules.

There has been a transition, no doubt. Over the past two years or so, BMT has evolved into its own culture. It has been a channel focused on server activities, a source of information, help for new and returning players, teams, badges, etc. For the most part, it has been kept on task. As someone once put it, it's the 'get **** done channel'. As such, it is unique amongst the many more socially oriented networks on our server. Many people have been invited to the channel during this time and have become accustomed to the rules of the channel and how it operates. The driving force behind this culture was undoubtedly Cobalt. I personally appreciated his efforts, respected his rationale behind the rules, and felt he tried to be as consistent and fair as possible while upholding them. Whether you agreed with him or not, at least you knew what to expect.

Whether the recent changes are for better or worse, only time will tell. In the meantime, the new rules should be clearly articulated as to not contradict BMT members' experiences over the past few years.

Also, to help limit confusion with other trials, we will be forming up in Pocket D, not RWZ.

Just a heads up, we're now at 19 people on the sign up. Having numbers in a league over this amount has caused some to be kicked due to a bug.

I will try to accommodate everyone, but this may not be possible. Therefore, I will be giving priority to the people who have signed up thus far. What I will likely do is invite the first 19 and then have the remaining people join via the queue. From my experience, this seems to have resulted in fewer people getting kicked.

I'd like to start trying for some of the Keyes badges starting this Saturday, July 30th, at 2pm Eastern. We will be meeting in Pocket D. It will take a few tries to get them all, so I will likely schedule a weekly attempt.

Welcome back!