Okay. I have actually just finished reading all of the posts up to this point and this is flaring into ED discussion territory with regards to overall negative response outcry. Conversely I, like all players have a responsibility to speak as well in the hope (vain it may be) that the devs will see some sense in our outcry and perhaps rework their decision.
I am a co-leader of a supergroup on Freedom that has, since its inception in mid 2004, openly spoken out against powerleveling and farming. On the surface, this decision seems like something my SG and I would support without question. However the flaws in its implementation I feel need to be addressed in order to smooth out this generally good game change.
The immutable facts that cannot be gotten around are what cloud this. The introduction of a loot system to the game IS irreversible. Conversely this loot system created a farming market that will never be gotten rid of. So the trick is to find ways to slow down or compartmentalize farming. That is what the devs stated is the reason and weather of not they intended to stealth this fix in or not is irrelevant. The posters in this thread who are yapping about that need to step away from the computer, stop watching HD versions of Loose Change on YouTube and realize that in general there are no grand conspiracies. You people are doing nothing but clouding the more rational debates and solution proposals that more stable people are posting.
The core TRUTH is that Task Forces/Strike Forces were meant to be CHALLENGING and a TEAM evolution. They were not meant to be Solod. EVER! Are players able to solo them, sure, some AT builds can solo several TFs/SFs. This fix puts a serious damper on people soloing a TF/SF. And yes there are builds that can solo a mission as if there were 4 team members, but those are the exception rather than the norm. But the bottom line, weather you like it or not is that it requires you to TEAM on a TF/SF. I can only support that as that was the design of the TF/SF system in the first place.
Yes, it sucks to lose people throughout a TF/SF due to DC or just attention span and there is the REAL problem with this. As has been pointed out by multiple posters, this may be all well and good for a TF/SF that requires 5 or less to start and you start with 8 and lose some to attrition. Gone are the days when an exemplared player who DCd cannot get back in. But the ones that require 8 to start, well that is a different kettle of fish. Again, some of the more reasonable posters in this thread point out that the STF and LRSF are supposed to be the pinnacle endgame challenge. I agree. But some of the other TFs/SFs that require 8 or 7 members is the problem. The amount of missions (and in many cases, senseless repetitive missions) in several TFs (example, the Shard, Numina) expands the chance of player loss. Not everyone has 4 or more hours to commit to the game in a sitting. But on those, if you lose even 2 players, you have not shifted from challenging to FRUSTRATED.
So here are two solutions to this problem to ease this fix.
SOLUTION - Standardize all Task Forces/Strike Forces to have a Minimum Team Size requirement of 5. The LSRF and STF being the exception as they are supposed to be the pinnacle of challenge. This means that those farmers that try to roll in and farm one solo are going to face a super serious challenge. They may be able to handle mob spawn sizes of 4 but 5 I hazard to guess will thin that herd a lot more, making them a negligible minority.
SOLUTION Revamp the older TFs by reducing the number of pointless missions that are nothing more than padding. There is no real necessity to hunt this and hunt that and click this and click that. The Shard TFs are overly crowded with this sort of crap and their presence adds no real value to the TF. The Villain side has that figured out pretty good.
Now that doesnt solve all of the poison that many feel is being ingested by this patch. The next problem is that of Pool C Recipe availability. So many of the people who have posted in this thread are complaining that the Cap SF is the only reason that there are any Pool Cs on the Black Market. Well I dont want to burst anyones bubble, these recipes were supposed to be hard to get. Their availability as it stands now is due to farming the vulnerability of an SF/TF. People softloading was taking advantage of a design vulnerability. That is an exploit! That is against the game rules. Plugging that hole is the exact thing we players are constantly crying for. We are always yelling at the devs for not fixing this and not fixing that. Now they fix one, a BIG one and many people are crying no fair. It was a vulnerability that players (farmer or not, RMTer or not) were using to speed up the time in which they completed a TF/SF to maximize their gains and minimize their risk. That is a categorical definition of Exploiting a Game Mechanic. It is cheating, regardless of weather your intent was sincere (i.e. you actually wanted to do the TF for the badge and the team fun) or not (meaning you just wanted the rare recipe). This patch resolves that, and on that front I can do nothing but applaud and endorse the decision.
And to be blunt, everyone says these recipes are going to get even more expensive. Well that is a fair and true statement. But then again, the implementation of a market system and loot means that it is how it is supposed to be. Hard to find items are SUPPOSED to be hard to find and if you do find them, there is supposed to be a premium on them. A 57 Chevy is supposed to be hard to find and if you find one, you sure as heck arent going to get it for the original sticker price. The only real flaw here is with the Group C Pool itself. Many of the recipes in this group are for lack of a better term, worthless. A Luck of the Gambler (7.5% Recharge) is rare and going for 40 million (heroside), while a Pacing of the Turtle (END/RECH/SLOW) is going for around 500K. Both are Pool C drops. The fact is, Pool C is littered with crap recipes. By crap I mean not meriting being considered a Rare Recipe reward for the completion of a TF.
SOLUTION Move many of the Recipes currently in Pool C into Pool A or B, make it so that Pool C is where all of your Procs or special types come from, like + Stealth (Freebird), or + Recovery (Miracle). This also means moving some of those specials from Pool A or B like Chance for Res (Achilles Heel) or Chance for +Rech (Force Feedback) into Pool C. This would make the chances of getting one of the coveted, uber loot Recipes greater for TF/SF completion. Its win/win there. The people who claim the market will totally dry up can be placated because with more chances of the good stuff dropping, the more likely they will show up on the market, even though farming of certain TFs may be down due to the patch. At the same time you are not devaluing the good stuff by requiring it to be truly worked for in a TF/SF that now has its challenge set to where its supposed to be. Plus you arent killing the market because the high value loot is still having a high premium paid to it.
But with all of that said, the core problem I see here, once the market smoke and the conspiracy smoke is removed is the fact that this really does not slow or impeded the RMTers and farmers. It benefits them more than it impedes them. As has been stated by numerous posters in this thread, now all they have to do is start the TF/SF and then they dont have to maintain the full TF membership to maintain spawn size. It does impede lone or small group farmers who dont have the ability to adequately maintain the ability to overcome superior enemy numbers.
Regardless of weather it will stop farmers or RMTers, the patch is designed to reaffirm the fact that TFs/SFs are supposed to be a challenge and supposed to be accomplished with a team. Any other benefits are just extra to me.
So I will support this patch and hope that the devs take onboard some of this feedback from me and others that might at least make this a more palatable implementation.
