MrCaptainMan
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Posts
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Joined
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From around 19:00 Central European time (GMT+1) this evening I'll be trying to do some incarnate trial testing on the VIP Beta server. If there are any Europeans here who can get a freshly alphad lvl 50 or an incarnate of any shape or form to Beta this evening to join in the testing, that would be great. Pleae see the Beta general discussion forum for details if you have access.
Eco -
Can we expand the thread to other PuG complaints?
I joined a PuG doing ep 5 of the sig arc the other day. I've already done it dolo slow and measured for the story. Out of interest, I asked how mamy of us (full team) had done it. 4 said no, inc the leader who's misdion it was!
It was a steamroll rush-job. After the cutscene someone asked 'why are we fighting that big genie?' and after the fight he asked 'who's the dead guy?'
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This is a fine idea, and I'm sure it would encourage a little more running of trials that people normally avoid from those people who fall into that category and yet are willing to do the harder trials or simply like the shinies enough.
There are going to be a subset of players, like myself, however, who see the current pace of the BAFBAFBAF (+an occasional LAM) as fine already.
They could offer a hundred components for one run of the UG, and I'm still never going to run it again, because I thought it was a horrible horrible experience.
The TPN and MoM are OK, but simply too long when compared to the BAF. And by long i mean in terms of fiddling about running into different buildings etc and avoiding hitting certain mobs as well as in time.
The Keyes is ok, but again has a bit too much fiddly faffage.
The BAF is so utterly simple, and requires me to fly over one wall and then move about 20 yards from one spot and then back again and that's it, and its current rewards are ample for a reasonable rate of iProgress, that I really can't see what the point of running any other trials is.
That's just me, though, and people like me who run trials mainly to get the rewards and not because the trials themselves are enjoyable. People who like the rewardsa AND think they're enjoyable will play a range of them, I'm sure.
But if one week out of 6 my BAFs give double rewards, awesome.
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Lol I'm not goimg anywhere nearer that topic than that.
Super Packs:
"Hello, Mr Customer. Here's a list of stuff. 5 of these things picked at random costs $X"
"Hello Mr Shopkeeper. I would like to buy 5 things off that list. I don't care which things I get. Pick them randomly. Here's my $X."
It's not gambling. I pay $X and in exchange I get exactly what I expect. If there was an option to get nothing, then it would be gambling.
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Quote:So forcing a serial killer to abstain from murdering people is bad?Originally Posted by Party_Kake
the term "Moral obligations" is an oxymoron.
Something that is morally correct can never be an obligation. It must be a choice.
If you force someone to do the right thing, it's just as bad as forcing them to do the wrong thing.
Eco -
Played the blueside arc on my 47 SD/WM tank. I thought the cutscene was very nice. The arc itself was quite good fun but the barroom brawl should have been me saving the otjer heroes on my own. Too many allies in arcs nowadays.
The final fight was totally underwhelming. It was a boring slugfest. Marshall Blitz-style min-trials is what I want.
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Quote:No thanks.Originally Posted by Golden Girl
We might need an Incarnate Trial to defeat Wade
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The arc was very enjoyable I thought, and the cutscene was one of the best I've seen (I especually liked the way States is held in mid-air and writhes about), but after that, the fight with Derren Brown and Ruladek was totally underwhelming. Just a straight-up exchange of blows. I expected something a little more mechanically complicated.
Nice map with the rain though.
Eco -
Quote:Are the Mindforge spawns endless, then?Originally Posted by Nihilii
Assuming CoP stands for Cathedral of Pain, I'd have to say I doubt it. Perhaps with judicious temp usage or tricks I don't know of, but as far as I know handling the obelisks (survive AND damage in sync) is going to be tough on the blaster and the WS.
Even with the right ATs it can be a crapshoot if one of the floating slim guys boss phases you at the wrong time.
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Could 3 T3d 50s (en-en blaster, humanform WS, ill/kin troller) trio the CoP?
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Get over to the VIP beta forums if you can, to get your voice heard.
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The first 2 DA arcs can be stealthed in less than 20 minutes each. Irrespective of that, the max reward rate is currently 1 component per day plus a very low number of threads.
After playing the DA content carefully, my opinion on iProgress is that if this is the only solo iProgress cobtent we ever get, it's too slow. If the devs give us another 3 arcs every issue, however, I'd be happy to go the slower route.
It's the grind that's the problem, not the rate, I think. It took me 2.5 years of playing to get my first 50. I'm in no hurry, as long as there is new stuff for me to do aling the way for most of the route.
If the devs could give us an indication of wether or not their plan includes more solo iContent or is this all they intend to provide, that would I think help a lot.
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Another instance of hiding story in the zergrush of a trial.
Shame, as I quite like the shivans. Would be nice to be able to read the story at leisure within the game somewhere.
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I am a soloer. Please don't speak for me.
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After reaching the final mission of the last arc in DA, i'm highly dubious about GGs estimate of an hour per arc, unless she was stealthing through everything on a t4 incarnate. Which is not really the way I'd like to play through such great storylines.
The new DA is fantastic IMO. Very impressed indeed, overall.
Wether or not it'll be able to replace iTrials for iProgress is still to be discovered.
Eco -
I've started playing the DA content on Beta and I'm taking a bit longer than an hour per arc for sure. I'm clearing all though and uaing a 50 with only Alpha slotted to better reflect the likely level of toon.
DA's pretty awesome so far I must say. Some stuff needs tweaking but that's what Beta's for.
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5-6 missions per arc is not particularly good IMO. I'll get Betaup to check them out and give feedback, but if they're full of 'interesting' mechanics and contact conversations etc a la FW then pfff.
I take it you've already played through all the DA content then, GG? How long did it take you?
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6 arcs for DA could be great, or it could be rubbish. It depends how many missions are in those arcs and what sort of missions they are. Is DA up on Beta yet?
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And I guess this signals the end of any pleaa to reduce the TF start minimums to any much lower numbers. Having the LFG activate at 1 member would make it not work very well.
Unless they added a 'select minimum you want to start with' option.
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Quote:Hm. It's not a huge step from this to 'let the game form my TF minimum start size then boot everyone I don't need for my duo/trio SG fun'.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
I don't think you're seeing the right thing here. When I said I'll do a lot more TFs with a working queue, that's not because I'm looking for a social experience. If I wanted a social experience, I have global channels, global friends and the forums. I'd queue up to join TFs specifically because they're tasks I'd like to do from time to time and the only way to do them is with a team. If the computer can put this team together for me and that team is relatively independent (can play their chosen characters), then that's ideal. I'm not looking to make life-long friends, I'm not looking to add people to my lists, I'm not looking for idle chit-chat. I want to kill stuff, it's mandatory that I team with other people, so I'd like to do the least socialising possible in order to get through the task.
This is really the same way I play games like the Battlefield series, League of Legends and Vindictus. Or, hell, most of the deathmatch games of the 90s. I'm not looking for friends, I'm looking to play a game, and it just happens to be a game I can't play by myself. So long as I don't have to compete against other people (because people are cheap and mean), then social interaction is secondary. If I could play by myself, I would, but game design mandates I play with others, and so I will.
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I know I've said that when I team, it's for the social aspect, but that's when I have to socialise to team to begin with. With a system as impersonal as random game joining, my team-mites might as well indeed be bots. That's how the developers designed their game, that's how I intend to play it. If you force me to play with other people, then you force me to see other people as a necessary evil rather than an asset. Previously, I might have teamed for the socialisation, but once this change goes Live, that will be just one mode to my playstyle - team for the company. Another mode will be "team because I have to" and that's not going to involve any unwanted socialisation.
That's your forced teaming at work, folks.
Treating folk like bots is a side effect of the raid-culture, I guess.
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Will the LFG tool replace the way we can form TFs now or just add to it?
Recently, my 2 SG-mates and I have been enjoying attempting to trio TFs, using padders (and here i am duty bound to thank the kind folks in TheMarket channel who are invariably generous withtheir time to help us get the tF miminum to start).
We like doing tFs this way because of all the reasons that small team/duo non-PuG people like to quote -we can take our time, log out for the evening half way through, go AFK for dinner, just stop and chat, take screenshots etc.
The thought of being limited to only play TFs in large groups of people I don't know makkes me a bit depressed.
I hope they leave the TFs in-zone contacts there and either don't touch the minimUm reqs or lower them fOr the LFG tool.
Eco
Edit: my post isnt meat to sound negative about adding TFs to the LFG tool, if we can still manually form teams for them then Thats cool. Adding TFs to the LFG tool is great, I think. More choice is always good, as long as it doesn't remove other options. -
No, I agree that pure numbers of missions don't make an engaging story-see the Dr Q TF for example.
But just giving us repeatable content isn't the way to go either. I wonder how many non-repeatable arcs/missions DA will have.
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I want a lvl 40+ Return of Dr Vahzilok arc!
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Another problem I see with cramming storyline into the iTrials is that you only geg a tiny bit of story. It takes multiple hours of gameplay to run the whole of the Striga storyline, or Croatoa, or First Ward, and many dozens of missions. This gives a feeling that the story lasts a long time. The Praetoria storyline delivered in the iTrials is over in what, 8 short missions? The fact that thy are intended to be run over and over and over may fool some into thinking the iTrials give hundreds of hours of content, but they don't.
I fear that the DA content will not be analogous to the amount of individual missions delivered with Croatoa or Faultline or FW for example, because the devs think that running a repeatable mission 5 times is as good as running a 5-mission story arc.
That's a grim road to go down in terns of delivering content i
IMO.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of each new zone that's been introduced with a count of the missions and TFs etc that came with them.
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I love the incarnate abilities i get from grinding the iTrials. The iTrials themselves largely blow chunks.
Eco