Official Thread for Mayhem Missions
By
13th_Stranger,
Posted on: 2006-05-01 24:55 in Developers' Corner
Okay, I'm not actually on test, but I have a few things to say either way:
-I've read 33 pages of recounts of Mayhem missions, and noticed a distinct lack of Blue Steel, the most logical guy to try to stop you. By 'distinct lack' I mean he isn't there, and he really should be.
-There were only two people saying they fought Statesman, and neither of them seemed to have nearly as much trouble as the people who faced Back Alley Brawler. I seem to remember they were both Inv/SS Tankers. I doubt Back Alley Brawler really can overpower Statesman like this.
-It seems a lot of the signature heros, and also the signature villains in Recluse's Victory, need nerfing. I can only imagine how painful it is to face Swan.
Ran the mish, got an Elite Boss (Malaise) on solo villainous. He also had a swarm of mobs with him. Got destroyed in short order. Broke out of the clink, peeled off all the other mobs but one, then got beat soundly again.
Broke out again, got beat up again, threw up my hands and walked away.
I like the *idea* of the mayhem missions, and it was fun until I slammed into the brick wall of Malaise, but the stupidity of having to beat up an Elite Boss after every five missions does *not* appeal to me. I run solo, and I can usually take them out with a lot of sweating, and ususally run on Relentless the rest of the time, but this was not doable, unless I'm missing something about the missions that I'm *supposed* to be doing that the mission isn't telling me to do.
Oh, and a bug...dunno if this has been mentioned, but I had a van I couldn't hit right outside the bank. I could target it, and it was *partially* damaged, but every time I tried to shoot it, beat it up, whatever, it would tell me I was out of ranged. (Standing right next to it with a ranged power.)
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Okay, I'm not actually on test, but I have a few things to say either way:
-I've read 33 pages of recounts of Mayhem missions, and noticed a distinct lack of Blue Steel, the most logical guy to try to stop you. By 'distinct lack' I mean he isn't there, and he really should be.
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If they had Blue Steel show up swinging a shield around in melee range, there would likely be a massive revolt about it not being implemented into a power set yet.
My guess, the shield animations arent even started yet.
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1) Why are the FX so hideous? (The "trailing rings" effect is why I never really play characters with superjump.)
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Unfortunately it's a matter of perspective. My first run got me +end for 3 days and I'm not all that keen on the graphic, but for a little extra endurance I deal.
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2) Why is it not a toggle? (Gaah, let me turn this off, please!! Pretty please?)
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It's not set up like that. It's not like say, the Nemesis staff or a piece of the Wheel of Desctruction which you need to choose to use. It's more an 'affect' than a usable item.
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3) Does it *really* last for a full 3 days of GAMEPLAY? (I really hope it will time out if I go offline for 3 days playing something else - I can deal with that.)
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Yeah the wording is a bit odd, but I think it's 3 days. Could be wrong though. (Loading my toon who got the +end a few days ago and checking...) and it's still on him. So I'm wrong I think. It's been more than 3 days since I got that power... so unless I got it again on the mayhem mission I ran last night which reset the timer it's 72 hours of game-time.
Fragdoll:
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Also, invulnerable citizens need to go the way of the dinosaur. I'm the bad guy. It's my job to pick on the helpless. Make citizens smashable.
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Yeah. Also, since they don't award anything, pets and the NPC villain need to be coded to ignore them. We couldn't enter a side-mission or even the bank and keep the NPC with us. The stupid villain kept running off on her own as battles would start and go beat on civilians. My pet wasn't quite as bed, it kept following me but that stupid villain would sit there for ages beating on the same civi.
At the end, who comes up? Mynx. Who's not there? Villain. We beat EB Mynx, exit the bank to do a little more mayhem before we exit and who comes running up a few seconds after we leave the bank? The villain. Fat lot of good she did us.
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Okay, I'm not actually on test, but I have a few things to say either way:
-I've read 33 pages of recounts of Mayhem missions, and noticed a distinct lack of Blue Steel, the most logical guy to try to stop you. By 'distinct lack' I mean he isn't there, and he really should be.
.
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If they had Blue Steel show up swinging a shield around in melee range, there would likely be a massive revolt about it not being implemented into a power set yet.
My guess, the shield animations arent even started yet.
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Though I wouldn't be at all surprised if, once the Shield sets are ready, we start seeing Blue Shield as one of the potential people who will try to stop us.
I ran one this morning with my Dominator, and it was a lot of fun. Seeds of confusion FTW 
Anywho...
I also was told by my broker that I'd have 20 minutes, but had 15 upon entering.
After cracking the vault door, a security wave on top of the Hero with a longbow minion seems a bit much at once. Especially solo on villianous.
I'm always grateful for a temp power, don't get me wrong, I'm just not sure a timer is appropriate for some of the powers. I recieved a self res, good for 48 hours of game time. This is one, I think, should have a set number of charges, even if it is low, rather than a timer. I just know, with my luck, that I won't get faceplanted until 48 hours and one minute 
This was a lvl 19 Plant/fire dominator. The mission was given by Boris the Russian, and was set as a bank robbery in Skyway. The hero's name was Rosethorn (I think), a spines scrapper, and she had a Longbow Gaurdian in tow. If that helps any.
Another data point, and a new hypothesis.
Level 22 thugs/poison MM, solo, villainous. Sent from Sharkhead to Steel Canyon. Coincidentally, got the exact same side quests as the last mission, so I can say that the amount of time spent in the mission, the amount of smashing, and the number of side quests were absolutely identical. (My ghod are SWAT Equalizers over-powered for NPCs that level and rank.) The prisoner I freed was the same one, the female Radiation Blast corrupter or blaster with the pathologically ugly maroon costume, Stardusk. The end boss was a Lieutenant, and one I recognized as one of the three possible "get a cape" mission end bosses, Mr. Shock.
New Hypothesis about the End Bosses: Starting at level 20, even on solo/villainous, the first time you get sent to a new Mayhem Mission map, you must fight the signature hero for that zone. If you defeat that hero, you get the uber temp power reward for that map.
Testing the Hypothesis: If you have run one or more mayhem missions at level 20 and above, solo, on villainous, have you ever not gotten an Elite Boss for the end boss of the bank robbery the first time on a new map? If you have run more than one mayhem mission to the same map solo on villainous, have you ever gotten the Elite Boss other than the first time?
Edit: Forgot to mention that when I robbed the Tsoo hideout in that mission, and clicked the glowing box, I got a message in my chat spam that said that I had gotten "something," but I didn't. Tentative hypothesis: When that map is generated, the temp power for that box is chosen randomly without checking which ones you have. If it's one you already have, either you don't get it, or it recharges it by replacing the one you had with the new one. Anybody know if I'm right about this or not?
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Ran the mish, got an Elite Boss (Malaise) on solo villainous. He also had a swarm of mobs with him. Got destroyed in short order. Broke out of the clink, peeled off all the other mobs but one, then got beat soundly again.
Broke out again, got beat up again, threw up my hands and walked away.
I like the *idea* of the mayhem missions, and it was fun until I slammed into the brick wall of Malaise, but the stupidity of having to beat up an Elite Boss after every five missions does *not* appeal to me. I run solo, and I can usually take them out with a lot of sweating, and ususally run on Relentless the rest of the time, but this was not doable, unless I'm missing something about the missions that I'm *supposed* to be doing that the mission isn't telling me to do.
Oh, and a bug...dunno if this has been mentioned, but I had a van I couldn't hit right outside the bank. I could target it, and it was *partially* damaged, but every time I tried to shoot it, beat it up, whatever, it would tell me I was out of ranged. (Standing right next to it with a ranged power.)
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See! I think it's just Malaise! I soloed the balls off of Infernal, Backalley Brawler, Aurora Borealis, and Sea Witch all as AVs bumped down to EBs, but Malaise is just too much. All those debuffs, all those pets, an unresistable fear, and more damage than any controller should ever do. I think it's just him who's overpowered, though the ambush mobs for the end of the mission should be thought out again.
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New Hypothesis about the End Bosses: Starting at level 20, even on solo/villainous, the first time you get sent to a new Mayhem Mission map, you must fight the signature hero for that zone. If you defeat that hero, you get the uber temp power reward for that map.
Testing the Hypothesis: If you have run one or more mayhem missions at level 20 and above, solo, on villainous, have you ever not gotten an Elite Boss for the end boss of the bank robbery the first time on a new map? If you have run more than one mayhem mission to the same map solo on villainous, have you ever gotten the Elite Boss other than the first time?
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Both Mayhem Missions I have run have been with the same character from the same contact (Mickey the Filch) at the same level (lvl 24). The first one was in a team of three at villainous and we had Ms. Shock at Boss rank (we did one of the sidemissions). The second one was solo at villainous and I had Ms. Shock at Lt. rank (I did three of the sidemissions). So I have YET to get an Elite Boss.
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-Testers encourage PlayNC to hurry up and fix the (minor) bugs in these missions and send them to the live servers, because they are awesomely fun.
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You're kidding right? awesomely fun? not even close
Mayhem Missions dont differ much from a mindless shooter or a hack and slash, all they really are is a bank heist and a cape mission rolled into one
except the only big change is now you can break things (which could be done for the entire game not just select missions).
Mayhem Missions are nothing more than a crumb being handed out to draw in a younger crowd (which seems to be working), older more mature gamers need more than mindless smashing.
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Nice to know I'm considered young at 47. I enjoy Mayhem missions as a change of pace. Tell you what. You don't like Mayhem missions? Fine, then don't do them. Take them, activate them, then leave. Once the timer ends and you fail the mission, go back to your broker and get you next contact. Or, better yet, stop playing CoH/V altogether and try something that's more your speed, like WoW or SWG, and leave CoH/V to us young people.
'Lo, there do I see my father.
'Lo, there do I see my mother, and my sisters, and my brothers.
'Lo, there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning.
'Lo, they do call to me.
They bid me take my place among them.
In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live forever.
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Okay, I'm not actually on test, but I have a few things to say either way:
-I've read 33 pages of recounts of Mayhem missions, and noticed a distinct lack of Blue Steel, the most logical guy to try to stop you. By 'distinct lack' I mean he isn't there, and he really should be.
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While I agree in principle, remember that Blue Steel's shield strongly suggests that he's got a power set that's not implemented yet.
Only complaint I have is lack of destructible environments WITHIN the side missions, like breaking out of the PPD, you should be able to destroy the desks and all that in collateral damage as you're fighting the cops on your way out of the station. Same for the bank and all that..
Yea I noticed that to. Id really love it to be able to blow up the inside of the paragon PD.
Well we ran the mayhem mission last night and still frustrated on time bonuses. We did the bank heist first to get the "mission complete" and then went after the side missions. We destroyed cars, cans, meters and no time. thought that was odd. One of the side missions (kidnap) was a building FULL of PPD. was barely manageable...well not barely...we were wiped.
If it is "working as intended" then can we get some kind of list for the bonuses? Like 10 meters for 30 seconds. 2 cars for 30 seconds. 5 barrels for 30 seconds. Something we can work with.
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Well, there goes a perfectly good theory.
Level 23 thugs/poison mastermind, solo, villainous. Sent from Sharkhead (Kara) to Steel Canyon again. Only two side missions, a kidnapping and a Tsoo hideout. (Got Smoke Bomb from the Tsoo, sweet.) So if anything, I spent even less time and even less mayhem before getting to the bank. End boss was, however, Valkyrie as an Elite Boss. (And this time she very nearly cleaned my clock, hitting me at least half the time through 3 Luck inspirations. And my Gang War posse evaporated after the second AoE. From the difference between the level 22 and level 23 fights, you wouldn't think I was fighting the same hero.)
I give up. If there's any pattern to when the end boss is an Elite Boss/Signature Hero and when it's a Lieutenant/Boss, I have completely failed to see what it is, even after at least 9 Mayhem missions.
Is anybody collecting these reports and analyzing them? Or should I go back through the thread and see if I can get enough information from people's posts to compile a report myself? Either it's random, or bugged, or the pattern will only be obvious after a lot more examples are analyzed.
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Is anybody collecting these reports and analyzing them? Or should I go back through the thread and see if I can get enough information from people's posts to compile a report myself? Either it's random, or bugged, or the pattern will only be obvious after a lot more examples are analyzed.
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I've been following the thread and my impression is it's bugged OR random. However there are factors I don't think that's being accounted enough.
I'd like to see people actually track how long they were in the mission before grabbing the loot. That's one of the only things I'm not seeing reports of. It could be time-based. NOT bonus time, just how long you've been in the mission.
Um, well, in order to be able to say I know what I'm talking about, I broke down and did one of these missions today (since I couldn't do any missions in GV).
I must say, except for the temp powers, I really don't see the point of these missions. Some people will find them fun, I guess, but I found the one I did to be rather annoying.
No rhyme or reason to what I needed to destroy or why. I didn't get 'extra time' for tearing things up, but from flying away from the PPD.
There were no cameras that I could interact with, so Stalking against them never happened.
The PPD were useless against me. I'll vary mission difficulty to see of that alters, tomorrow.
The 'hero' sent to stop me was a blaster with a ridiculous costume---ok, now THAT was funny heh heh. I think he was a fire/fire blaster---not really sure, since he didn't last long enough for me to get a full sense of his powers. I had more hassle with that fickin longbow machine gun happy chick. I hate those!
Of course, this was on lowest difficulty setting. After all the crashes I've had with this test, I just didn't feel like altering any of that. I'll try to get activated tomorrow.
Overall impression: so what?
Oh, almost forgot: temp power: extra health for like 23 hours or some such. *yawn* If I play my Stalker correctly, this is the essence of unnecessary. Would be handy for a lower level Blaster tho
I'll get back with varoius results asap.
Cal2
First Impressions
I did my first mayhem mission yesterday with a lvl 16 SS/Energy Brute and found them to be an ode to the simple joy of breaking things. Cool.
The mission took place in Kingsrow so I was a little surprised that I didn't recognise it straight away. I think it would be cooler if you spawned near a recognisable KR landmark. Like the cafe tables or the CoT underpass.
I also found the PPD to be a little off putting. They tended to reminded me that I wasn't in Heroes' KR I was in Villains KR. They also looked like Mooks.
The toughest part of the mission seems to be the first few moments on entering the bank. Tons of security and an immediate spawn of Longbow. Is that intentional?
A good side effect of the mission is that I emptied my Insp tray. I burned them up so I could eek out the maximum mayhem out of my time. Burning greens so I could turn my toggles off and have more end. Very good.
The temp power I got on completion (2 hrs worth of Super Jump) was just icing.
This is a song about a super hero named Tony. Its called Tony's theme.
Jagged Reged: 23/01/04
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Generalizations for the win! Because clearly younger games cant enjoy puzzles and/or logical problems, and mature gamers cant enjoy a smasher/shooter type of thing.
You may not like it, but dont lump people into catagorys. Mature gamers like smashing stuff just as much as the younger crowd, and vice versa. [ QUOTE ]
So... these older, more mature gamers that I'm apparently not part of... Baby Boomers, I guess? I mean, they'd have to be to be older than me.
Also, I have to wonder if you've played the same missions I have. Quite aside from the fun of smashing things up, this is easily the most dynamic mission type there is in the game.
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Well first, I'm happy, at 39 to be a part of the younger players, it a relief for me everytime I hear I'm a young man.
Second, if they are not EXTREMLY fun, I admit that mayhem missions are fun.
Third: it was said from the start, and clearly presented in the mayhem trailer, that these missions were a bank heist WITH endless smashing. [ QUOTE ]
Love seeing personal oppinion stated as fact.
At what age does one become an "older more mature gamer"? 'Cause I gotta' tell you, this 30yo has a blast with his mayhem missions, if for nothing else them showing growing tech and usage of that tech in game. It opens up so many doors on what can be done with this game over time.
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Generalizations were not intended, and I was not trying to lump people into category, but smashing stuff would be better if there was more of a point in doing it (other than we are villains)
like a reward or even some (all be it a little) xp for and item that is destroyed or even extra time
something.
Have I done mayhem missions? yes
As far as personal opinion being stated as fact
it never was nor intended
Points that were over looked in my last post:
1: all they really are is a bank heist and a cape mission rolled into one
except the only big change is now you can break things (which could be done for the entire game not just select missions).
2: Mayhem Missions are helping draw in a bigger fan base (this was a complement).
I also said older more mature gamers need more than mindless smashing. what was meant by this is we need to get something out of destroying objects
be it little xp (even if its very little), or even more time this would be at least something. (as it stands right now we only get extra time for not getting caught ( by beating the good guys up not for destroying objects).
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I also said older more mature gamers need more than mindless smashing. what was meant by this is we need to get something out of destroying objects
be it little xp (even if its very little), or even more time this would be at least something. (as it stands right now we only get extra time for not getting caught ( by beating the good guys up not for destroying objects).
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Maybe your mission was bugged. I received time for most objects that I destroyed in my missions.
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I also said older more mature gamers need more than mindless smashing. what was meant by this is we need to get something out of destroying objects
be it little xp (even if its very little), or even more time this would be at least something. (as it stands right now we only get extra time for not getting caught ( by beating the good guys up not for destroying objects).
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You might want to take another few passes at these missions again, and read up through the thread and/or the previews of the Mayhem missions. We do, in fact, get additional time for destroying objects in the missions.
For some reason, either by design or through current bugs, the time awarded isn't completely consistant. For example, blowing up -several- cars usually gains me a three minute bonus, as does several crates. But a single phone booth, mailbox or newspaper vendor usually gets me a minute. (All for the -first- time these things are destroyed. After that it all gets very vague and confusing. ;p)
The in-game rationale behind this is your villain 'drawing attention away' from the bank job itself. Plus then there's the subsidiary jobs that can be done throughut the stage, which is pretty nice.
I have to admit, though... currently what destruction nets what bonus... and what level of hero is intended to spawn after the bank raid... is pretty opaque to us. On live that's not nesecarily a bad thing, because it keeps us guessing. On test it's a little more of a problem... do we need to /bug the time awards and the boss spawns, or are they working as intended?
A little extra info on what we're to test might be helpful. ;p
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we need to get something out of destroying objects
be it little xp (even if its very little), or even more time this would be at least something. (as it stands right now we only get extra time for not getting caught ( by beating the good guys up not for destroying objects).
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The very first thing I did on my very first mayhem mission was destroy a bus shelter for which I got a time bonus of 1 minute. Perhaps some of the Longbow agents were coming by bus?
Destroying other objects typically gained me an extra 30 seconds.
This is a song about a super hero named Tony. Its called Tony's theme.
Jagged Reged: 23/01/04
From reading your post Cal I don't think you gave it a fair chance, however I respect your feelings on it, I did want to touch on a couple things:
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Um, well, in order to be able to say I know what I'm talking about, I broke down and did one of these missions today (since I couldn't do any missions in GV).
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That's always good. People love to yap about [censored] they have no idea about.
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I must say, except for the temp powers, I really don't see the point of these missions. Some people will find them fun, I guess, but I found the one I did to be rather annoying.
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The point of these missions was to let villains feel more villanous. People have been crying since beta about feeling more like dark heroes or anti-heroes or nuetered villains than REAL villains. Also since CoH beta people have had issues with the complete lack of destructible enviornment. These missions serve 2-fold.
Also, IMO it shows where the technology is going. I believe each mayhem mission contains *4* side-missions ON TOP of the rob the bank portion. It shows how large and complicated they can make missions. If for nothing else THAT is exciting. Think about how much more interesting and complicated they can make TF's/SF's/Trials? Move them away from one door mission to another and create whole outdoor instances or even indoor instances with side-missions etc.
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No rhyme or reason to what I needed to destroy or why.
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Everything. Because you can. Period. (Well, for the bonus time too for destroying stuff.)
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I didn't get 'extra time' for tearing things up, but from flying away from the PPD.
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I've seen a couple people say this. How much stuff did you destroy? I think there are hidden counters. When you destroy x car, you get x bonus, when you destroy x parking meters, you get x bonus etc. If you didn't see a point to destroying things I don't imagine you took the time to really lay waste to the mission before going for the vault.
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There were no cameras that I could interact with, so Stalking against them never happened.
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No cameras that you saw. Did you do the side-quests? A couple of them have surveillance systems in them.
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The PPD were useless against me. I'll vary mission difficulty to see of that alters, tomorrow.
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How often did you fight them? You said earlier "flying away" from them... let a couple flashbangs an sticky arrows get you.
I'd give it another try and try to do some of the side-quests. You can get them from the normal mobs in the area, like Talos has several group of freaks that drop keys. They're pretty fun to do.
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The toughest part of the mission seems to be the first few moments on entering the bank. Tons of security and an immediate spawn of Longbow. Is that intentional?
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Unless it's changed, expect a Longbow ambush to come any time you enter a new door. On the couple of mayhem's I've run so far every time I enter a side-quest and the bank a Longbow ambush showed.
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BUGS/ISSUES:
-Pathing of minions was erratic at times attacking partular objects.
Specifically:
Attacking large metal crates and trucks caused erratic pathing. This would typically occur if minions were directed to attack the specific targets rather than engaging them due to proximity. They would eventually home in on the target after some time of erratic pathing.
- The mission broker stated we would have 20 minutes to complete the mission, but we had 15 minutes upon entry.
This was true for both brokers.
- Minions tended to not prioritize attacking objects vs. attacking threats. In an area rich with both types of targets, we had to control our minions carefully to make sure they killed threats first.
-Minions would attack citizens, which were level 1, but apparently had infinite hit points and would never take damage.
-There was no apparent time bonus for scaring a sufficient number of citizens off the streets.
NOTATIONS ON FUNCTIONALITY:
- Very large time bonuses were awarded for completing "side missions" picked up by killing Hellion bosses that were in the zone. In each mission we did, we found two Hellion bosses.
However, during these side missions, groups of Longbow would sometimes enter the building and attack us as they do on the street.
-Once one understands the rules, there is generally more than ample time to complete the mission and the side-missions, by destroying enough objects and killing enough police.
IMPRESSIONS:
-These missions were something we haven't seen before in City of Heroes/Villains. They were a unique experience that was genuinely fun and entertaining, and a welcome addition to City of Villains.
-The challenge level is roughly equal to other missions of its type, and the time limit is a significant but not oppressive constraint on the mission.
-The mission appears to have advantages for Masterminds, whose minions can go on a rampage against destructible objects and rapidly accrue time bonuses. However, this bonus may be offset by Masterminds' need to closely control their minions in combat to ensure that they don't go off and destroy objects rather than enemies.
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kept the parts I strongly agreed with. I think as it stands mayhem missions just need a touch of tweaking but they dont seem bugged. also as I said once before I found that the ambushes + the police mobs make breaking out frustrating at best