Official Thread for Mayhem Missions
By
13th_Stranger,
Posted on: 2006-05-01 24:55 in Developers' Corner
My first one was with a level 9 bot controller on Vicious. The enemies themselves were fine, the hero was a LT or maybe boss generic fire blaster type, which didn't actually cause me much problem though the fireballs were nasty. (I think I had to resummon in combat there).
The main thing here was that there were level 15 truck objects scattered about, which were +6 to me (+7 to my two bots). I was doing 1-ish damages to it (force bolt, brawl, origin power) and the occasional 3 (second tier bot gun power), the bots were mostly doing 1-1-1-1 bursts. It took at least 5 minutes to kill and gave a minute or maybe a minute and a half to destroy. So I'm thinking there should probably be a special time bonus for destroying things that are +4 or greater to you (or +5, or something) 
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Also, targeting is INSANE in a fresh mayhem mission! There should probably be new target_custom_foo options to single out or ignore objects, civilians, and the enemies . . . .
ADD: I just had this thought: It would totally rule if we could get Flower Knight as a Hero EB or whatever in these once in a while. "And THAT'S for trapping every hero I tutorial'd in tiny little rooms while I was exploring the mission, *****!!!!"
"I think you're confused. This is /b, not /b/."
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So...did she use her spear, or what?! 
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It's kind of a blur but I think she did, both for ranged and melee attacks. I remember thinking how cool that was until she landed a hit that took away half my life, then the novelty wore off.
big bugs first:
Started w/ 16 mins
Kidnap victim didnt follow me he followed the civilians
Items dont all grant time only some do, some clarification plz...
Not sure if its a bug but the villian in the police bldg didnt speak up and peekign thru the door slits didnt see them, didnt have enough time to destroy all the doors :/
Also the side quest of doing the bldg demolitions granted no extra xp.
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It kindof makes me smile that we've had complaints that the Hero was a Lt, and the Hero was too difficult
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That's because there seems to be wide spectrum of difficulty depending on who you draw for the defending hero. You either get lucky and roll some barely noticeable speedbump Lt. or you roll 'snake eyes' and get a rezzing, MoGing, EB Valkyrie who makes you launch your keyboard through the nearest pane of glass. 
First off, great update. I really like it.
3 issues
1) The first 3-4 time bonuses (mainly arrests) didn't get applied when they were awarded.
2) MM pets and the NPC villain attack the citizens too much, could they run into buildings and dissapear once attaked....or let us take them out.
3) Label the extra mission objectives. My team and I had no clue what the new objectives were. Even the ones we had done stayed on the map. Nor could we make them a team objective so at one point we all ran in different directions.
4) some of the police Sgts. showed up as lvl 10 in a lvl 40 misison
but keep up the good work.
actually, I was able to 'herd' some civs toward a building, and they all entered it, so it seems there is some capacity for this to happen, at least.
Ok, my second running of a Mayhem Mission. This time was also set to the easiest setting....Villanious. The character was a lvl 30 EM/Fire brute. I went into the mission with a full compliment of inspirations, all of which I saved for the final fight against whoever my hero was to be.
Wow, this was the total opposite of my first Mayhem Mission. From my very first encounter with a Ghost whatever from the Paragon Police I realized I wouldnt be able to finish the mission. 1 lone Ghost policeman whatever the hell they are, managed to stack a total of 5 of the blind grenades on me, in under 30 seconds. I got defeated in the mission a total of 3 times before calling it quits. Including getting 1 shotted by the Back Alley Brawler, and this was AFTER I dinged... So he was -1 elite boss to me.
He actually handed me 2 of my defeats. The first one was in the vault itself, when 2 ghosts and 1 of those glue throwing cops managed to stack a total of, and I'm not kidding here. 17 blindness grenades and 4 glue arrows on me. This was thru 3 lucks too. Even with 1 green SO and 2 yellows popped, I couldnt hit anything and died. THe second time. I was all out of enhancements so I didnt stand a chance.
I also managed to die doing the jewelry robbery sidequest, when I had a total of 17 blind grenades and 13 glue arrows on me from the 8 mobs that all decided to come after me after I completed the jewelry heist for the bonus time.
All in all. Those blind grenades and glue arrows have to go. They totally ruin Mayhem missions, at least in the lvl 30 and above range. I could have brought all lucks to the mission and popped them like candy thruout the whole time and wouldnt have won the battle.
Valkyrie was the first Elite boss hero that I fought, in the lvl 25 mission. Using a combination of 2 lucks, Darkest Night (Corruptor debuff). 1 Acc and I think 2 rages I managed to defeat her soundly.
With Back Alley Brawler I stood no chance. A Brute shouldn't get 1 shotted, even by someone as tough as him...The first time I might have been able to win. Like I said above I had 3 lucks with me when I went to engage him. But getting 17 acc debuffs put on you on top of 4 slow debuffs makes any fight impossible.
I look forward to seeing what changes are made to the Mayhem missions concerning the debuffing. Because it was WAY overboard.
'If Champions Online is what "CoH was supposed to be", I'm glad that I have what I have rather than "what it was supposed to be".' - The Alt oholic
"I solo'd Hamidon...but I also totally cheated." - Back Alley Brawler
"It is still early. Someone is going to get stabbed tonight I can feel it." - Ishmael (said in Jello Shooters chat)
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So...did she use her spear, or what?!
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It's kind of a blur but I think she did, both for ranged and melee attacks. I remember thinking how cool that was until she landed a hit that took away half my life, then the novelty wore off.
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I had her, and was able to beat her with my ss/inv brute, lvl 23. She uses her spear as a ranged weapon, actaully reaching around her back and throwing an energized version of the spear, really nice looking. In melee she had a broadsword and used generic Broadsword set powers.
But the spear? Really sweet....
Arc #345863 - When The Bough Breaks
"Curse you Perry the Plata...wait, is that Love Handel?" - Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, Phineas and Ferb
Last nite I ran a May Mish and I got to the bank and robed it.
Then I get jumped by Posi. I was like OMG W T F needless to say he beat me. But it was sooo cool.
So I end up in jail. I break out of my cell and run into another NPC villian but she helps me. She was a Kat/something stalker and looked like silver mantis. Again very very cool.
We make our way out and as soon as I hit the door to leave the station bam I am falling off the zone take all but 1 damage and then am stuck there.
http://www.creyindustries.com/viewhero.php?id=14140
This link will show screenies the first 4 ounder survalance pics you will see posi jump me the villian that helped me escape and me stuck under the mish.
So: This question goes out mostly to other Doms, Corrs and MM's but has anyone else noticed that the damned PPD Psi Corps LT's are taking 2 holds to get held as if they were bosses? This is a total departure from the rest of the game, I have NEVER had a LT take 2 Dominates to hold but ever last one of the Psi Corps bastards did.
With this in mind I was a bit terrified when we ran into our first boss that he would indeed take 3 holds to hold. While stacking 3 holds really isn't a problem for me, especially with Hasten up, the time it takes to land those 3 is enough for any boss to kill me. However, they still take 2. So why do the LT's take 2 holds to hold? This has to be a bug... right?
Holy ow! 17 Flashbang grenades?
I did some calculations, and I'm pretty sure there's a decimal point problem in them.
65% - base accuracy against a +1 minion
66% - two white ACC SO's in all of my attack powers (including brawl)
25% - Insight
25% - Insight
25% - Insight
25% - Insight
231% - my total accuracy
I missed 4 times in a row. According to the streakbreaker (search for _castle_ and streak), this is only possible if I have at most a 50% current accuracy.
231-50=181%
That means that 3 flashbang grenades debuffed me by 181% (assuming that I had hit the streakbreaker, which is highly unlikely.) So each flashbang grenade was a whopping 60% debuff!!!!
If I hadn't hit the streakbreaker, I would have had under a 30% acc.
231-30=201%
So each flashbang grenade in that scenario would be 67% - effectively capping anyone who doesn't slot accuracy.
Sure they're not supposed to be 6%? I mean, I'm ok with a huge debuff, if it's Nosfaratu as an AV with a one time hit every minute. But uh... these guys throw this around like candy.
Should look at the glue arrow too. My slow was capped as well, and I have slotted SS - there's just no way to measure that.
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So: This question goes out mostly to other Doms, Corrs and MM's but has anyone else noticed that the damned PPD Psi Corps LT's are taking 2 holds to get held as if they were bosses? This is a total departure from the rest of the game, I have NEVER had a LT take 2 Dominates to hold but ever last one of the Psi Corps bastards did. [...]So why do the LT's take 2 holds to hold? This has to be a bug... right?
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Some Lost lts and Arachnos lts AND minions, also take two holds to, uh, hold. Yeah, it kinda sucks at times, but what can you do but stack 'em. However, I myself (Gravity/Ice Dom) didn't have any trouble holding anything in the mission in one shot.
I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke. He was the Lt version of Blast Furnace, and he got held and dead. The only thing tough about him, was that he came with about 12 psi-cops and Longbow and security guards, which would've been nasty if they hadn't all been trying to come through the same little door. I simply installed my Singularity in the doorway, and anyone approaching the door got unceremoniously dumped on their face at the far wall. I just picked them all off with ranged attacks.
Yeah, it seems the difficulty of the final boss, as it were, is a bit too random. I'll check it out again tonight, and see if I can't get an Elite. I hope it's not BAB...last time that punk took all my inspirations and two Sings.
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I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke.
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I just ran a mayhem mission solo on villainous and my end boss was Malaise at Elite Boss level!
How much property damage did you do on the way to the bank? I'm starting to think that if you get over 20-25 minutes of time before the bank you get a big Hero 
Malaise aside, everything else was not too bad for my Grav/Energy Dom, and I love how debris gets sucked into my Singularity and whirled around
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Then I get jumped by Posi. I was like OMG W T F needless to say he beat me.
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Of course. You're grey to him.
This does bring up an interesting point - apparently, there are badges awarded for each of the Freedom Phalanx members you defeat, but they only come up for defeating them in Recluse's Victory, not anywhere else. This doesn't make much sense to me - these guys aren't pushovers, no matter where you fight them.
I wish you could actually damage the citizens. I want to see them fold like a bad hand in poker. But other than that, I had a crap load of fun doing these. Even if the cars blowing up almost killed me. 
Mayhem Missions are my favorite part of I7 so far. I had tons of fun on the few I've tried.
They do have some balance issues though, caused by the frequency and stubbornness of the ambushes. Multiple ambushes showing up at the same time as the hero is overkill. Multiple ambushes showing up while you are trying to break out of jail is even worse!
My team last night got pasted thanks to Longbow Spec Ops sappers. We went to jail, and after breaking down my cell door I was greeted by 2 PPD bosses and 12 other mobs! All in a tiny little jail room so moving to the exit wasn't possible. We all died 4 or 5 times.
Also, mobs were attacking me through the cell door. I thought we fixed that bug back when the 5th Column got jails?
Now all that aside, I had a crazy fun time with the challenge and pace of it all. I didn't mind dying a few times. If this were live, though, I would probably want to avoid Mayhem Missions like the plague because of the crazy debt. I think that if their difficulty cannot be easily balanced because of the randomness of ambushes arriving etc., you should get reduced debt from dying inside Mayhem Missions. More reduced than inside normal missions, so that going to jail a few times doesn't break your spirit and scare people away from doing these awesome missions altogether.
Another fanciful idea I had is to reward a bunch of free inspirations when you land in jail. Honestly, jailbreaks are tough, so we need them! And what would inspire a villain to greatness more than the prospect of going back to the Zig? I would love getting a bunch of insps when I rez in jail to give me a chance of getting out alive.
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So: This question goes out mostly to other Doms, Corrs and MM's but has anyone else noticed that the damned PPD Psi Corps LT's are taking 2 holds to get held as if they were bosses? This is a total departure from the rest of the game, I have NEVER had a LT take 2 Dominates to hold but ever last one of the Psi Corps bastards did. [...]So why do the LT's take 2 holds to hold? This has to be a bug... right?
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Some Lost lts and Arachnos lts AND minions, also take two holds to, uh, hold. Yeah, it kinda sucks at times, but what can you do but stack 'em. However, I myself (Gravity/Ice Dom) didn't have any trouble holding anything in the mission in one shot.
I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke. He was the Lt version of Blast Furnace, and he got held and dead. The only thing tough about him, was that he came with about 12 psi-cops and Longbow and security guards, which would've been nasty if they hadn't all been trying to come through the same little door. I simply installed my Singularity in the doorway, and anyone approaching the door got unceremoniously dumped on their face at the far wall. I just picked them all off with ranged attacks.
Yeah, it seems the difficulty of the final boss, as it were, is a bit too random. I'll check it out again tonight, and see if I can't get an Elite. I hope it's not BAB...last time that punk took all my inspirations and two Sings.
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We ran it with an initial team of 4 (1 person continually crashed, another fell through the level and was unable to get back using /stuck and ended up logging for the night) and so when it came time for the boss fight there were only 2 of us left and running on Viscious, so the boss was a red boss.
I'm pretty curious about this hold thing though, because with the lost Anathema lt's take 1 hold for me as do all the others I think... and which Arachnos MINIONS take 2 holds? I dunno, I've seriously never had my primary single target hold (Dominate) take 2 shots to hold an LT before.
Out of curiousity, how's yours slotted? I have 3x42+ SO acc's, 1 42 SO recharge and 2 42 Hold Durations (one 41+ the other 40++)
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I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke.
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I just ran a mayhem mission solo on villainous and my end boss was Malaise at Elite Boss level!
How much property damage did you do on the way to the bank? I'm starting to think that if you get over 20-25 minutes of time before the bank you get a big Hero
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that's a good thought... I seem to remember one of the previews mentioning that if you cause enough trouble, a heavy hitter will show up to deal with you, so maybe that's it...
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Then I get jumped by Posi. I was like OMG W T F needless to say he beat me. But it was sooo cool.
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I have to say it...
Do you think you were grey to him?
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I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke.
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I just ran a mayhem mission solo on villainous and my end boss was Malaise at Elite Boss level!
How much property damage did you do on the way to the bank? I'm starting to think that if you get over 20-25 minutes of time before the bank you get a big Hero
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that's a good thought... I seem to remember one of the previews mentioning that if you cause enough trouble, a heavy hitter will show up to deal with you, so maybe that's it...
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Hmm. Well, the mission said I had 20 minutes, but I actually had 15. I cleared almost the whole level of destructible objects, and broke that AR/Traps guy out of jail, before I went in the bank. At one point I had over 25 minutes on the clock. I finally went in the bank with 8 minutes left, because I wasn't getting any more time bonuses and I figured I needed to hurry.
Who will show up to stop you looks random, at least while it's on test or until the next patch. Either it's wacky, or there's a system in place I can't see. Maybe the number of sidequests? I only did one (due to no more time bonuses).
Did a MM last night (Founders). Reduced my diff to Villianous and brought a lvl 40 MM with me (also villianous). My char was a SS/EA brute.
Mob size was small (thanks to villianous), no significant problems dealing with them. Non-PPD mobs were DE, usually a Greater Devoured and 2 Bladegrass. We started just destroying everything for bonus time, did the vault heist and the building bombing, did the bank with 20 minutes+ remaining. Hero ambush was an lvl 40 EB (Cacophony, Sonic Blaster(possibly Defender) type). Took her out easily, along with the Spec-Ops that joined her. Also ran into a Longbow Officer and PPD Assault, no real problems. Temp power on completion was Life Insurance (2 days of Debt Protection). Finished all the missions and map clearing with ~9 minutes remaining.
Also got badge placeholders for vehicles destroyed, vaults destroyed, PPD defeated, and buildings burned. No explore badge for FF, does anyone know if these exist and, if so, are they location specific or for entering the zone (i.e. Multidimensional on CoH)?
Overall impression: Most fun I've had in CoX in a long time, can't wait to do it again.
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Out of curiousity, how's yours slotted? I have 3x42+ SO acc's, 1 42 SO recharge and 2 42 Hold Durations (one 41+ the other 40++)
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Hmm, my main single-target hold (whose name I forget...Gravity Distortion?) has 2 acc, 2 holds, 2 recharge. My AoE hold has 2 acc, 1 hold, 2 recharge (only 5 slots so far). I'm level 36, and most of my enhancements are 35s. Yeah, I know, I'm slack.
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I was running on Villainous, and the end named Hero I got was a joke.
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I just ran a mayhem mission solo on villainous and my end boss was Malaise at Elite Boss level!
How much property damage did you do on the way to the bank? I'm starting to think that if you get over 20-25 minutes of time before the bank you get a big Hero
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that's a good thought... I seem to remember one of the previews mentioning that if you cause enough trouble, a heavy hitter will show up to deal with you, so maybe that's it...
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Hmm. Well, the mission said I had 20 minutes, but I actually had 15. I cleared almost the whole level of destructible objects, and broke that AR/Traps guy out of jail, before I went in the bank. At one point I had over 25 minutes on the clock. I finally went in the bank with 8 minutes left, because I wasn't getting any more time bonuses and I figured I needed to hurry.
Who will show up to stop you looks random, at least while it's on test or until the next patch. Either it's wacky, or there's a system in place I can't see. Maybe the number of sidequests? I only did one (due to no more time bonuses).
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I only did one side mission as well, and entered the bank with about 15 minutes to go (and got a named LT at the end)... had about ten when I finished. maybe it's the time you have left when entering the bank that affects it...
this is all just speculation, though... you may well be right, and it's just utterly random.
regardless, I would have be kind of stunned to run into an EB at level 7 
Interesting, you got DE in the mission? Huh, that seems kinda random. My non-PD, non-Longbow faction was Crey. Got a few Riot Guards and Power Tanks sprinkled around.
Anyone else getting random other factions?
I tried a mayhem mission earlier today with my lvl 40 SS/EA brute. I had tons of fun, but like so many others, the boss at the end owned me.
Sure, I had my diff set to relentless, but still...
The boss that showed up was Blast Furnace (I think he was called that, fire/fire at least). He proceeded to kill me in a matter of seconds.
Well, I must have been unlucky, was my thinking. I broke out of jail and ran back to the bank. I activated rage, hasten and overload, and popped a purple just to be sure not to get hit too often.
Not 5 seconds later I had faceplanted again. I had gone for the lone psi-cop since I knew he'd be able to hit me. He never did, he died real quick but that didn't stop the boss level hero from defeating me in a matter of seconds.
Seriously, if the boss had dealt psi dam or anything I would have accepted it, but being manhandled like this by a fire tank is no fun at all. Either the hero was way overpowered or the mayhem missions are simply not meant for solo play at all.
I had a good time all in all though, but next time I'm gonna play on the lowest diff setting, because there was no way whatsoever I could have beaten this guy, and that with a build that usually juggles bosses around like crazy and kills them real fast.