RUSH the RIKTI!!

Pretty bad run last night. Lots of corpse campers laying there as roughly 10-15 people attacked the GM and surrounding mobs.

It also didn't help that half the raid seemed to disappear after we planted the bombs.

There's a good chance I will not be home for tomorrow night's raid, real life is a pain some times.

However, there is no reason to fear, Stone Daemon (@Stone Daemon), who's been my wing-man leading the raids for a few months now (including pulling the GM), will be leading tomorrow night while I miss my first Rikti Raid in a very very very long time.

I just want to say thanks (yet again) for leading this, so often, for so long. Even though I try, I can't always be there myself.

Great Raid last night! I picked up enough merits and shard drops to make my alpha boost. And I had just unlocked the slot. Not bad at all!

Here's something I hadn't heard of before

Linky

Specifically:
" I was on a raid where we spawned the GM twice…"
and the following post
"I've been on a raid once where we spawned the GM 3 times…"

Sounds like something we should try.

Aye, bombing run is still a go.

Who knows, maybe that 34 minute limit can be broken with enough bombs.

I believe Virtue reported having a 70 minute continuous Mothership Raid by spawning sequential GMs (4 total).

Okay. Tonight's raid was...well...a *BLEEP!* disaster.

For future reference people, the guy(s) leading the raid ARE LEADING IT FOR A REASON!

If they aren't moving "fast enough for you", TOUGH FRICKING NOOGIES! That is NOT an invite to start the raid yourself.

Yes, occasionally people jump the gun and blow the first pylon. It happens. And that's accepted at times. What's NOT acceptable is to start calling pylons as if you were the raid leader.

Not going to name names. But you people who caused the fiasco tonight know who you are. If you're going to continue with this behavior, please run your own raids at a different time and stop *BLEEP!* it up for everyone else there.

It's not cool. It's not funny. And IT IS NOT FUN.

I also noticed that you (again, you know who you are) basically bailed once it turned into a bloodbath. Way to own up to your *****.

Drake, Daemon and the rest are trying to run the raid so that it can be enjoyable for EVERYONE. PLEASE stop pissing in their cornflakes.

Oh, and if you're one of the unnamed douches from tonight and you don't like it? Tough. Again, don't come and run your own raids.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

I would like to echo what Hyper said. It really isn't very polite to jump start a weekly raid and try to lead it yourself when the raid leader is there and getting his stuff prepared.

That said, I really appreciate all of you for making it easy for me to add notes to your globals.

I like leading RtR, I do it for everyone's enjoyment; I feel confident when I say: Last night was not for everyone's enjoyment. I fully admit that my own inaction caused events to turn badly.

For those who were not there, the night started off poorly from the jump which was early and had not been called for. In the scramble that followed I opted to distance myself from the night's proceedings including singling out an individual; which I now regret as he was not the cause of the night's events. I do apologize to Mr. Walton/@Mave, my actions were rash and unjustified.

I announced that I would not take part in any of the leadership aspects/roles of last night's RtR—I felt I had been disrespected and in turn disrespected and turned against the rest of you for the actions of a decidedly small group. The crime, if it can truly be called that, was simply over enthusiasm; an enthusiasm I try to encourage on any other night and feel is, at times, lacking.

Last night I found myself thinking:
What could I have done better?
throughout the raid.

My team was filled with good friends—people with five stars over their heads. Half of which had missed RtR for weeks and what they were presented with was shameful. I agree it does not take any great amount of intellect to call pylons—no offense to my predecessors whom I regard with the highest respect and admiration—the majority of people know the order by heart.

However, the uncoordinated efforts continued when we reached the ship and GM, which was pulled with no visible prompting or warning at a time when there was more Venge Bait than fighters. The push for the center staggered and stumbled all the way to the bowl.

Again, I admit my own inaction played a large part in the disastrous events at Rush the Rikti last night. In the future I will not abuse or take advantage of the good will of the players who make RtR possible. To that effect I ask for forgiveness from all parties, my actions were rash, immature and ill motivated.

I also forgive any and all jump starters at last night's RtR and ask that everyone else forgive them as well as they are not, truly, the ones whom should be blamed.

I look forward to leading RtR next Wednesday 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific.

Thank you,
Drake C.
@Drake Crator
Diffidentia Angelus

I wasn't there last night. But my friends who were were all talking about how well it went and how fun and profitable it was. I guess opinions are different for everyone.

just sayin' at the end of the raid there were 46 people in zone, not counting hidden folks

Just sayin, jumping in on a scheduled event and trying to take over because you are a Go!, Go!, Go! person is frowned upon and will get you a pretty bad rep here. One stars tend to not get invited to task forces and such.

This happened two weeks ago as well. Very poor manners on those who tried to take over, IMHO.

I hear from second hand a little about the issues encountered Wednesday night and must say I'm impressed to see people actively trying to figure out ways to better our overall community enjoyment of this recurring event.

After 3 years, Rush the Rikti has become as much a part of Protector's landscape as any other regular event, and that is in large part due to the faithfulness of the regular leaders like Drake Crator, Stone Daemon, Blazing Blue and before that Kira Swiftpaw (@Storm Tiger) and Elasi.

Here is my one and only suggestion: delegate.

Set a list of people whose experience can be counted on to run the raid if the expected "zone caller" can't make it (or can't make it into the zone). Have a rotating schedule, if that's better, for the folks who could lead (preferably not all of them close friends of yours).

If the scheduled raid doesn't start promptly at the time it's been set, people will start chomping at the bit and Bad Things™ will start happening. Not only will they not respect being throttled, they will probably lose respect.

I know you're working hard to provide a safe, structured raid. It goes without saying that you care about Protector enough to offer your time up like this. The fact that you popped in here and explained the situation in a transparent manner also displays good leadership skills.

That said, the harder you try to achieve perfection (and impose it), the less it will be appreciated. Protector is funny like that. It needs to "do its own thing". It needs to faceplant occasionally. It likes diversity. Many will think they can do it better than any of you (and some can) and will resent you simply for being there. You can't please everybody al lthe time.

The best you can hope for is to set up a flexible and dynamic structure where others can assist you and you don't get burned out or feel trapped into this weekly thing. The Hami raids are a great example of this. Another would be the Mentor Project (even if that is cross-server, it started here on Protector).


Again: delegate.

And then sit back and enjoy what you've helped set in motion, without suffering all the stress that goes with it.

Thanks for leading this thing guys.

The problem wasn't a lack of delegation, though. The raid leader was in the zone. The raid leader was preparing to call the shots, actually.

The problem is that people didn't want to wait until the scheduled start time of the raid.

You can't fix impatience on the part of others through delegation.

Thanks for that Stalemate. Good words that are accurate to what I wish to express. I have been on perfect raids, at least raids that I feel were perfect and those were lead by Blazing Blue and Storm Tiger. To me perfect raids are the ones I get to sit back and let the cogs turn without having to give instruction or watch like a hawk to keep the mob together.

I may, strike that, I do strive for perfection. I acknowledge that there's many different views on it and most of the time I am content to let people act as they will. After leading for a year I have adopted a system where I feel I am doing everything I can to ensure everyone gets a much credit as they can but understand that all the leadership and instruction in the world does not guarantee success. A single individual a few months ago caused a cataclysmic split at the GM that resulted in a majority of people not getting credit, another group being killed on the spot and a handful getting full credit for the GM. As to the high gains some people express could easily be due to fewer being able to claim part of those rewards because of deaths while participating in the raid.

I have, in the past, delegated different tasks to closer friends on the game but feel I have always been open and welcome others to contact me before the raid starts if they wish to do something in particular such as pull the GM or tank Pylons; or at least have always hoped and intended to be approachable in this manner. In those cases I ensure the individual is on my team, in some cases joining their team, so that we have a direct line of communication. (Some how I always end up with the star though.) This was done for Blazing Blue by me bringing my tank, Diffidentia Angelus, so that he did not have to worry about the point position during Pylons and pulling the GM enabling him to play alternate characters.

At the same time I’d like to remind everyone that this is a labor of love on my part and is done on a character that is getting virtually no rewards; I've capped Vanguard Merits (twice), have all the badges and am eager to see Incarnate Shards just like everyone else. I am taking time out every week to show up at least thirty minutes early (closer to an hour currently) on the same character and am (usually) exceedingly patient with everyone. I do this to ensure everyone else has a fair shot at rewards and has as much fun as possible.

My action this past Wednesday (2011-Jan-12) was not how I should have handled the situation presented to me. However, I invite everyone to look at it from my point of view. I work hard to ensure that everyone gets to have a good time, I try to keep it as fun as I can while still completing the typical objectives of Rush the Rikti, and take an inordinate amount of time to do all of this for the benefit of everyone else. So when there is a group who jump in a full two minutes early and they or others follow with disrespectful trash talk I don’t take kindly to it. It would be similar to someone being in Atlas during a Costume Contest showing up out of the blue and saying they’re a judge; then they continue it by arguing with the decision(s) of the true judge(s) on an open/visible channel.

I suppose I'd ultimately like to hear from more people, more often and in more detail about how they feel Rush the Rikti is doing and if there are any ways it can be improved; however, I'd like to do that over the forum rather than in game. In game works well enough for the typical thank you I get but not much beyond that; plus, I’d like to be as transparent as possible about recommendations. (Though I may ask to flesh out ideas over forum PM as to prevent confusion and clogging of the thread.)

After all, I’m only human.