Discussion: Changes to Task/Strike Force Missions
By
Acid_Reign,
Posted on: 2008-02-14 15:00 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
LH, there is a rumour that TFs 'cannot be completed if anyone logs out'. Can we get confirmation or denial on this one, please?
Hmm, this won't help much with the Shadow Shard TFs, since on some of those you could knock out some of the missions without the team there. It's tough to get 8 people on at one time for the duration of a few of those.
Positron's TF shouldn't be affected much. Neither should the others in the original 6 TFs.
Hmm, I guess we'll have to wait and see how this shakes out.
"...freedom isn't a commodity to compromise." -- Captain America, New Avengers #21
Guide to Base Teleporters
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LH, there is a rumour that TFs 'cannot be completed if anyone logs out'. Can we get confirmation or denial on this one, please?
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Based on what was written, that seems to be rumor (unless it's a rumored 'bug') since LH specifically gives an example of a team of eight gradually shrinking throughout the TF. This strongly implies that dropping members does not carry any additional penalties except for increased risk when dropping below the TF minimum.
If this is a rumored BUG, that's a different issue, which LH may not have information on yet.
AWESOME CHANGE! Softloading is the most stupidest thing.
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One of the many aims of this most recent update was to address exploitive behavior that could be used for influence/infamy farming.
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That's retarded. If anyone was using TF's for INFAMY/INFLUENCE you just helped them out. It was RECIPES that were being farmed.
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Positron's TF shouldn't be affected much. Neither should the others in the original 6 TFs.
Hmm, I guess we'll have to wait and see how this shakes out.
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It's just another example of them not being honest about the reasons behind the "fix". We know this was because of Cap runs. They know we know. Their PR department said "that won't go over well... just blame it on the RMTers"
Solo farming has just become SO much easier! Thank you!
EDIT: And sure it was "left out of the patch notes" earlier today you posted it was a bug. You guys at NCsoft sure are disorganized.
When something good happens to me, I can never enjoy it....
I am always too busy looking for the inevitable punchline...
BEHOLD THE POWER OF CHEESE!
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Solo farming has just become SO much easier! Thank you!
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See! Told ya! 
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It was RECIPES that were being farmed.
We know this was because of Cap runs. They know we know.
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Cap just became a Katie TF clone, that's all.
Just glad they didn't change Cap to "kill all" missions. I.E. this fix coulda been worse, since it is a very breezy SF.
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We know that finding out about this change after the patch is already live is not the ideal way to go about it. It was never our intent to hide or stealth this change out, it was simply lost in the volume of other changes spanning many months.
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This part I am not buying even for a second. It has happened way too much since the begining of the game, it even happens after Jack left the game. Lighthouse this is a pretty huge change that we should have known about in the patch notes, there is absolutely no excuse that something this big gets missed in the patch notes. I can understand not posting a patch note due to the exploits like the Ouroboros powerlevel exploit but this isnt even on that level and should not have been missed period. This has been a constant thing with us the players having to figure it out whether it was a bug or "Working As Intended". You guys need to do better because this is inexcuseable due to the size of the change.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
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Hmm, this won't help much with the Shadow Shard TFs, since on some of those you could knock out some of the missions without the team there. It's tough to get 8 people on at one time for the duration of a few of those.
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Please can the minimum team size of the Shard TF's in particular be examined.
An adjustment to 6 should be at least seriously considered.
Manticore should also be tweaked down from 7 to 6.
All in all I did see this coming. Softloading was becoming far too commonly used as a shortcut.
Of course now I am going to have to solo a load of them again just for the heck of it 
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
I think this will add between 2 and 8 minutes to my Virgil Run times.
So now I can use purples, but have to beat 4 players worth of baddies. Sounds fair :-)
Is there any way some of the TF's with 8 minimum requirements could possibly be changed to, say, 6 players?
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Hmm, this won't help much with the Shadow Shard TFs, since on some of those you could knock out some of the missions without the team there. It's tough to get 8 people on at one time for the duration of a few of those.
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Please can the minimum team size of the Shard TF's in particular be examined.
An adjustment to 6 should be at least seriously considered.
Manticore should also be tweaked down from 7 to 6.
All in all I did see this coming. Softloading was becoming far too commonly used as a shortcut.
Of course now I am going to have to solo a load of them again just for the heck of it
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Agreed. Softloading was HIGHLY annoying IMO and I'm glad it won't work anymore. It just... felt like cheating to me.
Now if they'll just fix the Sewer Trial to have an upper level limit so it can't be cheated, i'll be a happy camper! 
@KingSnake - Triumph Server
@PrinceSnake
My common sense is tingling... ~ Deadpool
If you can't learn to do something well... learn to enjoy doing it poorly...
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Positron's TF shouldn't be affected much.
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Other than I know that I won't ever plan to do Posi's TF ever again, since that is a TF I would much rather solo than try to take a team along on for a ride against the three most annoying villain groups of the first 15 levels of the game.
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Bad.
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Hmm, this won't help much with the Shadow Shard TFs, since on some of those you could knock out some of the missions without the team there. It's tough to get 8 people on at one time for the duration of a few of those.
[/ QUOTE ]
Please can the minimum team size of the Shard TF's in particular be examined.
An adjustment to 6 should be at least seriously considered.
Manticore should also be tweaked down from 7 to 6.
All in all I did see this coming. Softloading was becoming far too commonly used as a shortcut.
Of course now I am going to have to solo a load of them again just for the heck of it
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Agreed. Softloading was HIGHLY annoying IMO and I'm glad it won't work anymore. It just... felt like cheating to me.
Now if they'll just fix the Sewer Trial to have an upper level limit so it can't be cheated, i'll be a happy camper!
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Or they could just fix soft loading.
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Is there any way some of the TF's with 8 minimum requirements could possibly be changed to, say, 3 players?
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Fixt
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Positron's TF shouldn't be affected much.
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Other than I know that I won't ever plan to do Posi's TF ever again, since that is a TF I would much rather solo than try to take a team along on for a ride against the three most annoying villain groups of the first 15 levels of the game.
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QFT, and same with every heroside TF/playing any new heroes at all for me.
Are the devs IDIOTS or what? You know whats hilarious about this? They just handed over a farmers dream and gave casual players a REASON to actually patronize the online stores. I was irritated with ED and stuck it out. Foog this.
Why don't you dev people actually talk to REAL players that supply the market and get off making money with " costume" packs.
THis is the dumbest change ever. It won't stop people from farming sf//tf's. Why? Because they play well and a 4 spawn to solo is cake. Easy breezy. However.... the addded time will be irritating with the current drop rate.Extra 40 mins is no big deal for a GD " Pacing of the Turd" or a snipe recipe.
In addition the " farming" stores bs doesnt fly. Since when do online stores sell recipes or salvage?
What happens when you begin with the bare minimum and then several team mates need to quit?
This change prevents casual players from organzing Task forces and strike forces, especially Villainside where subscriptions are dwindling and reducing the player pool already.
The late explanation is superficial and hardly persuasive. Villainside Cap Au Diable SF was farmed because the redside market is anemic compared to the blueside market. This change will only increase this large gap. Clearly NCSoft is making changes to keep the game interesting by preventing easy recipes, but what will you do when the market has so few?
I'm tempted to think that NCSoft is attemtping to manage serversize by making CoV uninhabitable.
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I was irritated with ED and stuck it out. Foog this.
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Can I have your recipes then?
<.<
What? They're gunna be hard to come by!
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What happens when you begin with the bare minimum and then several team mates need to quit?
This change prevents casual players from organzing Task forces and strike forces, especially Villainside where subscriptions are dwindling and reducing the player pool already.
The late explanation is superficial and hardly persuasive. Villainside Cap Au Diable SF was farmed because the redside market is anemic compared to the blueside market. This change will only increase this large gap. Clearly NCSoft is making changes to keep the game interesting by preventing easy recipes, but what will you do when the market has so few?
I'm tempted to think that NCSoft is attemtping to manage serversize by making CoV uninhabitable.
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Both games use the same servers, there is no hero only or villain only accounts unless you bought the games seperate after NCSoft bought City of Heroes/Villains from cryptic studios. You will find very few places that still sell them seperate.
Bump and Grind Bane/SoA
Kenja No Ishi Earth/Empathy Controller
Legendary Sannin Ninja/Pain Mastermind
Entoxicated Ninja/PSN Mastermind
Ninja Ryukenden Kat/WP Scrapper
Hellish Thoughts Fire/PSI Dominator
Thank You Devs for Merits!!!!
(Honestly) Not to be rude...but...
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Thanks in advance for your understanding and for your continued support.
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Don't thank in advance for that which will never be there...
Why are they so obtuse?
I'm off to spend my last 500 mill on a few villianside uniques to sit on.I'll sell em back later for 400 mill a pop.
This is villianside Katie Nerf I suppose.
On another note? If the devs want us to PLAY more and do tf//sf's as intended? Why dont we have more sf's villianside?How many times are we suppossed to do an ingame task to experience " content'? YOu people introduced " loot". Shame on you for stomping on people smart enough to come up with creative ways to procure loot for their own characters as well as supply the markets.
I'm not gonna cancel yet. I give it 2 weeks. Then I'll make some pretty damn snarky posts in the market forums.
/salud Devs!! You all rock!! 
Funny, all this complaining, and all I really see in this change is "TFs will be played as they were supposed to be played"
Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement:
Hi everyone,
We wanted to make you aware of an additional change that made it into the game update that went live on February 12th. Heres the Patch Note for the change:
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Tasks
Spawns in Task Forces, Strike Forces and Trials will now spawn enemies for at least the minimum size required to start the Task Force, Strike Force or Trial.
For example, if a Task Force requires 4 players to start and a team of 8 start the Taskforce, the spawns will spawn for a team size of 8. If 4 players drop out of this Task Force leaving only 4 players left in the team, the spawns will adjust to a team size of 4. If 2 more players leave the Task Force leaving only 2 players, the spawns will remain at a team size of 4, since that is the minimum size required to start the Task Force.
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Such missions have always been intended to be group activities, hence the reason for the minimum group size requirement to start them. We feel that the group size requirements are certainly not onerous and that the need for grouping is a good dynamic in a social environment like City of Heroes. We want to continue to offer good rewards based on a group accomplishment through such missions and maintaining that requirement is the reason for this change.
We know that finding out about this change after the patch is already live is not the ideal way to go about it. It was never our intent to hide or stealth this change out, it was simply lost in the volume of other changes spanning many months.
One of the many aims of this most recent update was to address exploitive behavior that could be used for influence/infamy farming. This is especially relevant when considering recent problems with unwanted real money trade (RMT) solicitations in game. Also included in the most recent update is the change to make it harder for RMT spammers to use the in game mail system for such advertisements. We will continue to make other changes as necessary to address the issue.
Thanks in advance for your understanding and for your continued support.
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.