In-Testing: Task / Strike Force and Trial Missions
By
1_800_Spines,
Posted on: 2008-02-26 15:44 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
I have no problems with something to be done to correct exploitation. Since I don't know how many people actually do softloading to farm recipes, I can't comment on how widespread the behavior is. In my 42+ months of playing CoX, I have never had anyone suggest that we softload missions. Before or after the Invention system. Not even when we ran the MSTF badge. That isn't to say that it doesn't happen a lot. You guys have access to numbers and information we don't.
However, while I support your decision to remedy the exploitation issue (since it obviously seems to be a pretty big concern), I'm not sure that this particular solution really addresses the problem in a way that's most fair for a large portion, if not a majority, of players who run tf's. Sometimes, things happen that we just can't control and for whatever reason, we're unable to finish or help our team complete the tf. Or we miss three or four missions. Sometimes, we may not have the chance to quit before we log or get disconnected. Why punish players who are legitimately running content that was designed to be done by teams but for reasons they can't control, lose one or more team members? Gathering groups of people you trust and assuring that they all have stellar internet connections isn't always feasible.
I think the "You must complete X number of missions to get a recipe drop" is probably the best solution you'll be able to find for this problem. Implementing that remedy quickly seems to be an issue, but I'm not really sure that going with THIS change is that much better. I feel that it too broadly punishes people who are not exploiting the system.
To me, the more fundamental problem seems to be why people are exploiting softloading in the first place. The Black Market is much slower redside. Some of the recipes in Pool C aren't globally useful or lack value on the market. The people who are farming or exploiting TF's are filling a need. Getting a Miracle: End Recovery or Luck of the Gambler: +Recharge is almost unobtainable for casual players. Heck, I have six level 50's and a goodly amount of influence/infamy, and even I'm not willing to shell out 30+ million influence for a Numina's Regen/Recovery. I rarely run tf's for recipes because there's a good chance I'll get something that doesn't sell for very much or I just don't need. Perhaps instead of applying a band-aid to the problem, the game and community would be better served by addressing the inequalities in the market.
So...if the current fix is to be the solution for the time being, I hope that the more friendly "You must complete X number of missions" is implemented as quickly as possible.
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When someone acts like a child, that's the response they get.
To those who are doing the most griping, bellyaching, and finger-pointing at devs, in this thread, I ask this:
Are you having fun playing the game anymore? From what you guys and gals are saying, or inferring, it sounds to me like fun has left the building a long time ago. Why are you still here if you think that the devs are doing nothing but your gaming life more difficult? What keeps you in Paragon City/Rogue Isles?
Take a step back...enjoy life for a minute. Deep breaths, focus on something that actually means something, and then come back and try to enjoy what's here. If there truly isn't anything worth coming back for, it might be time to try something else.
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I'm saying this change will reduce the fun of one of the parts of the game I really like doing. With nothing to compensate, and even now an indication that any fixes to the problems to TFs aren't even on the back burner.
If their partial fix had been "OK, what we'll do is reduce the minimums for TFs except for LRSF and STF so that you need to lose more people to make it hurt, we'll be looking at further tweaks to this and other fixes to problems with task and strike forces after I12 goes live", I'd have met that with cheering.
Hell, even though I consider this worse than what's on live, if this had been introduced with the assurance of dealing with the other issues post I12, I'd have been reasonably mollified. But as it is, yes, I'm annoyed.
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
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I somewhat agree with you on this (except I think PUGs should be able to do them as well without having to worry about griefing) but want to point out that the last sentence of your response really came across like someone talking down to a child.
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When someone acts like a child, that's the response they get.
To those who are doing the most griping, bellyaching, and finger-pointing at devs, in this thread, I ask this:
Are you having fun playing the game anymore? From what you guys and gals are saying, or inferring, it sounds to me like fun has left the building a long time ago. Why are you still here if you think that the devs are doing nothing but your gaming life more difficult? What keeps you in Paragon City/Rogue Isles?
Take a step back...enjoy life for a minute. Deep breaths, focus on something that actually means something, and then come back and try to enjoy what's here. If there truly isn't anything worth coming back for, it might be time to try something else.
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Some of us are waiting for the fun to return. That's all.
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It's still fun for me, and things have only been getting better leading up to and after the NCNC situation. But I'm not impressed with there being this "Ceiling" to how much NCNC believes this game needs. Why else would you add content, then start playing with the underlying mechanics that are 3.9 years old? At least it's game wide, and doesn't hurt any particular AT / VAT / Powerset. It just generally feels like a letdown, that's all. Keep adding things, but stop with the backend reconfigurations. It Sucks.
The TF/SF changes on live now have had one of our SG/VG members decide to not renew his 3 accounts. It was literally just the straw that broke the camel's back. I fear I'm going to lose more people that have been playing for 3.75 years.
War Council is not big, but we do represent $313.95/month in revenue. I think I'll re-up for 3 more months with my 2 accounts, but will see what the other 19 accounts will be doing. It's seriously bad tidings. I don't expect to have empathy to my feelings, but I really needed to express them. These TF/SF changes hurt.
After I get my Wii next month, I will probably let my account expire as well.
All for a TF change? Sheesh.
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I still would like the ability to add/invite new players/teammates to a TF/SF if it goes below the minimum for the TF/SF (if the others have QUIT and not just logged off).
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I don't like this idea. People who haven't had any part in the task force could be brought in right at the end and collect a nice, shiny reward. You might even run into people kicking other players off at the last minute just so they could invite an alt on another account.
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I have to agree. It would open the door up to some nasty griefing/exploiting. Start a PUG TF and boot everyone at the end and invite your friends/SG mates for the rewards. Definitely not an option I would want to see implemented.
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It's still fun for me, and things have only been getting better leading up to and after the NCNC situation. But I'm not impressed with there being this "Ceiling" to how much NCNC believes this game needs. Why else would you add content, then start playing with the underlying mechanics that are 3.9 years old? At least it's game wide, and doesn't hurt any particular AT / VAT / Powerset. It just generally feels like a letdown, that's all. Keep adding things, but stop with the backend reconfigurations. It Sucks.
The TF/SF changes on live now have had one of our SG/VG members decide to not renew his 3 accounts. It was literally just the straw that broke the camel's back. I fear I'm going to lose more people that have been playing for 3.75 years.
War Council is not big, but we do represent $313.95/month in revenue. I think I'll re-up for 3 more months with my 2 accounts, but will see what the other 19 accounts will be doing. It's seriously bad tidings. I don't expect to have empathy to my feelings, but I really needed to express them. These TF/SF changes hurt.
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Yeah, that's just it. Someone said earlier in this thread that all these small changes are slowly taking the fun out of the game. Especially for those who have played since launch (while I may not be on my original account anymore since I let it expire, I've still been around since near launch).
There's plenty of things broken right now, and TF's being softloaded wasn't one of them.
I honestly miss the days of watching tanks round up whole missions. I honestly miss the days of seeing a blaster nuke 50 mobs, manage to not kill the lts, and then die laughing. I miss the days of seeing grav controllers with multiple singularities, ice controllers with multiple jacks, and earth controllers with multiple poomen. I miss those days.
I was around when The Hollows was first introduced. Everyone loved it. I hated it. It killed Perez Park.
Lots of little changes. And for what? Has it made the game more fun? Not that I can see.
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When someone acts like a child, that's the response they get.
To those who are doing the most griping, bellyaching, and finger-pointing at devs, in this thread, I ask this:
Are you having fun playing the game anymore? From what you guys and gals are saying, or inferring, it sounds to me like fun has left the building a long time ago. Why are you still here if you think that the devs are doing nothing but your gaming life more difficult? What keeps you in Paragon City/Rogue Isles?
Take a step back...enjoy life for a minute. Deep breaths, focus on something that actually means something, and then come back and try to enjoy what's here. If there truly isn't anything worth coming back for, it might be time to try something else.
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I'm saying this change will reduce the fun of one of the parts of the game I really like doing. With nothing to compensate, and even now an indication that any fixes to the problems to TFs aren't even on the back burner.
If their partial fix had been "OK, what we'll do is reduce the minimums for TFs except for LRSF and STF so that you need to lose more people to make it hurt, we'll be looking at further tweaks to this and other fixes to problems with task and strike forces after I12 goes live", I'd have met that with cheering.
Hell, even though I consider this worse than what's on live, if this had been introduced with the assurance of dealing with the other issues post I12, I'd have been reasonably mollified. But as it is, yes, I'm annoyed.
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Are you assuming that just because they don't come out and spell every plan they have out for you in great detail, that means they aren't considering it at all? Have you stopped to think that maybe some of the bigger fixes or changes to TF's might come with the next issue, and right now they can't discuss anything about it because it would be giving something away which would make marketting mad?
They tell us that X, Y, and Z are coming. We get all excited because we've been looking forward to it, or we get pissed because we see the doom on the horizon. When X, Y, and Z get changed to A, B, and C because of unforseen problems, or new bugs that came about because of new features, the previously excited people get mad because what they wanted got changed, and wasn't what they were told it was gonna be. The previously pissed people are still pissed because its another way the devs lied, or misled, or whatever BS excuse they could come up with. Can't win that way, so they try not spilling the beans on everything, which makes everyone antsy and upset when they aren't being informed. Which way would you like it?
TF's are part of your fun. That's great, and I'm sorry you feel that your fun is diminished by the changes. I really don't see much of a threat to the fun myself. The minimum required to start a TF/SF is not the minimum needed to complete it. If there are plenty of folks that are willing to pad someone's mish, there will be plenty to help you start a TF. This new change will make the mishes spawn to whatever number appropriate for those who wish to continue...That's it. Those with cronic disconnect problems don't do TF's anyway, so don't worry about them. If you've got a griefer on your team that won't quit the TF and just logs out, more than likely they were gonna be dead weight anyway. If they're logged, they won't get the xp and drops for standing at the door, and the rest of the team gets to fight mobs that spawn for one more than they have in the fight anyway.
Loose --> not tight.
Lose --> Did not win, misplace, cannot find, subtract.
One extra 'o' makes a big difference.
Fluxx wrote:
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I honestly miss the days of watching tanks round up whole missions.
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Some people just can't adapt to changes. <shrug> Last night I was on a team with a herding tank. He became upset when we wouldn't stand in his designated spot while he herded. With three scrappers, it was more fun just to wade into every spawn.
He quit immediately when the mission was over. And everyone made some comment about how they hated herding. The next mission was a lot more fun. And faster xp.
--NT
They all laughed at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian.
But I showed them, and nobody's laughing at me now!
If I became a red name, I would be all "and what would you mere mortals like to entertain me with today, mu hu ha ha ha!" ~Arcanaville
How many times and in how many ways does Lighthouse need to say, "This is the best we could do with the time resources we have right now?"
I appreciate the people who are posting alternatives, but let;'s not make any presumptions about how things are organized and what could have been done with the time they had, please.
Further tweaks may be forthcoming, please feel free to say what direction you want them to take. However, softloading that allows 1 person to set up rewards for 8 is RIGHT OUT. Let's start from there.
Story Arcs I created:
Every Rose: (#17702) Villainous vs Legacy Chain. Forget Arachnos, join the CoT!
Cosplay Madness!: (#3643) Neutral vs Custom Foes. Heroes at a pop culture convention!
Kiss Hello Goodbye: (#156389) Heroic vs Custom Foes. Film Noir/Hardboiled detective adventure!
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Fluxx wrote:
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I honestly miss the days of watching tanks round up whole missions.
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Some people just can't adapt to changes.
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Some people don't like being forced to change. I really liked herding, it was honestly something epic. Serious action, MASSIVE soul drains and AoE's. Really, really big stuff. I've moved on, since I've been forced to.
Not everyone needs to be told their wrong for liking something. I too also enjoy hitting a spawn of NPC's fast and hard, I like it for a different reason. I just wish I had the option to grab 100+ Enemies with a character.
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So, would you rather have the Lady Gray TF or a revamped Positron?
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Revamped Positron. Hands down. That's not even a close call; I didn't even have to think about that one for a second.
Look, no matter how hard you work on retaining your 50s, some more of them are going to quit the game and move on to something else every month. Some of them out-grow MMOs, some of them really do get bored with the game no matter what you do with it, some of them run out of money, some of them even die. Some attrition is a fact of life. And frankly, you've done a whole heck of a lot in the last four issues for people level 40+.
No, the challenge you need to work on and do it right now is eliminating obstacles to bringing in and retaining new subscribers. Just from the ordinary dynamics of MMOs, 2/3rds of those will make their first character a Hero. And when they turn level 10 and are all excited about getting to do their first ever task force ... how many of them quit the game the next day, thinking "wow, this is all I have to look forward to, the same old stuff only even more aggravating than the missions I was already doing?"
I'm standing firm in my opinion that this game's number one need is not more story arcs, more power sets, more high-level raids, or even (as badly as they're needed) more strike forces. I wouldn't even elevate any of the few remaining game balance issues, like the desperate need for a substantial stalker re-design, to the top of the list.
No, the number one thing this game needs, if it's ever going to increase its total number of subscriptions the way that NCsoft is counting on it to do, is to go through the mind-bogglingly awful and horribly out-of-date level 5 to 15 content and bring it up to the same standard of quality as the later stuff, as the stuff that you're designing now. Less mind-numbing repetition in the first two task forces. Fewer street hunts, especially fewer street hunts that send you to hazard zones. More customized maps where needed. More distinctive-looking named bosses. More clues dropped to indicate that yes, you really are working on ongoing story lines that are either about to wrap up or that are going to be ongoing all the way to level 40 or whatever.
And for the gods' sake, you spent the last two months training new hires on the mission-editing system. If you didn't use that awful content as classroom exercises for them, why in the heck didn't you? You could have killed two birds with one stone; I'm still holding on to some hope that you did just that.
As much as I'd love more stuff to play with, I'd even more rather have more new people to play with -- not least of which because it'd fund your efforts to give me more stuff to play with even more. You need to stop patting yourselves on the back for doing more or less as well as EVE Online. In case you failed to notice, EVE Online is still growing. You're not.
Maybe I'm off base on why people don't choose to subscribe after a free trial, why they cancel after their first month. I know from quitting other NCsoft games that NCsoft asks people why they quit. So, Lighthouse, you tell me: how many people say that its because of repetitive and dull content, versus how many people say that there aren't enough powersets, versus how many people say there isn't enough high level content? What do your own in-house surveys of exiting users tell you, especially the ones who quit so soon that you barely got any money out of them?
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All for a TF change? Sheesh.
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No. Im just getting really bored of this game. The TF change was part of it, but not the whole reason.
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All for a TF change? Sheesh.
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Yes. All for a TF change. It affects my gameplay. It's that simple, not up for conjecture.
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How many times and in how many ways does Lighthouse need to say, "This is the best we could do with the time resources we have right now?"
I appreciate the people who are posting alternatives, but let;'s not make any presumptions about how things are organized and what could have been done with the time they had, please.
Further tweaks may be forthcoming, please feel free to say what direction you want them to take. However, softloading that allows 1 person to set up rewards for 8 is RIGHT OUT. Let's start from there.
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See thats the thing.
Im sick and tired of this method of doing things. They fix a *Problem*, promise to revisit it later on, and meanwhile, everyone suffers for *years*.
Just wait until you have the FULL TIME to devote to this issue before you change things. Softspawning Caps is not hurting anybody.
Quite contrary, its singularly supporting the PoS villain Pool C economy.
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All for a TF change? Sheesh.
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Yes. All for a TF change. It affects my gameplay. It's that simple, not up for conjecture.
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At least Candlestick was honest.
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How many times and in how many ways does Lighthouse need to say, "This is the best we could do with the time resources we have right now?"
I appreciate the people who are posting alternatives, but let;'s not make any presumptions about how things are organized and what could have been done with the time they had, please.
Further tweaks may be forthcoming, please feel free to say what direction you want them to take. However, softloading that allows 1 person to set up rewards for 8 is RIGHT OUT. Let's start from there.
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See thats the thing.
Im sick and tired of this method of doing things. They fix a *Problem*, promise to revisit it later on, and meanwhile, everyone suffers for *years*.
Just wait until you have the FULL TIME to devote to this issue before you change things. Softspawning Caps is not hurting anybody.
Quite contrary, its singularly supporting the PoS villain Pool C economy.
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To be fair, the devs did roll back a couple of "fixes" rather then putting them live. For example, stacking buffs like CM and Rage come to mind. They could have screwed over us players then but chose to implement a different change and revisit another time.
Guess I won't be doing ANY more TF/SF until THIS fix gets a FIX.
Farmers can STILL farm it, and casual players (me) get screwed even more.
Fail.
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How many times and in how many ways does Lighthouse need to say, "This is the best we could do with the time resources we have right now?"
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Perhaps the best would be to leave things as they are on Live.
Is there a Hippocratic Oath for game programmers?
The latest patch setting a minimum spawn size has only been around for a week. Are we sure it's not doing its job well enough to justify a second fix that brings along these other troubles for non-exploiters?
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All for a TF change? Sheesh.
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Yes. All for a TF change. It affects my gameplay. It's that simple, not up for conjecture.
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At least Candlestick was honest.
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Please don't call me dishonest. It's not nice.
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Are you assuming that just because they don't come out and spell every plan they have out for you in great detail, that means they aren't considering it at all? Have you stopped to think that maybe some of the bigger fixes or changes to TF's might come with the next issue, and right now they can't discuss anything about it because it would be giving something away which would make marketting mad?
They tell us that X, Y, and Z are coming. We get all excited because we've been looking forward to it, or we get pissed because we see the doom on the horizon. When X, Y, and Z get changed to A, B, and C because of unforseen problems, or new bugs that came about because of new features, the previously excited people get mad because what they wanted got changed, and wasn't what they were told it was gonna be. The previously pissed people are still pissed because its another way the devs lied, or misled, or whatever BS excuse they could come up with. Can't win that way, so they try not spilling the beans on everything, which makes everyone antsy and upset when they aren't being informed. Which way would you like it?
TF's are part of your fun. That's great, and I'm sorry you feel that your fun is diminished by the changes. I really don't see much of a threat to the fun myself. The minimum required to start a TF/SF is not the minimum needed to complete it. If there are plenty of folks that are willing to pad someone's mish, there will be plenty to help you start a TF. This new change will make the mishes spawn to whatever number appropriate for those who wish to continue...That's it. Those with cronic disconnect problems don't do TF's anyway, so don't worry about them. If you've got a griefer on your team that won't quit the TF and just logs out, more than likely they were gonna be dead weight anyway. If they're logged, they won't get the xp and drops for standing at the door, and the rest of the team gets to fight mobs that spawn for one more than they have in the fight anyway.
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I neither want nor need details. Just something to say "We realize that there are issues with task forces, and they're going to be a priority. It won't be now, there's no time, and it won't be in I12, that's already locked in, but it is a priority." But the comment Lighthouse made representing the choice as between "fix old or create new stuff" tells me just the opposite.
Actually, what would thrill me beyond all measure is a new thread of "We know there are problems with task forces and strike forces. We're going to be addressing them. There's no time now, and we'll be limited on how much we can fit into Issue 12, but we're going to commit the time to fix them. So, what do you as players see as needed changes? We're not going to just do whatever players ask, and parts may happen before others, but now is the time to make sure we know what you see as the problems."
My arcs are constantly shifting, just search for GadgetDon for the latest.
The world beware! I've started a blog
GadgetMania Under Attack: The Digg Lockout
<QR>
A few suggestions to fix the fix and to make the TFs more challenging without hurting the players:
Instead of hard-capping the spawn sizes at the size required to start the TF, hard-cap at the size required -1 or -2. That allows for connection difficulties without easily allowing soloing (although the change as-is doesn't even slow some builds down--not naming any names).
Or, if you're really determined to make things difficult, cap all TF/SF spawns at Hazard Zone sizes and compositions. Then let people try to solo, say, Positron, while multiple stacking mezzes or zombie vomit artillery batteries pummel them.
Or, make TFs and SFs automatically crank the players' difficulty sliders up all the way for the duration of the TF. Soloing Invincible missions while exemplared ought to bring the challenge that the devs think we need....
There are a lot of fixes for the dev-perceived problem that don't punish people who don't have stable broadband connections (the many) in their effort to punish the lazy (the...other many?).
QR.
I have to say that the changes didn't really hit me until I started playing redside. On the heroes I didn't notice anything huge other than "I guess I'm not doing posi anymore". But now that I come over to villains, I see that the black market is horrible, and these changes only made things alot worse.
Sure, I don't think people should be able to exploit tf's/sf's in the way that they did, but it seemed almost like the exploit was a "Robin Hood" to our "Nottingham" otherwise known as the black market. Not being able to get what my toons want/need really kills my wanting to play the game.
To attempt to consolidate my incoherent thought process, I think that the tf/sf exploit was in some ways necessary until its primary reason for being exploited is addressed. People need Set IO's, people will look for a way to get them as efficiently as possible. With a fix to how people were getting the recipes and without a fix to the dead market itself, it feels like things are only going to get worse for everyone. If the BM bottoms out before anything is done to address the problem, I feel NC's going to lose a bit more of their player base (at least redside, even though it's already small).
I didn't want to believe it, but NCsoft might actually be losing me...I made my first toon in a different MMO since I came back to CoX. PLEASE, DON'T LET WOW STEAL ME AWAY FROM YOU! sorry, just had to get that off of my chest.
@Mojo-
Proud Member of Fusion Force.
So, would you rather have the Lady Gray TF or a revamped Positron?
I'd rather have a revamped Positron.
Old, broken content should be fixed or removed, not left out to fester where everyone can see it, no matter how much shiny new stuff is propped up next to it.
Current Blog Post: "Why I am an Atheist..."
"And I say now these kittens, they do not get trained/As we did in the days when Victoria reigned!" -- T. S. Eliot, "Gus, the Theatre Cat"
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Ok, so here is the problem with this change.
Synapse. 8 people. I know all of them and love them, 1 of them is my husband, 1 of them me.
About 30 minutes in, hubby and I start mapserving occasionally. Nothing big, haven't dropped, but we're getting a little annoyed.
2 hours in. We both drop - cable's out.
Now there's a team of 6 (Synapse requires 4). Because we went link-dead, we're still on the team. But the cable's out - who knows when it'll get back on, and hell, maybe we're so annoyed with the mapserving we say screw it, and rent a movie.
...
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If you understand it is your connection when you start dropping (like say resetting the cable modem fixes it), then realize you may hard drop and tell your friends you'll bow out rather than risk it (or at least discuss it with them to see what they want to do, maybe they think, given the team make up, they could brute force it even if you two do drop).
At least this way, their is your ability to control it. For an example, what if the Task Force was one with a 6 person minimum and you started it with 6. Under what's currently on live, you'd have no recourse and the team would be doing the mission with 4 people with spawns of 6. With the change, you can at least realize what is going on and preemptively quit and allow the spawn size to scale.
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What?!?
How could they know it was their cable until it actually dropped? It's not like they were pulling up the command prompt and running tracerts the whole time. Average player won't realize it's their connection until the game drops them and then they can't get anything up with IE/FF/Whatever.
So assuming someone goes "gee, it's kind of laggy tonight, stupid mapservs". And then they disconnect for whatever reason, you give the team no way to control if they player stays in the TF while offline, or can be kicked.
But you can't tell me you honestly believe that someone would know it's their connection and not the server (cause it's never the server, right?) until it's already too late.
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I understand your argument. I play a lot of online games and sometimes when my team mates have a poor connection, we won't run stuff because we don't want to deal with them dropping.
If someone's not that savvy to realize what's going on, ok, sure I can see that. As I said above, we acknowledge that there is more we can do. However, for those people who do understand how their connectivity works and what's going on when they have a poor connection can deal with that by quitting.
Additionally, a team leader can take the step to tell the person who's dc'ing a lot that they are just going to kick them rather than dealing with the disconnecting player. Hopefully they do it in such a manner that doesn't bend feelings and they can group again another day. I myself have been in similar situations and done just that. The joys of running PUGs.
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Really Lighthouse?
You are trying to rationalize the pending changes in relation to one of many, MANY scenarios... one in which I'm sure many of us are scratching our heads about why we're being dictated on possible procedure.
You can't predict connectivity, power outages, system failures, etc.
I think most people are getting to is this: the changes are incomplete/not thought through from what many can tell. The were incomplete when the first round of changes were introduced, proven by this new change.
If you guys simply rolled back the changes to how TF/SF system worked a month ago, R&D a REAL and IMPROVED solution based on feedback and suggestions here, roll that out ... well I think you guys would have met with a better dialog on the matter. Dialog on the matter... that actually might have been good to initiate from the get go actually.
I'm just curious, but really HOW much of the playerbase was being effected by soft-loading and in what ways? PVP losses because of less powerful build via recipes?
Positron pointed at "FAIRNESS" in his initial statement on why TF/SF changes were coming. Fairness? Why? How can fairness even be ascertained when competition isn't even involved here?
I get that the exploit brought to light a series of issues... but the public appearance with this is that, true to form, the fix was rushed, incomplete, and not exactly favored by the vocal playerbase. Now this would be trivial if in fact there were NO OTHER OPTIONS... but as we ca see, plenty of options seems to available, but not given due consideration/implementation.
You site scheduling as part of the reason this was a rushed job... i12 is coming. Well... wasn't it always coming? How long has this exploit been around... since CoV launched??? Did inventions/recipes serve to create a priority over this exploit, because SURELY some redname had encountered soft-loading prior to inventions... if any of them play on Live as much as we left to infer.
So why the sudden NEED to fix it? Why couldn't this wait till after i12 and been given more time, consideration and with a dialog established with the playerbase before anything was implemented?
Oh you didn't want to expose the exploit? So don't. Don't even mention the WHY of the change... or come up with another WHY to the change. If the change was going to be better for the game, we'd be on board for the most part. But this route you guys went doesn't necessarily make the game better, gameplay experience better, or improve player interest in TF/SFs.
So if we analyze what all this hub-bub is about, we left with a rather negative taste and an exploit only partially patched... for the time being.
Sometimes I'm left with big fat questions for the thought process that goes on in the redname corner.