City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Dropships. Heroes -& Villains this time. 17 & 18th

Alanari

By Alanari,
Posted on: 2009-07-09 12:10 in Virtue

 

Posted

Clarification: Same event we ran heroside last November but we're adding a seperate "villains" night as well. Worried about lag? Don't. There were 150 bodies in the starting zone; lag was not an issue. Our end count was not probable had we experienced a great deal of lag. Maybe because it just seemed to go so fast! At any rate, drop your graphics if you're worried. Game on.

What - When - Why - Where - How..

What: So a few folks asked, "Hey, when are you going to do something for villains?" If you're new to forums, welcome. We sometimes run mini-events for fun. No promises of xp, badges, influence, or levels. Everything from attacking Rikti dropships to dropping Warburg nukes on Hamidon by the dozens. Basically, anything destructive but not permanent or defacing. At the moment, we're looking at setting up two seperate dropship raids for -each- factionside.

When: There's a scheduled Rikti Invasion weekend from July 17th through the 19th. Folks enjoyed the hero-side Dropship event we held in November so let's give villains something to punch at Friday night the 17th and then call an encore the following evening for any heroes (Sat the 18th) who could not attend the last time. 8 pm CST is our standard time. Show early if you can.

Why: Simple mechanics but it's actually really fun. And, chicks dig scars so saddle up!

Where: Friday night, we meet in Cap au Diable. Assemble on the road in front of the Cap au Ferry. That Ferry leads to most every other zone in the Isles. Also, it's not a terribly far jaunt to the PO ferry or the Black Helicopter for Mercy. Cap is the heart of the Isles in terms of transportation.

The following evening, Saturday, Heroes's best starting tactical position is Talos. The hill near the Tram - takes you most everywhere. The PI ferry is close by. If you're in an SG, the base portal is right in front of the tram and for those bringing Level 25+ characters, there's the Ouros portal should Atlas find itself invaded first.

If you are newer to the game, Rikti Invasions are random. We never know which zone will be hit. The best thing to do is assemble in a central area with lines to most every other zone and prepare to move the unit as quickly as possible when the first sirens wail (Hero Zone Event Messages and Villain Zone Event Messages channels).

How: We'll have some changes in prep-work and I can't find our orginal post so forgive me for re-listing information.

We're taking in a minimum of 20 bodies ( last time 40 signed up but Sandy looked up an hour before event start and noted 150 in zone. We'll find 20 at any rate if I have to beg) to wait for a zone to be attacked. Damage dealers, debuffers, kinetics, and flight preferred. Everyone is welcome. Not a flyer? Local dealerships for flying apparatus here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Jetpack_Vendor and here: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Mini_Boo...30_Day_Jetpack

Basic point and shoot. Everyone will keep up with their team leader. Each team leader will keep in pace with their assigned targeter. There will be two targeters as each invasion cuts two seperate paths in two waves. Intel > Maps > http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Rikti_Wo...s_.28Heroes.29

To make assemby easy (last time we started assembling a full hour before start time and still had more show than expected.. in the end we had over a dozen team leaders) I need volunteer team leaders to: 1. Show an hour early. 2. Be vocal in /broadcast and fill spots 3. Be friendly and give a basic outline of what to do, who to target off of. 3. Give the maps linked above a good once over so even if you and your team lose sight of the targeter, you're still aware of ship paths for the random invasions.

Basically, a team lead will fill his team and wait for the pre-set Event channel to announce a zone. You'll take your team there and head to the path of your assigned targeter. Keep an eye on the /Request channel for recaps and signals.

Let's start with some information on the enemy, Rikti Dropships (not to be confused with the Mother ship):

- cannot be slowed
- are GM's (Giant Monsters); they scale damage based on character level (any level character can attend but SK's are recommended to increase power benefits)
- deal an initial energy blast of approx. 900 pts damage to a level 50 (try to keep above the ship)
- Enter a zone in 2 Waves. Each Wave files in 2 seperate Routes. Approx. 9 ships stream in through each route for an approx total of 36 ships per Invasion in one zone.

Recap of past experiences:

- Attacking Rikti Dropships is an age old frat-boy/sorority-girl tradition started in one of the Betas. Think.. Xtreme Cow Tipping.
- At some point, the devs altered ships so that they could no longer be -slowed-. This only fueled a desire to blow them up faster.
- In November of 2008, American_Valor of Liberty shores took a brave unit of men and women in to begin research and pave the way for other tornado hunters. Over the course of a week, they dropped close to a dozen ships.
- A week or so later, Virtue began preparations for just one ship and had a pretty sweet run in the end. Virtue heroes.. hence the "when are you doing villains? huh huh? Huh???"

The key to success is damage and debuffers. At 20 bodies ( extensive forum searches showed that other servers assembling as many as 18 bodies would fail to complete a ship before it sailed outside of the zone) strict tactics need to be enforced. Sandolphan had figured (with the fact that ships never stop and cannot be slowed) that leap-frog tactics would be needed. A team would have to get in their initial round of hits in the race ahead of the ship to get another shot off. Each team doing so creates a "gauntlet" from which the ship eventually wears down and explodes. Now, last time, we had over a dozen captains with full teams start off (18 team leads each carrying 6-7 others). The leap frog tactic was drowned out by the sheer number of damage dealt in a "swarm" attack. We had ships down in a little over a minute each. 41 ships in all over a 60 minute span. Pretty much, as long as we have a good deal of debuffers, a good sized unit of 50 people should have the same results.

So why the need for 2 targeters? If we get the same body-count, we'd like to maximize the carnage. Instead of asking everyone to stick to one path for each wave, we'd like to split the group into two and take both paths at once.

Sign up to be a team leader:

Villains, July 17th (Friday), available an hour early (7 pm CST) to call out and fill teams. Only these folks are required to spend a few minutes studying the maps linked above. I'd like at least 6 (3 teams follow 1 targeter and 3 follow another) but will list 10 spots for alternates and SG leaders who wish to bring their people together. Please sign up as I really need an idea of who can help out. E-mail me here, post or global me @Ara to be listed as a team leader.. everyone else.. just show up! :

Targeter and Team Lead 1. Kurai Musha
- Team Lead 2. Exotica ( has flight and rad secondary)
- Team Lead 3. @Black Marrow

- Additional Team Lead 7 (VG-). Knightslayer
- Additional Team Lead 9.

Targeter and Team Lead 4. Miss Honey Dew
- Team Lead 5. Wrecking Belle
- Team Lead 6.

- Additional Team Lead 8.
- Additional Team Lead 10.

Heroes, July 18th (Saturday), available an hour early (7 pm CST) to call out and fill teams. Only these folks are required to spend a few minutes studying the maps linked above. I'd like at least 5 but will list 10 spots for alternates and SG leaders:

Targeter and Team Lead 1. Una
- Team Lead 2. Infatum
- Team Lead 3. Androgyne

- Additional Team Lead 7. Exxcaliber
- Additional Team Lead 9. Paladin

Targeter and Team Lead 4. Sandolphan
- Team Lead 5. Kegan
- Team Lead 6. Kerse

- Additional Team Lead 8. Trickshot Kid
- Additional Team Lead 10. Weasel

Thanks all.

-------

Edit/Addition: Yes, please. Post if you're attending in non-lead capacity so I have an idea of who to send reminder pm's to if I see them on /sea. But.. please specify something like, "I'll even lead!" if you wish to be a rootin' tootin' cowboy -with- the shiny sheriff badge.

 

Posted

I'll take a crack at leadin'. I've traced those routes heroside for a while now.

Also, has anyone updated those maps since i14? The changed the dropship routes quite a bit to keep them from crashing into the MA buildings, so those routes might not be 100% accurate anymore.

I can definately do the heroside with Kerse on the 18th, but depending on the RL events of the 17th, I might not be able to use AC for the raid.

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

*peaks out from under the covers and checks her PDA. Bolting up she reads the message on the screen*

You have 5 sec to respond or I will assume your answer is yes ... Can you lead a drop ship raid on the 17th .. okay I will take your silence for a yes. Thanks!

*tossing the PDA aside with a sigh she goes back to sleep*

 

Posted

Not that braggings rights arent reason enough (am a terrible fan of virtual bragging rights), but IM curious - is there any actual in-game reward for destoying a dropship? A badge, or somethign more substantial still?

 

Posted

No official word on if merits drop since merits were implemented after the last time the dropships were taken down on virtue. If so, then it might be a good night for merit collecting. If not, a fun night of smacking down some Rikti!

However, last time people collected a ton of tier 3 inspirations from them. No badge, but fun none the less.

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

You get scars Fernandes.

SCARS! And if you are really lucky, you might lose an eye and get a cool eyepatch!

Make you look like Snake Plissken!

/e nods.

I very much would like to come to this.

Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge
and affirm that it is fitting
and delicious to lose everything. ~ Donald Hall

 

Posted

I will be there, at least for heroside.. Ill bring my beloved fire/rad 'troller- Ace O' Diamonds!
'Cause everyone should have an ace up thier sleeves.

-Pogoman, Master of Kick-Fu
-Co-Leader and recruiting officer of the Virtue Honor Guard
- lvl 50 ma/sr scrapper
-Ace O' Diamonds lvl 50 fire/rad controller
and waaaay to many other alts to mention right now

 

Posted

Kill all those hu... I mean aliens!

@Lasher
First Of The Year

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edgar Allan Poe
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

 

Posted

I've a Bots/Traps MM I should have group fly on by then. Count Blut Wurst in

}:>

 

Posted

QR

The last event on blueside was the bomb!!

If its broke, don't fix it... I like the chaos!

 

Posted

How else do you expect my bots to pound the snail snot outta them dropships JJ?

(he's the only villain I have anywhere near high enough to be useful after all)

 

Posted

Quick answers.

1. The maps have probably not been updated since AE buildings sprung up in the city. We're using our adventure caps.

2. No rewards. Ever. It's kind of like 300. Sweet peaceful death and lasting glory is our reward. Rawr.

3. Please don't forget to specify between "Ohs, I'm so going." and "I'm coming as a team leader because I hate being down-wind of a flight formation.."

4. Yeah, our last event was the mega-kaboom-up-Hami's-bootie-holiday but when I say last event while posting here, I meant our last "dropship" fiasco. Point of reference-ese for things we did last time. I confuse myself, we'll just talk about something else. You know.. I hear Sands wears some pretty skimpy things and claims wind-sheer advantages. True story!!!

 

Posted

Naughty Nadya will bring her rad/rad/flight there for debuffing. @Nadya if you need to contact me.

-Virtue's First Naughty Girl-

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
You get scars Fernandes.

SCARS! And if you are really lucky, you might lose an eye and get a cool eyepatch!

[/ QUOTE ]

See the Eyepatch of Power.

 

Posted

....Oh fine.

I'll even come and dust myself off for this.

With my SOs.

Yes. I still have SOs.

Haha! FEAR ME.

Now! This is it! Now is the time to choose! Die and be free of pain or live and fight your sorrow! Now is the time to shape your stories! Your fate is in your hands!

 

Posted

I'll drop by if I can find time ^_^

 

Posted

Clothing is for the modest!

(And Blut will be there as a damage generator)

 

Posted

If I am free on Saturday then I will attend.

 

Posted

Sounds fun.

I'd be happy to lead one of the hero teams with Infatum, sadly he has nothing special to offer the raid except plenty of kicks for the rikti's collective [censored].

Global is @Infatum

Infatum on Virtueverse

 

Posted

I'm definitely attending the event for villains, probably on my stalker.

 

Posted

I have been dying to down dropships with my main villain since I10 launched, but I'm usually working that time on Fridays. Still, depending on what sort of schedule shuffling I can arrange, I may at least make it as a participant Friday night on Ani Hess (rad/dark Corr).

Saturday poses no problem, I'm up to lead a team as Androgyne (dark/rad Def). @AlwaysAPrice for any coordination/confirmation stuff.

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