Bosses in MA missions

I mentioned this on test, but no one picked up on it.

But in mission archetect missions, bosses are now spawning for solo missions on difficulty 2 and 4. This didn't happen previously, apart from one or two enemy groups, such as the Banished Panthieon.

I don't know if this is a bug, but it serves to make some missions much harder.

Happening on "real" missions too, well for me at least. I think its a way to help combat the farms which can only be a good thing. Not making farms harder, but making them more interesting and requiring a bit of thought

I personally am ALL for this change. *thumbs up from me*

This sounds like it is going to be a very painful update for my squishies.

What I find suprising is that if it affects all missions, how come so few people have noticed? It should be noticable in small team as we solo. In fact it could easily affect full 8 man missions as well, causing a higher proportion of bosses per spawn (unlees there is an absolute cap on number of bosses).

It certainly means that for a solo player level 2 is now harder than level 3, and level 4 is harder than level 5.

Yeah, that's not a good update. Especially for level 2. I assume it's a bug rather than some anti-farming measure. Sure a lot of MA farms WANT extra / all bosses.

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Yeah, that's not a good update. Especially for level 2. I assume it's a bug rather than some anti-farming measure. Sure a lot of MA farms WANT extra / all bosses.

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I hope its WAI. Im damn sure thats what happens in normal missions. You dont get bosses at diff 1, but do further up the ladder. In the past, and sadly, no bosses were spawning, which sucked badly. Now, hopefully, that's fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

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Yeah, that's not a good update. Especially for level 2. I assume it's a bug rather than some anti-farming measure. Sure a lot of MA farms WANT extra / all bosses.

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I hope its WAI. Im damn sure thats what happens in normal missions. You dont get bosses at diff 1, but do further up the ladder. In the past, and sadly, no bosses were spawning, which sucked badly. Now, hopefully, that's fixed.

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No, solo at level 1 you'd have the end of mission downgraded to a Lieut. At level 2 you'd have larger spawn sizes (but no bosses usually) and a boss at the end.

I'd be happy for bosses to appear in Diff 4 & 5, but not Diff 2 (other than at the end of a mission).

Maybe diff 3+ then. -shrug-

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

It's certainly a bug, it doesn't happen all the time.

The spawn seem to work like this. A minion is worth 1 point, an Lt 2 points, and a boss 4 points. Spawns are worth 3-4 points per team member, or 4-5 points on level 2 and 4.

If this was all that happened, then you can get lots of lone bosses spawning for level 2 and 4 solo players, and some groups have always worked like this (Banished Pantheon).

However most groups seemed to have an additional code that prevented bosses spawning unless they already had a certain number of lower ranked mobs in the spawn. This seems to be the code that is now working intermitantly.

So far I have encountered a ship full of Sky Raider Jump Bots, and a forest full of Angry Apes (my own creation, and not something you really want to run into).

On a team doing level 38 rikti missions earlier there was a few groups where there was just 2 bosses as the spawn but they werent OTT in that it was every other spawn.
Could be a faction related for only high level groups i suppose.

And I thaught Val was just making a challenge on his new arc!

most fun I'ev had in ages, though, when 2 groups of council Acendents each with a boss and a couple of Lt's in the starting room of one mish.

"Whoa... big group... should be fun! *jumps in and starts kicking*

I like facing bosses while solo/duo, so I don't mind this at all. The Midnighter missions outside AE are quite boss-heavy too, so maybe this is a design choice on the part of the Devs. I do hope so.

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And I thaught Val was just making a challenge on his new arc!

most fun I'ev had in ages, though, when 2 groups of council Acendents each with a boss and a couple of Lt's in the starting room of one mish.

"Whoa... big group... should be fun! *jumps in and starts kicking*

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I'm really glad you enjoyed it so much - that wasn't because of the bug, though - that was by design!

There are actually four "boss" spawns of Council Ascendants in that particular room (two can spawn up on the walkway above the entrance, so you may have missed those), set at "hard" spawn difficulty. Ascendants look cool, but we rarely face them in normal gameplay, so I knew I wanted to use them. Originally I made a custom group of Ascendants purely to use as a bodyguard for a certain AV on the final mission (ditto for the Galaxy-only spawns), but they fitted the story for the 4th mission as well so I decided to use them there too, for added colour/variety.

They're just a little extra challenge on an arc that is supposed to be fairly challenging anyway (I was trying to pitch it around the same level as Viridian's "The Conference of Evil" arc). Plus, as I said, I do like facing bosses when solo/duo'd, so I try to add in extra boss spawns (which are not set as mission objectives) on my arcs just for variety/challenge (ditto for patrols). The arc is clearly marked in its description as having quite a few EBs/AVs, so I figured anyone able to handle EBs would be ok with the "Ascendant room" And they're not mission objectives so if the Ascendants prove too annoying then you can always just bypass them into the lift behind them - they won't follow.

I just wish more people would play that arc - hopefully the tagging system will help more players find it. My first arc "A Mythos of Mystical Mysteries" (arc ID 84285) got so much praise that word of mouth spread and my second arc "The Renegade Rebellion" (arc ID 117690), which was published soon after, got a lot of playthroughs in a short time by people who had enjoyed my first arc (or so it seemed from the comments I got). This third arc "Overshadowed by History" (arc ID 220049) took so long to plan, write, create and test that I think it has missed out on any "buzz" my first two arcs created, which is a shame because story-wise it's easily the best of the three. For anyone interested, I'm still looking for feedback on it - though I have tested the arc extensively so it should be bug/typo-free.

Anyway, thanks for your very kind in-game comments, Imoba. Such praise makes all the time I spent creating the arc totally worth it (probably around 30 hours in total over several weeks, not including around 20 hours of testing/tweaking).

In light of this change, I shudder at the thought of having to play through the last mission of one of my arcs as it is completely filled with Bosses (and no, it's not a farm it is based on story purposes).

*shudders*

This bug doesn't completly fill te mission with bosses, it causes abou 1/3 of spawns in a solo mission to be a lone boss.

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This bug doesn't completly fill te mission with bosses, it causes abou 1/3 of spawns in a solo mission to be a lone boss.

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Which is good! Helps add to the mission imo.

@val
Heck yeah it was fun, gets my vote for Devs choice!

There was indeed 4 bosses in the room, I didn not mention the other 2 becuase their groups were spaced far enough apart to take them one at a time

I'll have to try your other arcs sometime soon too

On topic: Aside from Val's arc (which we now know was intentional) I haven't noticed an increase in bosses spawned in missions.