OK, the "Get the News Out!" mission is officially stupid!

Remember that mission from the Dark Watcher where you go to the WSPDR building in Cap Au Diable to save four generators? That one with the Mole Machines and Silver Mantis? You know, the one that FAILS AT THE DROP OF A HAT?!? THAT MISSION!

What the hell, man? I just tried this mission, and do you know how long it took me to fail it? 30 seconds. If that. And I'm playing at -1. It went like.

"Where's the generator? There's a generator! Oh, it's broken! Where's the generator! There's a generator! Hurry! Oh, they broke it before I even got there! Where's the generator? There's a generator! Hurry! Oh, it's almost... Oh, they broke it! Where's the generator? MISSION FAILED!"

Literally that. In 30 seconds, I got to see one generator destroyed before I even found it, one generator destroyed in the distance, one generator destroyed as soon as I got to it, and one generator destroyed off-camera. What are these things made out of? Tissue paper and cream sugar? And why were they under such stupendously heavy attack? The mission ended so quickly that I managed to generate only a few spastic memories, but one of the memories was of THREE Fake Nemesis and a whole paltoon of soldiers fighting one generator, destroying it just as I landed next to it. Why? And why are they starting their attack before I can even SEE the damn thing?

This mission is just stupid. OK, the premise is actually good and interesting - protect the generators so the WSPDR reporters can get the truth out. Points for that. But the generators have something like half a hit point and are attacked by what looks like all the Nemesis Soldiers in North America, resulting in instant-destruction, often before I even get a chance to SEE the thing, much less think about intervening. And that's with me rushing to the location as soon as I loaded. I didn't delay at all. About the only "delay" I had was spotting Silver Mantis sitting at the red map marker, but even that was only a passing glance.

I've noticed a lot of... Odd spawn behaviour recently. Spawns and encounters will trigger as soon as I load into an instance, even if they're half-way across the map. They'll play their dialogue, even start their fights LONG before I'm even close enough to see their speech bubbles. Generally it's OK, though. Hostages aren't in danger until I rescue them (ironic, huh?) and NPCs that fight are never mission-important. Well... That is, except protection objectives. When your protection objective triggers while you're half an instance away, that can be kind of problematic. I used to fail to save Dr. Shelly Percy's lab a lot because of this, and Romulus the Warshade always broke the Rikti Teck before I could even see him. But even then, these encounters at least took some time to play out. The objectives were breakable, but they weren't so damn fragile. These generators feel like they're made out of unstable molecules or something. So much as look at them the wrong way and they blow up in a violent explosion that can send you flying over Aeon City.

From what I just saw, this mission is now completely unbeatable. And I must admit, that's a step down from what it was before, and I didn't think that was possible. I mean, it IS one of the most annoying, aggravating missions in the entire game, after all, but apparently it could get worse. Imagine that.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Everyone has a mission or two they save a Mission drop for. This one is mine.

Haven't hit that one yet, but I was angered by one where I was supposed to rescue Lady Jane, only the second you rescue her she starts foaming at the mouth and attacking everything in the room, while ambushes pour down the hallway.


Plus she apparently dies if you breath on her too hard.

I like missions with gameplay that's more challenging than "kill everything you see!" or "get the widget!", but I don't like missions that seem rigged to fail.

I remember that mission, someone foolishly asked to join our duo team for that one.

Load mission, look around and wonder which way to head ... mission failed!

Well that was fun!

Samuel_Tow,

The first time I've EVER succeeded at this mission was last week. Like you, I've turned it down, outleveled it, etc. to no avail a lot of times. A friend and I somehow managed to pull it off.

I agree that it's stupid. Like Nethergoat, I'm all for new mission styles, but it's really goofy to have a mission that's so easy to fail just by entering the mission.

Click for Hot Sun Splitter Action

The mission is stupid but the worst part is that the mission briefing makes it seem like the generators are your goal. You should actually try to find and rescue the journalist hostage before the generators are destroyed. If you save her the mission completes.

Like about everyone else, I failed that mission the first time I played it. But since then, I have played it often and never failed it. You need to defeat Silver Mantis and rescue the reporter only, with at least one generator still intact.

If you get into a certain distance from a generator, Nemesis will start attacking it. So moving around quickly is very bad, you will trigger everything.

First goal is to find Silver Mantis and defeat her. Some Generators will get destroyed but its not important. Once this is done, find the reporter. She's always in the middle more or less. Once you find her, defeat the Nem guarding her and the mission ends. You should be able to do this without triggering the Nemesis and the Generator on the opposite side of the map from where you start.

The problem with this mission is the AOE attacks of the Nemesis. Even if the Vanguards agro them, the explosions are damaging the generators. The solution would probably be to increase the health of the generators.

My problem with that mission has always been Silver Mantis more than anything else, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn it's buggy.

I concur with the annoyance of this mission and would like to ask the Devs if they designed this mission to be nigh hopeless or if it's horribly bugged.

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Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

I've succeeded at the mission in the OP, and indeed once managed to pull off the infamous "stop the pumpkinheads from doing whatever it is they're doing" mission in Croatoa, but both times it was with a combination of very effective teammates and sheer dumb luck.

Something that's always really gotten up my nose in computer RPGs is the fight you absolutely have to lose. No matter how skilled you are, no matter how powerful or tough your character, you must fail to move the plot forward - and so the game cheats, or you win the fight but then lose in the subsequent cutscene, or some such. That little lazy-game-writer trick never fails to rile me up. Luckily, City of Heroes doesn't have many of them, though I can think of at least one off the top of my head. I forget what contact gives it, but I think it's part of a story arc vs. the Malta Group. One of the missions is a glowy hunt plus defeat so-and-so's posse in a huuuuge lab map... with some completely ridiculous time requirement. Five minutes? Ten? Short enough that, back in the day when inter-zone travel was much less trivial than it is now, I used to draw that mission and fail it before I reached the entrance.

I'm willing to accept that the OP mission and its ilk are just awkwardly designed, but that one just frosts my shorts every time I run across it.

Tina McIntyre, stop the Lab Raid or something like that. Not Malta, Anti-Matter Clockwork. That's the only mission in the entire game that's meant to be failed. FWIW, you get an SO for completing it, as I recall.

Another thing that I find helpful is the following;

Get to the first generator asap, and then defend it with your life. Spam every aggro hogging power you can get, and stay by it until you've defeated every enemy anywhere near it. I think Ambushes spawn on it too, so stick around and keep an eye out. Once you've kept it clear and safe, ignore the other 3. You only have to save 1 of them. So once you've protected 1 from all comers you're free to rescue the Lois Lane knock off and then go get wtfpwned by Silver Mantis as many times as it takes.

I'll maintain that the mission as designed is fine, but there are three minor problems that make it unplayable.

Activation range for the NPCs around the generators, as noted they're the standard 150-200 yards, and often not even seen before they start.

Nemesis spawns- Quite often when I've been successful on this mission, the generators get damaged even when I've seen the NPCs from the get-go and been able to intervene. Why? because Nemmie troops are Explosion happy. They start fighting those helper troops near the generators, and often the generators get broke without taking direct fire.

Fragility of the Generators- The relative level and the base hp of objects in missions like this means NPCs can wipe them in 1-2 hits. This is great for easily bored players, not great when players with human reaction times are meant to stop computer AI swarms.

I have fixes in mind, I'll type them when I get home, I have errands to run.

You know, it just occurs to me BABs tends to frown upon us using the word "stupid" haphazardly. Err... Oops! I have a feeling that'll turn around to bite me some time pretty soon.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I don't get it. The "Stop 30 Fir Bolg From Escaping" mission never gave me that much trouble.

That said, "Get the News Out" is really nuts. It doesn't even function like other object defense missions in the game. Normally you're suppose to take out the guards before enemies come to destroy the objectives. This one is made even worse by the fact that, by this level, enemies can snipe from a ridiculous ways away. You have to run way out and intercept the Nemesis well before they're anywhere near the generators. This is... difficult for a solo player.

Villains have a slight edge because they've probably seen this map before and know where the generators tend to be set up, but heroes are kind of screwed.

Showing up with three Fake Nemesiseses already wailing on the generator sounds like a big fat bug to me, though. That is definitely not supposed to happen, and I suspect all three ambushes triggered simultaneously before you even got there.

More HP for the generators and maybe a higher level for them too would make the mission easier.