OK, the "Get the News Out!" mission is officially stupid!
By
American_Valor,
Posted on: 2009-10-18 11:27 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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God I hate those. Why do they have AV hp? And you can't just wait for your pets to defeat them and go make yourself a sandwich if you have pets. Mine always treat them as non-target-able.
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Originally Posted by Mike_Ray
On the flip side of "The generators are too weak", you've got Black Scorpion's Nemesis Mole Miners mission. You have to destroy 4 of those damned things, and it will likely take you an hour, at least. Once you clear out the hundreds of Nemesis spawns, all you're left with is 4 towering Mole Miners. And you start hacking at them.
With my lvl 47 (at the time) Bots/FF MM, it took 22 effing minutes to destroy ONE of them. 22 minutes! These things don't attack, there aren't any ambushes, just put the bots on "Attack", pull up Firefox, and wait. Check back in every 5 minutes or so, then move on to the next one. I couldn't even imagine doing this mission as a non-MM. You'd attack until you run out of endurance, then rest, then repeat, probably 2 dozen times. The HP/resistance/regeneration/whatever on the Mole Machines is absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and its an un-droppable mission. |
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Side issue/topic...
The mission you get from Black Scorpion to blow up the Nemesis Mole Machines is a great mission (artwork/map layout wise); however, now that the XP has been removed (reduced drastically? forgot which) from the Mole Machines...can the devs please reduce the HP (and/or regen rate) of the Mole Machines? Standing around and hitting attacks one after the other for 5-10 mins per machine is really, really annoying and tedious....makes me sleepy :/ 
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The last time I did this mission, I lucked out in that for some reason, one of the spawns meant for one of the generators actually aggroed one of those Nemesis Mole Machines. Those machines have something like a million hit points or whatever. By the time I found them, they were only halfway done killing it.
I wasn't about to interfere, haha! I just watched them from a distance. Then they finally destroyed it and it blew up in their faces, they all died instantly.
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For the record. I really like this mission... it's something different then the ordinary kill stuff and click a glowie missions that even my 3 year old understand's the plot to without reading the text.|
Originally Posted by Hero 1
Greetings: Unhappy Mission Players
Thanks for bringing this up everyone. I originally worked on these missions when I was first brought on to the team way back when. I remember having technical problems with it even back then, but I thought we got everything taken care of, but it doesn't sound like it. I'm going to look into this mission and see if I can remove the 'stupid' and add in some 'fun'. Look to later patch notes for an update and thanks again for bringing this up. |
However, the generators do die to easily. Give them more hitpoints and the mission works. Keeping in mind, of course that larger teams are gonna have a lot more badguys going after the generator, and the mission needs to be possible by a large team, too.
I gotta make pain. I gotta make things right. I gotta stop what's comin'. 'Least I gotta try.
Not sure if this is an okay place to mention this, or if Hero 1 is still following this, but while he's looking at frustrating mission he could look at this one:
Contact: Serpent Drummer
Rescue Captives from the Nemesis Army
Dreams of Peace and Acts of War
Part: Two
Problem: General Aarons NPC is a Noob.
Details: the mission, to be successful requires the general to be protected. Unfortunately, He has tiny hit points, an aggressive attitude, a gun attack, and a brawl attack. He uses the latter to run far ahead of the group into the middle of a mob, and punch them in the face.
Solution Suggestions:
A. Take his fists away. Er...tell the General he need not engage in fisticuffs when he has a perfectly good firearm. (Take away his brawl power)
B.Give the general some combat training, so he knows how to take a hit. (Toughen him up HP-wise.)
C. Teach the guy some strategic discretion. He need not risk his neck going it solo, he should wait for his team! (Put him on a defensive stance rather than aggressive)
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I've done it on an energy/ice blaster with nothing but knockbacks, ice patch, and chilling embrace. It wasn't fun.|
Originally Posted by Steele_Magnolia
The 30 Firbolg needs immob, hold, or sleep - basically a controller - to succeed.
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If you're doing that one the slow way by waiting for them, IMO it's easier solo (as a controller) or on a small team. Otherwise you have much bigger spawns on a team, but the "fail" number remains at 30.
Once you get big enough that you can split into 2 groups, though, it's not so bad. Just have the damage dealers hunt them down early before they run for it, and leave a troller and/or tanker at the door to stop them.
I actually like the Fir Bolg mission though I see where it could be VERY frustrating to most. I'd suggest making the number needed to escape a liding value so that larger teams have a bit more room for error.
[QUOTE=Steele_Magnolia;2336356]
The 30 Firbolg needs immob, hold, or sleep - basically a controller - to succeed.
/QUOTE]
This mission is crasy easy for me.... i solo it, perfectly each and every time. on the hardest difficulity. In seconds... I reclick my contact and tell him to shove it up his.. er.. i drop it and move on... 
Much MUCH less stressful that way. >.>
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If you can't learn to do something well... learn to enjoy doing it poorly...
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of all the times i've done this mission I've failed it like once....maybe twice|
Originally Posted by IanTheM1
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.
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the last time i failed because i was set to +0x4 instead of heroic like usual
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[QUOTE=KingSnake;2336481]
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I reserve my mission drops solely for the "Go talk to the PvP zone person" missions. I hate those. With a passion. Now that PvP is either dead or at least dying, can we finally have those taken out? Please?
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Originally Posted by Steele_Magnolia
This mission is crasy easy for me.... i solo it, perfectly each and every time. on the hardest difficulity. In seconds... I reclick my contact and tell him to shove it up his.. er.. i drop it and move on...
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[QUOTE=KingSnake;2336481]
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Actually I've done this legitimately on invincible with none escaping. Ice tank standing a short distance from the henge using taunt/damage auras, scrapper buddy out and about killing spawns.
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Originally Posted by Steele_Magnolia
The 30 Firbolg needs immob, hold, or sleep - basically a controller - to succeed.
/QUOTE] This mission is crasy easy for me.... i solo it, perfectly each and every time. on the hardest difficulity. In seconds... I reclick my contact and tell him to shove it up his.. er.. i drop it and move on... Much MUCH less stressful that way. >.> |
It's true. This game is NOT rocket surgery. - BillZBubba
[QUOTE=MTS__;2336502]
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Or just give the zone contacts telephones. "Hi, yeah. Captain Photon here. Wes Schnabel said to give you a call. What's that? Oh, yeah, no, I don't want anything to do with that. Yeah, I'm sure. Okay. Okay. Bye." And get on with my life. I mean, do we really need to be forced to go find out where they are? They're marked on the map, for pity's sake.
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Originally Posted by KingSnake
I reserve my mission drops solely for the "Go talk to the PvP zone person" missions. I hate those. With a passion. Now that PvP is either dead or at least dying, can we finally have those taken out? Please?
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By the way, it's been eating me for a while, so I have to say it:
The "5 minute mission" is not timed at 5 minutes. It's timed at 10 minutes. And you don't need to zone for it. It's in Peregrine Island showing up as a follow-up to a mission that's also in Peregrine Island. It's also not a kill all or defeat boss, it's just a multiple click on the largest possible Blue Lab map. I've beaten it once and failed it twice, in total. I think. It's meant to be failed, and back in the day it didn't even have a briefing for succeeding, if I remember correctly.
There, I got that out of my system.
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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.
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http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Tina_Mac...in_lab_-_10:00|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
By the way, it's been eating me for a while, so I have to say it:
The "5 minute mission" is not timed at 5 minutes. It's timed at 10 minutes. And you don't need to zone for it. It's in Peregrine Island showing up as a follow-up to a mission that's also in Peregrine Island. It's also not a kill all or defeat boss, it's just a multiple click on the largest possible Blue Lab map. I've beaten it once and failed it twice, in total. I think. It's meant to be failed, and back in the day it didn't even have a briefing for succeeding, if I remember correctly. There, I got that out of my system. |
There you go
It does have a slightly different debriefing for succeeding -- at least it does now. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a retcon, and it tells you that you failed anyway due to circumstances out of your control
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I don't think that last part was always consistently true, but it's been a long time, because we haaaates it so much. |
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
The "5 minute mission" is not timed at 5 minutes. It's timed at 10 minutes. And you don't need to zone for it. It's in Peregrine Island showing up as a follow-up to a mission that's also in Peregrine Island.
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Part of the problem is likely what some people already mentioned - that spawning|
Originally Posted by Hero 1
Greetings: Unhappy Mission Players
Thanks for bringing this up everyone. I originally worked on these missions when I was first brought on to the team way back when. I remember having technical problems with it even back then, but I thought we got everything taken care of, but it doesn't sound like it. I'm going to look into this mission and see if I can remove the 'stupid' and add in some 'fun'. Look to later patch notes for an update and thanks again for bringing this up. |
mechanics have been changed/broken, and are causing odd behavior presently.
Another example/symptom of this is boss fights with enemies who will run away at some
point, like Prof. Echo. With the way the game currently is, Prof. Echo will run as soon
as he spawns, well before you can even see him, much less start combat. Not a big
deal for him, since the missions don't fail on that, but it's made me afraid to even bother
with Biff the Super Arachoid or Agent Crimson.
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Any chance of making the Silver Mantis fight optional? That's not the first time she's thrown into a mission as an objective for no good reason. (See Crash Cage.) Non-climactic use of AVs really cheapens them in my opinion, and gives me good reason to drop the mission even if you fix the generators.
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Originally Posted by Hero 1
I'm going to look into this mission and see if I can remove the 'stupid' and add in some 'fun'. Look to later patch notes for an update and thanks again for bringing this up.
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Yes, all enemies who run in the standard missions will run as soon as they spawn, which is rather annoying. If there's more than one path to the exit, you could fail the mission without ever seeing the runner.
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Originally Posted by Puppycrusader
Another example/symptom of this is boss fights with enemies who will run away at some
point, like Prof. Echo. With the way the game currently is, Prof. Echo will run as soon as he spawns, well before you can even see him, much less start combat. Not a big deal for him, since the missions don't fail on that, but it's made me afraid to even bother with Biff the Super Arachoid or Agent Crimson. |
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Originally Posted by Seldom
Not sure if this is an okay place to mention this, or if Hero 1 is still following this, but while he's looking at frustrating mission he could look at this one:
Contact: Serpent Drummer Rescue Captives from the Nemesis Army Dreams of Peace and Acts of War Part: Two Problem: General Aarons NPC is a Noob. Details: the mission, to be successful requires the general to be protected. Unfortunately, He has tiny hit points, an aggressive attitude, a gun attack, and a brawl attack. He uses the latter to run far ahead of the group into the middle of a mob, and punch them in the face. Solution Suggestions: A. Take his fists away. Er...tell the General he need not engage in fisticuffs when he has a perfectly good firearm. (Take away his brawl power) B.Give the general some combat training, so he knows how to take a hit. (Toughen him up HP-wise.) C. Teach the guy some strategic discretion. He need not risk his neck going it solo, he should wait for his team! (Put him on a defensive stance rather than aggressive) |
I'd vote B for this one - Give him AV level hit points, but change nothing else, to
represent him being that old, tough, jarhead curmudgeon that he is! When I was you
kids' age, I could've taken a warhulk with my arms tied behind my back, and both legs
broken! And don't need no fancy-shamancy superpowers to do it - just my trusty .45
and a working jaw to hold it!
It's not a hard mission to succeed in solo though. You just skip right past the general
and the rikti, and rescue/clear everyone else in the way first. But it is an awkward and
unneccesary step of avoidance.
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Here's the thing, though - that's a cheat. Mind you, I do it every time I can, but a mission shouldn't be coded such that you have to AVOID saving the people you're supposed to be saving. It's like the Lady Grey mission - with all those hideously strong Vanguard bosses, it's usually better to pull the spawns guarding her away, so that you rescue her, but don't get her to follow you. That spawns the bosses to defeat on your way out, which you can do without Lady Grey in tow, thereby keeping her out of harm's way. And since enemies won't attack NPCs that aren't attached to you, she's perfectly safe.
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Originally Posted by Puppycrusader
It's not a hard mission to succeed in solo though. You just skip right past the general
and the rikti, and rescue/clear everyone else in the way first. But it is an awkward and unneccesary step of avoidance. |
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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.
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I didn't read this whole thread, so if the gist of my post was already covered, I'm sorry.
First off, I agree that this mission is horrible. But it can easily be won, just not the "correct" way. Not to say you need to cheat or exploit, not at all. More like you need to do a not so obvious thing to win.
The mission leads you to believe you need to protect generators, which while true, isn't the only objective. After my first failure on this mission the very first time I ran it, I realized that I could just skip the generators altogether.
I make a beeline for Silver Mantis, defeat her, PRESTO BLAMO! I win the mission. Just like that.
Then if I'm feeling frisky I can go and mess with some generators, but at this point since the mission is complete, it won't matter if you don't save a single generator.
"All that crap is grey to me, no XP." - Positron 5/15/05 8:36am . . . The world stopped and silence ensued except for the sound of a crying infant off in the distance.
"Everyone needs to chill the hell out." - BackAlleyBrawler 11/13/08 3:26pm . . . Geeks around the world stopped and blinked.
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Originally Posted by Hero 1
Greetings: Unhappy Mission Players
Thanks for bringing this up everyone. I originally worked on these missions when I was first brought on to the team way back when. I remember having technical problems with it even back then, but I thought we got everything taken care of, but it doesn't sound like it. I'm going to look into this mission and see if I can remove the 'stupid' and add in some 'fun'. Look to later patch notes for an update and thanks again for bringing this up. |
Following Statements: Preceded by respect
Self bowing: Before the master
As people have mentioned, the spawn rules themselves seem to have been broken sometime in the recent past, wether it was I16 or not is a bit uncertain.
Mobs have been spawning and delivering lines and things like that as soon as the players enter the map. Of particular note are hostages (bar those with scripted cutscenes or things) who deliver their inactive AND active lines at the same time, often before the mobs are aggroed.
On that note as well, the mobs INACTIVE text (e.g. "We're gonna ransom ya for lotsa cash, kid!" "You'll never get away with this!" ) nearly always doesn't play until the player is actually attacking the mob. Which tends to result in wall of text.
Ambushes outta place and the like, you get the idea. Oh, and please, I beg you, fix the lvl 40 spawn in Sister Airla's mish. And give Ghost Widow the right HP and attack power. Or, if she isn't meant to give that mission out until level 40, please fix that instead?
Emotion: Gratitude
Prescence: Honours us
All hail: The Honoree!
((Yeah, I'm after your job
))
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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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[QUOTE=Captain_Photon;2336633]
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Also how 'bout removing the "Talk to Hero Corps Rep in Kings Row" as well. I notice we never had to waste a trip talking to a Fateweaver redside.
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Originally Posted by MTS__
Or just give the zone contacts telephones. "Hi, yeah. Captain Photon here. Wes Schnabel said to give you a call. What's that? Oh, yeah, no, I don't want anything to do with that. Yeah, I'm sure. Okay. Okay. Bye." And get on with my life. I mean, do we really need to be forced to go find out where they are? They're marked on the map, for pity's sake. |
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I can't recall ever failing this one either solo or duo. Then again, I have done it enough to mostly remember where each glowie is. If you don't have super speed, then get some other form of stealth (either an IO or from a buffing station), and keep sprint turned on. Bots that may inadvertently see you may get off a shot or two, as you streak by, but they won't follow. Then once you get near a glowie, thanks to the apparently increased click range we have now, it should be fairly easy to click it from a spot where you won't be seen as your stealth suppresses. And if you do get spotted, go ahead and take the few seconds to beat down the droids attacking you then go back to clicking your glowie (or pop 2 or 3 purples to lessen the chance of being interrupted).|
Originally Posted by EricHough
Interesting, I don't think I have ever failed this one. On my archery/dev blaster and illusion/rad controller I just stealthed it, on my dm/sr scrapper I just ignored the mobs and clicked all the glowies and on my db/wp scrapper I also basically ignored the mobs unless they where near a glowie and only killed them when I had no other choice. I did almost fail it on my db/wp, but only because I went past one glowie without realizing it and had to go back. I think I had like 20 seconds left on that one.
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The only truly annoying thing about this mission is that even if you do win it, you still effectively lose, because Tina then informs you that one of her other teams who was doing the same thing in another lab was not so fortunate, so whatever bad thing would have happened had you failed was going to happen anyway.
That right there is just plain poor writing and plot design I think. At least you do get the satisfaction of completing a mission that was not meant to be completed, and can then raise a middle finger in Tina's direction afterward.
As for the Fir Bolg misison, that one is easy, whether you are strong in the controls or strong in damage. First thing to do is make your way toward the goal while smashing any pumpkins you encounter along the way. Then start smashing more pumpkins while you wait for the first group of runners. Take them out then go beat up more, etc etc etc. Sure some may escape, but if you keep up a steady kill rate, eventually there will not be enough pumpkins left in the area to make failure even possible.
However, I do agree that the number that must be stopped should be scaled up for team size.
Personally, I feel that dropping this one is a waste of a mission drop (same with dropping the 'Talk to PvP rep" missions. Because as soon as you drop, then you get a mission that you really wish you could drop now instead of having to wait 3 days (like a "click the glowies simultaneously" mission, or yet another "Hunt X enemies in Zone Y... where the enemies are mostly +3 and +4 to you).
My one drop I always do in Croatoa is Salinger's final mission. Sure, it is not too difficult now that I know how it works, but it gets pretty tedious and boring when solo. On a big team, it's a blast, but if I am finishing up Crotoa by myself, at this point I just want it over and done with.
I've had this mission fail while standing at the entrance and buffing. We hadn't even moved yet. The mobs attacked as soon as we started zoning. It's bugged. It's been bugged for a long time, longer than I16.
The Sister Airla mission has been spawning level 40 bosses regardless of level every time I've attempted it.
Lady Jane needs buffs, a tank to hold aggro, or to be ignored and the map cleared.
The 30 Firbolg needs immob, hold, or sleep - basically a controller - to succeed.
The 5 min lab mission needs invisibility and super speed if you're soloing.
By comparison Fusionette and Faultline are way easy. I usually keep these two alive.
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