A small {but significant} change to SSK


Ad Astra

 

Posted

I'll try to be concise. Super-sidekicking, as opposed to the original method, is nothing short of a godsend. However, I believe it might be improved if the active level wasn't set to the mission holder, but rather the mission itself.

The immediate benefit would be that running teammates' missions would no longer put you at risk of outleveling the missions you yourself already have listed, inadvertently punishing you for success by turning your listed missions green or gray, especially if you decide to run with others for a dozen levels or so.

However, the biggest benefit might be that doing so would make it that much easier {SCR nonwithstanding} to basically kill contact obsolescence. If the exemplar level was dictated by the mission, then with the current SSK mechanics, there would be no downside to accepting missions from a contact you have outleveled a long time ago since although most content can't scale up to fit your level, you can always scale down to fit it.

Just a though, anyway. Opinions?


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinch View Post
Just a though, anyway. Opinions?
It removes the possibility of someone intentionally outleveling a mission so that they can complete it more easily. Don't really have any objections beyond that.


http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

 

Posted

That's a possibility, although one can always set the difficulty to -1 for those troublesome cases or, failing that, simply drop the mission.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
It removes the possibility of someone intentionally outleveling a mission so that they can complete it more easily. Don't really have any objections beyond that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinch View Post
That's a possibility, although one can always set the difficulty to -1 for those troublesome cases or, failing that, simply drop the mission.
What about "undroppable" missions - like some of the EBs lowbie redside (looking at you, Sea Witch!)?

For some AT/pwerset combinations, I have at times levelled twice to get the mission green. Your original concern was the effect of turning a mission in your list inadvertantly from green to gray while teaming, so you did recognize that was one strategy used by some. Can't drop it, but want it green, not blue.


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Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ad Astra View Post
What about "undroppable" missions - like some of the EBs lowbie redside (looking at you, Sea Witch!)?

For some AT/pwerset combinations, I have at times levelled twice to get the mission green. Your original concern was the effect of turning a mission in your list inadvertantly from green to gray while teaming, so you did recognize that was one strategy used by some. Can't drop it, but want it green, not blue.
I did exactly the same thing in order to solo Sea Witch. I like the intent of the OP's suggestion but would want it to be an optional switch in the mission difficulty settings so that people could set "use my current level" vs. "use the mission's level". As long as it was set up as a user-selectable option, I'd love it.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
It removes the possibility of someone intentionally outleveling a mission so that they can complete it more easily.
/this. And no, sometimes -1 isn't enough.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
It removes the possibility of someone intentionally outleveling a mission so that they can complete it more easily.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill View Post
/this. And no, sometimes -1 isn't enough.

Well, when I first posted my question about the OP, I was feeling kinda wimpy about wanting to be able to outlevel some EBs to Green - but I'm feeling much better now, since there are a couple of other veterans doing the same thing.

An optional switch would be fine, but I don't know how hard it would be to program, and frankly, I'm not sure it's necessary with the other options to avoid outlevelling contacts/content and the ease of going back thru Ouro or on an alt.


Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!

Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."

 

Posted

I thought about this a lot, and I have to say, I see two huge problems with it. For one, it prevents us from outlevelling our missions, which is actually a GOOD thing for some of the harder ones. For another, it makes Ouroboros completely and utterly POINTLESS. At this point, I think it'd be better to just ask for Ouro to feature ALL missions from ALL contacts and auto-EX us to their level if we've outlevelled them. It accomplishes the goal without messing with a system which is actually working pretty well currently.

I'm not a big fan of level-scaling for missions, to be honest. SSK is cool, but I'd rather not take it beyond that.


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Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
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Posted

Hmm, I might have underestimated the difficulty of some missions for some powersets. I'd suggest teaming to overcome the difficulty, but I'm hardly fond of the idea of forcing playstyles on people. One way of dealing with it might be adding a -2 difficulty option, but that might be abusable to a point.


As for Ouroboros, it allows for repeatable running of any given arc. That, plus the level restrictions and the number of steps that would need to be taken to implement a way to list all missions available {though I would be anything but opposed} sounds much higher.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Quinch View Post
One way of dealing with it might be adding a -2 difficulty option, but that might be abusable to a point.
Like farming purples from swarms of lv48s


http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ad Astra View Post
Well, when I first posted my question about the OP, I was feeling kinda wimpy about wanting to be able to outlevel some EBs to Green - but I'm feeling much better now, since there are a couple of other veterans doing the same thing.
Often it is the ONLY workable way to solve such missions. Of course you try to get some help. But help Red Side can be few and scarce indeed and that leaves you with outleveling a mission.


 

Posted

If this was implemented, perhaps in the same patch we could add the ability to fight mobs at -2 or -3? It's clear the player base deliberately out-levels difficult content, so why not let us set it manually?


 

Posted

What about letting people drop an unlimited number of misisons, but granting no completion experience for dropped missions and reducing story arc merits in proportion to the number of dropped missions?


 

Posted

<QR>

Hell no. I miss the ability to easily clear a lowbie's mission (whether it was for badges or for some other reason) and this would eliminate the last holdovers of that system.


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Posted

I am totally in favor of this system. I hate outlevelling and the fact I still have contacts in my list that will not talk to me anymore.

Ouroborous is just not the same.

Outlevelling on purpois..! Sorry... I think those EB's and AV's in those missions are designed for you to get help in form of a team. In this caase you are able to look longer for a team to help you. You have time enough as you never really outlevel it anyway.

Outlevelling on purpois is standing directly against all requests from players that at some point this game starts to become too easy. I think some challenge should stay. And fighting an EB or AV should always be a challenge. That includes SeaWitch.


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Posted

I'd really like this. With the new levelling speeds, I rarely actually take long enough to level up to complete an entire arc before the mid twenties or so heroside if I team much at all. As it is, this basically means I just have to ignore story contacts to avoid doing four missions at -3 for arcs.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz Bathory View Post
I am totally in favor of this system. I hate outlevelling and the fact I still have contacts in my list that will not talk to me anymore.

Ouroborous is just not the same.

Outlevelling on purpois..! Sorry... I think those EB's and AV's in those missions are designed for you to get help in form of a team. In this caase you are able to look longer for a team to help you. You have time enough as you never really outlevel it anyway.

Outlevelling on purpois is standing directly against all requests from players that at some point this game starts to become too easy. I think some challenge should stay. And fighting an EB or AV should always be a challenge. That includes SeaWitch.

So fight her even con yourself and let me do things my way. You find your challenges where you want them - heck, fight her +4/+8 solo if you want to.

But this game is structured to let me play it without a team (for 95+% of the content), including the change of dropping AVs to EBs when soloed and the ability to outlevel them to make them green or even grey.

And all these "requests from players that at some point this game starts to become too easy"? I haven't seen any more of those than responses that the difficulty seems about right, including several in this thread alone. You have the tools to make things as difficult as you want (unless you want insane difficulty, then this is likely not the game for you).

You don't want to outlevel content - you have a tool for that as well - turn off XP.


Altoholic - but a Blaster at Heart!

Originally Posted by SpyralPegacyon

"You gave us a world where we could fly. I can't thank you enough for that."

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz Bathory View Post
the fact I still have contacts in my list that will not talk to me anymore.
This is not a fact, unless you've either just leveled and have not yet changed zones, or you're looking at the wrong tab in your contacts list. If a contact is in your Active Contacts list, they have something to say to you (which might just be introducing you to a new contact, but it's something).


http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
This is not a fact, unless you've either just leveled and have not yet changed zones, or you're looking at the wrong tab in your contacts list. If a contact is in your Active Contacts list, they have something to say to you (which might just be introducing you to a new contact, but it's something).
It is if, say for Marshall Brass, you start a few missions with him, go do something else, and then come back.

You are STUCK with him permanantly in your contacts list, permanantly giving out low conning missions, and no way of telling him to, kindly, go find someone else to do the work he can't do himself. ( )

Option to drop outlevelled contacts, not just missions. Kthnxbai.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Liz Bathory View Post
I am totally in favor of this system. I hate outlevelling and the fact I still have contacts in my list that will not talk to me anymore.
I, on the other hand, love outlevelling contacts and have no problems ignoring any contacts in my "Inactive" list. You already have... Oh, wait...

Quote:
Ouroborous is just not the same.
Then suggest changes to that and keep your hands off my difficulty settings.

Quote:
Outlevelling on purpois..! Sorry... I think those EB's and AV's in those missions are designed for you to get help in form of a team. In this caase you are able to look longer for a team to help you. You have time enough as you never really outlevel it anyway.
Unless YOU are prepared to put together a team for me whenever I feel like tackling an elite boss, kindly keep your hands off my ability to solo my own missions. Archvillains scaling down into elite bosses was a change specifically designed to allow people to solo their own signature enemies, so trying to argue forced teaming is a doomed sell.

Quote:
Outlevelling on purpois is standing directly against all requests from players that at some point this game starts to become too easy. I think some challenge should stay. And fighting an EB or AV should always be a challenge. That includes SeaWitch.
"Should" is a very poor argument, and your position stands directly against all requests to make the game easier, including requests already fulfilled. If your game is too easy, you have the option to up your difficulty. Stop trying to mess with MY difficulty. The game was never too easy for me and you have no place trying to dictate how hard it "should" be.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Arcanaville View Post
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.

 

Posted

There might be a point there. On the whole, the only complaint is that there are missions that cannot be dropped but are too difficult to solo for some builds until they're far outleveled. Doesn't that indicate a problem with the missions rather than the system? Thus, investigating those missions and scaling the offending part down to manageable levels would solve that problem. On the matter of retaining the challenge for those who feel they can tackle them as they are now, well, anyone who can solo +4 EB/AVs is a better man than I.


 

Posted

I hate to necrothread, especially my own, but I didn't receive any answers - if the difficulty of unbeatable-and-unskippable missions were to be addressed {devs, I'm looking at you}, would there be a problem with the original suggestion?