The Arachnos Flyer (redside)

Disclaimer
If you are not a redside player, or a game developer, this thread is probably not for you. These aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along.

Overview
If you're still reading this then you've either chased The White Whale of Grandville, considered chasing it, or you're in a position to influence the change I am about to suggest.

But first, let's quickly look at the other GM's redside and more importantly... how they spawn. Exact details can be found at paragonwiki.

Redside GM Spawning Info

Deathsurge - "defeat 100 gremlins"

Ghost of Scrapyard - "defeat 100 scrapyarders"

Caleb - "defeat 100 demons"

Arachnos Flyer - "Every 2-8 hours (real time) and during dusk (game time), a large transport emerges from the hangar atop the Watchtower..."

Now I want you to reread that again, but this time replace the words "and during" with the word "at"... it's VERY important.

Discussion
There is currently no way players can spawn the Arachnos Flyer, and there's only 1 very special dusk (game time) during an 8 hour window (real time) that it will appear.

So, unless you and your friends plan on camping out in Grandville for up to 8 hours, good luck having a team ready to get this GM.

When it finally does spawn, your window of opportunity to destroy the Arachnos Flyer gets even worse. The only time you can hurt it is when it lands in 4 "hot zones" of The Gutter neighborhood, and drops it's force field for 2 minutes.

To recap, that gives you a potential 8 hour waiting time, and a whopping 8 minutes to destroy it.

Proposed Solution

Arachnos Flyer - "defeat 100 bane spiders in The Gutter neighborhood"

The Arachnos Flyer deploys Bane Spiders around 4 zones in The Gutter neighborhoods to curb the encroaching Arachnoid population. By eliminating 100 of these Bane Spiders, players could spawn the Arachnos Flyer in the same manner as Deathsurge, Ghost of Scrapyard, and Caleb.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading... and have a Happy New Year!

While I understand that the time period to destroy the Flyer is too short, I don't agree that the fix to this is to allow you to control the spawning of it.

Currently, Villains already have a bit of an advantage over heroes int hat they can affect the spawn rate of most of their zone GMs. I am unaware of any hero-side zone GM that heroes can directly impact their spawn rates.

As such, having one GM redside that is on a timer isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I would suggest, however, that the landing times for the Flyer be lengthened instead, so that it becomes easier to destroy before the time is up, rather than being able to control its spawn rate.

Are you a redside player?

I play on both sides, thank you very much. But just so you know, you do not get to determine who responds to your threads. This is an open forum, and even a blueside-only player can, and should, have an opinion on this.

Another thought would be to increase the 'prep time' available to make sure people can get to the flier event in time.

When the flier is triggered, have an announcement that the 'flier is being scrambled' maybe 5 mins before the flier actually appears, with the 'Flier patrol has commenced' message at that time.

Similar to the way the Rikti waves come along. Or the prep time for the Banners event, or the timer on the LoW present.


Something like this, along with a slight increase in the timer at each drop zone, would keep the existing flavour but make it much more manageable.


Blueside monsters are on a random timer, but they basically don't despawn, so the window to take them down is very open.

Actually, as a redside player, it might also be neat to 'preface' the launching of the Arachnos Flyer by having more Arachnoids spawn, a la "Increased Clockwork Activity in Kings Row."

The warning goes out that Arachnoid spawn quantities are approaching dangerous levels, and then "Arachnos Flyer Launched".

Something like that, maybe?

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

I like that twist on the idea

The attempts to limit the participants of in the discussion are a little distracting and off putting.

interesting idea. I think that there should be some sort of change with the flier, but at this point, I am happy that it spawns at all.

"Sorry bucko, but CoH and CoV are the same game." -BackAlleyBrawler
"Silly villain, CoX is for Heroes!" -Saicho

I actually think that there are a few good Ideas here to help increase the Ability to defeat the flier. I know that while playing my Corrupter I didn't get many options to get the badge that I wanted, and I still don't have any Villains that have actually defeated the flier.

But being that ATM I am mostly a blue-side player I guess my opinion doesn't count here.

Be careful how you post, you just might tick off people that would have actually agreed with you otherwise.

What they really need to do for it is have a warning before the Arachnos Flyer leaves the Watchtower instead of when it leaves the Watchtower. This would give players a window to make preparations for a team and then head off to Grandville.

Honestly, I don't think the Flyer needs a change. The two or three times I've destroyed it, it was very easy to following it to it's landing site and destroy it. I have not noticed any difficulty in completing this task.

I have to agree with Fleeting Whisper, I find Caleb harder. Tried a lot of times for him, still haven't got it, tried about twice for the Flyer and I have it.

Although I was able to destroy the flyer yesterday (thereby getting the Heat Seeker badge) I'm still lobbying for a change to this GM for future players.

I have to agree on this matter, it is very hard to get a team ready to fight the Flyer because you can not spawn it and by the time you do get a team formed it is already on its last landing spot and you do not have enough time to kill it. About the blueside GM's, you may not be able to spawn them but they do stay in the zone until they are defeated by the players unlike the Flyer to my knowledge. Hopefully the Flyer will go to being able to be spawnd.

Although the Heroside GMs are not 'Triggerable', they also dont seem to despawn. Multiple times I've run through zones, going 'Hmm, Lusca's still here.' Or Kraken, or Sally, or w/e.

Having them Triggerable is by no means easier. I specifically had to hunt down 100 of the Gremlins for the badge they give. I then ended up simply sat in Cap, waiting and chatting over channels, for Surge to spawn. (The Gremlins also have a respawn timer)

I'd /Sign any changes that make GMs easier to locate in general.

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.

I don't know what you're talking about OP, Everytime I'm online I wait with my nin stalker for a rikti invasion that damn flyer is always the most frequent one that comes up. It's always there when you don't need it, that's what spawns it I think.

So if you want it to spawn, try not wanting it to spawn, works for me lol

P.S- I only play redside.

*Disclaimer* (Seems everyone should post this to not have the OP get his shorts in a bunch) I play both sides regularly

I am against allowing the control of the spawn. But I think if you can't control the spawn, just like hero side, it should act just like hero side.

I think that once the GM spawns, it should remain active until its destroyed. Allow it to stop at its four stops in a pre-set pattern until taken down.

I agree with Empire here. No spawn control, but have it keep patrolling instead of going away. The main issue with it isn't the inability to control it, it's the 8 minute timer. I've got over 450 badges on my main and the Flier was one of the most recent I've gotten (last one I got before the Winter Event started, I believe) just because it took that long to get a team in the right place at the right time that could down it in eight minutes. Is it possible to duo? Certainly, if you're awesome enough, but the vast majority of players aren't, and 'average' players generally require a full team of 8 to take down a GM.

So either a way to force it (even something really hard, like someone doing an Barracuda SF) or have it stick around... But it needs to be easier to find.



...And yes, Caleb's a pain. I, too, got him on the 5th Anniversary day.

So, nobody likes the idea of the badge being "special" because of the challenge?

Personally, I do like the sound of the warning that it is being scrambled.

ALL the Badges! (I can get. 1396)