The Manticore Task Force needs a change.

I enjoy the Manticore Task Force. It's one of my favorites that I'll usually join if I see it forming. But at one point, it sends you from Brickstown to Kings Row (to rescue Birch), and then to Crey's Folly (to defeat 40 Crey). That's a ridiculous trek for two missions. It's such a hassle that I've opted out of running the task force simply because I don't want to put up with it.

Yes, not all of the team needs to go to each mission. The Birch mission can be stealthed, and Birch doesn't need to be led out, only the spawn around him needs to be cleared. One person can be sent to free him while the rest of the team goes straight to Crey's. But task forces are team tasks. They should be designed with the expectation that each team member will be going to each mission.

To do both of these missions, you would be required to zone a minimum of four times. For two missions! Some people zone slowly and this can be a huge disruption (my load times aren't even that bad, and I always spend more time getting to these missions than completing them). Okay, it's less with base teleporters, but I'm not counting those because it's ridiculous to expect people to have a super group (or one with teleporters) just to avoid zoning lots of times.

Here's some possible ways to get from Brickstown to King's Row to Crey's Folly:

Mission teleporter to King's Row
Yellow Line to Steel or Skyway
Green Line to Brickstown
Brickstown to Crey's Folly

But what about people who didn't buy the Valkyrie/Mac pack?
Green Line to Steel or Skyway, or Pocket D to King's Row
Yellow Line to King's Row
Yellow Line back to Steel or Skyway
Green Line to Brickstown
Brickstown to Crey's Folly

That's five. Of course that requires you to go from Green Line to Yellow Line and then Yellow Line to Green Line (well, unless you use Pocket D teleporter to get to King's Row). They're pretty far apart, so most people would do this instead:

Brickstown to Ouroboros
Ouroboros to Atlas Park
Atlas Park to King's Row
King's Row to Ouroboros
Ouroboros to Founder's Falls
Founder's Falls to Brickstown
Brickstown to Greenline

Jeez, seven zone changes, just for two missions. What a pain, right? This could be easily solved by changing the Birch mission to Skyway City or Steel Canyon. You could go from Brickstown to either one, then back to Brickstown to head to Crey's Folly. See how much easier that sounds?

And this isn't in Suggestions & Ideas because it's not a suggestion or an idea, it's a statement.

Personally I don’t mind the running around, for me it kinda adds to the feel of a TF and I guess I’m a player who likes storylines so for me it’s not all about rushing through everything. Birch can be stealthed but I’m sure that was the devs intention for the mission.

Anyway even if I did want to rush, it really wouldn’t take me that long as I can use:

Pocket D
Ouroboros
Mission Transporter
Base Transporter
Base Portals
Base Porters (Bricks and Creys)

Very few players don’t have SG’s and they can enter and use your base on the TF if they don't.

I’m not saying it’s not a good idea, I just don’t enjoy the culture of everything now, maybe that’s just me.

Let's not forget one other way to get from Bricks to Kings...

Go to the IP door (Right by Manticore) and travel north in IP to the Kings Row door (Near the IP Tailor). Reverse that trip on the way back.

Time sink? Yes. If you have solid Travel powers, is not horrid.

Thank you for the time...

@Travlr (Main) / @Tymers Realm (Test)

The whole "multiple zone changes" design is really outdated. I don't know why it ever came to be so prevalent in MMOs but the sooner it's forgotten, the better.

Generally speaking, I agree with Night Hornet about the instant gratification culture we have, but running around isn't fun or entertaining in any way, it's just a time sink for no purpose. Since only the team leader can see the story, it really just becomes a question of zoning multiple times.

Personally, I like stuff to be multi-zone. Being stuck in one zone bores me. I've always liked running all over the city, even back in the day with limited travel powers and that horrible end drain from fly.

But, as has been disclaimered before, I'm a little strange.

LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!

Zone travel can be quite irritating and long sometimes, especially when the zone you're heading to needs more than one stop, and even more if you going from Yellow to Green lines in Steel Canyon, which are both situated on opposite ends of the map.

But the point of missions requiring these kinds of zone-travels is because evil isn't conveniently situated atop the inactive volcano in the middle of the city block. Doing the right thing isn't always easy, thus you can't expect to get rid of all zone-travel, or even tone it down because if you were a supervillain, you'd want to make sure it's as tedious as possible for any heroes to come stop you. When you look it that way, the villains are smart to make it so many steps for the average hero to reach them.

Is it good design, I'm not entirely sure. But does it make sense given the context of villainy trying not to be foiled by just /anybody/, that I'm sure of. The hero that doesn't bother to do the legwork of reaching your hideout is one less hero to bother you.

I'm hoping that they might go through all the old Freedom Phalanx TFs and revamp them like the new Positron one - fixing one per Issue would be nice.

While I can see how too much zoning can be annoying, I do NOT want to see too much of the game be changed to take place within half a mile of the contact. It's a big city, and it's REALLY immersion-breaking for crime to only ever happen within the same general area of the person who knows about it, especially when it's caused by international corporations or wide-scale terrorist groups.

I'd much rather missions took place where it made sense for them to be, rather than necessarily close by. Kings' Row is said to contain a lot of Crey warehouses, so when we get a mission to raid a Crey warehouse, I'd expect it to be in Kings Row, not across the street from the contact in Founders' Falls.

Quote:

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.

Sorry, but travel isn't that bad in this game. I think sometimes we've become a little spoiled by the quick travel in Coh/v.

When I ran a Manticore TF last weekend, he kept sending us to Dark Astoria.

Maybe I'm weird, but traveling around the city is one of the things that I enjoy most about this game.

The problem with Manticore's TF isn't travel time, it's the fact that after slogging thru all the buildup you only face off against a boring chump in a 3 piece suit. *Yawn*

It's just so...anti-climatic.

I think it was just dumb they moved Hopkins out of Crey's Folly.

"beat up crey in crey's folly. oh, turns out Hopkins is waiting for you in Atlas Park."

I can't remember at what point they did that, probably when they went back and yanked out the bulk of Hazard Zone doors that everyone hated because of the travel time involved.

but yeah, Hopkins stands beside Vandal as one of the biggest chump AVs in the game. SS/Wuss tankers. Vandal should poop out Mek Men, Hopkins should have a blue-tooth phone that he uses to call in support because he's such a big sack of wimp.