The Impossible Mr. Trapdoor and Issue 19's New Theme

Since the most recent patch, I've been hearing one thing over and over again:

"Trapdoor is impossible now."

Of course he isn't. He's not even hard as an elite boss goes, but he highlights in very specific terms what's possibly a new development direction, or perhaps even a new encounter theme for City of Heroes.

Out of curiosity, I took some, shall we say, very specifically optimized characters to fight him solo. These are characters that are slotted to the extreme end for teaming, including a sonic/sonic defender, an ice/ice blaster, and a dark/ss tank. In each case I was able to defeat Trapdoor with no temporary powers.

The difference between being able to fight him successfully and not being able to defeat him boiled down to two things: I was willing to think about how the encounter worked and was then willing to do what was necessary to beat him. It doesn't sound hard. The mission gives you all kinds of hints and clues as to what's needed, so it wasn't very hard to actually do, either.


The wonderful Apex Taskforce is another example of this new theme. In the second mission, players are given some broad visual clues as to what's needed to survive and then defeat the arch-villain at the end.

The reactions of players to those clues has ranged the gamut. Some people outright ignore them and are then frustrated that they can't win by the tired old rotes they're used to.

Some people misinterpret them dramatically. For example, I've seen more than one taskforce leader demand that players not fly during the encounter. Why? Because, 'it makes the death patches appear in the air where you can't see them to avoid them when they kill everything below them'.

AOE spheres be damned. Battle Maiden's death patches have become 'columns of death' that can reach from floor to ceiling.

Of course not only is misinformation spreading faster than a bootless truth, but the encounter is singling out those who lack an understanding of how certain parts of the game works.

Those who understand or are willing to learn about how the game works, however, and are also willing to take a look at the encounter as something that requires thought and action they may not be used to are quickly finding themselves with the 'Already Dead' badge and some other fun shinies.


"You are NOT gonna win this fight by standing still and clicking your power buttons over and over again. You're gonna THINK and you're gonna MOVE, or you're going to lose."


Good job, Devs. I appreciate the fun new content. And kudos to the players who get it!

Don't beat your fists against the wall until you bloody yourself; assess the wall and bring a jackhammer.

This improved mentality isn't that new. I think the Protean fight brought this about earlier in the year. He's not an EB you can stand next to and just beat down. You have to stay on your toes and move around in order to fight him, else he just heals off you.

Trapdoor? Who?
Ohhh, the little stain currently crisping off the surface of the lava! Right! Yeeeah...that was mean't to be hard? Honestly, getting him to stand still long enough to take his beating, lasering and plasma burning like a man was the hardest part

I have yet to do the ATF, and doubtless I will hate my bots all over again for dying in stupid ways, like trying to brawl Battle Maiden in the face...but hey, so long as I can still mortar, poison gas and trip mine her in the face...it happens.

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.

Pretty simple on my end...I'll try the new content and if it's fun/completable by a pug, I'll repeat it. If it becomes a case of banging your head against a wall and just repeated party defeats, we'll move on.

So far, groups I've been asked to team with have ignored Apex and kept running Tin Mage and the regular task forces.

Basically, players just want a fresh coat of paint on old methods and content, not necessarily new, challenging content.

Signed! Now make more of these with increasingly complex (though it's a hilarious statement of how bad the traditional MMO paradigm is that 'move' can be considered a complex gamelay mechanic) encounters!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venture While I haven't played the encounter in question yet, the game is designed so that you fight by "standing still and clicking your power buttons over and over". If they want people to fight on the move they should first make it possible to actually do so.

Sounds like they should be the first of the superhero MMOs to incorporate travel powers rather than suppress them.

Here's a hint, DCUO is not it, and has suppression worse than the others. Eventually somebody will make a game that does it right. Who will it be?

I've been mystified as to why some people think that Trapdoor is absolutely impossible, and I think you've gotten it right.

Thing is... hopping around when enemies are nasty isn't a brand new strategy, even with the older content. I was just soloing a couple random paper missions on a level 22 Dominator who still needs some work, and I was having some trouble with lieutenants beating my face in a bit more than I wanted. So I started using my immobilize (the only mez I could reliably stack) and running around corners, darting out to blast at them.

As for Trapdoor, the character that I had the most trouble on was my Stone Tanker, and that was entirely because of mobility (I had trouble getting to and taking care of the bifurcations before the next one spawned.) And when I wanted to unlock the alpha slot on my very un-solo-friendly Empathy Defenders... I teamed with a friend. I know, crazy unheard of strategy, right?

But no. Apparently, if the tactics that many people are successfully using don't appeal to certain whiners, those tactics are wrong, don't exist, and the mission is impossible.

Yes, you can fire off an attack while you're moving through mid air. You can also jump cancel attack animations.

Just for fun I went around to several servers last night during "prime time"; Freedom, Triumph, Virtue and Infinity.

Apex and Tin Mage sat alone while Lady Grey and Imperious had plenty of company with people lined up to do their TFs.

I think that speaks volumes on what the average player thinks about Apex and Tin Mage, as opposed to the vocal minority of Muchkin power gamers on these forums who've propped up these two disasters.

May the i19 TFs and the devs "new development direction" be swiftly ignored, fall into obscurity and forgotten like the Shard TFs and other wastes of development resources.



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tin mage i see still having a life but apex...nope not at all.

funny thing is though i hate the stf more then either apex or tin mage...go figure

This has always been the game I come home to.

And the reason why I always come back to this game is that other games too often feature gimmicky fights that have to be failed over and over again until you get the precise choreography down to defeat them. With practice you can master the steps; then it becomes largely a test of the latency of your connection.

I dislike gimmick fights for many reasons. I don't play games to experience frustration, which is what I hear when people start talking about "challenge". I want a relaxing experience where you get to roll over stuff at a fast pace. This has always been this game's chief attraction for me, and I hesitate to lose it.

More importantly, gimmick fights increase tension in the player base. If you can wipe the raid by being out of place or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, the more experienced player will look at the "noob" player with elitism and condescending intolerance. They're likely to do the wrong thing and cause a failure. If they had our experience and skills we would have won. Our community is more sweetness and light than most games' because our game is easy. I say we should keep it easy.

The problem with Trapdoor is that it is either trivial or tedious. If you can keep Trapdoor held, it's trivial. If you have to chase down each clone it is tedious, even if you have the DPS to eventually succeed. It's particularly tedious on melee sets without holds. The only way to make it not tiresome to all power sets, including melee sets without controls and low damage ATs without holds, is to re-enable the "break LOS" strategy.

When was the last time anyone went recruiting for a Cathedral of Pain trial on your server's global channels?

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