The Descent of Lambda, Told through chat.

Throughout this chat (which is very close to precisely what was said in the trial) You should see the typical problem faced time and time again by those running lambda (though perhaps worse than most). The main question I often wonder when leading these, is Why, Why will so many REFUSE to read, or respond to simple questions/directions in an MMO? (In a raid scenario, where one person can almost crash everything on their own.)

The rest below is just a long rant basically, so ignore this thread if you don't want to reminisce the phail with me.

(The Lambda Trial Begins)

/broadcast If you are not in league chat please SAY SO, so we can tell you how to get in league chat.

/League If this your first time doing this trial, please say something now so we don't fail when you don't know what we mean by CHECK YOUR TEMPS.

(no one but 4-5 in league chat.. okay)

/League Alright. Since We're all vets here. Clear Roads -> Clear Courtyard -> Kill Turrets -> Kill Security team ->Buff<-->Team 1: Acid, Team 2: Weapons -> Acid Portals (don't Aggro Marauder) -> Nade marauder -> Win

(as we complete security team)

/league Team 1: Acid - Labs
/league Team 2: Weapons - Warehouse
/league Follow your leader, team 2 I propose you pick a leader if someone knows their way around.
/league: Alright, to team chat for this section, GO!

(Team completes remarkably quickly and safely, no issue)

/league Alright, back to league chat, help team 2 with weapons.
/league Team 1 feel free to split up as you see fit.

(section completes shortly after, no hitch

/league Alright, Acids -> Doors, try not to aggro marauder.

(5 portals remain after acids should be used)

/b Check your TEMPORARY POWERS under your POWER TAB, if you have [Molecular Acid] Than use it on the Portals NOW or give it to someone else.
/b If you are not on league chat, say something!

(team takes down acid chamber, aggros marauder, detonates 1 portal)

(3 portals remain, 4 acids are on the field, team is beginning to wipe due to marauders adds)

/league Can everyone check their temps again, there are 4 acids out

(reinforcements continue to flow in, someone nades marauder)

/league Don't waste the grenades, there are 4 acids out there still USE THEM on the doors, check your temp powers to make sure you don't have them.

(nothing happens, someone else grenades marauder, another portal goes down from the CY chamber)

/league Alright, everyone gather up, focus on marauder, judge the adds.

(Doors finally go down after 4 minutes, things start to pull together, out of grenades, marauder begins to regenerate)

/league OKAY, splitting a team off (splits a scrapper a tank and a defender out) Alright, I split a team off, team 3 kill the weapon crates and acid chambers every time they're up. Everyone else, Marauder.

(portals go down after 2 more minutes)
(marauder goes down agonizingly slowly as we cant use grenades more than they spawn, since someone isn't throwing them and someone wasted them early)

(nearly 20 minutes later)

/league, hey can everyone say '1' in league if you see this so we know who needs to get murdered?

(someone responds "like that will work")
(one other person says "haha")
(people slowly peel off and disband, beaten as you can get while still winning.)

*Thinking to self* "Wow. Some of these people must actually be illiterate, I really can't think of another way to explain it"

"Herding cats" is one reason why I'd never run on a team with more than two or three other people if I could help it.

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.

I always precede a Lambda, whether I'm lead or not, with "Anyone new to this that's unsure of how to find temp powers when they're not on your trays?". I've never once had someone speak up, yet probably 90% of the runs someone doesn't find/use their acid(s).

At this point I have to assume that either a) there's some bug eating up a portion of the temp powers (and we really are out of acids with only 6 used), or b) it's deliberate on their part - deliberately ignoring league chat, deliberately not speaking up if they're unsure, or deliberately not checking when asked (or I suppose they know they have them, know what to do, and deliberately don't do so, but Hanlon's razor all that).


Oh, and re: checking that people have league chat enabled, rather than broadcast I'd use team chat and ask team leaders (via tell, in case it's them that don't have league chat on) to do the same. Some folks have broadcast disabled/hidden, but most seem to see team chat, at least before the action starts.

I'm fully convinced that people play MMO's while stoned or drunk. I have no other explanation for some of the behavior I've seen.

However, I'm starting to reach the belief that the handling of acids and grenades on Lambda is poor game design, because it's adversely affecting too many of the runs to just blame on a few bad players. Maybe we need to have a separate power tray for mission-critical temp powers, or something similar.

The devs should be really nice and when a team gets 10/10 crates/containers everyone on the team should automatically be given an additional grenade/Acid temp. Wouldn't have the issues people are having since there would be so many, and since you earned 10/10 of whichever, no one can say you don't deserve them.

This was applicable on the first day of release, but on my server, and I'm willing to guarantee all the others as well, it's a total autopilot 96% of the time.

There's always going to be a newb mixed in, like the +0 defender on my lambda last night who attempted to solo the AV while everyone was acid'ing doors.

-> TT MA Arc ID 1755 -> Join TankHQ -> Media -> @AceMACE

I think some temps are lost due to players crashing in the trial.

I see many people in game who simply don't want to discuss with anyone and everyone while playing. Sure, they may enjoy more people to team and blast bad guys with, but they don't actually want to communicate with them, they prefer to just stick with their own friends, talking in private chat or voice chat. I see that behavior in most of my friends, and I assume in many random folks. Hell, sometimes I feel that way too. Dealing with people is often more frustrating than just mashing buttons mindlessly.

Add to that there are juicy rewards tied to those trials, luring people who may not care one bit for "raid" content or even teams at all, and it's no wonder there's always people who don't seem to listen.

Something you can do before you start is ask everyone on the league to drag and drop a temp into the chat window - that way you can see for sure if they all know how to find their temps

I normally rush Marauder with anywhere between 4 and 6 portals active. I figure if your not going to use the acids, I'm not going to wait for you to figure it out, and people get trigger happy with the grenades, so its better to just rush marauder and keep him jumping, then get killed from the 'Orb Dawn' that happens when he has too many adds.

This shows why the trial is flawed. Even if you get all the components, someone could dc and blow at least 1 if not more of the acids or grenades.

I'd rather see a period where you have to, as a league, take out all the doors in a specific period of time or some other thing that didn't require gathering "items" in order to win.

I have dc'd on this trail more times than I have been on succesful runs. The only thing that dc's worse is BAF.

Do you know what the main difference between these trials and the usual TFs (even "endgame" TFs) is?

You can't make enough of a difference by yourself.

When I do TFs with a random PUG, I try to run them with one of my more, let's say "optimized" characters. My DM/Inv scrapper can spearhead every TF in the game (she has been the one to hold the line against BM in the Apex TF at one point, not to talk about actually soloing the ITF just to say that I could), my Dark/Psi defender only needs a lobotomized monkey with a big enough gun as a teammate to get through any TF if necessary.

However, other characters wouldn't be able to do that. My /Fire blapper is a total riot to play when there's some decent support, but lacks enough mojo to pull the really big stunts by herself. Other more adventurous builds I have are not even worth mentioning, they would never make it past the first spawn of Romans in the ITF if the team doesn't help - and I don't get them out unless the team is with people I know would tolerate or enjoy the "adventurousness".

Point is, in any given TF, with 8 people around, there's a good enough chance of landing at least one of these characters able to pretty much do the whole thing by themselves or with but a little help. All they need is seven warm bodies to start the TF.

In the Lambda? Good luck if you get more than a couple of dummies. If they get temp powers, you're screwed.

Well, even if everyone in the league knows how to use temp powers, some of them can still be uncooperative about it. As unfathomable as it may sound, some people are just douchebags and they want the trials to fail. I have two examples of this.

On one of the first Lambda trial I ever led, I invited two blasters who apparently were friends. We did the standard clearing of the outside streets, courtyard, and just as we are starting to clear the turrets, they started complaining about how taking out turrets was a waste of time. They went on and on for a couple more turrets and me being still somewhat inexperienced at Lambda, finally got fed up and told the league to stop just to shut them up. We left about half a dozen turrets up and moved on to the sabotage phase. The sabotage went pretty well and we got all the temps so naturally, we started destroying the doors/portals. That's when people started to getting killed left and right by the turrets that were still up. These two douchebags then LOL'ed and quit the league, probably taking some temps with them. We still managed to finish the trial though it was far more ugly than it should have been. I thought about petitioning the two of them but I decided against it since I had no proof.

The second incident came just a few nights ago. Again I was leading a Lambda and as we are clearing the streets, this necro MM kept team TPing everyone all over the place. Fearing that we have a griefer on our hands, I warned him to stop so if he didn't, I would be justified in booting him. Surprisingly, he stopped so we continued on. The courtyard, turrets and sabotage went off without a hitch. During the cut scene, I saw a liche and zombie standing slightly behind Marauder but I didn't think much of it. After the cut scene ended, we exited to the courtyard only to be met with the trial failed message. After a couple seconds of "wtf?" between us, we finally figured out that Marauder probably exited through the main gate. My first instinct was that the necro MM's pets had somehow caused it so I booted him. That was all I could do since that I had no proof it was intentional. After I zoned into Pocket D however, this same MM started boasting in broadcast about how Marauder ran away because it was afraid to face him. After a couple of minutes, he then sent me a tell saying that he could report me for harrassment since I booted him. I've finally had enough and reported him.

It just goes to show that Lambda is far more vulnerable than BAF when it comes to griefers and I am becoming convinced that sometimes, people withhold their temp powers simply because they can.