iTrials: The Best Parts We Want to See Again

I have been really vocal lately in my criticisms of aspects of the iTrials I don't like. I feel it may be productive to balance some of that out with some comments about the things I like about them.

One particular thing I want to point out in particular is that prior to iTrials were pretty static affairs. I actually kind of dreaded facing AVs, because it was so boring. The iTrials give me reason to run around.

My favorite is probably Marauder's jumping. It just looks cinematic, and watching the players all go racing across the yard after him is really action-y. Most of the boss fights in iTrials feel more dynamic than the rest of the game (I'm actually growing to really like the MoM fights with the somewhat forgiveable pink death patches), but Marauder is one of my favorites just because its there to look awesome and not just kill me.

Lambda, overall, is my favorite of the new trials. Some people have described it as "easy." I don't really agree. I think Lambda is more or less spot on in its balance between difficulty and cool factor. Yes, your team will probably win. But even kitted out most characters still can't go barreling through the enemies without protection or strategy. Lambda comes closest to mimicking an ITF to me--unlikely to be a total loss, but hard to totally master.

Lambda is also easy to explain (the exception is the use of acids and grenades, which, while not impossible, can be a drag when teams don't pay attention). The segment where you split into two groups is very well done, to me, because the only thing people need to understand is "go through the maze and chase down the destructables." There is no need to make special assignments or to create a small team of 2 or 3 to go do something else. The 16 player limit also means I'm able to see what's going on, and feel like I'm participating.

More importantly, there are few ways in Lambda a participant can screw the whole trial up just by playing enthusiastically. By this what I mean is that any punishment dealt to the player for a mistake is likely to be his or her own. There isn't much the player can click or do that causes everyone else trouble. Not backing away from Marauder hurts the individual, not everyone around, just as an example. Taunting Marauder out of the facility may be an exception, but its a rarely encountered one.

The acid and grenade use situation may be my one sort of reservation about the Lambda design. I sort of feel like if the team reached a goal acting together that things shouldn't boil down to one random player receiving a power to use in a specific way. I don't mind the acids and grenades hugely, but it does seem like they should be distributed differently or we at least be told in announcement who got them.

Anyway, I don't have control over where threads eventually go, but hopefully this one will be able to stay mostly positive and focus on the elements we want to see repeated rather than the things that we really don't like. I may need some policing myself.

ADDENDUM: And for one slightly off topic addition, I will say my favorite fight in the whole game is the one with Mary McCromber at the start of the Katie Hannon Task Force. It, too, has an out of control feel with mobs of enemies raining down on you. There's something about the craziness of those witches and all the lightning storms that is really great. I may be the only player in the world to say this, but if Mary were to suddenly go incarnate and show up with a bunch of Storm witches that would be one raid I couldn't pass up.

I just love the Keyes final fight. The lead up is a little procedural, but that final boss is just great. The first boss who isn't just a sack of HP.

I love the Lambda too. Fast paced fighting! BAF is just a bit slow.

I actually like most of the mechanics in the iTrials. At least, the ones I've done anyway.

For example I think that the BAF is actually a neat designed little encounter, I like that the AVs need to be defeated at the same time and I like that the prisoner escape requires different powers/tactics.

Its only when the encounter gets the "times 24" factor added to it that it all goes wrong for me. Add in a touch of the farming mentality and it gets worse.

If these were all 8 man TFs that you did once or twice per character they would be my favourite parts of the game.

I've only been on one Underground trial and it wasn't successful, but I was completely blown away by the atmosphere of it. I loved the degradation of the tunnels as you progressed. I loved that the enemies - all these super powerful weapons and troops like the ones Praetoria had meant to send into Primal Earth - had been corrupted and overwhelmed by Praetorian DE. It was creepy and fantastic.

I like the straightforwardness of the BAF. The objectives are pretty simple and I feel like I can contribute with whatever character I end up bringing in.

I might be in the minority here, but I also like the storyline of most of the trials themselves. Battling through Mother Mayhem's defenses to stop her is interesting. Anti-Matter going nuts and throwing everything he's got is fun. I want to see how the twist in the Underground trial ends up panning out.

I like all the Trial AV fights - each one offers something unique that suits the person we're fighting - like Marauder has mechanics linked to physical ability, but Anti-matter has mechanics suitable for a mad scientist, and so on.

One thing I liked about Lambda is that it actually uses the League system by forcing the group to split up and assigning simultaneous goals. It's nice that if there's going to be such a large fighting force of players, that they are used in such a fashion. BAF has this to some extent as well, a bit more if you're going for the Keep 'em Separated badge. TPN tries to have it, but it doesn't really work since it's actually more efficient just to ignore the Telepathists. The others don't really make use of the League system, though, and that's a real shame.

I do also enjoy some of the gimmicks that are designed to emphasize strategy. This is a fine line to tread, and sometimes the trials pull it off, sometimes they don't. BAF does it well, with the aggro sharing and the simultaneous defeats. MoM does a good job as well, with each battle having one or two minor gimmicks, and having to adjust between them. However, it's possible to do too little or too much. Lambda's are boring. Use temps, and then it's just a normal fight. Marauder's jumps prolong the fight, but don't really make players have to think. Keyes has too many at once, to the point where it feels pointless to even pay attention to them. Underground doesn't do too bad, but the Confuse aspect is a little too focused on specific powers rather than strategy (Keyes did too, before the changes). And TPN? TPN is a real annoyance, with the fact that one of the strategic techniques was specifically removed. I really liked the fact that use less commonly helpful effects like Phase and Knockback could be used effectively.

The last thing to note is the "suitably epic" feel of the trials. The best ones for this, I think, are Underground and MoM. The former is a breathtaking journey into what ends up an alien world, the latter a classic brawl with a powerful arch-villain on her home turf. Both of these do a good job of accomplishing the way post-50 content should really feel. Less so the others, which don't feel like much more than generic military strikes that could've been done 15 levels before.

Areas without a time limit. Gamer mentality generally means finding the greatest reward per time invested, so the general population already pushes these things to move at a fast pace. We don't need a time constraint on the trial itself. Despite the length, the Underground is still my favorite trial because I can take a second between objectives and appreciate the surroundings and the work that went into creating them.

Changing dynamics. Another thing I like about the Underground Trial is that it requires the player to adapt as they progress through. Each objective has a different strategy, making for a more dynamic playing experience than the TPN Campus trial, for example, which is really just the same strategy/pattern that increases in difficulty from phase 2 to phase 4.

The principle of "you are enough." I enjoy the trials that do not require the player to bring any specific power/inspiration along in order to survive. The first incarnation of the Keyes Island is an example of this since if a league did not have enough green inspirations or healing powers to go around, they were most likely going to fail. I do not think a team/league/player should have to bring anything to an event in order to survive.

That's all I have for now. I am sure I'll come up with a couple more. I also agree with much of what Lazarillo said above.

With regards to the time limit, I find that most players are already under another sort of timer altogether. The amount of time they have to play, uninterrupted, is dictated by outside forces.

In order to get people to show up for something like the Mortimer Kal arc (in preparation for endgame content) I usually have to tell them it's roughly 30 minutes to run the whole thing, or they won't join at all because they don't have enough time - yet, they were still online after I got done, the first time I did it without knowing how long it might take.

Having a timer for the whole thing might work. If there's NO WAY that the task force goes on longer than an hour and a half - with the event crashing and burning at that point, that would be great. Then for sure, you'd be able to get a group together for it even after everyone else had gotten tired of it. (in the far future)