Making TFs/SFs More Fun

I'm a veteran of many years of this game. I started off on slower servers for whatever reason and therefore didn't do TFs/SFs much. I play them more now and I've noticed some disappointing similarities in them:

1) Changing zones. Some of the TFs (namely the ITF) all take place in the same zone while others (Synapse) require WAY too much hopping about IMHO.

2) Hunt X Missions. So far as I've seen in EVERY case you wind up hunting grey-conned enemies which may or may not be easy to find for no reward.

3) Monotony of enemies. I understand that the TFs and SFs are telling a story through a series of related missions. I also understand that while some enemies are more fun (Freakshow) to fight than others (Malta) you have to spread them around and give them all some play time. However I've discovered that smashing my way through half a dozen or more missions, many of them kill-alls, populated solely with one form of enemy gets really old really fast.

4) Kill-alls. Nobody likes these for a number of reasons. Sometimes enemies get stuck in the architecture (this is less common now but it happens). Sometimes they run off and never return (searching every cubical and room in a building is no fun). And frankly, the idea that we have to defeat EVERY opponent in a mission with what might be hundreds of enemies seems a bit silly.

The new Posi TF (1 and 2) is a blast now. Splitting it in two was a great idea IMHO and I'm hoping that this will be a trend. But I haven't heard any other rumblings along these lines and the focus on Incarnate material right now has me worried. Everyone seems so rushed to get to the end they seem to be forgetting about the good stuff along the way. Therefore I'd like to suggest the following changes to the current TFs and SFs:

1) Less zone hopping. Move the missions doors or the contacts so that there is less needless changing zones. I have no problem with the contact sending me to a new zone to start the arc but let me STAY in that zone for a few missions before asking me to bounce back. Along those same lines...

2) Calling the Contact. This is QoL 101. You talk to the contact, you get the mission (in another zone in this case) and you zone to start the arc. Having to go BACK to the contact in ANOTHER zone after only one mission is clearly a pointless time sink. If we have to leave the contact's zone at least make him give is his number so we can call it in.

3) Hunting. Either set the hunt missions up as an instanced event via the Train/Ferry and have the enemies conn appropriate to the arc or get rid of them completely. Yes, this means reducing the rewards at the end but if removing pointless missions can speed up the TF then I see no problem with that.

4) Mix up the enemies a bit. Rather than having the players dig through 4 or more consecutive missions fighting the same enemy, throw in the occasional ringer in the form of a rival group and a battle. Most enemies have at least one rival group and it makes sense to me that if an enemy hears that their foes are getting stomped by a third party they might try to take advantage of the situation. We see these missions now and personally I enjoy them.

5) There have been LOTS of threads written about kill-alls and asking for them to be improved or dispensed with. I have no idea how difficult this would be to code but allowing one survivor per missions doesn't seem like too terrible a hardship to me.

I like many of the TFs and SFs now but I think some of the other content bears looking at. I never see people having trouble filling an ITF during peak play hours. So why is it so popular? It keeps the players in the same zone, it's only a few missions, the enemies change up several times, there's no kill-alls and no pointless hunting. Truth be told except that you need to unlock a badge to play it I think that the ITF embodies all the best things a TF has to offer.

So why not follow that lead and make the others more fun too?

More Posi, less SSTFs. Agreed and /Signed, heavily. Truest point? Calling contacts. They want us to work with them, they can give us their [pancake] number!

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 agree with most of your suggestions (I wouldn't agree with mixing up the enemies unless the story has it make sense), and I'd like to add being able to start them with less than the minimum requirement of party members. Just have the TF spawn enemies at the minimum difficulty the TF would (as of now) require, and let people solo or duo them to their hearts content, if they so choose.

Now I understand your complaints. As a person who mainly has spent his years of off and on play since 04, leading pug tfs, I am very aware of how many people dont run tfs very often, and have a fairly low opinion of them due to some very bad first experiances.

Saying that, I am not among those who have issue with the original TFs or Commander TFs due to the accolade.

I have run and loved posi,syn,sister,citadel,(ok I dislike manticore but mainly personal reasons towards the character, and being mainly pro crey) and numina are all tfs I have enjoyed running countless times. Each character I have ever made has ALWAYS run each of those at level for thier first times. Heck since year one is was pretty much sop run a syn at 15 and be 20 by the end if there wasnt a mentor for you, or if you where a empath who was typically allowed to be PLVd out of sheer kindness.

Even now last time i ran a synapse in a reasonable hour and 28 minutes with 2 friends and a pugger, one of the non 50s on the team gained 3 levels during the run. Seemed very reasonable reward for the time all things considering.

I know there is some contempt for speed runs. But its unfair because it is just another form of challenge, encouraged by the challenge system. I know few who have experianced a gold medal synapse, those who run with me for thier first time rarely get to experiance otherwise, and are frequently quite grateful. those who have run it before are likewise and say how fun and painless it was compared to thier typical experiance.

As for posi. I wont deny the new 2 part story arc is fun, my character of the same name as my forum handle revels in soloing doc vahz at the end of part two as the rest of the team fights to clear and disable the bombs. Whenever I meet a new player who hasnt run it yet who has an interest to I immediatly log on to dem and form one for them.

However I also frequently for pure enjoyment and personal time challenge run posi original via flashback still. personal best time is 58 minutes and I am sure i can still do better. If they do revamp other TFs as they did posi, which I am not against, they best still give a similar option to access the originals, and ideally in a way I can still run them first time for a new character AT LEVEL! still annoyed I always have to have an exemp build or running old posi now. by a lvl I inevitbly have started IOing out at least with procs and specials. Id prefer all those tfs give the OPTION at the contact so the leader can choose which.

Also TFs like the all clock and all freak and all council ones are definatly among my faves for certain concept characters just as easy access to content that fits them. My psions revel in synapse, My mere humans love to take on council, my electrokineticist simply cant get enough freak frying action in in a day.

So while I get while it can be dull, to be fair there are many who enjoy facing a constant enemy group rather then it changing up often with less ryhme or reason then some might think. I still wont waste time on any TF that poorly portrays crey as less then the awesome independant world dominating force they are.

In otherwords careful waht you ask for because if they where revamping manti id be on these forums demanding upgrades to the PPs that would return them to the days when one would have most players experiance a darkening of pants on par with that nightmare of a wonder woman movie linkara reviewed.

I don't see any reason why contacts shouldn't give out their number the very first time you meet them as a general rule. Bugger, I don't really see why they shouldn't be given to me by the previous contact in the first place. If Alice is friends with Bob and apparently my confidant, why doesn't she just give me Bob's number?

Question: Why would any group bent on world domination or any other goal put all of their resources in the same neighborhood where they can be stopped by a team of newbie heroes in a single afternoon?

Traveling to different zones actually makes sense. It would be dumb to base your entire operation in a single zone. So what if it's inconvenient to the heroes? Why would the enemy you're fighting want stopping them to be convenient for you?

I find it hilarious that, in a game where we have the ability to cross an entire zone in less than a minute, people want to remove travel time form Task Forces.

Tell you what, how about we remove the zones altogether and have every single mission, TF, and trial in the game accessible from a single door that your contacts stand next to?

Some of the hunts can go away, but some of them should remain. Gotta get information your contact doesn't have somehow.

I'm more annoyed with the sheer number of pointless defeat all missions in Synapse. The story would not be impacted in the slightest if they combined all of them into a single mission.