New Rampages

[Xev]

I dunno about you guys but I plan to run some new Rampages the weekend after this one. I'd be up for some Titan Teamage if the idea sounds decent to anyone.

[Xev]

I'm doing tank and support. Not at the same time..!

I've teamed with a single person before and was able to get them every time in multiple Gravi's we queue'd for. Another time, I teamed with someone and they said we had to have a 5 person team to make sure everyone gets in together and so we never queue'd up until we had 5 peeps, and, that always worked too. Well, and now they have this private queue thing coming.

*shrug*

[Brou]

Brace yourselves for Thursday.

[Xev]

I didn't capture the chat window like I wanted in my last Gravi screenies so ya just get the text.

Had to log in and say Bye. 2 quick wins 15 minutes before the server went down. The first one netted another pair of gloves and Q spam that added up to 6000 questionite. I Eruptioned out of a yellow doom dome (in support role) in the second  : p

[Brou]

Well, here it is.

Have fun.

[LaughingAlex]

Very disappointed myself in the newer alert.  The problem is even if you know it's mechanics, you still have to either have everyone with constitution and a reliable defensive passive(not LR), or a holy trinity team spec, or it's an automatic loss.  Fact is even without the special attacks, both the villains do such a high amount of damage non-con characters will be one shot regularly(the damage they do far exceeds your health bar).

It's hard once you figure out how to destroy the objects that kill everyone and you have a team that defends well enough, but it's such a flat holy-trinity forcing mission it's sickening.  The other vice is it's a grind for it's rewards, one person did them thirty times with nothing gained but questionite, sickening.  The biggest step backwards for the game and by far the biggest failure for the game yet.  If nothing is done to fix some bugs that are killing me in it, such as the lack of sound(keeping me from knowing when a living fire or living ice is released), and the drops are improved I cannot recommend CO anymore.  It's such a horrible alert now, and entirely unfun for me.

[JaguarX]

Very disappointed myself in the newer alert.  The problem is even if you know it's mechanics, you still have to either have everyone with constitution and a reliable defensive passive(not LR), or a holy trinity team spec, or it's an automatic loss.  Fact is even without the special attacks, both the villains do such a high amount of damage non-con characters will be one shot regularly(the damage they do far exceeds your health bar).

It's hard once you figure out how to destroy the objects that kill everyone and you have a team that defends well enough, but it's such a flat holy-trinity forcing mission it's sickening.  The other vice is it's a grind for it's rewards, one person did them thirty times with nothing gained but questionite, sickening.  The biggest step backwards for the game and by far the biggest failure for the game yet.  If nothing is done to fix some bugs that are killing me in it, such as the lack of sound(keeping me from knowing when a living fire or living ice is released), and the drops are improved I cannot recommend CO anymore.  It's such a horrible alert now, and entirely unfun for me.

Yeah.

Well that feeling you felt with the guy that got nothing but Q after all that work, is a feeling many felt in COX doing all that work and still ending up with crappy drops. It was easy to say "just play the game" when in reality they were already and wasn't simply "over reaction" Getting petty drops for doing a lot of work in COX or CO sucks or rather sickening and unfun.

Now seen a couple done with all types of players, seen some fail even with the "holy trin." This happens with every new alerts until people figure it out. But defense is probably needed or it's face plant city, cons or not. Ironically the only LR on a team didn't do so bad.

It's just like they cant get it right. First complaints, the game is too easy, they need more challenging content, then they put in a challenge then it's still not good and too hard in the complaints and require special build of team. It's kind of like damned if they do damned if they don't but in reality they seem to go into the extremes instead of moderation. Like they have no sense of balance when it comes to the content they add. It seems to be one or the other end of the scale and both extremes can be highly unfun. I wonder do the devs themselves play the stuff before putting it live in to the game sometimes.

[LaughingAlex]

Yeah.

Well that feeling you felt with the guy that got nothing but Q after all that work, is a feeling many felt in COX doing all that work and still ending up with crappy drops. It was easy to say "just play the game" when in reality they were already and wasn't simply "over reaction" Getting petty drops for doing a lot of work in COX or CO sucks or rather sickening and unfun.

Now seen a couple done with all types of players, seen some fail even with the "holy trin." This happens with every new alerts until people figure it out. But defense is probably needed or it's face plant city, cons or not. Ironically the only LR on a team didn't do so bad.

It's just like they cant get it right. First complaints, the game is too easy, they need more challenging content, then they put in a challenge then it's still not good and too hard in the complaints and require special build of team. It's kind of like damned if they do damned if they don't but in reality they seem to go into the extremes instead of moderation. Like they have no sense of balance when it comes to the content they add. It seems to be one or the other end of the scale and both extremes can be highly unfun. I wonder do the devs themselves play the stuff before putting it live in to the game sometimes.

Exactly, a few find the challenge good, indeed the instant-kill elements are certainly not random, but the drops themselves are very bad, and I'm not getting any sound, so I am severely diminished in the alert.  I used to like CO but now the only reason I'm ever gold is roleplaying.....

...and thats fading for me to.  One of my friends today some jerk tried to god mod him, someone who joined our sg and then was getting all high and mighty roleplaying what we quickly saw as a jerk-sue.  If nothing gets announced by the end of the month to correct the random drop rate issue and confirm the sound problem i'm having, that'll be it, as it is my friends are even going to move on soon, cause they are bored as heck with the game, the new alert doesn't help things at all.  The last bits are falling apart anymore it's just a matter of time at this rate, especially with the jerks in the CO forums.

[JaguarX]

Exactly, a few find the challenge good, indeed the instant-kill elements are certainly not random, but the drops themselves are very bad, and I'm not getting any sound, so I am severely diminished in the alert.  I used to like CO but now the only reason I'm ever gold is roleplaying.....

...and thats fading for me to.  One of my friends today some jerk tried to god mod him, someone who joined our sg and then was getting all high and mighty roleplaying what we quickly saw as a jerk-sue.  If nothing gets announced by the end of the month to correct the random drop rate issue and confirm the sound problem i'm having, that'll be it, as it is my friends are even going to move on soon, cause they are bored as heck with the game, the new alert doesn't help things at all.  The last bits are falling apart anymore it's just a matter of time at this rate, especially with the jerks in the CO forums.

yeah? But I wouldn't judge a game by the forum. Or else every game would be a rotten cesspool. But then again I did say in another forum player behavior sometimes affect the fun factor. "Just ignore them", "well dont want to be jerked around, ignore them" "it's the victim fault for allowing it!" And all they said may be true, but as you see, it do take a bit of the fun out of it when people act like jerks even to other people Of course that didn't go over too well.  And I doubt they will do anything by next week. I don't think I ever seen them work on anything that fast. But sounds like you have multiple reasons and gave it fair shake in trying and it didn't work out. They really do seriously need to put some serious effort into it and not just alerts but some polishing of the stuff already there.

[Xev]

My favorite moment so far came from someone raging how insane the alert was yesterday morning. I made the comment in the same channel about how we'd probly all be farming it soon. When I logged on that evening they were auctioning 2 auras and commenting on what other loot they'd gotten.

So far, I've gotten the K. Blaze AF and a piece of Drifter salvage that is Bind to Account.

It won't be too long before enough people figure it out that it becomes as routine as Gravi was. To some, Gravi was never a routine either so ya have to take that into account too. Rampages aren't for everyone.

[LaughingAlex]

I wouldn't mind it so much if the drops were reasonably plentiful.  The problem is, i'm a bad luck guy when it comes to drop rates from enemies.  I never tend to get something I really need, and it hurts me, tremendously.  The only reason I was able to get purples in CoH in the incarnate trials was cause the drops had a high drop rate and it was separate for everyone, in CO it's apparently for one person only(randomly assigned), and even then completely random.  So I'm completely out of the game on it.  It's not just that the alerts require a holy trinity(already beat it once, and yes it's required, and I HATE that) it's the drop rates that also turn me off so badly.  It's not worth my time when I could be playing other games making progress in them and having fun.

[JaguarX]

I wouldn't mind it so much if the drops were reasonably plentiful.  The problem is, i'm a bad luck guy when it comes to drop rates from enemies.  I never tend to get something I really need, and it hurts me, tremendously.  The only reason I was able to get purples in CoH in the incarnate trials was cause the drops had a high drop rate and it was separate for everyone, in CO it's apparently for one person only(randomly assigned), and even then completely random.  So I'm completely out of the game on it.  It's not just that the alerts require a holy trinity(already beat it once, and yes it's required, and I HATE that) it's the drop rates that also turn me off so badly.  It's not worth my time when I could be playing other games making progress in them and having fun.

Yeah tell me about it. I was bad luck too. Never got a purp drop from even incarnate trials. That is how bad it was yet watched many get drops back to back to back to back, billions
upon billions. Simply all based on luck.


In CO my luck seemed to be better. Better drops for me. But assume if it's luck based, then more than likely someone is out there that isn't having that luck and probably terrible luck with the drops. And of course never felt telling them "Stop whining, play the game, and you'll get it." Do them any service because more than likely they are playing, and doing all they can to get the drop, but unlike the person looking down upon them from their piles of purples, they do not have that luck. And no matter how hard a person work, in  a luck based drop system, it's merely luck. Luck smiles on that other team mate greatly and walk away with pocket full of purples and give him nerve to act like he actually had to work hard to earn it and everyone that doesn't have as much purples as him simply did not play as hard, and the other poor chap where his best drop is some crap that is barely worth a trip to the nearest vendor. In CO it's random for one person which is a very quizzical decision there but in COX while it wasn't for person per se, it usually felt like it because one person get the good stuff seemingly often, while others get total useless stuff that is not even good enough to sell to get what they want. One person walk away with billion inf. of stuff, and others walk away with merely maybe 1,000 inf of stuff if even that.

[Xev]

It was easier watching hp bars in a 10 person team vs. 2 teams.

People are still learning the Fire & Ice, too, so there are still lots of ragequits, which then has me standing there with maybe 1 other person and then the next Rampage starts.

Seeing as how we could already lock in a 5+ person team with the old system, I'm not seeing the greatness of the new queue system yet. As-is, it seems like if you want to build a 10 person team you have to build 2 (5) person teams instead and shuffle people around like you're in some big raid or something..

Whereas before, you just teamed up if you wanted to lock in a team and hit the queue button. And, your team was still there when the Rampage ended. Whereas now, we all have to meet each other somewhere and team back up again. Or at least that's how I'm seeing it done.

One thing good about the new queue system is that when you have 10 people and hit GO you go. No waiting around for a sputtering Gravi queue. But. How many people are going to want to do that once the Rampage isn't new anymore..? I won't even do it now.

So far I'm not overly thrilled with the new Rampage queue system.

[Xev]

I dunno about you guys but there's one more thing to consider here... I can already dominate, to a satisfactory degree, 99% of the content in the game that I've encountered. These new Rampages don't change that.

If you need Rampage gear just to run the new Rampages... (which you don't) and you don't like running Rampages.... The problem would be....?

My AF's are cute and give verrrrry short-lived bragging rights but that's about it. I don't even know or care what the Drifter loot is. Will I scoop it up when I have enough components...? Well.. YEAH..  : )

[JaguarX]

It was easier watching hp bars in a 10 person team vs. 2 teams.

People are still learning the Fire & Ice, too, so there are still lots of ragequits, which then has me standing there with maybe 1 other person and then the next Rampage starts.

Yeah.

Remember when ITF first came out? There were howls of how it's too hard and required the holy trinity or certain team make up (two tanks, a controller/dom with sleep, two blasters, a scrapper or a brute ,a defender healer and a debuffing corruptor or defender and how the devs were off their rocker for making something so dang hard to beat with the large ambushes, the crystals, the AV and the four fluffies, with one that is constantly healing at a fast rate on top of the usual AV healing rate. People were very heated.

Then eventually people started to figure it out and I think the devs did some tweaks but cant remember the tweaks, and it became the favorite and people loved it.


I think people will start to figure out the new alerts and soon it will be just another alert.

[Xev]

The new queue system definitely needs some luv over time. How many times have you been in a great 2 person team and then *poof* everyone has to find each other again when the Rampage is over. The system as a whole needs some tweaking and I'm not sold on 2 (5) people teams vs. 1 (10) person team yet either. Luckily people are actively recruiting and joining and re-joining and the Rampager channel remains an active spot to find members. Even with the problems, Rampages have never been so fast to get into since I started playing.

Fire and Ice was our mind-blower so far. Sky Command is way easier than Gravi. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

I can even... run Rampages.... with my *Inferno* now.. My Inferno doesn't even make it through Alerts sometimes. I ran Sky Command with all my AT's just for kicks.

Man it sucks the bandwidth tho. I'm not going to run it much more on this go. My usage resets Wednesday. Just in time for the next Rampage.. It was pretty nice that the first two were on a Sat/Sun when the most people are playing.

[LaughingAlex]

The new queue system definitely needs some luv over time. How many times have you been in a great 2 person team and then *poof* everyone has to find each other again when the Rampage is over. The system as a whole needs some tweaking and I'm not sold on 2 (5) people teams vs. 1 (10) person team yet either. Luckily people are actively recruiting and joining and re-joining and the Rampager channel remains an active spot to find members. Even with the problems, Rampages have never been so fast to get into since I started playing.

Fire and Ice was our mind-blower so far. Sky Command is way easier than Gravi. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

I can even... run Rampages.... with my *Inferno* now.. My Inferno doesn't even make it through Alerts sometimes. I ran Sky Command with all my AT's just for kicks.

Man it sucks the bandwidth tho. I'm not going to run it much more on this go. My usage resets Wednesday. Just in time for the next Rampage.. It was pretty nice that the first two were on a Sat/Sun when the most people are playing.

Sky command is pretty good, especially since now people can have some reasonably good vehicle firepower, as heavy AoE damage and mobility are kings for sky command, having a grav bike or two with gravity pulse will make things a lot easier, as long as it's rider knows how to keep himself alive, as well as some things to repair any engine damage(not sure if it still can).

The lemurian invasion is also a high-mobility high aoe map, with a similar pattern to it, mobility and aoe firepower wins, which vehicles excel at.

[Xev]

See, there ya go. Sometimes you're the star, sometimes not.

People who were the stars of Fire and Ice aren't automatically going to be the stars of Sky Command. Plus, we're flying around on a large map and there's a metric F-ton of loot.

Lil bit variety.

I don't have any vehicles but I even like the hover disks. There's no movement penalties, they look decent, and get around fairly well. All of my guys did well on them I thought. Their fun factor seems to multiply by the number of things I can do, Ranged.

Before, I wanted to get a vehicle just to get one and now here's another reason. I feel bad I never tried Sky Command before! I always thought you *had* to have a vehicle or a nicely ranked flight power.

Glad j00 are having fun again. I've had a couple of things happen with CO that made me think it might be time to try something new. If there is something fundamental to me about the game, that changes, and this thing makes playing not fun anymore, it's time to move on. So, I get that. I know exactly where I would go, too! And I'd keep an eye on CO for when it was time to come back again.

Such is a gamer's life.

[LydiaFrost]

I cant say anything about the rampages, but I tried the virtual one once with my lvl 30+ Mind.
I was really annoyed. The Firewalls took forever to take down, and then in the last room, even if i stood on the right color I got blasted sometimes. Most people Quit after a few attempts. What am I here for, if I cant heal the damage the boss is doing. Instant Kills are a really bad design in my opinion.

You say you need vehicles for Missions now. Thats bad. I dont have a vehicle, since no are in game available for free players.  I was once in a mission in a Skyscraper to arrest some CEO, that fled with a vehicle and there were vehicles to take. I really hated them. If Vehicles are required for content, they should be available via Quests for all players.

Oh, my Mind cant even fly. I have acrobatics. And now Missions require flight?

Maybe you look at the game from the High level Gold player side. But I have my Archetype and I am very unhappy, even if i can do my questlines and Bosses, just by running around, spamming my Heal Balls. ( and I dont have a Pet  There is none in my power list. )

I have another low level char that has flight and I attempted the race with it. I ran out of time after 3 rings, and got told I neede a far higher level of flight. I saw the races in DCUO that are tiered by char level, and travelpower. A far better design.

I generally just do the 3 Quick Alerts when I log on now.

Mixayl: Mind
Lydia Frost Mastermind

[General Idiot]

No content in the game outright requires a vehicle. Anything designed with them in mind either gives you temporary vehicles in the mission like the nighthawk one does, or gives you a hover disk thing that lets you fly like a vehicle, same speed and such, but with your normal powers. And given vehicles are kind of weak compared to a decently built freeform that's arguably better anyway.