Sky Command and Gravitar

brianblack8281

No body seems to be queuing up for these two alerts lately.

For Rampage I'm sure it's because there tired of fighting just her and only her.
My question is, "Why no rotation of Rampage villain's?"

As for Sky Command, well, all I got when I asked players in game was, "They don't like the way it's set up." Keep in mind only two players answered my quandary as to why no one queues for it. I my self don't mind Sky Command, I enjoy it if every body know want to do. Except on they once and awhile occasion when we lose in 2 minutes or less because of, well, certain players that lack extra abilities to defend the ship.
My question for this one is, "What would get more player to queue for Sky Command?"
Perhaps a level restriction such as 30 to 40 only, or a complete rework of it!

What is every bodies on these two?

Unknown

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serendipitynow

Im not quing for either right now, mainly because im enjoying my new main (a new 2 week old =p) and completing every mission, exploration and lore perk (almost finished sadly)

But then theres all the rogues gallery and nemesis perks ill be going for as well as repeating the (imo) excellent lairs, aps and comic series as well as these 2, and maybe even the occasional (worse imo) alert...

But other reasons are

Gravitar is pretty dull with a reward that while worthwhile can be gotten in better ways

Sky command, while a really well done mission is plagued by the same lowbie failitis that also effects smashes, AND offers no worthwhile reward really - should have been a rampage to replace the dull gravitar imo (with the same reward as gravitar, in addition to the vehicle mods), would solve both issues of reward and lowbie failitis AND remove the failing of gravitars dullness all at the same time!

titotito333999

brianblack8281 wrote: »

My question is, "Why no rotation of Rampage villain's?"

Yes please... but sadly Gravitar is the only Villain in Rampage alerts
There are some known players who only go with support toons, it helps to know their names and look at the Gravitar map for them. Mine is Alice, I usually switch between her and Tito when I farm Gravitar for costumes. Also most of us Gravitar regulars will call for more ppl to queue for her on Zone chat, look for that or call her out yourself to entice us hehe.

brianblack8281 wrote: »

My question for this one is, "What would get more player to queue for Sky Command?"
Perhaps a level restriction such as 30 to 40 only, or a complete rework of it!

I haven't gotten a vehicle yet so I don't queue for sky command because I don't want any vehicle mods at all. So if they give me other good drops and I would queue.

crypticbuxom

Sky Command lacks players wanting to play it exclusively because of the lack of reward. Top tier players who would enjoy it the most have no need for vehicle junk. If there were a rank 6/7 mod or Drifter Salvage for defeating the Mega D bonus, it would be played constantly.

gavinruneblade

brianblack8281 wrote: »

No body seems to be queuing up for these two alerts lately.

For Rampage I'm sure it's because there tired of fighting just her and only her.
My question is, "Why no rotation of Rampage villain's?"

Pretty sure it's because if you don't have 2+ tanks and 2+ healers with self-rez you lose. No strategy is helpful because she will attack randomly. No build can really do it because she might (as I have seen) arbitrarily decide to hit you three times in a row with the yellow sphere-o-death (unlike the blue one that you can block). Also, it needs too many people, rebalance for a smaller team. Remove the 1-shot kills on random support characters.

As for Sky Command, well, all I got when I asked players in game was, "They don't like the way it's set up." Keep in mind only two players answered my quandary as to why no one queues for it. I my self don't mind Sky Command, I enjoy it if every body know want to do. Except on they once and awhile occasion when we lose in 2 minutes or less because of, well, certain players that lack extra abilities to defend the ship.
My question for this one is, "What would get more player to queue for Sky Command?"
Perhaps a level restriction such as 30 to 40 only, or a complete rework of it!

What is every bodies on these two?

Reduce the difficulty so it doesn't fail more than 50% of the time or up the rewards such that they take into consideration you failed 4 times before getting that one lone reward. Also, remove the focus on vehicles. It appears that most players don't have them and so the rewards aren't as valuable.

Note: I don't personally agree with the above suggestions. They WOULD work to increase participation and therefore answer your question. I don't think they are necessarily the right way to go. On gravitar, some of that is a good idea. But I think the above answer I gave takes it too far in order to appeal to lowest common denominator.

seiberkageneko

I never got to do the sky command. From what I understand it never went past the first one or two days. By the time I got back to CO, no one ever queued for it, and I stopped trying.

I don't know what was wrong with it, but I regret not being able to play it.

stoopidme

I like sky command as a mission even if it is a little messy. It is hard to keep going with it though when the rewards serve me no purpose.

nazaca

brianblack8281 wrote: »

...

They don't offer me anything I want. I don't play CO for "challenge", the rewards are pitiful for the difficulties involved and if I did want the rewards I would simply purchase them.

agentnx5

I can answer this whole thread in just a few words:

Effort compared to the reward(s) for your time investment.

It's human behavior science 101, something that should be a mandatory part of training at Cryptic.



Gravitar need to have the drop rate of her costume unlocks MAJORLY improved. I haven't seen a single "shiny exclamation point" drop from here in about one month and at least 50 times. People don't bother to queue up for Gravitar unless a freeform healer shouts out in Zone chat they have a resurrection, or somebody with a become celestial, says they are queued for it and there's only a few more needed. Then Gravitar runs for awhile until the healer has to leave and it fails once then people are done.

Sky Command? The ultimate failure in random pub design to-date. You can't form teams of 10. You can't join as a team without it kicking you all out as soon as it starts. And yet you are expected to do a coordinated defense against tough foes? Get real Cryptic. We have people who don't stop attacking Baron Ciemtiere when he's doing his voodoo block. The "typical" player who queues up for alerts in this game is either an idiotic noob (who should know better), a greenhorn newbie (who doesn't know better), or an annoying troll (who's just trying to waste everybody's time because they can choose to be a jerk).

Heck even Darkspeed and Therakiel's Sword fall into this category. Best of luck getting one of those now. The drop rate is like what? 0.1%? (1:1000) I got better things to do with my time. Game are supposed to be fun!

Yeah I realize I'm coming down pretty hard on the criticism here, but it's really not difficult to understand what's holding these back.

nazaca

agentnx5 wrote: »

Effort compared to the reward(s) for your time investment.

Do these things:

• Common Fix:
  • (a) Both the Carrier and Rampage alerts are pickup raids without the option to queue as a proper raid. Create the option to do so. Yes, this means creating a proper raid group interface which could be used for other content at present and in the future.
• Rampage Fix:
  • (a) Gravitar isn't the only cosmic-class character we have. Give them their own Rampages to be rotated on a weekly basis.
  • (b) Reward refined questionite, not questionite ore, for a successful completion.
• Carrier Fix:
  • (a) Reward one drifter salvage per successful completion. Reward two drifter salvage per successful completion on a level 35+ character.

... and participation in both of these events will skyrocket. None of these things are going to happen. And, so, thereby? :shrug:

ashensnow

In my opinion they are both poorly designed encounters.

I fought Gravitar several times and found her to be a very boring encounter with poor rewards.

I did the Sky Command encounter once. It discourages playing my characters as they are built conceptually, so I doubt I'll do it again.


Neither mission seems very well designed for random PUGGing.

polishlightning

I usually get a handful of Grav battles in when I log in, but I've been busy taking advantage of the Double XP this past weekend which did not include any Grav battles. I'm sure they'll pick up in the next week or so.

I don't do the Sky Battle because I didn't find it very fun the 2 times I did do it.

jennymachx

When people starting realizing that Sky Command requires a considerable amount of coordination for victory (good luck with that in PUGs), I guess one by one they just gave up and decided that their time was better spent doing things more rewarding and less aggravating. If there was an option to create 10-man teams that know what they're doing I'd give it another chance.

As for Gravitar, I'm pretty sure people prefer to do the alert with experienced, well-constructed teams made up of an ideal assortment of roles rather than attempt it with a PUG. Not to mention that those bubbles are still lag-broken and hit even when players are outside of their vicinities.

roughbearmattach

Gravitar, as others have said, is kinda boring now. We need other villains for Rampage . . . GROND!

Sky Command is a mission that can't be won with zerg tactics. People have to pay attention and work together, so it usually fails. Also, the rewards are seen as pointless by a large portion of the community: vehicle mods folks don't want.

I have more fun playing Red Winter than either of these two things.

smoochan

roughbearmattach wrote: »

Gravitar, as others have said, is kinda boring now. We need other villains for Rampage . . . GROND!

Sky Command is a mission that can't be won with zerg tactics. People have to pay attention and work together, so it usually fails. Also, the rewards are seen as pointless by a large portion of the community: vehicle mods folks don't want.

I have more fun playing Red Winter than either of these two things.

It would actually be kind of neat to fight Grond without him constantly jumping away... then again, without that mechanic, he would probably set records for most boring boss fight ever

polishlightning

smoochan wrote: »

It would actually be kind of neat to fight Grond without him constantly jumping away... then again, without that mechanic, he would probably set records for most boring boss fight ever

It'd be awesome if he would grab heroes and throw them at each other.

theravenforce

One day, Gravitar is going to just give up and just kick people out of her instance because she is bored...oh wait she already does do that V_V

Other Villains who should have a rampage Alert should be...

- GROND (As previously stated)
- MENTON *melts at the idea of FINALLY fighting a cosmic level telepath*
- Istvatha V'han ((>>Here for more info<<))
- *Some other powerful villain*

I know that a supervillain team up is planned soon, but it seems like a very long process...and a very long way from perfecting it to be even near as "suitable" as Gravitar.

xgco

Fighting Grond would be sweet if he actually did Grond stuff, like a stomp attack that hurts but not kills us and if he could actually grab or swat at us just to make the fight more memorable. If he just stands there while we chip away at him and there is a lockout for some stupid reason, then no, just no.

Gravitar seems like a cool idea, but the rewards are lackluster or far too rare and no one (including me) I play with seems to know the strategy.

Sky Command was such a cool idea, but implemented badly and I don't care for vehicle mods. Refined Q or Drifter Salvage or GTFO.

bwdares

Gravitar: Got really tired of the random/back to back Force Cascades with no build up.

Carrior: Got boring.

Sloutions: Make the rewards better, and allow 10-man teams.

As-well-as intorduce more Rampage Villains. How about the dev team open a Champions Villain sourcebook and use any of the hundreds of Villain they have access to and turn them into Rampage Alert Bosses, WHERE IS MECHANON ALREADY!?!?!?!

theravenforce

Locations of alerts would have to be tempered as well. Like Grond randomly appearing in an artificial containment field in downtown and sending 10 tiny heroes to fight him would be horrificly out of theme and context. If we were going to fight grond...I'd prefer something like this:

Phase 1: UNTIL has located Grond in the Desert and he is going on an unusually violent rampage. UNTIL Teleportal Tech teleports us to his next predicted location (wait 15 secs then engage GROND). Heroes fight Grond and he uses a stun attack to stun all heroes and then jumps off.

Phase 2: Heroes recover quickly and follow him to a "blocked off" (like mountain ranges or something) part of the Desert. Grond attacks and fight continues. Main objectives would be to activate a Gravity field around Grond forcing him down, side objective would be to locate a bomb at Stronghold to stop Menton's release in a time limit.

Phase 3: Dependant on if you defeat Grond without him destroying the gravity field towers. An optional cutscene would be played with Grond knocking out all the heroes and him in the Stronghold facility freeing Menton, letting him loose on humanity again. It is revealed that Menton was controlling Grond causing him to lash out in a more than normal violent way. However if the bomb is not found in time Menton is set free and you gain less rewards even if Grond is subdued.

Would all be based in the Desert Zone, would be a level 40 ONLY Rampage Alert, would grant Silver Recognition Tokens, as well as a considerable amount of Salvage as well as a chance to drop Legion Gear and Superstat Mods (Rank 6+) and completion of mission would grant Questionnite.

borg10f9

theravenforce wrote: »

Locations of alerts would have to be tempered as well. Like Grond randomly appearing in an artificial containment field in downtown and sending 10 tiny heroes to fight him would be horrificly out of theme and context. If we were going to fight grond...I'd prefer something like this:

Phase 1: UNTIL has located Grond in the Desert and he is going on an unusually violent rampage. UNTIL Teleportal Tech teleports us to his next predicted location (wait 15 secs then engage GROND). Heroes fight Grond and he uses a stun attack to stun all heroes and then jumps off.

Phase 2: Heroes recover quickly and follow him to a "blocked off" (like mountain ranges or something) part of the Desert. Grond attacks and fight continues. Main objectives would be to activate a Gravity field around Grond forcing him down, side objective would be to locate a bomb at Stronghold to stop Menton's release in a time limit.

Phase 3: Dependant on if you defeat Grond without him destroying the gravity field towers. An optional cutscene would be played with Grond knocking out all the heroes and him in the Stronghold facility freeing Menton, letting him loose on humanity again. It is revealed that Menton was controlling Grond causing him to lash out in a more than normal violent way. However if the bomb is not found in time Menton is set free and you gain less rewards even if Grond is subdued.

Would all be based in the Desert Zone, would be a level 40 ONLY Rampage Alert, would grant Silver Recognition Tokens, as well as a considerable amount of Salvage as well as a chance to drop Legion Gear and Superstat Mods (Rank 6+) and completion of mission would grant Questionnite.

Cryptic should hire you to come up with these things. It flows like you'd expect a comic to. Most excellent idea!

gavinruneblade

theravenforce wrote: »

Would all be based in the Desert Zone, would be a level 40 ONLY Rampage Alert, would grant Silver Recognition Tokens, as well as a considerable amount of Salvage as well as a chance to drop Legion Gear and Superstat Mods (Rank 6+) and completion of mission would grant Questionnite.

I love the phases, this would be very fun. And it would lead nicely into a follow up menton altert too for a later release.

However, as much as I would enjoy the drops, I do think it is best to leave the legion gear as a lockbox only or move it to the C-Store. Just give recognition and questionite and level 6+ mods. That's plenty awesome. To pay for this development cryptic/pwe need to earn money. Legion gear was the best motive for opening those boxes. Taking that away removes a source of income. Even if I don't like gambling, I have to say, they gotta pay the bills somehow.

bwdares

MECHANON!

He is due! Screw Grond...I'm sorry I cant really say that I like Grond. I wonder how he feels about CoX being dead since he liked to bring it up every once and a while.

pwkampfykaufmann

bwdares wrote: »

MECHANON!

He is due! Screw Grond...I'm sorry I cant really say that I like Grond. I wonder how he feels about CoX being dead since he liked to bring it up every once and a while.

Well, as we know now he was talking about DCUO.

agentnx5

nazaca wrote: »

Do these things:

• Common Fix:
  • (a) Both the Carrier and Rampage alerts are pickup raids without the option to queue as a proper raid. Create the option to do so. Yes, this means creating a proper raid group interface which could be used for other content at present and in the future.
• Rampage Fix:
  • (a) Gravitar isn't the only cosmic-class character we have. Give them their own Rampages to be rotated on a weekly basis.
  • (b) Reward refined questionite, not questionite ore, for a successful completion.
• Carrier Fix:
  • (a) Reward one drifter salvage per successful completion. Reward two drifter salvage per successful completion on a level 35+ character.

... and participation in both of these events will skyrocket. None of these things are going to happen. And, so, thereby? :shrug:

Good ideas!

roughbearmattach wrote: »

Gravitar, as others have said, is kinda boring now. We need other villains for Rampage . . . GROND!

Sky Command is a mission that can't be won with zerg tactics. People have to pay attention and work together, so it usually fails. Also, the rewards are seen as pointless by a large portion of the community: vehicle mods folks don't want.

I have more fun playing Red Winter than either of these two things.

I agree, except that I personally don't find Gravitar that boring -- because she can kill me.

polishlightning wrote: »

It'd be awesome if he would grab heroes and throw them at each other.

Hell yes!








Also I cannot over emphasize this:

DO NOT turn Grond into an alert, FFS!

Instead make hunting him down and killing him give a major reward, like an Open Mission. Rewards should be things like a random R5 to R7 Mod and resources much like killing Mega D.

And as with all Cosmic Bosses, DECREASE THEIR RESPAWN TIME!