Memorization as a skill;

cabezadetortuga

I guess I've been playing long enough that I shouldn't be considered a greenhorn, but apparently I'm still awful at some things in this game. One of them is memorization. For example, today I ran Cure (ground) for the second time since the last major change to the missions before F2P (whenever that was), and for the second time, at the boss, I was locked out of the fight by the force barrier that appeared when combat was initiated. It was close too, and literally appeared on my face.

The first time was excusable, since I can't be expected to remember something that I have never seen before, but the second time represented my failure to remember that a barrier would appear. That barrier is an arbitrary pass/fail memorization check. You either remember that there will be a barrier and place yourself appropriately, or you completely forget and may or may not get get locked out depending on where you are standing. The only skill involved here is memorization, which I do admit here is a skill. In any situation involving repeatable scenarios such as a video game, memorization is clearly a useful skill that will play a part in performance improvement.

My question is not one of whether or not memorization should play a part in how people play the game, because it will despite anyone's feelings on the matter. My question is this: Should the expectation that players will or should memorize event triggers be incorporated into the game's design in the form of pass/fail memorization checks?

My feeling on the matter is negative. I find it disappointing to only know how to solve a problem by memorization, partly because I'm no good at it, but mostly because I think it breaks the illusion that I would like games to create for me. Granted, this is my opinion, and there may be a great many people that enjoy memorizing triggers. To me, memorizing triggers feels like repeating a crossword puzzle. I do not know if the mission dialogue warns players about the potential to get locked out of the fight, but even if it does, when exactly am I supposed to read those dialogue boxes?

I spent the fight looking around the barrier for its power generator or another way in to no avail. There was no power generator inside the barrier, either. That's pretty odd considering the size of the force barrier that I'm talking about here. Then, when the boss died, the barrier conveniently went away so that I could still loot (which I really didn't even feel like looking at).

Is the boss himself the power generator for the force barrier? I just don't get it. There are a couple of solutions that could help to make the mission better. Firstly, put something visual in the mission that helps people see where the force barrier will appear, so that they have a frame of reference from which to place themselves. As it is, the barrier just appears on the dirt. I would have loved to have had an indication that I should be standing nine centimeters closer to the boss. Maybe the barrier could have posts or field emitters in the corners. Just give us something visual by which a person can tell where not to stand if they don't want to get locked out. There could also be a way through the barrier into the fight by taking out an emitter that temporarily disables a small section for just long enough to let a stranded player in but not out.

I don't mind if game design takes memorization into account, but I don't think that pass-fail memorization checks are engaging or fun. Memorization, while truly a skill, is also kind of tedious IMO. The STF's suffer too much from this need to memorize event triggers. It's more noticeable to me on the ground STFs because I think that space combat is far more fun in this game than ground combat, but even the space STFs are not immune to it. Stand on the correct side of the door here, don't go to far to the left of the boss or you will be locked out, don't approach the cube from the left or you'll aggro the Nev'Gar, etc. That Nev'Gar should spawn aggroed! Why is it just sitting there?

I think I'm just going to stay away from ground STFs from here on out and only dabble in space STFs on occasion. When someone asks me why I'm not wearing one of those mech suits that seem so fashionable these days, I will simply answer, "because I am a starship captain, not an infantryman."

synkr0nized

AFAIK, that was put in to avoid people dragging the boss all over the place and away from his arena. So of course it's combat-based and only disappears if he's killed or you wipe and reset the fight.

As far as memorization, how is knowing that happens any different than, say, knowing blowing a generator spawns another sphere in ISE, that Donotra will fire her huge gun out of cloak in KASE after cloaking all over the arena, that blowing cubes in CSE will spawn progressively stronger ships from the cube(s) still active, etc.? It's the same idea, just put into the context of a ground mission. Someone not knowing the triggers on Infected ground and causing the borg to begin to assimilate an officer isn't any different, in my opinion, than someone not knowing it's best to blow up the generators at the same time in Infected space.

I want to know how you perceive the difference to see if there's anything I can post to be of help, as right now it just reads like you didn't do well on a ground mission and are upset about it.

cabezadetortuga

synkr0nized wrote: »

AFAIK, that was put in to avoid people dragging the boss all over the place and away from his arena. So of course it's combat-based and only disappears if he's killed or you wipe and reset the fight.

As far as memorization, how is knowing that happens any different than, say, knowing blowing a generator spawns another sphere in ISE, that Donotra will fire her huge gun out of cloak in KASE after cloaking all over the arena, that blowing cubes in CSE will spawn progressively stronger ships from the cube(s) still active, etc.? It's the same idea, just put into the context of a ground mission. Someone not knowing the triggers on Infected ground and causing the borg to begin to assimilate an officer isn't any different, in my opinion, than someone not knowing it's best to blow up the generators at the same time in Infected space.

I want to know how you perceive the difference to see if there's anything I can post to be of help, as right now it just reads like you didn't do well on a ground mission and are upset about it.

As I said in the original post, space is not immune to this. The example that you provide from Infected space is an example of such an event trigger where memorization plays an important part. Of course there are going to be event triggers and people will be able to memorize them for their advantage, as they by all logic should.

My beef isn't with event triggers and memorization in general, although I do find memorization to be quite mundane. It is necessary and it will be there.

My beef is with a few event triggers that seem unnecessarily arbitrary and harsh to me. In the example that you provide from Infected space, failing to remember results in simply having to fight more spheres, which may or may not result in a mission failure. The important part is that even if a player messes up, at least he can continue fighting instead of being sidelined. In Cure ground, the barrier appears, and if you're in the wrong spot, then you're out of the fight. There is no physical indication in the terrain whatsoever or any warning that I know of that a barrier will appear there. It might be in the dialogue, though, but I've never really gotten a chance to read any of the dialogue boxes during an STF. To do so I would have to sit there reading while the battle rages on, which seems silly to me. It just isn't what I'm inclined to do. Is it in the dialogue text? I really don't know and I should try to read the text sometime.

Event triggers either benefit those that remember them or punish those that do not remember them, as is the case with the force barrier in Cure ground. I argue that being sidelined from the fight for not remembering that a barrier would appear in a specific and unmarked spot is too harsh a punishment.

The developers should either:

A) Place some sort of visual cue that indicates the position of the barrier in time for players to correct their position before the event triggers. This could take the form of nodes, poles, or other simple graphics at each corner of the barrier. They could also just make the barrier blink a couple of times before it goes into effect (this is what I see many games do in this situation).

-or-

Give players a way back into the fight be allowing them to temporarily disable a small section of the barrier by taking out a node or something. This option probably isn't feasible, but it would be nice.

-or-

C) Just get rid of all the extraneous map that is left over from the days before the barrier and make the barrier a simple line at the entrance to the boss fight instead of a huge rectangle. Seriously, what do we need all that terrain to the left and right for now? Absolutely nothing.


-or-

I could just remember next time, but I think I'll stay away from that mission.

kobayashlmaru

The examples you cited is not really about memorization. It?s about understanding the game mechanics. Any boss fight in the revamped missions (i.e. anything developed after season 1) will use these technique to prevent kiting bosses which was very effective early on. While it is true you may miss this window of opportunity the first time, maybe even the second, eventually it will just become part of your vet experience that you can pass on to others.

Memorization is more like the Drozana power grid task, which requires you to write down the sequence or ask for help in zone chat. Since this kind of memorization isn?t common, and there are multiple sources for the answer, I don?t see it as a problem.

captgriffen

Memorization is more like the Drozana power grid task, which requires you to write down the sequence or ask for help in zone chat.

Or, you know, actually read stuff and solve it, like I did. Didn't take long.

hrisvalar

Ground STFs, Cure and Infected anyway, would be a little less annoying if those forcefields that're meant to keep people from pulling the bosses out didn't keep people from getting in.

- D - Make barriers block travel in one direction only. Just as long as you don't let people shoot through it.

beezle23

captgriffen wrote: »

Or, you know, actually read stuff and solve it, like I did. Didn't take long.

So far the only puzzle I've needed outside help with is the "align the chips" one. I don't like sliding tile puzzles.

I did have to have a pen and paper handy for the Drozana one, but it was straightforward enough.