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Finding temporal probes might well be the worst content Cryptic has ever created
farranor
Member Posts: 559 Arc User
There are only two indicators as to each probe's location: the objective that appears in your list of mission objectives when you're on the right map (or sometimes before you're on the right map... or not at all... yeah, it's broken), and your bridge officers saying "hey there's something here" after you've basically already found it.
These probes are occasionally located right in front of mission objectives, so that you are literally unable to arrive at an objective without tripping over the distortion. However, they are often located in areas that are difficult to reach, difficult to see, or unlikely to be traversed while playing a mission normally. This turns temporal probes into a game of "okay, it's somewhere on this map. Maybe. And the map is about 250km on each side, and about 100km deep, so that's only about six million cubic kilometers to search through."
Did anyone who wasn't the one to choose the probes' locations at Cryptic actually find this fun? A lot of people are looking for probes nowadays. I have spoken to several people who absolutely hate this task, and none who find it even the least bit palatable. I've been looking up locations in the Reddit thread on this, to minimize the time I spend rooting around for probes. Unfortunately, I still end up wasting a lot of time, as the probes can appear in multiple locations and sometimes a particular location simply hasn't been noted in the thread yet. In "The Doomsday Device," I spent half an hour running around the map, trying to locate the probe at one of the listed locations. I ended up finding it in a third location not yet in the thread, up on a hill at an angle that makes it impossible to see from certain directions.
Why don't these things show up on the map until we've already found it? Why don't they show up on tricorder scans? Why, with all of our fancy science, are we reduced to finding these things by bumping into them?
This would alleviate another problem I discovered tonight: if you're doing missions on your temporal agent, looking for temporal probes, and you decide you want some company... teaming up with a character who is not a temporal agent causes the probes not to appear at all, with absolutely no notification. It fails silently. I just spent two hours doing a mission with a friend, unable to find the probe in the location suggested in the Reddit thread or anywhere else on the map. Well, sometimes it's elsewhere, so let's keep looking, right? I eventually suggested that maybe teaming up breaks the Delta Recruit event - I mean the Temporal Agent event - in some way. I know the probes show up when solo, so I figured I would try one step in between and log in with my temporal character so that we were all temporally-inclined officers. With both of us on our agents, we start the mission, go to the suggested probe location, and there's the Eye of Sauron - I mean a chronal distortion - right where it's supposed to be.
"Somewhere on this map, maybe" is not enough. "It would be on this map (if there weren't any non-temporal agent characters here)" is not enough. It's painful, it's annoying, there's zero feedback about whether I'm on the right track until I trip over a distortion, and there are hidden caveats that exacerbate the issue of having zero feedback.
These probes are occasionally located right in front of mission objectives, so that you are literally unable to arrive at an objective without tripping over the distortion. However, they are often located in areas that are difficult to reach, difficult to see, or unlikely to be traversed while playing a mission normally. This turns temporal probes into a game of "okay, it's somewhere on this map. Maybe. And the map is about 250km on each side, and about 100km deep, so that's only about six million cubic kilometers to search through."
Did anyone who wasn't the one to choose the probes' locations at Cryptic actually find this fun? A lot of people are looking for probes nowadays. I have spoken to several people who absolutely hate this task, and none who find it even the least bit palatable. I've been looking up locations in the Reddit thread on this, to minimize the time I spend rooting around for probes. Unfortunately, I still end up wasting a lot of time, as the probes can appear in multiple locations and sometimes a particular location simply hasn't been noted in the thread yet. In "The Doomsday Device," I spent half an hour running around the map, trying to locate the probe at one of the listed locations. I ended up finding it in a third location not yet in the thread, up on a hill at an angle that makes it impossible to see from certain directions.
Why don't these things show up on the map until we've already found it? Why don't they show up on tricorder scans? Why, with all of our fancy science, are we reduced to finding these things by bumping into them?
This would alleviate another problem I discovered tonight: if you're doing missions on your temporal agent, looking for temporal probes, and you decide you want some company... teaming up with a character who is not a temporal agent causes the probes not to appear at all, with absolutely no notification. It fails silently. I just spent two hours doing a mission with a friend, unable to find the probe in the location suggested in the Reddit thread or anywhere else on the map. Well, sometimes it's elsewhere, so let's keep looking, right? I eventually suggested that maybe teaming up breaks the Delta Recruit event - I mean the Temporal Agent event - in some way. I know the probes show up when solo, so I figured I would try one step in between and log in with my temporal character so that we were all temporally-inclined officers. With both of us on our agents, we start the mission, go to the suggested probe location, and there's the Eye of Sauron - I mean a chronal distortion - right where it's supposed to be.
"Somewhere on this map, maybe" is not enough. "It would be on this map (if there weren't any non-temporal agent characters here)" is not enough. It's painful, it's annoying, there's zero feedback about whether I'm on the right track until I trip over a distortion, and there are hidden caveats that exacerbate the issue of having zero feedback.
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Reddit location list once again - for those that only read one of these threads.
https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/4ro6d0/temporal_orb_locations_minor_exploration_puzzle/
Now there's something that requires just a moment of patience and thought and people are screaming about that.
* Wouldn't it be funny if this is somehow Al Rivera's revenge on all those players that mocked him for his DR comments etc? "Make fun of me? I'll show them. I'll show them good with puzzles and math!" It's entirely possible. I mean it's not like Cryptic can do virtually anything without people complaining.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
No, I expect my (temporal agent) tricorder to be able to scan for them, just like I can scan for other important objects.
It took me three tries through the mission before I finally spotted it.
ouy
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
My character Tsin'xing
But then again, I love looking for and finding collectibles in games (except when the map is a big city and there is only a few left to find).
Thank you for the link...this is NOT a fun way to look for stuff. Whoever designed this system should be fired
The puzzles aren't that difficult either.
I might agree if there was in-game text telling me that, and that my tricorder would not work.
If I missed that, feel free to point it out to me
I think it's some sort of bug so I sent Cryptic a ticket.
Nontheless a more sophisticated scan system would be a godsend, scan for anomalies, for mission objectives, containers etc. It would really help us immerse us into a future world.
The Doomsday probe is on the ground map. I admit, one time I had to crisscross the whole map to find it.
You have a point. However it happens sometimes to me when I go roaming over the map, I loose mission objectives and have to zone out and in again. This can also happen on normal mission situations. Fly far away from your mission objective or mission area and you will have a hard time to find it back.
First problem: The Mission Objective list, the temporal notification pops up on a space map where the probe is not even located, I wasted 45 mins flying around that map, and not finding it. So, I finally warp on to the next map (where you meet the Ferengi inside the asteroid field) turns out the probe was in this map all along.
But even still, that first run through, I looked for another 45 mins or so and couldn't find it. And yes I was using the map, but the map is quite large, and using the map is absolutely useless there unless youre right on top of it..
I gave up and figured I missed it.
The only saving grace was that I had to repeat that mission anyway for my JemH set items.
Second time through, I finally found it tucked away on an asteroid towards the middle of the map, no where near the objectives.
Took 30 mins again to find it.
So yeah it can be extremely frustrating. At least if the scan would let you know its around on that map, you could look without worrying you're not even on the right map.
Scan says 0 anomalies detected (funny because they are temporal anomalies)... This doesn't help anything, especially when the temporal probe objective notification activates on the wrong map.
Totally wasted my game time looking for that piece of TRIBBLE.
I don't have more then 1hr and 1/2 an evening. And I spent it mindlessly combing the wrong space map ! It was infuriating.
Like I said though 95% of them have been fairly easy to spot. But when you get a bugged out Objective list.. it really is a problem and I agree with OP.
And tbh after playing the arcs 7-8 times already, I really don't have the patience to scour the wrong space map for 1hr 1/2, and waste my evening looking in the wrong place.
And this is pretty much the reason I'll never do another recruitment event.
Anyway, after much frustration, when I finally found that probe, it was literally attached to an asteroid and barely visible.
Not cool.
I was even using the pro tip "/target temporal probe"
But again that has the same problem as using the map, you have to be within 85m for that trick to work.
Honestly that whole Operation Gamma ordeal has soured me even more to running through the arcs on my AoY.
I logged in last night, set up my admiralty and doffing on my alts, got to my AoY, looked at the next mission I have to do....Facility 4028... and you know what, I just logged off.
Eventually Ill get them all, but wow. I just could not bring myself to do it last night. I needed a break after that awful Gamma experience.
If I wasn't so far in already, I would just forget about playing the arcs on my AoY.
Like I did for the recent MI event. Just not worth the time.
Anyway all I'm saying is its a real pain when the notification is broken, and there is no way to verify if in fact the probe is on that specific map !