test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Crystal Entity Attempt #4

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Tried to pug this again today while I was waiting for someone to log.

People are still too stupid to complete the match. There was one person in zone telling the correct strategy of killing all shards and five times that many yelling "DONT FOCUS THE SHARDS" like idiots.

We actually got a zone of 5 smart people to focus the shards and got it down to 25% but when the large ones spawn everyone has to focus the shards or they quickly overcome the entire instance, which happened to us.

So in summation, there are still way too many guys kiting 15 shards behind them only focusing the boss for this mission to be completable right now. Please do your part and tell these people how wrong they are so we can stop flying around in circles for hours on end getting nothing done.

I'll try it again in a day and see if people have gotten smarter yet, but I hold very little hope.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Maybe you should have done the Crystal Entity before they changed it like I did. I destroyed this guy no problem and got tons of blue loot which I vendored and made tons of energy creds.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Valax1983 wrote:
    Maybe you should have done the Crystal Entity before they changed it like I did. I destroyed this guy no problem and got tons of blue loot which I vendored and made tons of energy creds.

    While I appreciate your cool story, bro, I've already got a level 45 Klingon and I already ran crystal entity many times in beta when it was stupidly easy so I'm less worried about completing it and gear than I am about people learning how to complete it, and/or cryptic just changing it.

    Also, I have over 10 million energy credits.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I entirely doubt people will eventually kill this thing. I tried last night just for kicks.

    Somehow I ended up in an instance by myself, which is cool, and I start my circle the thing at 9km and let my beams work. I solo it down to 90% when other people start warping into my instance. the very first guy came in and dropped mines. Instantly back to 100% health. So I just keep circling and by now I've got like 50 fragments following me so that same guy thinks I'm in trouble so he fires at the ones following me. They instantly turn toward him and because he did so at 4 km he gets blown up before he can even try to make an escape.

    I saw no less than 3 people turn face first into oncoming fragments and blow up.


    And as for the mines thing, if I hadn't seen it with only 2 people around (Me and the guy dropping mines) I wouldn't have believed it would heal the CE. But someone pointed out in another thread that maybe the mines are not destroying the fragments, but that the fragments are actually destroying the mines before they blow up, therefore counting as something "destroyed" and healing the CE.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Just - I appreciate your frustration, it comes through, but A) no need to take that first replies bait and be baited, and B) if you slow down and actually constructively set out the CORRECT strategy, people might improve on a confusing content and situation.

    I've not tried CE yet, frankly I'm afraid to waste my time. I've seen constant chatter in ingame chat by players expressing frustration that other players ruin it over and over so they can't get it done. It sounds like that other one with the Borg area where players keep killing the Repair Hubs and ruining the attempt for players - in one case we tried 8 times and no matter how hard we tried communicating, some player would still destroy the repair hubs and ruin it for everyone.

    So, in real summary:

    1 - Cryptic: Stop designing our content to rely on PUGS to read and listen... its not good gameplay and its not good design. If you're going to provide PUG driven content, make sure your dos and donts are clearly stated in mission objectives that players (even blind ones) can read and see. Other games have done this by putting the mission "Donts" clearly in red text with a counter, and when the counter is reached, it says FAIL. These content points don't clearly say it enough for the knumbskulls and they're ruining your content and our gameplay.

    Further, Cryptic, it has been said that some of the problem, like as with the Borg one mentioned above, is you're combining content such that some players are actually after those objectives that ruin it for other player's objectives, so there's a conflict because you've combined instances serving multiple quests, and they ruin it for each other. If this is true - Double bad design on you.

    2 - To the OP, while we're waiting on Cryptic to add clarity and content refinement (see point 1 above), you could be more clear in stating what the objective strategies really are (the do's and don'ts at various stages)... otherwise, this thread is a bit of a waste of everyone's time.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I don't know why Cryptic listened to whiners. It was fine on difficulty before if you had the correct level players in teh instance. The only reason it seemed so easy was due to higher levels throwing out more dps. It's TRIBBLE now much like the ground pvp changes. Powerhue change anyone? Priorities need to be made starting with actually learning how to keep your game stable. I can make a quick list of what's actually important.

    1 stability (servers that are offline for far too much time with no compensation equal bad press)

    2 content (within reason as of now there is very little 40+ fed side and virtually zero klingon side)

    3 balance pve/pvp

    Where does the crystal fit into this? It doesn't.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    This isn't that hard of a fight. It's coordinating a 20man pug that is the problem. If 1 or 2 people don't listen it screws up the entire fight seeing the thing can heal FAST(especially below the 30% mark). Because of the instancing you always get a few people that are brand new to the mission every couple of minutes and run around ruining things.

    You literally have to put a group together BEFORE hand and then enter an instance.

    Last night we had a few people chatting over the Zonechat for people who know whats what to enter a certain zone. We did excellent and got him down to 25% but we kept having noobs jump in and ruin the strat.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Yeah I tried 3 or 4 times, then we had him down to 30% and the server crashed.

    You have to kill the shards, though people don't seem to realize that when there are a bunch, the first oes you better kill are the Small ones if they're up.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Skataneric wrote: »
    This isn't that hard of a fight. It's coordinating a 20man pug that is the problem. If 1 or 2 people don't listen it screws up the entire fight seeing the thing can heal FAST(especially below the 30% mark). Because of the instancing you always get a few people that are brand new to the mission every couple of minutes and run around ruining things.

    You literally have to put a group together BEFORE hand and then enter an instance.

    Last night we had a few people chatting over the Zonechat for people who know whats what to enter a certain zone. We did excellent and got him down to 25% but we kept having noobs jump in and ruin the strat.

    Hence my comments. (Point #1 in my post above)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    *snip*
    1 - Cryptic: Stop designing our content to rely on PUGS to read and listen... its not good gameplay and its not good design. If you're going to provide PUG driven content, make sure your dos and donts are clearly stated in mission objectives that players (even blind ones) can read and see. Other games have done this by putting the mission "Donts" clearly in red text with a counter, and when the counter is reached, it says FAIL. These content points don't clearly say it enough for the knumbskulls and they're ruining your content and our gameplay.

    Further, Cryptic, it has been said that some of the problem, like as with the Borg one, is you're combining content such that some players are actually after those objectives that ruin it for other player's objectives, so there's a conflict because you've combined instances serving multiple quests, and they ruin it for each other. If this is true - Double bad design on you.

    2 - To the OP, while we're waiting on Cryptic to add clarity and content refinement (see point 1 above), you could be more clear in stating what the objective strategies really are (the do's and don'ts at various stages)... otherwise, this thread is a bit of a waste of everyone's time.


    Actually, probably a better solution than # 1 would be a feature allowing a person of group of people to spin off a copy of the instance and lock it, preventing others from entering. That way, if you and your fleet mates want to do the episode by yourselves, you can without having a frustrating incident with someone who is ill-prepared to tackle the episode who randomly joins your copy of the instance.

    By supporting the method they have now along with this private instanced version you can meet the needs of both sides of the community.

    Incidentally, it would be nice to have a strategy section of the forums for discussing current and future episodes like the Crystalline Entity and how best to tackle them.

    ~ Arch
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    You might find folk arent listening to chat or watching it as they most likely have Zone chat disabled due to Gold Spammers and idiotic conversations that happen in it.
    I know Ive turned it off myself however I always make sure its turned on before entering any kind of Fleet Battle.
    I wasted 5 hours on the CE the other day kiting, torpedoing the CE and watching chat in frustration as folk just did not have a damned clue. best we got her down to was 28 percent then some idiots decide to lay minefields and blast shards and whoop up she goes to flipping 80 again.
    This should be a Group Instance with the leader being able to /boot idiots out of it entirely.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    personally Im glad they havent pandered to the whiners about this things difficultly. Guess what its meant to be really really hard and its meant to only be taken down when there is a lot of cooperation. Got teamplay issues? get your fleet to join the same instance or get a bunch of people to join an instance. In reality they probably just havent listened to the whiners, that works too
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Maybe, just maybe if someone posted a short, comprehensible guide instructing people like myself who havent been able to get there yet, instead of the 'why isnt everyone as good as I am?' posts, and calling everyone F**ktards in zonechat. All we want to do is finish the mission too.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    ramhotep wrote: »
    Maybe, just maybe if someone posted a short, comprehensible guide instructing people like myself who havent been able to get there yet, instead of the 'why isnt everyone as good as I am?' posts, and calling everyone F**ktards in zonechat. All we want to do is finish the mission too.


    Agreed!

    And what doesnt help is the disabling of ZONE CHAT due to gold farmers.

    Played this one for about 2 hours last night with 3 other fleetmates..... never got the CE below 20% because inevitably some new players would come in and start dropping mines.....gave up on it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    ramhotep wrote: »
    Maybe, just maybe if someone posted a short, comprehensible guide instructing people like myself who havent been able to get there yet, instead of the 'why isnt everyone as good as I am?' posts, and calling everyone F**ktards in zonechat. All we want to do is finish the mission too.

    there is one. search it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    so why are mines bad anyway just out of curiosity? i dont have them just wondering. Surely they kill the shards right?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    ultrium wrote: »
    so why are mines bad anyway just out of curiosity? i dont have them just wondering. Surely they kill the shards right?

    In my experience, it has been the reverse. Because both items disappear it seems that people think the mines blow up the fragments. The fragments are blowing up the mines counting as doing damage to something thus healing the CE.

    There were only 2 of us in my instance last night, me and 1 guy dropping mines. He didn't take damage but dropped mines. CE went from 90% to 100% instantly upon the fragments he was training hit his mines.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Just - I appreciate your frustration, it comes through, but A) no need to take that first replies bait and be baited, and B) if you slow down and actually constructively set out the CORRECT strategy, people might improve on a confusing content and situation.

    I've not tried CE yet, frankly I'm afraid to waste my time. I've seen constant chatter in ingame chat by players expressing frustration that other players ruin it over and over so they can't get it done. It sounds like that other one with the Borg area where players keep killing the Repair Hubs and ruining the attempt for players - in one case we tried 8 times and no matter how hard we tried communicating, some player would still destroy the repair hubs and ruin it for everyone.

    So, in real summary:

    1 - Cryptic: Stop designing our content to rely on PUGS to read and listen... its not good gameplay and its not good design. If you're going to provide PUG driven content, make sure your dos and donts are clearly stated in mission objectives that players (even blind ones) can read and see. Other games have done this by putting the mission "Donts" clearly in red text with a counter, and when the counter is reached, it says FAIL. These content points don't clearly say it enough for the knumbskulls and they're ruining your content and our gameplay.

    Further, Cryptic, it has been said that some of the problem, like as with the Borg one mentioned above, is you're combining content such that some players are actually after those objectives that ruin it for other player's objectives, so there's a conflict because you've combined instances serving multiple quests, and they ruin it for each other. If this is true - Double bad design on you.

    2 - To the OP, while we're waiting on Cryptic to add clarity and content refinement (see point 1 above), you could be more clear in stating what the objective strategies really are (the do's and don'ts at various stages)... otherwise, this thread is a bit of a waste of everyone's time.

    i completely agree that a definite lack of clarity regarding rules of engagement for these missions is causing not only confusion, but also mass irritation for people who know what to do but are being held back by people who do not know what to do. Cryptic may not realise that mission instructions are not clear enough. Perhaps english is not their first language. however this issue being addressed would benefit a lot of people.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    It was incredibly stupid before they changed it, now it's incredibly stupid in completely the opposite way. Maybe one of these days Cryptic will learn how to tweak something, but until then we'll just have to get used to gigantic see-sawing until it eventually settles at the right place a year or so later.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    NarfMann wrote: »
    It was incredibly stupid before they changed it, now it's incredibly stupid in completely the opposite way. Maybe one of these days Cryptic will learn how to tweak something, but until then we'll just have to get used to gigantic see-sawing until it eventually settles at the right place a year or so later.

    In one of the many CE threads on these boards I saw the easiest and most elegant fix to this encounter ever.

    at 25%, 50%, 75% you have marks that it can't heal back beyond once it gets injured past that point. so if you hit it down to 61% it can't heal past 75%, if you get it down to 1% before a group of people faceplant into a bunch of fragments it can't heal past 25%.

    I wish I could remember who put forth that idea, but I can't.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    ValcyrVexx wrote: »
    In one of the many CE threads on these boards I saw the easiest and most elegant fix to this encounter ever.

    at 25%, 50%, 75% you have marks that it can't heal back beyond once it gets injured past that point. so if you hit it down to 61% it can't heal past 75%, if you get it down to 1% before a group of people faceplant into a bunch of fragments it can't heal past 25%.

    I wish I could remember who put forth that idea, but I can't.

    That's actually pretty brilliant.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    ValcyrVexx wrote: »
    In one of the many CE threads on these boards I saw the easiest and most elegant fix to this encounter ever.

    at 25%, 50%, 75% you have marks that it can't heal back beyond once it gets injured past that point. so if you hit it down to 61% it can't heal past 75%, if you get it down to 1% before a group of people faceplant into a bunch of fragments it can't heal past 25%.

    I wish I could remember who put forth that idea, but I can't.

    There's really tons of simple fixes. That's why its so annoying that nothing has been done. They could honestly just remove the healing aspect completely and this zone would be much better. It would still take about 10 minutes to finish and I think that's all the longer it should take. 10 seconds was a bit too fast and I'm glad they nerfed it, but impossible in a pug is not for a level 17 quest.

    Sadly, this would make a great 5 man raid for level 45 content if they just pushed it up there as is.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    Myself I tried forming a team the other day to try and blow it up, we managed to get 10-12 ppl but the remaining others were enough to TRIBBLE it up. (not counting the fact that we had hard time just getting all 12 ppl in the same instance because it was full)

    I wouldn't mind if they kept the difficulty level as it is, but at least have the ability to create our own instance and lock it as suggested in this thread.

    About the mines however, there is something I'm not sure about. In the many instances I've been, the entity always endsup healing 3% every 30 seconds or so, regardless if I or others were using mines or not. I have been using mines to keep the kiting fragments under control (I've been in an instance once where there was so many fragments that the actual entity was blinking in and out, seemed like too much fragments were flying around). Past the 30-35% barrier however, using mines becomes problematic because of the large fragments, these, as all of us here know, split up and spawns the 3 returning small fragments that heals the CE.

    I think that those that know how to kite are ok, even if they don't understand the large fragment thing. The problem is those rushing in, guns blazing, ramming shards and respawning. That strategy is fine, until 30-35% where hitting the large ones creates the healing problem, and you quickly endup to levels you were at a few minutes ago...

    So, imho, if there would be a possibility to have a restricted instance, password protect or invite only like you can on the bridges or some similar solution, that would at least give us a chance!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    The solution: Shoot all the shards: http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=116341
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    It would help a heck of a lot if the people in zone chat weren't so contradictory.

    Player 1: "Kill shards!"
    Player 2: "STFU NOOB KILLING SHARDS HEAL"
    Player 3: "KITE CLOCKWISE"
    Player 4: "KITE ANTI-CLOCKWISE"
    Player 1: "Only Large Shards Heal!"
    Player 2: "OMFG U ARE SO STUPID"
    Player 5: "Laying Minefield guys"
    Everyone: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

    I mean, people complain about some folks doing the wrong thing... it's quite hard to know what's the right thing to do when everyone's arguing like that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    The whole open instance idea for this encounter is flawed:

    Content doable by PUG's using zerging ----> Open instance: no matter how many players TRIBBLE up, it is still possible to complete the instance;

    Content that requires strategy and cooperation ----> Closed instance only accessible by teams/fleets. Dungeon in space. Rationale: you cannot be sure that everyone knows the correct strategy, or even uses the same strategy. No way to kick out offenders who are either too stupid to listen to the others, and use the agreed strategy, or rush in and blow themselves up deliberately, ruining the experience for all.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited February 2010
    I swore I would never PuG again after playing WoW and LOTRO but since playing STO I don't have much choice when it comes to CE and The Borg.

    I agree CE its frustrating if people warp in and spoil all the hard work you have put in. I must admit that a first I was a little confused because I played in OB when CE was pretty darn easy. After launch when it was changed I thought WTF.

    Its not rocket science. If people just took the time to watch what CE does, There Actions/Reactions then they would see exactly what to do. Something I noticed in a few CE encounters is that several people where shouting a few different strategies which can be confusing to the casual player.
Sign In or Register to comment.