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Infected is fun, but a bit on the long side

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I'm having trouble keeping a group together, everyone has a good time, but not quite enough time to invest in it. Would it be possible to maybe dial it back a notch for normal mode?
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    I'm having trouble keeping a group together, everyone has a good time, but not quite enough time to invest in it. Would it be possible to maybe dial it back a notch for normal mode?
    There is only a normal mode for Infected.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Good to know, and about dialing back the enemy spawns to a sane number?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Good to know, and about dialing back the enemy spawns to a sane number?

    If you and your group prepare properly, you can get time on space part down to 20 minutes, and ground part to 1 hour.

    So total time is 1 hour 20 minutes, and that is just MY fleets record... There are probably fleets/groups out there that have done it faster.
    I don't think that is too long, and the number of spawns in space is not much...

    Also if your team works well together on ground, the spawns are no problem at all.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Good to know, and about dialing back the enemy spawns to a sane number?

    I'd recommend reading this if you haven't already:
    http://stowiki.org/wiki/Guide:_Infected

    This video is a great primer from the Sanctuary-Wanderhome Fleet
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_s0SkARQUY
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Read that done it beat the mission. Not everyone is out to set a record with their play time. What is with these answers?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Ground used to have more spawn, course though when they took out the spawns on the ground, they more than tripled the time required in space. Also boss room minions used to spawn twice, just bad coding bugs. Anyway stfs only get longer from here, though I suppose if Terrordome is your first stf, then they could only get shorter from there, though the later ones not really much shorter.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Read that done it beat the mission. Not everyone is out to set a record with their play time. What is with these answers?
    Nothing the developers has said (that I know of) has indicated that Infected spawn populations will get cut back. :(

    That isn't the answer you want but I wanted to prepare you for the worst.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    sintri wrote: »
    Ground used to have more spawn, course though when they took out the spawns on the ground, they more than tripled the time required in space. Also boss room minions used to spawn twice, just bad coding bugs. Anyway stfs only get longer from here, though I suppose if Terrordome is your first stf, then they could only get shorter from there, though the later ones not really much shorter.

    This is refreshing compared to the other posts, it has none of the hint of the coffee-addled forum addict


    A bit off the original post topic but I just logged in to tribble and saw the new accolades notices. Nice job on that cryptic
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Read that done it beat the mission. Not everyone is out to set a record with their play time. What is with these answers?

    The video is short (under 7 minutes) and might help reduce the time (if you're finding PUGs that can't play through due to time issues). A good briefing from an experienced player like yourself should reduce the time considerably which should keep a PUG together.

    Addressing your actual question:
    Infected has already had the ground portion shortened - with no further shortening in sight.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    The video is short (under 7 minutes) and might help reduce the time (if you're finding PUGs that can't play through due to time issues). A good briefing from an experienced player like yourself should reduce the time considerably which should keep a PUG together.

    Addressing your actual question:
    Infected has already had the ground portion shortened - with no further shortening in sight.

    Yeesh, it must have been awful.

    It _is_ fun, but I don't enjoy missions that run over 30 minutes.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Yeesh, it must have been awful.

    It _is_ fun, but I don't enjoy missions that run over 30 minutes.

    It was much worse (minus the walk-through-walls exploit that allowed you to repsawn during the queen battle).

    Anyways, I wish I could be of more help but the developers haven't responded to request to reduce the zergfests on this particular STF in a while (possibly due to the changes they've already made to it).

    I wish you luck and hope Cryptic has a new model for ground combat in STF or Raid environments (i.e. lesss zerg - more unique, yet challenging bosses that don't rely on minions as much).

    The concept behind STF is that they are extended missions, however. I don't see them being reduced to sub-hour times for the entire STF. Bear in mind, you can save between sections of latter STFs and be "flagged" for doing the second or third portions (i.e. DS9 section of Terradome, Biological Cavern).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Curs0r wrote: »
    Yeesh, it must have been awful.

    It _is_ fun, but I don't enjoy missions that run over 30 minutes.

    No offense but these STFs are STOs current version of end game "raid" content and its unlikely that they will ever be reduced to something thats 30 minutes or under.

    That said I agree that other content such as Episodes - that is around the 30minute-1 hour mark is needed at end game and by all accounts, that is on the way in the forum of weekly episodes (on the way) and new Episode zones that are in the pipeline (for Season 2 I believe)

    If you want to take on the STFs however, be prepared - I have found infected to be one of the "faster" ones to do....
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    ayy infected is the fastest one with times under 40 minutes being possible in a highly experienced group.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Okay, here's a very brief history lesson on Cryptic's instance design. Cryptic's never been keen on traditional raids. So all their games use stuff like STFs instead.

    When City of Heroes launched in 2004, Task Forces would typically take...something like 3 to 4 hours. There's still some old dinosaur content that takes something like 5 to 7 hours to beat unless you use time-saving tricks.

    Why so long? Because they assumed that people would only run these instances with guildmates or friends. And they assumed people would be willing to finish them over several play sessions. They didn't anticipate people forming Pick-Up Groups and trying to beat them in a single play-through.

    So they learned. Later Task Forces in City of Heroes were significantly shorter...yeah, still around 1-2 hours, but that's already shorter compared to the old time, you see?

    The other thing is this. Cryptic's earliest Task Forces had pretty normal enemy spawns. The later Task Forces were shorter, but harder - what they started doing was make TF enemies tougher, with atypical spawns.

    And that's the philosophy Cryptic's brought forward into Champions Online, and now STO.

    That said, Champions Online has more of this type of instance than STO does. The max-level endgame Champions instances are pretty similar to what we have here in terms of time and difficulty.

    However, Champions also has a few STF-type missions that are pegged at lower levels. These tend to be far shorter. Still more difficult than normal content, but they go by much quicker on most teams. I suspect that with the advent of squad sidekicking and mission replay, we might see some future STFs designed for lower-level play, following the Champions model. That'd be pretty cool, actually.

    But I suspect the high level STFs will stay where they are.
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