The whole pulse thing is nonsensical, it should require us to close all the rifts and kill all the ships ourselves instead of stupid auto-win timer that makes the 90% of the mission time spent waiting.
In previous iterations of MI it was in fact possible to clear the skies due to the presence of a hard cap on the number of rifts the Imperial forces could open in total, leading to the sort of situation you are complaining about. As I recall, however, this cap was removed as part of a patch (precisely which one escapes me at present, however), so now you shouldn't be too bored.
On console, the first time they ran this you could close them all.....a sign you had a good team was being able to pull it off. A better fix then endless rifts would have been making closing all rifts a secondary mission objective , granting a reward that increases the faster you did it and a accolade (ex "Clear Skies") for achieving it, then proceeding to the dreadnought portion after maybe a 30 second delay from the closing of the last rift (and perhaps adding more ships to the Dreadnought's escort). The idea could be that the Terran Commander commits thier Task Force flagship to try to reverse the situation and not have to explain to Leeta that they failed and get sent to the agony booth...or worse.
It is a shame, though, that they couldn't toss in some possible wrinkles to keep folks on their toes. Examples follow:
Mobius Squadron! - no, not the ISAF's 118th TFW. If X number of portals are closed, or Y Terran ships are destroyed, in a given interval, the Terrans send over a quintet of TDDs tasked with SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses). The 'Air Defenses' referenced in the acronym are, of course, the players. There are 5 possible squadrons (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon), but only one can appear in a given run; eliminating all five earns the 'Cutting the Ribbon' accolade. In an amusing coincidence, the ISS Enterprise's guardians in 'Temporal Reckoning' are one such group.
Here a web, there a web... - all this portal-opening on the Terrans' part might draw Tholian assets into the area. While at least two maximum-size portals are open, there is a regular background check to see whether a small group (an Orb Weaver and a couple of Mesh Weavers) spawns. This is a bit of an ironic reversal, considering what can happen when a Tholian capital ship is taken out...
'Krasny Oktyabr' - like the Federation, the Empire had retired the Typhoon-class battleship. This one, however, was retained as a testbed for various systems. There is a chance for this ship to appear as a 'mini-boss' as long as at least one max-size portal is open; it's armed with agony phasers and tricobalt ordinance... and is equipped with a cloaking device. Like the Mobius SEAD squadron, it can only appear once in a given run; destroying each of the five possible ships (and yes, one of them is indeed named Krasny Oktyabr) earns the Stormqueller accolade.
I really wish they'd have made it so closing all the rifts meant that phase 1 ended early and the boss fight was triggered.
I thought they removed the limit on rift spawns. So you could possibly run into a problem of rifts getting out of hand and the match dragging out too long. I'd rather they make it so leveling the station all the way triggers the boss fight.
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Yeah, the last time they changed it so they would respawn indefinately.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Lt. Philip J. Minns
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,586Community Moderator
I really wish they'd have made it so closing all the rifts meant that phase 1 ended early and the boss fight was triggered.
I thought they removed the limit on rift spawns. So you could possibly run into a problem of rifts getting out of hand and the match dragging out too long. I'd rather they make it so leveling the station all the way triggers the boss fight.
They did remove the limit on rifts. I think because people were complaining of having 2-3 minutes of downtime per run as the event goes on. You get an awesome group, those rifts don't even have a chance. And with it being timegated to a SPECIFIC amount of time, that awesome group outperformed the mission and had to wait out the timer with nothing to shoot. I THINK the longest I had to wait one time was actually 4 minutes. I don't remember...
I made a joke about asking if anyone had a deck of cards in Team Chat a few times when we had that downtime.
I did the Queue 3 times... and only last time the station was not disabled...
I don't know if the first 2 times the team was lazy, or just unlucky to get low DPS on team.
The last time the station survive with 100% health... oh well, on Normal the station don't need to survive.
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,586Community Moderator
Worng Druk.
The ORIGINAL incarnation of Mirror Invasion was to disable shipards around a station, which forced the ISS Stadi to appear, and you would destroy her. That was back when Mirror was one of the hourly events that we used to have back in the day. When they revamped Mirror Invasion, it took on its current incarnation, however it had the problem of portals not spawning after a certain point, and if there was still time left, making people wait out the timer. Some people complained about that downtime, and Cryptic fixed it so they keep spawning until time runs out.
Its not a "mandatory AFK mechanic". Its just that players don't like the timegate and thus decide to AFK it as we get the gubbins anyways at the end of the mission. The AFK is not a purposefully imposed mechanic. Its a player created one in protest of not being able to vape everything in sight in two seconds because of the timegate. The "AFK mechanic" is purely a player created mentality.
While I wish they would make it so that player performance actually meant something more than just a couple bonus marks, it is what it is. How players run it is not Cryptic's doing.
Actually both the players, and the devs are to blame. The devs have known that this stf creates an fosters a mentality to afk it, but the player-base has largely chosen that afking it is the only method of their own will and choice. No where does it state you have to afk in the mission, and the only way you could actually say it is a afk mission is that nothing happens for 10 mins, and I mean no ships/rifts spawn, no ability to interact with the satellites, than yes it would be a afk mission.
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rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,586Community Moderator
And yet... there is no more deeply moving religious experience... then unleashing a 20km Gravity Well in the middle of a target rich environment.
Druk, we all get what you're saying. And I'm sure that most of us would appreciate the event being altered to where performance would actually progress the mission along faster. But there really is nothing "mandatory" about the way you are advocating. It's a choice, plain and simple. You can choose to AFK, if that is the way you'd prefer to run it, but others choose to actually participate and accomplish the other "optional" objectives in the mission, just like any other mission.
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Well having just finishing this event's project on one character I tried looking for the mirror phasers on my other characters and couldn't find it in the event store. Be prepared for more grinding if you want it on other characters.
Well having just finishing this event's project on one character I tried looking for the mirror phasers on my other characters and couldn't find it in the event store. Be prepared for more grinding if you want it on other characters.
@fftt Someone in another thread said they are in the Dilithium Store under Reclaim.
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Well having just finishing this event's project on one character I tried looking for the mirror phasers on my other characters and couldn't find it in the event store. Be prepared for more grinding if you want it on other characters.
@fftt Someone in another thread said they are in the Dilithium Store under Reclaim.
I am using the event to level up new ships on a couple of characters.
I do the same thing. The target-rich environment goes a long way to help with that.
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I am using the event to level up new ships on a couple of characters.
I do the same thing. The target-rich environment goes a long way to help with that.
Aye it's really useful for that I might do that with my sci AoY char to get some Starship traits she could use next week (well get the traits next week that is my character can use those even after that )
Also while the pistols aren't really anything to super special, they seem like decent enough "starter" gear for a fresh lvl 60, so when I get to level my lower level alts they got something "decent" to start with and not just some mark VIII greens I forgot to replace as I leveled up so fast.
The take-away from this is to be careful what you wish for. People complained about finishing up having anywhere from four minutes to a minute with nothing to do. The expected change was to stop Phase I when the 25 to 30 Portals were closed. Their response was instead to just keep the bloody things spawning until the timer ran out.
Meanwhile, Abbott and Costello lead the charge into AFKville, to the point that a contest Thread was closed by the CM no less.
You can get a Level to a Level and a half of Starship Mastery running this.
Yes, a good Gravity Well sucking up the Terrans into a charnel house is glorious to behold and is a great way of clearing the traffic jams around the station.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
The Protomatter Field console does an excellent job of healing the station quickly as well.
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Yes, a good Gravity Well sucking up the Terrans into a charnel house is glorious to behold and is a great way of clearing the traffic jams around the station.
My fleet likes to call that the Murder Ball. Was even funnier before Cryptic changed something because when you had Gravemetric Photons proc on top of a Gravity Well... those ships in the Well were sent into the Spin Cycle. We'd ROFL at that. But still... Having chain reaction Warp Core Breaches is fun.
BTW... My "response" to Druk's "contest" thread... translated to actually playing the mission. How else would you work on your build?
The Protomatter Field console does an excellent job of healing the station quickly as well.
VERY true... unfortunately if you get a terrible group that can't keep up with the Terrans spawning... that newly repaired to 100% station... is dead in a few seconds from sheer amount of fire from one direction.
I don't get the afk'ers at all. The whole thing takes only 15 minutes. All you have to do is fly forward and hit the space bar and you can contribute. It's super easy. I've had an afk'er in each of my runs so far. I report them and message them, trying to encourage them to play. They should institue a kick feature. Get three votes to boot and you are out of the mission. Let people backfill in or something.
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,586Community Moderator
Druk... even badmoon is getting tired of this "mandatory AFK" talk. Its being done to death. Can you please stop now? We get it. You don't like it. Please stop hitting everyone over the head with it.
I don't get the afk'ers at all. The whole thing takes only 15 minutes. All you have to do is fly forward and hit the space bar and you can contribute. It's super easy. I've had an afk'er in each of my runs so far. I report them and message them, trying to encourage them to play. They should institue a kick feature. Get three votes to boot and you are out of the mission. Let people backfill in or something.
I've been lucky so far. no AFKers. But... I have run into problems keeping the station alive, and even getting the station to defense tier 5 on one occasion.
Too many people rudely insist that doing the portals and stuff is mandatory, it isn't. All that is mandatory is waiting out the clock, then killing the boss ship.
Druk my complaint isn't that people aren't doing the portals etc. My complaint is that someone on the team does not participate in anything to do with the mission. They either just stay where they spawn in or fly to a far corner and let the other 4 complete the whole mission. Sometimes they roll on loot, sometimes they don't. This behavior is unfair to the rest of the group.
Comments
On console, the first time they ran this you could close them all.....a sign you had a good team was being able to pull it off. A better fix then endless rifts would have been making closing all rifts a secondary mission objective , granting a reward that increases the faster you did it and a accolade (ex "Clear Skies") for achieving it, then proceeding to the dreadnought portion after maybe a 30 second delay from the closing of the last rift (and perhaps adding more ships to the Dreadnought's escort). The idea could be that the Terran Commander commits thier Task Force flagship to try to reverse the situation and not have to explain to Leeta that they failed and get sent to the agony booth...or worse.
These are good ideas too,
My character Tsin'xing
I thought they removed the limit on rift spawns. So you could possibly run into a problem of rifts getting out of hand and the match dragging out too long. I'd rather they make it so leveling the station all the way triggers the boss fight.
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l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
They did remove the limit on rifts. I think because people were complaining of having 2-3 minutes of downtime per run as the event goes on. You get an awesome group, those rifts don't even have a chance. And with it being timegated to a SPECIFIC amount of time, that awesome group outperformed the mission and had to wait out the timer with nothing to shoot. I THINK the longest I had to wait one time was actually 4 minutes. I don't remember...
I made a joke about asking if anyone had a deck of cards in Team Chat a few times when we had that downtime.
I don't know if the first 2 times the team was lazy, or just unlucky to get low DPS on team.
The last time the station survive with 100% health... oh well, on Normal the station don't need to survive.
The ORIGINAL incarnation of Mirror Invasion was to disable shipards around a station, which forced the ISS Stadi to appear, and you would destroy her. That was back when Mirror was one of the hourly events that we used to have back in the day. When they revamped Mirror Invasion, it took on its current incarnation, however it had the problem of portals not spawning after a certain point, and if there was still time left, making people wait out the timer. Some people complained about that downtime, and Cryptic fixed it so they keep spawning until time runs out.
Its not a "mandatory AFK mechanic". Its just that players don't like the timegate and thus decide to AFK it as we get the gubbins anyways at the end of the mission. The AFK is not a purposefully imposed mechanic. Its a player created one in protest of not being able to vape everything in sight in two seconds because of the timegate. The "AFK mechanic" is purely a player created mentality.
While I wish they would make it so that player performance actually meant something more than just a couple bonus marks, it is what it is. How players run it is not Cryptic's doing.
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@fftt Someone in another thread said they are in the Dilithium Store under Reclaim.
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By golly - yes it is.
I do the same thing. The target-rich environment goes a long way to help with that.
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Aye it's really useful for that I might do that with my sci AoY char to get some Starship traits she could use next week (well get the traits next week that is my character can use those even after that
Also while the pistols aren't really anything to super special, they seem like decent enough "starter" gear for a fresh lvl 60, so when I get to level my lower level alts they got something "decent" to start with and not just some mark VIII greens I forgot to replace as I leveled up so fast.
Meanwhile, Abbott and Costello lead the charge into AFKville, to the point that a contest Thread was closed by the CM no less.
You can get a Level to a Level and a half of Starship Mastery running this.
Yes, a good Gravity Well sucking up the Terrans into a charnel house is glorious to behold and is a great way of clearing the traffic jams around the station.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
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Moderation Problems/Issues? Please contact the Community Manager
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My fleet likes to call that the Murder Ball. Was even funnier before Cryptic changed something because when you had Gravemetric Photons proc on top of a Gravity Well... those ships in the Well were sent into the Spin Cycle. We'd ROFL at that. But still... Having chain reaction Warp Core Breaches is fun.
BTW... My "response" to Druk's "contest" thread... translated to actually playing the mission. How else would you work on your build?
VERY true... unfortunately if you get a terrible group that can't keep up with the Terrans spawning... that newly repaired to 100% station... is dead in a few seconds from sheer amount of fire from one direction.
I've been lucky so far. no AFKers. But... I have run into problems keeping the station alive, and even getting the station to defense tier 5 on one occasion.
Druk my complaint isn't that people aren't doing the portals etc. My complaint is that someone on the team does not participate in anything to do with the mission. They either just stay where they spawn in or fly to a far corner and let the other 4 complete the whole mission. Sometimes they roll on loot, sometimes they don't. This behavior is unfair to the rest of the group.