Yeah, this module would make a lot more sense and be more effective if the other enemies nearby were compelled to go reach for their transformed ally to pet their cat form.
The problem is the game in general has spent at least 7 or 8 years conditioning the playerbase to mindlessly zerg everything as fast as possible because it's a big brainless grind. It's understandably a bit difficult for some players to get out of that mindset and take time to read things, and wait for other players.
The mission itself is actually ok. The only things that went wrong for me were in the library. The first book spawned right inside the door where no one thought to look for it for a minute. Then when I tried to file Neelix' cookbook in 'cookbooks' it for some reason didn't accept it first time (idk, maybe someone else clicked a different shelf just as I was trying it), so I assumed it was supposed to be some sort of joke about Neelix not being able to cook and it was supposed to go in Puns or Horror or somewhere instead before circling back around to try cookbooks again.
Being honest, I would prefer more missions like this one rather than ones that continue to encourage players to eject their brains before starting a TFO. Perhaps there is some scope to change how things are explained, and how markers that progress the mission work though. Maybe make it harder for one inattentive player to stall the mission by interacting with the wrong thing all the time.
I hope someone a cryptic pays attention to our gripes. This was a nice idea that was close to being good, and with just a few tweaks (and a pet cat reward ) it could be much better.
Did a dream run of 17 minutes today. Yesterday was more like 45. I think the only real issue is the puzzle stage. The first day I got potions and the second I got books. Not sure what happens if the 1 or 2 players sent on this puzzle never solve it. Does the mission then never end?
ehh. I guess they got me. 12 more days.
Well, I have only done one puzzle, and that is giving it a lot more credit than it deserves... The room had a few glowies and the voice said "add this to the cauldron" so all you have to do is check the glowies until you find "this", then you can't grab anything else until you add it to the cauldron.
The other thing I did was just kill a bunch of spiders. No puzzle, no questions, just shooting and exploding and such.
Not that I am complaining. It just adds a twist to the experience you may get from multiple run-throughs but it doesn't seem failable unless someone fails intentionally.
As far as the initial question goes, I said what I thought in the announcement post.
No issues with the concept, execution is a little meh (Korob and Sylvia didn't understand Humankind, but their spooky trappings were just that; They didn't have skeletons running around the castle).
The rewards? The wand is not a thing I care about. As a device I may have given it to a BOFF to use, but as a kit module? I will not use it. Too many other good things fighting for that very limited space.
But the non-combat pet? That holds some appeal to me. I know that it is unimportant in the big picture, but I am going to go through the grind for that. Maybe it will become the pet that I actually care enough about to bring it out on a regular basis.
I actually enjoyed the map and find it interesting that some players get one type of room, while others can get another. I've done the FTO twice and have ended up in the library both times.
I do feel that the final reward is somewhat lacking after a fourteen day grind, but my OCD will probably require me to finish the event regardless. So, great atmosphere, terrible voice over, weak reward, but overall entertaining enough.
RIP (2022) : Officer Wilbert Mota, Corporal Charles Galloway, Detective Jason Rivera, Officer Fernando
Arroyos, Officer John Painter, K9 Jedi, K9 Maya, Deputy Constable Neil Adams, Officer Jorge
David Alvarado, Sergeant Joshua Cordell, Trooper Martin Mack, Trooper Branden Sisca,
Lieutenant William Lebo
is the boss fight time gated... seems we need to keep clearing trash and just wait for invis timer to click down...
couple of the runs I did were a nightmare because they either did not listen to the dialog or didn't know. the game phased through the entire team till I did and was able to throw the switches.
another run the guy in the library was either not listening or was deliberately blowing the books just to spawn the enemy...
and finally the engineerwho kept dropping cover shields.. i swear if I coulda i would have friendly fired his butt then spawn camped him
On PC those same words are also in the chat box and a blurb just underneath where team mates are shown. Makes all that mumbling easy to understand. I heard if you play the dialogue backwards evil things are being spoken.
Who's gotten to pay a visit to the ghostly fortune teller? Seems there's a few creepy surprises hiding in this TFO.
I don't recall a book section - is it possible the rest of the team cleared it while I was trying to figure out where to go? (I and another team member got separated from the others for a bit, and found our way back to the team after a few moments.)
Overall, while it was interesting, I'm not entirely convinced I want to grind this for two weeks straight just to get a magic wand that will turn one enemy into a cat briefly. Not nearly enough bang for the credit, IMO.
no there is a part where you get split up. one goes to the library one goes to the spiders one goes to the cauldron and I think one you just have to go through a TRIBBLE load of doors to the central meeting place
Third time and I still don't know how to target the devices in the final battle. I try clicking on the rings but nothing happens. Can someone please explain?
As a TOS "super fan," I love the event. While I agree that pugs can be difficult, I don't mind; I use the added time to enjoy the spooky '60s ambience. As far as the rewards go, I'm excited to get them. They will compliment my Temporal characters quite nicely - all mechanics aside.
I also seem to be wearing a sign that says repeatedly turn me into a Cat.
same here, I guess the game found out I play a black haired Miqo'te in FF14 and thought I wanted to be a black cat all the time.
As for the puzzles (if you can even call them that), they're not too bad unless you got a troll in the group who is failing them intentionally to TRIBBLE up with the group and even then it's pretty easy to counter that.
The biggest flaw is the fact that there is way too much opaque combat spam (especially billowing clouds of opaque white stuff some people let loose that causes a complete whiteout of the screen similar to how the Beacon of Kahless does in space maps) so it is usually impossible to see what you are shooting at much less if it is on a circle or not.
The puzzles and mechanics are actually integrated into and make sense for the setting (like in the Spectres arc) instead of feeling like tacked on phone games like a lot of the older ones did (like for instance the silly space carnival Gon'cra setup, or having to stop and do squarewave, triangle rotation, or catch-the-sprites stuff that infested the Delta missions so badly), and that integration makes all the difference.
The prize looks interesting, especially for quantum reality manipulating "magic" characters and anyone wanting a handy small AoE debuff that the AI will be too stupid to try and avoid (judging by how mobs don't try and avoid hazards for the most part).
The pet seems like it will be ok, though like some others have mentioned the black cat would have been nice (especially for those with a Gary Seven style character). I used a Risan caracal for that "familiar" type pet before, but the way they are missing their tail poof so the mesh is open at the end is rather annoying or I would have it out more.
Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
a way to help finish this TFO quicker is that thing from the Spectres arc that makes you phase shift just have one planted near the switches aka big rocks up and near thedividian lord's stairs.
Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
a way to help finish this TFO quicker is that thing from the Spectres arc that makes you phase shift just have one planted near the switches aka big rocks up and near the dividian lord's stairs.
I have a feeling that will be patched out at some point. It's too helpful
Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
a way to help finish this TFO quicker is that thing from the Spectres arc that makes you phase shift just have one planted near the switches aka big rocks up and near the dividian lord's stairs.
I have a feeling that will be patched out at some point. It's too helpful
Possibly, but doubtful since the devs mentioned it themselves in the livestream so it is intentional. The recharge rate on the phase shifted circle device is rather long so the only way it would cut off a significant amount of time is if everyone in the party had one, which is only likely to happen in an organized fleet run of it, not the pugs most people seem to use.
Also, if it is a case of the increasing the duration rather than doubling the attack itself then there is bound to be overlap due to the frequency of people getting phase shifted by the scenario mechanics so the effect is probably blunted down to acceptable, non-exploit, levels.
I asked for more interesting content/tfos, thx to the devs for this tfo. I like everything in it, the visuals, the story, the puzzles.
but, even if I like it; in my opinion, this tfos doesn't fit this kind of event.
good job, the devs.
I hope that we will have more content like this tfo added in the game (and also funny stuff: kit module, pet etc)
Day three and everything went well with the team... Except someone glitched through a wall and was perma-falling so they quit out, and the library guy got knocked out or went AFK, leaving a couple of witches alive, meaning the bit with the witches, hags and cauldron wouldn't continue as it counted those as witches to finish off. Fortunately I was able to summon my minions close enough to the library door that they glitched through and finished them off.
a way to help finish this TFO quicker is that thing from the Spectres arc that makes you phase shift just have one planted near the switches aka big rocks up and near thedividian lord's stairs.
Another useful thing is to plant pahvo crystals around the witches cauldron, they make short work of the witches' defenses, a Pahvo illuminate triangle works really well, but personally I kind of want build a pentagram with the crystals.
> @protoneous said:
> Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
Where are they at? I can't find it with all the area effect skills going off
Literally on each side of the room. The third, however, is behind a pillar and trickier if you don't know where to look at (you can see it when you're phase-shifted if you turn your back to the big window opposite to the door you entered from and look slightly left).
I also seem to be wearing a sign that says repeatedly turn me into a Cat.
For me, it's a sign that says "please, shove me into the library puzzle".
I don't really mind it since that's my favorite when I'm alone, but there seems to also be a small PS on the sign that says "kindly pair me with a teammate who has no idea what to do".
> @protoneous said:
> Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
Where are they at? I can't find it with all the area effect skills going off
I've only seen three, but think I'm missing one (?) One of them is at the top of each flight of stairs with another roughly at the base of the stairs at the handrail.
Day 4: A flawless run! Well, still missing two cats, but still. No-one abusing pets. Everyone has the mechanics down. No-one getting trapped in the scenery.
The first run through of mission was very annoying as everyone just spammed phaser fire and and module AEs on everything including immune skellies and nobody had a clue about most parts of the mission.
As the week progressed and more PUG players know what they are doing (and have modules better suited to things like immune skellies) the mission is going a lot smoother. The final phase can still take a while if you have 1-2 players without a clue being the ones phase shifted, so give a one line msg to zone at start of that telling everyone what to look for when shifted.
So I've shifted from "I dont ever want to do this mission again" to "I'll finish the event up to the reward, but dont expect me to do extra days for dilithium".
Day 4: A flawless run! Well, still missing two cats, but still. No-one abusing pets. Everyone has the mechanics down. No-one getting trapped in the scenery.
there's one on the devidian's lord balcony and another in the spider room.
I don't care much for this mission. That is probably because I just do not like Ground Mission in general.
I do like that the Ghostbuster Proton Gun works quite well here. Devidians are naturally weak to it. The skeletons come in swarms, which the gun's secondary mode is designed for. So, that was a nice touch.
So far I have run into two problems with the event TFO:
One run yesterday another player and I were never transported from the witch's storeroom to one of the outlying puzzle areas which dragged it out until the puzzle-section timer expired.
The other problem is that with the extreme visual spam it is often difficult to tell when you have been phase shifted (that same spam often makes it impossible to tell whether a skeleton is on a light circle or not, which skeleton you are even shooting at, or at its worst whether the player is on a circle or not).
Comments
The mission itself is actually ok. The only things that went wrong for me were in the library. The first book spawned right inside the door where no one thought to look for it for a minute. Then when I tried to file Neelix' cookbook in 'cookbooks' it for some reason didn't accept it first time (idk, maybe someone else clicked a different shelf just as I was trying it), so I assumed it was supposed to be some sort of joke about Neelix not being able to cook and it was supposed to go in Puns or Horror or somewhere instead before circling back around to try cookbooks again.
Being honest, I would prefer more missions like this one rather than ones that continue to encourage players to eject their brains before starting a TFO. Perhaps there is some scope to change how things are explained, and how markers that progress the mission work though. Maybe make it harder for one inattentive player to stall the mission by interacting with the wrong thing all the time.
Well, I have only done one puzzle, and that is giving it a lot more credit than it deserves... The room had a few glowies and the voice said "add this to the cauldron" so all you have to do is check the glowies until you find "this", then you can't grab anything else until you add it to the cauldron.
The other thing I did was just kill a bunch of spiders. No puzzle, no questions, just shooting and exploding and such.
Not that I am complaining. It just adds a twist to the experience you may get from multiple run-throughs but it doesn't seem failable unless someone fails intentionally.
As far as the initial question goes, I said what I thought in the announcement post.
No issues with the concept, execution is a little meh (Korob and Sylvia didn't understand Humankind, but their spooky trappings were just that; They didn't have skeletons running around the castle).
The rewards? The wand is not a thing I care about. As a device I may have given it to a BOFF to use, but as a kit module? I will not use it. Too many other good things fighting for that very limited space.
But the non-combat pet? That holds some appeal to me. I know that it is unimportant in the big picture, but I am going to go through the grind for that. Maybe it will become the pet that I actually care enough about to bring it out on a regular basis.
I do feel that the final reward is somewhat lacking after a fourteen day grind, but my OCD will probably require me to finish the event regardless. So, great atmosphere, terrible voice over, weak reward, but overall entertaining enough.
Arroyos, Officer John Painter, K9 Jedi, K9 Maya, Deputy Constable Neil Adams, Officer Jorge
David Alvarado, Sergeant Joshua Cordell, Trooper Martin Mack, Trooper Branden Sisca,
Lieutenant William Lebo
couple of the runs I did were a nightmare because they either did not listen to the dialog or didn't know. the game phased through the entire team till I did and was able to throw the switches.
another run the guy in the library was either not listening or was deliberately blowing the books just to spawn the enemy...
and finally the engineerwho kept dropping cover shields.. i swear if I coulda i would have friendly fired his butt then spawn camped him
it says, "I Buried Paul"
no there is a part where you get split up. one goes to the library one goes to the spiders one goes to the cauldron and I think one you just have to go through a TRIBBLE load of doors to the central meeting place
only works if you don't pug
Now we just need a black cat pet.
same here, I guess the game found out I play a black haired Miqo'te in FF14 and thought I wanted to be a black cat all the time.
As for the puzzles (if you can even call them that), they're not too bad unless you got a troll in the group who is failing them intentionally to TRIBBLE up with the group and even then it's pretty easy to counter that.
The biggest flaw is the fact that there is way too much opaque combat spam (especially billowing clouds of opaque white stuff some people let loose that causes a complete whiteout of the screen similar to how the Beacon of Kahless does in space maps) so it is usually impossible to see what you are shooting at much less if it is on a circle or not.
The puzzles and mechanics are actually integrated into and make sense for the setting (like in the Spectres arc) instead of feeling like tacked on phone games like a lot of the older ones did (like for instance the silly space carnival Gon'cra setup, or having to stop and do squarewave, triangle rotation, or catch-the-sprites stuff that infested the Delta missions so badly), and that integration makes all the difference.
The prize looks interesting, especially for quantum reality manipulating "magic" characters and anyone wanting a handy small AoE debuff that the AI will be too stupid to try and avoid (judging by how mobs don't try and avoid hazards for the most part).
The pet seems like it will be ok, though like some others have mentioned the black cat would have been nice (especially for those with a Gary Seven style character). I used a Risan caracal for that "familiar" type pet before, but the way they are missing their tail poof so the mesh is open at the end is rather annoying or I would have it out more.
a way to help finish this TFO quicker is that thing from the Spectres arc that makes you phase shift just have one planted near the switches aka big rocks up and near thedividian lord's stairs.
I have a feeling that will be patched out at some point. It's too helpful
Possibly, but doubtful since the devs mentioned it themselves in the livestream so it is intentional. The recharge rate on the phase shifted circle device is rather long so the only way it would cut off a significant amount of time is if everyone in the party had one, which is only likely to happen in an organized fleet run of it, not the pugs most people seem to use.
Also, if it is a case of the increasing the duration rather than doubling the attack itself then there is bound to be overlap due to the frequency of people getting phase shifted by the scenario mechanics so the effect is probably blunted down to acceptable, non-exploit, levels.
but, even if I like it; in my opinion, this tfos doesn't fit this kind of event.
good job, the devs.
I hope that we will have more content like this tfo added in the game (and also funny stuff: kit module, pet etc)
Another useful thing is to plant pahvo crystals around the witches cauldron, they make short work of the witches' defenses, a Pahvo illuminate triangle works really well, but personally I kind of want build a pentagram with the crystals.
> Do you mean the Devidian devices? I press F to interact with them when phase shifted.
Where are they at? I can't find it with all the area effect skills going off
I don't really mind it since that's my favorite when I'm alone, but there seems to also be a small PS on the sign that says "kindly pair me with a teammate who has no idea what to do".
I've only seen three, but think I'm missing one (?) One of them is at the top of each flight of stairs with another roughly at the base of the stairs at the handrail.
As the week progressed and more PUG players know what they are doing (and have modules better suited to things like immune skellies) the mission is going a lot smoother. The final phase can still take a while if you have 1-2 players without a clue being the ones phase shifted, so give a one line msg to zone at start of that telling everyone what to look for when shifted.
So I've shifted from "I dont ever want to do this mission again" to "I'll finish the event up to the reward, but dont expect me to do extra days for dilithium".
there's one on the devidian's lord balcony and another in the spider room.
I do like that the Ghostbuster Proton Gun works quite well here. Devidians are naturally weak to it. The skeletons come in swarms, which the gun's secondary mode is designed for. So, that was a nice touch.
One run yesterday another player and I were never transported from the witch's storeroom to one of the outlying puzzle areas which dragged it out until the puzzle-section timer expired.
The other problem is that with the extreme visual spam it is often difficult to tell when you have been phase shifted (that same spam often makes it impossible to tell whether a skeleton is on a light circle or not, which skeleton you are even shooting at, or at its worst whether the player is on a circle or not).