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Bird Cage: Impossible to complete

darkness2k#0753 darkness2k Member Posts: 9 Arc User
The Johnson and Jackson NPCs are unkillable by the standard calibre TFO players. They kill you in 2 to 3 hits, and you can't keep their shields down.

This TFO was started via the event menu, and presumably should have been on the easiest difficulty.

It was a noticeable uplift in difficulty once you started with the "harder" Terrans/holograms on the walkways. Some of the melee attacks seemed much stronger than anything experienced in the first part of the TFO.

<rant>
I was incredibly frustrated by the game as a result of combination of the impossible TFO, the fact that after leaving I was marked as a deserter and couldn't then quickly do Iupiter Irratus to earn the event completion marks - combined with a long, exhausting rollercoaster of emotions week.

I wish I had the combat logs, but it showed the two super-humans doing over 1000 damage on most every attack. That's generally one player downed every 2 to 3 attacks/seconds and, as STO doesn't follow the typical "tank/healer/damage" pattern, we didn't have a chance!

In regards to the deserter debuff, this really shouldn't be applied in situations where -
  • you've spent over 30 minutes trying to complete a TFO,
  • when multiple other players have already left and are not getting backfilled,
  • you and/or your party have died an excessively high number of times.

You've already been punished enough at this point, why do you need more!
</rant>


Thanks for listening.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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    baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,351 Community Moderator
    Not a bug. /Moved to General Discussion.
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    krisxr400krisxr400 Member Posts: 116 Arc User
    I thought it was fun, gotta work as a team, i can see if your on a team of players that just sprint everywhere and and can't follow directions it could be frustrating, but still doable. I liked the setting and the objectives, felt kinda fresh.
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    davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,527 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    It took my group a long time for the boss fight playing the first day, and yes they are much tougher than story episode bosses. Other than that it seemed OK to me.

    What worked for me against the bosses (with respawns) was physical melee attacks (Klingon recruit with the batleth) since they bypass the shields to damage health.
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    darkness2k#0753 darkness2k Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    Not a bug. /Moved to General Discussion.

    I'm not so sure about that.

    (Private correspondence removed. - BMR)
    Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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    darkness2k#0753 darkness2k Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    krisxr400 wrote: »
    I thought it was fun, gotta work as a team, i can see if your on a team of players that just sprint everywhere and and can't follow directions it could be frustrating, but still doable. I liked the setting and the objectives, felt kinda fresh.

    Yes, and completely against all gameplay seen thus far for random/PUG TFO's. It shouldn't be that punishing in "standard difficulty". I was just hoping for an alternative to running yet more Iupter Irratus runs.
    When you have done it so many times for various events, it becomes a chore - so I go for the quickest route possible.

    I know now, Bird Cage is not the quickest route.
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    darkness2k#0753 darkness2k Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    It took my group a long time for the boss fight playing the first day, and yes they are much tougher than story episode bosses. Other than that it seemed OK to me.

    What worked for me against the bosses (with respawns) was physical melee attacks (Klingon recruit with the batleth) since they bypass the shields to damage health.

    Indeed, and if I had brought a character with such equipment it would have been easier I'm sure! Unfortunately, I did not.
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    davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,527 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    TR-116B and Leck's Throwing Knives also have 100% shield pen. This seems to be a TFO that you need to gear for to make it easier.
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    rattler2rattler2 Member, Star Trek Online Moderator Posts: 58,052 Community Moderator
    @darkness2k#0753
    Might want to edit out that blurb from a GM as that may fall under "posting private correspondence", which is against forum rules.
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    I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something CRAZY happens again?!
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    darkness2k#0753 darkness2k Member Posts: 9 Arc User
    ...and I wonder why I bother posting anything on public forums.
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    protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 3,005 Arc User
    krisxr400 wrote: »
    gotta work as a team

    Yes, this. What can be accomplished as a team is often amazing. I can certainly understand how things could get frustrating in it's absence though.
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    baddmoonrizinbaddmoonrizin Member Posts: 10,351 Community Moderator
    ...and I wonder why I bother posting anything on public forums.

    I wonder. Is there a problem with following established community rules? I'm sorry, but posting private correspondence is not allowed. Sorry.
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    vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,857 Arc User
    I pugged it no problems with the run. will I run it again? probably not. I run the new patrol then run the omega chase to keep from getting too bored with the grind
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    felderburgfelderburg Member Posts: 853 Arc User
    I ran the TFO for the first time yesterday, via the event window. We ran through those 2 so fast that their dialog was still playing over the final 'mission complete' dialog. It's possible the other people on my team already knew what to do, but I didn't really get the impression that anything in the TFO was overly powerful. We ran through it just as quickly as most ground combat TFOs I've been in, given the extreme amount of pets and universal consoles that are generally present.
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    questeriusquesterius Member Posts: 8,333 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    Did that TFO 4 times now including on new 65 characters and encountered no problems.
    I either radiate them, freeze them, mine them or drop kick them.
    Weapons i used so far: zeph shotgun, Tommy Gun, agony phaser rifle, CRM2000, dual plasma melee.

    Maybe i got lucky with competent teams, but till now i have not found them challenging,
    There are a few points in the TFO where players who do not pay attention can struggle, but in my opinion the last mini bosses are not one of them,

    Try some of the items above to see if they lessen the burden,

    Edit: forgot one weapon mention: Kentari Partisan Residuum Thrower
    It is a delayed action weapon which bypasses shields (and the Borg do not adapt to it either).
    One more option to try.
    Post edited by questerius on
    This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
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    davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,527 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    Day one everyone on the team had their normal loadout and for most other ground combat DPS is more important than bypassing shields. By day 6 we all know to bring gear to get around shields.

    I'm OK with that, but OP had some basis for the salt.
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    spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,271 Arc User
    edited January 2023
    questerius wrote: »
    Did that TFO 4 times now including on new 65 characters and encountered no problems.
    I either radiate them, freeze them, mine them or drop kick them.
    Weapons i used so far: zeph shotgun, Tommy Gun, agony phaser rifle, CRM2000, dual plasma melee.

    Maybe i got lucky with competent teams, but till now i have not found them challenging,
    There are a few points in the TFO where players who do not pay attention can struggle, but in my opinion the last mini bosses are not one of them,

    Try some of the items above to see if they lessen the burden,

    Edit: forgot one weapon mention: Kentari Partisan Residuum Thrower
    It is a delayed action weapon which bypasses shields (and the Borg do not adapt to it either).
    One more option to try.

    I'm pretty sure you can knock them down, so any weapon with a knockback should do, also moving and not trying to tank hits in melee, neither of them have any ranged attacks so they're melee only threat.

    EDIT:
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    This is what I've ran the TFO with and it's been more then enough, so you don't need any super expensive c-store/lockbox items to do, IIRC only "paid" item I got there is the weapon and even that I got thru getting the Lobi thru and event.
    (EDIT2: added my boffs and fixed so it shows my ground personal traits and not my space ones).
    Post edited by spiritborn on
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    smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,665 Arc User
    Work as a team....it's NOT all about pew-pews, folks. DPS is not everything. :)
    dvZq2Aj.jpg
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    spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,271 Arc User
    Work as a team....it's NOT all about pew-pews, folks. DPS is not everything. :)
    Yeah having people keep those 2 slowed and/or on their behind will remove a lot of the difficulty from the fight as they're really slow when not jumping and as I said before melee only threats so if you keep at range they can't hit you and thus can't hurt you.

    Just trying to out DPS those 2 especially via melee weapons is just a disaster waiting to happen and it's not this kind of mobs are new either they're based on the Captain level Vaadwaur mobs.
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    protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 3,005 Arc User
    m40wmafn1tz0.jpg

    Here's a few more ideas for running Bird Cage as an engineer (although some of the modules are universal). Lots of drag, pull, and chained attacks. Highly mobile and lot's of fun. Kit modules from left to right..
    • Chain Conduit Capacitor - short cooldown and chains to multiple targets. Exchange item.
    • Anchor of Gre'thor - Drags multiple targets together. Winter event store item.
    • Sabotage - used versus enemy turrets and drones plus weapons offline to enemies. Exchange item.
    • Ambush Turret Fabrication - considerable extra pewpew on demand. Exchange item.
    • Gravity Containment Unit - pull and knock down. Discovery reputation.
    • Seeker Drone - crafted. A bit of a mobile fill in. Have also tried Mine Barrier, Echo Papa drone, Liberated Terran Exocomps, Explosive Drone, Gravitational Juncture, Agony Field Generator.
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    swamarianswamarian Member Posts: 1,506 Arc User
    I've done it twice, including just now, with unoptimized characters. In both cases, the final fight was hard, but not brutal. I doubt that it took more than 5 minutes. It's possible that the other characters were optimized, and compensated for me.
    On the other hand, the last 2 times I did Iuppiter Iratus, I had to struggle holding down 2 of the satellites, while the other 4 players were swamped on the 3rd one. (Why do 2? If you sit on one, the rifts open on the other 2, and never get closed with these yahoos.) That took noticeably longer than normal.
    In summary, YMMV.
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    crypticarmsmancrypticarmsman Member Posts: 4,113 Arc User
    The only tim Birdcage is impossible to complete is when it bugs out and leaves Forcefields still blocking Consoles after you destry the consoles that are supposed to drop said Forcefields. (Happened twice out of 5 runs so far.)
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    evilbsg62evilbsg62 Member Posts: 172 Arc User
    i have video evidence of this bug.. wait 1
    Section 31Lane/Jeffjr/Varek @jeffjr USS Stadi/USS Grendel/USS AshigaruDreadnought Class Refit / Avenger Class Refit/Rhode Island Class Refit"With your shield or on it"/"Mors venit ad omnes."/"One with courage is a majority"https://www.youtube.com/@jeffjr84
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    evilbsg62evilbsg62 Member Posts: 172 Arc User
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i70qLkBq07U&amp;t=887s
    The first run bugged out, the flag trigger wouldn't roll over because we vaped the consoles so hard.. not sure what happened.. maybe a lag spike.. might wanna do some software redundancy or something..
    Section 31Lane/Jeffjr/Varek @jeffjr USS Stadi/USS Grendel/USS AshigaruDreadnought Class Refit / Avenger Class Refit/Rhode Island Class Refit"With your shield or on it"/"Mors venit ad omnes."/"One with courage is a majority"https://www.youtube.com/@jeffjr84
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    cxeronockxcxeronockx Member Posts: 155 Arc User
    evilbsg62 wrote: »
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i70qLkBq07U&amp;t=887s
    The first run bugged out, the flag trigger wouldn't roll over because we vaped the consoles so hard.. not sure what happened.. maybe a lag spike.. might wanna do some software redundancy or something..

    typical speedrunning, normal that something goes wrong and that says there is a bug. I myself have never encountered anything wrong, but when I do the tfo and there is a player who does speedrunning, something goes wrong and it is the fault of the others or a bug. The tfo isn't about speed it's about teamwork, what I usually miss in this tfo, a common phenomenon here is that most of them just look ahead and are unaware of what's going on behind them so they're surprised by waves of attackers and if there is a player who provides support, he is left to his own devices and often accused in the chat of not cooperating with the team. So no, the tfo is not bugd, but sometimes one goes too fast or .... one is actually too weak and in the wrong place.
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    jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,371 Arc User
    krisxr400 wrote: »
    I thought it was fun, gotta work as a team, i can see if your on a team of players that just sprint everywhere and and can't follow directions it could be frustrating, but still doable. I liked the setting and the objectives, felt kinda fresh.

    Yes, and completely against all gameplay seen thus far for random/PUG TFO's.
    And this is why the devs can't win. One of the most common complaints about TFOs and new episodes is that it's all the same thing all the time. So, here we're presented with a TFO where the players have to actually cooperate to complete it - and now the complaint is that it's not the same thing as before. <rolleyes>
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    protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 3,005 Arc User
    jonsills wrote: »
    krisxr400 wrote: »
    I thought it was fun, gotta work as a team, i can see if your on a team of players that just sprint everywhere and and can't follow directions it could be frustrating, but still doable. I liked the setting and the objectives, felt kinda fresh.

    Yes, and completely against all gameplay seen thus far for random/PUG TFO's.
    And this is why the devs can't win. One of the most common complaints about TFOs and new episodes is that it's all the same thing all the time. So, here we're presented with a TFO where the players have to actually cooperate to complete it - and now the complaint is that it's not the same thing as before. <rolleyes>

    In this instance they've provided multiple ways to get event credit that include space, ground, cooperative, solo, and non-combat. Players just have to choose what works best for them.
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    spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,271 Arc User
    I did run into a situation that might in certain cases make that fight impossible complete, I had one of the mobs get locked behind a closed door and thus be untargetable though the door did open again so I'm not sure if it's possible to have 1 or both of them get locked in state they can't be targeted.

    Also does anyone know how the game determines who "becomes" the inquisitor for this TFO (as it's not unique to all players as far I can tell as I've had cases where the inquisitor was not "me" but another player's version instead)
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    annemarie30annemarie30 Member Posts: 2,608 Arc User
    I've been doing the ground patrol. really easy and fast especially if you have some aoe kits. sounds like this tfo might be fun for my Ice Queen
    We Want Vic Fontaine
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    legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan Member Posts: 37,281 Arc User
    edited February 2023
    spiritborn wrote: »
    I did run into a situation that might in certain cases make that fight impossible complete, I had one of the mobs get locked behind a closed door and thus be untargetable though the door did open again so I'm not sure if it's possible to have 1 or both of them get locked in state they can't be targeted.

    Also does anyone know how the game determines who "becomes" the inquisitor for this TFO (as it's not unique to all players as far I can tell as I've had cases where the inquisitor was not "me" but another player's version instead)

    Probably whoever the game picked as team leader.

    No, I don't know how the game does that - either first to load in or 1D5 roll being the likely options.​​
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    echattyechatty Member Posts: 5,914 Arc User
    I've been doing the space patrol over the accounts. it's quite fun and I don't need to lower my graphics to do it like I do with the Omega game.

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