Disclaimer: This post is not breaking any NDA (I think). Everything written below occurred during the open testing when the Beta server was open to all active accounts. On the whole not really much effort, just pop in to see what's going on, and provide some data for data-mining (or invisible spying devs). There will be another testing from the 23rd-28th March. I am not sure I will test this time around.
Logged on, saw the horrible new team UI. Well -- maybe it's not horrible, but just takes some getting used to. Still, fiddled with its size while queuing up for the Lambda Sector trial.
First try. Felt entirely clueless and staring at all the other people in the trial. Sent out a few sentences on the league channel, but nobody answered. I started wondering if people didn't have the league channel on their tab, which turned out not to be the case because after a while some people made some comments.
But on the whole, nobody talked, everyone went to do their own thing as if everyone knew what was going on or they didn't care what was going on. Your typical "I am IO-ed out and I am going to solo this" kind of attitude you get in TFs these days. For the first part that worked since it was "clear N mobs".
Then things quickly fell apart. Finally, some instructions got through. Clear mobs in the yard, clear turrets, kill Warwalker, split team into two to grab two sets of glowies. This splitting part was a complete mess, but it was shortly over due to the all-too-short timer. Then Marauder appeared, and all descended into utter chaos. I didn't know what to do, nobody said anything, a bunch of people quit, and finally someone pointed out we couldn't finish on 5 people, and the last of us agreed to quit.
* * *
Queued for a few times, zoning in and out of the Lambda Sector but never getting a proper team to even start.
* * *
Finally, hit into a map with 8 people. This time, everyone was talking from the start. One of them told everyone on local and broadcast to put "League" on their tab, going through how to do it. An de-facto leader was nominated -- the only one who knew what was going on. And he described what we had to do. Kill mobs -- in the middle of that, the tank quit.
Oh...I recognized that tank from his forum name. Tsk.
Nevertheless the 7 people left continued. Kill mobs around courtyard. Being a dominator with a ridiculous amount of ACC from the nerve alpha slot was useful. Ha, don't ever let them tell you Nerve alpha is useless. Anyway, got a work-out trying to control everything together with the controllers. Clear towers, killed Warwalker.
The split the team into two parts to grab two sets of blinkies was utter failure again. People just got confused where to go, and the mobs were too tough for 3 or 4 players. It was a die-fest, but the counter went down and we regrouped. Miraculously, there was no rage-quit.
At this point we knew it wasn't going to work. We didn't have enough pacification grenades (2 total) for Marauder, or molecular acids to seal up the doors of the courtyard before the adds to Marauder became overwhelming. But somehow everyone still continued with the spirit of "might was well learn something".
First few spawns, no idea what was going on, dying left and right.
Then somehow, we got it. When we got the message for new supplies, rush in, the scrapper and blasters would hit the containment chamber and supply crate as much as possible while everyone else tried to control the spawn around the objective. Once that went down, flee off. The mobs would chase a bit, then forget us and despawn when the "supplies withdrawn" message appeared.
Then the counter ended. Lots of good feelings all around and optimism.
"That was fun"
"Learnt a lot"
"Got the hang of it"
"Thanks for sticking out"
* * *
And so. Two failures, but one was an "ugh" and the other was a "yay".
What's the difference?
Me fight the World, vs Teamwork
Silent cowboy, vs communication
I wonder if the second team was CoX in the past, and the first team is CoX in the future.
But as long as people like in the second team are playing and testing, why worry that they will change into people like in the first team?
1 comment:
Honestly, my worry is more that the people in the second team will dominate to the point that they shut out the people in the first team in a clique-y group that ultimately benefits no one.
Because all the people in the first team will end up quitting the game. Or just that portion of the game, leaving it a minigame with no real meaning. But I think the latter more unlikely, because the whole sense of self-worth and loot and prestige is tied up in the incarnate shards.
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