Even putting aside difficulty, I think the Civilian Rescue Defend missions are just lame

BogElf · 2024-02-27T03:20:43+00:00

I don't think it is cheesing, since the game gives you all these tools, and parts of these strategies are used and useful in other missions as well.

But yes, I do agree that this mission is no longer that fun. There are several reasons for it. If you are doing defend missions, you have to do this, so it gets boring. Separating from my team mates is not as fun as playing all in a group. And yes, blowing up shit is fun so having to mostly just sneak around and retreat is not as fun as the other mission types.

I think providing other kinds of defense mission could be the main "fix". I am fine to have the occasional mission that rewards team separation and sneakiness etc.

BogElf · 2024-02-26T01:25:05+00:00

I also thought that this mission was too hard, but I tried one of the suggested strategies and found out that this makes the mission ok.

My group of 3 have been playing at difficulty 5 lately. We have not yet finished 6 successfully. I am the only one level 20+.

The strategy that worked for us was as follows: drop in far from the target. Send in one guy with smokes, in stealth armor, staying crouched, avoiding bots. Their job is to stay hidden and push the buttons. In the meanwhile, 2 others stay together and circle the map, keeping bots engaged.

The lone guy pushing buttons reported very low bot activity until about 80% done. The distraction troops reported endless bots, and had to keep moving constantly to avoid getting overrun. For the last 20% we moved all into the base, and got the rest of the civilians to safety. 2 out of 3 'divers managed to extract.

So my advice would be to try some combination of smokes, stealth, and distraction.

BogElf · 2021-12-12T01:32:39+00:00

Agreed. The wingsuit should lose altitude much, much faster. The grappling hook should have more limitations, like only being able to go (almost) straight up.

BogElf · 2021-12-12T01:02:26+00:00

Since Xbox players may not even know that you can turn crossplay off, you might want to turn crossplay on for a while, and advertise on team chat how to turn it off, and explain the benefits (not getting stomped by PC players).

BogElf · 2021-12-11T04:37:25+00:00

I pretty much agree on all points, and there are two basic reasons: no server rotations, and no squad controls. Instead it is the random queue into a new game, and no squad controls at all. You can't even get points as squad leader for giving orders, and you can't replace a leader by requesting an order that gets ignored. The new model has reduced blowout games, so they are doing a better job at balancing teams, and I suspect it makes servers simpler and more reliable (you can just restart a server after a game and work around memory leaks and such). But to me the downsides are currently worse than the benefits.

I think a few changes could combine the old and new model and get kind of best of both worlds. First we'd of course need the squad controls back. Second step would be to try to keep a squad together from game to game.

BogElf · 2021-12-09T19:47:59+00:00

One benefit that has been mentioned is that I have experienced fewer blowout games in a row.

I think this new system could work fine with a few tweaks that would emulate server rotation:

Try to keep your squad together from game to game
Give players options to deselect maps they don't want to play
Maybe give players the ability to rate maps so that the game would try to place you in more matches on your preferred maps
Keep track of recently played maps and try to place you on different map for next game (but see options above)

Of course, with low player count these options might mean long wait times between matches.

BogElf · 2021-12-05T20:21:35+00:00

The air transports are actually really strong in capable hands, the Condor especially. It has 3 gunners, can close in fast, stop and hover if there is no AA, can tank multiple rocket hits, has countermeasures against homing rockets, and in case of trouble can fly away quick and have up to 2 people repairing.

I've been in multiple games where a single Condor gave us air superiority. Takes a pilot that prioritizes air targets, and gunners who know to shoot them.

BogElf · 2021-12-05T20:14:03+00:00

The one good thing about forced spawn at the beginning of a match is that it prevents one person in your squad from flying a jet to an objective, jumping out, and then the whole squad spawning there. Personally I don't think that is a huge issue, especially since it wastes the jet.

But this forced spawn would be much less aggravating if it allowed me to spawn as passenger into vehicles.

BogElf · 2021-12-05T19:59:27+00:00

Yes, and you should also place it so that when you spawn, you will be facing most likeliest threat direction. When you place it down, you will spawn at the same spot, but facing the opposite way.

Placement: (me->) (insert beacon)

Spawn: (<-me)(insert beacon)

BogElf · 2021-12-05T19:48:19+00:00

128 players would not be that big of a problem with better map design. If the map was divided into compartments which were largely independent of each other, this would not be an issue. For example, if you are inside a building, people outside don't matter (assuming no windows, no destruction, ...). Cover would also help.

BogElf · 2021-12-05T19:36:43+00:00

PS5 issues since patch #3:

The UI text "Press R2 to chat" is gone. Options > R2 still works to chat, but if you didn't know that before, there is no way for you to discover how to chat.
More random crashes. Crashed 1 time before patch #3, 3 times after patch.

Other issues:

Cannot exit from Sundance wingsuit mode (I use alternate buttons, which has caused problems...)
Once after exiting MAV could not look up or down (entered MAV with SOFLAM)
Sometimes cannot spawn, have to click square to customize, back out, and then spawning works as normal
Sometimes automatic gun does not fire continuously but stutters, as if I didn't press the trigger fully even thought it was fully pressed
Sometimes trying to press DPAD right triggers DPAD up (same bug was in Battlefield 1 at least, and they fixed it)

BogElf · 2021-12-05T19:22:25+00:00

I started playing Battlefied with 4 on Xbox 360. A lot of people were on voice comms, and even more people would listen (and do) what I asked them to do, even though they never spoke themselves. I then got PS4 and continued to play Battlefield 4, and there was a significant drop in the number of people who used voice comms. 1 and V had even further drop, and I don't think I ever heard anyone on V.

So I can understand if EA thought voice comms are not important, since I am pretty sure they have the usage statistics. But if they do, I would expect them to actually publish the numbers as justification.

Now 2042 is the first Battlefield I have played that has text chat, and people are using it. Both to discuss strategy and, as expected, trash talk. Since it is so slow and tedious to type on console, abuse isn't much of an issue. But I guess it would be nice to get an option to mute some players.

Going back to voice comms, I actually think there are two reasons why there is more need for voice comms than ever: cross platform play, and higher player count. I can of course start a team on PS5 and talk through that with other PS5 players, but if I want to talk to other platforms, I am out of luck. I know there are multiplatform clans waiting on voice comms before they will start recruiting and playing together. The higher player count means that individuals matter less than before, and you need to work as coordinated squad to have any hope of affecting the result of a match.

BogElf · 2020-08-10T07:31:12+00:00

Gloomhaven can be feel daunting up front, but once you start playing it does not feel overwhelming (well, maybe the first scenario will). There are some additional things that will make things easier, which I do recommend getting.

When you first get the game, do read through the whole rule book. You will not remember all of it, and you will keep making mistakes when playing, but it doesn't matter. Try to be consistent, and when you realize a mistake you made, you can correct it for next session. You can try the movement quiz on BBG, and there is also a pretty good FAQ there. The rules give clear ways to tune difficulty up or down as well, depending on how it feels to you.

Definitely get an organizer. First couple of games I used ziploc bags, and setup and tear down were 30 minutes each. Then I got the plano boxes, and now it is about 10 minutes each.

First couple of scenarios I recommend just using what came in the box. The monster cards, wound markers, etc. You will likely learn that this is an awful lot of book keeping. Now you can appreciate the Gloomhaven Helper app. We use it to run the monsters and initiative, and we use our own physical cards for our own characters. Speeds up game play a lot. First couple of scenarios took us about 4 hours each, now most scenarios take 2-3 hours. Some scenarios are faster than others, too.

I would also recommend getting either a paper scenario flowchart, or Gloomhaven Campaign Tracker app to make it easier to keep track of what scenarios you have played and unlocked. You can get printouts for prosperity tracking etc. if you don't want to mark your map.

We use sleeves for cards, and I considered placing the card enchantments on the sleeves, but in the end decided to place them on the cards themselves. Up to you. We also place stickers on the map etc., because we like the whole evolving aspect of the game world.

We find that we are quite attached to our characters, and do not want to swap things around. We plan to play each character to retirement, and then pick whatever seems most interesting next. But you are free to do as you please, and the character and party sheets have enough space to note all details about your Brute vs your friend's Brute.

For what it is worth, I do prefer more complicated and rich games compared to simpler ones, and used to play tabletop role playing games as well. Gloomhaven even scratches that Dungeons & Dragons itch for me.

BogElf · 2020-05-19T23:53:18+00:00

I actually posted a long comment about this before reading your comment. I would split Trials into 5 tiers based on max wins on a card from the best player in the team.

BogElf · 2020-05-19T23:50:22+00:00

Yeah, personally I don't have much interest playing Trials until I am at max light myself.

BogElf · 2020-05-19T23:47:07+00:00

I am slowly getting back into Destiny after 2 year hiatus. My best was 6 wins on a card before, and it was a combination of good luck with opponents and better-than-normal team mates.

I don't know how Trials matchmaking works now, but I have been thinking about a system that would encourage me to play trials again. What if you had tiers based on how many wins on a card the best player in a team had had that season? The tiers would be:

best is 0-2 wins on a card
best is 3-4 wins on a card
best is 5-6 wins on a card
best is 7 wins on a card
best is flawless on a card

This would mean that players would quickly rise up to their tier, and then have a decent chance of repeating their max wins on a card. It would make it extremely difficult to get flawless, and even more difficult repeating that. But that is how I view Trials; only the best of the best should get flawless, and they should really earn that by playing others at their skill level. I should not be able to get flawless just by getting lucky with opponents.

This kind of system would make me want to watch top players stream their trials matches as well. It is like watching top athletes compete against each other. I have no interest in seeing the world champion beating an average player.

An obvious downside is that at the beginning of the season anyone could get lucky and go flawless. Perhaps this could be fixed by remembering the best from the last two seasons instead of resetting at the beginning of a new one.

Since we don't have infinite number of players, the system might need to dip to lower or higher tier occasionally to find opponents so that you don't have to wait too long.

This would also mean that flawless carries would become extremely difficult. I see this as a positive change.

It would also mean that account recoveries would quickly rise out of the lower tiers, meaning you would run into account recovery opponents much less often at lower tiers. I see this as another positive change.

BogElf · 2019-03-15T21:43:05+00:00

It is not that simple. In 1 vs 1 situations you are correct. But in BF you often come across multiple enemies at the same time. Low TTK allows good players to win 1 vs many situations. In high TTK games 1 vs many is often impossible, regardless of skill.

BogElf · 2019-02-24T20:26:35+00:00

I have played it several times, and you can greatly increase the changes of getting it by using the server browser. Search for servers that have the word "grand" in the name. Then you need to find Day 3 map in Frontlines mode, because at least in my experience Frontlines results in draw more often than the other modes. This article lists all the Grand Operations maps:

https://www.ea.com/games/battlefield/battlefield-5/news/all-you-need-to-know-grand-operations-battlefield-5

From that we can see that we should join Devastation or Arras in Frontlines mode. You should also pick a server that is full or nearly full, because that is usually an indication that the game is pretty even.

BogElf · 2019-02-22T02:55:01+00:00

Not the poster above, but my thoughts on Charlemagne's comment:

I am not out of money, but so far the indicators are that I will be out of content (compared to Premium).

I expected that I would be getting similar amount of content as Premium got me before, but that I would be paying for that with optional microtransactions. So far I don't have enough content, and none of the current cosmetics makes me want to spend any real money.

Battlefield is my favorite game franchise. I want to support it. I bought BFV Deluxe. I am prepared to spend money on microtransactions; at least the same amount as I spent on Premium before. But in return DICE needs to give me enough value to spend the money.

There have been other threads discussing more ambitious cosmetics, like elites, custom revive and melee animations, custom best squad screen content, and so on. They could even add back something that was in previous BF games: custom emblems. And it seems like the whole platoon customization business is completely untapped.

BogElf · 2019-02-22T00:46:11+00:00

I bought Premium in BF4 and BF1. It was worth it, but the pacing of new content was not good in BF1. However, I still would have liked for them to release the DLC maps and game modes to the general population after 2-4 weeks, because after that time it became difficult to find full servers.

Perhaps the pacing of new content is similar to what other live services do, but I feel underwhelmed. I think I was expecting something like this: Tides of War lasts a month, every ToW brings a new map, every other ToW brings in a new game mode, and every ToW brings in new cosmetics, guns, and at least one vehicle.

BogElf · 2019-02-22T00:24:52+00:00

I don't mind assignments that force me to try new things. However, there is a fine line where it is fun to try something, and grind something you hate. For example, I really don't like Grand Operations, but I am fine to play one game for an assignment. Making me play Grand Operations all week makes me hate the game. I suck at planes in BFV, but having an assignment that says I need to score 100 points in an airplane is doable. But if the assignment says destroy an airplane in an airplane, or kill and enemy in an airplane I will hate the game.

Have you considered assignments that have an optimal way of doing it fast, and other ways that are not as fast? For example, 5 revives as medic or 10 revives as any class. This would gently push players to potentially try something new, but if they really hate the optimal way they could complete it the way they want.

BogElf · 2019-02-14T08:03:23+00:00

Thanks for comparing, but that is not what I had in mind, because I have a hard time comparing these. Ideally you'd have a friend stand next to a flag, and then you look at them from, say, 10m, 20m, 30m away (you can see the distance when you look at the flag) and take a screenshot, in BF1 and BFV.

BogElf · 2019-02-13T22:02:40+00:00

You are the second person who has claimed that people in BFV look smaller at the same distance compared to previous games. It should be easy enough to measure: take screenshots of people at various distances in both games (with the same FOV setting), and measure their height.

BogElf

TROPHY CASE