Post by ryvaken on Jul 28, 2014 10:00:41 GMT -8
The Dyson run in the Surge was the most fun I've had in months, no lie. But I saw some behaviors in large group that didn't work quite the same way soloing.
Fairly early in the Dyson battlezone I saw about half the group go north to a new node on my map while the other half was drifting east. I took it on myself to corral them. After the next node I waited and no one seemed willing to make a decision on where to go, so I did. And I kept that up.
I apologize for overstepping my bounds in that matter and for any offense I offered by doing so.
For future events I suggest a single person be designated tactical control to issue such orders and keep the group together. Ideally this person should be familiar with the lay of the land and be good at multitasking. Designating this person early means less hesitation, less indecision.
In my own execution of that role, I held to a few simple procedures.
1) Don't micromanage. Pick a destination, announce it, trust everyone to take care of themselves.
2) Be very clear in the critical details. Short, concise, and VISUALLY DISTINCT.
3) Do not change your mind after issuing a direction. Two or three times I saw a better option than the one I chose, but the confusion of "no, wait, forget that" was undesirable. The only times I did such a thing were when a node was captured before we got there.
4) Give advice, not orders. Related to that, help novices to the zone's specific rules.
Now for general tactics and observations.
Team up AFTER beaming into the battlezone. Every player in the Dyson Battlezone is entitled to two boffs, forming a three-man squad. If the player teams with others, he can see his boffs, the other players, but not the other player's boffs. When beaming down to the zone, this creates a glitch. The computer will only give you boffs until you have a 5-man team, and it will bypass the away team selection window. In other words, I beamed down while teamed with three other players and I only got one boff, who was my default first boff. I left the team, beamed up, and beamed back down. That reset my squad and I rejoined the team, maintaining both of my selected boffs.
Do not trust the team's boffs. All bridge officers can and will benefit from team-wide effects regardless of origin, but the AI seems to only take into account the 3-man squad when making decisions. If your friend has a medical boff, don't expect healing.
Reviving doesn't care about teams. Inevitably characters will go down. You can revive them. Player, boff, teammate, stranger, doesn't matter. Your boffs will revive other characters when combat ends.
Watch your boffs. Pathing is terrible around some obstacles and they get stuck easy. They're easy to unstick if you're 10 meters away. A lot harder if you don't notice until they're 300 meters away.
The mission to kill voth returns dilithium based on how many kills you get in five minutes. That timer starts the first time you participate in taking down a voth (not a machine) and it tracks how many voth die in the node you're at. It doesn't matter if you kill them, your teammates kill them, or strangers kill them. The voth just need to die. Remember that voth spawns are larger and faster with more people, so always run for the crowd with this mission.
Collecting 20 command credits is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a solo mission, your boffs can't help, neither can teammates.
Requesting reinforcements is completely different. Everyone in the team benefits towards mission completion when someone calls reinforcements. A 20 command credit purchase counts for 1/6th. A 40 credit purchase counts for 5/6ths. Anything higher just finishes the mission outright. In a large group, spread out the credits enough for everyone to make 20 credit purchases and don't gather credits if you don't need them.
When fighting the V-Rex, planting a turret at the medics locks down the Omega silo easy. If that's not an option, any one player can handle that part of the job. All science characters need to put their debuffs on the V-Rex. Beyond that, keep an eye on the ground and revive the fallen. The boffs die real easy here.
Remember that participating in a V-Rex fight just gives you 480 dilithium and some marks. The jackpot is being in an instance where all three silos are secured. When you've trounced the V-Rex, prioritize the weakest silo and accept that you won't hit all three unless you're lucky.
Fairly early in the Dyson battlezone I saw about half the group go north to a new node on my map while the other half was drifting east. I took it on myself to corral them. After the next node I waited and no one seemed willing to make a decision on where to go, so I did. And I kept that up.
I apologize for overstepping my bounds in that matter and for any offense I offered by doing so.
For future events I suggest a single person be designated tactical control to issue such orders and keep the group together. Ideally this person should be familiar with the lay of the land and be good at multitasking. Designating this person early means less hesitation, less indecision.
In my own execution of that role, I held to a few simple procedures.
1) Don't micromanage. Pick a destination, announce it, trust everyone to take care of themselves.
2) Be very clear in the critical details. Short, concise, and VISUALLY DISTINCT.
3) Do not change your mind after issuing a direction. Two or three times I saw a better option than the one I chose, but the confusion of "no, wait, forget that" was undesirable. The only times I did such a thing were when a node was captured before we got there.
4) Give advice, not orders. Related to that, help novices to the zone's specific rules.
Now for general tactics and observations.
Team up AFTER beaming into the battlezone. Every player in the Dyson Battlezone is entitled to two boffs, forming a three-man squad. If the player teams with others, he can see his boffs, the other players, but not the other player's boffs. When beaming down to the zone, this creates a glitch. The computer will only give you boffs until you have a 5-man team, and it will bypass the away team selection window. In other words, I beamed down while teamed with three other players and I only got one boff, who was my default first boff. I left the team, beamed up, and beamed back down. That reset my squad and I rejoined the team, maintaining both of my selected boffs.
Do not trust the team's boffs. All bridge officers can and will benefit from team-wide effects regardless of origin, but the AI seems to only take into account the 3-man squad when making decisions. If your friend has a medical boff, don't expect healing.
Reviving doesn't care about teams. Inevitably characters will go down. You can revive them. Player, boff, teammate, stranger, doesn't matter. Your boffs will revive other characters when combat ends.
Watch your boffs. Pathing is terrible around some obstacles and they get stuck easy. They're easy to unstick if you're 10 meters away. A lot harder if you don't notice until they're 300 meters away.
The mission to kill voth returns dilithium based on how many kills you get in five minutes. That timer starts the first time you participate in taking down a voth (not a machine) and it tracks how many voth die in the node you're at. It doesn't matter if you kill them, your teammates kill them, or strangers kill them. The voth just need to die. Remember that voth spawns are larger and faster with more people, so always run for the crowd with this mission.
Collecting 20 command credits is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a solo mission, your boffs can't help, neither can teammates.
Requesting reinforcements is completely different. Everyone in the team benefits towards mission completion when someone calls reinforcements. A 20 command credit purchase counts for 1/6th. A 40 credit purchase counts for 5/6ths. Anything higher just finishes the mission outright. In a large group, spread out the credits enough for everyone to make 20 credit purchases and don't gather credits if you don't need them.
When fighting the V-Rex, planting a turret at the medics locks down the Omega silo easy. If that's not an option, any one player can handle that part of the job. All science characters need to put their debuffs on the V-Rex. Beyond that, keep an eye on the ground and revive the fallen. The boffs die real easy here.
Remember that participating in a V-Rex fight just gives you 480 dilithium and some marks. The jackpot is being in an instance where all three silos are secured. When you've trounced the V-Rex, prioritize the weakest silo and accept that you won't hit all three unless you're lucky.
