Ah Colicoid, the pug destroyer.

[Saseav]

As a healer, my experience with PUGs is all over the place. I like joining them as they are constantly asking for "healz" in chat, so I offer to go. Usually, it goes ok, but there have been more times that I'm comfortable with that I get blamed for the group wiping. I got kicked from a group running Insufficient Staff on Alderaan a few days ago after our second wipe. I asked the tank group leader what was up and he replied, "sorry dude, you suck." LOL I reminded him that I couldn't heal him or the group when I had to constantly heal myself or was dead (which is what I spent a majority of my time doing). He never answered. I HATE that crap as a healing class, but what are you gonna do? *shrugs*

 

that's what pisses me off I'm not a healer but when running a flashpoint the tank blamed the healer when... surprise the tank wasn't great(he did ok[holding aggro wise], but kept rushing ahead when some weren't ready and expected the healer to heal him out of combat...)

also i wasn't really in a pug when i ran Cwg, but we wiped a few times before figuring it out we initially had the healer in the middle healing us but won when we had all turrets manned.

[KlintusFang]

i'm surprised at the people who say use the right mouse button to turn. that is the first thing I did, and I can assure you that as soon as i pressed the right mouse button the turret immediately dismounted me every time. the only keys I was allowed to press were A and D. Any other sequence of keys or buttons immediately dismounted me.

 

If that aspect of the mini game is working differently for different people it must be bugged too.

 

 

In any case, as I said. I'm not saying its hard. Its easy, once you know the rules of the mini-game. My point is that the only challenge of that opening fight at all is to figure out the rules of the mini game. I don't find that fun. Tell me the rules, and I'll use them to defeat challenges in game. Changing the rules of the game on me without telling me and then making the challenge be that I now have to figure out the new UI rules... no thanks.

[Saseav]

i'm surprised at the people who say use the right mouse button to turn. that is the first thing I did, and I can assure you that as soon as i pressed the right mouse button the turret immediately dismounted me every time. the only keys I was allowed to press were A and D. Any other sequence of keys or buttons immediately dismounted me.

 

If that aspect of the mini game is working differently for different people it must be bugged too.

 

 

In any case, as I said. I'm not saying its hard. Its easy, once you know the rules of the mini-game. My point is that the only challenge of that opening fight at all is to figure out the rules of the mini game. I don't find that fun. Tell me the rules, and I'll use them to defeat challenges in game. Changing the rules of the game on me without telling me and then making the challenge be that I now have to figure out the new UI rules... no thanks.

 

worked fine for me, it may be partially bugged then?

[Hessen]

I don't find that fun. Tell me the rules, and I'll use them to defeat challenges in game. Changing the rules of the game on me without telling me and then making the challenge be that I now have to figure out the new UI rules... no thanks.

 

What about boss fights with a mechanic, do you want them told to everyone too before they attempt it?

 

God forbid should you have to use your noodle.

[KlintusFang]

worked fine for me, it may be partially bugged then?

 

there is no such thing as a "partial" bug.

[Duradel]

I think I noticed the gigantic flaw in your battle plan. I noticed that you said you were the last to die early on. Later, you mention that you're the tank.

 

The reason your group is failing is because you're failing as a tank. If your healer is getting killed before you, it's your fault. If the DPS aren't killing in the correct order, it's your fault. If classes aren't CCing the right targets, it's your fault. You're supposed to be the one marking targets and explaining what they mean. It's a PUG, it's assumed that MAYBE one other person has run it before. You're the one that is supposed to, above all, keep the healer from dying because it means death for all of you if they do.

 

If you're the last one dying and you're the tank, it isn't because you're some legendary tank of the gods, it's because you're absolute **** that can't hold threat.

 

Award for greatest lack of reading comprehension i've seen on the forums goes to this guy.

 

Other than that, it's really not hard to get a pug to go through this. Just tell them to not touch ANYTHING but the left and right arrow key, and they'll hopefully figure it out from there. If someone is still dismounting/remounting over and over, kick him and use a companion. because someone that stupid will probably be about as useful as one.

[Lymain]

Honestly, the turrets in this game suck. Doable? Of course, once you figure out that you don't fire them yourself, but that's annoying in itself, since attempting to fire them will often dismount you. Even after you know what you're doing, it feels unintuitive and clunky. They should have just copied mounted weapons from first-person shooters. If that's not technically possible, there are still several other possible implementations that would have been more fun and intuitive.

[KlintusFang]

there are other minor issues to contend with even if you have a group of like minded players willing to take the time to die a few times while they piece together the mechanics.

 

the rate of the cannon fire is rather slow, and it is likely if there is any amount of lag at all, that the time you see the cannon fire and the time it actually did fire are not in line with each other.

 

normally, in an mmo, you adapt to the lag because you can see how the time you pressed the key translates to the time the event occured on the screen. But with this, since you have no control at all over when it is suppossed to fire, its impossible for you to gauge the lag and adapt.

 

i also noticed that at some angles of rotation the cannon simply doesn't draw any fire graphics at all. and there is no way to tell if it is firing and just not drawing the graphic for the shot, or it it really isn't firing anything. if we had a combat log, that would at least provide some of the missing feedback there, but we don't.

[Mantang]

I think I noticed the gigantic flaw in your battle plan. I noticed that you said you were the last to die early on. Later, you mention that you're the tank.

 

The reason your group is failing is because you're failing as a tank. If your healer is getting killed before you, it's your fault. If the DPS aren't killing in the correct order, it's your fault. If classes aren't CCing the right targets, it's your fault. You're supposed to be the one marking targets and explaining what they mean. It's a PUG, it's assumed that MAYBE one other person has run it before. You're the one that is supposed to, above all, keep the healer from dying because it means death for all of you if they do.

 

If you're the last one dying and you're the tank, it isn't because you're some legendary tank of the gods, it's because you're absolute **** that can't hold threat.

 

I love seeing people stand on a soap box just to realize their pants are down. I got a good chuckle out of this failhard and now people at work are staring at me.

[NovaTiempo]

This one wound me up quite a bit for the first 2-3 attempts, but I've actually come to like it. Have done it fine, on level, with pugs, twice. First time, all 4 of us on the cannons, facing outward. Second run, I hopped off as a healer to keep everyone at full, still facing outward. Primary the ranged droids, help sweep up after others when quite, and the "maze" bit was fine.

 

Havent tried this on hard mode yet, still freshly 50 and getting facerolled by Ironfist on the Esseles, so war games is a bit of a way off for me.

 

How does a 180 on the turrets help? just more targets in your arc of fire, or is there a defensive positioning bonus?

[illiam]

I can add as said above, never put the healer on the cannon, let the healer stand in the middle healing the other 3 cannons and it becomes easy.

 

EDIT: And it isnt not available as hard mode. Only 6 flashpoints are.

Edited January 11, 2012 by illiam

[KlintusFang]

I can add as said above, never put the healer on the cannon, let the healer stand in the middle healing the other 3 cannons and it becomes easy.

 

EDIT: And it isnt not available as hard mode. Only 6 flashpoints are.

 

I thought about that in the first PUG I did this with, but I was the healer, and the non-healers were the ones that weren't able to hit anything with the cannons. Me getting off the cannon was like having 2 people manning the cannons even though there were 4 in the group.

 

Have no idea if it was lag or something else that was preventing the other player from hitting anything. The interface for those cannons, as I mentioned earlier, is not lag tolerant.

[illiam]

I thought about that in the first PUG I did this with, but I was the healer, and the non-healers were the ones that weren't able to hit anything with the cannons. Me getting off the cannon was like having 2 people manning the cannons even though there were 4 in the group.

 

Have no idea if it was lag or something else that was preventing the other player from hitting anything. The interface for those cannons, as I mentioned earlier, is not lag tolerant.

 

Hum its just pointing it in a direction at it will shout automatically. Its nothing to interface with except clicking it when "mounting" it.

[Talorra]

I've never been dismounted when using my mouse to turn the cannons.

 

I did try to be a cool guy and pop a defensive CD though. Oops.

 

I've pugged this one a few times and had good luck with it. Swiftsure has a lot of decent players who generally listen to a "leader" and put things together. We had a blast with the puzzle part too.

 

I liked it. I wish the last bosses were more of a fight though. I felt like I could solo the droid.

[m-nd]

CWG was honestly my favorite flashpoint so far, and at this point the only one I haven't run is Directive 7. The first time I ran it, it was with a pug group after finishing the foundry together and none of us had done it before.

 

The cannons were rough - we probably wiped 4-5 times before everyone got the hang of it (and I'll admit, a little warning on how they worked beforehand would have been nice). Luckily, those of us who caught on quickly were patient and were able to laugh off the defeat. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at an MMO as the second half of the instance, when we were constantly being pushed off ledges, isolating each other on accident, etc. It really felt like the flashpoint was just being sadistic, which is definitely some compelling design.

[KlintusFang]

Hum its just pointing it in a direction at it will shout automatically. Its nothing to interface with except clicking it when "mounting" it.

 

But the graphics for when it shoots are very slow. When does it really shoot? When it draws the graphic, or half a second before, or half a second after? When I was manning the turret i was definitely seeing that things dying didn't always seem to correlate to when the bullets were being drawn on the screen. I would also at some angles of rotation the cannon didn't seem to be firing at all (no graphics drawn for the shots) even though I think things in front of the line of fire were still dying. I was fine with it, but I'm sure it drives some players nuts.

[moosedog]

Pugged it yesterday, everyones first time, the only "bad" part was getting knocked off the platforms in the blue force fields areas. Besides that we wiped twice on the turrets until I stayed off the turret to heal and then it was faceroll again.

[LeSamourai]

I hear you OP. I actually recently gave up on playing FPS games (other than EXTREMELY casual ones like TF2) due to the amount of ABSOLUTELY AWFUL players who don't use their brains (they just want the rewards ASAP).

 

I'm not at that point yet with MMOs, but it's probably not too far off.

[Squiddish]

So wait, I have not done this yet. You have to use the turn right/left keys to move the turret?

 

So I'm gonna have to use my arrow keys XD

[Vroraxxas]

Though I agree with some of the OP views, there are some I do not. Yes we all know there are some that are..well, just not a natural gamer. Then there are those that just play for fun. This would be the majority. Then there are those that place themselves above others. these would be the Elitist twits. That think everything should be megahard with no ballance, and the mere mortals should never touch their game. And sorry OP but this is where you sound like you fit. You and group of 5, never failed at anything ever.

 

Failure is a part of life and leanring, even in gaming. If I'm wrong about you, then I'll man up and appologise. But as a Gamer of over 20 year's. A Game like this or wow or any other MMO should never be directed to one type or player, wether they be casual, or the so called Hardcore. Both side have the right to experience what they enjoy. Which is why most things have a normal and Advanced ( HC. ) mode.

 

Now I agree with you that more players these day's need to use common sense. If you fail, ask why you failed. Come up with reasons as to counter this. Learn. This is something that seems to be lacking. I'm a healer, recently pugged, Boarding Party, and Foundry. Died a few times on a couple of intensive parts. but for the most part was fun and good going. Maybe I got lucky that I had people with me that enjoyed the run and not sat there blaming others for failing. Instead of Blaming Teach, help other understand, that way your helping the commuinity by helping someone understand the mechanic therefore helping to mold a better gamer.

[Kiramalov]

Three manned the flashpoint (normal).

 

Funny thing was we developed this ridiculous kiting strategy when our first few attempts at the second turret spawn failed. We ended up killing all of the mobs, only to find out it immediately fails if there isn't at least one person remaining on the turrets.

 

Seems kind of hard to fathom not doing it with four. We ended up having two on turrets, one healing in the middle. Each turret gun was able to effectively contain mobs in two spawn points if you have little to zero dead time (ie not firing).

 

The trickier part was figuring out the gate switches with three people. That also took some creativity.

[Adalace]

I think I noticed the gigantic flaw in your battle plan. I noticed that you said you were the last to die early on. Later, you mention that you're the tank.

...

If you're the last one dying and you're the tank, it isn't because you're some legendary tank of the gods, it's because [you] can't hold threat.

I have to second this but I recognize that it is a bit harsh. Full disclosure, I'm a healer who really appreciates a good tank.

When I get a good tank, I'm smiling. A tank who ignores enemies who are hitting me and on and on makes my day hard.

[Monthigos]

Just ran this for the first time today. I didn't realize why I was being dismounted other than I knew I had the controls wrong. I ended up healing all the others from the central pillar and it was by far the MOST EXCITING healing experience I've ever had. I got compliments all around and my EGO went up 10 points.

 

That being said the knock-off in the maze part was extremely annoying. But we still finished it, even though our group leader and tank (who had done it before) was drunker than a skunk and my buddy was having some severe technical issues.

 

Will I do it again? Probably not. Does it have anything to do with my intelligence as a gamer? Probably. Still, I think a dismount button instead of 'pressing anything for dismount' would be a grand addition to this flashpoint. The knock-off would be a little less annoying if it didn't boot me completely out of the instance. You can call gamers unintelligent and impatient all you want, but bad game design is bad game design.

[illiam]

I have to second this but I recognize that it is a bit harsh. Full disclosure, I'm a healer who really appreciates a good tank.

When I get a good tank, I'm smiling. A tank who ignores enemies who are hitting me and on and on makes my day hard.

 

Nice way of not reading what this thread is really about at all. There is no tank, dps bla bla. People mount a gun, direct the gun with mouse and it will shoot at incoming enemies. That is the fight, keeping the waves of mobs at bay by killing them with the guns available.

[bliapis]

We must have been lucky because everyone first timer but the doctor, we didnt wipe once. We knew the tactics with the turret game and we figured out the tacts for the force field part.

 

Not my favourite FP, albeit intriguing at the first run but the pace was rather low.

 

 

We did the Reaper afterwards, first time for me aswell and well it was a straight forward dungeon.

 

I enjoyed end battle though with the lightnings and the quirk that comes with it :>

 

2x troopers, 2x smugglers.

 

Us troopers were both tankspec/equip