MetalDude
Dec 4, 2012, 11:21 PM
I feel like several of the codes we have now need some attention. A few of them have considerable issues that need to be addressed so they become less groan-worthy when they pop up. To start with:
Code: Elimination - Barrier
Often occurring in Caves and the Urban Sector (I believe more so in Recovery, but I forget), Elimination - Barrier closes off players and forces them to fight enemies to open it back up. Initially, it's not that big of a deal; we did this constantly in PSO. But what really cripples this code is the abysmally slow spawn times. While Code: Attacks (especially those with NPCs involved) will spawn enemy after enemy as they're defeated, this code seems to have a sadistic way about popping in a wave of 2 or 3 and then leaving you hanging for anywhere between 30 seconds to a full minute before new enemies spawn. It's agonizingly pointless and only seeks to waste time. Fix it by changing it by making enemies pour in after being defeated.
On a similar note:
Code: Collect - Barrier (Info Keys)
Occurs in the same areas (although only area 1 in the Urban Sector), it's a bactracking fetchquest. It's the single reason I rarely do Volcanic Guerillas when it comes up. You are guaranteed to have one bottle neck room that splits the two huge areas that requires you to pick up keys that go way too far back. A time waster like the barrier elimination. There's no real way to fix this; it's a terrible code. Hard to want to hunt Burn Draal with a group when you know this is going to happen almost every time.
Code: Collect - Samples (especially minerals)
Can occur almost anywhere; minerals are generally on Lilipa and egg/insect samples are usually on Amduscia and Naberius. It's not outright bad if your MPA group rounds them up on the way (which is usually the case), but the rewards are very poor: there needs to be more motivation. Why I mentioned especially minerals has to do with how you can't see them until you're in very close proximity of them, making you depend almost entirely on coordinators to give you locations.
Code: Destruction - Darchyme
Can occur anywhere. Dark spherical bombs appear and need to be destroyed before they cause a localized poison effect. Initially a decent code, especially with the tendency to drop high level discs. However, it's poor for MPAs and the second (and third in full groups) wave tend to spawn in completely stupid locations that cause you to run back to where you just were (or even farther for no reason). Compared to the Baize which pulls all players to the same area much like a midboss or boss would, the Darchyme split players up and also have a rather negligible consequence for their explosions.
Code: Rescue - Funji
Like with practically all of these, it's an interesting idea. And again, what ruins it is the awful placement. Chances are, the imprisonment location is going to be on the opposite side of the map and more often than not, you're probably going to be on one of those very windy, single-path maps. In these scenarios, the thing's going to be destroyed by the time the group gets to it, which rather defeats the purpose of the code.
Code: Rescue - Lilipa
Improve the lulz factor by making the Lilipa shoot off even further into the air. On a serious note, please don't spawn Sparzyles during this. That shit's not gonna happen.
Code: Attack - Ga/Gu Wondas
Stop ruining Tundra, Floating Continent, and Ruins with these. They suck. I'll hunt my Lambda Aristin off of Spardan A's, thank you very much.
Code: Protection - Crystals
An overall great code simply because of its very high reward despite how it splits the group (most players are very good at adhering to regroup calls after this code). A little bit of reworking needs to be done to prevent a crystal from being almost immediately destroyed off the bat from really bad enemy spawns. Some crystals have all of one enemy show up and others will have 10 pop right on top of it. The tension created from wanting to succeed with this code is awesome, but it also needs to be fair (most of the time it is). Just... don't spawn 2 Gu Wondas and a Cycloneda near one crystal. That's nearly impossible to stop with a divided MPA.
Code: Elimination - Barrier
Often occurring in Caves and the Urban Sector (I believe more so in Recovery, but I forget), Elimination - Barrier closes off players and forces them to fight enemies to open it back up. Initially, it's not that big of a deal; we did this constantly in PSO. But what really cripples this code is the abysmally slow spawn times. While Code: Attacks (especially those with NPCs involved) will spawn enemy after enemy as they're defeated, this code seems to have a sadistic way about popping in a wave of 2 or 3 and then leaving you hanging for anywhere between 30 seconds to a full minute before new enemies spawn. It's agonizingly pointless and only seeks to waste time. Fix it by changing it by making enemies pour in after being defeated.
On a similar note:
Code: Collect - Barrier (Info Keys)
Occurs in the same areas (although only area 1 in the Urban Sector), it's a bactracking fetchquest. It's the single reason I rarely do Volcanic Guerillas when it comes up. You are guaranteed to have one bottle neck room that splits the two huge areas that requires you to pick up keys that go way too far back. A time waster like the barrier elimination. There's no real way to fix this; it's a terrible code. Hard to want to hunt Burn Draal with a group when you know this is going to happen almost every time.
Code: Collect - Samples (especially minerals)
Can occur almost anywhere; minerals are generally on Lilipa and egg/insect samples are usually on Amduscia and Naberius. It's not outright bad if your MPA group rounds them up on the way (which is usually the case), but the rewards are very poor: there needs to be more motivation. Why I mentioned especially minerals has to do with how you can't see them until you're in very close proximity of them, making you depend almost entirely on coordinators to give you locations.
Code: Destruction - Darchyme
Can occur anywhere. Dark spherical bombs appear and need to be destroyed before they cause a localized poison effect. Initially a decent code, especially with the tendency to drop high level discs. However, it's poor for MPAs and the second (and third in full groups) wave tend to spawn in completely stupid locations that cause you to run back to where you just were (or even farther for no reason). Compared to the Baize which pulls all players to the same area much like a midboss or boss would, the Darchyme split players up and also have a rather negligible consequence for their explosions.
Code: Rescue - Funji
Like with practically all of these, it's an interesting idea. And again, what ruins it is the awful placement. Chances are, the imprisonment location is going to be on the opposite side of the map and more often than not, you're probably going to be on one of those very windy, single-path maps. In these scenarios, the thing's going to be destroyed by the time the group gets to it, which rather defeats the purpose of the code.
Code: Rescue - Lilipa
Improve the lulz factor by making the Lilipa shoot off even further into the air. On a serious note, please don't spawn Sparzyles during this. That shit's not gonna happen.
Code: Attack - Ga/Gu Wondas
Stop ruining Tundra, Floating Continent, and Ruins with these. They suck. I'll hunt my Lambda Aristin off of Spardan A's, thank you very much.
Code: Protection - Crystals
An overall great code simply because of its very high reward despite how it splits the group (most players are very good at adhering to regroup calls after this code). A little bit of reworking needs to be done to prevent a crystal from being almost immediately destroyed off the bat from really bad enemy spawns. Some crystals have all of one enemy show up and others will have 10 pop right on top of it. The tension created from wanting to succeed with this code is awesome, but it also needs to be fair (most of the time it is). Just... don't spawn 2 Gu Wondas and a Cycloneda near one crystal. That's nearly impossible to stop with a divided MPA.