Vehicles at Arkfalls.

Simple solution - a BMG-style electric effect from the central crystals, or the outer crystals in the boss fights, targeting vehicles from biggest to smallest with around 2-3 seconds before blowing them up - most importantly blowing up the invulnerable big truck from the quest, causing quest fail so they have to re-start it. And yes, idiots will keep shooting skitterlings deliberately, or by accident by spamming explosive weapons at the crystals, I can only assume they don't speak english. Things are better on the raider/99er minor arkfalls, due to the obstructions, so if the idiots are ruining hellbug arkfalls head down to those instead.

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Originally Posted by Markise

OK well im may be ignorant but why is people running over bugs at arkfalls a problem? The vehicles do damamge so I always assumed that running them over was not a bad idea, that and at larger arks, the vehicle gets destroyed for a minute or so. So i guess im wondering why this makes you all so mad.

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Besides the issue of needing skitterlings to weaken the crystal, vehicles hit for so much damage that they nerf the xp. Even the greifer gets minimal xp.

I agree, its kinda unnerving if peeps ram the cryst and the car blocks sight on the weakspots :/
But i think we will not see a solution soon...

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Originally Posted by Markise

OK well im may be ignorant but why is people running over bugs at arkfalls a problem? The vehicles do damamge so I always assumed that running them over was not a bad idea, that and at larger arks, the vehicle gets destroyed for a minute or so. So i guess im wondering why this makes you all so mad.

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1) Enemies kill via a vehicle drop nothing. This means no ammo replenishment, no scrip, no salvage, no drops. It makes no difference if you managed to shoot it down to 1% and some Halotard kills it with a car, because the vehicle was the killing blow.

2) Running over the skitterlings at the minor stages of the arkfall means they cannot attack the crystal so players can shoot the weak spots, which help you destroy it faster. Remember, the entire Arkfall is on a timer. If you have to waste time on a crystal because some idiot thinks it's fun to drive in circles around it, you're not going to be able to finish the event.

3) Many of these derps are using the big hauler that you get from Cass in Mt. Tam, and other places. These vehicles do not self destruct when you hit the big bugs. They DO however, push them all over the place, which means people aren't able to attack them effectively. They also accrue larger damage numbers, which apparently puts those players closer to the top in the rankings. If so, it's an exploit and should be treated as such with warning and bans.

Those are just some of the issues involved. This isn't Halo or GTA. Get out of the car or GTHO.

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Originally Posted by Valethar

1) Enemies kill via a vehicle drop nothing. This means no ammo replenishment, no scrip, no salvage, no drops. It makes no difference if you managed to shoot it down to 1% and some Halotard kills it with a car, because the vehicle was the killing blow.

2) Running over the skitterlings at the minor stages of the arkfall means they cannot attack the crystal so players can shoot the weak spots, which help you destroy it faster. Remember, the entire Arkfall is on a timer. If you have to waste time on a crystal because some idiot thinks it's fun to drive in circles around it, you're not going to be able to finish the event.

3) Many of these derps are using the big hauler that you get from Cass in Mt. Tam, and other places. These vehicles do not self destruct when you hit the big bugs. They DO however, push them all over the place, which means people aren't able to attack them effectively. They also accrue larger damage numbers, which apparently puts those players closer to the top in the rankings. If so, it's an exploit and should be treated as such with warning and bans.

Those are just some of the issues involved. This isn't Halo or GTA. Get out of the car or GTHO.

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Well then that is good to know, I personally knew none of this. NONE. I will no longer use vehicles at arkfalls. So i guess instead of coming in here and saying that people should be banned etc for something they may no nothing about is kinda harsh. Though trying to get the majority of people to stop may be difficult there has to be a better way than banning/suspending accounts. Just mean that if exploits are out there than fix the exploits don't punish the player that may not even know what they are doing wrong.

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Originally Posted by Markise

Well then that is good to know, I personally knew none of this. NONE. I will no longer use vehicles at arkfalls. So i guess instead of coming in here and saying that people should be banned etc for something they may no nothing about is kinda harsh. Though trying to get the majority of people to stop may be difficult there has to be a better way than banning/suspending accounts. Just mean that if exploits are out there than fix the exploits don't punish the player that may not even know what they are doing wrong.

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I think people are just frustrated because this has been a discussion topic since the beta.

Granted a lot of people now playing weren't on the forums during the beta (and probably still aren't) and the chat/mic system doesn't exactly make it easy to get the word out during an Arkfall but if you listen to the EGO during one of these events, you'll hear her say, "It looks like those skitterings are eating away at the crystal. Look! They've created a weak spot, aim for that!" or something very similar.

Anyone who has participated in one of these events should have at least seen the weak spots on the crystals, and if they've seen them they probably should have shot them and seen the fact that they do 4x - 5x the damage per shot from shooting the crystal anywhere else.

The lack of ammo drops from vehicle kills is another big issue at the minor areas but it's mostly a reduced XP/increased handle time per crystal issue. Now that you know, try to spread the word, it's the best thing you can do.

There's nothing harsh about it if the offenders are warned well in advance. As Valethar said, an exploit is an exploit and Trion needs to start thinking about how they are going to deal with this sort of stuff. If exploits or glitches exist in a game, players will always use them to get ahead. We can't assume everyone will live by a code of honor and progress through the game as the designers intended. You can look to pretty much any other online game as evidence of this.

But yeah, educating players on "how to play the game" is a big part of solving these sorts of problems. Trion needs to make sure the playbase understands how arkfalls work, which tactics to use, and which ones screw everyone over. From my experience, most of these people are just in it to ruin the game, but in the off chance... Well, i'll be optimistic and blame ignorance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Valethar

1) Enemies kill via a vehicle drop nothing. This means no ammo replenishment, no scrip, no salvage, no drops. It makes no difference if you managed to shoot it down to 1% and some Halotard kills it with a car, because the vehicle was the killing blow.

2) Running over the skitterlings at the minor stages of the arkfall means they cannot attack the crystal so players can shoot the weak spots, which help you destroy it faster. Remember, the entire Arkfall is on a timer. If you have to waste time on a crystal because some idiot thinks it's fun to drive in circles around it, you're not going to be able to finish the event.

3) Many of these derps are using the big hauler that you get from Cass in Mt. Tam, and other places. These vehicles do not self destruct when you hit the big bugs. They DO however, push them all over the place, which means people aren't able to attack them effectively. They also accrue larger damage numbers, which apparently puts those players closer to the top in the rankings. If so, it's an exploit and should be treated as such with warning and bans.

Those are just some of the issues involved. This isn't Halo or GTA. Get out of the car or GTHO.

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1) Enable loot drops, ammo replenishment, and loot from vehicle kills at Arkfalls. Problem solved, no limits on play style.

2) Either put obstacles to discourage this at minor arkfalls OR make skitterlings invulnerable until they take a bite from the crystal at Minor Arkfalls. Problem solved.

3) Force the hauler to despawn if it leaves a certain geographic area. Length the mob's (particularly the Monarchs') reset radius because as it stands it's a bit silly it resets at all.

People can keep their cars, contribute, and everyone is happy.

SOLUTIONS!

I feel changing things to make vehicle use at arkfalls a valid tactic is the wrong direction, and education (eg an EGO message when approaching arkfalls in a vehicle) will not work well without penalties to hammer it home.

One word Markise. Skitterlings.