The turret event at the beginning of the Colicoid War Games is simply not fun. Players are dropped into the turrets with no instructions, no warning, and even with a group that fully understands the deal, it's not easy. Following that, the traps and gate puzzles are just annoying, and the Hazard Droids bug out on their doors. My knowledge of what's after all this is sadly limited, as after our third wipe (two to turrets one to being knocked off the ledge by hazard bots) we collectively decided it just wasn't worth the trouble.

 

I personally think the instance is a failed experiment and should be replaced, but if that's not really an option then the turret event needs very clear instructions and to be made a touch more forgiving on new groups. The Hazard Bots need to lose the knockback and shields need to just go down and stay down when clicked.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Vinaya

I enjoyed this flashpoint. It was something out of the box. The turrets were abit challenging but you can have a healer step off their turret and just heal the remaining 3 on the turrets.

 

There is no need to remove this instance if you don't enjoy it, there will be others that do.

I enjoyed this flashpoint. It was something out of the box. The turrets were abit challenging but you can have a healer step off their turret and just heal the remaining 3 on the turrets.

 

There is no need to remove this instance if you don't enjoy it, there will be others that do.

 

Blizzard learned in WoW that players as a rule (not all, but many) don't enjoy forced vehicle style fights. Ex: Coliseum 5 man, they hard to nerf all of the teeth out before it was even remotely accepted. Much more success can be found through only having a small number of players in vehicles, that way people who like them can use them and others can do their traditional job. Ex: Gunship battle, only 20% of any given group had to be in a vehicle, and the goals were well displayed clear. 30 seconds of reading tooltips told you everything you needed to know. In CWG it took me a few tries to figure out that right clicking on anything would dismount you, and that in fact no buttons at all are necessary other than aiming. Additionally, the lack of control over actual firing was irksome.

Edited January 6, 2012 by Vinaya

I enjoyed this FP, I thought the turrets were fun and easy to use (point and they auto-fire). I was healer so I just started in a turret killing with the group and then popped out to heal when needed.

 

I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the FP but I admit that I didn't like having to stand there and hold the gates open while others fought but it was interesting.

 

I think you are correct in that there needs to be better instruction for the turrets. Knowing that they auto-fire rather than left click would save parties from wiping their first attempt as they all pop out of the turret on the first left click and have to wait those 2-4 seconds to get back in.

 

That said each new fight has it's own mechanics to learn (don't stand in this, interrupt that, etc) so I don't mind a wipe here and there learning a new fight.

3 different groups. 3 long, annoying failed ordeals with the turret segment.

I"ve done 2 groups, both kept wiping on turrets and eventually disbanded. Exactly what part of this is challenging and/or fun?

 

It's stupidly hard in ways that shouldn't be hard. If you're gonna add a vehicle, add a vehicle interface. Having issues exiting the vehicle prematurely doesn't make it clever or challenging.

 

Neither is an auto-fire that can't be depended on. I frequently enjoyed stutter firing when I kept my cannon perfectly still.

 

Also, if people are having such an easy time of it I'd love to know what lvls the group was comprised of because the power of the cannons seemed to me to scale with lvl and/or gear and the lowest lvls in the group always seemed to die first in the wipes I encountered.

 

It's not the encounter but the UI and process that makes this stupid hard (emphasis on stupid).

I just tried to do this. There needs to be some kind of help for the turrets really. Had no clue what we were doing and died horribly the first two times since we kept dismounting accidentally.

 

And for people not aware on it the healer ends up chain dying which causes everyone else to die.

 

Needs looked at or something for how insanely STEEP the difficulty is.

The turret portion of this flashpoint is a bit confusing, but can be completed easily with the following strategy:

 

Have your healer stand on the container in the middle of the turret positions, then have the rest of the group operate 3 turrets. At this point you want to turn your turret 180 degrees so you are facing towards your healer and the other group members on their turrets.

 

This allows you to fire across the other turret positions and quickly kill any mobs that get past the turret positions and go after the healer. Doing it this way made it much easier for our group. It just took a little creative thinking to get past .

 

Best of luck!

Thats the issue though, the layout and feel implies ALL FOUR should be using the turrets, using 3 and flipping around is one of those "That isn't right..." sort of things. Ya it works but in the spirit of the game it isn't how it should.

 

That is a development issue really, they basically made it so your healer is the most likely to die (due to lower HP overall) in a turret, and implying they should be able to take it and survive if they just pick targets properly (the basic feel is about the target management it seems)

 

Also the fact you have ZERO control of fire rate really leaves something to be desired.

First time through, we wiped because it was all our first time in so I do agree with you on the instructions

 

But it's a fast FP that can be cleared in 20mins

 

You sound like a casual gamer that just wants free l00tz and "press button to win" kind of guy

 

I liked the puzzle element in dungeons personally

Ah, that was quick, sorta like a godwin a troll statement about 'you're a casual'

 

Did I say the overall difficulty needed reduced? Nerf the mobs or buff the cannons? No. Neither thing was said so rather then throw personal insults just cut those things out of your post.

 

Instructions of some sort are certainly needed, and fire control to actually have some control besides spinning around.

 

A few times I'd aim at one of the ranged ones and it would get a shot at me before the cannon even began to fire, whereas if I actually HAD CONTROL of what I was doing, I could've preempted it and likely have killed the thing before it got more shots off.

 

The main issue I have is it is an initial event with no details given, then you're EXTREMELY limited in what you can actually do to manage the event in a meaningful way. If you follow the spirit of the event you're more likely to fail then if you abuse it to a degree with the healer and flipped cannon method.

 

More control and instruction would solve this. While it does diminish the difficulty of the event for some (those who actually know what control means) it would also make it more enjoyable and they could possibly even increase the mobs or somesuch to compensate and make intelligent target picking more important (or make them take an extra shot or two if you are controlling and know what you're in for to any degree)

I agree that they really didn't give a good explanation. There's a difference between letting players figure out something for themselves, and just leaving information out expecting them to know as if they beta tested. Wiping because of something that was a surprise is fine, but when you wipe because the game doesn't give you instructions is something else. The game has a good built in method of giving players instructions, the codex system. It's like they just assumed that people would know what to do, or they didn't want to give instructions to add difficulty to it, but that's not the kind of difficulty you want to add.

 

I don't want to get off topic, but I didn't really expect to get much instruction. The game itself doesn't really explain everything. You're left to figure out many things yourself. Like I said it's not a bad thing to let players figure stuff out, but in some places it just comes off as lazy by not giving instructions.

Speaking for myself, I absolutely don't want a faceroll dungeon that can be cleared by four people with mild retardation in less than 30 minutes. I do want to feel like I'm fighting the mobs/mechanics and not the interface/design. We passed the turret event on our third try by doing exactly what someone else suggested, which is have the healer chill in the middle while three others take care of the enemies. I fully agree however that the four turret setup strongly implies that four turrets should be used. Additionally, I was spamming left click for a while thinking that was fire (Right click dismounts, left doesn't), but discovering that when I fired was at least partially out of my control didn't make the experience more fun. The auto-fire just isn't that quick or smart.

I love content that is challenging and forces you to adapt. I have grown weary of the perfection so many try to achieve when running content. If you don't do it perfect people rage quit. If you wipe people rage quit. It is silly and ridiculous. This flashpoint involves a lot of adaptation which is awesome. I agree wholeheartedly that a lack of instruction on the turret part is a huge issue. The puzzle part is excellent along with the rest of the flashpoint. Add some instruction to the first part and this flashpoint will be ideal!

If the intended solution to the fight is to use only three turrets, then there should be only three turrets.

 

Expecting that encounter design be intelligent and intuitive is not the same thing as wanting it to be face roll easy. Specifically designing an encounter to make people think they have to do something other than what the actual solution is is just jerking people around, and only compounds the frustration of Dumb Vehicle Fights, which people already tend to loathe since they ask you to throw aside everything you've learned about playing your character to that point.

 

I'm with the OP in that I want hard encounters that are actually hard, not ones that are simply difficult as a consequence of being poorly thought-out.

 

If you actually enjoy counter-intuitive game design, I suggest turning your keyboard over on its face, unplugging your mouse, and trying to play the game that way. That would take real skill to play, right?

Edited January 7, 2012 by Jackbency

I agree wholeheartedly.

 

This flashpoint is a collection of gimmicks that frustrate people who don't know how they work, and bore people who do. They contain a short and unrewarding learning curve of mechanical nuances that is not granted to any other part of the game.

 

Don't do more forced vehicle mechanics Bioware.

Colicoid is awesome, and if you pull your head from betwixt your loins you might actually figure out how to use the cannons. It's so simple a Geico customer could do it. Seriously. Aim. It fires for you. Move your mouse so you shoot the ranged bugs. Then kill the slow mele bugs. When the big guys come out, make sure they die, but still make sure the ranged bugs die.

 

Soooo hard.

 

I've done this FP 8-10 times now across two characters and haven't seen my turret "bug out" even once. Every group I run with, there's some Einstein that can't grasp the simple concept that fast aiming + NOT PRESSING ANYTHING = success.

 

Second phase of Colicoid is AWESOME.

 

Third phase is a standard boss. Free loot for all!

I'm in agreement with this thread poster, I didn't enjoy it whatsoever and the rewards at the end are totally not worth it. Just boring and annoying, I tried my first operation (8 man) yesterday too and that was so badly designed, terrible mechanics and many wipes. I am becoming more disillusioned with this game every day.

The turret system is terrible. I would much rather be able to fire them myself like mounted weapons in a first-person shooter (that's what I expected). If nothing else, at least make it more obvious how they work and harder to dismount yourself accidentally.

My only gripe with the turrets is if you move you get off the turret. Lock the character in place and have a dismount button PLEASE, that is all.

This is great and very interesting flashpoint (also funny, due to the comemtator's voice).

Yes, we had a wipefest at first go, but it gets easier and easier everytime you go there.

This, for once, is actually a Flashpoint with a bit of a twist and not the usual 'walk in, kill all, walk out' stuff. I happen to like it. You have to think, if only a bit, and I dearly wish BW would make more of these (and let go of age-old stuff like enrage timers).

 

Anyway, it's really easy if you do the 180 with the turrets. Everyone saddle up, turn 180 and blast the enemies opposite. Effect: enemies have a longer way to reach you and thus can be dispatched easier. We wiped a few times trying it the normal way. When we switched to the 180: did it on the first try, no healing required at all.

Just ran this Flashpoint for the first time last night and it is my favorite one so far. As has been mentioned previously, just have your healer stay off the cannon for the first objectives and its cake.

How do you keep from falling off the turret. I went in there with a group and we kept falling off and then they would just come eat us cause we were constantly getting back onto the turret, I thought they patched this issue.

It's very easy. I'll admit I wiped twice the first run though, but now I run it in 20 mins tops. It's by far the easiest one yet imo.

 

The trick to beating the turrets without wiping with ease:

 

When you mount, the turrets rotate 360 degrees, so the person at the 6 o clock position does a 180 and aims at the person at the 12 oclock position, covering this person back. The person at the 12 oclock position does the same thing, covering the person at the 6 oclock position. This greatly increases the distance the mobs must travel to get in attack range of you. You still want to focus down the white/ranged ones first, then the melee. Beat both parts of the turret phase without taking ANY dammage at all. This tactic also needs to be done at the 3 oclock and 9 oclock positions as well obviously. Try it, its incredibly easy if you do it this way.

 

The second phase is also easy, all you do is run up and knock the guys off the side. You can't knock off the roaming one who casts the fire, but hes easy. If you know he is going to knock you off the side with his knockback, then mind your position. Have your back to a wall or to an area that you wont be knocked off. It's really simple, and is suprising to me how many people can't seem to figure this out.

 

You dont even need a tank for this FP. I think it's fun and it's a nice change from the normal FP's. It can be difficult to explain to someone who hasn't done it before, and expect to wipe on the turrets if you have people in your group who have not done it. After the initial practice run and wipe, they will get the hang of it and it should be a cakewalk after that. Stop complaining and use your heads!