Taskforces and your experiences with them.

[SurfD]

Just thought I would start off a thread on TF's in general, since they fixed them now.  Slight note, I believe they have tweaked the level requirements, as Sister psyche seems to accept levels 20-26 and Bastion would take level 25-31.

Being that I have outleveled the first two (Positron and Synapse), I would love to hear who they are against, and what interesting things happen during them.

I have played the Sister Psyche and Bastion TF's through, so here are my thoughts on them:

Syster Psyche: She sends you up against the Freakshow.  Missions are fairly well done, you get a small variety of Doors, nothing seems to repedative, and in the end you get to stop a Female Freakshow named Clamour from turning Brickstown into another earthquake rocked disaster zone like Faultline.

Bastion:  Unfortunately, I must say, that this TF absolutely SUCKED ASS.
  For story purposes, you are hunting down 5th Column Robotics plants/storage facilities that are producing a new, more dangerous breed of MekMan.
  It is insanely boring and highly repedative.  Every single door mission is an underground nazi bunker, and at least 3 of them have THE EXACT SAME FUCKING LAYOUT (if you thought the Nazi bunkers were cool, you will be absolutely sick of them by time you finish this TF).  And some of those layouts are absolute death traps where you can pull large ass spawns of Ranged AoE wielding Nazis down on you in tiny little corridors where they dump butloads of hurt on your party.
  We also encountered some bizzare glitches in it.  In two missions we ran into a single level 19 nazi hanging out with the other level 31 nazis (one of our blasters insta killed the first one before we even realised it was there), and in the final mission, we had front loading with level 32 nazis, and the arch villian and his group were level 28!?
  About the only plus side to the whole thing was getting to see some of the cool 5th column robo troops. Plenty of Mk II WolfPack Robots, and Steel Valkyries (the first flying 5th column critter I have seen).

Personally (from the two that I have done), I am beginning to think that the TF's need a major overhaul.  Many of the Souvenier arcs I have done are more interesting (and, should you opt to do them with a full group probably about as long as well).  Souveniers usually offer multiple villian groups, a good variety of door types, and an equally compelling story.  The only thing they really lack is the guaranteed Arch Villian, the guaranteed SO drops, and the massive payout at the end (I got 9600 exp for the Bastion TF, which is damn good at 27).

[Daydreamer]

Damn you.  I agree with your assessment of the TFs, but damn you to hell.  I just beat Vandal tonight and was hoping to be the first person to post about it and the first to add him to my AV/M belt.  And its 4 levels until I can start the next one...

EDIT: One comment.  Most of the Sister Psyche TF was good, except for the last mission, which was made of three near identical Freak/Warehouse doors in Bricks, save that the last had Clamor in it.  Not nearly as repetetive as the Bastion TF, but it could still use a little work.

EDIT 2: Anyone know what the last two TFs are?  I really want a DE TF, though I imagine with the Hive they don't get one.  The last one is a Nazi one to find and kill Requiem, I think...

EDIT 3: Greek =! Freak, though here in SD it sometimes seesm that way.

[boley]

EDIT 2: Anyone know what the last two TFs are?  I really want a DE TF, though I imagine with the Hive they don't get one.  The last one is a Nazi one to find and kill Requiem, I think...

Here is a TF listing posted by one of the devs:
o Positron: 15
o Synapse: 20
o Sister Psyche: 25
o Bastion: 30
o Manticore: 35
o Numina: 40


Spoilers about the final guy follow.










I have not actually been on the final TF, but what I assume is the Archvillian for that mission is a creature named Hamidon.  He is found in a level 38+ zone called The Hive, which is located inside Eden the final hazard zone accessible from Founders Fall.

The Hive is full giant devouring earth critters (same models just biggie sized) that are honest to goodness "monsters".  They are actually labeled monsters; as opposed to minion, lt, boss, etc.  All monsters in the hive except for the Devouring Swarm, have 12,000 hitpoints.  The backstory for the zone indicates that Hamidon himself is of unknown origin, but he (it) managed to breathe life into the Devouring Earth, and unleashed them onto Paragon City.

Hamidon sits in the center of The Hive and appears to be a gigantic single celled organism.  The cell is full of various types of midocondria and other goodies from biology class.  Each of them have 12k hitpoints and nuke for well over 300 through my best shields (basically I died in about 5 seconds with full shields up).  Hamidon is the nucleus to the cell, is labeled as an Archvillian, and again has 12k hitpoints.  

It seemed a bit odd to have an Archvillian spawned all the times in a zone, but that appears to be the way it is.  I should note that I am not 100% certain that Hamidon is the final archvillian, I am simply assuming so based upon his location in a level 38+ restricted zone.

I uploaded a screenshot of the cell here:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v298/boley/hamidon.jpg

Edit:  Here is one more shot of Hamidon with UI this time:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v298/boley/Hamidon2.jpg

[SurfD]

Should I make the guess that something sends you up against the Banished Pantheon for a task force mission?  If not, then how does one encounter Adamastor, the giant undead thingie that rumor has it can be spotted in Dark Astoria?

[Ookii]

According to the Strategy Guide, Adamastor is in the cemetary (quite a big section from the map in the Strategy Guide, never been to DA myself), and let's not forget about Babbage (Clockwork monster) that is supposed to hang out in Grenadier Village in Boomtown.  

I tell ya, everytime I go to Boomtown I check out Grenadier for him (each subsequent time being a more thorough search, and I can't even find a trace of him.  I haven't checked the CoH official boards yet, but it's worth a look to see how often these guys spawn (and if anyone has actually seen them).

[Fargull]

My SG ran the Sister Psyche TF last Saturday and we enjoyed the hell out of it.  Was great experience and netted each of us an SO of our origin.

Overall, I give it a thumbs up.

Total time to complete was just over four hours.

[Aslan]

I have spent a lot of time in DA and have never seen this Pantheon boss, any specifics on his spawn locations?

[Alluvian]

Since you asked about what happens in the first two:
Spoilers on the first task force mission (Positron)















The first task force has a pretty cool storyline in my opinion.  It is also VERY long.  It took us about 10 hours to play through in beta.

The story builds somewhat slow with you fighting against the vahz.  You get some clues that lead you to both the Clockworks and the Circle of Thorns.  I forget what these clues were, but you can tell they all tie together somehow.

Turns out the Vahz are again trying to poison the water supply, this time introducing it into the hydroelectric dam.  The Clockworks are trying to destroy the dam to flood the city (you discover their explosives and plans).  The COT have a ritual that needs to be performed in a major storm.  They have decided that they don't really need the storm, they just need the base elements of teh storm.  The water and electricity.  Meaning they can perform the ritual in the dam.

So Positron gets the idea to play them all against each other and had you dropping hints to the three sides that the others also want the dam for their own purposes.  This gets the three sides fighting each other.  There are a few neat missions with mixed elements in them (I have not seen this before in an instanced zone) where you would get COT and clockwork in one warehouse for instance.  Usually a group would have BOTH because you are interrupting their fights.

The final battle is supposed to be in the hydroelectric station itself.  All three sides have converged on it at once.  This has some neat battles with three different villian groups at once and takes place inside one of the Crey Industry maps.  This is usually the first time people of this level have seen those maps.

[Aslan]

Cool, sounds like I have outleveled that TF already, but maybe can pick it up with my alt...

[WayAbvPar]

Here is a TF listing posted by one of the devs:
o Positron: 15
o Synapse: 20
o Sister Psyche: 25
o Bastion: 30
o Manticore: 35
o Numina: 40

Are those levels minimum for the team leader? Maximum? Recommended? I would like to put together a TF for Synapse this weekend, but don't want to outlevel it (I am 19 now). Also- where is each mission giver found? Is it still a bad idea to call the contact instead of visiting him/her in person?

[Fargull]

Are those levels minimum for the team leader? Maximum? Recommended?

Those are the best for the TF, both in gaining xp and survival.

Sister Psyche topped out at 26th.  So as a 25th everything minion was yellow, lts are orange and bosses are red.

Great XP.

[Glazius]

Here is a TF listing posted by one of the devs:
o Positron: 15
o Synapse: 20
o Sister Psyche: 25
o Bastion: 30
o Manticore: 35
o Numina: 40

Are those levels minimum for the team leader? Maximum? Recommended?

That's the base level of the spawn. As you shift more people into the TF mission zones the spawn level can go up by 1 or 2, just like it would with any other mission.

I think Babbage actually spawns as a hit squad for people in the Synapse TF. I may be off on this.

You can't start a TF at higher than that level, or with a group one or two levels higher, but if you outlevel the TF midway through it doesn't just suddenly stop.

Note on the final positron mission - in the last room on the last floor, a huge multileveled control complex, mobs seemed to be unable to move. We could _target_ them just fine. And let me say I have never been so thankful for a bug - if the spectral followers (no range attacks) had been able to whomp on us when we were held by the CoT Madness-pattern boss...

Brr.

--GF

[Zephyr]

I think Babbage actually spawns as a hit squad for people in the Synapse TF. I may be off on this.
--GF

Out of the 3 times that I did this TF, Babbage only spawned once as you zoned out of the next to last mission.  The first time he didn't spawn, everyone got dumped out of the TF when the leader went back to Synapse.  However the next time he didn't spawn, Synapse directed us onto the final mission anyways without a hitch.  Both times that this TF was completed, I got a decent SO enhancement, but a few either didn't get one or got two instead.

[SurfD]

You can't start a TF at higher than that level, or with a group one or two levels higher, but if you outlevel the TF midway through it doesn't just suddenly stop.

I can confirm that this is not 100 percent the case.  We did Basiton with a level 31 person in team at TF start, and I know a few people who have started up Sister Psyche at level 26.

I have also noticed that as the TF's get higher up the level ladder, the minimum number of people in the group goes up.  Sister Psyche requierd 5 people, Bastion requires 6 minimim.


As to that Positron TF, that sounds absolutely awesome.  Much more creative then Nazi Cave Bunker overload from Bastion.

[Daydreamer]

I don't think any of the AVs on the regular maps are part of TFs intentionally.  The Babbage, for example, is not the last boss of the Clockwork TF, but there are reports of people occasionally being ambushed by him between missions in BT on the TF.  And the two TF AVs I've ganked (Clamor and Vandal) were in instanced missions.

I'm pretty sure that Babbage, Adamastor, and Hamidon are all a like in they tie into the stories of hteir groups, but are not required fights for anything.  They are just there so you don't have to do a TF if you get the desire to kill an AV.

[Glazius]

You can't start a TF at higher than that level, or with a group one or two levels higher, but if you outlevel the TF midway through it doesn't just suddenly stop.

I can confirm that this is not 100 percent the case.  We did Basiton with a level 31 person in team at TF start, and I know a few people who have started up Sister Psyche at level 26.

I have also noticed that as the TF's get higher up the level ladder, the minimum number of people in the group goes up.  Sister Psyche requierd 5 people, Bastion requires 6 minimim.


As to that Positron TF, that sounds absolutely awesome.  Much more creative then Nazi Cave Bunker overload from Bastion.

Yeah, one level higher is alright. But no more than that. And the SO you get at the end will be fractionally less awesome .

Positron's TF is a nice storyline, but wait until you've got rapid transit to take it. You'll be running all over creation (at least the part of creation available to you) for what I believe is 10 missions (two versus Vash, Clocks, and CoT, one versus each combination of the two, and one with all three). It also gives you a much earlier shot of the "tech lab" interior than you would otherwise have...

And yeah, if it was in any scifi series, it'll be in that lab. Giant sparking power conduits, huge rooms lined with banks of lights, futuristic elevators, and the world's biggest capacitors.

--GF