Capture The Cephalon Mode Is Broken

[ograzzt]

Most of the time cephalon carriers just parkouring like crazy for the entire match or even worse - hiding in some dark corner of the map. It feels like a waste of time for both sides, no one can get standing points, no one can complete daily challenges. And this Orokin/Derelicts map... I just leave everytime it appears for now, it's just too big, you'll never find carrier in he decides to hide. I almost never saw anyone got more than 1-2 points at the end there. Extremely frustrating.

At least when this mode was introduced we could receive nice standing for just killing. Now you almost always end up with 300-400 standing at most for the whole 10 minutes match even with a lot of kills. Most of the time match is just not progressing because of 1-2 players, and this is just not fun.

Not so sure how to fix it tho, maybe highlight carriers (not just red dot, something unique, like maybe cephalon symbol) on the map for another team? Maybe slightly limit carrier's speed or parkour capabilities? Probably not the best ideas, but still. 

Edited August 29, 2015 by ograzzt

[Pythadragon]

After some period of time (1 minute?), a cephalon not at base should definitely be marked on the map or otherwise visible through walls. This is supposed to be a fast paced game. Hide and seek is a great strategy, but as is, is too much for certain maps especially given that lobbies are not often the full 8 players.

 

DE has stated that in early testing they experimented with making the ceph carrier slower, but didn't like it.

[--MZez--]

Campers should get like a yellow dot on minimap for 5 seconds if they keep camping. Like that they can move and its easyer to hunt

[JeyciKon]

My solution:

If the ceph is out of his base and his thief haven't killed someone for over x seconds it will start draining hp from his carrier, this way he has to face and kill someone once in a while so the hp drain doesnt start, if he doesnt kill someone his hp will start draining(1hp per second maybe?) and at some point, if he doesnt kill someone to stop the drain, he will be just running around with 1 hp(but full shields) and only collecting about 10 hp from orbs, this makes him way easier to kill.

and to stop him from spamming abilities to get those kills the ceph will drain energy if someone carries him.

 

[Volume]

What you're actually complaining about is the generation of standing, or the fact that you can play a full match and not earn much.

 

If these tactics didn't have an impact on Affinity gain (and therefore Standing gain), would you still disapprove of them?

 

I don't think health decay is a very good solution to turtling. If any solution like this needs to be implemented, I'd recommend a debuff, such as less damage dealt, or decreased movement speed, or perhaps increased damage taken.

 

If it's difficult for players to even find the enemy flag carrier, perhaps each team's flag should appear as a waypoint on the map, 30 seconds or 60 seconds after they've been taken.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Volume

[stoybot]

Cephalon Capture is currently a complete joke, and if it wasn't giving so much reputation, I wouldn't even bother with it. Parkour 2.0 already makes it incredibly easy to kite - as long as you're reasonably good at it - and when you don't have to worry about shooting anyone, you can keep at it for as long as you want. The only reliable way to counter that are cheap instant AoE abilities (I'm looking at you Oberon) or something like Bullet Attractor.

 

There's this one Oberon player that I encounter from time to time and he's got it down to a science. Grabs our Cephalon and immediately starts kiting and collecting energy orbs. He doesn't even bother shooting anyone until he's got 100 energy, at which point he casts his Reckoning on our Cephalon carrier, kills him with a Lex Prime and scores. If he's not carrying, he'll kill the enemy carrier with a Reckoning and Tigris instead. I've lost to that guy even with a team of experienced players, and while he's a one-trick pony, it's incredibly hard to counter him unless my team controls the energy very well and is running Mags/Oberons as well.

[SeaUrchins]

Cephalon Capture is currently a complete joke, and if it wasn't giving so much reputation, I wouldn't even bother with it. Parkour 2.0 already makes it incredibly easy to kite - as long as you're reasonably good at it - and when you don't have to worry about shooting anyone, you can keep at it for as long as you want.

 

Especially if it is ash modded for speed, which is incredibly hard to catch with AoE due to insane sprint speed.

[HoakinBlackforge]

Cappers shoulndt even be able to use movement, even sprinting, and be revealed on the map all the time. Just a living decoy.

[Lordricker]

They should not hinder the movement of the cephalon holder, It will just make it too easy for the people that can aim with snipers. I do agree that there should be some sort of minimap marker on them though even if it isn't constant

Edited September 1, 2015 by Lordricker

[HoakinBlackforge]

They should not hinder the movement of the cephalon holder, It will just make it too easy for the people that can aim with snipers. I do agree that there should be some sort of minimap marker on them though even if it isn't constant

 

OBJECTION!

 

 That would give snipers a reason to be used, because vectis's last nerf made it so weak that its not worth to use anymore. A easier way to find the cephalon carrier and recover it back is needed.

[Lordricker]

If this guy can get headshots like this im sure there are people that can get bodyshots

Snipers have lie in wait mod which helps

snipers are viable in pvp, it just takes a little practice.

Edited September 1, 2015 by Lordricker

[HoakinBlackforge]

If this guy can get headshots like this im sure there are people that can get bodyshots

Snipers have lie in wait mod which helps

snipers are viable in pvp, it just takes a little practice.

 

OBJECTION!

 

I disagree, in the video, not all the kills were in the middle of a jump or parkour mechanic, he got those headshots for obvious reasons: the target "stood" in the place for a mere moment so the vectis user used that to his advantage.

 

Also, this video was before the vectis nerf and update 17. Some of the kills are just bodyshots, because the yellow crit numbers dont appear, the vectis was overpowered in that time. It needed a slight nerf, but now people barely use it, just look how its shown in the video, does he use the aim for most of the kills? or does he stay still most of the time?

 

Right now is nearly impossible to track a enemy using parkour 2.0.

 

 

The movement for cephalon capture is excessive and the carrier must be limited in some way, that could make snipers a really important weapon choice for defender playstyle. And also can easily finish a enemy carrier who is escaping.

 

We need a solution, and no, the game is not gonna go at your favor.

Edited September 1, 2015 by HoakinBlackforge

[rockscl]

i think that the mode is broken too, mainly because stealing and scoring are trivial things to do, the only climax lies in killing the enemy carrier, but nerfing movement was discarded half a year ago, so id rather ask for harder mechanics to steal, put a hacking console, or make the cephalon work like a tritium battery

 

however, it would be far better if the dedicated servers issue was at least mentioned once because the unbalanced experience in ctc comes from the matchmaking, if the level of the players in a match was more even, the experience would be much deeper 

Edited September 1, 2015 by rockscl

[elele]

put a hacking console, 

 

Inb4 Frost putting a snowglobe around the console and waiting there with a Galatine. 

[HoakinBlackforge]

Inb4 Frost putting a snowglobe around the console and waiting there with a Galatine. 

 

There, another contradiction.

 

Whoever discarded the movement nerf for carrier wasnt really thinking straight.

[rockscl]

There, another contradiction.

 

Whoever discarded the movement nerf for carrier wasnt really thinking straight.

 

how is that a contradiction

Edited September 2, 2015 by rockscl

[Lordricker]

It sounds like the snow globe doesnt slow you down enough so we need to have the cephalon carrier slowed down on top of that. Then you have enough time to aim your sniper.

[Boltwin]

i like the solution with hp drain. how about no shield regeneration or max shield/hp reduction?

Edited September 2, 2015 by Boltwin

[Demdemeh]

I played a lot Capture The Flag in other games with way bigger maps, such as UT3, for example.

 

The carrier had no limitations in movements/weapons (while here you can actually use your secondary only).

 

To find the Cephalon's carrier the opposite squad has two ways:

 

- Follow the light trail he leaves behind him (if you are good enough to let him escape too quickly)

- Enable sounds and torn down music. The Cephalon speaks and you can actually hear it.

 

Beside that all you need is patience and a good aim although a bright halo could be added as it was on UT3 to be seen even through walls.

Marking it on the map would just kill the game, don't ask for that.

[Boltwin]

the problem is some warframes are faster, some jump higher/farther -> you can't catch up.

[rockscl]

its doesnt matter if other games put such kind of limitations or not, the actual issue it that this is not the experience expected from a flag capture mode, stealing is not special at all, the bases do not impose a challenge, in UT you had complete mobility but if you used the translocator you dropped the flag, so the base is unsafe to stop invaders but its a challenge to escape, in warframe you get there and you know that most probably you will get the cephalon out alive because the bases arent challenging to escape and thus almost no one tries to defend them, when all comes to killing the carrier what happens is that the experience is like TDM, but TDM is better for that

Edited September 2, 2015 by rockscl