Plague Star Feedback

[Void2258]

This is my first time doing Plague Star. While I get the love for forma farming, I think the event itself has some issues.

1. The first phase is basically a solo run into a cave by whomever loaded first. It's not helpful for multiple people to participate, and possibly even problematic (if people get stuck/lost). A step that is more involved for the whole squad would be better, or just skip to the current second step.
2. Just your basic defense. not good or bad. However, the timer does not give any cue it is done, and the phase won't advance until someone notices and goes to get the canister. This can lead to it going on longer than the actual timer as people think they have to defend until the bounty notice pops, as per normal.
3. The drone phase is horrible. It's slow on its own, practically requiring a speed up frame to make it bearable (check the usage stats for volt and nova; it's almost faster to leave and reload if your squad doesn't have one). Also very prone to bugging. This bounty type isn't fun NORMALLY, never mind to grind over and over. Please replace or remove, or at least make the escort VERY short and the drone much faster on it's own so you don't force teams to bring a specific frame.
4. Kinda disappointing the hemocite fight is just the Lephanits fight 4 times without any variation. If it has to be Lephantis, maybe at least make the first 3 times one head each (something to make it less repetitive)? In addition to being repetitive, the fight is a bit chaotic, with enemy spawns continuing while the hemocite making dealing with it hard as you get swarmed. Also, the large amount of non-accelerable invulnerability phases can be annoying (especially for the hard to hit scythe head, which is nearly always last). The mechanics are interesting to do once in a boss fight, less so 4 times in a row. It's another boss that punishes players for not having Primed Sure Footed with constant knockdowns (which are hard to consistently dodge due to the enemy swarms). Also, it would be nice to have a boss-style health bar (alal orowyrm), as staying on target to get the health of each head is not happening.

Added comments:

• Tusk Thumpers need to be kept away from the boss fight. If they get involved it becomes hard to hit the heads. Ditto with Eidolon Terralyst (who brings a swarm of Vomvolysts).
• Please give us a way to skip the dialogue. It gets really annoying after the 50th time. Also delays the transition between phases as they talk.
• Please let us repeat from inside the plains. Loading in and out of Cetus is slow and causes lots of host migration/squad disintegrations.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Void2258

[Leviathis_Krade]

being able to mute ALL dialogue does "fix" the dialogue spam from vay hek, but I feel like he needs his own volume adjuster for players, or something.

hearing him drone on and on and on and on and on when doing misplayed slow runs is the pits. you can only bear hearing him say the same few lines so many times.

 

its not as grating if you're able to quickly kill the hemocytes but if you need to spend longer than 4 minutes killing each one you'll hear him repeat all of his lines countless times.

[BalaDeSilver]

I'm doing it at such a quick pace on SP, I barely notice Vay Hek. I understand that not everyone is a god Gyre on the battlefield, so I suggest a "Allied transmission" and "Enemy transmission" separate volume sliders, would fix this and much more around the game.

[Chad1661]

I have played plague star many times and am farmed out.  Mainly just returning to check out the changes.  I do like the Elixars are taken care of automatically, but I think they should still need to be equipped so that we know how many we have left.

As far as the points above:

1.  Agreed -   The first phase needs to be something that actually works better with more players.  Maybe have a new mode where pickups are required to found and picked up to unlock the vault to get the canister.

3.  Agreed.  The drone phase is painfully slow paced.  It should be replaced or eliminated.

4. Agreed.  Four repeating boss fights with the same boss is extremely grindy.  I like the idea of having separate versions with each unique head and then all the current version with all three heads at the end.   

[CrownOfShadows]

The experience might be much different in regular vs SP, so take all my thoughts here with a grain of salt.

Having played it a lot on SP however, my only real complaint is with the defense section. That 2:35 or whatever it is feels like 10 minutes every time. I actually like the beginning, where one person goes into the cave. The drone can be annoying but at least you're moving, and with a Volt Wisp or Nova (or all 3) it's over pretty quick and it never really bothered me except when it was like over 1000 meters. Lephantis also goes by so quick that I barely have time to get irritated by having to do it multiple times. I also never was bothered by the dialogue.

Your point about there being no notification when the defense is over is solid. There is a noise but if you're out of range you won't hear it. Quite a few times we were all sitting around still shooting and it was sitting there done for who knows how long.

Special note on the Thumpers for me: I was quite irritated by them at first, but then later I looked forward to them a great deal once I remembered how to take them down efficiently on the SP. I actually prefer having them intrude. It makes it interesting and breaks up the monotony. Sure it messes up efficiency, but personally I'll trade a little efficiency for a little variety + unexpected rewards.

Restarting out in the plains: yes please.

I agree that this event would be rather miserable for anyone without PSF.