Forked Tower premade patch coming before 7.3

[Stasya]

So, is this them pretty much catering to the hardcore players completely and leaving randoms in the dust, or is this making it so folks can all join premades easier? Trying to see if they are basically telling casuals to stay the F out of OC and Forked Tower and this is now solely for premade discord groups.

Or people will actually start progging forked tower through PARTY FINDER, you know, RANDOMS playing with RANDOMS.

[Minali]

So, is this them pretty much catering to the hardcore players completely and leaving randoms in the dust, or is this making it so folks can all join premades easier? Trying to see if they are basically telling casuals to stay the F out of OC and Forked Tower and this is now solely for premade discord groups.

Well, with 7.3 they also want to make sure entering the tower doesn't overlap with a CE being active, so there is a chance people might give it a try more spontaenously. But yeah, considering people actually call it "sniping" when someone just tries to Do The Thing and doesn't have a schedule reliable enough to sign up at some discord run, I am certainly hesitant of trying to get in. I don't want to get flamed into oblivion, killed with tank busters or whatever just because my health issues makes it really hard to sign up to stuff. I did this once for a newbie BA run and almost had to cancel and ruin stuff for everyone else.
On the other hand, if premade groups can get in more reliably and avoid randoms signing up with that new system, maybe going on spontaenously is going to be more inviting again. When everyone can stay in their "lane" so to speak.

Edit: Yes, PF exists, and I guess I'll have to try this, but getting 24 people for Chaotic to stay in a group long enough for it to fill up was already hard a few days after its release. So, sorry if I might be a bit sceptical of how well this is going to work with twice the number of people. Week 1 or 2 after the changes maybe but afterwards...?

[DynnDiablos]

Or people will actually start progging forked tower through PARTY FINDER, you know, RANDOMS playing with RANDOMS.

That is what I was ASKING. Do you feel CAPITALIZING for emphasis makes you some big, bad b--ch?

[Saraide]

So, is this them pretty much catering to the hardcore players completely and leaving randoms in the dust, or is this making it so folks can all join premades easier? Trying to see if they are basically telling casuals to stay the F out of OC and Forked Tower and this is now solely for premade discord groups.

Can casual players not join discord?

[DynnDiablos]

Well, with 7.3 they also want to make sure entering the tower doesn't overlap with a CE being active, so there is a chance people might give it a try more spontaenously. But yeah, considering people actually call it "sniping" when someone just tries to Do The Thing and doesn't have a schedule reliable enough to sign up at some discord run, I am certainly hesitant of trying to get in. I don't want to get flamed into oblivion, killed with tank busters or whatever just because my health issues makes it really hard to sign up to stuff. I did this once for a newbie BA run and almost had to cancel and ruin stuff for everyone else.
On the other hand, if premade groups can get in more reliably and avoid randoms signing up with that new system, maybe going on spontaenously is going to be more inviting again. When everyone can stay in their "lane" so to speak.

Edit: Yes, PF exists, and I guess I'll have to try this, but getting 24 people for Chaotic to stay in a group long enough for it to fill up was already hard a few days after its release. So, sorry if I might be a bit sceptical of how well this is going to work with twice the number of people. Week 1 or 2 after the changes maybe but afterwards...?

So as I thought. Basically, they are transforming it into pre-made only, discord only content and everyone else can sit and twist. Good to know. I am never entering OC again.

[DynnDiablos]

Can casual players not join discord?

If your content is designed to where you can only access it and be successful via an outside app, the content shouldn't exist to begin with. Anyone paying for a sub, should be able to access all content in-game via the in-game systems successfully. What SE is doing is catering to one sect of the playerbase and making it very clear, everyone else is not a priority and the content they've added into a game they've paid for is not accessible unless they want to utilize outside applications.

[Minali]

So as I thought. Basically, they are transforming it into pre-made only, discord only content and everyone else can sit and twist. Good to know. I am never entering OC again.

I need to stress that this is just me voicing concerns and my own grim predictions. I have no clue if this is actually going to turn out this way. Maybe there are also going to be a lot of PF parties with 24 or 38 players or so queueing anyway and counting on randoms to join? Which would give me more opportunities, same as e.g. people with kids, wonky work shifts etc. It's really hard to say how things might turn out at the moment.

@Saraide: Being able to join a discord and being able to join an organized group at (date) and (time) with specific roles set etc. and then be there on time and all are two very different kind of things. You equating both like this tells me you never had any irl issues interfering with your gaming. Good for you! But not everyone is in this position.

[Saraide]

If your content is designed to where you can only access it and be successful via an outside app, the content shouldn't exist to begin with. Anyone paying for a sub, should be able to access all content in-game via the in-game systems successfully. What SE is doing is catering to one sect of the playerbase and making it very clear, everyone else is not a priority and the content they've added into a game they've paid for is not accessible unless they want to utilize outside applications.

Casuals are on discord just as much as raiders are tho. Cranky people arent there because they have trouble interacting with other people without having a meltdown but casuals and raiders are there just fine. It's just a vastly superior tool for organization of large amounts of people than PF could ever hope to be.

I need to stress that this is just me voicing concerns and my own grim predictions. I have no clue if this is actually going to turn out this way. Maybe there are also going to be a lot of PF parties with 24 or 38 players or so queueing anyway and counting on randoms to join? Which would give me more opportunities, same as e.g. people with kids, wonky work shifts etc. It's really hard to say how things might turn out at the moment.

@Saraide: Being able to join a discord and being able to join an organized group at (date) and (time) with specific roles set etc. are two very different kind of things. You equating both like this tells me you never had any irl issues interfering with your gaming. Good for you! But not everyone is in this position.

I had irl issues interfering with my gaming, that doesnt change the fact that you can join organized groups no problem. Especially with it being now much more stable and no longer needing to spend potentially hours to try and get into the same instance. Sure, you wont have time for literally every single FT group in existence, that's the reality of having a job. But this change lays out a good foundation to content longevity which is the actual thing busy people need: You wont be able to ride the initial wave therefore you need to content to stick around and find groups at a later date. Making it less of a hassle to get into FT as organized group helps with that.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Hey...

They are learning...

Let's just hope next time they elect to design the system properly in the first place instead of taking a regressive path.

Properly would mean a Normal mode in-zone (where the cipher entry actually makes sense) and putting the Savage version as separate entry with full PF support to begin with.

[Myon88]

So, is this them pretty much catering to the hardcore players completely and leaving randoms in the dust, or is this making it so folks can all join premades easier? Trying to see if they are basically telling casuals to stay the F out of OC and Forked Tower and this is now solely for premade discord groups.

Casuals will have the privilege of zoning into an instance that was created exclusively for discord premade use due to fix no.5. Just in time to help them kill the support fate outside for a pittance of sanguinite.