My thoughts, impressions and some mechanics discussion on The Omega Protocol: Ultimate raid.
Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/ilyadalamiq
Follow me on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ilyadalamiq
Discord: https://discord.gg/SgGgt5apVW
00:00 Intro
01:08 Prog
05:30 Mechanic Discussion and Solving
16:18 3rd Party Tools
source
I liked it when he said "a flip switched"
Counterpoint to mechanic design that "requires" 3rd party tools like Auto Markers: it doesn't matter how hard or easy a mechanic is, people will always be using 3rd party tools if they want to, see pf and titan phase of uwu.
So many groups went a route that added so many extra steps of thinking when it came to Phase 1.
Making two separate static groups is a disaster, especially in Party Finder, because there's so many things to keep track of (What group am I in? Who is in my group? Is my number partner part of my group or the other group?).
It ends up being this mess of THMRTHMR when it could be simplified down to flexing based on role only.
Pantokrator with the static groups ends up being even more of a mess as well because flexing happens very often.
All a group needs to do is stick a healer on each end, send all the DPS with one healer and the supports with the other, and then flex accordingly.
There's no thought of "is my number partner also in my group, and which of us flexes? Is my number partner in the other group?"
The only thought for the flexes becomes "Is my number partner a support or DPS? If I'm the same number as my healer, I flex. Is my number partner the same role as me? Then one of us flexes based on priority our set role priority or agreement if we're same job type".
dude, healers non flexing but calling shit + conga line solve this ultiamte for my group. Conga (Ultimate)
Grats to you guys on the clear! Completely agreed re: 3rd party tools. When players have to spend too much mental bandwidth on mechanics (and/or dealing with other players), especially late into an ultimate run, it becomes an exhausting, unenjoyable ordeal. As such, the mechanics design does directly influence tool usage. For example, imagine doing both sets of DSR knockback tethers without the playstation markers. It'd make the prog into a "cheap kill" slog for vanilla players, especially at DOTH, whereas a single player using automarkers would immediately solve the mechanic for the team. That would make such use a requirement for progression. It makes a lot of sense that they didn't go that way in DSR, and as a result we now have a new/better mechanic that can be used elsewhere in the game (i.e. Barbariccia).
Square really needs to get away from "annoying"/"lazy"/"cheap kill" mechanics design, and actually apply more effort to making difficult mechanics approachable, especially if they're serious about ramping up the difficulty of the game in future ultimate tiers as they claim. If the "hardest phase" of the fight gets trivialized by markers, then it wasn't really that difficult in the first place.
Sidenote RE: Simulator. It'd be cool (and potentially helpful for Square's design teams if they really wanted to go ham on difficulty in the future) if a player's progress was tracked mid fight and reaching different phases unlocked a simulator/planner mode inside the game.
ilya did you have fun playing this fight?
I think the current non-3rd party tool standard is to have one player who can quickly mark players during the trios. To the rest of the team, it's really no different from using AM. But with the way sigma and omega are designed, it would just make things harder to get the whole group involved in the "marking" process. It's kind of a strange situation
People “getting rusty” after 2-3 days off shouldn’t raid ultimate tbh. That’s just a weak player.
For real though, your biggest problem is having people rely on calls. You’re talking about having non adjusters call for the dps and tanks. But, they should be able to do it all themselves easily. You probably needed to rep people who couldn’t do that. Ultimates are harder now.