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TOPIC: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse

NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #1

All,

Not to belabor a point that was brought up last year, but ...

I do hope this year will be a better Nightmare pick up experience then 2013 was for me.

I had 2 tickets for a Thursday afternoon Nightmare Mode run, and in walked 4 players with no gear ... ok fine .. Since I run a TD guild I can probably cover 4 people in the "right" character classes for Nightmare ... and then ... 3 more with just a sealed pack and no previous experience. At least Kubu was there to share my pain.

So this seems to happen more often then not.

1) I signed up for a nightmare run because after the investment in tokens and a few years of play experience I would like to compete at a higher difficulty level.

2) After discussing it with my fellow guildmate that was with me we decided we wouldn't hold up the group from lowering the difficulty, even tho we wanted the nightmare completion tokens and at least a shot at Nightmare survivor badge.

3) Then one of the non-expereinced single token pack people spoke up ... "Go Big or Go home .. we signed up for nightmare ..we want nightmare" Even after they were advised by the coach and the coaching director, they insisted.

So on we went into Golembane Combat Nightmare.

Room 1 - 2 dead
Room 2 - 1 more corpse on the pile
Room 3 - cake
Room 4 - 3 more dead
Room 5 - Kubu, myself and my guildmate ... TPK

Valiant effort, but unfortunately the experience was less then enthralling.

Not wanting the ruin the experience My guildmate and I stepped out at this point while the ghosts continued on to finish the run.


So the point of this all?

Is there nothing that can be done for nightmare signups ?

Regards,
Anthony Brown
a.k.a. Kartas Starfurie
Rage of Dragons co-guild Leader
Anthony Brown
a.k.a. Kartas Starfurie

Rage of Dragons Co-guild Leader
TD Certified DM, Coach

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #2

  • Picc
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I had a similar thing happen this year. My wife and I signed up for one of the dedicated nightmare combat slots and ended up in a group with 6 total newbies. They all wanted to do normal and just didn't care if the slot was dedicated nightmare or not. We conceded and even gave up first pick on character classes despite being 4thlv+ since some of them were really instant on their "favorite" classes. In the end it was a little disappointing but we all had a good time.

My first time playing I also signed up for a nightmare puzzle run and went in blind because I like a challenge. We did fine with it being puzzle but honestly the idea of nightmare being to hard didn't even enter into my mind.

From personal experience I think the best solution is to just try and setup your groups on the forums (team synergy were by far my favorite runs this year) but failing that (or if you enjoy pugs)you just have to be willing to roll with it.

On the flip side I wonder if something could be done similar to how second day tournaments show up on the schedule but open for registration with the groups themselves being setup on here. Though that might add undesirable levels of additional overhead for Jeff and co.
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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #3

The easy answer is to buy all the tickets for your run and populate it with your own team or at least known quantities.
Of all the traits of humanity, there is only one we do not share with other species, which sets us apart and makes us unique <br />-- the ability to imagine.

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #4

I must agree with Picc. After having that same experience of signing up for nightmare but running normal for two years in a row, I have just arranged my nightmare runs through the forums. The Team Synergy runs have been outstanding.

There are always a variety of runs and times to join with on here.

MU Skulls Rob.
You mean you wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept. - The Dread Pirate Roberts

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #5

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #6

Picc wrote: I had a similar thing happen this year. My wife and I signed up for one of the dedicated nightmare combat slots and ended up in a group with 6 total newbies. They all wanted to do normal and just didn't care if the slot was dedicated nightmare or not. We conceded and even gave up first pick on character classes despite being 4thlv+ since some of them were really instant on their "favorite" classes. In the end it was a little disappointing but we all had a good time.


This exact thing happened to a friend and me, too. Twice.

I think there were more Nightmare runs available than were necessary.

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #7

MU Skulls Rob wrote: I must agree with Picc. After having that same experience of signing up for nightmare but running normal for two years in a row, I have just arranged my nightmare runs through the forums. The Team Synergy runs have been outstanding.

There are always a variety of runs and times to join with on here.

MU Skulls Rob.


Rob, I'm curious, did the coach give you the option of going Nightmare despite what the other players wanted, since it was a dedicated Nightmare slot? I'm just curious how that worked. I had thought the rule was that it was going to be Nightmare regardless of whether the players wanted to go Nightmare or Normal, since it was listed as Nightmare when they signed up. Except for that one year when they were having a tough time selling all the Nightmare slots, and Jeff said that if it was unanimous to play Normal they would allow it.

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #8

On a related note, perhaps some of the Nightmare slots this year should be converted to Hardcore slots? I guess Jeff has all the statistics on how many people played Hardcore as compared to Nightmare.

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #9

Mike Steele wrote:

MU Skulls Rob wrote: I must agree with Picc. After having that same experience of signing up for nightmare but running normal for two years in a row, I have just arranged my nightmare runs through the forums. The Team Synergy runs have been outstanding.

There are always a variety of runs and times to join with on here.

MU Skulls Rob.


Rob, I'm curious, did the coach give you the option of going Nightmare despite what the other players wanted, since it was a dedicated Nightmare slot? I'm just curious how that worked. I had thought the rule was that it was going to be Nightmare regardless of whether the players wanted to go Nightmare or Normal, since it was listed as Nightmare when they signed up. Except for that one year when they were having a tough time selling all the Nightmare slots, and Jeff said that if it was unanimous to play Normal they would allow it.


How it was explained in TD101 last year is as follows:

Normal runs can go up or down in difficulty but it only takes 1 vote to bring them back to normal. A Nightmare dedicated run is run at Nightmare only.

I would guess that coaches would allow them to lower the level if everyone agreed to play at a lower level, but I would still say if one person says Nightmare then it is run at Nightmare.
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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #10

As a coach I will say, unless its pointed out to me, I probably won't notice if the run is supposed to be Nightmare or not. I never know what time it is, all I know is what room to go to next.

I had a nightmare run end up with some random pickups and they went nightmare.

Yes its certainly not ideal to end up with a run that random "noobs" end up in but there isn't a great way to deal with that other than to make sure you buy the entire run or corrdinate with someone here on the boards to make sure you get a run.

That said, last year there were some completely empty nightmare runs for a long while. Tickets in general were more plentiful so hopefully you'll be able to work something out.
Sweet a combat room, we won't take damage!

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #11

As once I was a player coach and knew about the nightmare or not because it was very specific on the mode especially when more than 5 player were newbies at it. I remember when I was with Quip and his son and also another veteran player as 4 were the only group for nightmare on single run against Smoak the dragon reprise his role for revenge return. All because all the DM and player coach was knew it was near impossible to defeat Smoak with a group of 4. But at the end we came out as the victor, even as the DM wrote it survive the last room, but instead we didn't have taken the push damage like we suppose to. Just have to talk the DM to make that call where most of the group were newbies than veteran player because I basically know most of player coach and the DM to be understandable that ways. Even happen to me with a group of newbie player and just me and Kubu as veteran player and they a great bunch newbies because they legally survivor with little help from my tokens and expertize as player coach/DM/trader/volunteer/dungeoneer. That is what I never devour the secret of the run if I ran more than twice because newbies or not and veteran player or not it's ruining the completion by the individual accomplishment as in badge and all. As what I do at least 8 or 13 run during the Con, so at least I can expect a few fail runs, but not many.

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Re: NIghtmare Mandate - Beating an almost dead horse 10 years 2 months ago #12

  • Picc
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I'm my case this year I ended up doing our party card for the nightmare run since there was a staffing issue with some of the coaches on Saturday and the rest of my group had already been waiting for a few minutes by the time I showed up (back to back runs). I suppose I could have forced the issue but honestly I was more concerned with getting the run started.
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