Messages

16

Blaster / Stealth buff to Tactics for Blasters

« on: October 07, 2021, 06:30:39 pm »

After digging through the patch notes, I can find no mention of the wonderful change that's been made to the +to hit portion of Tactics for Blasters.

The number has been raised from the Live 7% that the other DPS classes get to 10% for Blasters!

Now, any Blaster with a snipe can get take Tactics, triple slot it, add 8 enhancement boosters spread among the 3 IOs, add the Kismet Global, and you have permanent insta-snipe.

An issue with that configuration are that the yellow circle indicating insta-snipe status will not appear (for some reason that is coded to only appear when you either meet or exceed 97.50% total to hit), but even with barely 97% you can fast snipe. (Note: it does occur to me that I went slightly over 97%, so I'm not actually certain you'll get instasnipe at 97% even).

Since at end game there are a great many to-hit debuffs, I keep a window open monitoring my current to-hit to avoid starting slow snipes because I didn't realize I'd been debuffed.

Just wanted to pass on the good news to anyone else who hadn't noticed the buff.

Snipe away!

17

(Almost Tested) Bug Reporting / Re: Extreme Variation in Absolute Resolution Damage Proc

« on: September 10, 2021, 04:53:48 pm »

I decided to test the Absolution Resolution proc again and it's still giving out wild results.

Just playing normally against large spawns of mixed +0/+1 Council from a paper mission I recorded 20 damage proc numbers that ranged from 107.8 damage up to 513.47!

Mind you, the proc seems to fire as often as the proc formula allows (I believe that's 90% chance). I've slotted the Absolution Resolution proc in Tremor (once more, I love the faster animation... would love to see all the breath attacks trimmed a half-second or so, as well). I use Tremor after I've fired Fissure (which houses the other Guardian ATO proc for Resolve stacking) The vast majority of the damage numbers I saw were in the mid 200's, so that's rather a lot of damage to attach to whichever AoE you prefer.

The average of the 20 numbers in my little set was 280.32.

While the average damage yielded from a proc that seems to fire as often as the game will allow seems a little high to me (assuming you have stacks of Resolve, which are granted at the same generous rate by the other Guardian ATO proc). Really, though, I'm more concerned with how wildly variable the damage yield is. I had 4 damage numbers in the 400s and 4 damage numbers in the 100s... that's a huge range... making me wonder if something that should be added is being multiplied, instead.

Working only from the brief text descriptions (i.e. not seeing the actual numbers for either of the new ATO procs) I can't make any sense of this extreme variability that was abundantly obvious to me from casual experimentation.

I'd appreciate it if someone who can look at the math behind this proc checks it out and either fixes what's off or explains why it works the way it does (and why it's intended to be so variable and potentially game-changing).

Otherwise, I'm happy to finally have ATOs for my Guardian(s), so thanks for all the hard work!

18

(Almost Tested) Bug Reporting / Re: Minor guardian testing

« on: August 30, 2021, 07:30:02 pm »

Ninja Assault > DPA on attacks generally seems a little high.

I noticed that every single power in Ninja Assault has less than a 2 second activation time. I don't know if that level of speed was the intention of the set or if the reduction in animation times like Total Focus and Tremor might be proliferated to more long casting powers to bring other sets into a new parity. Regardless, the across-the-board lightning fast activations makes Ninja Assault a rather extreme outlier in comparison to not only other Guardian Assault sets, but to melee sets in general.

Does sound fun, though, right?

19

(Almost Tested) Bug Reporting / Extreme Variation in Absolute Resolution Damage Proc

« on: August 30, 2021, 07:13:36 pm »

After spending about an hour playing around with Catalyzed versions of the two Guardian proc ATOs I noticed wildly variable amounts of bonus energy damage.

In my crude testing I tried to make sure that I was piling up roughly the same number of Resolve stacks (4-5) before firing off Tremor (which I love the new shorter animation time on, btw), the power that I'd stuck the Absolute Resolution proc into (along with a whole pile of other procs).

Unfortunately, I'd chosen to test on +3 Freaks (mostly because I like smashing Freaks), so their moderate vulnerability to Energy damage might throw off the math. That said, I got wildly different results each time I hit a spawn of Freaks with Tremor.

Numbers that I recorded (mind you, this was by hand with scrap paper, so there's only so much science here) ranged from 351.55 bonus Energy damage (yeah, that much from a single proc... on every enemy in the spawn hit) down to 114.64 bonus Energy Damage. I also had results in between these two extremes such as 296.43 and 244.02 bonus Energy Damage.

For comparison's sake, a regular damage proc (Obliteration's) did 50.13 smashing damage against the same enemy. A better comparison might be the Eradication proc that did 65.17, since it's Energy Damage. My Armageddon purple proc only did 74.82 against +3 Freaks.

Even if I did screw up the number of Resolve stacks before firing Absolute Resolution I don't see how you get a 236.91 point swing since Resolve is supposed to only add 30% per stack!

I did try experimenting with and without Build Up and Soul Drain and I didn't notice much a difference (i.e. sometimes with both of those running the bonus Energy proc would be in the low one hundreds, other times with neither active the bonus damage would be in the high two hundreds.)

Now, I do like doing all that damage, but it seems like a bit much, doesn't it?

20

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Feedback Thread for Economy Overhaul on Test Server

« on: August 28, 2021, 01:23:11 pm »

 

It's worth mentioning that vigilantes also have the ability to initiate villain side TFs (something I should probably do more of).

Thank you for pointing that out, Draggynn. I'd only ever tried speaking to the contacts I'd unlocked on the opposite side, only to have them say they couldn't work with me. It never occurred to me that the TFs (signature style missions that seem like the most heroic of the heroic or most villainous of the villainous) would be available for Vigs/Rogs to start on the other side.

While the ability to start TFs does add some value to Vigilantes, it's (imho) nowhere near the value of Alignment Merits on live.

I mention live versus test because I only ever thought of treating Heroes like how Vigilantes are treated now (and the same for red-side) because Draggynn and D'Spite were questioning what value being a hero or villain had under the proposed changes on test:

I don't have any suggestions for minor or moderate tweaks here, things are just too far out of alignment.

This needs to go back to the drawing board, and the first question answered should be "What gameplay reason would anyone have to stay a Hero / Villain now?"

Seeing the whole idea of rebalancing the way Merits are awarded potentially being thrown out was what inspired my solution of just opening up both sides and letting people play together with less hoop-jumping. So, thanks for the inspiration. I liked coming up with the idea, despite my doubts it'll ever happen.



Anyhow, in regard to the purple drop rate and changing vendor prices I can only suggest caution.

There are numerous levers being pulled, some of which will be difficult to un-pull if these changes go live (people will get upset when their toy allowance is reduced). There are so many changes suggested, some of which seem really dramatic (the reduction in price of purples combined with a vastly increased drop rate, alone, are concerning from an economic perspective), so that I don't feel that I can even intelligently comment on what should be adjusted and how.

I do feel like there is a vast chasm between players with established characters and new players to the server. Certainly, rare enhancement sets should require some work to collect and purples should always feel special, but everyone logged on to this game to feel like whatever their vision of a super-person is. Spending, potentially, months at end game playing alongside a platoon of 50+3's with perma-hasten and/or capped defenses and/or capped resistances, etc... would certainly make me feel a lot less super. Sure, some people have the patience to soldier through, but I suspect many people will (and have) become frustrated/discouraged and just go do something else.

To be clear, while I certainly won't turn away any drops or merits, I have enough material laying around on my various characters to take any fresh 50 and kit them out completely. I'm sure there are several other players who not only could do the same thing, but perhaps kit out a whole team of 8! I'm looking at this from the perspective of attracting and retaining quality players in hopes that someday, just maybe, I'll think going through the tip and alignment missions to become a Vigilante is actually worth surrendering something significant for.

I'd really like to see small changes, first. Change a pricing scheme (since the 30 emp purple rate didn't seem to make much of a splash) or modestly increase the drop rate or allow people to select purples from reward tables, but please don't try to change all of it at once. I understand that the test server is just that, a place to test things, but I for one would not like to see ALL of these changes to go live. It just seems like too much.

21

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Feedback Thread for Economy Overhaul on Test Server

« on: August 26, 2021, 06:48:20 pm »

Yeah, I cannot get behind the idea of further fracturing the content available to individual characters by actually limiting what Vigilantes and Rogues can participate in. I will reiterate, we're talking about a player base of no more than 700 individual accounts logging in (how few actual human players is that actually, I wonder, given the number of multi-boxers?). If I divide 700 by the 168 hours in a week we get 4.16 accounts logged in at any particular hour. So, it's possible to have all four characters online under this system of further separating the Alignments be ineligible to do one another's content.

Of course, the server population is not evenly spread around the globe; but, even being on the west coast of the US makes the regular I Trials (the only I Trials run on the server, as far as I know) difficult for anyone working a 9-5, especially if they have a commute. The Monday and Tuesday 6pm Pacific start times would be a no go for me if I had to drive. On the other end of things, if I log in on a weeknight at 10 pm my time the thin roster of players is often skeletal, since 'prime time' has passed for those in the Central Time Zone and further east. I can only imagine that it's more challenging for the European and Asian players.

Setting aside the idea of making four little kiddie pools for people to play in, the bulk of your idea is pie in the sky, as far as I'm concerned. I can't imagine the amount of labor required to rework all four alignments, as well as gating off content, and adding moral decision points (both public and private) to every affected mission. Just writing all the flavor text and dialog could be a months long project, let alone actually getting down to the brass tacks of coding such a thing.

I would also like to address your false assumption that being a Vigilante is necessarily any kind of advantage. Many times I log on there are fewer than 10 people on red-side. If I'm playing a Vigilante the only things I can initiate (as far as I know... and please... correct me if there are other things a Vig/Rog can initiate on the other side) are paper missions, tip mission, and AE missions. That's it... all of which I could just do blue-side.

For a Rogue, of course, the situation is better because of the general popularity of blue-side (a dynamic that is a hold-over from Live and is also the case on Homecoming, which has a MUCH larger player base than Rebirth does).

Lastly, I would suggest that your character having a hidden alignment of some kind is something you can imagine all on your own. I've invented all sorts of stories about odd things that played out in missions, things that struck me funny or weird, or from a comment someone else made. You have the power to make your character into a subversive, a patriot, or whatever you want without someone else's arbitrary system telling you what your character is. I'd also suggest that any such elaborate system of twin alignments may aid your role-playing, but it may also worsen other player's experiences. Every new system (and one as sweeping and complicated as you're proposing would certainly be) comes with all sorts of consequences to existing systems, often times of the unforeseen or unintentional variety. I see no way for people to avoid/ignore the changes you suggest, if they don't care for them.

My suggestion is simple and straight-forward and fits with the topic of what to do in regard to the Alignment Merits, and until someone tells me that my idea is a technical dead end (and I freely admit that it may well be), it's practical, it's simple, and anyone who doesn't want to participate in it can just keep their heroes blue-side and their villains red-side. Every weeknight Villains, Heroes, Rogues, and Vigilantes get together for I Trials and I've never seen anyone comment on the mixing of alignments being a problem. Same with ITF, TinPex, yadda, yadda, yadda.

If you just don't like people being able to easily play together, that's fine (personally, I think that's weird, but we all have different tastes).

However, presenting this incredibly elaborate system of twin alignments (I had to read it twice, and I'm still unsure exactly how it would function) as some sort of subjective 'perfect' that would prevent anything 'good' from happening in the years required to implement such a system is puzzling to me.

22

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Feedback Thread for Economy Overhaul on Test Server

« on: August 25, 2021, 06:34:20 pm »

Honestly, I'd like to see Alignment minimized in importance. I think at this point in the game's life (meaning, on this server with about 500 individual log-ins a week) Alignment arbitrarily barring characters from content that they would otherwise qualify for is destructive to the server.

While on live there may have been significant differences between the sides pre-Going Rogue, much of the content added with that expansion and after was cross alignment. Cimerora, the Rikti Warzone revamp, Dark Astoria, the Wards, all the Incarnate trials, TinPex, LGTF, etc are all activities where anyone can play together regardless of their alignment. Certainly, many of these tasks are wrapped in some bit of text that explains why the threat is so large that heroes and villains might work together, but I wonder... who really needs weak prose from a decade ago to tell them who their super-person is and why they make the choices that they do?

Certainly, I see value in carefully considering how and why certain decisions were made on live, but I question what value being a Vigilante has on Rebirth right now. I've played at least 15 characters up to 50+, none of them farmed. Many of them have changed alignment for various reasons, but I can't recall ever having one of my Vigilantes join a red-side team that wasn't doing Villain tips. Very little happens red-side, especially if you view our tiny server base in the scale of a global server population spread out over the 168 hours in a week.

However, I do see value in being a Rogue. There have been several times that I've brought Rogues over to do blue-side content. In fact, it's rare that any teaming that my Rogues have done hasn't been in the company of blue-siders because of the aforementioned lack of activity on red-side.

My point here is not to boost one Alignment over the other but rather to suggest that maybe all the Heroes could be treated like Vigilantes and the Villains treated like Rogues to even the playing field and allow our small community to play as broadly as they like. Why not de-couple the zones you play in and the content you can join from the arbitrary alignment system that the developers on live consistently worked AGAINST with the aforementioned open-play content of iTrials, DA, Cim, etc?

I'm not suggesting that Heroes can go get Villain contacts (though I'm not against that), but simply letting all characters, regardless of alignment, play on either side.

If people really need something special to hang their character's identity on in terms of being a Hero/Vigilante/Rogue/Villain that their own imagination can't supply, there are still the unique alignment powers, as well as each alignment having its own roster of tip missions. Others have suggested adding Signature summons for purchase and other perks.

Turning the tables on the premise that switching sides is so powerful on Rebirth, though, it is far easier for a new player to the server to make the argument that playing a Vigilante/Rogue is at a huge disadvantage given the current outsized purchasing power of Alignment Merits (particularly given the pile you can collect from the SSA's... provided you can sit through all the unskippable dialog/cut scenes).

That's certainly how I saw the disappointing economics of the game in April/May 2019 when I first logged onto Rebirth. Now with piles of Astrals, a fair number of Emps, and hoards of Purples stashed I no longer care very much about the Alignment Merits; but, if I came on new, now, I'd likely be so turned off by the emphasis on Alignment Merits that I'd probably just go log onto another CoH server.

Mind you, I'm well aware that there may be technical limitations that I'm wholly unaware of, but it seems like a simple solution to just let Villains and Heroes play one another's content, just like Vigilantes and Rogues already do.