Player-1
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7 hours ago, LastHumanSoldier said:
Seems there is an issue with triggering Temporal Bomb:
if you are near another traps player, teamed or solo, and you both have Temporal bomb out.
Either player can trigger the other players bomb.Game doesn't care who triggers.
Game doesn't care if you are grouped.
Line of sight doesn't matter.
Range doesn't seem to matter either.
This has some serious bugs associated with it.
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This breaks the UI.
- It also makes it so the next time you put the bomb down you can't trigger it.
- This breaks the cooldown.
- This breaks the SFX/VFX.
Hello LastHumanSoldier,
This is something we tested internally and were not able to recreate early on. Can you please confirm that another player is indeed setting off your Temporal Bomb and vice-versa? Also, are you and the other player the same Archetype?
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This breaks the UI.
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1 hour ago, WindDemon21 said:
Again, this power needed BUFFS only straight up. There is no reason to lower the chain distance as the chaining at 15ft already still had many issues.
The power still needs a larger recharge reduction to account for this and the fact that it literally won't proc almost at all, and the end cost still terribly needs reduced to account for this as well. The power should still have, maybe with these slight damage fixes, a 12s recharge and about 11 end cost. The power will still miss all or half of the mob if it misses on the first target, or chains in the wrong direction.
Again, keep the 15ft jump radius, and lower the recharge/end to about 12 each. This power is still not ok and falls far below any other regular aoe.
Due to: missing all or half the mob even at max acc chance
Not taking procs
Having pretty much no useful secondary effect
Still lower damage on the rest of the aoe and overall besides the first target which is just barely over regular aoe values.
So it should have MUCH better end/rech values to compensate for this verus other regular aoes.
TBH also with the set not really having anything to actually use to start the alpha, besides jet stream, jet stream (on top of all ranged cones really but especially here), should have a 16 target cap so you can at least use it's KD to start the fight and have it hit the whole mob.
Hello WindDemon21,
I ask that you give the changes a try in tandem with the buffs to Storm Cell. The changes to Chain Lightning can be condensed to allowing it to disperse much more quickly through a crowd as it forks much more rapidly, while also receiving a 20% recharge reduction, 15% accuracy boost, and only a 5% reduction in damage with most of it being front-loaded and ending up at the same level of decay as beforehand. The reduction to the chain jump distance is something we had to do for balance as otherwise this version would have been overtuned!
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59 minutes ago, ScarySai said:
Power icons super broken for anyone else?
Hello Sai,
Can you please provide a screenshot of which icons are broken?
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2 hours ago, c0 said:
Blaster>Devices>Remote Bomb doesn't seem to inherit player stats, not sure if by design?
Hello c0,
What do you have slotted in remote bomb, and what level enemy were you fighting?
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Hello all,
I want to reiterate that we do comb through and greatly appreciate the feedback in these threads (and the suggestions forum too!). However, there are certain things we cannot action on either altogether, or in a timely fashion that lines up with the beta cycle at hand.
At this time, the powers in Arsenal Control are locked in and we cannot commit to any major swaps such as one type of crowd control to another. That said, if there are suggestions on how the current power framework can be improved we would be happy to look into those!
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26 minutes ago, Coyotedancer said:
Unfortunately, I don't have FRAPs installed on this PC, so I can't catch video of White Thorn's "live vs beta" runs with that DA mission I mentioned up-thread. (And, frankly, the files would be too large to reasonably upload even if I did-)
How useful would posted logs be?
Logs are also useful to parse the proc triggering and/or being interrupted. Video allows for a bit more context is all! I would not worry over an entire run being recorded either, just testing in controlled scenarios that can be repeated can provide digestible results.
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Hello everyone, just want to chime in and thank you all again for the feedback!
For the topic at hand, it would be helpful to get some more varied data on the ATO's success and failure rates. We have some anecdotal data in this thread, and a handful of logs, though a gif or video of the behavior would be excellent to compare against.
In a controlled environment such as a repeatable mission against the same targets, video of the proc going off and/or I suppose "turning off" over time could be useful in determining how it behaves during game play.
We are looking at this internally as well, yet more testing is always appreciated!
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Hello everyone,
Regarding Stalkers, it would be best to test the different configurations to ensure if the behaviors are indeed broken or working as intended. If they do break, please show proof in this thread and it can be addressed.
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1 hour ago, Psi-bolt said:
I agree, but I would suggest alternative powers like with Sentinel Super Reflexes. Where if you take the revamped power you can't take the legacy power.
That implementation unfortunately had many complications under the hood from what I understand such as needing special considerations for the re-spec screen. If there is ever a way to add more alternative powers without the loopholes Sentinel Super Reflexes then it is something to consider.
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Hello @TheZag,
I appreciate the idea but in practice I am not sure how feasible it will be.
Firstly, what defines a revamp? The last cycle had a variety of changes to Ranged Blast powersets that varied from a power or two getting slight timing or numeric adjustments, to multiple powers with numeric adjustments, to certain powers gaining new functionality.
Dark Blast and Fire Blast fall in the first category where only some timing adjustments/stat adjustments were made to a power or two. To me, it would seem wasteful to clone them entirely just for the choice of the unchanged vs changed versions here. Water Blast had some powers more fundamentally changed where they build stacks even on a miss, as well as water jet no longer having a lock-out. Like with the other examples, it would seem wasteful to make a clone here to use an objectively worse version of Water Blast when the new version fixes issues with the old. The reverse would also be true if we were to reintroduce a legacy version of Titan Weapons or another set that was brought down in potency. Normally, players would opt for the better of the two and ignore the lesser outside of novelty.
Going even further, the Mastermind changes would certainly be considered a revamp given they fundamentally changed multiple powers. Comparing the new version of Necromancy to what it was before is night and day in favor of the new. Having both available may feel almost like a trap for newer players who chose the old version!
Lastly, similar to the choice between legacy or revamp being a potential trap, the amount of powersets that share similar names would be confusing to a number of players. "There is one Fire Blast, but two Assault Rifles?" This is admittedly a slippery slope fallacy, but it would be odd to many where only some powersets have two versions while the rest have one.
In short, this is possible to do but the downsides would much more likely outweigh the benefits between workload and tech debt, conveying information to all players, and even usage. Was there a particular powerset revamp that you had in mind for this distinction?
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Storm Cell originally could be slotted for these effects, but due to the oddities associated with pets that have multiple powers we decided to buff the slow and tohit debuff portions of the power to prevent "traps".
To @Saiyajinzoningen's example of Tornado, that pet has multiple powers but only one has the ability to be enhanced. Conveniently, that power has Damage, Knock, Defense Debuff, and so on all rolled into one so that an Accuracy/Knock or Accuracy/Damage enhancement will boost it all the same. The difference with Storm Cell is that the High Winds and Lightning powers are seperate and would have taken different enhancement types. If you were to slot an accuracy/slow for instance, the lightning powers would not have their accuracy enhanced which is counter-intuitive when you are slotting Storm Cell for accuracy.
This is something we are looking into, though it has complexities depending on the pets and slotting options in question.
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7 hours ago, MirrorDarkly said:
So if I am going to drop Cat5 on a group of enemies there is no reason to first cast Storm Cell?
If that is true I think it should be stated explicitly in the power descriptions because dispite playing the set quite a bit and trying to understand it in CoD I had no idea...
It also begs the question; if I have both active in the same area, use another storm blast power and proc lighting, which power is actually triggered? If for example I have one with substantially better slotting that could matter a lot.
Storm Cell can proc its Lightning and High Winds debuffs, where Category Five can proc its Lightning. Having both in an area stacks all those effects still, or you can have them on seperate groups to greatly increase your area of effectiveness.
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1 hour ago, WindDemon21 said:
There also seems to be something fundamentally bugged with storm cell, which maybe that is what is also resulting in the procs seeming extra bad. Here's an example, long-snipe direct strike is 80% proc chance, with intensify, that is 100% that it should guarantee full proccing. Storm cell, outside of misses, then should be guaranteed to hit 7 targets, but as you can see, it's not doing so. Take away *maybe* one target for REALLY bad RNG, and it should still have hit 6 targets with the lightning: (god for the life of me i can't figure out why i can't seem to record again). I tried it 3 times in a row with different mobs in PP that were close together. Twice in a row Laying cell, cast intensify, cast slow snipe I only got 2 strikes to hit other targets, the 3rd time It hit 4.
Hi @WindDemon21, firstly I want to thank you for consolidating the prior information into one post. That is very helpful to us as even though we do comb the forums, bits and pieces mixed in with banter gets lost quickly.
Secondly, the quote above may be a misconception about how Storm Cell works. When you proc Lightning, it only procs one lightning at a time. There is not a chance to trigger Lightning (Focused) and (Spread) when you activate a power, rather a split between which version triggers when it is procced at all. Having the expectation of potentially 7 bonus targets can certainly sway opinions!
Lastly, Storm Blast is still subject to change over time just as with the rest of the game. Given we get enough data to make a compelling case one way or another of course be that internal or otherwise!
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@WindDemon21, I would advise that the best way to get our eyes and ears on something is to be objective as with @Wavicle in providing evidence to back up claims.
Just saying "X is godawful and the devs MUST do Y to fix it!" is guaranteed to be glazed over when compared to doing the work of "X is godawful because of ABC compared directly to DEF, it would be better if Y was done instead". Making dozens of posts in a row without stopping to dig down and bring up the specifics, resorting to hyperbole, and focusing on retorting with other posters rather than the actual issue at hand will only get posts like this critiquing the method of feedback.
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On 5/14/2023 at 10:33 PM, Zep said:
Question(s) please:
1) Do the Storm Cell Bonuses stack for multiple Cells?
2) Does this apply to Cat 5 as well, stacking or non stacking bonuses but no procs?
Hello Zep,
To clarify on these points:
1) Overlapping Storm Cells do not stack bonuses such as Gust's DoT or Direct Strike's stun. The powers look to see if a target is "In a Storm Cell" and will activate bonuses accordingly, but does not care how many Storm Cells it is in.
2) Category Five also counts as a Storm Cell for the purposes of the bonus effects. If you drop a Category Five down on an area, then use Jet Stream, you'll notice it does Knockdown like with Storm Cell. However, overlapping with Storm Cell does not provide further bonuses.
In short, as long as a target is within anybody's Storm Cell or Category Five they will be subject to the bonus effects of Storm Blast powers. But only you can proc lightning and high winds from your own Storm Cell or Category Five.
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3 hours ago, Psiphon said:
Hi all, quick question.
Do the benefits of Storm Cell only work with your own or also other teammates? I assume the former but just wanted confirmation.
Thanks.
Your powers will get Storm Cell bonuses as long as they target enemies that are inside of a Storm Cell. However, only your Storm Cell will proc High Wind and Lightning from your Powers.
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Hi all, I want to shed some light on our process to clear some of the confusion, as well as touch on a few of the misconceptions that have popped up.
Firstly, at a high level our pipeline on the Powers side resembles:
Step 1)
Pitching internally to other Developers and workshopping very basic versions of powers to get a working model. This can be as simple as "We have not touched Powerset A in a while, it may be due for an update" or as complex as "We found a new way to create a graphic effect, AND we can use new technology to grant powers to a pet..." to create something brand new. At this stage we can get a feel for what is or is not worth putting on the table for a release based on the complexities and resources involved. Using this last Page as a reference, we had the bandwidth to not only create a brand new Blast Powerset, but also touch up all the others as we could work on both items at once very easily as compared to working on a new Armor Powerset while also trying to juggle Blast updates. Many ideas are stuck at this stage to this day due to various circumstances or needing other dominoes to fall internally.
Step 2)
Once a change is in a workable state internally, we release it to the Alpha testers in a closed environment. It is here where we often make the biggest changes and often end up rolling things back. A change can pass internal scrutiny, but when there are more eyes on it there are naturally new things that will be discovered. For example, we had changes to Archery that needed to be rolled back during Alpha due to bug reports that would take more resources than we could allocate for the time. The goal at this stage is to find anything major and address it before adding in more testers to the mix.
Step 3)
Next step is Beta where we release to an even wider audience. At this stage, the major aspects of a release are meant to be polished and it is a rarity that we would make drastic changes. We are mainly looking for any last bugs or altering "dials" for the most part such as a power doing a bit more damage, recharging faster, or so on. The next step from here once all is well would be a Live Release, so we want to utilize a larger number of testers to find anything that has sifted through the prior steps in order to deliver as polished a final product as possible.
This process can always see improvements. I do not speak for the other developers, but I for one like the idea of having more polls or forms for feedback as it can be useful for hitting specific questions, though that would require more resources to create and sort through them, as well as coordination with delivering them to testers. "Too Many Cooks" can be a real challenge when it comes to subjective opinions, and even something like a poll can end up with the majority being disappointed where out of options A, B, and C, B wins with 40% to the dismay of the 60% split between A and C.
We all love City of Heroes. Those of us who choose to participate in the Forums, on Discord, and especially in Beta and Alpha testing are often the most passionate players as they take time out of playing the game to gush about it with their friends! That said, unfortunately there need to be steps in place to try and filter all the feedback in ways that are actionable by the Development team such as closed Alpha testing that you need to opt into and keep on the down low compared to more open Beta testing that anyone can help with.
This leads to the second topic: Anyone can bring valuable feedback to the table, anyone can steer the direction of certain changes, but not everyone. Simply due to logistics, we cannot action on every cool idea that comes up nor can we have an infinite team of people working on the game. The best way to get your ideas heard and actioned on is to provide sound backing to them via context and evidence, and by showcasing that you can work well with others. Storm Blast was created by 5 members of the Development team with various degrees of input and stress testing, across different disciplines of design. This would not be possible without good coordination and an objective approach to the work at hand where even something like tweaking the duration of a DoT would need another round of testing before it hit Alpha Testers.
Hours upon Hours of time is spent on even the smaller changes, I believe with the Blast Powersets alone I had put in about 50 hours into just running statistics on the tweaks compared to the live versions, let alone actually playing them alongside juggling home life, work, and other items in the page such as Storm Blast! This was due to us having specific goals in mind when it comes to how the Powersets perform relative to one another, there are far too many other variables at play which is what we look to the Alpha and Beta tests for as otherwise it is impossible to cover every angle.
When it comes to that feedback, we really look for specifics and context as anecdotal evidence can point to an issue but it is often on shaky ground. Looking at the statement "I don't see Seismic Blast characters" as an example piece of feedback does not tell us much on it's own aside from one player's observation. This statement could have some supporting evidence behind it though such as if the player also noted: "Out of 10 days, I was on 20 8-man teams and I observed Powersets ABC, but not D or E when looking at the 40 Ranged Archetypes observed across these teams" then it would carry much more weight.
They could even go above and beyond and bring up context of what may be causing the observed pattern:
- From the public server status page (https://forums.homecomingservers.com/server-status/), at any given moment we can average 2000 players online.
- We can assume that among the 2000, all 15 Archetypes are represented equally with about 133 players per Archetype.
- Four of them can use Seismic Blast, bringing the portion up to 532 players / 2000 = about 27%
- Of that 27%, there is a 1/14 chance that a player is using Seismic Blast if we assume all are played equally.
- This translates to a 1.9% chance that a player you run into will be using Seismic Blast.
- These odds are likely higher in practice due to the distribution of Archetypes, if you only see those who can use Blast Powersets that is a 1/14 or 7.1% chance to see any particular set.
- The fact that I saw no Seismic Blast Characters across 40 Ranged Archetypes leads me to believe it may not be a popular choice.
This would be something I would personally pay close attention to given the player showed they went out of their way to investigate and provide objective feedback that showed their work.
Consistently paying attention to detail, clearly communicating your points, and working with others to support your feedback in a similar objective manner will provide excellent material for the Development Team to work off of. Diving in to subjective arguments with one another is an excellent way to cloud feedback and make it more difficult to actually test and make changes for other players and Developers alike.
Please remember that we are all working on this game out of passion for it. Passion can be an incredible fuel source for vitriol, but also for greatness. Keep in mind that there are certain realities that cannot always be readily communicated due to forces out of our control, but for what we can control there are methods that can get better results than others. Let's all keep improving.
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1 hour ago, warlyx said:
and why is that?
it would be cool giving Archery the AR system , instead of ammo , different type of arrows , fire , ice , lightining arrows for example....
of anything Archery needs love is an unique set, since there no other powersets that use bow (not counting MM) , but there is 100 ways to nuke things with elemental powers , boosting the ST a bit would help 🙂 or if bringed something to the table
Archery has some issues under the hood that needed more focus than we could afford this patch cycle. We will be looking at it again in the near future.
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5 minutes ago, WindDemon21 said:
aoe volley, you're getting the most proc chances
For clarity, the chances to summon High Winds or Lightning are set by the power activating. Chain Lightning has the higher end of said chances, but the dice will only roll once upon activation and not per target. Jet Stream nor Chain Lightning have bonus odds due to hitting multiple targets as seen in other, similar procs.
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Keep in mind that Assault Rifle also has more AoE powers than Archery when making a comparison between the two. Archery has Fistful of Arrows, Explosive Arrow, and Rain of Arrows. Assault Rifle has Buckshot, M30 grenade, Flamethrower, Ignite, and Full Auto. The entire kit is often considered with such changes where a significant increase to one power in context of the rest of the powers could sway performance in unintended ways.
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5 hours ago, Underfyre said:
The lightning procs are boosted by enhancements in Storm Cell, not the power that triggered them. Cat5 lightning procs, which also require Storm Cell to be active, receive their enhancements from Cat 5 tho.
Category Five does not require Storm Cell to be active for lightning to be activated by it.
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Hi there! The Focus Fire mechanic on Mercenaries is a bit different compared to other damage buffs or resistance debuffs as it affects the base damage of your henchmen's attacks.
In short, each application of Focus Fire from a Mastermind on a target will increase the base damage of their henchmen by 3.33% before damage buffs or resistance debuffs take effect. A 20 damage burst from a Soldier will become 22 damage if a target has 3 applications of Focus Fire on them, and then that will be boosted by enhancements, supremacy, and debuffs on the target. Its a seperate layer of damage boost which is a bit unique!
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Thank you @CU_Krow! Hope you and everyone here have a great holiday 🙂
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21 hours ago, TheZag said:
I was gonna post this as a bug but the patch notes actually specify heal enhancements in dark empowerment improve life drain and doesnt mention siphon life so im suggesting a change (although it sure feels like a bug/oversight to me).
The in game description is-
Dark Empowerment will permanently bestow the most powerful and darkest new powers and abilities to all of your Undead Henchman. The Empowered Undead will gain new abilities and powers. The powers gained are unique and dependent upon the type of Undead Henchman that is Empowered, but all Henchmen will gain additional Hit Points, and the power to steal life force from enemies they attack!
And here is the relevant patch note-
Dark Empowerment
- Now accepts Healing sets and enhancements.
- Lich's Life Drain have been moved to this upgrade, no longer grants Petrifying Gaze to the Lich.
- Slotting this power with heal enhancements will enhance Life Drain's heal.
- Dark Empowerment range increased from 30' to 50'.
- Grants a 15% max HP (half enhanceable) to all henchmen.
Only the Lich uses life drain, the zombies and grave knights use siphon life. Adding heal enhancements into the henchmen upgrade power does improve the Lich's life drain but does nothing for the siphon life on the other henchmen. As the upgrade power that adds the healing ability to all henchmen and accepts heal enhancements, it feels particularly specific that it improves the Lich life drain but not the others siphon life. Heal enhancements do improve all their total HP though so its not a total loss for the t1 and t2 henchmen.
This is a bit misleading from internal notes, but the upgrade will effect both Siphon Life and Life Drain across all the pets. The Lich specifically got powers moved between the first and second upgrades which lead to Life Drain being focused on more.
If Siphon Life is not improving for a specific pet post-upgrade (remember to unsummon the pet and resummon if you change your slotting) please let me know!
Focused Feedback: Arsenal Control
in [Open Beta] Focused Feedback
Posted
Hello again everyone,
With the latest build, we request to see if anyone can record tests of knock-back heavy enemies inside of Smoke Cannister attacking one another. Council or 5th Column rocket launcher enemies, Trolls, and so on would be great candidates to see how the patches hold up in such situations!
Without going into the weeds as it were, we have a lot of features planned out for 2024 and beyond and in order to devote resources to each we need to stick to a schedule. Like with Storm Blast this page, there can always be tweaks made in a following patch after time has passed to review more data.