Piecemeal

That's a bit of an interpretation thing. We wouldn't be making original powers autohit as a way to circumvent player builds with high defense. That'd be lazy and bad. But we did add that power with a warning because, I, personally, wanted something that brought back a bit of situational awareness to the meta. The power itself is enabled by Advanced Difficulty, but similar powers in the future, with appropriate warning factors, could be sparingly used in the future, and not enabled by AD but just part of the natural enemy toolkit.

This power does immobilize as well if you've been snared, so teleporting isn't a bad approach at all.

Additionally, all the "ripples" are given quick-outs for time-conscious players. You can defeat a 5th Boss Grunt in Ripple 1 and portal out. You can talk to Terra and not engage the DE to get 4 glowies and scoot out. You can dismiss PsiCurse, beat up Flagg, and portal out. The length of this SF can be dictated in part by your desire to steamroll or speed, and the DSO awards all the same, ripple or not.

I designed that power. We discussed the response such as yours coming up early in the process, and came to this conclusion: Autohit powers are fair game if you are given warning. The power gives an on-screen message, the enemy itself has a radius'ed affected area around him, and a purple beacon. You have five seconds to escape it. I understand the "lots of Fx" bit of it too, but the purple beacon should be visible in most circumstances. As you test, please look for these clues when you see the text and let me know.

I'll give @Cobalt Arachne all the story credit. The mid-TF slam-jam that happens in the ripples, though, that's all me. And during the concept phase, I steered him towards the overall plot concept, but he did ALL the detail work.

It's time to go spelunking in the abandoned sewers!

Advanced Difficulty should make it a bit harder for blasters to just win, even though that's not the point of your comment. 😄

Oh yes. The fires of baptism.

In all seriousness, you guys are in for something FUN. @Cobalt Arachne and I put a lot into this. Cobalt more than me, this time - so anything you hate was his idea. Tarnish his royal crown with your disdain!

If it is, it's cursed!

This is pretty great. It's no poem, but it's great! I'm glowing with never before seen joy. I'm just rolling with the tinfoil theories even though its not at all my preferred metal. I hope this hasn't thrown a wrench into the memes too much, honestly.

While I won't say no, that might heavily depend on the 3D folks, which is outside my purview. I do have a plan to continue a natural progression of the Warriors under Odysseus with a bit of a reckoning for his hubris, and one or two new groups forming as a result. No promises!

In another post I wrote about the dangers of making promises. This is one of them. I was reminded shortly after this post (and, to wit, didn't exactly **learn** afterwards and repeated similar mistakes) not to bite off more than you can chew or to make promises that you end up not being to deliver on. A new zone? Not likely at all. (From me) I was responsible for the Atlas Pumpkin, and could do something similar in a pinch for winter, but again I really can't make any guarantees. My life got really, really busy this summer, and it's not slowing down.

Amended statement: Claws is the big offender in endurance loss to people learning the game still and not understanding slot mechanics fully.

I'm responding to this post without reading any subsequent replies. I'll give you as much transparency as I feel is safe and appropriate. You get whimsical answers because sometimes it is a costly mistake to commit to something that ends up completely not working and has to be tabled. When I posted my first well thought out pitch for improving this game, I settled on trying to find a way to ameliorate the effects of Incarnates and their abilities WITHOUT nerfing destiny, lore, etc. My suggestion settled on a system that would identify player progress and adapt the files that govern enemy spawns. It was, in my mind, brilliant and subtle; it adapted an existing substructure of gameplay omnipresent everywhere to create a reactive opt-in mechanic where player masochism and natural progression would adapt enemy loadouts. It couldn't work as designed, due to limitations of other components in the mix. If I'd gone public with teasing out a massive system change that was going to revolutionize how the game reacted to your exploits, only to hit this wall months in and have to walk it back... I'd be devastated, and so would you. You'd lose faith, see us as overambitious, etc. We hold some things close to our chest because things can go nipples skyward at a moment's notice. And when it does, it's often better to not miss what you never had, than to lament the one that got away. We're not a bonafide AAA dev company. We have to be very selective with our plans and promises, because our lead coder could get COVID, or I could suddenly find exhausting but gainful employment, or our chief 3D artist could be struck with the flu. We get chatty when the train is about to roll into the station. We want you guys to be hyped and happy, that something's coming that we're proud of. It means the ideas survived and the journey is almost over. The new guy has completed his training, and the time for content is soon at hand. And until it's ready for open beta, all we get is the echo chamber. We know it, we see it. We fight it. I've told testers to run content with no IOs and no duplicated ATs on a team. We do a lot of work. And we don't want to fail on a promise or give away the farm. Patience please. The whimsy is a coping mechanism for us too.