That is Why You Fail

[Gavric]

A response to Ticket 20432, giving detail to my criticisms.

 

First, it's important to recognize a few things.

I never played CoH when it was a supported, retail game.  I am unfamiliar with the game as it was, and am making all commentary from the perspective of someone who experiences it as new.  I have a very dear friend who has expressed some of the differences, but it is possible I do not know the difference between Homecoming changes and the original game.  The changes implemented since I started playing are what I know to be different.

I do not know or understand the hierarchy and roles of the development team (including GM's).  I'm sure I could rectify this rather easily, but I haven't had the desire to do so.  I don't know who is in charge of what, or what's involved--labor-wise--in what the Homecoming team does.

CoH is a 50%/50% proposition at best.  The original developers were mad geniuses that implemented some amazing things and insanely stupid things.  They seem to have been highly gifted and clueless.  Had I experienced the game while it was retail, I would have quit playing.  It's not worth a premium subscription rate.

 

The Homecoming team is doing something amazing that should be celebrated.  They have revived a dead game that was beloved by millions!  From what I have read, the only reason this game died was corporate greed.  It was profitable, when they pulled the plug.  It just wasn't making the millions of dollars that MOBA's were.  Now the game is reverse-engineered, running legally, and the millions of fans can enjoy it again.  The Homecoming team keeps it running smoothly, even though they don't have the backing of a large corporation and the resources to staff employees to do so.

 

I recognize their hard work.  I have enjoyed playing this game.  They deserve applause and adulation.

 

However, adulation leads to complacency and hubris.  They need criticism and feedback.  They're just not any good at new content, and they won't get better if someone doesn't tell them.

 

My ticket was motivated by the I27 patch, so that's where I'll start.

 

The Graveyard Shift is terrible.

I think I understand the intention and can see what the story is trying to achieve.  I like the idea of expanding on the events of the world and exploring what happens when Dr. Vahzilok is taken down.  There's a lot of potential here, and I truly support what you're trying to do.  Unfortunately, its execution is sorely lacking.  As of this writing, I have not finished it, and I won't play The Freakish Lab of Dr. Vahzilok, because it's not enjoyable.  I don't feel committed enough to this critique to endure the whole mission chain.

1. The missions are wildly unbalanced.  I started The Graveyard Shift with a Radiation Blast/Energy Aura Sentinel at level 23.  The character was fully enhanced with level 20, Common IO's.  She was putting out 25 points on average, against equal level mobs, without inspirations or Build Up.  The first mission was fine.  The second got a little chewy.  I got the Defense, Offense, and Survival Amplifiers from P2W and used the Tier III Empowerment Station in my base to load up on resistances and other buffs.  The overload of mobs in Crash the Unholy Masquerave is...stupid.  It lacks any sense.  I quit the mission chain at that point.  I switched to my Veteran level 80 Invulnerability/Super Strength Tanker to test it out.  This character is fully enhanced with set IO's and 90% of those are attuned.  All of his Incarnate powers are T4 and I regularly run him through high level content.  At normal difficulty, he walked through the first two missions like a stroll in the park.  Exemplared to 29, he puts out 100+ points of damage on average (without Rage) and his KO Blow does 269 while Raging.  He didn't struggle in the Masquerave, until the final boss.  I needed inspirations and had a difficult fight there.
   You've combined yellow and orange Vahzilok with Freakshow in a mid-range mission, and crowded the sewers with mobs.  To state the obvious, that's too many high level targets, they use endurance drain and toxic damage (the least resisted damage type in the game), and this mission is during the stage in character development when endurance management is a problem and resistance is low.  On top of that, both of these enemy groups revive, but you've already overpopulated the map.  It is clear you do not understand game balance.
   If anything, it seems this mission chain is balanced for Incarnate players with fully customized and enhanced characters.  That's bad design.  Make it playable by the average player for that level range.  If you're going to make "End Game" content, then make it an ITrial.
   EDIT: After hearing from Piecemeal, the overwhelming odds in Masquerave were not by design.  I think there's room for improvement in the balance of this mission chain, but truth and credit where due.  I have redacted a somewhat harsh statement and a first impression.  I won't delete them, because this post has gotten long in the tooth.
    
2. The Zoombies are senseless.  They're not fast enough to be surprising.  They don't do enough damage to be scary.  They can't be avoided.  They can't be damaged down before they arrive and explode.  There's no story or tactical value to them.  They're just, "Here.  Have some damage!"  They would be an effective addition to the Vahzilok forces if they created a tactical stake for the players.  Put them on a timer: if I can kite them long enough, they explode.  Give them a damage threshold: if I can do [insert damage amount]  in a single attack, they explode.  Do both, so players have options for dealing with them.  This is a strong example of how the Homecoming team doesn't get game design.
3. The text is thick, invasive, and unrewarding.  When I first read Agent Watkins' description I picked up a hint of bringing the game into the next decade.  I see acknowledgment of more modern conventions in a game made before they existed.  I can appreciate that, but...I quickly tired of reading anything Watkins said.  Not only are his interactions long-winded, they're dense and inconsistent (as if they were written by more than one person).  Where most of the other NPC's have some sort of personality, Watkins is dry and unpalatable.
   Within the missions, the constant pop-up of Zoombie text is annoying.  It does not set the mood.  Just play music.  Also, Agent Watkins' pop-up text happens at inopportune times.  Most of the time that there's pop-up text in the established missions, it happens between fights.  That makes it readable.  I have no room to read your pop-ups while having my face melted off (refer to point #1).  Also, the Vahzilok talk too much *seems like every corpse is whining), detracting from actually playing the mission.  Honestly, I've come to ignore the NPC text in most missions, as it is too prolific and banal (one of the problems with the original game).
4. Way too much errand running.  If you took a poll, I think you would find most players hate zone-hopping, errand missions.  That has been my experience.  It doesn't add to the story or make something interesting.  Meaningful action does.  Having played some more of this story arc, for the sake of this critique, I can now tell you there's way too much errand running.  It's frivolous and uninteresting, and made more problematic by your recent changes to fast travel.  It's pointless, mindless filler; especially since I'm still not reading the mountains of text produced at every NPC.
5. Just nitpicking: The teleport point for Agent Watkins is on top of the generator. Fix it.  Also, his mobile headquarters is pretty lame.  Consult with some of you more revered base builders to make a better setup.  For one, make him more physically accessible.

 

EDIT Redux: "Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park."  I re-ran the missions on the Beta server, to experience the adjusted Masquerave.  I stand behind most of my initial critique.

 

I had a rather long addition to my notes typed out, then someone closed my browser window.  I don't have the energy to reproduce it, but...the mission's difficulty is out of whack.

 

The Good: As previously mentioned, I like the narrative.  I like how you've gone a step further with the events and consequences of the world.  I like that you've subtly updated the game's awareness of current culture.  I like the costume design and names of the unique enemies.  I like the writing.  I think it's too dense and long-winded, but that's not the same as disliking the writing.  I like that you're trying new things and making content.

 

Your fast travel choices are a mess.

I think the game's variety of travel options need to be addressed.  By that I mean that there are too many moving parts to how we move around the game.  I think limitations on travel are important.  I think that gameplay stagnates when things get too easy.  Players miss things if they're popping from one point to another.  Slow travel is important, and fast travel needs to be balanced against it.  Fast Travel should facilitate gameplay.  Slow travel should be gameplay.  Sometimes it's nice to fly around the city, leap across rooftops, or speed down the streets and dodge cars.  Your recent implementations neither make fast travel better, nor add anything to the gameplay of slow travel.  They just make a lot of things obsolete and pointless.  They detract from gameplay.

 

It seems the original game never intended use of the enterbasefrompasscode command line to be prolific.  However, it was available to us.  Now it's not, and it just creates unnecessarily complicated gameplay.  What you've done is made the same kind of half-witted choices the original developers made.  They built Fort Trident; a collection of all the TF contacts in one convenient location, inaccessible by base teleporter, tucked away in the side of a lake, and likely completely unused by the player base (then or now).  There's a teleport to contact option in the LFG queue screen, so why bother going to Fort Trident?  It's a useless chunk of programming.

 

You've done much the same with base teleporters.  While you've added beacons for use with base teleporters, you've all but completely invalidated their use as Travel Hubs.  Why go to a base portal location in a zone just to pop into another teleporter?  I can just hit the train.  Usually they're in the same area, and the train is a single use; much faster.  Sure, I can use my Day Job time to get Monitor Duty teleport uses, but my average play session would eat those up.  The Rapid Response portal is a ludicrous solution.  I guess the only valid Day Job is now Monitor Duty.  But wait, none of that matters because one can get the Long Range Teleporter power and just pop anywhere, anytime.

 

Cut out the useless coding: if someone belongs to a Supergroup, they get the Long Range Teleporter power.  If someone wants to earn the accolade without the SG affiliation, they're covered.  No more base portals at all.  Very little need for those cool base teleporters we like to play with in the base designer.  Might as well remove all the beacons except those not reachable by the Long Range Teleporter.  Just cut out the inefficient crap.  Or, just remove the inefficient crap you added and let us use the enterbasefrompasscode command again.  It wasn't broken.  Why'd you try to fix it?

 

I am the only living person in my Supergroup on two servers.  I have benefit greatly from SG bases being a fully customizable free-for-all.  I don't have enough activity to afford my bases.  I say this, anyway: turn on base costs.  Make SG affiliation mean something again.  Make Supergroups pay for the privilege of fast travel.  Make SG bases the best method of fast travel.  There's a lot more to be said on the topic, and if anyone on the development team wants to hear me out, I'm happy to oblige.

 

The changes to the Teleportation Pool are good.

I haven't used Combat Teleport yet, but I like the concept.  This pool now seems to be useful in a tactical way, and not just a power slot sink.  Team Teleport should function like Assemble the Team.  It makes more sense than the power as it exists.

 

Your homebrew power sets are bad.

Sonic Manipulation, "lets you control sonic forces to manipulate your foes, inflict damage and protect yourself."  Except that it doesn't.  One ranged hold, one absorb and resist, a debuff, and a cone stun/knockback are not protection or manipulation for a Blaster.  It's a potpourri of power types that add up to very little.  Four of nine powers are melee attacks that put the squishy Blaster in harm's way.  Someone already pointed out that the Blaster secondaries are chock full of melee.  They shouldn't be.  You should be improving the game.  Make a sonic secondary with some real teeth to it, that allows for some defense.  We don't need a sonic copy of the same old power pools.  Why not make something truly new and interesting: a Blaster secondary that fits the character theme and actually provides some defense?  If you're going to make new content, do it and get it right.

EDIT: I've seen a few misguided responses to this one.  Just because that's the way it is and was, doesn't mean it ever should have been or needs to be.  There was a time when the internet was a bunch of servers with less computing power than your phone, beeping at each other at 300 bps, and transferring nothing but text.  Aren't you glad someone had the vision to try something new?  Why does a blaster have to be a glass canon?  Why do you want your glass canon in melee range?  Your points are conflicting.  I didn't say Blasters need to become tanks.  I'm merely expressing that we don't need a sonic skin on the same powers we already have.  If the developers are going to make new content, they should make new content.  They should be expanding the dynamic of the game and keeping it fresh.

Experimentation looked good on paper.  I created a Mad Scientist type, just to take experimentation and try out Jaunt.  My enthusiasm immediately became disappointment.  I deleted the character and started over, because I didn't want to wait for a free respec.  My biggest gripe is the aesthetics and poor writing of the powers' descriptions.  I can understand an initial eye roll over that statement, but in such a highly customizable game, where the visual elements are so important, it matters.  The development team has spent a ton of time unlocking asymmetrical costumes, so I think they should understand that.  The Speed of Sound power has a Minimal FX option.  Put one on the rest of the powers, so I don't have to watch my robotic character sloppily inject himself with slime from Nickelodeon, or watch the clumsily grafted animations of Adrenal Booster.  The animations for this power pool are cartoonish, and not in line with the majority of the game.  Visuals matter for this game.  Also, get someone to carefully check and edit your text before uploading.  Not only is it poorly written, there are blatant errors.

However, aesthetics are not my only gripe with this power pool.  The mechanics of it have been discussed pretty thoroughly in the forums.  It's not advantageous and it's not the worst power pool choice.  Overall, it's pretty bland and banal.  The one place it has clear advantage, and the power that fails hardest, is Jaunt.  I notice it's reviled by some in PvP because it has become a meta-gaming power.  I also don't see it commonly used in PvE, and notice a lot of complaints about it being unwieldy.  It is unwieldy.  It almost requires a custom keybind or macro to use effectively.  Keybinds and macros are part of the game, but not integral.  That is, they exist but are not taught, don't have a special GUI, and do not have a wizard.  They are not required, to play.  They are undocumented within the game itself and unknown to some except as a concept.  Many players do not use and/or do not want to use them.  They remain the tools of advanced players.  When creating any facet of the game, it should be designed with the largest possible number of players in mind.  That's where Jaunt fails.  The power should be a straight line teleport.

Electrical Affinity looked inane when it was announced (based on naming convention, concept, and descriptive text), and I was not swayed by using it.  While I initially hated it for its name and descriptions, I quickly noticed a flaw in the mechanics and hated it for being highly unbalanced.  Static is always building.  Only the Galvanic Sentinel consumes it.  The power just keeps growing and growing.  This has to be one of the more overpowered sets in the game; more evidence that the team does not understand game balance.  It outperforms two top Defender pools, simultaneously, and has no interesting mechanic.  I started to detail my thoughts on how to do this well and it got long.  The short version: attack powers drain targets and create Static; support powers drain Static to empower effects; Amp Up turns a friendly target into an energy drain conduit that creates Static; Galvanic Sentinel goes away.  Make the Defender manage their "Electrical Affinity" bonuses, rather than just making them more powerful than Empathy and Force Field combined.  Your homebrew power set is a prime example of poor game balance.  It's also "noisy".  Playing with Electrical Affinity players is almost worse than having to wade through hordes of Mastermind pets.  There are too many obnoxious effects.

 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Gavric

[Outrider_01]

3 hours ago, Gavric said:

Sonic Manipulation (Seriously? A Blaster secondary that is primarily melee?)

You haven't seen Fire, Ice, Energy, Radiation, and other Manipulation secondaries?  Half of their powers are melee attacks, PBAoE toggle of some kind.  Its kind of a tradition 

[Gavric]

24 minutes ago, Outrider_01 said:

You haven't seen Fire, Ice, Energy, Radiation, and other Manipulation secondaries?  Half of their powers are melee attacks, PBAoE toggle of some kind.  Its kind of a tradition 

I have seen the power sets.  This is not about the broken parts of the original game; that's a much longer post.  This is about what the current development team is doing poorly.  Tradition is not the goal.  Improvement is the goal.  They shouldn't be making poor choices because that's what their forebears did.

[Ruin Mage]

What exactly did you make a ticket about? That'd give more context to the opening line.

It's not clear, but I assume it's about the new arc, but it's not strictly laid out.

Edited November 25, 2020 by Shadeknight

[Moka]

I haven't played the new stories yet. I should get on that, and I'll be back to offer my agree or disagree take.

[Alchemystic]

4 minutes ago, Gavric said:

I have seen the power sets.  This is not about the broken parts of the original game; that's a much longer post.  This is about what the current development team is doing poorly.  Tradition is not the goal.  Improvement is the goal.  They shouldn't be making poor choices because that's what their forebears did.

Your idea of improvement/poor choices is going to be different to other people.

Just because the update wasn't strictly to your liking doesn't mean that it's bad.

[Grouchybeast]

4 hours ago, Gavric said:

1. The missions are wildly unbalanced.  I started The Graveyard Shift with a Radiation Blast/Energy Aura Sentinel at level 23.  The character was fully enhanced with level 20, Common IO's.  She was putting out between 20 and 70 damage per strike, without inspirations.  The first mission was fine.  The second got a little chewy.  I got the Defense, Offense, and Survival Amplifiers from P2W and used the Tier III Empowerment Station in my base to load up on resistances and other buffs.  The overload of mobs in Crash the Unholy Masquerave is...stupid.  It lacks any sense.

The excessive spawn sizes are apparently a bug that was supposed to be fixed  in testing.  @Piecemealis looking into it.

 

 

[Gavric]

6 minutes ago, Grouchybeast said:

The excessive spawn sizes are apparently a bug that was supposed to be fixed  in testing.  @Piecemealis looking into it.

 

 

Then fix it in testing, not post-launch.  Don't get people hyped about awesome new content and deliver it with a known bug.

[Solarverse]

I have not played the new content yet. I am waiting for...reasons...

 

However, having said that, I can say that your title is probably going to garner you more hostility than you would have received if you had just titled it, "Positive Feedback in Hopes for a Better Future for CoH" or something like it. However, your title indicates that you think this game is a fail and the Devs are a fail...you are going to get a lot of players who will disagree with you straight out of the gate before they even have a chance to read your post, regardless if your post brings up valid points or not.

 

Other than that, I have nothing to add since I have not had a proper chance to run the new content yet.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Solarverse

[Piecemeal]

I understand your position and respect your eloquence in posting about it.

 

The rave is not behaving as intended, and continues to avoid proper discipline. I am looking into what the heck happened in there. But the density is not according to plan.

 

Not everything is perfect in these arcs. You are playing my long-winded technical exercise in learning 30 interconnected systems to make this a reality.

 

Yes, I wrote a lot. I'll even acknowledge and apologize for wanting to give too much context. But there is a fine line between "This is cool" and "What the hell is going on" that hinges on reading comprehension and I'm still finding that line.

 

The "Investigate the Robbery" mission is similarly an exercise in trying something completely new, and if you ask around you can find yourself the right investigation path to knock out 3/4 of the resulting mission(s) and reduce it to a single one.

 

And the Tarnished Star badge, which is getting a lot of mixed feedback, is optional. It rewards content runners at the cost of nothing to the mission. If you're a badge hunter, then you only have like... two arcs to run for souvenirs and you're there.

 

Bear with me folks. Great (and to some, better) things are coming.

 

[Nerio72]

 

It was fixed prior, but somehow stayed in or reverted back.

[Piecemeal]

4 hours ago, Gavric said:

He didn't struggle in the Masquerave, until the final boss.  I needed inspirations and had a difficult fight there.

This fight calls enemies that already exist to rush the stage - therefore, if you eliminate the majority of the ravers before Raverobber, he doesn't have (m)any friends to call.

4 hours ago, Gavric said:

 

1. The Zoombies are senseless.  They're not fast enough to be surprising.  They don't do enough damage to be scary.  They can't be avoided.  They can't be damaged down before they arrive and explode.  There's no story or tactical value to them.  They're just, "Here.  Have some damage!"  They would be an effective addition to the Vahzilok forces if they created a tactical stake for the players.  Put them on a timer: if I can kite them long enough, they explode.  Give them a damage threshold: if I can do [insert damage amount]  in a single attack, they explode.  Do both, so players have options for dealing with them.  This is a strong example of how the Homecoming team doesn't get game design.

They can be controlled. That's why their damage isn't spectacular. A plant controller with Seeds basically did away with them. Someone with bonfire is a life-saver. Designing content to be solo'ed is an unrewarding prospect - I've built most of this with teams in mind, to give tanks, controllers, and dominators more things to do.

 

[Piecemeal]

17 minutes ago, Gavric said:

Then fix it in testing, not post-launch.  Don't get people hyped about awesome new content and deliver it with a known bug.

There are things beyond mortal comprehension that seem to defy logic when the compiler goes to town.

[Dragon Crush]

Hadn't tested sonic manipulation much and haven't played for 2 weeks, but I don't see any problem with manipulation sets encouraging melee per se, rather the problem I remember was it just wasn't that great in melee, and the logical pairing of sonic blast has 3 cones and is better at range.

 

 

And I'd say clearly someone's pet hit a key when they weren't looking changing the code for the missions /nod

[Jimmy]

46 minutes ago, Gavric said:

I have seen the power sets.  This is not about the broken parts of the original game; that's a much longer post.  This is about what the current development team is doing poorly.  Tradition is not the goal.  Improvement is the goal.  They shouldn't be making poor choices because that's what their forebears did.

It’s not broken.

 

Blasters are glass cannons with a mix of ranged and melee attacks. The focus is range, sure, but almost all Blaster secondary sets have a melee component.

 

If you want something purely ranged, other ATs are available, or you can skip the melee powers.

16 minutes ago, Gavric said:

Then fix it in testing, not post-launch.  Don't get people hyped about awesome new content and deliver it with a known bug.

Sorry buddy, but this is over the line.

 

You are more than welcome to provide your critique, but you you aren’t free to make snide comments about minor bugs in content that was developed for free by volunteers over hundreds of hours, especially if you didn’t contribute to the testing process.

[Gavric]

59 minutes ago, Shadeknight said:

What exactly did you make a ticket about? That'd give more context to the opening line.

It's not clear, but I assume it's about the new arc, but it's not strictly laid out.

My intent was a response to the devs, not the community, so I referenced my ticket.  I acknowledge that the subject line is confrontational.  It's a quote from Yoda, so I thought it would be seen with some levity.  Honestly, I think they have failed--generally--at providing new and valuable content.

[Ukase]

When you are a badger, you tend to eagerly anticipate new badges. This was no different for me. 
While there was a lot to be desired with both arcs - I fully acknowledge I only have myself to blame. I couldn't be bothered to test the arcs on Beta. If I had, I might have mentioned that pitfall about Mistah-Static or whatever his name was, from the Freakalympic arc not being part of a badger's usual leveling path. But then - that's the beauty of it, isn't it? If each new badge were as simple as an exploration badge, most badgers would get bored. If everyone can get them easily, then there's really not much point in having them. 

I suffered through the Graveyard Shift on a team of 4 earlier today. Later, when solo, it was much more enjoyable as the mission holder. The maps were crazy - but fun, simply because most of them were either rarely used in game, or very different. It could be because when solo, I can take more time to look around, as opposed to trying to zip through. 

I think it's fair to say that both dev teams, old and new, have done fantastic things - and some things that leave many players scratching their heads wondering what kind of drugs were being used. 
In HC's case - these folks are not getting paid. I am grateful, as are most people to just be able to play. 

An SG I belong to had an AE origin story contest for our characters...and I made one. I promise you - creating cohesive arcs that are entertaining without being too easy, nor too hard - that's not a simple thing. If you think it is - I strongly encourage you to do some AE arcs that aren't fire farms. We could use some! (that is not to suggest my own AE effort was at all cohesive or entertaining. I did it for laughs)

I get that the OP is trying to be constructive. The problem is - when you preface a comment with "as a new player", it can be difficult for other players to buy in to your perspective. But maybe we need to try harder. Without new players...the community doesn't grow. 

 

[Greycat]

5 minutes ago, Gavric said:

My intent was a response to the devs, not the community, so I referenced my ticket.

If you did not want the community to respond, you should have sent in a PM, or a support ticket - something not public. Click on "Support" up top, with "Support requests," and you can do just that.

 

You instead wrote this, not even in a feedback thread, but just general "suggestions and feedback," opening it up for everyone to comment.

 

One could say... this is where you failed.

[Ukase]

20 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

Designing content to be solo'ed is an unrewarding prospect - I've built most of this with teams in mind, to give tanks, controllers, and dominators more things to do.

lol, I think the problem is that with the new patch - many teams now are all blasters. 

I'm not sure what you mean by the part I put in bold. Unrewarding for who? you, as the designer, or us, as the players? Jack Emmert, the original dev, made everything with teaming in mind. I never agreed with that, because teaming is more often that not a crap shoot. When you find a good core group of folks that beat the odds (which you wouldn't find without teaming) it becomes more enjoyable. But sifting through PUG after PUG to find that core group (or SG)...that's not fun at all. And even when you do find them, not everyone is available at the same time on a routine basis. This is why all content should be made without teaming or soloing in mind. How's that done? Beats me! I just hate to see content geared towards teams. Not everyone is a social butterfly. Is it odd that I found doing it solo more fun than on a team? Probably, lol. 

 

[Doomguide2005]

1 hour ago, Outrider_01 said:

You haven't seen Fire, Ice, Energy, Radiation, and other Manipulation secondaries?  Half of their powers are melee attacks, PBAoE toggle of some kind.  Its kind of a tradition 

/Fire has exactly 1 ranged attack.  The remainder are PBAoEs or melee.

 

My Elec/Fire lives to be in melee.  7 powers are melee range in his build.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Doomguide2005

[Monos King]

12 minutes ago, Gavric said:

Honestly, I think they have failed--generally--at providing new and valuable content.

I think your opening reasoning is very correct and your criticisms are to be considered, even if I disagree. But this comment right here - you'd be better off not making. You must not realize how absurdly wrong note it is.

 

Think about why, at least from your perspective, that might be. Realize that what you just said was not criticism, it was contempt.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Monos King

[Hew]

Rad blast doesnt do much damage.

 

Level 20 generic IOs are pretty much garbage compared to level 25 generic IOs. 

 

Cursory read already uncovers that much.

[Gavric]

27 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

I understand your position and respect your eloquence in posting about it.

 

The rave is not behaving as intended, and continues to avoid proper discipline. I am looking into what the heck happened in there. But the density is not according to plan.

 

Not everything is perfect in these arcs. You are playing my long-winded technical exercise in learning 30 interconnected systems to make this a reality.

 

Yes, I wrote a lot. I'll even acknowledge and apologize for wanting to give too much context. But there is a fine line between "This is cool" and "What the hell is going on" that hinges on reading comprehension and I'm still finding that line.

 

The "Investigate the Robbery" mission is similarly an exercise in trying something completely new, and if you ask around you can find yourself the right investigation path to knock out 3/4 of the resulting mission(s) and reduce it to a single one.

 

And the Tarnished Star badge, which is getting a lot of mixed feedback, is optional. It rewards content runners at the cost of nothing to the mission. If you're a badge hunter, then you only have like... two arcs to run for souvenirs and you're there.

 

Bear with me folks. Great (and to some, better) things are coming.

 

I would like to reiterate that I greatly respect your effort and what you're providing.  My intention is not to demean the Homecoming team or run them into the ground.  I want to provide details on what's not working, in the hope that things improve.  As I said, not providing the negative feedback leads to a weaker product.  I used to tell my employees, "If I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I can't fix it.  Tell me when you think something can be done better."

 

I've tried to keep my tone passionless and to the matter at hand.  To that end, I re-read what I write and edit a lot.  Being offensive never changed anyone's mind.  I hope I have not offended.

 

Thank you for replying to my statements.  Thank you for seeing them as intended.  Thank you for sharing some insight.  Thank you for owning the things you're still working on.  I appreciate the direct response.

 

I did not make it far enough into the mission chain to see that you had done something really cool.  By that, I mean the investigation thread.  I applaud your effort, and I wish I had experienced it before commenting.  I would have said something.  One of the things the original game is lacking is consequence of choices.  Too many missions and chains are on rails, and nothing the player does makes a difference.

 

I wish you the best in your efforts to make new and entertaining content.

[Gavric]

9 minutes ago, Greycat said:

If you did not want the community to respond, you should have sent in a PM, or a support ticket - something not public. Click on "Support" up top, with "Support requests," and you can do just that.

 

You instead wrote this, not even in a feedback thread, but just general "suggestions and feedback," opening it up for everyone to comment.

 

One could say... this is where you failed.

One would be absolutely wrong, and should go about one's business.

[Greycat]

33 minutes ago, Piecemeal said:

Designing content to be solo'ed is an unrewarding prospect - I've built most of this with teams in mind, to give tanks, controllers, and dominators more things to do.

I'd have to second Ukase's question on that - unrewarding for who? Is it just the balancing for when a single player versus a team runs it? Via AE, at least, after some practice it seems the scaling works decently for "solo to team," most times, but does involve a lot of work on the enemies (and old SGs would probably swear I built AE arcs JUST to find new and interesting ways to cause team wipes. Such as a group that was heavily time manipulation based...that when more than a couple of people was in pretty much made sure nobody had *any* powers ready to go. But, it was a 'reasonable' challenge when tested. Fun times.)

 

Besides, we have a delineation - things designed with teams in mind are generally task forces or trials. People who *want* to solo them can definitely try, but if (generic) you want to say "no, this should really be done with a team," they should generally be there.

 

Note, I am saying this without having (yet) played the new content - just haven't had time to jump into it with other stuff going on - so this is not a criticism of that at all. And no, I didn't play it on beta because I didn't want to spoil it for myself. So... less a criticism of content than a reaction to a statement with how it's intended to be placed should be handled? *shrug*

 

Though, honestly, with the bits I'm reading, playing through it solo is sounding more and more interesting... (I end up not "getting" why people have issues with Trapdoor or the Honoree, for instance, or the "keep 30 fir bolg from escaping." Even on squishies, I don't find those all that challenging unless I royally screw up.)