Sniper Beta Patch Notes, June 2nd 2019

[Guest JackRooks]

 

 

Who exactly do you think you are?

 

This is a volunteer project and a progress server and as such the people who are actively working on the project are entitled to work on whatever part of it they see fit when they see fit, how they see fit. You have no idea who is doing what or how all the pieces go together or who is working on what, person A who does powers isnt the same guy who as person B who could be creating and assembling assets for say Moonbase Alpha, or person C who is building a new "power armor" EAT or person D who is making new costume assets.

 

Luckily for you the code is available everywhere, you can go and show everyone how it should be done  ::)

 

I'm a human being with an opinion. Just like you. Of course, you seem to think yours is worth more or better than mine, or that I should just shut up because I don't agree with you. I wonder if that's the self image you have of yourself...someone who would tell another person to be silent just because that person doesn't agree with them...

 

Anyhow, the volunteers put up a forum for a reason. Yes, they can do whatever they want with their server...I assume they wanted feedback, hence this forum.

 

And no, you don't have to be perfect at doing something yourself to have an opinion about it. People are very able to tell whether or not they like something even if they can't make that thing themselves.

 

I was at the AE meet and greet and heard the dev there lament the fact that they have too few people working on this game to do all the things they'd like. They're actively calling for volunteers. Most of the people doing this probably have full time jobs and don't sit around running a CoH server. The fact that they DO make a public server seems to indicate, though, that they have a passion for bringing something and sharing it with other people, and presumable they would be please if those people were happy with what they were doing and didn't just leave because things keep getting changed in a way people don't like.

 

I'm sorry, but your response is the response of an angry child that has just discovered the world is filled with opinions that differ from their own. Rather than engage in a civil conversation, they stick their fingers in their ears and pretend they can't hear the other opinions, and if that doesn't work they try to silence them with anger.

 

Is that really who you are? If so, I guess we can all be grateful you aren't running things.

[Jaguaratron]

 

I'm a human being with an opinion. Just like you. Of course, you seem to think yours is worth more or better than mine, or that I should just shut up because I don't agree with you. I wonder if that's the self image you have of yourself...someone who would tell another person to be silent just because that person doesn't agree with them...

 

Anyhow, the volunteers put up a forum for a reason. Yes, they can do whatever they want with their server...I assume they wanted feedback, hence this forum.

 

And no, you don't have to be perfect at doing something yourself to have an opinion about it. People are very able to tell whether or not they like something even if they can't make that thing themselves.

 

I was at the AE meet and greet and heard the dev there lament the fact that they have too few people working on this game to do all the things they'd like. They're actively calling for volunteers. Most of the people doing this probably have full time jobs and don't sit around running a CoH server. The fact that they DO make a public server seems to indicate, though, that they have a passion for bringing something and sharing it with other people, and presumable they would be please if those people were happy with what they were doing and didn't just leave because things keep getting changed in a way people don't like.

 

I'm sorry, but your response is the response of an angry child that has just discovered the world is filled with opinions that differ from their own. Rather than engage in a civil conversation, they stick their fingers in their ears and pretend they can't hear the other opinions, and if that doesn't work they try to silence them with anger.

 

Is that really who you are? If so, I guess we can all be grateful you aren't running things.

 

I detailed to you how development goes, Im quite chill, you were (and are continuing to) stomping your feet and trying to bait and attack me now which is all part of your methodology of a tantrum with no substance, got nothing to offer, no tested feedback, so try to make as much noise as possible for what you specifically want. Its a tired old tactic of diversion because you have nothing else to derail anything you dont like. Why dont you go and log on the BETA server, roll some characters and come back with some empirical evidence to back up your sky is falling narrative. Because then it wouldnt matter if people didnt like what you were saying, you would have the evidence to back it up.

[Widower]

Okay, let's cool it with the hyperbolics in here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Golden Azrael]

The Paragon Studios dev' team left snipe in 'pitch perfect' shape.

 

This is absolutely not true. The Paragon Studios dev team "left" snipe in Issue 23. Issue 24 was in beta, and there are clear indications in the code and data that the snipes were not going to be "left" in the state they are currently in, had the studio not been shut down. For example, the sequencers data contains half-finished moves called "QUICK SniperBlast" (Q_SniperBlast, Q_SniperBlast2, A_Q_Sniperblast and A_Q_SniperBlast2) for the real animations to be used in Quick Snipe, rather than the unfinished hack that exists in Issue 24 Beta with the blast firing on frame 0 and having broken FX and bad synchronization for multiple powers.

 

The current animation tweaks are more in line with what would probably have hit the Live servers when Issue 24 was finished, so I am pretty sure the animation tweaks are going live regardless of what happens to any other changes.

 

When it comes to snipes, I am treating this Beta as a direct continuation of Issue 24 Beta. They were definitely not finished.

 

Hello Leandro.

 

Good to see that team SCORE are reading the feedback and listening.  Ty for the response.

 

'Pitch perfect.'  In terms of how it plays.  Absolutely true.  'Just right.'  Said Goldilocks.  But that is subjective to me.

 

Technically?  You're in a better place to judge how the i24 beta was left.  (That's SCORE's dept'.  I'm not a coder, so I can't vouch for what's under the bonnet, obviously.)  But in terms of how it plays...?  It plays 'just fine' on live.  Better than the previous snipe.  And better than on Homecoming Beta. 

 

However, the technical revelations are intriguing.  And should, perhaps, have been in with your 'patch' notes for the Beta to explain the motivation as you have done so here.  So, basically, under the hood, you have 'fast snipe' and 'snipe 2'  (ie auto snipe and standard snipe with a potential tweak.  Ergo why the animations don't sync because they weren't quite finished.  That's intriguing.)

 

A 'fix' for graphical sync for a faster snipe makes sense.  (Though I didn't notice too much wrong with how it triggers/animates on live?  Unless I'm missing something?) 

 

Democratisation of powers is fine, in principle with auto available with 'no fuss.'  It just works out of the box.

Again, the faster up '1st strike' is fine.

The extra 'up front' damage on 1st strike is fine.

How auto triggers is 'fine.'

'SNIPE!' is cool.

 

Those, in principle, are broadly welcomed and you could argue are in the spirit of the sniper changes the Dev's intentioned.

 

The extra recharge time in combat?  Clunky.

The removal of manual mode?  'Less fun.'

 

It would be nice to test the 'auto mode' with the original recharge times and see 'how it feels' or 'how smooth' it is under greater time pressure.

 

The time nerf (in combat) seems an obvious step backward and the lack of 'option' to enter the mode via BU/AIM/PBoost 'feels' less fun to me.  But the greater sniping populace may disagree.

 

Regards,

 

Azrael.

[Golden Azrael]

*Big smile!

 

"LeandroToday at 6:07 PM

Back to 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.

Will now have a base 2.28 scale damage in their "quick" form.

Every point of ToHit buffing the player has will increase this damage, up to a cap of 2.76 scale damage with +22% ToHit buff.

Slow form will do 4.5 scale damage."

 

:D

 

Ty, Leandro.  Can't wait to test this.  Just caught this on Discord.

 

*Breaths a sigh of relief.

 

Big thanks. :))

 

Azrael.

[Lockpick]

How about you people leave the goddmaned game mechanics alone and just run the server, which is what people actually wanted.

 

Yes, in any group of people there are going to be loud minorities screaming  for changes. Please stop listening to them.

 

Constant nerfs and balances are what killed the MMO genre in the first place...there's a reason the WOW Killer everyone was always waiting for turned out to NOT be an MMO. Instead of sucking up all your limited dev time making changes to powers, use it to add art assets, run events, create interesting mission content. Don't spend all your time going over and over and over and over minute powerset numbers.

 

Also, I'm going to start campaigning for this: Every time you make a change to the game mechanics that significantly changes the way a character plays, any player that has such a character (In this case a level 50 witha snipe and with more than 20 set IO's slotted, for example) gets a free level 50 character of their choosing and 2 billion inf in order to build it so they have a character they still want to play instead of the unfun mess you just turned theirs into.

 

I think this is a good point.  The snipe changes never made it to Live, so very few people have probably played the various sets to 50, incarnate, etc.  What is the rush to make these changes?  I am still trying out a DP/MC blaster, so haven't gotten to my AR/Devices character yet.  Why not wait a few months and see how the community likes the changes the original Devs made before making changes?

[Adeon Hawkwood]

Blaster Devices:

 

Changed Web Grenade to Toxic Web Grenade, now deals scale 1 toxic DoT and can be slotted for damage

 

Taser recharge reduced from 20 to 10 seconds, duration reduced from scale 10 to scale 5, damage increased from 0.25 to 1.96 (same damage as Energy Punch)

 

Time Bomb animation is now 2.77 seconds, interrupt time removed, countdown reduced to 5 seconds, defiance values reduced to match (this only applies to this set, not to the Traps support set versions.)

 

Targeting Drone now also adds a 30% recharge buff.

I haven't had time to test this but here are my thoughts:

 

Web Grenade: This is a good change, especially for low level blasters. Personally I was fine with the lack of damage in web grenade at high levels since it's so useful as a debuff but there's no denying that the lack of damage for the immobilize does hurt low level blasters since other secondaries can use the immobilize to fill out their attack chain.

 

Taser: I like this change, adding a pseudo-melee attack to Devices is a good idea. One thought/suggestion, does it make sense to change Taser back to an actual melee attack? The original version of the power was a melee stun that was later changed to short ranged. I don't feel strongly either way, just throwing it out as a thought.

 

Targeting Drone: This seems reasonable. The newer Blaster secondaries (Tactical Arrow, Temporal Manipulation and Atomic Manipulation) all seem to include recharge buffs and AoE mezzes so porting some of that back to older blaster secondaries seems like a good way to bring them up to par (assuming that the new sets represent an intended baseline for Blasters). Adding recharge to Targeting Drone fits thematically since your drone is helping to more quickly select targets as well as placing shots more precisely.

 

Time Bomb: I'll need to test this to form a solid opinion. It seems like a step in the right direction but 8 seconds is a long time. Also, I'd really like to see this set ported to Traps as well. While Traps is a good support set it does kind of suck not having a great tier 9. Alternatively, give us the Mastermind version of Detonator and let us strap bombs to Brutes and Scrappers. I'm kidding. Mostly. Sort of. A bit. I mean, I'd rez them afterwards, I promise.

[Rahveryn]

Might go a long way to finishing the concept of Quick Snipe if you tweaked the Snipe IO sets or Blaster ATO sets to add 22% To Hit.  Tactics was never meant for Blasters, the crappy return for using it is testament to its intended discouragement.  (Alot of powers are taken against theme simply to allow set bonuses or mules for LotGs +Recharge IO. Imho).  Altering the Sets to organically apply the +22% to hit as either a 3 or 4 peice set bonus or s stacking bonus with 3-4 pieces of the set that combine for +22% works better in my opinion then a single unique IO (though that is certainly an option, the market will make that punitively expensive) and add the option for To Hit enhancement to be slotted in Snipes that combine for +22%.  Having to slot 3 To Hits for instant Snipe will be a trade off against min maxing with SO's and having it as a set bonus or part of the level 50 Sniper Sets will give you the full effect at endgame.

 

Further, I'm on the opposite end from Azrael.  I have no interest at all in having the Instant Snipe tied to BU or Aim.  I'd rather Snipe be a superior/slow instant normally and if you use BU+Aim forces the Slow but Extreme/long Snipe. 

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Dixa]

A lot of the loudest complaints yesterday came from accounts that didn't log in to Justin at all; gut feelings are nowhere near as valuable as playtesting feedback.

 

 

Are you reducing people's criticisms to "gut feelings" just because they didn't play on the beta branch? Don't you find that a bit ridiculous?

 

1. You don't need to play on the beta branch to know that ToHit (namely from tactics) is going back to being a useless endgame stat.

 

2. You don't need to play on the beta branch to know that people will have to re-work their builds and that new builds (on sets with snipe) will not work for other servers anymore.

 

never speak in generalities. every one of my mm's will continue to take tactics. these snipe changes do not affect every AT

[Dixa]

This article lists a few.

https://massivelyop.com/2019/05/21/city-of-heroes-reddit-shards-homecoming-multibox/

 

I hear the name “rebirth” thrown around a lot.

 

Thanks.

 

I don't mean to come across as an ass, but to me the thing that destroyed MMOs was the constant buff/nerf cycle that too many dev teams substituted for content as a way to keep players playing by forcing them to start characters over, etc.

 

I really had hoped that a team running a private server would focus on real content - missions, stories, events, new arts, powers, etc. instead of just trying their hand at the old nerf/buff/rinse/repeat game that people hated back when MMOs were still a thing.

 

while true balance is a goal that in my 26 years of MUDs and MMORPGs no game has ever reached, you can't let underperforming powers lie and you can't let drastically overperforming powers continue. It is not healthy for the game.

 

Balance changes on their own do not kill a game unless it's some massive, sweeping change that affects every player in a supremely negative way. ED wasn't such a change because while it stopped people from six slotting damage, when it was changed many other game systems were also addressed to balance it all out. It was not on the same level as SWG's NGE which while needed as the game actually played like donkey crap and was hardly a star wars game, was too sweeping of a change far too late in the games' life.

 

To say an mmorpg should never change anything is to be extremely naieve and inexperienced in the genre and to fail to grasp the fundamentals of online gaming. Basically - it's not about you, it's about the community at large.

[Telephone]

"LeandroToday at 6:07 PM

Back to 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.

 

I actually have to say I am not a fan of reducing the recharge back to 12 seconds. The 15-second recharge meant there was more room for more complex Blaster attack rotations; with a 12-second recharge, many sets can skip their second attack power once they are fully slotted (for example: Flares, Blaze, Flares, Blazing Bolt; repeat).

 

If a 15-second recharge feels too weak, I would recommend instead increasing the power of the second (moderate) attack in each Blaster powerset, or otherwise encouraging its use.

 

Telephone

[Dixa]

How about you people leave the goddmaned game mechanics alone and just run the server, which is what people actually wanted.

 

Yes, in any group of people there are going to be loud minorities screaming  for changes. Please stop listening to them.

 

Constant nerfs and balances are what killed the MMO genre in the first place...there's a reason the WOW Killer everyone was always waiting for turned out to NOT be an MMO. Instead of sucking up all your limited dev time making changes to powers, use it to add art assets, run events, create interesting mission content. Don't spend all your time going over and over and over and over minute powerset numbers.

 

Also, I'm going to start campaigning for this: Every time you make a change to the game mechanics that significantly changes the way a character plays, any player that has such a character (In this case a level 50 witha snipe and with more than 20 set IO's slotted, for example) gets a free level 50 character of their choosing and 2 billion inf in order to build it so they have a character they still want to play instead of the unfun mess you just turned theirs into.

 

given how many bugs, improper power interactions, lower-than-my-arse in performance (Hi beasts mm) some sets are you are way, way way off it here.

 

This is a major overreact.

[Mezmera]

The Paragon Studios dev' team left snipe in 'pitch perfect' shape.

 

This is absolutely not true. The Paragon Studios dev team "left" snipe in Issue 23. Issue 24 was in beta, and there are clear indications in the code and data that the snipes were not going to be "left" in the state they are currently in, had the studio not been shut down. For example, the sequencers data contains half-finished moves called "QUICK SniperBlast" (Q_SniperBlast, Q_SniperBlast2, A_Q_Sniperblast and A_Q_SniperBlast2) for the real animations to be used in Quick Snipe, rather than the unfinished hack that exists in Issue 24 Beta with the blast firing on frame 0 and having broken FX and bad synchronization for multiple powers.

 

 

The current animation tweaks are more in line with what would probably have hit the Live servers when Issue 24 was finished, so I am pretty sure the animation tweaks are going live regardless of what happens to any other changes.

 

When it comes to snipes, I am treating this Beta as a direct continuation of Issue 24 Beta. They were definitely not finished.

 

First off let me say a big thank you for getting this game back to us and in better shape than it was when it left.  There's SO many new shinies to play with all due to the behind scenes coding your team has been able to understand and bring forth.  I've had so many fresh things to play with across all the ATs so again thanks for that.  I haven't gotten into speaking on the stuff that was worked on that wasn't available on live because I didn't have a true understanding on all the things you folks added on to so no finger pointing from me. 

 

Speaking on my experience I stumbled upon the insta-snipe not on my first favorite character to play because on a dom I never took snipe.  But on my blaster I noticed when I hit BU or Aim I'd get this yellow ring around my snipe.  So all it was was a little curiosity and the willingness just to ask in help what the deal was.  Our community being helpful that it is responded and my mind was blown I could add snipe to my dom and my favorite character now has a fresh feel to it. 

 

The to-hitt really isn't all that hard to get and for a supposed intuitive game getting insta-snipe was pretty fun to get.  If the intention is to dumb it down to make it available to all then maybe I'm suggesting that there's really an unknown about the snipe since it didn't make it to live originally and there's not really any explanation about how to achieve it easily available for the unwashed masses.  I'd say spread the word about it's ease of attaining and change that kismet to say it's actually +to-hitt. 

 

Now if the intention is to nerf damage to bring things in line I'm not with you on this.  If that's the case we should have a look at Titan Weapons uber stomp which with a good fury bar hits 16 good guys (or bad guys if you're one of those hero types) for 300 damage every 5 seconds or blaster nukes that charge by every mob and hit 16 enemies for 450 damage.  I don't like going down the nerf rabbit hole, I'm so happy to find something fresh on my favorite AT on a power I never adjusted into my chains. 

 

Hope the discourse continues and thanks for listening!

[Auroxis]

"LeandroToday at 6:07 PM

Back to 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.

 

I actually have to say I am not a fan of reducing the recharge back to 12 seconds. The 15-second recharge meant there was more room for more complex Blaster attack rotations; with a 12-second recharge, many sets can skip their second attack power once they are fully slotted (for example: Flares, Blaze, Flares, Blazing Bolt; repeat).

 

If a 15-second recharge feels too weak, I would recommend instead increasing the power of the second (moderate) attack in each Blaster powerset, or otherwise encouraging its use.

 

Telephone

 

With high recharge you wanna run Blaze-Blazing Bolt-Blaze-Flares-Fire Ball as your ranged attack chain so for Fire Blast specifically there's not much difference. And of course on Blasters you get more complex rotations through incorporating high DPA melee attacks from your secondary powerset.

 

While this particular issue was already addressed on Blasters through the Defiance rework (you can only use tier 1 and tier 2 attacks while mezzed) there's room to address it further, but I don't think messing with people's rotations through snipes is the way to do it.

[MechaMarshmallow]

"LeandroToday at 6:07 PM

Back to 12 second recharge and 14.352 end cost.

 

I actually have to say I am not a fan of reducing the recharge back to 12 seconds. The 15-second recharge meant there was more room for more complex Blaster attack rotations; with a 12-second recharge, many sets can skip their second attack power once they are fully slotted (for example: Flares, Blaze, Flares, Blazing Bolt; repeat).

 

If a 15-second recharge feels too weak, I would recommend instead increasing the power of the second (moderate) attack in each Blaster powerset, or otherwise encouraging its use.

 

Telephone

 

Broadly speaking, I don't think that making blasters pick and enhance another power to have a full single target attack chain would be anything but detrimental to their effectiveness.

 

When compared to melee sets, blast sets tend to come with active and complex pairings. Corrupters and Defenders tend to take a lot of powers and need to be on the ball with their support sets, while blasters often dart in and out of melee range with their manipulation powers. Combined with their squishiness and vulnerability to being mezzed, the general playstyle of a ranged character tends to have a lot more plates to keep spinning than melee sets, which may have more complex attack rotations and positioning requirements but a lot less to focus on beyond that. As such, I don't think bringing the complexity of ranged rotations into parity with that of melee ones would be the right choice taken in context of how the different ATs play as a complete package.

 

Sentinels obviously create a bit of a wrinkle in this distinction, but I'm not very knowledgeable about that AT.

 

Edit: I wrote this while running a TF so I got a little distracted by the relative complexity issue. I think that's a much smaller problem than the potential for how requiring another power pick would thin out ranged damage dealers enhancement slots to get back to the same level of damage they had before needing the additional power in the rotation. I don't know exactly how much of an impact this would be, but it would definitely be a nerf if an additional power did end up being needed to fill out the rotation.

[Sidney]

In all the noise about ToHit, the biggest issue I have with the sniper changes has taken a back seat.  I really, really hate that my "in combat" or "out of combat" status determines which snipe you get.  It is extremely counter-intuitive.  Everything around me could be dead; nothing could be attacking me, but I'm still forced to use the fast snipe?

 

Instead, please make it based on the aggro status of the target!  If the target is not aggroed on anything, it should be a slow snipe.  After all, you're catching it unawares.  If it is aggroed on anything, then it's moving around too much for that "perfect shot" that the slow snipe represents, so you shoot quickly for center of mass.

[Sundodge]

I'm against the change simply because I like the animation stance.  It also changes an effect on my dom which was very neat visually. 

[csr]

All snipes, regardless speed, will again have maximum range. This means 150ft feet for most snipes, 175ft for Psionic snipes.

 

The "engaged" flag that drives fast snipe now requires 10 seconds without attacking or being attacked, down from 15 seconds.

 

And the good gets even better.  Is this an attempt to make Blast and Assault sets' ST DPS better?  If so... what about those sets without a Snipe?

 

If this is in fact the intent, then I suggest that for Blast sets Executioner's Shot (DP), Bitter Ice Blast (Ice), Shout (Sonic) and Water Jet (Water) should be turned into Snipes.  Don't adjust the Recharge or Damage, just increase the range and give them an out-of-combat version, with that version's Damage scaled for the shorter Recharge.  That would give every Blast set a Snipe.  Though the four sets mentioned would have less Alpha Strike value in their Snipe, it would add the mechanic to all sets and give each a long-ranged attack.  (NOTE: Water Jet's special mechanic wouldn't enable back-to-back OOC versions to be cast, so I don't see a problem there.)

 

For Assault sets it's only a little trickier.  Call Hawk (Savage) and Thorn Barrage (Thorns) could be replaced with Snipe versions (Call Falcon and Thorn Lance?).  Bitter Ice Blast (Icy) would again be made a Snipe.  Which would leave only Earth without a Snipe.  There's no obvious fix for that, unlike the other sets, since the Snipes are P6 or later and I don't think power order should be changed.

 

[Major Deej]

Ok, I'm going to be the 'concept' guy in the toxic web grenade changes for beta testing.

 

As a hero, my job is to 'stop' and 'detain' and 'arrest'...not poison someone with toxic webs!  Maybe some vigilantes may get off on that, but a true hero doesn't.  I don't see classic (original) Spider-Man shooting toxic webs routinely.

 

I can understand this on villains and unique archetypes (Arachnos soldiers), but as a 'concept', where does that leave kids, RPers and dyed-in-the-wool, true-blue heroes? Poisoning their antagonists?  Doesn't jive with me.

 

Blasters, previously used by only heroes, now able to be used by any alignment, had web grenades to hold/immobilize/detain.

 

OTHER OPTIONS:

1. make a blaster/defender 'web grenade' with maybe DOT for 'constricting' damage vice toxic

2. Create other types of web-based grenades...sorry imagination isn't on full for this at this time...

3. Leave the web grenades alone

 

My 2 Inf.

 

 

[VirtualViolet]

The range increasing Defiance buff from a slow snipe is a wonderful thing.

 

That's not part of the change. It's that way in the live version already.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

1. make a blaster/defender 'web grenade' with maybe DOT for 'constricting' damage vice toxic

I agree. It's not a major deal breaker for me but changing it to smashing damage would be nice.

[csr]

Is there any way that the OOC can automatically engage if you have no aggro?  I mean NO aggro, not that someone else has more.  That way if I do a successful pull I can be OOC as soon as that one mob is down.  And I could lead off every fight with OOC Snipe if I want to, just as I can now (handy when fighting Malta or even Sky Raiders).

 

Also... can we reverse the orange circle indicator to mean OOC is active?  Since it should be the less commonly used version of Snipes it makes more sense to me that way.  I know that breaks with the fast-Snipe practice, so it may be more disruption than it's worth, but having the indicator on pretty much all the time is annoying and it now indicates the common use of the power, not the special one.

 

[Kelaris]

I tested beam/devices, assault rifle/devices, and dark/dark blasters for a while today. Tested dark/dark dominator for several hours, a couple days ago.

 

Snipes:

 

The more that I play with snipes on the test server, the more I look forward to them going live. It's nice to be able to use the snipes to form a strong single target attack chain without depending on someone else having tactics too (as blaster/dominator).

 

The overhead text popup on successful slow snipe is neat. Feels a lot like assassin strike. The 10s delay before re-entering slow-snipe mode also feels in line with assassin strike.

 

Damage per activation on fast snipe seems very good in every set I tried.

 

I imagine there's a good reason that they're blank, but it would be nice if the detailed information for snipes worked, or if their stats were listed somewhere.

 

Speaking of numbers, the damage for Moonbeam in dominator dark assault seems to have changed (203.23 to 188.06) since Saturday. Or, I recorded my damage numbers wrong, twice!

 

The animation/activation time for sniper rifle in the assault rifle set seems long compared to the other fast snipes. Haven't recorded and timed it yet, but just comparing it to other attacks in the set, so I could be entirely mistaken. Looks and sounds good, but the damage per activation time seems to suffer a little, which is unfortunate for a set that's already a little low on single target damage.

 

 

Devices:

 

I feel that the main problem with devices has traditionally been its lack of +damage (build up) powers. Ninja training and Devices is the only blaster secondaries that lacks a +damage power. Devices seems to try to get around that with additional attack powers, and while my first instinct is to suggest simply adding +damage% to targeting drone, I think it could be a very interesting set if instead its attack powers were made strong. The changes in the June 2nd patch seem like a nice step in that direction.

 

The web grenade change is nice. I believe it will be especially appreciated in lower levels. Don't think I would slot it heavily in most builds, but it's a nice option.

 

Taser seems exceptional now, I can see taking and slotting it as part of an attack chain.

 

Never thought I'd say it, but time bomb actually feels... decent, now. The 6 minute recharge is maybe still a bit high, but when it's up, it feels nice to time bomb + primary nuke and have the entire spawn relocate to the afterlife.

 

I'd love to see trip mine lose its interrupt time, as it's already pretty dangerous to go stand near the tank for 5 seconds. Feels awful to have it amount to nothing because of being tagged by residual AoE. Alternatively, maybe add the huge +AoE defense that stalker hide has, to field operative, when you're not engaged in combat. That would allow one relatively safe trip mine per engagement, and it's a pretty strong attack if it actually goes off.

 

Turning knockback into knockdown, or just a lower magnitude knockback, is always appreciated too.

[Novacat]

While it's not quite a build-up, Ninja's stealth offers a very light permanent +dmg buff, and ramps it up to a total of +50% on your first attack each 30s. So it's not quite lacking a +dmg power, but like Martial it's not a click and while available more often it's also less reliable for timing its re-use in longer fights

[Guest JackRooks]

All snipes, regardless speed, will again have maximum range. This means 150ft feet for most snipes, 175ft for Psionic snipes.

 

The "engaged" flag that drives fast snipe now requires 10 seconds without attacking or being attacked, down from 15 seconds.

 

And the good gets even better.  Is this an attempt to make Blast and Assault sets' ST DPS better?  If so... what about those sets without a Snipe?

 

If this is in fact the intent, then I suggest that for Blast sets Executioner's Shot (DP), Bitter Ice Blast (Ice), Shout (Sonic) and Water Jet (Water) should be turned into Snipes.  Don't adjust the Recharge or Damage, just increase the range and give them an out-of-combat version, with that version's Damage scaled for the shorter Recharge.  That would give every Blast set a Snipe.  Though the four sets mentioned would have less Alpha Strike value in their Snipe, it would add the mechanic to all sets and give each a long-ranged attack.  (NOTE: Water Jet's special mechanic wouldn't enable back-to-back OOC versions to be cast, so I don't see a problem there.)

 

For Assault sets it's only a little trickier.  Call Hawk (Savage) and Thorn Barrage (Thorns) could be replaced with Snipe versions (Call Falcon and Thorn Lance?).  Bitter Ice Blast (Icy) would again be made a Snipe.  Which would leave only Earth without a Snipe.  There's no obvious fix for that, unlike the other sets, since the Snipes are P6 or later and I don't think power order should be changed.

 

 

Nothing personal against the server runners, but this is where they seem to not understand how complex balancing a MMO is. You can't just go "Oh, I'll change X" because of all the various moving parts in a game this complex you're shifting the balance so radically that a million things you didn't think of end up being impacted by what you thought was a simple change.

 

Change snipes? Sure...until you realize that it make several sets in the AT objectively worse than they were by comparison. Not to mention that it jacks people's attack chains, and then to fix the attack chain you have to make it do less damage....and so on...

 

I'll say it again. People came to the game knowing what it was. You don't need to be making these changes for the player base...yes I know people immediately started screaming for nerfs and buffs the second the forum opened. Ignore them and invest your resources in making fun content for everyone, not just tweaking a few numbers here and there which will inevitable just pisss people off and ad nothing to the net "fun" of the game.

 

And before the greek chorus starts singing "But different devs do different things" This was never really a sensible answer when the game was a s commercial product and it's not now. Whether you are paying devs or they are volunteers, you have X hours of dev time available to you. Every time you subtract from X, there's something else that you're unable to do. The only time the "Different devs do different things" argument hold up to logical scrutiny is when Dev Time is infinite, which it wasn't in live and certainly isn't now.

 

And all of this simply ignores the human factor, which was another great failing the original dev team had. People get attached to their characters, from the way they look to the way they play. Imagine saving up and buying a red car. Then one day the manufacturer of the car comes to your house and paints it yellow. Now, some people may like their new yellow cars, some will not. But the fact remains that the people bought and were invested in a red car. All you done by changing it is break the psychological connection between them and the car and remind them that they have no power and are not in control of something they previously thought of as theirs.

 

And lastly there's the elephants in the room:

 

1) This is not a paid game any more. It's supported by donations, yes, but you don't have to do things to draw out the time people play the game in order to pay your rent or put food on your table. This is, or had better not  be, a money making business, else NCsoft will come after it and shut it down

 

2) Following from number 1, there are already articles in the press about harassment going on in this game. How do you think NCSoft would respond to a bunch of negative publicity whipped up by angry people that got their characters changed? In today's "cancel culture" I really don't think it would be hard at all for a bunch of angry players to launch a petition or letter  writing campaign to NCSoft to take notice of the server and shut it down, which they could easily do.

 

3) You guys have done a good job, but aren't professional MMO creators with years of experience, and the code for this game is notoriously messy. It's pretty obvious, based on this and the Rage situation, that understanding the complexity of these systems and the way they interact is very difficult and will take years to get right. As loud as all of the people calling for this or that fix/nerf/buff etc. are, I don't think they get how much of a mess the code must be to work with.

 

My suggestion: Before implementing any kind of game mechanic changes, spend a great deal of time openly discussing it with the community before even considering touching the code. If it seems that the community ifs feeling that it's somehow so bad it's destroying the game, then work with the community to agree upon a solution. Tell us what's technically possible and what isn't. Finally release it onto test and honestly listen to all feedback. Then, if it's well received and doesn't cause other problems, releasing it to live wont cause this kind of consternation in the community.

 

Honestly what I'd really suggest you do is read a few books on organizational leadership theory. There are numerous good ones covering the topic of implementing change within an organization and I think they help you immensely if you're going to keep fiddling with the power sets.