Cimeroran Phalanx Fighting

[Hedgefund]

From the bottom of the OP here 

it says:

 

 

Quote

The power "Energized Shield" that most Cimeroran critters should have was accidentally removed during a previous patch. It has been restored, with a bit of a naming shuffle:

• "Energized Shield" actually had the effects of the power "Phalanx Fighting" from Shield Defense, so it has been renamed to match that.
• Cimerorans also had a "Phalanx Fighting" power which was just a basic self defense auto, so it has been renamed to "Roman Armor".
• There were no changes to the actual powers, just the names. Cimerorans have the exact same powers they had from their release until Issue 24, besides the name changes.

 

Let's focus on the first bullet point, that Cims now have a power labeled "Phalanx Fighting" which has the same effects as the power of the same name in Shield Defense.

 

Let's look at Phalanx Fighting, I arbitrarily chose the Scrapper version.

https://cod.uberguy.net./html/power.html?power=scrapper_defense.shield_defense.phalanx_fighting&at=scrapper

 

Specifically

Max Targets Hit: 3

 

This is the same for the Tank and Brute versions as well (Stalkers don't get this power).  Based on the description from CoD2 and in-game, you get a +Defense buff for up to 3 allies within radius (8 feet for players).

 

However, I used Surveillance on a minion on a wall and this is their defense, which includes 16 stacks of PF:

This most certainly isn't the same as the player version.  

 

Full disclosure, I don't KNOW that this is a bug, but I sure don't recall Cims having up to 40% def before.

[Replacement]

The idea was to get it more accurate.

 

Previously, they had a power called Phalanx Fighting, which was nothing but base stats (now Roman Armor), and a second power called Energized Shield (Which is also a player ability from Energy Aura -- it even had that same description about "kinetic energy!") which provided the stacking bonus defense for each nearby friend.  Since something happened in a previous patch (would've been like... towards the beginning of HC, btw) and we were restoring it anyway, the mindset goes "may as well make these names make sense."

 

So

1. Phalanx Fighting (self buff only) --> renamed to Roman Armor.
2. Energized Shield (ally-scaling buff) --> renamed Phalanx Fighting.

The higher-than-normal target cap is small fries.  Take a look at Behemoth version of Invincible to get another good example of powers being wildly different on critters (it's just like ours, but it's something like +20% defense per nearby player!  Ours gives like 1%!)

 

EDIT: as for the actual defense numbers - there were no intentional changes there.  Still good to bring up, in case there's some other change that was overlooked, like some edits to all versions of Kinetic Shield that may have accidentally grabbed that entry.

 

EDIT2: Ok, I'm feeling foolish.  I didn't realize the patch notes had been edited to include the full lay of the land vis-a-vis power name musical chairs.

That means the only really relevant thing I've added here is that NPC powers cheat.  As you were!

Edited August 26, 2021 by Replacement

[Faultline]

13 hours ago, Hedgefund said:

However, I used Surveillance on a minion on a wall and this is their defense, which includes 16 stacks of PF:

This most certainly isn't the same as the player version.  

 

No critter power is the exact same as a player version, because players get enhancements and critters don't. I should have said "it's most similar to" Phalanx Fighting, since the critter version also has Mez resistance.

 

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=brute_defense.shield_defense.phalanx_fighting

https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=romans.praefectus.energized_shield

 

Numbers are confirmed to be the same they used to before the power was removed from the critters; the power itself was there and hasn't changed, but the critter definitions weren't using it.

[Luminara]

40 minutes ago, Faultline said:

No critter power is the exact same as a player version, because players have brains and critters don't.