Blaster Knockback powers

[A Cat]

1 minute ago, Snarky said:

wtf is a strop?

It is a piece of (usually) leather used to remove the burr from sharpening a knife. Sometimes it is embedded with a fine abrasive compound to accelerate this process and also polish the edge beyond what the final stone gives you, but that is optional. You take strokes with the blade facing away from the direction of travel, occasionally switching sides on the blade, to work off the burr. 

[Songseven]

2 minutes ago, A Cat said:

It is a piece of (usually) leather used to remove the burr from sharpening a knife. Sometimes it is embedded with a fine abrasive compound to accelerate this process and also polish the edge beyond what the final stone gives you, but that is optional. You take strokes with the blade facing away from the direction of travel, occasionally switching sides on the blade, to work off the burr. 

 

lol

 

where i reside, its a strap used to tie down freight etc

 

i believe in this context its being used as slang for "bad mood"

[0th Power]

24 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as “space rocks." When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors.

 Yes I am aware of that.  You don't think the characters are summoning rocks that are already in the atmosphere do you?

Edited December 17, 2021 by 0th Power
word "think" added

[Chrono-Bot]

7 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

You don't the characters are summoning rocks that are already in the atmosphere do you?

mine is!

[Black Zot]

Why not just rename the power "Big Fucking Rock" and be done with it?

[0th Power]

1 minute ago, Black Zot said:

Why not just rename the power "Big Fucking Rock" and be done with it?

I actually like B.F.R.

[Erratic1]

10 minutes ago, 0th Power said:

 Yes I am aware of that.  You don't the characters are summoning rocks that are already in the atmosphere do you?

 

My guy is magic origin. For all I know he's creating it complete with velocity in the atmosphere. 

 

In fact, if you look up, it suddenly appears...could be gating in from another universe, saving doomed dinosaurs from an alternate reality.

[Attache]

2 minutes ago, Erratic1 said:

In fact, if you look up, it suddenly appears...could be gating in from another universe, saving doomed dinosaurs from an alternate reality.

Now I'm thinking of that one sad dinosaur who was looking forward to the end of things just standing there with his absurdly large body and a banner that says "Go Meteor!" in his tiny hand. Looking up hopefully and just waiting.

[GM Impervium]

7 hours ago, Luminara said:

You know what, I'll ask someone else.  Hey, @GM Impervium, how many people have used the in-game report tool to report:

1. being kicked from a team for using KB
2. being verbally harassed for using KB
3. being griefed by someone using KB?

We don't need names, dates, times or anything like that.  Just totals.  And while you're at it, the total number of active player accounts would be helpful, so we can determine the percentage of players these issues affect.

While I'm not going to comment on cases about harassment/griefing/etc, nor about number of active accounts (you can check the server stats page at different times and try to suss it out yourself; Player data is really more Cipher's thing), I do have a related anecdote, which I'll serve with a pinch of salt.

We often get tickets asking for help from people/groups who are stuck, because a required enemy (named boss, defeat all, or defeat-all-in-last-room, etc) got knocked into the geometry and is no longer targetable, or have straight up been knocked THROUGH the wall and are falling forever through an endless void! The tone and intention of such tickets is just to get help, not to point fingers or get people in trouble. Heck, I even recall one player who felt bad about it and asked if there was a way to control his knockback. I introduced them to the market and how to find a KB->KD IO, and they were ecstatic! If i HAD to put a number on how often we get such tickets, I'd say about 1.5 times per week on average. Might be statistically insignificant given the hundreds of missions played every day, though.

Though to be fair, it's not always from KB effects, either. The AI in this game is REALLY dumb and has trouble navigating around, and can get themselves stuck for no reason *Glares hatefully at Amy Johnson and Baby New Year*

So the main take-away, from my perspective, is that KB can cause issues, but nothing that anyone gets in too big of a huff about. Especially since help is a click and 3-5 minutes away in most cases.

 

Oh, and I guess as long as I'm here, I should probably remind everyone to keep it cool, it seems to have gotten a bit heated here and there 😃


 

[Glacier Peak]

Oh man when I submit my support tickets for enemies stuck in or underneath geometry, our awesome GMs show up faster than the time it takes for Bitter Freeze Ray to cast. Of course most of the time I just fail to find the enemy hiding in plain sight 😆 

[Snarky]

Makes me want to take the Blaster Meteor set and knock enemies until i can get a GM to show up. If i do it a hundred times is there a badge?

[Nyghtmaire]

16 minutes ago, Snarky said:

Makes me want to take the Blaster Meteor set and knock enemies until i can get a GM to show up. If i do it a hundred times is there a badge?

Sounds like you just volunteered for “Badge Creator 2022.”

[Ironblade]

On 12/15/2021 at 2:41 PM, Solarverse said:

My point is, no other secondary affect in game is hated like sets with KB. No other secondary affect has people buying IO's that cost upwards of 2 mill influence and wasting a slot just for that very reason.

On the other hand, no other secondary effect is as entertaining as watching an enemy get blasted across the room or, even better, off a bridge or rooftop.

The only thing I can think of that might compare is if we got to see the enemies explode - which isn't going to happen in a game with this ESRB rating.

[Parabola]

Any attempt to claim that knockback isn't a contentious issue in this game is completely disingenuous. I have been asked/told to stop using certain powers and even had derogatory comments for just showing up to a team with a storm summoner. I've also had good comments after people have seen me play, I consider myself pretty well versed in herdicaning etc. That people are commenting with surprise on good storm use speaks to the problem though, they are far too used to seeing it go the other way.

 

And I'm going to hold my hand up and say that I've too often been on the other side as well. I've been the one asking someone to put certain powers away and have left teams where it has become too irritating to bother with.

 

Positioning is just about the only skill you need to learn in this game. How mobs behave, the geometry of powers and how to leverage the former for the best use of the latter. Kb, repel, tp, immob, etc, are all things that one player can use that directly affect the ability of other players to do the same. They are all interesting tools and they enrich the game but we shouldn't pretend that they don't cause issues.

[Peacemoon]

6 hours ago, Snarky said:

wtf is a strop?

Haha I didn’t realise this was just a British saying!

 

‘Having a strop’ is basically having a temper tantrum and then storming off in a big sulk afterwards.

So basically how some melee act when there’s even a hint of a knockback 🤣

(as I’ve said before, I think AoE knockback/scattering is quite annoying for most people!)

 

[Dona Eis Requiem]

6 hours ago, Parabola said:

Positioning is just about the only skill you need to learn in this game. How mobs behave, the geometry of powers and how to leverage the former for the best use of the latter. Kb, repel, tp, immob, etc, are all things that one player can use that directly affect the ability of other players to do the same. They are all interesting tools and they enrich the game but we shouldn't pretend that they don't cause issues.

 

True. I think most of us here know the nuances. I suspect maybe some are new with its usage. A lot of the "problems" are more likely due to the speed at which teams travel now. 

With everyone running around like they're juiced up, there's not a split second to do much finessing. 

Also, try letting the team leader know if you use un-converted KB. It has worked wonders for me and I haven't ever gotten yelled at by my teammates on the occasions I play such characters.

Lastly, we really should be adult enough not to have a tantrum over trivialities. There are as many "annoyances" as there are players. You can either suck it up and drive on, or continue to cry about it when you don't get your way.

[GM Impervium]

11 hours ago, Snarky said:

Makes me want to take the Blaster Meteor set and knock enemies until i can get a GM to show up. If i do it a hundred times is there a badge?

 

/csr Snarky ticket_ignore

 

 

 

(Jk, that's not a command that exists =P)

[JasperStone]

1 hour ago, GM Impervium said:

 

/csr Snarky ticket_ignore

 

 

 

(Jk, that's not a command that exists =P)

yet ......

 

GM1: Hey what's behind this door?

GM Impervium: NO!!!! DON"T OPEN THAT

GM1: *opens door

...

PHOOOOOOOOOOM! Thousands of tickets spill out.

GM1: wth?

GM Impervium: Snarky tickets .....don't ask *start bulldozer* .... *begins bulldozing tickets back into room*

[reisma]

It is one of the great tragedies of this game that Knockback (and ragdolling enemies in general) is such a suboptimal thing to do in many situations.

[Solarverse]

15 hours ago, GM Impervium said:

While I'm not going to comment on cases about harassment/griefing/etc,

 

Let's be real though, how many people actually complains to the GM's because they were kicked from a team? I wouldn't think very many, if any at all would waste time to report a player because said player kicked them from a team. Seems awfully petty if they did. Kicking somebody off a team is not something you would expect to get in trouble over. Even more so, who would even harass somebody because they used knockback? I can't think of anyone who would do that either. Worst case, they might say in all caps, "STOP KNOCKING BACK MY TARGETS!!! WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT!!!" Most of the time they simply ask for said player to stop and if they don't, they kick them from the team, best case, the person who has issue with it, will leave the team like I do.

So even if you were able to answer this question that Luminara put to you, I don't think the answer would be anything that would give any amount of evidence to support Luminara's point of view. Personally, I just think Luminara is just very lucky to not have seen these issues get brought up on a team, either that or they don't PUG very often. I don't want to call Luminara a liar, because I feel they are being genuine when they say they have never seen anyone get kicked or yelled at for using knockback, however, I am not a liar either, I have seen it happen on many occasions...even since this game has come back. Regardless, I seriously doubt any reports would have been made over such disagreements in play styles. But that does not mean that these arguments/kickings don't happen.

 

I will say this much, the worst I have ever done personally is rage quit a team when playing as my Tank because a player absolutely insisted on using Knock Back AoE's. I finally got sick of it and said, "You don't need a damn Tank, you need a catcher's mitt..." and then dropped team.

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Solarverse
Spelling errors

[tidge]

On 12/15/2021 at 2:41 PM, Solarverse said:

I just think that it's bulls**t that no other secondary affect from any other powers in game that requires people have to literally slot something in that power to negate knock back their secondary affect and turn it in to knock down something other than the secondary affect it comes with.

 

While not precisely the same, somewhere a lonely old Mastermind whose primary doesn't include a recharge-intensive pet laments having to sacrifice precious henchmen slots sacrificed for the effects of global enhancements.

[Solarverse]

11 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

While not precisely the same, somewhere a lonely old Mastermind whose primary doesn't include a recharge-intensive pet laments having to sacrifice precious henchmen slots sacrificed for the effects of global enhancements.

 

I thought you could slot them for either regular pet enhancements on recharge intensives? That is strange indeed.

[tidge]

29 minutes ago, Solarverse said:

 

I thought you could slot them for either regular pet enhancements on recharge intensives? That is strange indeed.

 

Many MM primaries don't have recharge intensive pets, so instead of slotting the henchmen for other things, they have to burn henchmen slots.

 

EDIT: I was trying to summon an echo from using a slot in a KB attack to making it KD.

Edited December 17, 2021 by tidge

[Solarverse]

9 minutes ago, tidge said:

 

Many MM primaries don't have recharge intensive pets, so instead of slotting the henchmen for other things, they have to burn henchmen slots.

 

EDIT: I was trying to summon an echo from using a slot in a KB attack to making it KD.

 

Oh, I see, gotcha!

[Snarky]

5 hours ago, reisma said:

It is one of the great tragedies of this game that Knockback (and ragdolling enemies in general) is such a suboptimal thing to do in many situations.

This is perhaps the most coherent thing said in this thread.  Thank you.

 

Knockback, as pointed out already, is part of the core source material for our game.  Ragdoll physics is one of the things that this game has always excelled at.  
 

Yet using Knockback is often a suboptimal and oftentimes idiotic move.

 

Well played cruel Devs.  Well played.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Snarky