Alpha Incarnate +1 level is messing with Swift

[Luminara]

This has been bothering me for a very long time, but I thought it was a result of Sprint's split Run Speed buff, so I never put much time into investigating it.  I noticed it on Fly Speed, too, and now it has my full attention.

 

After zoning, Swift's Run Speed and Fly Speed buffs are decreased for up to 10 seconds.

 

Here's a character immediately after zoning into a mission map:

 

And here's the same character a few seconds later:

 

I have a single level 50+5 Fly Speed IO slotted in Swift on this character.  This isn't happening with Hurdle, that's consistent after zoning.

 

After testing on several characters, I've isolated the anomaly to characters with a T3 or T4 Alpha, meaning, level 51.  What the Alpha does is irrelevant (tested with Agility, Spiritual and Musculature), it's the level shift causing the anomaly.  It's also not an archetype-specific issue (one of the possibilities i investigated), I can reproduce it with all archetypes.  Swift and the Alpha level shift aren't interacting the way they should.

 

What's concerning about this isn't that the character is a tiny bit slower immediately after zoning, it's that the level shift is reducing the character's speed.  The movement speed displayed in the second screenshot, after this anomalous speed reduction ends, exactly matches what it should be at level 50.  Not level 51, level 50.  Swift isn't dropping part of its buff, the level shift is somehow suppressing Swift.  And it shouldn't even be able to do that.  On this character, I have Musculature Radial Paragon, which doesn't buff Fly Speed at all, yet it's doing something to reduce my Fly Speed below level 50 value.

 

This may be the visible part of a larger problem with level shifts, or it might just be Swift, but it definitely warrants investigation.

[lemming]

Interesting.  Have you seen if the other two level shifts do anything?   Does taking an Ultimate do anything similar?

 

Theory:  When they dropped speed reduction at lower levels, maybe this is the unintended effect?

[Molubdos]

Are you using Musculature Radial Paragon, by any chance? I've just looked at this and it looks like the Global Enhancement effect of Alpha Slot powers, at least when it comes to auto powers, takes a cycle to kick back in after zoning.

 

For an example, when using Cardiac Core Paragon, the resistance effect of High Pain Tolerance in Willpower takes a cycle to kick up after zoning as well.

 

 

This likely impacts all auto-powers that are enhanced by Alpha Slot Abilities.

 

Edited September 27 by Molubdos
More detail.

[twozerofoxtrot]

2 hours ago, Molubdos said:

Are you using Musculature Radial Paragon, by any chance?

 

She is, among others. 

 

On 9/22/2024 at 5:23 AM, Luminara said:

 What the Alpha does is irrelevant (tested with Agility, Spiritual and Musculature), it's the level shift causing the anomaly.

 

[Molubdos]

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, it's that the Level Shift isn't the cause.

What's happening seems to be that the Global Enhancement Function of the Alpha power seems to "skip" that first tick/cycle of auto-powers on zoning.

I've confirmed this with lower-tier Alpha powers as well - T1 Agility does the same thing on my Brute, and the numbers line up, too.

Edited September 27 by Molubdos

[Luminara]

17 minutes ago, Molubdos said:

What's happening seems to be that the Global Enhancement Function of the Alpha power seems to "skip" that first tick/cycle of auto-powers on zoning.

 

Musculature and Spiritual don't enhance Flight Speed.

[Molubdos]

So I'm not sure why you're getting a different outcome. Lv50+5 Flight Speed IO in Swift, and Musculature Core Paragon, and I'm consistently getting +2.99, while my Run Speed is adjusting as per the discussed findings.

 

Unless your empowerment is somehow affecting it...

[Luminara]

Further testing has given even less explicable results.

 

When I started testing, I used several different characters, including one that had unlocked the Alpha slot, but not crafted any Alpha enhancements yet, and had not unlocked any of the other Incarnate slots.  On that character, there was never a change in Swift's buff, regardless of how many times I zoned, or which map I zoned into (mission, base, world), so I focused my attention on level shifts.

 

I went to the last page of my characters to access the one and only level 50 with no enhancements, an Elec/Rad dominator with no Veteran levels, no Incarnates unlocked and no buffs of any kind.  Everything is empty, the stats are default.  On this character, not one stat changes when I zone.

 

This morning, I unslotted all of the Incarnate powers on the character in the screenshots in the bug report.  All of them, all six, not a single Incarnate slot populated by anything... and Flight Speed was still lost when zoning.  I zoned in and out several times, each time I changed zones, the character was reduced to 83.71 mph Flight Speed, then a few seconds later, went back up to the correct 84.30 mph.  No level shifts, no Incarnates slotted at all.  Swift's buff is still varying when it shouldn't be, though.

 

I have Swift slotted with a single 50+5 Flight Speed IO.  Replacing that with a level 50 IO results in 84 mph Flight Speed, 0.29 mph above the discrepancy, so boosters can't be the culprit.  Removing the IO completely drops my speed down to 82.75, almost 1 mph less than the observed discrepancy, so the IO also can't be the culprit.  And no combination of IO level and boosters that I can contrive in Mids' hits the discrepant speed.

 

I went back to the unenhanced, default 50 Elec/Rad dominator and slotted a level 50 Run Speed IO in Swift and zoned several times.  No change in Swift's buff, no change in movement speed.

 

I repeated the test above with Sprint toggled on, and no enhancement slotted in Sprint, with the same results.  Movement speed was consistent with every zone change.

 

I repeated the test again with a level 25 Run Speed IO in Sprint, same result.  Movement speed was consistent with every zone change.

 

I repeated the test again with Infiltration toggled on, with no enhancement slotted, same result.  Movement speed was consistent with every zone change.

 

And on several of the Infiltration-using characters I tested, Infiltration only had a LotG: Defense/+Recharge IO in the default slot, no Run Speed enhancements of any kind, so I think enhancements can be conclusively removed from the list of possible culprits.

 

Testing with a level 30 character, Swift's buff never varies.

 

I have another level 50 character that currently has neither, but with a full suite of enhancements slotted, and like the Elec/Rad dominator, is not displaying variability in Swift.   I'm going to run this character through some missions to see what happens when Veteran levels begin accruing.  If that doesn't trigger the bug, I'll move back to Incarnates.  All of the available evidence indicates that it has to be one or the other.

 

Fuck.  Why can't I find the easy bugs?

[Molubdos]

I think my hunch was right.

The Increase Flight Speed empowerment has its effect combined with Swift, and takes the first tick to reapply, like the Alpha's Enhancements.

Why?
Because it's a buff to Flight Speed Strength, so its effect is to increase the effect of your other flight speed buffs, not to buff your flight speed directly!

 

So it's doing the same thing the Alpha power is, and not applying for the first "Auto tick" after zoning.

[Luminara]

1 hour ago, Molubdos said:

I think my hunch was right.

The Increase Flight Speed empowerment has its effect combined with Swift, and takes the first tick to reapply, like the Alpha's Enhancements.

Why?
Because it's a buff to Flight Speed Strength, so its effect is to increase the effect of your other flight speed buffs, not to buff your flight speed directly!

 

So it's doing the same thing the Alpha power is, and not applying for the first "Auto tick" after zoning.

 

 

 

I don't have Increase Flight Speed on this character, still happening.

[Molubdos]

So, I did some digging around in City of Data to try and find something that might cause that level of change in Run & Flight speed, found an interesting result that may answer it, and I've now confirmed it in-game.

 

Do you have the 3-slot set bonus from Pacing of the Turtle on that character, by any chance?

 

This set bonus actually impacts the effect of Swift as well, in the same way as all the "auto-powers that enhance other powers" so far!

It also does, in fact, impact Hurdle, but this is less noticeable as Hurdle ticks on a much shorter timer and refreshes sooner, but it does affect it.