Things you Love, Things you would change

[Octogoat]

Things I'd change:

 

 

[arcane]

On 7/3/2025 at 3:59 PM, Andreah said:

I'd make a "Feats of Strength" power-pool

Thinking of Frank Costanza’s battle cry of “Stop crying and fight your father!” 

[aardvarkKeeper]

Make empathy viable for endgame

[arcane]

26 minutes ago, aardvarkKeeper said:

Make empathy viable for endgame

It is?

[Talesin]

Rage was built for Tanks.  Tanks had low base damage scale, so it made sense for them.  It does not make sense today given the changes.  It should have been changed when it was proliferated to Brutes, and when the damage scale of Tanks was changed.  Street Justice, IMO, was the devs redo of Super Strength just as Savage Melee was their redo of Claws. 

[SeraphimKensai]

On 7/3/2025 at 1:22 PM, arcane said:

 

My only requests:

1. Delete changelings. Consider temp bans for some of the cheat’s serial abusers.

I'm a little surprised that you'd go as far as request temp bans for changelings given the fact that the Dev team is well aware of the issue and has explicitly stated they are fine with players as changelings until they can address Kheldians overall. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather phrase the request in a way that implies a revamp to the ATs that being them in line with other ATs performance wise while addressing the changelings' ability to stack attacks.

 

Then again we're all entitled to our opinion. Personally I like the changeling play style as I dog the shape shifting I just wish that the underlying bug was addressed while bringing up the ATs performance to make them similar to other damage related ATs. Maybe reducing the sound volume and flashing on the shape shifting would go along away to help address some community concerns.

[arcane]

54 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I'm a little surprised that you'd go as far as request temp bans for changelings given the fact that the Dev team is well aware of the issue and has explicitly stated they are fine with players as changelings until they can address Kheldians overall. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather phrase the request in a way that implies a revamp to the ATs that being them in line with other ATs performance wise while addressing the changelings' ability to stack attacks.

 

Then again we're all entitled to our opinion. Personally I like the changeling play style as I dog the shape shifting I just wish that the underlying bug was addressed while bringing up the ATs performance to make them similar to other damage related ATs. Maybe reducing the sound volume and flashing on the shape shifting would go along away to help address some community concerns.

IMO:

 

1) The changeling cheat is so egregious that waiting for a Kheldian revamp before fixing it is only appropriate if the developers are actually going to prioritize said Kheldian revamp in good faith. This is clearly not the case as the cheat has existed for years and through numerous big patches. Allowing the cheat to exist in the game for years is so wrong that I do want to hear the “we’ll get a revamp eventually” excuse anymore. The cheat needed to be deleted years ago.

 

2) The changeling cheat was only allowed to continue to exist because a few hyperpopular changeling players threatened to set the discord, the forums, and the city on fire if we took away their overpowered cheat. Typical blackmail, whatever. Many will abuse the cheat but say they only want changeling around until Kheldians get a revamp, which conveniently further delays the fix of an egregious cheat. The point is: some players are complicit in changelings not being fixed yet. I’d say the people actively educating people in public on how to break the game and encouraging people to abuse this exploit for years… well I’d certainly be okay with them having a week off. Their lobbying has done a lot of damage and I do not care what happens to them.

[SeraphimKensai]

6 hours ago, arcane said:

IMO:

 

1) The changeling cheat is so egregious that waiting for a Kheldian revamp before fixing it is only appropriate if the developers are actually going to prioritize said Kheldian revamp in good faith. This is clearly not the case as the cheat has existed for years and through numerous big patches. Allowing the cheat to exist in the game for years is so wrong that I do want to hear the “we’ll get a revamp eventually” excuse anymore. The cheat needed to be deleted years ago.

 

2) The changeling cheat was only allowed to continue to exist because a few hyperpopular changeling players threatened to set the discord, the forums, and the city on fire if we took away their overpowered cheat. Typical blackmail, whatever. Many will abuse the cheat but say they only want changeling around until Kheldians get a revamp, which conveniently further delays the fix of an egregious cheat. The point is: some players are complicit in changelings not being fixed yet. I’d say the people actively educating people in public on how to break the game and encouraging people to abuse this exploit for years… well I’d certainly be okay with them having a week off. Their lobbying has done a lot of damage and I do not care what happens to them.

Interesting take. While the the issue has persisted for several years at this point, I get that the Dev team have their individual priorities and appear to take a page from Bentham to do the greatest good for the greatest number, with the resources that they have. I feel that they are likely to get a revamp underway at some point and there's been a great deal of discussion regarding the subject on the discord over the years too, so it's at the very least definitely on their radar.

 

I'm curious if you don't mind, why it is that you've taken the stance that you have (not to say that it's wrong or right, just curious on your perspective) regarding changelings and the players behind them. Is there something inherently about them that affects your enjoyment of the game and if so what is it?

 

Using my intuition, I try and ponder what the underlying cause of your resentment to the play style is. The closest I can fathom is that the vfx/sfx from repetitive form swapping must cause you some issue, because outside of closed beta pylon times, in-game play only realistically brings them up to be comparable to a scrapper or low damage blaster.

 

Anyways thanks for your input.

[arcane]

17 minutes ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I'm curious if you don't mind, why it is that you've taken the stance that you have (not to say that it's wrong or right, just curious on your perspective) regarding changelings and the players behind them. Is there something inherently about them that affects your enjoyment of the game and if so what is it?

 

Using my intuition, I try and ponder what the underlying cause of your resentment to the play style is. The closest I can fathom is that the vfx/sfx from repetitive form swapping must cause you some issue, because outside of closed beta pylon times, in-game play only realistically brings them up to be comparable to a scrapper or low damage blaster.

1) Mathematical data points that prove that Changelings are wildly overpowered. 
2) Obviously anything that can break the game’s animation system with a click of a macro is broken.

3) The players abusing them most are clearly deterring the developers from fixing the cheat in a more timely manner.

4) Anyone who wishes to play a Kheldian without the cheat is going to be bothered by dumbasses recommending cheating to compensate for your DPS.

[Glacier Peak]

Eh it took a while for the Homecoming Team to get after the /enterbasepasscode exploit, but they did eventually. I'll wager that a dev will eventually come along who has the interest and patience to find a balance to address the shortcomings of the AT while fixing the exploit. 

 

 

[MTeague]

I would restrict Incarnate powers to iTrials, or to arcs like new Dark Astoria that were designed around them, only.

No, that will never happen. But the question was asked, so, that's what I'd change, if anyone were fool enough to hand me a magic wand.

 

[ivanhedgehog]

On 7/3/2025 at 12:22 PM, arcane said:

I love everything.

 

My only requests:

1. Delete changelings. Consider temp bans for some of the cheat’s serial abusers.

2. Veteran level leaderboard in game at kiosks.

3. Badge for veteran level 1,000.

question...what is a changeling? curious.....

[Psyonico]

19 hours ago, ivanhedgehog said:

question...what is a changeling? curious.....

They’re referring to an unintended side effect of HEATs and their transformation powers.  Basically, you can use the transform power to fire off 2 powers at the same time, improving your DPS.  The devs haven’t “fixed” this yet because this “exploit” only brings HEAT damage up enough that the compete with the lower half of scrappers builds, so nothing game breaking, however, the devs know that HEATs that *don’t* use this are substantially worse off, so until they can get around to figuring out how to actually balance HEATs, they don’t want to address this 

 

edit: changlings allow for pretty high damage numbers, but since I don’t follow that stuff at all, I can’t really say how game breaking it is.  @arcane has provided pylon times in a later post.

Edited July 8 by Psyonico
correcting incorrect info

[arcane]

3 hours ago, Psyonico said:

only brings HEAT damage up enough that the compete with the lower half of scrappers builds

I haven’t seen evidence to support the assertion that 50% of scrapper powerset combos are pumping out numbers in excess of 700 DPS. But even if that evidence *did* exist (which I don’t believe it does), then I would say it’s *still* not acceptable unless we lower Kheldian’s damage resistance caps to 75%.

 

RE @ivanhedgehog changeling is the popular name for any kheldian that uses binds or macros to break/bypass the game’s power animation system and thereby dishes out instantaneous attacks that make the character’s DPS skyrocket. The developers went to fix this egregious exploit, but some popular kheldian mains convinced them of some crackpot notion that they aren’t allowed to patch the exploit until they’ve overhauled the kheldian archetype. That was years ago.

[tidge]

1. I don't use the changeling exploit,
2. I don't mind that it exists,
3. I do wish players would only use it solo.

The Kheldian HEATs can be IMO a pretty miserable AT to play, at least once I've experienced their arcs.

 

Many ideas have been kicked around in the HEAT subforum, I get the sense that the reason the changeling exploit hasn't been addressed is:

• Folks literally can't figure out how to disable it without somehow eliminating/highly restricting a key feature of the AT (i.e. changing forms)
• The HC powers team hasn't (through reluctance, blind spots, whatever) demonstrated a willingness to directly increase damage output on the scale that would be necessary to otherwise make Kheldians compete with non-control ATs

I am putting very little judgment behind the second bullet point... it's more that because the Nova form attacks don't ever really become better than low/mid-tier blasts, and the Dwarf form isn't supposed to be a DPS form I get the sense that the powers team is pretty stymied about what an alternate to changeling would even look like.

[Octogoat]

11 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Interesting take. 

I don't know if the lack of sleep and worry over my mom's declining health finally got to me but this particular opening phrase from your post sent me sides into orbit at a time it was most needed, thanks.

[Skyhawke]

10 hours ago, ivanhedgehog said:

question...what is a changeling? curious.....

 

Came here to ask this as well.

 

9 hours ago, Psyonico said:

They’re referring to an unintended side effect of HEATs and their transformation powers.  Basically, you can use the transform power to fire off 2 powers at the same time, improving your DPS.  The devs haven’t “fixed” this yet because this “exploit” only brings HEAT damage up enough that the compete with the lower half of scrappers builds, so nothing game breaking, however, the devs know that HEATs that *don’t* use this are substantially worse off, so until they can get around to figuring out how to actually balance HEATs, they don’t want to address this.

 

Wow, people get worked up over the stupidest things sometimes. 

 

 

[Octogoat]

1 minute ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Came here to ask this as well.

 

 

Wow, people get worked up over the stupidest things sometimes. 

 

 

Imagine getting bent out of shape because of an alien sparklebug doing standard DPS.

[Skyhawke]

4 minutes ago, Octogoat said:

Imagine getting bent out of shape because of an alien sparklebug doing standard DPS.

 

Seriously. How dare they approach mediocrity? 

[Octogoat]

2 minutes ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Seriously. How dare they approach mediocrity? 

see my new tlc reality series "I spent 1 billion influence to do the DPS of a dual pistols sentinel"

[arcane]

I mean you guys are really owning that straw man.

 

When you don’t have a counterargument to what was said, lie, misrepresent, mock… I understand the formula guys I really do.

Edited July 8 by arcane

[Octogoat]

13 minutes ago, arcane said:

I mean you guys are really owning that straw man.

 

When you don’t have a counterargument to what was said, lie, misrepresent, mock… I understand the formula guys I really do.

I don't have a counterargument because the argument was silly. Up until a few years ago I would've gladly debated the topic with you but these days I find pointless arguments to be...well...pointless.

 

Anyways if you're at least having fun despite a few pet peeves you're in a good spot. But it's true that we can always strive to get to a better spot.

 

Have fun out there.

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Octogoat said:

Imagine getting bent out of shape because of an alien sparklebug doing standard DPS.

Assuming you are either (1) someone with no history of DPS testing who took a lie at face value or (2) maybe you’re just someone who lies.

[arcane]

1 hour ago, Skyhawke said:

 

Seriously. How dare they approach mediocrity? 

I urge you to learn what the fuck you’re talking about. Considering you didn’t know what a changeling was a few posts ago, I will give you the benefit of the doubt for once and assume you are not a liar.

[Skyhawke]

Jesus dude, pull the stick out.