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Whiteout #4: Close Encounters feedback thread.
Archived Post
Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
Alright just finished the episode. While it was fantastic on looks (loved the look of the insides of steelhead, its grrrreat!!!) somehow it felt a bit weak, maybe the weakest of the episodes so far, though it wasn't bad.
First of all, I am not sure if the bosses were properly tuned for solo, but definitely silvers will get butchered with them, I died myself a couple of times on each boss. They just have waaaaaay too much HP for normal difficulty. Even with heals was a 4-5 min long fight for me for each boss. EDIT: okay... I just ran with my AT blade, and had less problems than with my freeform force character... I guess my force char just sucks hahahaha. But still the boss fights felt harder than usual, though not impossible.
The cliffhanger was the weakest of them all so far, it felt rushed in fact, maybe I got used to the voice acting at the end of each episode.
About the drops, they were okay, liked them. The Roin'esh Helmet, while it doesn't look as great as the shoulder, its okay enough for some concepts I guess. The temporal TP its awesomesauce =p
We could had used a custom song like in WO #2 though.
The pacing was fine, tad longer than previous episodes (maybe it was for me since I was soloing).
Oh also... I think its the first I see blood in this game a quite interesting sight, not bad though.
Those are my first impressions.
First of all, I am not sure if the bosses were properly tuned for solo, but definitely silvers will get butchered with them, I died myself a couple of times on each boss. They just have waaaaaay too much HP for normal difficulty. Even with heals was a 4-5 min long fight for me for each boss. EDIT: okay... I just ran with my AT blade, and had less problems than with my freeform force character... I guess my force char just sucks hahahaha. But still the boss fights felt harder than usual, though not impossible.
The cliffhanger was the weakest of them all so far, it felt rushed in fact, maybe I got used to the voice acting at the end of each episode.
About the drops, they were okay, liked them. The Roin'esh Helmet, while it doesn't look as great as the shoulder, its okay enough for some concepts I guess. The temporal TP its awesomesauce =p
We could had used a custom song like in WO #2 though.
The pacing was fine, tad longer than previous episodes (maybe it was for me since I was soloing).
Oh also... I think its the first I see blood in this game a quite interesting sight, not bad though.
Those are my first impressions.
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Also Roin'esh helmet costume drop. But spelled Roi'Nesh in the costume creator.
The overall environment was neat. I liked the inside of the station. Reminds me of the later science lab levels from Half-life 1. I guess that's why those scientists outside there are always asking were Freeman is :P
You should have an option to go inside it all the time. Make it a social place hehe.
The problem, I think, is that a hero outside a certain radius in that room (which doesn't fill that room) doesn't register as being present.
The solution would be to either do away with that radius, or (as I suggested with the Roin'esh Commander in Chapter 2) set the Sasquatch so that he doesn't instantly regenerate the instant he thinks nobody's around.
I'd prefer both. The former means he doesn't automatically get the first hit (what are a Soldier's sniper rifle and missile launcher for, anyways?), and the latter means solo players at least get a chance at beating him even if he beats them initially.
The only other comment I can make is that the fight in front of Steelhead was (based on the sounds I was he3aring) half over by the time my loading screen was done.
As far as I got, the chapter was interesting enough, but I can only comment on it for as far as I got. I'll keep trying, but hopefully this whole adventure won't just end with getting pounded unconscious by a giant Sasquatch.
Yeah I just ran with a third different character. And I had lots of problems with the sasquatch, its not an easy encounter to solo... and for silvers its close to impossible. Its a bit overtuned, I think his HP pool might be the problem, its too large for solo.
Maybe it IS a bit difficult for some people. Maybe they could remove some health on the bosses?
-- Good action and pacing.
-- I have no idea why Justiciar thinks it's necessary to stay for he, Blair, and the others to stay outside. "You go in, I'll wait out here" is pretty lame. I'd really prefer a stronger justification that doesn't make him look like he's cosmicly stupid (especially as splitting up here is committing one of the cardinal sins of this sort of scenario. Perhaps he can be safeguarding the alien detector as it's being brought to Steelhead. Just give me a decent reason.).
-- Loved the Steelhead interiors. It'd be nice to go inside during the regular instances; you can probably put some other questgivers here, such as the three Starforce members not used in game (or new members that Cryptic has had joined the 'Force since COTN).
-- The sasquatch was tough. Yes, Silvers are going to be frustrated with this guy.
-- Love the drops.
-- Cliffhanger wasn't as strong as the first three. It cut off very quickly, without much understanding of what was going on. I was very intrigued by the box, however.
The inside of steelhead was cool. The story was very thin. All in all with some characters this mission is impossible and the story could be better not good sorry Cryptic.
The radius is to prevent people from pulling the Sasquatch into the towers outside the door (The first thing I thought of x) ) and making the Sasquatch not regain its health whenever it loses aggro would make the radius very abusable.
I agree that some parts of this issue were pretty difficult, and I dunno how to fix that.
Yeah, I mean for me there wasn't as much biggie, the problem I see its for silvers, definitely not on par with the solo content of the rest of the game.
EDIT: Okay, having now read the other replies here I can see that I'm the only one who considered it easy. I guess I must have a better build than I thought!
What with his magical goes-through-blocks instantaneous knockback punch and his I've punched you into a corner, now go cry while I instantaneously heal tactic.
I've always thought the little "no one's around, I'll just return to full health" trick that the monsters have was infuriating. I guess I can see why it's there (except here, it makes no sense here), but don't say anything about how not having it would be abusable - the NPCs abuse the Power of Mulligan far more than I would.
Other than that, pretty meh I guess. I liked seeing the inside of Steelhead and I'd like to be able to go in there after all the blood's cleaned up and systems are back online. But that ending was just... bluh. I blinked and then I was at a loading screen taking me back to the city.
You're going to want to bring a friend if you're a squishy, plain and simple.
Loved the pacing, pretty much non-stop action, which was highly enjoyable.
The interiors were <Reverb>BEYOND AWESOME!!!!</Reverb> so major kudos to whichever enviro-monkey did those.
The sasquatch boss was pretty easy for me (though I did use my steelhead soldier for backup) , but then I have the shadow pets, drain life/Vamp Sympathy. I can see how he'd be a PiTA for builds with no self-heal though. - Could have done with a special drop in my opinion, something Sasquatchy.
The angular ice-caves were nice and atmospheric too, a fresh take on the ubiquitous canadian caves. again, kudos to the enviro artists.
The Roin'esh Commander's schtick was really cool. perfect for a slimy shapeshifting creep. Definately made for an new, and interesting battle.
The cliffhanger was a little too short, and I hope it is explained why there is a second roin'esh ship buried in the ice under steelhead...
The issue seemed to lack lore. I think it would have been nice to use the terminals in each of the labs/holding rooms to present a bit about whats in there:
Lab: an analysis of the rock floating in the forcefield. (bonus points for calling it an Anomalous Material, or mentioning 'unforseen consequences')
Sasquatch: a little bit of info as to where this giant fuzzball was captured, when, and what it had been doing to get locked away.
Artefact: something by the holodisplay with a preliminary analysis of the artefact, even if it doesn't give much away - you know: Origin: Unknown, Composition: Unknown, Purpose: Unknown, Power signature: Over 9000, Threat rating: Omega.
I got the scaled Blue, and the temp Travel power as rewards. OMG that TP is utter amazing awesomesauce. I'm running out of Kudos to hand out here... Unfortunately, now you've proved you have the tech to do that sort of thing, YOU. MUST. MAKE. A. C-STORE. VERSION. :eek: (without the tendrils, to keep the Roin'esh one unique)
no. really.
I predict many, many, 'Shut up and take my money's if you do.
so overall, A Winnar is this issue!!!!
look forward to the final one. I hope its aboard the Roinesh craft and I will be once again blown away by the scenery.
One last thing of note: The length. I have not replayed aftershock since it went Total, as it was quite long individually, and all together, I havent felt like running it in one go.
Whiteout, on the other hand, feels like it will slot together into a good, casual, pickupable length, so I see myself repeating it once it goes Total. so Good work there too.
Phew those last fights were a workout, neither of my characters died on Sasquatch, but they're both built to be tanks. Not looking forward to this fight with my squishier characters.
Died three times with my HW/F character on the final boss, till I realized it was best to just spam my AOE attack when he splits in three. Knowing this with my might character the fight was much easier and managed a clean run.
I like any content that makes me work in a fight without being too unfair. Love the visuals in the base.
If I could improve anything the ending cut scene seems really abrupt, maybe something with your character chasing after it, or some message from Justiciar.
Be able to judge it better once I run it with my squishies, and with a team, but so far it gets a thumbs up from me.
i didn have problem on it, but im gold lvl37 ranged defensive (defiance+PBR and a bunch of heals) and i didnt played on Elite.
i loved the big bosses, loved the lab themes too.
good job here criptic
As far as difficulty, I'm not going to claim I'm uber, but I do know what I'm doing and that fight was irrationally hard with my healing turned off- I strongly suggest lowering his hps to make possible for lower hp- builds.
Maybe it's just me, but so far, I'm not feeling the story coming together like Aftershock did- it just feels disjointed and not very well thought out. Perhaps the final episode next week will bring it together, but I'm just not feeling it so far.
Even if the radius was increased to include the entire room and a little bit of the corridor (say, up to a distance of 120 feet) it would be a massive improvement. Let it go aggro at 50 feet; just give us at least a chance to strike the first blow.
And I don't object so much to the Sasquatch regaining its health as to its doing so instantly. If he were to heal at a normal rate, or even at the rate of Regeneration, when out of aggro, that would be fine.
Our new rally cry!
He's using a might build, definitely saw him use roomsweeper and haymaker, which might have been what one shotted you.
Honestly, he had a lot of HP to chew through but my level 33 archer/gadgets artillery piece primary handled him pretty well, but then I have the PA bubbleshield and a fairly good dodge going (about 45% Dodge / 49% Avoid) and have Inertial Dampening for about 24 damage up, so I may be tougher than usual there... oh, and it is possible to get him to come right to the doorway and be fired on by the turrets, as I tried that one my second run and it did succeed.
Overall, loot felt weaker than in #3, but the overall Issue was more substantial, and the content was quite good -- the Roiny commander splitting in three was quite novel, and the Sasquatch was entertaining and, aside being a bit of a damage sponge, well-paced.
..that cube, however, made me nervous for Hellraiser elements!
..also.. the temporary Transference power is officially the best "guaranteed payout" reward in the series yet in my opinion. Love it, it's awesome, please sell some variant of it in the C-Store, preferably individually and as said, in some way differentiated visually from the ROiny one. It really is awesome.
Now, to be fair, i'm afraid to do this once I get my soldier up a few more levels because i'm so use to my cursed's dps that the soldier's seems inferior to it. Just, word of advice, if you are squishy, might be a good idea to bring a friend who can tank. That was what put me at "Holy crap!" For both boss fights was the hp. Now I know for all you lv 40 FF out there this fight was ether hard, easy, or in the middle, but, regardless, that to me was a good chunk of health to eat through. I do believe I might of died against the sasquatch once because well... he is fffing huge!
...Not Mega D huge from Resistance... but then again, what is?
again none of the bosses was hard to me, but i was using my heals (convction e BCR) and besides my atempiton to keep my partner alive, using Bionic Shielding (meh), he dies during the fight with the Sasquatch boss. And he didnt could come back to the fight (dont know why but the door wasnt opening...)
anyway the Sasquatch went down very fast with some Chainsaw Crits. But im thinking that for a silver its a hard fight. maybe not as the grimoire since its the most survival of them. but for the most of them would be.
and since im a PBR user, usualy im the lurer, with this new range modification i wasnt able to do that. and i must be honest: i like the idea, at leas for bosses (or some of them) makes the game more fun, in my opinion, but it must mess p with some alphas like sniper rifle. And using SS CON and DEX, +defiance, +IDF, +3 heals its ease for me to keep alive if atrack boss agro, not sure how that would be with all those Glass canons DEX/EGO builds over there...
ive just got one more run. after a puch the sasquatch launch me on the wall and tthen he regains full of life. there is, hapen to me too. no much of a problem since it happens only once. but i imagines if he hit me again unblocked and launch me again and recover his life, or a if was a silver AT on the reload time of stimpaks...that could be very annoying...
so they pretend to fix that or the sasquash is over a uber self healing plataform
are we going to have another 4 month dry spell for playable content after WO finishes? This hardly seems like it was worth the wait.
The layout of Steelhead was very nice - should be added to Canada on a permanent basis.
Haven't got a lot of drops from this series overall. This issue was no exception.
Have to admit though getting a little tired of the "lock the hero in for the boss battle" play mechanic - makes me want to stop trying these things.
I completed this on elite with a freeform archery build (all archery powers, lots of dodge/avoidance, all ranged) and IDF (my idea of kevlar) with no deaths.
+ Nice pace with lots of action
+ Saw the inside of Steelhead
+ Liked the fight with the Sasquatch
- He reset on me once and I could not understand why. I was in the room and I was putting arrows in his
butt. As long as you are in the room the Sasquatch should not reset. And I still don't understand why
our roots and snares do not have a "chance" of effecting a boss. I think there should always be a 25% to
50% chance they are effected.
- There should have been a drop from the Sasquatch. It was major fight with no reward.
+ Liked the fight with the Roin'esh Commander. I thought he was easier than the Sasquatch.
- I was expecting a cutscene to give me a clue as to what was going on with the ship. The way the
mission ended it really did not explain what was happening.
Side note, have you guys considered giving players the choice of rewards like you do in STO.
pardom for asking, but how its that on STO? i never played it..
- Sasquatch is tough and will frustrate some builds. Should probably tone him down at Normal difficulty level, and he should definitely providea a reward. Is this a bug?
- Great interiors, but as mentioend by another - where's the lore? A few clickies, etc... could have been used to drop some cool info on us about the items kept in the vault...and maybe a perk to get if you read them all. Missed an opportunity to have this add to the richness of the CO universe.
- Ending was too abrupt, especially compared to what we've gotten so far in this series.
- Speaking of cutscenes, I love the comic art additions, and honesntly - have you considered JUST using these instead of overlaying them on top of in-game video sequences? Honestly, the in-game stuff just doesn't alwasy look that great, what with the sometimes clumsy emote animations and such - I find it distracting. I look over at DCUO and see how they use only motion comic art for the post-mission cutscenes, and really think that would work here too. Food for thought....
Keep up the good work guys. Content like this is pretty much the reason that I still subscribe.
(I had hoped that yesterday's "emergency maintenance" was to fix this problem, but no such luck. Hopefully this Thursday, or I probably won't be able to finish this CS.)
This is a great suggestion for other reasons too. Presumably, while the comic art was playing, the next in-game scene could be set up in the background. Without any in-game emotes or events taking place, it might be possible to make those cutscenes skippable!
Once again, though, we find ourselves walking into a room filled with with trapped scientists, we can't shut the door to prevent infiltrating aliens from following us in, we talk to said scientists... And find concealed aliens in with the scientists! Story credibility fails again. In a well done story the room would have been clear of aliens and there would be enough alert staff securing the perimeter to prevent alien infiltration or the scientists would have been dead long before our hero gets there and would have been lead into a trap.
Writers, please, consult your editor before the story goes into development.
On another note, i will say this, short while it was, it did feel longer than 3. on another note, apparently the bosses were "might"y happy to see us.
EDIT: Also, I bought a helmet off the AH, and on that run I find two helmets, doi.
My Power Armor toon got caught in the Sasquatch room all by herself (hey! where's the rest of the team? why didn't you enter with me?), but had no trouble burning the thing down pretty quickly on Elite while the rest of the team cheered me on from outside the door. So the struggles some people are facing are definitely related to varying effectiveness of builds vs. the thing.
I'm hoping the new environment eventually becomes a permanent part of Canada, with additional missions added at some point. Heck, the interiors are all there now. At the very least, it could provide a tech-based social area for those that like that sort of thing.
I'm wondering what costume piece(s) we'll see with the final issue. Here's hoping both chest and feet to make a complete set. The "stringy" skin texture would be cool as well, but I'm not counting on it. I also wouldn't mind seeing the bigger "boss" version of the helm someday.
Great work on this one so far! LOVING the Comic Series in general!
1. I love this whole Sci-Fi horror theme Cryptic is going with! I only have a few bug complaints about Whiteout, everything else is just well-earned praise for the devs on this one
Finally we have some real adversaries that are thinking, creepy, and look cool. No more cheesy Bigfoots, landsharks, or laughably un-scary "irradiates". And the nemesis showing up? Love it! The more nemesis content the better, even if it's just a touch here or there.
The ambiance in general of Whiteout so far has been EXCELLENT! The environmental artist(s) you all have working there are ingenious with what they've done with the limited tools they have, huge props to them. This chapter is no exception either. Cutting-edge holograms, space-station like hallways, blood pools where appropriate to give the "whoa what happened here?" effect. And the ambient audio! Each of these episodes has not disappointed! (although custom music of epicness is always valued if it's good music that fits the action)
And the enemies actually wait to ambush you, a good use of scripting. Also, the turrets are using lines from Portal (nice touch).
If this is the direction Champions is headed and we can expect content like this to continue to roll out consistently on a weekly basis, Champions I think will do just fine, in spite of the naysayers.
2. With regards to the people whining on the forums (and in this thread) that they can't solo a boss:
This is might sound rude (I don't intend it to be such), but it's overdue for somebody to just be blunt and tell the truth on this one: Please, stop whining because you're not getting the drops on Elite...
A boss is meant to be a challenge, if it's not a challenge it's just another regular foe in battle that you run over, just taking a bit longer to kill.
Elite is meant to be the ultimate challenge for a team of skilled players who can use effective teamwork, or a gifted soloist wanting to put their build to a test. It is not in Cryptic's or the game's best interest to make Elite easy.
Having been a Silver player for quiet awhile before going Lifetime, I can understand that Archetypes can have weaknesses that can make certain combat situations nearly impossible to solo. Especially on Elite. One of my favorite tactics as a Grimoire was a hit&run with sigils & teleportation to weaken and distract the enemy for me to then go on my main offensive. Elite enemies have perception so high they'll see you coming long before you get there to start casting. So yes, I get it. It can be rough at times, but that's why if you're an archetype you want to be even more friendly and social to people. Because teamwork makes such impossible feats, suddenly possible.
So to summarize:
I just alternated break-away shot and evasive manuevers when i saw the 'tell' sign lite up and his over the top dmg was a non-issue. That and LR does well against them slow to act dmg moves in the first place.
same as they do it here with the run back to contact then pick your choice of 1-5 items. The layout is sto-ish but the item loot option is same, that's all. Only considerable diff is if there's a time mechanic that allows a certtain item cash out during the episode release...then is dropped for more generic items once the episode is overshadowed by the series being playable at once
And if someone can't solo a boss on Normal difficulty, even with lots of boosts? Really, I don't care about drops (other than Costume pieces, and I have the helmet now); I just want to finish the story.
I don't mind sharing the experience; I just don't want it to be a requirement (or be told up front about it, as with most of the Lairs).
My problem isn't his difficulty since he isn't that hard to beat if you have some sort of heal. My problem is that it's the worst case of artificial difficulty yet. I shouldn't have to restart the fight every time he knocks me into a corner. That's kind of a big bug regardless of whether you can survive through all the resets.
And all the big guy has to do is do Knockback against you, sending you into the wall. Then he instantly resets his Health, while you still have to wait for a cooldown on any items (such as Summon Critter Devices, which can take as long as nine minutes or more -- not to mention that you've just wasted a charge).