FC.30.20121009.0 PT SUpdate

nisdiddums

PTS update FC.30.20121009.0
This build is scheduled to hit PTS by 6:30pm PST on 10/09/12

Hello, everyone!

Tank you all for the feedback on the UNTIL Carrier mission and vehicles!
We are updating PTS with a build for you all to test Bloodmoon for the remainder of the week, leading up to its appearance on Live.
We are also working on resolving a series of Live issues being reported by players, and will roll them out periodically in an effort to continue to improve game stability.

On Friday, i will once again update PTS with the next iteration of both the mission, and the new vehicles.

Please format any bugs you find in the following format:
Bug
Where it happens
What happens

gamehobo

Does this mean the telepathy powers will be removed for testing for a while?

gentlemancrush

gamehobo wrote: »

Does this mean the telepathy powers will be removed for testing for a while?

Until the vehicles return, yes.

theravenforce

gentlemancrush wrote: »

Until the vehicles return, yes.

Ok, well at least it will mean people can stop arguing about mechanics lol.

Can I get you to have a look at this thread?

Here

Talks about something to do with force

aiqa

Aww, I had just finished a really long post in the old thread, then the forums tell me that is is not accepting new posts. Well I guess it can wait for now.

Anyway. Yay for bug fixes, are these the things in the 'top two player issue' thread... maybe.. hopefully.. please? :biggrin:

crypticbuxom

This is a question for when the vehicles come back up. Will there be some changes based on suggestions the players made on to how they could be better customized?

gamehobo

aiqa wrote: »

Aww, I had just finished a really long post in the old thread, then the forums tell me that is is not accepting new posts. Well I guess it can wait for now.

Anyway. Yay for bug fixes, are these the things in the 'top two player issue' thread... maybe.. hopefully.. please? :biggrin:

The Telepathy feedback thread is still available and perhaps the best place to continue any constructive discourse.

- -

I hope adding INT energy retrun to Live version of Manipulator is on that list of bug fixes.

championshewolf

Well so far on the list as far as the event itself goes;

+ Legacy items drop it seems. I got a level 40 Reinforced Ectoplasm Utility item, which is pretty meh. This item came from Amazing Grace.

+ I also got a more recent primary item, in this case an unleveled Succor Helmet Utility item with two slots. However, as it is unleveled it's pretty much less than level 1 in stats. This item came from Vigil.

+ The thirteen heroes feel rather weak. Outside of a comic of annoying gimmicks (such as lengthy holds or knock spam) they aren't exactly presenting any form of Challenge. Even the zombie swarm is close to ignorable now.

+ Potential rewards should be maybe rank 6 mods from the thirteen zombies with something more possibly from Takofanes Lt.

crypticbuxom

I'd help test this if there was something in it for us. When I went on to test last week I got Undead Foxbat AF from the Lord and felt very sad that I'll never get this on Live.

The event works the same way it did before last Halloween, but I feel a little more empty coming out than when I came in.

R.I.P. Undead Foxbat AF

_

crosschan

Ok, I'm here and I took out Amazing Grace and Nimbus for giggles. From Grace I got an old blue item and from Nimbus I got a new green.

So..uhm...what ARE we supposed to be testing here exactly? Is it still the "Team Up" function? Is there some shiny "New" I'm missing here? What?

Update: I ran the same two on a different build because I was bored and wanted to try something.

Amazing Grace:

Collection Cognition: Old Blue Health on Kill Item
Secondary Offence

Nimbus:
1 Until Merit(Oh joy)

Stalwart Eyepiece
Secondary Utility
LvL ???
4 Con
4 Ego
1.1 Def
9 CD Reduction
9 Cost Reduction
1N 5L

sanguineviper

crosschan wrote: »

Update: I ran the same two on a different build because I was bored and wanted to try something.

That Second Item is sexy. Even more sexy than what lair bosses drop now!

Also, if the "Team up!" button has ability to cause the utterly devastating de-leveling bug at all, why don't you guys just REMOVE the team up button from the game?

No really, almost no one actually uses it and the few unlucky fools who do, get punished by randomly having their toons set to level 1 permanently? If ever a feature was totally unnecessary, it's this one, by far.

skcark

sanguineviper wrote: »

That Second Item is sexy. Even more sexy than what lair bosses drop now!

Also, if the "Team up!" button has ability to cause the utterly devastating de-leveling bug at all, why don't you guys just REMOVE the team up button from the game?

No really, almost no one actually uses it and the few unlucky fools who do, get punished by randomly having their toons set to level 1 permanently? If ever a feature was totally unnecessary, it's this one, by far.

So, something finally trumped players being able to mute other players.


And is there something specific the devs wanted us to test? I only really logged on to try that new vehicle/carrier alert and found i was too late. didn't feel like doing bloodmoon, especially on the off chance i got a rare drop that would be useless on PTS. If there's actually something new to this current one, then i'd help test, but if nothing's changed since the last time bloodmoon was active on live, it's still got all the same old junk as before and the bloodmoon devices were never updated to match with the on alert changes to still be useful. And supernatural possession device. along with the crippling coils powers stinks now. and doesn't work. I kindly request those devices be looked into getting an update, and have supernatural possesion and crippling coils power fixed to actually hold when cast, not 1 second after maintining nothing only to be interuppted. or the mob it's cast on struggles just one attempt and breaks free completely, while you're still maintaining the power. which also affects the healing of supernatural possesion

ventani

They really can't tell us what to test because of various reasons/excuses I've heard in testing before. Best advice I can give is, do one, record result, rinse repeat. Let them review the data and decide what the outlier is.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds

Bloodmoon is still too easy.

forrksakesexco

Bug
Since the patch all the vehicle stuff, devices and mods has turned into question marks
I can't get these out of my inventory.... help!

theravenforce

Not sure if this has been fixed yet, but running BM Takofanes fight with Kontrol showed that after he rises from his chair he seems to gain Teleioclone tech and clone himself on the chair so one of him is on the chair the other is standing up and attacking.

It makes sense as he wants to keep his seat warm xP

Bug

Takofanes clones himself (non fightable version) which sits in throne whilst other version attacks

This did only happen when we both died and then came back.

lucyinspacewithdiamonds

Buff the henchmen maybe?

theravenforce

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

Buff the henchmen maybe?

Well...Considering the amount of people taking part (and I did to a point even solo it with less than satisfactory gear xP)...

Lucy is right. Perhaps have them a little less hard than the first version of mega D critters perhaps?

mainscrizz

theravenforce wrote: »

a little less hard than the first version of mega D critters perhaps?

:eek: xD

xaogarrent

theravenforce wrote: »

Lucy is right. Perhaps have them a little less hard than the first version of mega D critters perhaps?

Nnnnnno.

How about instead...

...I know this is going to sound like SOME KIND OF CRAZY HERESY...

...We stop making content that one shots players, and is only bearable with a tanky as hell character or a serious dose of masochism?

blademaster5121

xaogarrent wrote: »

Nnnnnno.

How about instead...

...I know this is going to sound like SOME KIND OF CRAZY HERESY...

...We stop making content that one shots players, and is only bearable with a tanky as hell character or a serious dose of masochism?

We're talking about the mobs, not the bosses themselves, Xao, they should be buffed, because me being able to solo Amazing Grace with a Blade AT is...its wrong. That also leads me to the point that we should buff the bosses too, and to keep Xao from crying, I'll toss this suggestion out there again Percentage based attacks from the bosses would be great, hit tanks hard without gibbing squishies.

xaogarrent

It legitimately slipped my mind anyone could actually mean the zombies, seeing as zombies are by nature meant to be weak, expendable swarms of dumb as rocks meatshields. Even in Left 4 Dead, they served as less a danger themselves, and more as a distraction for the far more dangerous special infected.

Based on this, if you wanted to buff the zombies right, you'd probably have to make them debuff and slow the player if they get overwhelmed, and possibly even introduce new types of special undead. This could be interesting, or incredibly annoying, and given when this event is going to go live, unlikely to be tested in time.

As for percentage damage, it's always been a good idea in comparison to having stuff one shot you, however it needs to be done right, which isn't as easy as just wantonly slapping it on bosses. Not to mention, this is an outdoor event, which means it can't be too hard since everyone and their grandma has access to it.

To put it bluntly, given when this is supposed to go live, do you REALLY think the devs have time for all this? If they did anything, it'd likely be slapping 80k damage on a boss and calling it a day.

gamehobo

Xaogarret,

Spawning stronger critters for the event wouldn't be difficult IF the critters used were not using the "Skeleton Level" marker instead of an actual level.

Perhaps it'll be easy to mark them with Very Hard or Elite markers.

theravenforce

xaogarrent wrote: »

It legitimately slipped my mind anyone could actually mean the zombies, seeing as zombies are by nature meant to be weak, expendable swarms of dumb as rocks meatshields. Even in Left 4 Dead, they served as less a danger themselves, and more as a distraction for the far more dangerous special infected.

Based on this, if you wanted to buff the zombies right, you'd probably have to make them debuff and slow the player if they get overwhelmed, and possibly even introduce new types of special undead. This could be interesting, or incredibly annoying, and given when this event is going to go live, unlikely to be tested in time.

As for percentage damage, it's always been a good idea in comparison to having stuff one shot you, however it needs to be done right, which isn't as easy as just wantonly slapping it on bosses. Not to mention, this is an outdoor event, which means it can't be too hard since everyone and their grandma has access to it.

To put it bluntly, given when this is supposed to go live, do you REALLY think the devs have time for all this? If they did anything, it'd likely be slapping 80k damage on a boss and calling it a day.

I doubt it, then you wouldnt be the only person crying about damage. Read what Blademaster said. If he can solo Amazing Grace on Blade AT..well LMAO, something is not right there xD.

But you did make a good point about Zombies debuffing, perhaps if they were a tad faster like infected zombies (I HATE ZOMBIES, I cannot believe I am backing this idea !!) and your swamping idea was good too.

It has to be said though that if my FF build of a wasp could do fine against zombies, everyone else will roflstomp them.

I think the Zombies perhaps should do less DOT attacks more bites and scratches; I've never seen zombies vomit on people from a distance, I have seen:

- Super fast zombies which latch onto you and explode

- Jump and Knock Down Zombies

- Flaming Zombies xP

I was thinking about the swamping idea, perhaps smaller weaker zombies which run and knock you down? and explode for miniorish damage? But there would be loads of them..

xaogarrent

theravenforce wrote: »

I doubt it, then you wouldnt be the only person crying about damage. Read what Blademaster said. If he can solo Amazing Grace on Blade AT..well LMAO, something is not right there xD.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but... Well, look at what they did with the Mega-Ds for the anniversary event. My point is if they buff the bosses, it's likely to be akin to doing plastic surgery with a sledgehammer.

theravenforce wrote: »

But you did make a good point about Zombies debuffing, perhaps if they were a tad faster like infected zombies (I HATE ZOMBIES, I cannot believe I am backing this idea !!) and your swamping idea was good too.

They don't have to be faster, if they made better use of the... Lashers? I'm having a brain fart, what are the villain level ones called again? Anyway, the zombies that yoink you in and nom nom nom you. If they made those dudes line up with grouped up zombies to intentionally pull you into zombie swarms, you'd have to be more on your toes.

Have the zombies not shut off your travel power, but suppress it and slow you if you have more than a certain amount of them on you, meaning you have to either find a way to get away from them or kill enough that you can get loose. Possibly attach a damage resistance debuff to them that stacks up fast-ish, but falls off even faster if you get loose, so that the longer you're being swarmed the more it hurts. Would encourage teamplay to an extent as well, in a way that's not overly invasive in terms of build: Anyone could help other players get the swarm off them.

Other types of Special Infected similar to Boomers and Spitters could be interesting as well, although once again it would require new mobs as well as possibly AI if they wanted to make it something interesting.

This is the problem it keeps coming back to: At one point, the villain level mobs were actually not too functionally different from Smokers, except they didn't hold you until you died, just for a good while. People complained to no end about the unbreakable hold, and eventually it was nerfed. This is the issue, there's interesting things they could do with them, the question is how to do it without irritating the hell out of people, and how much AI work it would take. Then there's the question of balancing it in such a way that it doesn't completely destroy one type of character in order to not be a cakewalk for another.

theravenforce

xaogarrent wrote: »

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but... Well, look at what they did with the Mega-Ds for the anniversary event. My point is if they buff the bosses, it's likely to be akin to doing plastic surgery with a sledgehammer.

They don't have to be faster, if they made better use of the... Lashers? I'm having a brain fart, what are the villain level ones called again? Anyway, the zombies that yoink you in and nom nom nom you. If they made those dudes line up with grouped up zombies to intentionally pull you into zombie swarms, you'd have to be more on your toes.

Have the zombies not shut off your travel power, but suppress it and slow you if you have more than a certain amount of them on you, meaning you have to either find a way to get away from them or kill enough that you can get loose. Possibly attach a damage resistance debuff to them that stacks up fast-ish, but falls off even faster if you get loose, so that the longer you're being swarmed the more it hurts. Would encourage teamplay to an extent as well, in a way that's not overly invasive in terms of build: Anyone could help other players get the swarm off them.

Other types of Special Infected similar to Boomers and Spitters could be interesting as well, although once again it would require new mobs as well as possibly AI if they wanted to make it something interesting.

This is the problem it keeps coming back to: At one point, the villain level mobs were actually not too functionally different from Smokers, except they didn't hold you until you died, just for a good while. People complained to no end about the unbreakable hold, and eventually it was nerfed. This is the issue, there's interesting things they could do with them, the question is how to do it without irritating the hell out of people, and how much AI work it would take. Then there's the question of balancing it in such a way that it doesn't completely destroy one type of character in order to not be a cakewalk for another.

Just reading about this makes me shudder...I hate zombies so damn much...

mijjestic

Meh...Bloodmoon is just them burying some carrots shallowly in the ground for us to dig up, it isn't worth Dev time to pump the difficulty. Leave it and save the challenging stuff as sticky content that doesn't just come every few months or whatever.

Bloodfarm.

sigmaseven0

xaogarrent wrote: »

They don't have to be faster, if they made better use of the... Lashers? I'm having a brain fart, what are the villain level ones called again? Anyway, the zombies that yoink you in and nom nom nom you. If they made those dudes line up with grouped up zombies to intentionally pull you into zombie swarms, you'd have to be more on your toes.

Have the zombies not shut off your travel power, but suppress it and slow you if you have more than a certain amount of them on you, meaning you have to either find a way to get away from them or kill enough that you can get loose. Possibly attach a damage resistance debuff to them that stacks up fast-ish, but falls off even faster if you get loose, so that the longer you're being swarmed the more it hurts. Would encourage teamplay to an extent as well, in a way that's not overly invasive in terms of build: Anyone could help other players get the swarm off them.

Other types of Special Infected similar to Boomers and Spitters could be interesting as well, although once again it would require new mobs as well as possibly AI if they wanted to make it something interesting.

This is the problem it keeps coming back to: At one point, the villain level mobs were actually not too functionally different from Smokers, except they didn't hold you until you died, just for a good while. People complained to no end about the unbreakable hold, and eventually it was nerfed. This is the issue, there's interesting things they could do with them, the question is how to do it without irritating the hell out of people, and how much AI work it would take. Then there's the question of balancing it in such a way that it doesn't completely destroy one type of character in order to not be a cakewalk for another.

I basically agree with this whole post.
With that, i would like to humbly suggest a zombie mob that has a chance to self rez when defeated (like the freaks from COX).

forrksakesexco

With that, i would like to humbly suggest a zombie mob that has a chance to self rez when defeated (like the freaks from COX).

Regular zombies used to do exactly that... Self rez that is.
It wasn't difficult so much as exasperating.
Be careful what you wish for.

theravenforce

forrksakesexco wrote: »

Regular zombies used to do exactly that... Self rez that is.
It wasn't difficult so much as exasperating.
Be careful what you wish for.

Urgh, I remember those days. Got annoying knowing you could one shot zombies then they'd grasp the air and come back with undead and rotten vengance.

championshewolf

theravenforce wrote: »

Urgh, I remember those days. Got annoying knowing you could one shot zombies then they'd grasp the air and come back with undead and rotten vengance.

Or just put them down while they are down and not have to worry about them getting back up.

dragonbluey

theravenforce wrote: »

I've never seen zombies vomit on people from a distance

I have, in Metal Slug 3.

It was devastating, did mortal damage every time. They really needed a nerf.

tdits

I think L4D had a Zombie that threw up on you. CoH did as well, which is clearly just a coincidence and has nothing to do with Cryptic having a fetish for puking zombies. >_>

thelastsonofzod

As memory serves, aren't they're spitting zombies and Lashers in the Apocalypse? I wouldn't be opposed to them popping up in Takos' event.

On a sepperate note, I really wish the zombies themselves would get an art update. Its weird fighting zombies in the city that are the exact same model types s canadian zombies. Somehting a little more L4D would be nice. Be a nice excuse to give us a torn clothing costume set too :P

theravenforce

I was hoping to go LTS today on my Silver account...but I've forgotten how to

Can someone point me in the right direction please...

theravenforce

>_>!

"Your Personal Force Field absorbs 1093 damage.

Your Protection Field absorbs 71 (58) damage.

Your Protection Field gives 18 Energy to you.

Your Inertial Dampening Field absorbs 0 (71) damage."

Even though this is a bit of a lol, in terms of shielding and layering (which will be fixed soon I heard )

Where did the extra damage come from on Protection Field?

I understand (58) to mean intended damage and the non bracketed number to mean actual damage.

So where did the extra 13 damage come from?

Or is this a combat log bug?

I was testing this against blue laser beam in the PH's D.E.A.D zone on PTS

lucyinspacewithdiamonds

The zombies are still weak, and no, I'm not supposed to be able to kill zombies in one hit, I don't care what you say, xao :P

underchicken

lucyinspacewithdiamonds wrote: »

The zombies are still weak, and no, I'm not supposed to be able to kill zombies in one hit, I don't care what you say, xao :P

Tell that to my "AXE OF GLORIOUS DECAPITATION!!" (4:30)

forrksakesexco

Left 4 dead has...
The Boomer - spits a kinda pheromone bile at you (zombies make a beeline for affected player)
The Smoker - Can snare players with it's long tongue (can't escape without help)
The Hunter - leaps on players from great distance does good damage
The Witch - Sits around kinda like a mine - when provoked by player getting too close or shooting/shining light on it will act - can one shot a player
The Tank - huge great beast takes a lot of killing - A full 30 round mag of hits with some head shots will do it.. just. This creature is like a nightmare demolisher only it charges after you fast, pausing briefly to throw cars and suchlike at you.

L4D2 also has
The Spitter - spits acidic bile
The Charger - Knocks players over and pummels em on the ground
The Jockey - Jumps on you and disables you and you career around looking a total prat This is a really stupid idea
Zombies in Hazmat suits - my fave - you can't kill these guys with molotovs
Mud men - Zombies who can splash mud over you blinding you for a bit
Security/Police zombies - zombies in body armor inc helmets and shields - harder to kill

All L4D and L4D2 zombies are the new fast style zombies - against 4 x real players with machine guns they need the edge

Some of this stuff exists in CO, some does not, in general the enemies are somewhat slower in CO and there is less sudden attack style stuff. Something like the Hunter might be a good addition to current content.

I once proposed a scenario/alert idea called No Mercy CO style
It would have had a 5 man team investigating a strange bubble that grew over the Mercy Hospital, Witchcraft would accompany them. The mish would be mostly holding off waves of zombies and Nightmare Demolishers until Witchcraft had corrected the situation with a long ritual.

gammabreaker

Bug: Hacked Orbital Cannon Codes nonfunctional.

Where: Anywhere.

How: Equip the Hacked Orbital Cannon Codes device. Activate it fully, and watch the animation play out, but perform no damage.

Unfortunate, considering people will be getting them during Bloodmoon.



EDIT: Crush has reported that he has fixed this.