FC.31.20121019.1 PTS Update

nisdiddums

PTS update FC.31.20121019.2
This build is scheduled to hit PTS by 7:30pm PST on 10/26/12


Greetings!

It's that time of the week again - time to test our new vehicle system, and the "UNTIL Carrier Escort" mission.

In an effort to make things simpler(faster) for you, we've hooked up all vehicle mods to the PTS debugger.
From there, you'll have access to all vehicle mods, including new weapon mods!
Yessss! Now you can slot, remove, and re-slot vehicle powers to customize your vehicle of choice with your favorite weapons of destruction.
Also, fans of the Grav Bike will be in for a treat the moment they enable their vehicle


Both the mission and the vehicles will hit Live soon, so we would like to have you all focus on the following:

-UNTIL Carrier Escort Mission
-New, reworked vehicle system (vehicle mods/weapon slotting, vehicle UI functionality, etc)

Thank you all for your time - the feedback provided on PTS serves to help us make new CO content the best it can be with each update.

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


UNTIL Carrier Escort Mission
-Added additional cutscene before Mega Destroyer encounter
-Additional cutscene VO
-Additional cutscene showing a critical mission objective
-Carrier engines now glow the proper color depending on state
-Mega Destroyer now summons Black Talon minions to attack players on ship deck

Vehicles 2.0
-Player character will now visibly ride the "Grav Bike" vehicle!
-Camera is repositioned when vehicle is activated
-Vehicle weapon powers can be slotted at will
-A 'random' vehicle weapons box has been added to the PTS debugger.

Queue UI
-We are currently working on improving the queue UI - the version you will see in this build is a work in progress

soulforger

nisdiddums wrote: »

This build is scheduled to hit PTS by 7:00pm PST on 10/12/12

Um...don't you mean 10/26/12?

bioshrike

soulforger wrote: »

Um...don't you mean 10/26/12?

What... you didn't know the devs can go back in time? Unfortunately, it only works for applying patches to the PTS. :cool:

Anywho, I'm anxious to see how well characters look while on the bike...

fudgemonsta

Guys on bikes.

Alrighty, time to try to see how badly we can break this.

Set body to max...Set body to minimum...And everything in-between.

Not that I'm trying to make it look bad, i just want to see how it handles body types.

somebob

So, so far, there's 14 weapons to pick from (and 4 slots to fill on the vehicles). Here's some random thoughts.

The Heavy Cannon is the winner so far by far (as it's the same cannon the Grav Tank used).

Strafe Barrage needs something more. It fully drains your energy for...not very much at all. And it takes forever to use. Better off using Heavy Cannon instead.

You actually jump out of your bike (and hold some kind of charging pose) when you use Containment Field on an ally. It looks...silly. Also, BUG: If you use Containment Field on a friendly who has the field on them, it does not reset the timer before it expires. So when you put a second bubble on, it vanishes about 3 seconds later (assuming you put it on immediately when it recharges).

Tractor Beam is lots of fun, but when I was testing it, it sadly caused no falling damage on mobs when you release it. A friend said it worked, so I dunno.

Holographic Field is a great concept for a defensive weapon. And the faster you move, the more Dodge/Avoid you get.

Anti Aircraft Missile stacks to 3 (its damage buff). It does not mention this in the description.

Quick Reload needs some help. The 45 second recharge is just brutal considering that your standard reload takes all of three seconds and instantly recharges. I think the cooldown should be shorter myself.

Biosteel Regeneration Ray you can't turn off once you start it. And you can't do anything else while it's running. Why isn't it just a normal maintain?

The Railgun now SUCKS. You took its amazing damage and did something with it. Even against single targets targets resist like 2/3rds of the damage.
[Combat (Self)] Your Railgun deals 3308 (7278) Piercing Damage to Vigil.
Of course, yes, I'm in a Grav Bike right now, but... Something is wrong. And yes, the Battle tab is reporting only one target.

You can use the Enlarge and Shrink devices before getting into a vehicle and it'll make you bigger and smaller. Talk about an annoyance when you're huge.

Also, really (really) tiny people clip right through the bike. Apparently there's a minimum size it can be, and the players can get smaller than that.

EDIT: BUG??: You can REMOVE the default weapons on vehicles and put them into other ones. So if you bought the Fast Attack Hover Tank, you can pull out the Railgun (which does remove it as a power) and put it into your Grav Bike Interceptor.

Suggestion: Put all weapons from all vehicles into the drop list, because I want to buy a Grav Bike simply BECAUSE I can see my character.

BUG: You can STILL HIT TARGETS 90 degrees to your right via ALL Cylinder attacks! Can this PLEASE be looked at and fixed? It's starting to be a joke now.

nisdiddums

fudgemonsta wrote: »

Guys on bikes.

Alrighty, time to try to see how badly we can break this.

Set body to max...Set body to minimum...And everything in-between.

Not that I'm trying to make it look bad, i just want to see how it handles body types.

That's what i like to hear/read!

fudgemonsta

nisdiddums wrote: »

That's what i like to hear/read!

I'll take pics.

cascadence

Soo...... getting into the bike.... and swiming.... yeah you gotta see it... its VERY fun.

So yeah thats a bug

gamehobo

nisdiddums wrote: »

PTS update FC.31.20121019.2
Queue UI
-We are currently working on improving the queue UI - the version you will see in this build is a work in progress

We Teams in Rampages no longer be broken for the Queue? Allowing two teams of 4 to queue sucessfully? Or even better.. Allow full raid building with a lobby system (a Pre-Queue as it were)?

- -

Also, Man Crush.. you've managed to shut me up once again! I am glad to hear character geo are avail on the bike.

I still fundamentally dont like vehicles (or the programming time they take away from you more specifically) but sounds like you and Splosions are headed int he right direction

blkjackwilliams

Bug??

Intercepter grav bike can have it's weapons removed and replaced on the mod screen, however the powers are not replaced.

This means that the Default slotted mod is destroyed, and the replacing mod is wasted.

Bug??

Some T4 vehicle mods provide between 0 and 7 total points of benefit for fusing T3s. For example the Energy dispersion 4 has the same values as the Energy dispersion 3. Hull plating 4 adds 4 health points over Hull plating 3.

If this is confirmed as a bug, I'll run through all of them to see if there are more.


Also, I don't see the VTOL. Is that not going to be available to the players outside using it durring the UNTIL skycarrier defense?

falchoin

Max energy bonus does not work

Character stat window shows your character standing on the bike if active

UI doesn't say which mods are allowed where when modifying vehicles

Vehicles cannot crit, or at least the grav bike pulse laser, heavy cannon and grav pulse do not crit.

Grav Pulse does not respect knock resistance, nor apply it.

Tractor Beam does not respect repel resistance (can drag cosmics)

Pulse laser continues firing even if the target is out of range (problem with all maintained EB's as well)

sanguineviper

So I've beaten CO forever now:

Bask In the glory that is I have broken everything oh god what...

And so it was, that Pink left Millenium City, content with the fact that she had thrown a dinosaur into a volcano and killed it. She tossed the [Dextrous Boots] she had found within the melting bowels of Teleiosaurus into her backpack and started off...

ONWARD! TO ADVENTURE!

theravenforce

sanguineviper wrote: »

So I've beaten CO forever now:

Bask In the glory that is I have broken everything oh god what...

And so it was, that Pink left Millenium City, content with the fact that she had thrown a dinosaur into a volcano and killed it. She tossed the [Dextrous Boots] she had found within the melting bowels of Teleiosaurus into her backpack and started off...

ONWARD! TO ADVENTURE!

omg too funny xD

I have also been able to breach the wall preventing you from going to the other city across from MC, its pretty weird O_o

xaogarrent

I don't outright dislike the Speeder style bike, but honestly, can we have something that's a little more maybe... Cyberpunky? Like maybe something along the lines of what the dude here is riding: http://punyhumangames.com/media/d/203-1/bike.jpg

I dunno, something a little more bike-y in the hoverbike category would be nice.

xaogarrent

Also, anything from the Extreme G racing games might not be a bad place to borrow inspiration from, although the general shape of their bikes wouldn't work particularly well with some of the less human dimensions you can achieve in CO. The paneling and details are really cool, though.

fudgemonsta

Well I broke it.

Bug :
There is an extra tab under legs that allows you to creature a bike prop underneath you as a costume part. This part shows up underneath you if you save the costume.

Peoples be hatin' my sexy bike.

Bug :
The Hover Tanks engine FX's seem to be twisted 90? upward from the emit point, looking as though the exhaust is cooking the turret.

Bug :
Singularity Bomb knocks all targets, regardless of resistances layered. I even purposely added knock res to targets and then swapped to bike to attempt it, the bomb ignores the stacks.

Water beats fire, right?


And the body geo's aren't bad. I tried multiple different ways and the breaking is only minor. Can't expect something perfect with a game with this much customization.

Max lower body, minimum upper body.
Max upper body, minimum lower body.
Some mix that I can't even recall...I think it was super short but super thick upper half, and then long but thin lower body...


Moar results later, Tako face beating naow.

theravenforce

Ok, I've been teased enough.

That containment field has the potential to not only be a suitable AoE Containment field for Force Powerset BUT the graphic could be used as a 1/0 point advantage on PFF.

Not gonna lie, its amazing, I love it so much, it's just a shame I need to have a gravity bike on my force toon to use it >_>

Just realised its dual function has uncanny resembilance to something I posted earlier for force T_T

falchoin

The bike is also not tail friendly, unless we imagine some sort of dimensional space that allows tails to pass through the seat cover.

ashensnow

xaogarrent wrote: »

I don't outright dislike the Speeder style bike, but honestly, can we have something that's a little more maybe... Cyberpunky? Like maybe something along the lines of what the dude here is riding: http://punyhumangames.com/media/d/203-1/bike.jpg

I dunno, something a little more bike-y in the hoverbike category would be nice.

/signed.

That bike rocks.

blademaster5121

sanguineviper wrote: »

So I've beaten CO forever now:

Bask In the glory that is I have broken everything oh god what...

And so it was, that Pink left Millenium City, content with the fact that she had thrown a dinosaur into a volcano and killed it. She tossed the [Dextrous Boots] she had found within the melting bowels of Teleiosaurus into her backpack and started off...

ONWARD! TO ADVENTURE!

Lol forever. ADVENTURE TIME!

xaogarrent wrote: »

I don't outright dislike the Speeder style bike, but honestly, can we have something that's a little more maybe... Cyberpunky? Like maybe something along the lines of what the dude here is riding: http://punyhumangames.com/media/d/203-1/bike.jpg

I dunno, something a little more bike-y in the hoverbike category would be nice.

Yes, I definately want something like that, and the Speeder style is really clunky and not what most bike buyers will want to see.

soulforger

Toons with wings flap their wings while on the bike lol

fudgemonsta

soulforger wrote: »

Toons with wings flap their wings while on the bike lol

Helps make it go faster.

soulforger

fudgemonsta wrote: »

Helps make it go faster.

Makes sense!

fudgemonsta

soulforger wrote: »

Makes sense!

Makes sense, saves dollars.

Gas prices these days are ridiculous.

theravenforce

I and a few other heroes managed to not only knock Vigil with our bike powers but drag him to Westside Port...I dont think tractor beam on a hero is even that strong xP

Also I love the dual functionality on the force powers on the grav bikes. but please take them off and make them suitable for the force powerset.

Also can you make that containment field apply to all in the targets radius so it can become and AoE Hold/Shield, I'd also like an actual AoE shield for Force.

And again...a dome graphic which procs in combat for PFF...should allow for melee ranged attacks to land but give some distance between the foes and the player...just saying...even if it has to be a one point advantage...

blumoon8

theravenforce wrote: »

Also I love the dual functionality on the force powers on the grav bikes. but please take them off and make them suitable for the force powerset.

I was thinking this same thing. I've wanting gravity powers....

underchicken

fudgemonsta wrote: »

Bug :
There is an extra tab under legs that allows you to creature a bike prop underneath you as a costume part. This part shows up underneath you if you save the costume.

Peoples be hatin' my sexy bike.

I gotta say, after seeing this option in the tailor(for males only unfortunately) it gave me a small amount of hope. Hope that Cryptic is currently trying to iron out the vehicle powers and will indeed be working on a way to implement vehicle customization next.

Just wanted to direct the devs to these suggestions one more time in hopes to give them some ideas on how to go about it. LINKY

Still hoping for vehicles to get there own editor that you can access from a Garage mechanic or something. Don't want to see the Character editor get to overly cluttered. Which is already happening. It truly is a broken jumbled up mess at the moment.

But yes, HOPE is what I shall be savoring tonight. So thx Cryptic, and keep up the good work.

PS: Consider scrapping the current grav bike models. Star Trek/Wars stuff doesn't need to be in CO. Not as the first stuff we get anyway. Try to think more..... Superhero like. Like with the Hawkwings.

fudgemonsta

underchicken wrote: »

PS: Consider scrapping the current grav bike models. Star Trek/Wars stuff doesn't need to be in CO. Not as the first stuff we get anyway. Try to think more..... Superhero like. Like with the Hawkwings.

*Add more options.

No need to scrap something done. The bike model is decent, just add more of them.

crypticbuxom

Really love what you guys did with the carrier defense.

Most everyone went with the vehicles so I used the optional hover disk temporary device which I thoroughly enjoyed how it controls. It just needs to be fixed a bit so it doesn't fly past a target that you auto-follow and just try to run into a target constantly so melee fighter can stay in melee.

Only thing I see wrong with it isn't any of the mechanics but what is missing in the beginning. It needs a cut scene to present what is going on. Why are we here? Who is giving us orders? I feel that something like this needs an introduction and exposition rather than just throw us in and then be done with it when we succeed. This is missing in pretty much all content in the game.

gamehobo

crypticbuxom wrote: »

Really love what you guys did with the carrier defense.

Most everyone went with the vehicles so I used the optional hover disk temporary device which I thoroughly enjoyed how it controls. It just needs to be fixed a bit so it doesn't fly past a target that you auto-follow and just try to run into a target constantly so melee fighter can stay in melee.

Only thing I see wrong with it isn't any of the mechanics but what is missing in the beginning. It needs a cut scene to present what is going on. Why are we here? Who is giving us orders? I feel that something like this needs an introduction and exposition rather than just throw us in and then be done with it when we succeed. This is missing in pretty much all content in the game.

I'm very excited to hear this. While I'm not back to pts (telepathy) it sounds like devs really listened to player feedback.

I did thoroughly enjoyed the mission before.. hope I do even more-so now that so much work has gone into it.

theravenforce

crypticbuxom wrote: »

Really love what you guys did with the carrier defense.

Most everyone went with the vehicles so I used the optional hover disk temporary device which I thoroughly enjoyed how it controls. It just needs to be fixed a bit so it doesn't fly past a target that you auto-follow and just try to run into a target constantly so melee fighter can stay in melee.

Only thing I see wrong with it isn't any of the mechanics but what is missing in the beginning. It needs a cut scene to present what is going on. Why are we here? Who is giving us orders? I feel that something like this needs an introduction and exposition rather than just throw us in and then be done with it when we succeed. This is missing in pretty much all content in the game.

How on earth did you get it to activate? It would not activate for me at all! Is it only for melee players?

I even jumped out of the carrier and tried to activate it but I kept getting the message that it could not be activated at this location. So I had to activate my "Force Disc Travel Power" to save me from an untimely demise.

crypticbuxom

When I interacted with the hover disk object, I got the device in my inventory and activated it in my device tray. Though that toon didn't have a second TP at all so I may have to retest it with one that does.

Also the device cannot be deactivated until the mission ends. I didn't test to see if it disables on defeat or if it can be activated once again after.

lordfuzun

gamehobo wrote: »

We Teams in Rampages no longer be broken for the Queue? Allowing two teams of 4 to queue sucessfully? Or even better.. Allow full raid building with a lobby system (a Pre-Queue as it were)?

There is a Lobby system in STO for their queue system. So there probably will have be a code merge before CO can use it.

dragonbluey

I haven't decided if really large characters look incredibly silly on vehicles or not.

A couple things I have noticed, though:

-Like said before, winged characters flap their wings constantly while riding. I assume this is because vehicles are tagged as flight powers or something like that.

-Characters (at least big ones like Megadragon, haven't tested any others) twist their arms weirdly when they're gripping the "handlebars". Admittedly I've never driven a hover bike, but it seems like they should be gripping with their hands pointed forward, like a motorcycle, not with their hands and forearms turned ninety degrees.

I haven't done any extensive testing with the vehicle powers, but I did have a lot of fun obliterating entire city blocks' worth of Maniacs and Purples with the gravity pulse thing, so there's that.

The ability to see the rider on a vehicle is a big step forward and you've earned some points with me (Blueypoints have no cash value). Now what I'd like is the ability to color the vehicles, and more chassis types.

theravenforce

Not sure if this is a bug, the arcane power Eldritch Bolts for example has an issue with coloring when I change the colour to red it shoots out pink...bit odd IMO..

falchoin

theravenforce wrote: »

Not sure if this is a bug, the arcane power Eldritch Bolts for example has an issue with coloring when I change the colour to red it shoots out pink...bit odd IMO..

That's how the power is coded. The color you pick is the head of the bolt. The trail, which is the most visible part of the power, is hue shifted from the chosen color.

An easy fix might be swapping which color is chosen so the trail is the color you pick and the head of the bolt is hue shifted. Less confusing that way.

theravenforce

falchoin wrote: »

That's how the power is coded. The color you pick is the head of the bolt. The trail, which is the most visible part of the power, is hue shifted from the chosen color.

An easy fix might be swapping which color is chosen so the trail is the color you pick and the head of the bolt is hue shifted. Less confusing that way.

Ah k tyvm

stellariodragon

The bikes look great! But is there any way you can add more force to the capes? They should be going crazy at top speed, not flapping slightly. woooshooooom!

stoopidme

stellariodragon wrote: »

The bikes look great! But is there any way you can add more force to the capes? They should be going crazy at top speed, not flapping slightly. woooshooooom!

This has been a problem with all the cloth physics for a while, they drape far too much and this makes them really underwhelming in flight. I did see some confirmation that the devs had looked into it a long while ago, but they've had a lot of major pushes to do since then so I guess it got forgotten about for a while.

theravenforce

^^This, most of my builds if not all (due to the lack of FF good building I can do) will be BLOWN away by these bikes.

I'd like to see them a little smaller perhaps? I mean MC is a pretty high tech place, surely they can create nano engines etc

Something akin to this perhaps.

>>>Here<<<

I also agree that Rencen should be a non vehicle zone, they should only be available outside RenCen or places where heroes congregate.

Also another thing, I REALLY want that Containment field on the bikes for my force char T_T...​​

hubrix

Guilty of this. This entire blood moon, I've seen very little reason to exit my jet. Rankings don't change anything so I just fly around doing whatever. I get aggro? Doesn't matter my range is longer. I need to vendor or use the AH, I zoom in and out at the speed of 1500 Zen. I think the bikes will at least alleviate the eyesore a bit since you actually see a character on it.​​

keikomyst

My main, who is of average size and height for a completely normal person, 5'7", can't even reach the handlebars.