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FC.31.20130319.20 PTS Update
lordgar
Posts: 267 Arc User
This build is scheduled to hit PTS by 6:00pm Pacific on 5/17/13
Greetings!
We're updating PTS with this build to test stability, as well as the changes listed below:
Release Notes:
- The Forum Malvanum Custom Alert is now ready for your feedback! You can find it in the Alert queue.
Known Issues:
- The opening cutscene shows a crowd cheering at an empty arena
- Some enemies have the wrong chat dialogues
- Veteran Gladiators vanish for a moment after their cutscene
- Duratok & Ironclad vanish for a moment after their cutscene
- Two Firewings are visible during his cutscenes
- The Purple Gang truck cannot be picked up and thrown
- Some of the loot is currently placeholder.
Please format any bugs you find in the following format:
Bug
Where it happens
What happens
Greetings!
We're updating PTS with this build to test stability, as well as the changes listed below:
Release Notes:
- The Forum Malvanum Custom Alert is now ready for your feedback! You can find it in the Alert queue.
Known Issues:
- The opening cutscene shows a crowd cheering at an empty arena
- Some enemies have the wrong chat dialogues
- Veteran Gladiators vanish for a moment after their cutscene
- Duratok & Ironclad vanish for a moment after their cutscene
- Two Firewings are visible during his cutscenes
- The Purple Gang truck cannot be picked up and thrown
- Some of the loot is currently placeholder.
Please format any bugs you find in the following format:
Bug
Where it happens
What happens
Post edited by lordgar on
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Comments
Join Date: Aug 2009 | Title: Devslayer
This is the finale.
No way a group of ATs could pull that off with that amount of time.
Also, the 'crowd noise' for the event persists after losing. I've been back in MC for some time now and I'm still hearing the crowd.
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The crowd noise transferred to Millennium City is a persistent bug that happens from Red Winter Alert's alarm. The cut and paste of coding is apparent as its not improved.
No testing from me. Not after what happened to the "well timed" race testing phase.
I'll wait for it to go live.
At least you guys are serious about the final phase of events to let them test for a week or so before going live. Its just everything up until that point.
You can continue beating the snot out of Duratok and Ironclad even after you fail that round.
And I must admit, I had the urge to yell 'SURRENDER VILLAINS' right when that fight began.
Also, the round eight limited time thing. That's like, two alert bosses in a minute. Possible mind you, but requires immense amounts of DPS. Didn't even have it with three DPS toons.
Not a bad alert overall, still don't like the level 30 thing. That's a bugger to work with, but still neat overall. Gonna wait for the pre-live version before getting more in-depth.
Deliciously nutritious!
Ugh, they went with the level 30 thing again? That largely kills any motivation on my part to try it out.
Unlocks between the PTS and Live aren't connected.
Deliciously nutritious!
Aww so the Action Figure I got is only Placeholder?
Remove the bits where players fight waves of mobs like purple gang, gadroons, vipers etc.
Instead, replace them with something more challenging and EPIC. For example, replace vipers with a group of super villains. For example, Ripper, Warlord, Green Dragon etc, like a "Brotherhood of Evil" sort of thing. We can also bring in Grond, Telieosaurus and Qwyjibo so that it feels more gladiator-ish. This is a perfect opportunity to put these most popular Cosmics in for players to experience more of them and I know their codes are working fine because G-Crush use to pop them out in PTS rencen for players to fight. More aliens too, Gadroon was actually good but can it at least be some Gadroon supervillain instead of Gadroon mobs? Give it more HP and powers. Please put in the Roin'esh commander and maybe that huge beast in whiteout.
The time-based rounds are really not so necessary. It makes it almost impossible to complete for most PUGs. We had a team of level 40s all with relatively high DPS and we only managed to clear it with 10 plus seconds to spare. Instead, what you may want to do is every minute that passes, release more enemies (with sufficient challenge and not simple mobs) for the players to fight.
Firewing is interesting and the first time round, some team mates actually died from his attacks. However, the second round was just a tank and spank exercise. They stood behind him and attacked from range while I tanked it. For a gladiator with skills, Firewing has rather poor AI. He just stood there attacking the person with aggro. I suggest a bit of programming so that it attacks any healers, rezzers and toons with less health first. Give him some funky random attacks like Gravitar. This keeps players on the toes. Make him teleport about the arena and attack so that players cannot just stand in one spot to fight sort of like Nightcrawler but with range attacks. Once he takes some damage, move him. Let him use crippling challenge too.
Finally, I am disappointed that this is a team alert rather than a solo alert but of course team play is more fun. However, the final fight is 5 vs 1??? Really? Give us 5 legendaries to fight and no timer. It could even be something like Aftershock where each player fights his own opponent.
In terms of rewards, seriously, 4Gs? Once you tweak the EPIC-ness of the gladiator arena give the players something more rewarding. Anyway if the defeat the cosmics thrown along the way the G rewards will be quite sufficient. A pool of questionites can be useful. A costume unlock will be necessary, something like a winner's belt. As mentioned in another thread. There are some missing pieces of secondary vigilante gear like dodge, avoidance, cooldown etc so you can introduce those but with a very, very rare chance of drop. Put in fusable avoidance mods as well.
There is also, as pointed out, no need for the level 30 gating. Make it a good play for everyone.
Please take time to consider my suggestions. These suggestions should make the alert much more challenging and fun for players. The rewards will also justify the time and effort of players. I suggest these to make the game better.
The wave where we fight the 2 heroes is extremely tough and we run out of time around 10-25% hp for the pair. This is after being in offensive role, offensive passive, softcapped everything, 96% severity, 35% crit chance, 8 enrage, demolish with below the belt, constant use of active offense, alongside other offensive characters, some of which have teliosaurus pheromones.
Yes I think the 1minute timer is a bit extreme even though as mentioned my team managed to clear it both times, we had a ricochet throw user, lightning arc user and I was spamming 5 NPGs with UR with 8 enraged stacks and perma wgo surge giving me abt 90% crit chance and 75% crit severity. We were all level 40 imagine a PUG the level 30 setting is as good as useless.
This event has alot of potential to be Epic, use Gravitar's Alert as an example of a step in the right direction for end game style content. As wesley has said, it sounds like the boss needs to be more interactive..I'd hate PvP advantages on a boss, but I can deal with NTTG, Crippling on the other hand would be a deal breaker for some of my builds.
I havent tested it yet, but from the feedback it sounds good...
Now...make us be able to play it at level 40!!!
By the way...not sure if the answer to this is on the forums, but what is the actual point or reason behind the nerfing to level 30?
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I don't expect the alert to be something that is epic and fun to experience aside from the fighting. Pace is everything but there hasn't been any story in events that have proper setup since Nighthawk.
I just hope it doesn't feel like we're being rushed through the rounds.
BUG: The Announcer Dude sometimes doesn't announce that the waves are now timed. Did it our first playthrough. Second time he didn't once the Gadroon appeared.
The writting was horrible as well, do the designers even know what they are doing anymore? I now it is minor, but calling the Dogz and Gang from Millenium city is just stupid.
I like the arena but with it half empty is does not feel special at all. just feels like a back alley brawl.
No epicness whats so ever.
Complete fail, sorry.
And:
^My sentiments more or less.
Being nerfed to 30 was not helpful however I was teamed with some very high DPS style toons, so we (I say we, when all I did was fire Mental Storms
Firewing does hurt..but I think his attack cone powers are too...small...and focused. Gravitar has a large AoE which makes her more annoying, Firewing's Fire Breath was like a Force Cascade cylinder, I think it should be more of a cone, and perhaps give him some tracking attacks? Like Gravitar?
Fire Cages, Explosive fire balls, suprise click attacks too.
Perhaps allow him to use his wings? Firing burning plasma energy feathers at us in a Lead Tempest style spin perhaps? Or allow him to fly up and telegraph a flaming descent or something.
In short make him better.
Time limit on Ironclad + Duratok vs heroes...was a bit close, cut it very close in my opinion. I was very lucky to be paired with the people I was with, which is probably why we passed all levels.
Having said that...I was expecting more "exotic" foes..not Purple Gang from the good old leveling up days..
It wouldnt suprise me if VIPER, Qularr or Gadroon were up there (which they were) but Purple Gang...
I was happy to see PSI in there, even if their stay was brought to a close, pretty quickly.
I didnt get in too close but does anyone know if his wings burnt you at all?
EDIT: I have only tested this event on my telepath Mentella, and my team was more or less ideal..so my experience may be from a slightly rose tinted point of view if you will, everything went more or less smoothly until we hit the Dogz, -something- hit me and Mentella was down, then others started to drop very quickly, not sure what that was though..
I was also miffed to only receive a small amount of G for all that trouble..
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Negative:
As others have said crowd audio persists after leaving alert.
With some tweaking this could be fun, hope the rewards are reasonably interesting.
Brick_McDuggins in game.
Although if the cut scenes are long as people say and present a more Colosseum event feel, I'm down with it staying as is.
When build composition can consist of most anything on a character in this game, the time limit is an extremely dangerous thing to use as a form of difficulty.
There are other ways to emphasize teamwork, such as a crucial device dropping off of an enemy, fooling one enemy into getting into the path of another enemy's untargeted beam/attack, breaking a physical bond affecting an ally, and other such mechanics that emphasize situational awareness.
I was in one of these test runs where we stacked AOEs, and it still failed. If we tried it again, I guarantee that it would still fail unless we had a sudden and improbable string of critical hits throughout Duratok+Ironclad.
There can be nothing worse that feeling like the cause of a loss, because the hero that works everywhere else is not optimized for this one situation.
Deliciously nutritious!
Something tells me that that's part of the plan. Whether you make it all the way through or only halfway through, the arena will give some sort of reward.
I personally don't think it is necessary to have a timer. I don't think it is common to have time limit in gladiator arena. However, I will want enemies which hits hard. I will want more of them. Nothing wrong with wanting the game to be more challenging but time limit is not the only way and I think is just lazy.
It is not common for gladiators to fight a pack of dogs but a lion in an arena. Seriously, those PSI, Purple Gang, Vipers etc, lame just lame. How could they even get through a single round.
You will never convince me that there should be content where you 'need' XYZ or 'Focused builds'.
If that is Cryptic's intent, then good on them!
I'm assuming you don't like endgame concepts.
Just saying.
There should be content where team work and orientated builds should work well. For example, in an AT situation...
A team of, Tempest, Behemoth, Unleashed, Radiant and Mind AT's would more or less be a nice balanced team:
Behemoth provides tanking
Tempest Ranged DPS
Unleashed Melee DPS
Radiant provides Healing, Stealth buff and Ressurection ability
Mind provides damage resistance to further increase team strength, making tanking easier and healing less urgent to allow everyone a shot at fighting. Oh and minor crowd control. (lol)
I think that is what was meant by "focused builds".
By saying content should be do-able by anyone regardless, that is like saying level 6s should be allowed to join in Gravitar and fight alongside level 40s and get same rewards, provided they win...and if and when they fail it would just be down to a turn of events rather than the glaringly obvious fact that they are lacking 34 levels worth of experience and powers. :rolleyes:
No one is saying or pushing for freeform only content, only for content where everyone has a purpose.
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I'd rather them put in challengers that make sense to be in the event.
Perhaps I am not familiar with the lore. I understand the thing about challengers but I was thinking more along the line of a gladiator arena. Usually you get some nasty beasties that comes out if you know what I mean. Sure you get to fight challengers who are there for glory as well but you get the ugly nasties too. So those cosmics are more like the nasties. Get through the nasties and you face the other top gladiators who had triumph as well.
Something which will probably be impossible and will never be implemented, the team members can then fight each other for the last survivor but that goes into PvP which is not to be mentioned.
Yes, just as I gave them the feedback on the Lemurian Invasion. Because the devs already have the idea and the backbone for the events but just a little attention to these details can make the game play far more enjoyable for the players. Perhaps they do not play the game hence it is harder for them to see and I just hope they will consider the recommendations I made.
It is so hard for players to get to fight the cosmics so this will be a perfect opportunity to give them more air time. The G rewards from defeating the cosmics will also be more attractive than 4Gs. Then we can fight groups of supervillains who will be the challengers.
Devs, minor cosmetic bugs are tolerable by players if the game play is good. Focus on the gameplay and prevent game breaking bugs. The 4th time testing, Shaguar wanted to prove he could solo the alert so we watched on. On the 7th round, after 2 groups of mobs were defeated within good time, a 3rd group did not spawn and the timer counted down and the alert failed.
ok
I'd prefer that the down player just stay down until ressed or leave the instance, rather than revive or get locked-out. If people want to zerg, they should be playing henchmen.
new zones, new, REAL missions, new powers. This is why DCUO is doing better than CO right now, and most people call DCU a trash game. what does that make CO, stool? ive seen the stuff on STO, and I've seen the stuff on NW. This quality of content release as your "big event" is simply unacceptable.
Though its quite anticlimactic. Nighthawk was nicely paced. What happened?
The foundry as proposed if put into the right hands can give you better events and stories for all players.
The cutscenes are too long and/or they need to be skippable. If a player loses focus/concentration/etc stacks then you have failed.
This event is obviously not completable by level 5 characters, so why let them queue? Ideally this would end up being another level 35+ alert that doesn't sk down our max level characters.
The difficulty should ramp up, not bounce around. Random mob groups THEN super villains. Don't mix and match the order. I would also like more brickbusters in the VIPER group.
FIX THE GAME ENGINE. Telegraphed attacks should check whether someone is inside when the power actually goes off, NOT AT THE START OF THE ACTIVATION. This has been a personal pet peeve of mine ever since Gravi.
Difficulty-wise, decide whether you want groups of nothing but ATs to finish this alert. It's too hard for ATs currently due to the Ironclad fight timer.
EDIT: The burning DoT persists through death and spreads to those trying to rez you.
Got to wave 7, PSI, defeated all visible enemies, timer counted down to 0, and mission failed.
Bug
Character does not move to target when using Decimate while flying. Animation plays but character doesn't move. Works when character is standing on the ground, but not during flight.
I only have Decimate to test right now, but I'd assume that none of the lunges work.
Suggestions
I liked the idea of the event, execution's a little..eh.
Maybe there should be recoloured Foxbat camera bots flying around and holographic displays in behind the audience in the stands, to give the feel that this is being televised across the universe?
I agree with the others, the cutscenes are too long. I lose all 8 stacks of whatever buff I'm running and it cuts a rather large chunk from my DPS. Either do something about refreshing stacks or make the scenes shorter.
Is it possible to make the cutscenes team-skippable? Like everyone votes to skip or something. This way, new players who want to see the scenes can, and those who know what's going on can just skip through it. Would make the alert way more redoable friendly.
The end waves should be re-arranged. Having a random minion fight after Duratok/Ironclad makes no sense. It'd be better to put them right before Firewing, then have something cool before them, like a team of in-lore Super Villains. Pick from the stables! Foxbat, Devana Hawke, Draconis, Freon, Ripper, etc. It might be unbalanced since some iterations of these guys are meant for teams of 5 on their own.
@charachu
Loot is placeholder, ignore it.
Deliciously nutritious!
Final Round, if the boss couldn't spawn on the team that would be great.
Was great fun until pts went silly.
Just in case you're actually reading devs.