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State-Of-The-Game - Alternate Dimension PART 2
honestresearcher
Posts: 657 Arc User
If i were able to make changes...what would i do in the first few months of managing CO?.... hmmm.
*wibbly wobbly wibbly wobbly*
Let us go...to an alternate dimension where things are different...
.
.
Any Damage Figures used on level 40 character with Heroic Level (rank 4) gear:
*Lightning Arc: 15% Damage Reduction on main attack, however, no longer self-rooted.
*Cleave: 20% Damage Increase. Because the attack is significantly slower than Frenzy, and upon comparing the 2 powers, Cleave needed a boost. 20% Energy Cost increase to reflect on the boost.
*Earth Splitter / Fault Line: 50% Damage Increase, we found both powers (roughly the same) were both underperforming for such high energy cost and long charge time.
*New Power: Subsonic Speakers: Offensive Passive power, boosts all Melee/Ranged Sonic Damage, and small increase to Melee/Ranged Piercing/Crushing Damage on the side.
This passive grants +10/20/30 extra Offense and Defense, depending on Rank.
Ranking this passive increases the damage bonuses. -Technology
*New Power: Photo Shoot!: Foxbat Camera technology allows you to Hold your opponent in a rare photo-shoot opportunity! Swag! -Gadgeteering
*Shotgun Blast: Reduced to 25ft Range, increase to 90' Cone, 100% Extra damage, 100% Increased energy cost. Now actually a Shotgun.
*MicroMunitions: Increased Visuals, MORE MISSILES!
*Smoke Bomb: Out-Of-Combat aspect removed! Now properly wipes threat.
We finally realized going invisible had nothing to do with removing any kind of threat at all.
*Smoke Grenade: Cooldown increased to 1 minute.
*Telekinetic Wave: New Advantage: "Come Forth" Targets are knocked TOWARDS you, and not knocked back. (Cost: 1 Advantage Point)
*Telekinetic Maelstrom: 100% Damage Increase, this power was underperforming with such high energy cost.
*Collective Will: Now summons 2 spirits by default, up to a maximum of 5.
*Lazer Sword: 10% Damage Increase. 20% Chance to apply Plasma Burn on EACH attack. Plasma Burn stacks now last up to 16 seconds (like Bleed). Normally you could achieve between 2-4 stacks of Plasma Burn, now it is much easier to achieve 5 stacks.
We realized the Lazer Sword powers are heavily underperforming.
*Plasma Cutter: 15% Extra damage on initial strike. 25% Extra damage on consumation of Plasma Burn stacks. Properly consumes and gives extra damage for Plasma Burn stacks.
*Lightwave Slash: 75% Damage Increase. Reworked, now Lightwave Slash will Refresh all stacks of Plasma Burn on all targets hit, and have an up to 50% chance on full charge to apply another Plasma Burn stack (max 5 per target)
*Energy Shield: Lazer Knight advantage no longer reduces the damage of all Lazer-Sword ONLY powers.
*Evasive Maneuvers: Cooldown increased to 25 seconds.
*Defensive Combo: +100% Damage increase. +200% Threat Increase. Now hits up to 3 targets in a 120' Cone
.
*Out of Combat Rules: During a Duel or whilst in a PvP-Arena, we found that people were able to be counted as "Out of Combat" within 2 seconds from Teleporting, Stealthing, or overall running out of range from the duel/fight, resulting in them gaining full HP and Energy recovery for being cowardly. This behaviour is to change:
From next patch, in a Duel or PvP arena, you are considered Out Of Combat, but upon attacking any target you are considered In Combat, PERMANENTLY. You may ONLY be considered Out Of Combat by properly defeating any 1 hero, and then not attacking any further targets.
*Added NPCs: Because we absolutely rushed the new Ren Cen we completely hadn't realized we removed very important game NPC's.
-PP Vendor - Swords - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Sword items and costume unlocks.
-PP Vendor - Guns - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Gun items and costume unlocks.
-PP Vendor - Bows - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Bow items and costume unlocks.
*Snares: Snares now last their FULL duration, not the reduced/resisted duration (which in many cases is less than a couple of seconds). Only Holds/Knocks/Roots can be reduced in duration via your resistances to such effects.
*Stealth: We finally realized that with many pets or sigils and other targets, Stealth De-Targeting was a very silly thing to implement, thus we are changing stealth mechanics.
-New rules: You can see a stealthed target whilst he/she is considered In-Combat however if stealthed you will not be able to attack the target, "Invalid", so no more de-targetting MID-FIGHT. If your opponent is NOT considered In-Combat, then he will be completely invisible unless you have enough stealth detect gear/stats to see him/her before he/she strikes. True stealth only works as an opening first strike, the way it was intended.
*Movement and Combat: 20% Reduced speed when moving AWAY from your current target. We finally realized it's too easy to hop away from melee users.
*Questionite Cost Global Reduction: Most prices in the questionite store are reduced to more sensible and realistic proportions:
-Purple Secondaries now will cost 50,000 each, not 150,000
-Shadow Skull Flight reduced to 100,000
- +many other price changes to non-ludicrous amounts.
*Nemesis Mission cooldown HEAVILY nuked: No longer will you have to wait up to 24 hours before being able to receive another Nemesis Clue. You will be able to recieve another Nemesis clue, after 1 hour.
*Options: "Reduce GPU/CPU usage" now properly works again on ALL operating systems.
*Z-Store item "Freeform Slot" Z-cost reduced by 50% permanently : We finally realized charging over the cost of buying the full-game at launch, for a single freeform slot, was pretty dumb. We apologize.
*Trade Snake Gulch Bucks for MODS:
New MOD vendor in Snake Gulch Bar:
-10 SGB = x1 Rank 1 mod of your choice.
-20 SGB = x1 Rank 2 mod of your choice.
-30 SGB = x1 Rank 3 mod of your choice.
-40 SGB = x1 Rank 4 mod of your choice.
-50 SGB = x1 Rank 5 mod of your choice.
-100 SGB = x1 Rank 6 mod of your choice.
-200 SGB = x1 Rank 7 mod of your choice.
.
And back to normal CO again...is all few hundred left of you having fun?
*wibbly wobbly wibbly wobbly*
Let us go...to an alternate dimension where things are different...
FSHOOOOOOM WOOOOOOOOOSH!
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.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STATE OF THE GAME - JUNE 2013 - PART 2
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STATE OF THE GAME - JUNE 2013 - PART 2
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POWERS
- - - - - - - - - -Any Damage Figures used on level 40 character with Heroic Level (rank 4) gear:
*Lightning Arc: 15% Damage Reduction on main attack, however, no longer self-rooted.
*Cleave: 20% Damage Increase. Because the attack is significantly slower than Frenzy, and upon comparing the 2 powers, Cleave needed a boost. 20% Energy Cost increase to reflect on the boost.
*Earth Splitter / Fault Line: 50% Damage Increase, we found both powers (roughly the same) were both underperforming for such high energy cost and long charge time.
*New Power: Subsonic Speakers: Offensive Passive power, boosts all Melee/Ranged Sonic Damage, and small increase to Melee/Ranged Piercing/Crushing Damage on the side.
This passive grants +10/20/30 extra Offense and Defense, depending on Rank.
Ranking this passive increases the damage bonuses. -Technology
*New Power: Photo Shoot!: Foxbat Camera technology allows you to Hold your opponent in a rare photo-shoot opportunity! Swag! -Gadgeteering
*Shotgun Blast: Reduced to 25ft Range, increase to 90' Cone, 100% Extra damage, 100% Increased energy cost. Now actually a Shotgun.
*MicroMunitions: Increased Visuals, MORE MISSILES!
*Smoke Bomb: Out-Of-Combat aspect removed! Now properly wipes threat.
We finally realized going invisible had nothing to do with removing any kind of threat at all.
*Smoke Grenade: Cooldown increased to 1 minute.
*Telekinetic Wave: New Advantage: "Come Forth" Targets are knocked TOWARDS you, and not knocked back. (Cost: 1 Advantage Point)
*Telekinetic Maelstrom: 100% Damage Increase, this power was underperforming with such high energy cost.
*Collective Will: Now summons 2 spirits by default, up to a maximum of 5.
*Lazer Sword: 10% Damage Increase. 20% Chance to apply Plasma Burn on EACH attack. Plasma Burn stacks now last up to 16 seconds (like Bleed). Normally you could achieve between 2-4 stacks of Plasma Burn, now it is much easier to achieve 5 stacks.
We realized the Lazer Sword powers are heavily underperforming.
*Plasma Cutter: 15% Extra damage on initial strike. 25% Extra damage on consumation of Plasma Burn stacks. Properly consumes and gives extra damage for Plasma Burn stacks.
*Lightwave Slash: 75% Damage Increase. Reworked, now Lightwave Slash will Refresh all stacks of Plasma Burn on all targets hit, and have an up to 50% chance on full charge to apply another Plasma Burn stack (max 5 per target)
*Energy Shield: Lazer Knight advantage no longer reduces the damage of all Lazer-Sword ONLY powers.
*Evasive Maneuvers: Cooldown increased to 25 seconds.
*Defensive Combo: +100% Damage increase. +200% Threat Increase. Now hits up to 3 targets in a 120' Cone
.
SYSTEM
- - - - - - - -*Out of Combat Rules: During a Duel or whilst in a PvP-Arena, we found that people were able to be counted as "Out of Combat" within 2 seconds from Teleporting, Stealthing, or overall running out of range from the duel/fight, resulting in them gaining full HP and Energy recovery for being cowardly. This behaviour is to change:
From next patch, in a Duel or PvP arena, you are considered Out Of Combat, but upon attacking any target you are considered In Combat, PERMANENTLY. You may ONLY be considered Out Of Combat by properly defeating any 1 hero, and then not attacking any further targets.
*Added NPCs: Because we absolutely rushed the new Ren Cen we completely hadn't realized we removed very important game NPC's.
-PP Vendor - Swords - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Sword items and costume unlocks.
-PP Vendor - Guns - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Gun items and costume unlocks.
-PP Vendor - Bows - Trade in Perk points for BLUE Bow items and costume unlocks.
*Snares: Snares now last their FULL duration, not the reduced/resisted duration (which in many cases is less than a couple of seconds). Only Holds/Knocks/Roots can be reduced in duration via your resistances to such effects.
*Stealth: We finally realized that with many pets or sigils and other targets, Stealth De-Targeting was a very silly thing to implement, thus we are changing stealth mechanics.
-New rules: You can see a stealthed target whilst he/she is considered In-Combat however if stealthed you will not be able to attack the target, "Invalid", so no more de-targetting MID-FIGHT. If your opponent is NOT considered In-Combat, then he will be completely invisible unless you have enough stealth detect gear/stats to see him/her before he/she strikes. True stealth only works as an opening first strike, the way it was intended.
*Movement and Combat: 20% Reduced speed when moving AWAY from your current target. We finally realized it's too easy to hop away from melee users.
*Questionite Cost Global Reduction: Most prices in the questionite store are reduced to more sensible and realistic proportions:
-Purple Secondaries now will cost 50,000 each, not 150,000
-Shadow Skull Flight reduced to 100,000
- +many other price changes to non-ludicrous amounts.
*Nemesis Mission cooldown HEAVILY nuked: No longer will you have to wait up to 24 hours before being able to receive another Nemesis Clue. You will be able to recieve another Nemesis clue, after 1 hour.
*Options: "Reduce GPU/CPU usage" now properly works again on ALL operating systems.
*Z-Store item "Freeform Slot" Z-cost reduced by 50% permanently : We finally realized charging over the cost of buying the full-game at launch, for a single freeform slot, was pretty dumb. We apologize.
*Trade Snake Gulch Bucks for MODS:
New MOD vendor in Snake Gulch Bar:
-10 SGB = x1 Rank 1 mod of your choice.
-20 SGB = x1 Rank 2 mod of your choice.
-30 SGB = x1 Rank 3 mod of your choice.
-40 SGB = x1 Rank 4 mod of your choice.
-50 SGB = x1 Rank 5 mod of your choice.
-100 SGB = x1 Rank 6 mod of your choice.
-200 SGB = x1 Rank 7 mod of your choice.
And back to normal CO again...is all few hundred left of you having fun?
Post edited by honestresearcher on
0
Comments
The segments quoted are ones I wouldn't mind seeing implemented as they sound kind of awesome.
This means that having that adv doesn't lower the damage of lazer swords, right?
*Evasive Maneuvers: Cooldown increased to 25 seconds.
Don't change the cooldown, just make it so the removed from combat only works once every 60 seconds.
*Movement and Combat: 20% Reduced speed when moving AWAY from your current target. We finally realized it's too easy to hop away from melee users.
You could make it so that charged melee attacks stay held until you let go of the button.
*Nemesis Mission cooldown HEAVILY nuked: No longer will you have to wait up to 24 hours before being able to receive another Nemesis Clue. You will be able to recieve another Nemesis clue, after 1 hour.
I think that the cooldown should be 4 hours. There should be enough content in the game and Nemesis missions would be given more depth and length to make up for being only playable once every 4 hours.
*Z-Store item "Freeform Slot" Z-cost reduced by 50% permanently : We finally realized charging over the cost of buying the full-game at launch, for a single freeform slot, was pretty dumb. We apologize.
And grant all players who previously purchased Freeform slots to get a free FF slot to make up the difference.
Also all Rank Up Catalysts prices are divided by 10. There are enough characters players have to justify this price making it a more reasonably repeatable purchase, as is the design of F2P game shops. And Rank 9s really don't produce THAT much difference in stat boost. $25 per Freeform character. Up to $80 or more per character for all their R9 mods. Its still a lot of profit for relatively nonexistent resource cost.
I pretty much agree with everything else here.
This means that having that adv doesn't lower the damage of lazer swords, right?
Correct, Lazer Sword powers would specifically retain their normal output.
Don't change the cooldown, just make it so the removed from combat only works once every 60 seconds.
That kind of Full-Health from running away BS, has to come to an end. I know a lot of you guys like it, but it isnt right on non-stealthers/non cowards. It makes PvP much less appealing to those wanting an honourable battle.
You could make it so that charged melee attacks stay held until you let go of the button.
Not sure what that would achieve. If you have ever tried pvp in The Secret World, you would see how a slower back-walk has created a wonderful balance between ranged and melee.
And grant all players who previously purchased Freeform slots to get a free FF slot to make up the difference.
I agree...the whole inprisonment of gold characters is wrong.
Responses in green
You're doing it wrong.
Here:
Why have Laser Sword powers specifically be exempt from the Laser Knight damage reduction ?
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
Its makes less sense to me that the Ranged Version of lazer knight has no damage reduction aspect, yet it weakens melee powers. Surely thats the wrong way around?
I made no reference to ranged lazer knight. I just wonder, from a balance perspective, why Laser Sword would get that kind of advantage over other melee power types. Is Laser Sword that much weaker in DPS than Heavy weapons, Unarmed MA, Ego Blades, Might, etc, etc that it should get that kind of advantage over all of them ?
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
The DPS is amongst some of the lowest in the game. I was forced to make him a Crippling Challenge + Challenging Strikes threat tank because thats the only real use it has because the damage is too low.
Getting 5 stacks of Plasma burn is too hard and rare whereas bleeds are real easy to get on and rupture.
Lazer sword powers have terrible spike capability too, iv found the highest dps is from using only the Lazer Sword 3 hit combo over and over. Seeing as Lazer Knight advantage was built with lazer sword powers in mind, why should they become weaker than they already are.
A list of all the melee combo powers and their default damage values at Rank 3. Courtesy of the wiki.
Speed = Activation time
These values do not take into consideration any powers or effects that either negatively or positively alter endurance costs.
Rank 3 Laser Sword combo
Damage
386/444/698
Cost
24 each swing
Speed
.5 sec each
Rank 3 Reaper's Caress combo
Damage
150/230/2x 338
Cost
13/12/11
Speed
.3/.4/ 1 sec
Rank 3 Cleave combo
Damage
388/447/632
Cost
22/20/17
Speed
.83/.83/1 sec
Rank 3 Ego Weapon combo
Damage
175/230/507
Cost
12/11/10
Speed
.35/.4/.75 sec
Rank 3 Blade Tempest combo
Damage
298/342/498
Cost
16/14/13
Speed
.67 sec each
Rank 3 Viper's Fangs combo
Damage
202/232/478
Cost
12/11/10
Speed
.4/.4/.7 sec
Rank 3 Shred combo
Damage
246/283/444
Cost
13/12/11
Speed
.5/.5/.57 sec
Rank 3 Defensive Combo...combo
Damage
167/215/442
Cost
11/10/9
Speed
.4/.4/.7
Rank 3 Beatdown combo
Damage
239/274/432
Cost
12/11/9.7
Speed
.5/.5/.67
Rank 3 Thundering Kicks combo
Damage
149/228/335
Cost
12/11/9.6
Speed
.3/.4/.5 sec
Laser Sword has the overall highest default damage values but compensates with having the highest endurance cost per swing of all the combo powers. If you use Rank 2 + Particle Acceleration you can get bigger numbers to pop out of your target but the endurance cost increases greatly to ~37 per swing at a full 5 stack of the self debuff. From a balance perspective it would make no sense to exclude it from Laser Knight's damage modifier. If it received that treatment then it would be 15% more effective than it already is when compared to other melee combos paired with Laser Knight.
Where it should have be in the first Place DEAR CRYPTIC! :mad:
Jack Emmert himself said in an interview that, "Champions is very arcane". To that extent, I agree that there is a lot of unnecessary complexity in Champions that has made it difficult for players to pick up, and for a small developer team to design content for.
Problem 1: Too many stats
One thing I see as a very big issue is that bonuses exist on multiple layers. For damage, there's multiplicative damage, additive damage subject to Cryptic Math and the Offense stat which is subject to Cryptic Math twice. For Crit, there's Crit Strike Rating and flat Critical Chance.
So the top end stacks flat bonuses and ends up far ahead of the bottom end that takes many additive bonuses which sound impressive on paper but end up not doing much.
Is it really necessary to have so many stats that do the same thing and ends up confusing players, creating inequity in power and specialization choices and making content so difficult to balance that every time new content is introduced there is a "way too easy" camp and a "way too hard" camp?
The worst thing is even the developers seem to have thrown up their hands at this - the new AoE shield operates on yet another layer of defense.
Problem 2: Lack of Purity of Purpose
Another issue is a lack of purity of purpose in stats. With Constitution for example, its intended purpose is to raise a character's HP. So is the only stat in the game that directly raises the survivability of a character by itself. However, with the right power and specialization choices, it can also raise Critical Chance, Defense, Offense, Critical Severity and give Energy, all in the same build.
The same problem exists to a lesser extent with Ego. Quarry gives Ego. Ego Surge gives Ego. Concentration's Energy return scales with Ego. Ego can give Cost Discount as a primary stat and it scales with a number of Energy Unlocks. So the energy stats are made redundant.
For innately less attractive stats like Rec and End, I can understand the need to let them do double duty, but Con enjoys a monopoly as the only survivability stat, and Ego is a popular DPS stat. Do they need to do that much?
Problem 3: Redundancy
There is also a lot of redundancy in the system. For DPS characters, their role gives always-on bonus damage. Their superstats give always-on bonus damage. Their passive give always-on bonus damage (except during Energy Form Cancel for certain passives which never happens in most practical situations). Their form also gives ramping bonus damage.
That seems like an unnecessary amount of sources. Can't they be consolidated into one source of always-on damage and if necessary, one source of ramping damage so that we get a single or two points of reference?
Same with energy. We get energy from our form, we get energy from our energy unlock. The game can easily do away with one, then raise the frequency and/or magnitude of the other to compensate.
Problem 4: One-Dimensional Powersets
Yet another issue is that powersets are usually more about a single power than the set as a whole. Entire powersets are built around spamming one or two powers with the other powers either focusing on making that power spammable or just flat out being terrible.
With Fire for instance, the entire powerset is built around spamming debuffs to set up Conflagration due to an exception that allows Fireball's advantage to greatly boost its damage. It is considerably harder to build around Fire Strike and Pyre or Fire Breath.
With Ice, the power that Cold Snap really buffs above all else is Ice Blast. With Lightning, Lightning Arc gets a huge bonus due to Ions. Lightning Storm has a very high base damage and almost guaranteed one Arc per tick when used as AoE. Munitions has Two-Gun Mojo, Gadgeteering has Throwing Blades and so on.
I agree with Gamehobo's view on this, that damage powers should be based on a framework where damage is determined by range, AoE shape and mobility, although I am also of the opinion that moving fire should have some sort of associated penalty.
Problem 5: Too many barriers to entry for PvP
On the PvP front, there are an inordinate amount of hoops to jump through just to make a PvP-viable character, due to the sheer number of checkmate conditions possible.
A PvP character must have Trauma, Crippling Challenge, Nailed to the Ground, Knock Resist, Perception or a PBAoE, very high HP to survive Legacy Device spikes, be able to pop fast heals through Trauma and maybe even do a barrel roll despite being Nailed To The Ground. No wonder CO PvP is such a niche community!
Problem 6: Widely variable time functions
Unlike damage, which is a virtual metric easily mitigated by an opposing damage reduction value, time is a real world metric, and the game client cannot be manipulated to accelerate or slow down the flow of time to adjust to a character's time-based abilities.
Cooldowns are one example of a time function. When cooldowns are variable to the point where a character can pop 3 Masterful Dodges in a minute as compared to another character that can only do one, a very wide performance gap is created. This exacerbates the content design problem. Should the developer program the boss' one-shotting schtick attack to fire every minute? Or 30 seconds? Or maybe 15?
CCs are another example of a time function, and that's why they are so broken today. When it became possible to superspecialize until half-minute stuns were possible, that was pretty much an invitation for the nerf bat to come down hard on it.
tl;dr version
I think CO can benefit from a LOT of streamlining. It will make everyone's lives easier. Reading character stats could stand to be less Cryptic(tm) for players, and developers will be able to more easily establish reference points for designing content and identify where and why the outliers exist. If we're talking about balance, I think this is one objective that really needs to be worked towards.
As for the complexity that comes with Freeforms (and specializations to an extent) it sucks that players who want to invest in a subscription have to do some serious studying and invest time to make sure what they build works. How to fix that is beyond the issues of the UI, but I think having a more clear menu would certainly help as a start.
As for specializations, I think access to them are too early (push them back to level 20 access) and not explained clearly enough. Such as that their effects scale, but don't show how much so easy at low levels. After they figure out level 20 flexibility in power choice, they can then get access to specializations with enough points to play around with maximizing their Primary Stat Spec Tree and see their real effects. But that's just an idea.
TO THE OP:
Link Part 1 and Part 2 to each other.
Noted.
...sigh
right, i think im about done on CO with the poison this community injects
this games as good as gone, especially after the hiring of random people from the streets of seattle.
Its done.
Fixed that for you.
A dev team shouldn't punish players for exploiting a broken game. They should fix the exploitation and simply reverse gain from those exploits.
Fixed that for you; please no nerfing PvE uses of character abilities for the sake of PvP
This also applied to the lengthening of most of the cool-downs, not cool.
Here we are now going to the West Side
Weapons in hand as we go for a ride
Some may come and some may stay
Watching out for a sunny day
Where there's love and darkness and my sidearm
In game as @forgemccain