Nice that you've gone around and brought changes to Vehicle Weapons again. Granted now Plasma Beam won't be doing much more damage than the Vehicle's built in weaponry but still, goodie. Think it's safe to poke around at a few powers that also need some changes in them from a balance perspective? I could probably compile a list of suggested changes like buffing Mini-Mines, changing mechanics of Two-Gun Mojo, and other various things.
Trailturtle, can you please inform the players, who don't know how, where they can get a refund on all multiple remoddings done and purchased vehicle weapons that have been butchered by this?
*Looks at the video on that page and shed's a tear for all the Devs lost.. Especially Mr. James Laird our old PvP Dev.*
Actually looking here , we see that not only did Mr. Laird develop the PvP queuing system, but also built designer tools, profiling tools, and debugging tools for the system.
Very disheartening that without him and people like him, we have had a buggy queuing system for over a year making it very difficult to enjoy the Hero games that automatically put you into teams.
Would be great if the Hero Games could get an update/revamping, or at the very least, bug fixes. :redface:
This is such incredible nonsense it blows my mind. Way to alienate your playerbase with over the top nerfs. THe first nerf was justified, and I didnt say a peep but this is just ridiculous.
So, when eleventeen people blast Tako with Plasma Beam, the stacks of Shear won't cause all damage to no longer register. And this causes you to complain that your weapons are now "useless".
They were "useless" before, folks. Or did you miss that bit during the Mechanon fight where people started screaming at you to stop with the PB so the big steel gent could actually take some damage? Now they're going to be more useful, not less.
And I for one am looking forward to this "nerfing" of Heavy Cannon. It might be amusing to watch Dr D's minions go flying down the street when I blast a group of them from my Lemurian Tank - but the encounter isn't considered complete until they're all down, so then I have to go chase the fools around. Now they won't fly as far, and they'll take more damage. Sounds like a win-win to me.
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
Jon, they were only useless before in the literally one instance where like 70 people were all surrounding one mob blasting them with plasma beams. They could have just as easily made that a buff on the player. Or gave it a slightly less absurd number of stacks per player, and buffed what the stacks do.
Mechanon was literally the only mob this has ever been an issue with, and it's specifically because he was the only one pretty much in the history of the game that ever got THAT MUCH focus fire. You can't blame the players if they designed a fight that pushed all of the heavy hitters into one zone and then punished them for using their vehicles on it. You *damn sure* shouldn't nerf their vehicles in response to it.
What I wish more people would be sympathetic to is that some of us spent a good chunk of IRL money on these things, with the assumption "they just buffed them a month or 2 ago, why would they nerf them into the ground?" Which apparently was false.
I'm as much of a die hard for this game as anyone, but the number of vehicle nerfs, and the cost of unbinding everything and buying new weapons is flat out insulting. And yes, I'll have to do that now. I was having energy issues before AA missiles got twice as expensive and a quarter as effective. So I'm taking the alternative route. That being a hiatus.
If they did this to a character, we'd be getting retcons. We're obviously not going to see them for vehicles. I'm done for a while as a result. I *literally* just threw money down a hole because of this. I'm done doing that. If I weren't LTS it's likely that this would be what finally made me quit. As it is, I'm seriously considering it.
Friggin patch wasn't even on pts a week, and we ALL mentioned how badly it was going to be received. Why even test it if you're not going to listen?
In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008.
It's really not ready; the aa missle deal was way over the top; it's almost impossible to use them, even on a bike, any other ride, and it's impossible, they just don't have enough ammo. And by the time you reload, the buff is gone. The energy cost in the plasma beam is too high.
I just want an exchanger shop, so that I can trade all the guns that I don't want anymore, for the ones that I do.
Maybe they can look at Overdrive someday? How many years will it be before it actually works? Sword Cyclone (amongst many other powers) still does not proc it. What on Earth will it take?
Maybe they can look at Overdrive someday? How many years will it be before it actually works? Sword Cyclone (amongst many other powers) still does not proc it. What on Earth will it take?
What does someone needs to do to get DEVs' attention for Actual Bug Fixes?
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
Friggin patch wasn't even on pts a week, and we ALL mentioned how badly it was going to be received. Why even test it if you're not going to listen?
Agreed with all of your post, but this last bit in particular is hilariously true (in a gallows humor sort of way). "Not even a week" is in fact being extremely generous; by the time it hits Live, the window will be a shade over 36 hours.
I'm a CO lifer, an unusually optimistic one at that, but for the life of me I can not figure out WTF you guys are doing lately. If the intention has been to completely piss away any goodwill you built or recaptured from the playerbase by delivering actual new content... Well, kudos, mission accomplished. This seems to be the operating strategy:
1) Nerf. Nerf hard, nerf needlessly, and nerf to the exclusion of buffing. If you can nerf things that are purchasable by actual money, move forward two spaces. If you can (over)nerf things you just recently buffed (and sold the buffed thing, for real money), go directly to Boardwalk.
2) Continue to ignore longstanding issues and bugs. Creezus, wouldn't even know where to begin listing them all. Pick your favorite, or organize by month (going all the way back to launch, and compounded with almost literally every patch).
3)Don't communicate. Whatever you may be tempted to do, DO NOT tell your players/customers what in god's name you are thinking when you implement some disastrously shortsighted plan. Make unexplained changes, give no accounting of your reasoning, and move on to the next crater-to-be.
4) Forget what kind of game this is. Despite being a superhero game set in a world squarely based around superheroes with superpowers and superfriends, don't actually pay any attention to superpowers. When possible, focus ALL of your attention on the conveyances used by people who can fly, teleport, leap over buildings, or transform into bats, ooze, and lightning. Getting 50 people to shoot lasers at a thing from a hoverbike is much more compelling than having 50 people develop interesting builds with a variety of balanced, properly functioning powers.
I still enjoy building characters too much to leave the game, but it's becoming increasingly difficult/impossible to recommend this game. It turns into "apologizing for" rather than "recommending" with alarming speed.
Ways to unintentionally disrespect your customers:
1.) Four iterations of balancing on Plasma Beam (release, nerf, upgrade, nerf, nerf), while so many other things are broken.
2.) Get players to spend on Mark 2 Vehicle Upgrade Kits and then 6 months later, rebalance vehicles so Mark 2's are less effective than Mark 1's used to be. Same with Mark 3 Plasma Beam.
3.) Ignore major ramifications to "vehicle-oriented content", like Sky Command and Lemurian Invasion, that were by consensus extremely long and boring before, and will now be even worse.
4.) Have no apparent plan for the role of vehicles in the game (aside from short-term revenue stream), or how they should be balanced. But still devote a large share of development time on them.
5.) Allow review of significant changes on PTS for less than 36 hours; push changes to Live without comment despite overwhelmingly negative feedback.
LTS since 2009. Author of ACT parser module for CO. Founder of Rampagers. Resident curmudgeon.
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." -- W. Edwards Deming
Add my voice to those who are unhappy that the PTS feedback does not seem to have been taken into account. Over the last year, you've made a lot of improvements in the PTS process, and it's discouraging to now see you apparently backslide. First the automaton feedback was ignored, now this. This is a disturbing pattern.
I hope you folks prove me wrong when the patch is released.
Ways to unintentionally disrespect your customers:
1.) Four iterations of balancing on Plasma Beam (release, nerf, upgrade, nerf, nerf), while so many other things are broken.
2.) Get players to spend on Mark 2 Vehicle Upgrade Kits and then 6 months later, rebalance vehicles so Mark 2's are less effective than Mark 1's used to be. Same with Mark 3 Plasma Beam.
3.) Ignore major ramifications to "vehicle-oriented content", like Sky Command and Lemurian Invasion, that were by consensus extremely long and boring before, and will now be even worse.
4.) Have no apparent plan for the role of vehicles in the game (aside from short-term revenue stream), or how they should be balanced. But still devote a large share of development time on them.
5.) Allow review of significant changes on PTS for less than 36 hours; push changes to Live without comment despite overwhelmingly negative feedback.
I completely agree with this, except for the "unintentionally" part. This seems pretty clear
Vehicles and lockboxes were financing this game for some time, a fact that is conveniently disregarded by some people.
Not disregarded by me. And lockboxes aside ('cause we weren't talking about them), we could have easily had something else that could have brought in as much (or more) revenue than vehicles AND been more fitting to the genre.
1: why are you wasting your time with vehicle despite them not being what we wanted, and you not being able to get them right?
after all, we wanted vehicle travel powers, not overly complex become devices that get nerfed to oblivion and back, so why not refund the vehicle cost back to the players as Questionite or zen or G or something and make the vehicle weapons into powers
2: when was the last time you buffed something for the players (droprate, powers, stat gains) and..why even bother pushing a patch though the PTS if you're not going to listen to player feedback and explain your actions if it's exceedingly negative?
In all things, a calm heart must prevail.
Member of Paragon Dawn: Because some people like friendly helpful communities.
Yeah some things are broken... no I don't use/abuse them.. where would be the fun in that?
And lockboxes aside ('cause we weren't talking about them), we could have easily had something else that could have brought in as much (or more) revenue than vehicles AND been more fitting to the genre.
Thats wishful thinking. They could have, but they did had not.
PWE all had data to made a decision and picked vehicles and Legion packs to put inside. I daresay they were kinda big sell for a something deemed "unwanted" by forumites. Makes me wonder how representative and valid "feedback" on forums and FB is in regards to everything, not only costumes and vehicles...
Costumes do not keep this game afloat. They're just fluff, and an account-wide unlocked fluff so they can't generate that many sales.
I wonder how terrible outcry would be thrown by players if vehicles were replaced in lockboxes with player power unlocks (and it was the only way to get new powers, but it won't happend because the obvious policy for PWE is to put in lockboxes stuff that is attractive not only for Gold accounts), or new costumes from lockboxes were now made only as per character unlocks (this one I'd love to see only to have fun watching people cry, could be great to see).
Because they're the only things you could see in lockboxes instead of vehicles. That's realistic.
Seriously, a power set where you could create a sidekick (and design them) would have meant far more interest and revenue from associated purchases than vehicles could ever yield.
A serious question, what data you have to back this claim?
Maybe it's time we said goodbye to vehicles. IMO they have been a real waste of Cryptics very limited resources.
Let's concentrate on superheroes!
I have to 2nd this thought. Let's just stop with the vehicle effort beyond introducing a few new designs now and then and vehicle power balances. What we really need are some new powers and power sets for players and fixes to the existing powers. the mini-sets for powers were nice, I think we need to see more effort here, like a speed-based mini-set for the MA trees, or a plant based mini-set for the magic trees.
Seriously, a power set where you could create a sidekick (and design them) would have meant far more interest and revenue from associated purchases than vehicles could ever yield.
My only question is, why do they keep nerfing vehicles when my (and most halfway decently built characters) could already out damage vehicles to an amazing degree. If vehicles were overpowered, then I guess character nerfs must be next!
While I don't care for vehicles (I see them as glorified travel devices) I do feel sorry for people that have spent serious on them. However I wouldn't miss them if they weren't part of the game anymore. They're not customizable, they're ugly (looking more like space ships then comic book vehicles), and most aren't scaled properly. To me they stand out like a sore thumb and actually detract from the game.
However I do think vehicles are a good idea in theory, especially for silver players, but in practice they are wasted potential and a sink on resources that could have been used to improve the super hero portion of the game.
a plant mini set definitely belongs in the earth tree.
Sidekicks should not be a "power set" sidekicks should be a zen store item which allows you to design one.
One reason why I think sidekicks should be a power set is that if it were a zen store item then everyones characters would have sidekicks. Customised sidekicks as a power tree would be a much better idea.
And yeah, vehicles should have been a TP with customisable looks.
So I spent mounths to get PB3 and AAM3, TONS of Q just so they can be nerfed. If the over stacking of the plasma shear was a prob just set a max shear stack and be done with it...
The more they try ta "FIX" the more they "BREAK"....
If your intent is to drive more players away, then you are doing a good job....
One reason why I think sidekicks should be a power set is that if it were a zen store item then everyones characters would have sidekicks. Customised sidekicks as a power tree would be a much better idea.
PWE won't waste money on developing completely new powerset, as it would be valuable only for FF-using part of their playerbase.
Bonus points if they can put it into lockboxes.
Sidekicks as devices are the only realistic expectation.
Costumes do not keep this game afloat. They're just fluff, and an account-wide unlocked fluff so they can't generate that many sales.
New lockbox costume is selling for more than the new lockbox vehicle. Or it was last I checked. And, honestly, there really is no way to tell what people are after from those boxes. Only Cryptic knows what sells better in the cash shop between vehicles and costumes.
People actually wanted vehicles, so they were given to us. However, people wanted them as Travel Powers. Instead, we got them as fancy Become devices and they have been a sore spot for the community ever since.
Oh and, don't criticize someone else's lack of data in your post full of no data.
New lockbox costume is selling for more than the new lockbox vehicle.
Once (and for globals on AH which makes it meaningless). There's no drive to have it more than once per account, as opposed to vehicles, some people having one for separate characters.
The thing that people are missing, cotumes are, unlike auras or vehicles, a real account wide unlocks.
Lack of strategy
Lack of focus
Lack of prioritization
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER
LISTEN TO PLAYER
You guys are horribly deaf to player desires. I truly find it appalling you even think we wanted any resources devoted to vehicles vs. fixing bugs, etc.
It's a really blissful wishful thinking to believe that costumes are driving force behind lockboxes, and not Legion packs or vehicles.
We don't actually know if vehicles, costumes, or legion gear is the real driving force. Cryptic choose to focus on vehicles for a time, so yes, people bought the new shiny. In fact, people tend to flock over the new shiny no matter what it is. Legion gear was the new shiny for a while and people flocked to that as well. Let's not forget that keys are a currency and that is part of the reason they are bought and sold.
Cryptic doesn't share their data, so basically everything is pure speculation. And there are a lot of factors to consider.
I'm going to point out that the number of people who post on forums for a game is normally thought of to be less than 5%, maybe even below 1%, of the total player population. So sitting here saying "Cryptic doesn't listen to players" doesn't mean a whole lot since most people aren't coming here to voice their opinions. Frankly, Cryptic should be taking our posts with a mountain of salt because we are a minority and only one type of player in the game.
Oh, I completely agree that feedback on these forums including PTS section, and even Facebook, is completely meaningless and probably should be ignored as it represents mayyybe few percents of the playerbase.
And that's a very generous assumption.
Unfortunately, it also includes all demands about abandoning vehicles.
Considering for how long PWE kept releasing vehicles, that a large part of the Questionite store and questionite mod unbind fees are vehicles... And PWE kept doing it all the time, I think it proves my point precisely because it is look at the PWE actions, not at this minority of the playerbase using forums.
In the end, making video games is all about generating income and nothing else. If vehicles will continue making income, PWE will keep doing it. They have brains, after all.
Except after too many overnerfs they may have difficulties talking people into buying again, but that's their choice. Hopefully they can invent another hot shiny to sell. Maybe.
Because people who still believe that this game (or any PWE game) could be kept mainly with subscription are probably even more blissful than people who think it could be kept afloat by costume sales.
given the fact that so many superheroes have sidekicks, even more reason for it to be a zen store item.
they don't need to be overly powerful, just mildly useful and thematic.
putting them in a power set makes no sense whatsoever.
I'd prefer useful sidekicks that require some sacrifice. A power set does that, as you have to skip some powers for yourself in order to boost up the sidekick. In many other games, I really enjoy the "effectiveness is split between main character and potent pet" playstyle. Devices can't possibly pull that off without being overpowered, given you retain access to all of your power slots... Unless the sidekicks come with large personal penalties for having them out.
I could see it working similarly to vehicles, with mods and powers that you can customize, but I'd still personally want to see player drawbacks to each mod in the interest of equalizing the player and their sidekick a bit. Not complete equalization, but something to make it so that the sidekick is an actual threat without the player still completely tearing through everything with ease as they usually do now. Down that road lies massive power creep.
A pet powerset involving cloning yourself like Mr gemini would be a far more interesting and worthwhile use of resources than shoehorning sidekicks into a powerset.
I like that idea, too.
As for the actual thread, I'm going to echo the sentiment that it's flippin' idiotic to have the test server if all feedback is just going to be flat-out ignored. I personally feel that the vehicle nerfs were justified in most cases, and that they still have plenty of functionality going for them, but if the general consensus on the test server was that such nerfs were unwarranted, you damn well listen to the players. Asking for input with no intention of actually taking said input into account is extremely damaging to one's image. *cough which I fear is the perception when I ask my constant questions in Powers & Combat and then go with my original idea after people suggesting something else cough*
Dasher@Tool-box, donning his armor to prance into battle and blitz the enemy! No joke!
Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
I like the idea of a sidekick being at least a power slot - my idea had been for one who's a free AT, automatically leveling, say, 10 levels below the main hero (so he/she can be an assist, but not an "I win" button), and at least as customizable as a Nemesis. As an entire powerset, I'm not so sure; that might be a little too much in the way of sacrifice, possibly even leading to the point where everything's been invested in the Sidekick powerset, making the hero in fact the sidekick. (On the other tentacle, I can see a certain attraction in that idea - sort of a Sidekick Girl or P.S. 238 vibe there...)
"Science teaches us to expect -- demand -- more than just eerie mysteries. What use is a puzzle that can't be solved? Patience is fine, but I'm not going to stop asking the universe to make sense!"
I like the idea of a sidekick being at least a power slot - my idea had been for one who's a free AT, automatically leveling, say, 10 levels below the main hero (so he/she can be an assist, but not an "I win" button), and at least as customizable as a Nemesis. As an entire powerset, I'm not so sure; that might be a little too much in the way of sacrifice, possibly even leading to the point where everything's been invested in the Sidekick powerset, making the hero in fact the sidekick. (On the other tentacle, I can see a certain attraction in that idea - sort of a Sidekick Girl or P.S. 238 vibe there...)
Same. The game's all about customization, after all. If I want to make a frail inventor who stands behind a beefy death machine "sidekick", then darn it, lemme do that. :P The way I'd envisioned a sidekick power set was actually more of a buff-centric set, with single-target buffs that become less effective the more people you've boosted, and a massive bonus in effectiveness to summons. That way, you can focus on any of the existing summons in the game to make them into a powerhouse, or use the same set to play a basic support character.
Dasher@Tool-box, donning his armor to prance into battle and blitz the enemy! No joke!
Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
-Plasma Beam has been redesigned. It no longer places debuffs on the target and no longer generates Plasma Shear damage.
-Anti-Aircraft Missile's damage buff is now 10% at all three ranks. Damage has been reduced and energy cost increased.
-Heavy Cannon now has increased damage, no recharge time, reduced AoE radius and reduced knockback distance. The target cap is 10.
I'm ok with these changes, except for the highlighted orange.
There are many other ways you could of addressed the long time plasma beam power scaling, but instead, you decided to go the lazy way and just get rid of the mechanic that made it over powering, rather than balancing it.
-You could of made it so the plasma beam sheer affect was a stacking effect for the player only, as a buff
-Made it so it capped at 10 stacks, and making all plasma beams on the target doing a 1.5x more damage only
-Give it a flat damage increase as if it had stacks already, and give it a short CD to discourage spamming
-Increase it's damage exponentially, and give it a moderate CD
There are many other things you could of done, but rather you decided to bandage the issue rather than looking at the other options. The result is a very disgruntled community that is again splitting sides, and thus making the forums even more venomous.
You're still a new dev team when considering all things. I hope you at least look at the feedback and results of your predecessors, so that you may learn from them and plan how you wish too continue with the direction of the game.
Comments
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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RIP Caine
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I'll go first.
I want a refund on my now useless weapons. And I swear... Don't you dare touch my 2GM.
Congrats on making pointless vehicles more pointless.
XS
"ghoulish rewards" event is starting tomorrow too right? At least it says so here:
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/champions-online/news/detail/7009993
*Looks at the video on that page and shed's a tear for all the Devs lost.. Especially Mr. James Laird our old PvP Dev.*
Actually looking here , we see that not only did Mr. Laird develop the PvP queuing system, but also built designer tools, profiling tools, and debugging tools for the system.
Very disheartening that without him and people like him, we have had a buggy queuing system for over a year making it very difficult to enjoy the Hero games that automatically put you into teams.
Would be great if the Hero Games could get an update/revamping, or at the very least, bug fixes. :redface:
They were "useless" before, folks. Or did you miss that bit during the Mechanon fight where people started screaming at you to stop with the PB so the big steel gent could actually take some damage? Now they're going to be more useful, not less.
And I for one am looking forward to this "nerfing" of Heavy Cannon. It might be amusing to watch Dr D's minions go flying down the street when I blast a group of them from my Lemurian Tank - but the encounter isn't considered complete until they're all down, so then I have to go chase the fools around. Now they won't fly as far, and they'll take more damage. Sounds like a win-win to me.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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Mechanon was literally the only mob this has ever been an issue with, and it's specifically because he was the only one pretty much in the history of the game that ever got THAT MUCH focus fire. You can't blame the players if they designed a fight that pushed all of the heavy hitters into one zone and then punished them for using their vehicles on it. You *damn sure* shouldn't nerf their vehicles in response to it.
What I wish more people would be sympathetic to is that some of us spent a good chunk of IRL money on these things, with the assumption "they just buffed them a month or 2 ago, why would they nerf them into the ground?" Which apparently was false.
I'm as much of a die hard for this game as anyone, but the number of vehicle nerfs, and the cost of unbinding everything and buying new weapons is flat out insulting. And yes, I'll have to do that now. I was having energy issues before AA missiles got twice as expensive and a quarter as effective. So I'm taking the alternative route. That being a hiatus.
If they did this to a character, we'd be getting retcons. We're obviously not going to see them for vehicles. I'm done for a while as a result. I *literally* just threw money down a hole because of this. I'm done doing that. If I weren't LTS it's likely that this would be what finally made me quit. As it is, I'm seriously considering it.
Friggin patch wasn't even on pts a week, and we ALL mentioned how badly it was going to be received. Why even test it if you're not going to listen?
RIP Caine
I just want an exchanger shop, so that I can trade all the guns that I don't want anymore, for the ones that I do.
XS
NICE!
What a waste of Update, only the Cosmic Knight fix is the only Useful Update here
THIS
How about fixing Overdrive DEVs?
We have a whole Thread about it It's still Clipped with a big Variety of Maintain/Toggles
What does someone needs to do to get DEVs' attention for Actual Bug Fixes?
Agreed with all of your post, but this last bit in particular is hilariously true (in a gallows humor sort of way). "Not even a week" is in fact being extremely generous; by the time it hits Live, the window will be a shade over 36 hours.
I'm a CO lifer, an unusually optimistic one at that, but for the life of me I can not figure out WTF you guys are doing lately. If the intention has been to completely piss away any goodwill you built or recaptured from the playerbase by delivering actual new content... Well, kudos, mission accomplished. This seems to be the operating strategy:
1) Nerf. Nerf hard, nerf needlessly, and nerf to the exclusion of buffing. If you can nerf things that are purchasable by actual money, move forward two spaces. If you can (over)nerf things you just recently buffed (and sold the buffed thing, for real money), go directly to Boardwalk.
2) Continue to ignore longstanding issues and bugs. Creezus, wouldn't even know where to begin listing them all. Pick your favorite, or organize by month (going all the way back to launch, and compounded with almost literally every patch).
3)Don't communicate. Whatever you may be tempted to do, DO NOT tell your players/customers what in god's name you are thinking when you implement some disastrously shortsighted plan. Make unexplained changes, give no accounting of your reasoning, and move on to the next crater-to-be.
4) Forget what kind of game this is. Despite being a superhero game set in a world squarely based around superheroes with superpowers and superfriends, don't actually pay any attention to superpowers. When possible, focus ALL of your attention on the conveyances used by people who can fly, teleport, leap over buildings, or transform into bats, ooze, and lightning. Getting 50 people to shoot lasers at a thing from a hoverbike is much more compelling than having 50 people develop interesting builds with a variety of balanced, properly functioning powers.
I still enjoy building characters too much to leave the game, but it's becoming increasingly difficult/impossible to recommend this game. It turns into "apologizing for" rather than "recommending" with alarming speed.
/rant.
1.) Four iterations of balancing on Plasma Beam (release, nerf, upgrade, nerf, nerf), while so many other things are broken.
2.) Get players to spend on Mark 2 Vehicle Upgrade Kits and then 6 months later, rebalance vehicles so Mark 2's are less effective than Mark 1's used to be. Same with Mark 3 Plasma Beam.
3.) Ignore major ramifications to "vehicle-oriented content", like Sky Command and Lemurian Invasion, that were by consensus extremely long and boring before, and will now be even worse.
4.) Have no apparent plan for the role of vehicles in the game (aside from short-term revenue stream), or how they should be balanced. But still devote a large share of development time on them.
5.) Allow review of significant changes on PTS for less than 36 hours; push changes to Live without comment despite overwhelmingly negative feedback.
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." -- W. Edwards Deming
Seconded fully! I can stomach the "rebalance" of the different weapons. BUT please devote the same energy to fix broken mods.
...and much MORE energy to fix bugs in powers (Overdrive, etc...)
My Characters
I hope you folks prove me wrong when the patch is released.
I completely agree with this, except for the "unintentionally" part. This seems pretty clear
Let's concentrate on superheroes!
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
Or maybe not.
People who spent their money and playtime on vehicles aren't some kind of a second classe entities to have their interest thrown away.
Vehicles and lockboxes were financing this game for some time, a fact that is conveniently disregarded by some people.
I'll be laughing really hard if abandoning vehices will throw CO back to its completely nonexistent development cycle.
I'll be laughing very, very hard. This could be good... This could be realy good show to watch.
I didn't say that..please don't put words in my mouth meeda.
Not disregarded by me. And lockboxes aside ('cause we weren't talking about them), we could have easily had something else that could have brought in as much (or more) revenue than vehicles AND been more fitting to the genre.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
1: why are you wasting your time with vehicle despite them not being what we wanted, and you not being able to get them right?
after all, we wanted vehicle travel powers, not overly complex become devices that get nerfed to oblivion and back, so why not refund the vehicle cost back to the players as Questionite or zen or G or something and make the vehicle weapons into powers
2: when was the last time you buffed something for the players (droprate, powers, stat gains) and..why even bother pushing a patch though the PTS if you're not going to listen to player feedback and explain your actions if it's exceedingly negative?
Member of Paragon Dawn: Because some people like friendly helpful communities.
Yeah some things are broken... no I don't use/abuse them.. where would be the fun in that?
Thats wishful thinking. They could have, but they did had not.
PWE all had data to made a decision and picked vehicles and Legion packs to put inside. I daresay they were kinda big sell for a something deemed "unwanted" by forumites. Makes me wonder how representative and valid "feedback" on forums and FB is in regards to everything, not only costumes and vehicles...
Costumes do not keep this game afloat. They're just fluff, and an account-wide unlocked fluff so they can't generate that many sales.
I wonder how terrible outcry would be thrown by players if vehicles were replaced in lockboxes with player power unlocks (and it was the only way to get new powers, but it won't happend because the obvious policy for PWE is to put in lockboxes stuff that is attractive not only for Gold accounts), or new costumes from lockboxes were now made only as per character unlocks (this one I'd love to see only to have fun watching people cry, could be great to see).
Because they're the only things you could see in lockboxes instead of vehicles. That's realistic.
A serious question, what data you have to back this claim?
Yup, yup *nods*
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
I have to 2nd this thought. Let's just stop with the vehicle effort beyond introducing a few new designs now and then and vehicle power balances. What we really need are some new powers and power sets for players and fixes to the existing powers. the mini-sets for powers were nice, I think we need to see more effort here, like a speed-based mini-set for the MA trees, or a plant based mini-set for the magic trees.
Seriously, a power set where you could create a sidekick (and design them) would have meant far more interest and revenue from associated purchases than vehicles could ever yield.
Hopefully.
However I do think vehicles are a good idea in theory, especially for silver players, but in practice they are wasted potential and a sink on resources that could have been used to improve the super hero portion of the game.
One reason why I think sidekicks should be a power set is that if it were a zen store item then everyones characters would have sidekicks. Customised sidekicks as a power tree would be a much better idea.
And yeah, vehicles should have been a TP with customisable looks.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
The more they try ta "FIX" the more they "BREAK"....
If your intent is to drive more players away, then you are doing a good job....
PWE won't waste money on developing completely new powerset, as it would be valuable only for FF-using part of their playerbase.
Bonus points if they can put it into lockboxes.
Sidekicks as devices are the only realistic expectation.
Actually a very, very small minority have them
Hyperbole.
Sure it does....maybe not to you though
Think of it like a pet powerset.
Anyway, I'm not gonna derail this thread any longer.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
New lockbox costume is selling for more than the new lockbox vehicle. Or it was last I checked. And, honestly, there really is no way to tell what people are after from those boxes. Only Cryptic knows what sells better in the cash shop between vehicles and costumes.
People actually wanted vehicles, so they were given to us. However, people wanted them as Travel Powers. Instead, we got them as fancy Become devices and they have been a sore spot for the community ever since.
Oh and, don't criticize someone else's lack of data in your post full of no data.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
The thing that people are missing, cotumes are, unlike auras or vehicles, a real account wide unlocks.
Exactly, they know.
And they still keep vehicles in lockboxes.
And their last giveaway was tailored to sell more vehicle upgrade kits.
Or it's rather rather "PWE knows".
It's a really blissful wishful thinking to believe that costumes are driving force behind lockboxes, and not Legion packs or vehicles.
Lack of strategy
Lack of focus
Lack of prioritization
GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER
LISTEN TO PLAYER
You guys are horribly deaf to player desires. I truly find it appalling you even think we wanted any resources devoted to vehicles vs. fixing bugs, etc.
We don't actually know if vehicles, costumes, or legion gear is the real driving force. Cryptic choose to focus on vehicles for a time, so yes, people bought the new shiny. In fact, people tend to flock over the new shiny no matter what it is. Legion gear was the new shiny for a while and people flocked to that as well. Let's not forget that keys are a currency and that is part of the reason they are bought and sold.
Cryptic doesn't share their data, so basically everything is pure speculation. And there are a lot of factors to consider.
I'm going to point out that the number of people who post on forums for a game is normally thought of to be less than 5%, maybe even below 1%, of the total player population. So sitting here saying "Cryptic doesn't listen to players" doesn't mean a whole lot since most people aren't coming here to voice their opinions. Frankly, Cryptic should be taking our posts with a mountain of salt because we are a minority and only one type of player in the game.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
And that's a very generous assumption.
Unfortunately, it also includes all demands about abandoning vehicles.
Considering for how long PWE kept releasing vehicles, that a large part of the Questionite store and questionite mod unbind fees are vehicles... And PWE kept doing it all the time, I think it proves my point precisely because it is look at the PWE actions, not at this minority of the playerbase using forums.
In the end, making video games is all about generating income and nothing else. If vehicles will continue making income, PWE will keep doing it. They have brains, after all.
Except after too many overnerfs they may have difficulties talking people into buying again, but that's their choice. Hopefully they can invent another hot shiny to sell. Maybe.
Because people who still believe that this game (or any PWE game) could be kept mainly with subscription are probably even more blissful than people who think it could be kept afloat by costume sales.
I'd prefer useful sidekicks that require some sacrifice. A power set does that, as you have to skip some powers for yourself in order to boost up the sidekick. In many other games, I really enjoy the "effectiveness is split between main character and potent pet" playstyle. Devices can't possibly pull that off without being overpowered, given you retain access to all of your power slots... Unless the sidekicks come with large personal penalties for having them out.
I could see it working similarly to vehicles, with mods and powers that you can customize, but I'd still personally want to see player drawbacks to each mod in the interest of equalizing the player and their sidekick a bit. Not complete equalization, but something to make it so that the sidekick is an actual threat without the player still completely tearing through everything with ease as they usually do now. Down that road lies massive power creep.
I like that idea, too.
As for the actual thread, I'm going to echo the sentiment that it's flippin' idiotic to have the test server if all feedback is just going to be flat-out ignored. I personally feel that the vehicle nerfs were justified in most cases, and that they still have plenty of functionality going for them, but if the general consensus on the test server was that such nerfs were unwarranted, you damn well listen to the players. Asking for input with no intention of actually taking said input into account is extremely damaging to one's image. *cough which I fear is the perception when I ask my constant questions in Powers & Combat and then go with my original idea after people suggesting something else cough*
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Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
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Same. The game's all about customization, after all. If I want to make a frail inventor who stands behind a beefy death machine "sidekick", then darn it, lemme do that. :P The way I'd envisioned a sidekick power set was actually more of a buff-centric set, with single-target buffs that become less effective the more people you've boosted, and a massive bonus in effectiveness to summons. That way, you can focus on any of the existing summons in the game to make them into a powerhouse, or use the same set to play a basic support character.
Cupid@Tool-box, stunningly radiant stag ready to play matchmaker between villain and arrow!
Vixon@Tool-box, frighteningly eager to summon despair for his adversaries!
Jebin Zedalu@Tool-box, elementalist weaponmaster. ...One of these things is not like the others!
"Good can be found in heights, even in the deepest pits of evil" but "The valleys of evil always exist in the mountains of good."
~me
I'm ok with these changes, except for the highlighted orange.
There are many other ways you could of addressed the long time plasma beam power scaling, but instead, you decided to go the lazy way and just get rid of the mechanic that made it over powering, rather than balancing it.
-You could of made it so the plasma beam sheer affect was a stacking effect for the player only, as a buff
-Made it so it capped at 10 stacks, and making all plasma beams on the target doing a 1.5x more damage only
-Give it a flat damage increase as if it had stacks already, and give it a short CD to discourage spamming
-Increase it's damage exponentially, and give it a moderate CD
There are many other things you could of done, but rather you decided to bandage the issue rather than looking at the other options. The result is a very disgruntled community that is again splitting sides, and thus making the forums even more venomous.
You're still a new dev team when considering all things. I hope you at least look at the feedback and results of your predecessors, so that you may learn from them and plan how you wish too continue with the direction of the game.
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