While investigating the MU aggro issues, I noticed that the Rifts are incorrectly set to respawn additional MU ships on far too frequent of a basis. Right now it's between 1 and 3 ships every 100 seconds.
We're changing that to every 600 seconds. So that should improve the number of ships you see when these hazards spawn.
Additionally, after extensive testing, I've determined that the MU ships DO fight the CE and Fragments, but that their Threat threshold is exceedingly low. So even a self-heal has a chance to pull a MU ship into fighting a player ship. We'll be addressing this to find a more reasonable middle ground.
Until these fixes are in, I can tell everyone the absolute best strategy for getting through the Mirror Ship phase: Ignore them completely. If you focus all of your damage on the Entity, you can force into the next phase of the encounter, at which point the Rifts and all Mirror Universe ships will despawn.
Are you 100% certain that the Terran ships are not firing on the Tholians or CE, and not being chased by Fragments? That would be different than what was observed during local testing.
If left to their own devices, a good portion of the Terran ships are likely to end up aiding players against the Crystalline Entity. Unless something has gone wrong.
If everything is working as originally intended, then one potential 'solution' for this phase (if it appears - it doesn't always) is to ease off on the use of AOE abilities like Cannon Scatter Volley, Beam Fire-at-Will, Photonic Shockwave, Tractor Beam Repulsors, etc. Unless, of course, you WANT every nearby ship shooting at you, instead of one another...
Just got out of third try on CE Elite, and I can confirm that initially, the MU ships do fire on the CE, but as the battle progresses, the MU ignore the CE, and the CE ignore the MU ships. This was observed after many attempts to lure the MU ships into point blank range of the CE...
Just got out of third try on CE Elite, and I can confirm that initially, the MU ships do fire on the CE, but as the battle progresses, the MU ignore the CE, and the CE ignore the MU ships. This was observed after many attempts to lure the MU ships into point blank range of the CE...
I just did one elite match and it was a total joke. Right when the Morror ships spawned in, there was like 3 or 4 dozen ships and more kept coming. It was ridiculous how bad the elite was
If you focus all of your damage on the Entity, you can force into the next phase of the encounter, at which point the Rifts and all Mirror Universe ships will despawn.
There is another issue with the mirror ships. They do not always despawn. I have finished this mission with the leave map button and all and was still surrounded by a few dozen tholian ships. There may be issues with that trigger. I will try it again and see if I can get a screen shot of that.
I did CE with all my alts today, most of which are not geared or have anything resembling a good build, and that's being generous.
This thing is almost custom built for FAW boats, why is there so much complaining? Its not like it takes any real effort to sweep aside the MU ships if they start to get out of hand.
I did CE with all my alts today, most of which are not geared or have anything resembling a good build, and that's being generous.
This thing is almost custom built for FAW boats, why is there so much complaining? Its not like it takes any real effort to sweep aside the MU ships if they start to get out of hand.
Its pretty easy on elite to "sweep" aside 200 Mirror ships?? Especially on a disorganized pug?
I've played it 6x now, and the experience is interesting. I like it.
First time: MU ships spawned form 6 Tychon rifts. Ignored the ships, defeated the CE.
Second time: as above
Third time: dark voids appeared, making target selection impossible. Flew above the voids, targeted the CE, finished the CE.
I should point out the average dps per player was above 4K (making for decent groups).
4th time - a pug: each generation of MU ships spawned at least 2 additional tykon rifts. Groups dps was low (under 1200 average). Mission ground to a halt as more than 80 ships (full accounting not possible) made any approach impossible. Failed.
5th time: MU ships spawned to only 1 side of the CE. we were able to finish the mission with mediocre dps (ave player dps 3600+)
6th time: Serious team with good dps; saw the writing on the wall after we counted 14 open and spawning Tychon's Rifts. Attempted to draw them away in groups of 10-20 at a time. Keep in mind this is a group who averaged 6K+ dps. Overwhelming force easily 10 to 1 against us. Failed
Died and stayed in the middle to attempt a count.
14 Tykens rifts; averaging 4-6 ships in orbit of each; literal cloud of ships engaging last remaining player. Video card overheating at 105C.
Personal Note: I'll only attempt this again on Normal (same payout essentially), and only with teams from dps5K, or my fleeties. Pugging this is suicide and a waste of resources.
I had a Miranda class take out my 58k shields with 2 phase shots and a single torp , even in elite borg stf's that does not happen . also it took my gtx 670 from 150fps to 7 fps and to me that is a little OTT for how poor res some of the textures are
It's the same problem with Cataclysm as it is with Catastrophe...just kicked up a notch.
If you've got the 2-3 Sci amongst the 10 players, then Catastrophe is a cakewalk. If you don't, well - it can still be done - but it's going to be rough for many PUGs.
Take that over to Cataclysm, the lack of the 2-3 Sci and a PUG...it's going to be an epic waste of time.
In this particular instance of the game it looks like there was a swarm at the beginning. but the ships themselves don't go away. http://i.imgur.com/DAL3QDf.jpg
in this particular case the only thing that went away was the spawn points and not the ships. I will see if I can find out when they went away. I will try again with those results as well.
Haven't done it yet but why would devs do this. CE was perfectly fine but on the day they add the event they up the difficulty. It is obviously another stupid impossible mission that dangles shiny dilithium. Drag in players, distract them from lack of content, entice them with rewards and then make it impossible to get.
The devs are incredibly cynical and cruel.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
We've successfully isolated the bug that was causing Mirror Ships to not properly despawn when their Rifts collapse. We've also made it so that they're far more likely to target non-players with their attacks, but also frequently change targets.
I can't say when these changes will go live, but they're in.
Thanks for the continued feedback!
Jeremy Randall
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
It's actually a "just for the event" deal. Afterwards the CE will be back to its care bear incarnation...
Which negates the hypothesis that this is rebalancing. Basically they are making it as hard as possible to get the rewards. Cause 50k dilithium per toon is going to kill their profits, :rolleyes:
The worst part is all new players that will get frustrated by this. Fits in with this company's modus operandi.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Are you 100% certain that the Terran ships are not firing on the Tholians or CE, and not being chased by Fragments? That would be different than what was observed during local testing.
If left to their own devices, a good portion of the Terran ships are likely to end up aiding players against the Crystalline Entity. Unless something has gone wrong.
If everything is working as originally intended, then one potential 'solution' for this phase (if it appears - it doesn't always) is to ease off on the use of AOE abilities like Cannon Scatter Volley, Beam Fire-at-Will, Photonic Shockwave, Tractor Beam Repulsors, etc. Unless, of course, you WANT every nearby ship shooting at you, instead of one another...
wow, you guys just love waisting time.. you cant just leave well enouph alone.. its not enouph that it takes 14 days to complete the project, but you have to make it impossible again... it worked fine before, and isntead of working on new content that the game needs, you completely mess it up.. i understand the tactic you went for here, but was it needed. NO....
once again, you made it so 1 person in 10 can mess everything up for everyone.. kinda back to square 1 again...
I love the new strategy that people are coming up with to combat the Mirror Universe with the CE...........leave the instance and rejoin a CE event that doesn't have them in it.
If that doesn't speak volumes, not sure what will. :rolleyes:
I just went through C Catastrophe. It took quite a few deaths, but Ignoring the MU ships did it. It fricking worked. Just fire everything on the CE (especially Torps and mines), and everyone needs to do this. The MUs are just going to delay the progress.
USS Canada
N.C.C. 171867
Sovereign Class
Saint John Fleet Yard
"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
We've successfully isolated the bug that was causing Mirror Ships to not properly despawn when their Rifts collapse. We've also made it so that they're far more likely to target non-players with their attacks, but also frequently change targets.
I can't say when these changes will go live, but they're in.
the problem isnt if you yourself decide to target them or not, its one of the other 9 people.. again, 1 guy goes in beam fire at will blazing, and it turns into an expensive time.. (yes repair wise).. and yes, there was well over 100 ships that were spawned in there..
It's is a typical strategy in mmo's that things that spawn many things can be attacked and destroyed. Would've made the CE event that much newer and mire dynamic imo.
Are you 100% certain that the Terran ships are not firing on the Tholians or CE, and not being chased by Fragments? That would be different than what was observed during local testing.
If left to their own devices, a good portion of the Terran ships are likely to end up aiding players against the Crystalline Entity. Unless something has gone wrong.
If everything is working as originally intended, then one potential 'solution' for this phase (if it appears - it doesn't always) is to ease off on the use of AOE abilities like Cannon Scatter Volley, Beam Fire-at-Will, Photonic Shockwave, Tractor Beam Repulsors, etc. Unless, of course, you WANT every nearby ship shooting at you, instead of one another...
Do you realize that this game's engine is so badly coded that everyone is getting a hell of a FPS drop? Even normal CE before this patch was pretty sluggish on people's pc, you guys just made it worse
Even my i7 overclocked is maxing out both two CPU threads lol.
It's the same problem with Cataclysm as it is with Catastrophe...just kicked up a notch.
If you've got the 2-3 Sci amongst the 10 players, then Catastrophe is a cakewalk. If you don't, well - it can still be done - but it's going to be rough for many PUGs.
Take that over to Cataclysm, the lack of the 2-3 Sci and a PUG...it's going to be an epic waste of time.
The possible absence of scis is a really good point. When I ran it the stacks never got too high and the CE went down pretty quick and on each run there were quite a few sci vessels/carriers so the likelyhood of scis being there was high. Honestly my biggest concern was the high graphic resources needed. Makes me wonder if the next lockbox will have a videocard in it.....
Just wanted to add something, since I've run it on a several of my lesser geared guys now on normal. It's something that might explain the varied reports. It's pretty damn random.
Can start with Static.
Can start with Ruptures.
Can start with Grav Wells.
Can start with Rifts (w/o Mirror ships).
Can start with Rifts (w/ Mirror ships).
Likewise, each additional stage...is random too (outside of not repeating).
You could have Static, Ruptures, Rifts (no ships).
You could have Rifts (ships), Static, Ruptures.
Those two are going to be very different in how they play out with the average PUG.
Comments
Thanks, cant wait for the fix
Just got out of third try on CE Elite, and I can confirm that initially, the MU ships do fire on the CE, but as the battle progresses, the MU ignore the CE, and the CE ignore the MU ships. This was observed after many attempts to lure the MU ships into point blank range of the CE...
I just did one elite match and it was a total joke. Right when the Morror ships spawned in, there was like 3 or 4 dozen ships and more kept coming. It was ridiculous how bad the elite was
Haven't witnessed spontaneous aggro between the TE ships and the CE though, even when cloaked.
There is another issue with the mirror ships. They do not always despawn. I have finished this mission with the leave map button and all and was still surrounded by a few dozen tholian ships. There may be issues with that trigger. I will try it again and see if I can get a screen shot of that.
I did CE with all my alts today, most of which are not geared or have anything resembling a good build, and that's being generous.
This thing is almost custom built for FAW boats, why is there so much complaining? Its not like it takes any real effort to sweep aside the MU ships if they start to get out of hand.
Its pretty easy on elite to "sweep" aside 200 Mirror ships?? Especially on a disorganized pug?
First time: MU ships spawned form 6 Tychon rifts. Ignored the ships, defeated the CE.
Second time: as above
Third time: dark voids appeared, making target selection impossible. Flew above the voids, targeted the CE, finished the CE.
I should point out the average dps per player was above 4K (making for decent groups).
4th time - a pug: each generation of MU ships spawned at least 2 additional tykon rifts. Groups dps was low (under 1200 average). Mission ground to a halt as more than 80 ships (full accounting not possible) made any approach impossible. Failed.
5th time: MU ships spawned to only 1 side of the CE. we were able to finish the mission with mediocre dps (ave player dps 3600+)
6th time: Serious team with good dps; saw the writing on the wall after we counted 14 open and spawning Tychon's Rifts. Attempted to draw them away in groups of 10-20 at a time. Keep in mind this is a group who averaged 6K+ dps. Overwhelming force easily 10 to 1 against us. Failed
Died and stayed in the middle to attempt a count.
14 Tykens rifts; averaging 4-6 ships in orbit of each; literal cloud of ships engaging last remaining player. Video card overheating at 105C.
Personal Note: I'll only attempt this again on Normal (same payout essentially), and only with teams from dps5K, or my fleeties. Pugging this is suicide and a waste of resources.
DELTA PRICE RISING
It's the same problem with Cataclysm as it is with Catastrophe...just kicked up a notch.
If you've got the 2-3 Sci amongst the 10 players, then Catastrophe is a cakewalk. If you don't, well - it can still be done - but it's going to be rough for many PUGs.
Take that over to Cataclysm, the lack of the 2-3 Sci and a PUG...it's going to be an epic waste of time.
http://i.imgur.com/DAL3QDf.jpg
in this particular case the only thing that went away was the spawn points and not the ships. I will see if I can find out when they went away. I will try again with those results as well.
The devs are incredibly cynical and cruel.
- Judge Aaron Satie
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
I can't say when these changes will go live, but they're in.
Thanks for the continued feedback!
Cryptic - Lead Systems Designer
"Play smart!"
Which negates the hypothesis that this is rebalancing. Basically they are making it as hard as possible to get the rewards. Cause 50k dilithium per toon is going to kill their profits, :rolleyes:
The worst part is all new players that will get frustrated by this. Fits in with this company's modus operandi.
- Judge Aaron Satie
wow, you guys just love waisting time.. you cant just leave well enouph alone.. its not enouph that it takes 14 days to complete the project, but you have to make it impossible again... it worked fine before, and isntead of working on new content that the game needs, you completely mess it up.. i understand the tactic you went for here, but was it needed. NO....
once again, you made it so 1 person in 10 can mess everything up for everyone.. kinda back to square 1 again...
/pacepalm
If that doesn't speak volumes, not sure what will. :rolleyes:
N.C.C. 171867
Sovereign Class
Saint John Fleet Yard
"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
Thanks, dude.
there were at least 15 rifts with 15-20 ships around each one
only died twice but good lawd . . .
/facepalm
Didn't see anything in note's, how about you?
So nailing MU ships, seemed logical to do.
But from all twelve rift's...came their PEW PEW PEW!
As I brought them to hell, I noticed the real player's,
Just melting the snowflake, layer by layer.
But when I got to hell, to drop off my load,
my only teamate, was dead and quite cold.
So back from hell, with the the entity in sight,
tried to do some damage, so I could sleep tonight.
We finished the snowflake, and got our shard,
Next time I'll know, and it won't be so hard.
And to all the pro player's, that do it in five minutes,
I wouldn't go bragging, to us or your Mrs.?
Seriously though, Thanks goes to the other team for getting me that shard.
Deceiver's Lair Fleet
N.C.C. 171867
Sovereign Class
Saint John Fleet Yard
"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
Dr. Seuss would be proud ^^
And good that this problem is addressed and resolved
*Thumbs up*
It's is a typical strategy in mmo's that things that spawn many things can be attacked and destroyed. Would've made the CE event that much newer and mire dynamic imo.
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
Do you realize that this game's engine is so badly coded that everyone is getting a hell of a FPS drop? Even normal CE before this patch was pretty sluggish on people's pc, you guys just made it worse
Even my i7 overclocked is maxing out both two CPU threads lol.
The possible absence of scis is a really good point. When I ran it the stacks never got too high and the CE went down pretty quick and on each run there were quite a few sci vessels/carriers so the likelyhood of scis being there was high. Honestly my biggest concern was the high graphic resources needed. Makes me wonder if the next lockbox will have a videocard in it.....
Can start with Static.
Can start with Ruptures.
Can start with Grav Wells.
Can start with Rifts (w/o Mirror ships).
Can start with Rifts (w/ Mirror ships).
Likewise, each additional stage...is random too (outside of not repeating).
You could have Static, Ruptures, Rifts (no ships).
You could have Rifts (ships), Static, Ruptures.
Those two are going to be very different in how they play out with the average PUG.
Maybe the next 275 Zen DOFF Pack will have a 0.000000000000000000000000001% chance. Shipping & Handling not included.