Subspace Boom giving extra shields to targets?

illcadia

I've been trying to figure out why this power doesn't seem to actually do anything, and after studying the combat log for a while and doing some testing with borg probes, I've discovered that Subspace Boom applies a significant shield heal to any affected enemies, which is always at least twice the value of the damage it inflicts. It also appears to be using torpedo code- which is to say that it's affected by the shields having 75% innate kinetic resist. As subspace boom has no shield penetration, this means that it does 0 damage 100% of the time.

Could we maybe get a dev to look at it and give it a passover or somethng? It's a really cool power, and it's very unfortunate that it does precisely nothing as far as damage is concerned. (well, a net value of nothing. Inflicting 1000 shield damage, then healing those shields for 3000 is technically 'something' but in practice it amounts to the power not being of any use to you).

borticuscryptic

Are you absolutely certain it's restoring shields? Tested in a controlled environment?

I ask because our CombatLog is notorious for misinterpreting shield-related effects, and could be saying "gives X shields" when it is actually damaging them. (This is because shield drains are a negative heal, instead of positive damage... it's a long story...)

illcadia

borticuscryptic wrote: »

Are you absolutely certain it's restoring shields? Tested in a controlled environment?

I ask because our CombatLog is notorious for misinterpreting shield-related effects, and could be saying "gives X shields" when it is actually damaging them. (This is because shield drains are a negative heal, instead of positive damage... it's a long story...)

I tested it against a player enemy whose shields were at 50%, and watched a substantial shield heal (green numbers) pop up over their ship when I used it, and the combat log showed a shield heal followed by damage- though despite it showing the information in that order, the shields were higher than they were prior to using subspace boom.

I also tested it on borg probes (who don't have any shield heals), and noticed that the shield heal was always listed when I used it, but that there was no corresponding shield heal to other shield damaging powers.

I tested it on Borg Repair Hulks (who don't have shields), and while it damaged them, it didn't do so at the listed value. (Subspace boom listed about 8000 kinetic damage on this character, the borg repair hulk took about 1000 kinetic damage).

I'll try and get some more player tests in, with and without shields, but I'm fairly certain I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing.

illcadia

Some further testing, and this may just be normal, if weird behaviour.

[3:02] [Combat (Self)] Your Subspace Boom III gives 2175 (10118) to Sphere's Shields.

[3:02] [Combat (Self)] Your Subspace Boom III deals 1124 (11242) Kinetic Damage(Critical) to Sphere.

This occurs when I use Subspace Boom on a Borg Probe in the combat log. As far as I can tell there's either no change in their shields, or their shields go UP.

If this is actually a negative damage shield drain that applies only to shields, why is the damage being reduced so much compared to the (brackets numbers)? Is it because it's kinetic damage and the power has no shield piercing?

I also notice that the shield 'heal' never crits, but the hull damage crits regularly. Weren't we supposed to get heal criticals at some point?

illcadia

Further testing shows that the damage to enemy hull is being reduced as though they had shields even when they don't have shields. It 10,000 kinetic damage ends up being like 500 to hull and 0 to shields. Even against super weak enemies like normal difficulty borg probes this power does almost no damage after this mysterious damage reduction is applied. Compared to every other commander rank power out there, subspace boom is incredibly anemic.

Which is really sad because it seems like such a cool power. If only it actually did anything.