Castle

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The only thing I can say is the mobs must be doing an aggro check of every player in range and the AI is splitting the aggro among the whole team so one player is not the main focus of the whole spawns aggression.

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That's correct. It has been this way since release, I believe -- I remember being aggro'd while running Invisibility back in beta. In a nutshell, the entire team is put on the awareness/aggro list, not just the person who initiated the combat. It's not quite that simple, since there are a number of extenuating circumstances that can happen, but in general it is correct.

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Conclusion:
This means that "suppressed when knocked" was probably added some time after Issue 7... and the "if (target = player)" part, to restrict the suppression to PvP, was forgotten about.

Anyway... if someone wants to PM Castle, go ahead. I'd do it myself, but I'm shy.

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No need. Your conclusion was exactly correct. I'm adding the PvP restriction now and it should make it's way to you folks in a patch or 3.

Hmm. That is most definitely a bug! I love that animation!

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Even in EQ, roles shifted as new abilities and gear were released with new expansions. On my server, Firiona Vie the "roleplay server", we were only allowed one character (unlike the normal eight); in my time playing the game as a Druid, I found at one moment I was sought after for travel powers, and then later on, not at all. Like Wizards, I could solo easily, even engaging in the much-maligned "quad-kiting" and later, the much, much more dangerous "charm-kiting" (which Wizards couldn't do, but Enchanters could). On paper, Druids weren't "the best" at anything--third-tier direct damage, second-tier healing, third-tier (at best) buffing. However, the unique combination of abilities--none of which were first-tier--allowed them to solo things in the highest ranges that others would get instantly slaughtered by. I bring this up because the math there didn't tell the entire story.

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This brings up a good point: Math is great for creating and maintaining balance in a static atmosphere. I get to hear about the shortcomings of our mathematic models pretty much daily from various sources, much of which I agree with. A solid mathematical base should be the basis of every game system (regrettably, it's rare that a developer actually has the amount of time they really need to create an elegant system.)

The problems with mathematic models, though, is that they rarely take into consideration a number of variables that are very ephemeral and difficult to quantify. The aforementioned "quad-kiting" and "charm-kiting" are great examples -- both are player behaviors that were never accounted for in any of the math models used to create the game. All it takes is one aberrant behavior to throw a seemingly well-balanced system out of whack. For our game, adding in external effects like Temp Powers and Inspirations tremendously increases the complexity.

Among other reasons, that is why we tend to look at things on a macro level, and even then deciding how, when, and how much to adjust things is difficult. It allows us to see whether or not how players are using the characters makes them 'balanced' or not. Obviously, there are problems with that practice, and I am constantly working at improving how we look at powers and powersets. A large part of that process is talking to you folks to see how you are looking at things.

And with that, back to the discussion!

edit: touched up a bit of grammar

Quick Reply:
Great thread!

A comment on datamining. While I can't tell you exactly how and what we look at in datamining, I can say that we don't usually look at 'Defiance' in and of itself. Overall performance matters much more than any single aspect of a character.

Using End recovery powers is fine; having the power itself negate the crash isn't.

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Oh, and thanks a heap for putting that stupid Flying Machines theme song back into my head after all these years!

Nab him! Grab him! Stab him! Jab him! Stop that pigeon, NOW!

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If you get the "Saturday Morning Cartoons" music CD, they have a remixed version of that song combined with the Johnny Quest theme. They also have a bunch of other good song remixes, such as Gigantor, H.R. Puffnstuff, Underdog, and Speed Racer.

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The very CD which is in my car's CD player as I type this. One of my favorites. Worth it for the Ramones cover of 'Spider Man' alone!

Rage has a 20% Defense Debuff that starts and ends at the same time as the 'Only Affects Self' period. It's very easy to determine when you are more vulnerable.

As for being able to mitigate the End Crash, that sounds like a bug.

Apparently, I forgot to write up a patch note on this...mea culpa.

The -Perception portion of Smoke Grenade for Devices is now auto-hit in PVE. The To Hit Debuff and PvP segments of the power still require a 'To Hit' check.

EDIT: There was also a slight change to Cloaking Device which should help with the SG breaking Stealth a bit. Experiment with it some and let me know what you think.

Well, technically, I said "I think it does." Still, sorry for getting your hopes up.

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_Castle_ just acknowledged that Invincibility is bugged. The taunt is apparently not working properly either.

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Correction:
All aspects of Invincibility EXCEPT the taunt effect are working. The Taunt effect, however, appears to only be effecting minions. This is true for all auto-taunt effects, including Gauntlet.

Interestingly, while researching this problem, I discovered that Gauntlet from pool powers like Boxing or Air Superiority have, apparently, never worked. That'll be fixed as well.

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I assume it is a bug. Would be one hell of a nerf.

I have 3 taunts slotted and can stand in a group of grey mobs without them caring a whit.

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Yeah, I've tracked down the source of this bug and am working on a fix. It's fairly insidious, though, and is going to take a couple days of work to get it straightened out.

EDIT: FYI, it affects all auto-taunt effects from Tankers and Brutes with only one or two exceptions.

AI critters have always 'cut and run' if they consider themselves unable to win an encounter. The behavior you describe is consistent with that condition.

It is not impossible that the AI is flipping to 'run away' mode too easily for some reason. Reading Aett_Thorns post, it does not sound like this is the case, but if you can get some solid data to back it up it'd definitely be worth looking into.

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Now we just need the COH staff to record a live version of this song, to be used in the special Winter Event Zone....

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Uh....You really don't want that level of sonic torture.

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Fury gained per attack / attacked in pve vs:

Minion: 4 / 2

Lt: 4 / 2

Boss: 4 / 2


Sigh... I am sure it will get fixed, hopefully during test.



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Try it on an AV.

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burn is borked so hard to tell.... it sticks to where ever you first used it so when you move (even past 100') you reburn the first spot used.

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That's...strange. I'll look at it tomorrow.

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Logged Ikube onto test. Unless this is just something I missed ages ago, it looks like they're trying to apply a pseudo assassin's strike functionality to Cloaking Device.

It doesn't work yet though.

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Don't get attached to that. It got nixed and sent back to the drawing board.

Try the same exact thing with Stealth instead, the results should be identical. Why? Because the power hasn't been changed.

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To reiterate, since the thread was snipped:

On a full team of 8, I was getting only 3 points to my Dom bar per attack. I should have been getting about 6.5 points.

Can anyone confirm that the team size buff to Domination is working for them?

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I've tracked down the issue and am working on a fix.

There *shouldn't* be any negative changes to Cloaking Device. In fact, you should not be seeing any changes at all to the power.

Probably the best way to answer this is to refer to comics -- When The Human Torch 'goes nova' he puts everything he has into it and pretty much knocks himself out. That's the 'feel' these powers are meant to reflect.

As for MoG, no comment at this time.

One thing to note about the 'nuke' powers is that they have multiple stages of damage. A bad series of die rolls could have a nuke doing only slightly more than a Snipe attack, albeit in an area of effect.

Nova is pretty typical for this. It has 4 damage components (in PvE):
- Smashing scale 1, 100% chance of activating
- Energy scale 2, 100% chance of activating
- Energy scale 1.75, 75% chance of activating
- Energy scale 1.75, 50% chance of activating.

After I8, most likely before I9. It's possible it will be delayed if there are too many bugs/issues.

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All of these, very much including the name slip, invariably leads one to conclude that there's a certain level, "Meh, [censored] 'em." attitude going on. [/rant]

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Not at all true. If that were my attitude, I wouldn't even be trying to get some changes through. I can understand why you think that would be the case, though.

In an upcoming patch, here are a few things you'll see:
Increased EDIT:Maximum ranges for attacks like Blaze.
Some improvements for */Fire (No, no powers were switched out. No Fiery Embrace, I'm afraid. )
Some improvements for Fire/*
A very minor improvement for Gadgets...I mean, Devices! (Yeah, it was a dumb mistake -- typing in haste and all of that.)

I have some ideas for other changes/improvements, but there is no ETA on when or if I'll get them in.

Edit: Tyed minimum when I meant Maximum. One day, I'll learn to proofread.

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There's something fundamentaly wrong with having a homicidal, hunchbacked, bearded, ape-like, evil gnome for a pet.

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Does this help at all? Here is the exact long help description of the Red Cap Pet:
"You can use this power to create a solidified hologram of a Redcap Rascal. It will follow you around wherever you go. Great for parties!"