dhaunae
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Posts
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Quote:The minute aesthetics actually make a powerset less useful is the minute you should think that maybe aesthetics need to take a back seat.Originally Posted by StratoNexus
I think the main problem is aesthetic. I am sure they can allow the weapons to remain drawn for all the weapon powersets when performing a non-wpn powerset animation (Boxing, Dull Pain, etc.). However, there may be quite a few powers where this looks less than stellar and/or causes one to impale oneself. I would be fine with having the weapon just appear in the hand, instead of having the draw animation, but this must be a decision the devs are against for aesthetic reasons.
edit: This doesn't mean I don't think aesthetics are important; a powerset looking awesome is a huge draw. But when there's an actual mechanical downside associated with something looking cool that is poor design. -
Quote:I fail to see how either removing the animation in combat, assuming there's some in-combat flag, or making it so secondary powersets simply did not require bare hands would be an immense workload. It wouldn't require new animations but it may look a little silly. So change the fist's models to a more weapon-holding grip. Sure it's a little extra work. Also the redraw does, in fact, mechanically effect me because it effectively adds that .66 of a second, or whatever it is, to the activation time of that power. It literally roots me to the spot from the time the redraw happens to the time the actual power stops animating.Originally Posted by Luminara
Redraw is not a "nerf". It's a limitation of the game. You don't redraw your weapon because the developers feel that it's necessary to impose some arbitrary penalty on powers which use weapon animations. It's just the way the game works. In order for any weapon to remain drawn when a weaponless power is used, there has to be a corresponding animation which displays that specific weapon in that specific stance when that specific weaponless power is used.
Elimination of redraw would require the creation or reworking of several thousand animations, perhaps as few as 10,000-15,000 or as many as 40,000-50,000, or creating an entirely new animation system from the ground up and shoehorning it in place of the existing animation system.
Additionally, redraw does not increase the more frequently you use a power, as you implied. The time required to draw a weapon does not increase, the time required to animate the weapon does not increase, the time spent rooted while the weapon animation plays does not increase. It is exactly the same, barring latency issues (high latencies, which result in delays between server communications, can root you for longer periods, but that's true of weaponless powers as well), every time you use a power.
Finally, the maximum known value for redraw time is 0.66s, according to a post made by BackAlleyBrawler a few years ago (no longer available due to forum purges. whether there are powers with longer redraw periods, he never stated, nor has any other developer). So even factoring in server response time, unless you're deliberately alternating between weapon-using powers and weaponless powers, your actual loss of DPS or action time due to redraw is negligible. It is not difficult to minimize, or even outright eliminate, the effects of redraw on an attack sequence simply by not mixing your weapon-using and weaponless powers randomly or thoughtlessly.
And it is extremely easy to say that optimal use of powers prevents this but you are talking about a support-oriented powerset. Several powers are situational and so don't fit into a click-these-five-buttons-every-time attack chain. The heal or endurance drain, for example, or the buffs and debuffs that I may not actually need to use at X or Y point in a sequence.
Let's just look at something. At 50, Dual Wield has a 55.05 base damage with a 1.67 activation cycle. So 32.97 being the damage per activation cycle. Tack on an extra .66 to that, as the redraw does, and it drops to 23.63 damage per activation cycle. This is a nerf to the power, intentional or not. And it does add up over time because it is always going to be part of your cycle. Is it immense and game-breaking? No, but I honestly fail to see why I should be required to actively work around a power limitation that you can't know about until you actually make a character with the power or know someone who has and warns you off. Especially one with such an easy fix as this.
Hell if they wanted to they could just teleport my guns away for the start of the secondary and teleport them back as it's finished. This is a game about superheroes; I doubt it would strain suspension of disbelief any further. -
Quote:I figured that it probably has and that bugs me. It seems like it'd be as simple as not requiring secondary powersets to be barehanded, but as it is the powerset is just not as good as my Fire/Rad Corruptor in any way when I like the idea of dual pistols immensely.Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
This has been bought up by various people quite a few times, especially in reference to Dual Pistols. The simple fact is that the devs choose not to factor animation time into the equations they use to balance powers which is a pity since at high levels you normally have enough powers that animation time is a concern.
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The title says it all but my personal experience that prompted this post is with a recently-made Dual Pistols/Kinetics Corruptor. Every time I use a Kinetic power he stows his pistols and then, when I go back to using powers to actually damage things, out comes the twirling pistols animation that wastes around a second. In addition it holds me in place from the start of the draw until the power has finished, if it happens, even though normally you can simply draw your pistols on the run if there is no target. I can avoid it sometimes by jumping right as the drawing animation would happen but it is not a sure thing and it imposes a very large penalty compared to, say, a Fire/Kinetics Corruptor who never has to waste that time because of no reliance on weapon models.
So why is there a nerf on the powerset in the form of an animation that was neat the first couple times I saw it? -
So I try to submit a very detailed report of an exploit. In-game I run out of space fast; I email precise details to support, because it's a pretty sweet xp exploit. And I get first the canned response, and then a response from a GM suggesting that I should post my "ideas and suggestions" in the community forums so that other players could comment and give their input, and telling me that my ticket will now be closed because it is resolved. Uh ... do they REALLY want me to post the nitty-gritty step by step details of an exploit here so everyone can use it? Wouldn't it be better to fix it? Or am I just living in a dream world?