Discussion: Castle Talks on w00t Studios Podcast!
By
Aisynia,
Posted on: 2008-10-07 17:18 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
Did the podcast discuss Water Spout?
I love it and I take it on most of my Dominators. It is my favorite villain power, even over the non-patron powers. One of my Dominators has his entire character concept hinged on it (elementalist: Earth/Fire/Water). PLEASE PLEASE let Water Spout survive in tact.
/All Hail Mako
Random AT Generation!
"I remember... the Alamo." -- Pee-wee Herman
"Oh don't worry. I always leave things to the last moment." -- The Doctor
"Telescopes are time machines." -- Carl Sagan
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Did the podcast discuss Water Spout?
I love it and I take it on most of my Dominators. It is my favorite villain power, even over the non-patron powers. One of my Dominators has his entire character concept hinged on it (elementalist: Earth/Fire/Water). PLEASE PLEASE let Water Spout survive in tact.
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Nope, not unless it completely slipped my mind somehow. And I think I would have remembered it since my Dom also has it. 
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/All Hail Mako
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Mako, our chum.
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[u]Patron Pools and APP[u]
1. They all got looked at by Posi, Castle, and minion. Datamined which ones were taken and which were ignored. Buffs, nerfs, and power replacements!
2. If powers are replaced, when you log in, you'll have the new power. No grandfathering.
3. About 20% of the A/EPPs were replaced.
4. As one example of the Epic/Patron changes, Castle mentions that Weapon Mastery for Scrappers will now include Focused Accuracy. If his memory is correct.
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Thanks for taking the time to summarize everything!
The "no grandfathering" bothers me though. I mean, what happens to slotted enhancements?
They get placed in the tray or we lose them forever? And if the character's tray is full at time? Sigh...
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As I said, it could be debated if FA should get the higher scale value, but that's different from saying that a Scrapper Targeting Drone should not give a higher ToHit buff than a Blaster Targeting Drone.
I see no specific reason for why it shouldn't.
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For one, the adjustments made to weaken the various attack and mez powers used in the Epics (via longer recharge times for the most part, though Stalker snipes were adjusted even more) imply that they aren't supposed to be as powerful as their primary/secondary counterparts. I believe Statesman even came out and said as much, but it was a long time ago so I might be mistaken.
Where this breaks down is with the toggle Epics. They tried to balance those by increasing the endurance usage but that has had little impact on the effectiveness of those powers. Your previous example of Temp Invulnerability highlights this. The Defender version has a greater end cost than the Tanker version, but in practice it's basically unnoticeable.
Gothika (Grav/Kin) Marionette (Ill/Rad) Terra Firma (Earth/Storm) Alana Dale (Arch/Nrg)
Iceblink (Ice/Dark) Fantasia (Mind/Fire) Shadow Minx (Claws/Nin)
--Virtue
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[u]Patron Pools and APP[u]
1. They all got looked at by Posi, Castle, and minion. Datamined which ones were taken and which were ignored. Buffs, nerfs, and power replacements!
2. If powers are replaced, when you log in, you'll have the new power. No grandfathering.
3. About 20% of the A/EPPs were replaced.
4. As one example of the Epic/Patron changes, Castle mentions that Weapon Mastery for Scrappers will now include Focused Accuracy. If his memory is correct.
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Thanks for taking the time to summarize everything!
The "no grandfathering" bothers me though. I mean, what happens to slotted enhancements?
They get placed in the tray or we lose them forever? And if the character's tray is full at time? Sigh...
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What they need to do is create an overflow tray that the enhancements can be dumped into. They could set it up so players can take items out of it but not put items into it.
Gothika (Grav/Kin) Marionette (Ill/Rad) Terra Firma (Earth/Storm) Alana Dale (Arch/Nrg)
Iceblink (Ice/Dark) Fantasia (Mind/Fire) Shadow Minx (Claws/Nin)
--Virtue
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wonder how PvP Scrappers feel about this, I've run across several that have Weapons Mastery and particularly had Web Grenade and Caltrops
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Answer: 
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1) Yes, outright changing powers is bad. Unfortunately, it's the only way we *could* proceed that met with the goals we had in mind, the technical limitations presented and the timeframe allowed. I hate "building cottages" but it was the only path in this circumstance.
2) I misspoke re: Weapon Mastery getting Focused Accuracy. It's Targeting Drone. Functionally, it's *identical* to FA, it just has the visuals and display name of TD.
3) Web Grenade is the power that is being replaced in Weapon Mastery.
4) Yes, various PPP's now have access to FA.
I'm certain a complete list of the changes will be up here on the forums within an hour of Beta starting (soon!(tm)) and I'm looking forward to the feedback (positive AND negative) at that time.
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Please don't make it exactly like FA. Please give it the t-drone lower to hit and end costs values.
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Actually as i was thinking it over more, there still isnt a need for ANOTHER FA power. If your going to replace web grenade, at least put smoke bomb in its place. Something that we can't just get by choosing another epic. Having 2 of the exact same powers in epic sets for the same AT is so full of fail it boggles my mind. I wouldn't mind smoke bomb, and at least its a somewhat valid power that we can't get in another epic. Especially useful for scrappers to avoid extra mob aggro since we have to go in melee anyways.
Additionally, if this can't happen, at least for the love of pete dont give it the exact same values as FA. At least make it different, with the lower to hit and end costs like the actual targeting drone. At least body mastery has conserve power to help offset the end cost of FA. If that end cost was on targetting drone in the weapons set it would be so undeniably unfair and innapropriate.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
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1) Yes, outright changing powers is bad. Unfortunately, it's the only way we *could* proceed that met with the goals we had in mind, the technical limitations presented and the timeframe allowed. I hate "building cottages" but it was the only path in this circumstance.
2) I misspoke re: Weapon Mastery getting Focused Accuracy. It's Targeting Drone. Functionally, it's *identical* to FA, it just has the visuals and display name of TD.
3) Web Grenade is the power that is being replaced in Weapon Mastery.
4) Yes, various PPP's now have access to FA.
I'm certain a complete list of the changes will be up here on the forums within an hour of Beta starting (soon!(tm)) and I'm looking forward to the feedback (positive AND negative) at that time.
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Please don't make it exactly like FA. Please give it the t-drone lower to hit and end costs values.
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Actually as i was thinking it over more, there still isnt a need for ANOTHER FA power. If your going to replace web grenade, at least put smoke bomb in its place. Something that we can't just get by choosing another epic. Having 2 of the exact same powers in epic sets for the same AT is so full of fail it boggles my mind. I wouldn't mind smoke bomb, and at least its a somewhat valid power that we can't get in another epic. Especially useful for scrappers to avoid extra mob aggro since we have to go in melee anyways.
Additionally, if this can't happen, at least for the love of pete dont give it the exact same values as FA. At least make it different, with the lower to hit and end costs like the actual targeting drone. At least body mastery has conserve power to help offset the end cost of FA. If that end cost was on targetting drone in the weapons set it would be so undeniably unfair and innapropriate.
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You've seen the other epics outside of scrapper epics right?
Alot of the time, they're basically the same with different graphics and dmg type.
Weapon Mastery will give you a Drone, Body Mastery will not.
As for a way to fix the loss of Web Grenade? Have Shuriken have -Fly/Immobilize on it.
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The BrandX Collection
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1) Yes, outright changing powers is bad. Unfortunately, it's the only way we *could* proceed that met with the goals we had in mind, the technical limitations presented and the timeframe allowed. I hate "building cottages" but it was the only path in this circumstance.
2) I misspoke re: Weapon Mastery getting Focused Accuracy. It's Targeting Drone. Functionally, it's *identical* to FA, it just has the visuals and display name of TD.
3) Web Grenade is the power that is being replaced in Weapon Mastery.
4) Yes, various PPP's now have access to FA.
I'm certain a complete list of the changes will be up here on the forums within an hour of Beta starting (soon!(tm)) and I'm looking forward to the feedback (positive AND negative) at that time.
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Please don't make it exactly like FA. Please give it the t-drone lower to hit and end costs values.
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Actually as i was thinking it over more, there still isnt a need for ANOTHER FA power. If your going to replace web grenade, at least put smoke bomb in its place. Something that we can't just get by choosing another epic. Having 2 of the exact same powers in epic sets for the same AT is so full of fail it boggles my mind. I wouldn't mind smoke bomb, and at least its a somewhat valid power that we can't get in another epic. Especially useful for scrappers to avoid extra mob aggro since we have to go in melee anyways.
Additionally, if this can't happen, at least for the love of pete dont give it the exact same values as FA. At least make it different, with the lower to hit and end costs like the actual targeting drone. At least body mastery has conserve power to help offset the end cost of FA. If that end cost was on targetting drone in the weapons set it would be so undeniably unfair and innapropriate.
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You've seen the other epics outside of scrapper epics right?
Alot of the time, they're basically the same with different graphics and dmg type.
Weapon Mastery will give you a Drone, Body Mastery will not.
As for a way to fix the loss of Web Grenade? Have Shuriken have -Fly/Immobilize on it.
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They still have different recharges or damage, and side effects.
What castle said is it will do EXACTLY the same thing, only with a little floating drone. It should at least have the lower to hit/end values that t-drone has if anything if its still going to be going into the set.
Shuriken shouldnt get immobilize, but it could get -fly, -speed.
And yeah, the sets attacks are different in lots of ways, but at the same time, sill ST attacks. There is already a problem as you would say of powers being reused too many times, so why would we want more of the EXACT same thing.
So like i said, ESPECIALLY since weapons doesnt have conserve power, in no way should targetting drone if its going to stay have the same values as FA, it should have the values that t-drone has.
Plasmic's Guide to Sonic/Mental
Plasmic's Guide to Regeneration
Plasmic Fire - 50 Fire/Rad Victory Server
Just putting in with my agreement that dropping powers from the game and plugging in new ones is not something I'm in favor of. I don't care if it takes another six months or even a year longer to sort everything out, I'd happily see these changes delayed in order to do them in a way that is the most fair to players.
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4) Yes, various PPP's now have access to FA.
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Great, now I wonder just what power I'm going to lose that was more useful to me than FA would ever be anyways. My Stalker may be the odd one out, but she's gonna be pissed if she loses her Hold, Snipe, or Spiderlings. All of that is far more useful than FA to her.
Extra Accuracy? Have a lot already. +Perception? That's what the Recticle set is there for. FA is useless to me.
I would like to know why a 5th power cannot simply be added to the pool. Is this some old legacy code issue? It can't be because we are not supposed to have more than four pool powers or something, as we can't since the APP/PPP doesn't open until level 41 anyway.
So, in the past- they datamined- saw what everyone was taking- then hella nerfed it cause it was "overpowered" (energy melee). NOW- they are seeing what most everyone is taking (focused accuracy) and giving it to everyone else.
LMAO.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
Focused Accuracy needs to go villainside. I'm sick of all the villainside defense sets being worthless while SR scrappers do just fine.
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I think it's funny how mad some folks get at changes that aren't all even announced yet. So what if they take a power here or there and swap it... learn to deal with it. I mean, did the concept of flexibility disappear while I wasn't looking? It's not like any character will be "perfect" anyway; there is (and always will be) room for improvement on all characters. Why do you think people argue ad infinitum about slotting and power choices on practically every power combination, hmmmm? Because everyone has a different (and in most cases), just as good and valid way of doing things.
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Brilliant. I wish I could frame this and stick it on the top of the forums.
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I agree. It exemplifies one of the biggest problems with discussion on the forums here. I think it's an arrogant and disrespectful manner of addressing someone and I think the forums would be greatly improved if this particular mode of argument stopped.
Such a response rejects the value of other peoples' preferences and denigrates their desire to speak out against changes which they do not believe improve the gaming experience. Suggesting that people 'adapt' is essentially substituting your own value judgment (or the devs') that this is an adequate or even desirable aspect of gameplay in this game in place of the value others may hold for a particular aspect to remain static or at least similar enough to maintain an enjoyable state of play for themselves. People are within their right to hold different values about what makes the game fun for them, and I really don't see why expressing those preferences in response to proposed changes is somehow unreasonable or worthy of the outright disrespect inherent in the sort of response you quoted.
People pay to enjoy the game; they don't pay to just take whatever a bunch of autocrats deem is in their interest. That's pretty evident by the praise people give towards devs that respond to user concerns and implement changes based on user feedback. I think in the long run, we're much better off getting a broad sampling of user input and opinions about a proposed change both before and after in order to draw on the combined experience and expertise of the community as well as to best respect the needs of everyone. The history of development in this game seems to indicate, to me at least, that it is important to give feedback and evaluation of a change at every step of the way rather than wait until it is already firmly entrenched and then bring up concerns. Right now, we're at the point where it's easiest to make changes and improvements, so it doesn't seem at all unreasonable to me for people to give feedback.
I think that's more or less all I have to say about this.
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Just putting in with my agreement that dropping powers from the game and plugging in new ones is not something I'm in favor of. I don't care if it takes another six months or even a year longer to sort everything out, I'd happily see these changes delayed in order to do them in a way that is the most fair to players.
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Problem is.... they dont have 6 months to a year... they just have until CO or DCUO comes out.... think their nervous?
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Just putting in with my agreement that dropping powers from the game and plugging in new ones is not something I'm in favor of. I don't care if it takes another six months or even a year longer to sort everything out, I'd happily see these changes delayed in order to do them in a way that is the most fair to players.
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Problem is.... they dont have 6 months to a year... they just have until CO or DCUO comes out.... think their nervous?
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I think they are mindful of the competition but I do not think they are building their game schedule around what other developers might be doing.
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I want to see a list of what powers are being lost from what Epics and Patrons.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
Thanks Castle for addressing this issue. I am definitely one of those people that has been turned off from the current iteration of PvP. I am glad you finally have the staff to fix this.
To everyone else that is upset over the wholesale changing of powers in the Epics, adapt. Cross faction PvP has never been equitable. Villains have had to "make do". Melee ATs on both sides have been inferior in PvP since its inception.
As upsetting as it might be for some to lose power choices from an optional pool, that has to be weighed against the need to have reasonably balanced PvP. CoX has never had that.
PvP has always had a different ruleset. Blasters were buffed while Tankers and Scrappers had to be weakened in I4 for balance. Villain PPPs were balanced against each other across ATs, but were not balanced versus Hero Epics.
Now NCNC has the resources to address these glaring PvP issues. I applaud them for it. It's been long enough. Too long, in fact.
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Thanks Castle for addressing this issue. I am definitely one of those people that has been turned off from the current iteration of PvP. I am glad you finally have the staff to fix this.
To everyone else that is upset over the wholesale changing of powers in the Epics, adapt. Cross faction PvP has never been equitable. Villains have had to "make do". Melee ATs on both sides have been inferior in PvP since its inception.
As upsetting as it might be for some to lose power choices from an optional pool, that has to be weighed against the need to have reasonably balanced PvP. CoX has never had that.
PvP has always had a different ruleset. Blasters were buffed while Tankers and Scrappers had to be weakened in I4 for balance. Villain PPPs were balanced against each other across ATs, but were not balanced versus Hero Epics.
Now NCNC has the resources to address these glaring PvP issues. I applaud them for it. It's been long enough. Too long, in fact.
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LOL- this game has suffered ENOUGH for PvP.
The fact is villians wanted Epics, and Heroes wanted Patrons- not this crap where we lose powers we have picked to be replaced by something else. PvP can [censored] off.
"I'm not scared of anyone or anything Angie. Isn't that the way life should be?"
Jack Hawksmoor, The Authority.
Anyone got a working link to the podcast? 
Also, PvP is here, just deal with it -_-
Nah, that'd require something other than blind ignorance and rage. Couldn't have that, now could we?
"the reason there are so many sarcastic pvpers is we already had a better version of pvp taken away from us to appease bad players. Back then we chuckled at how bad players came here and whined. If we knew that was the actual voice devs would listen to instead of informed, educated players we probably would have been bigger dicks back then." -ConFlict
I'd need a bigger jug of popcorn
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Fine!
Let's just add a fifth choice to the pools.
Done.
Can we move on?
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I actually wondered about this one. Perhaps even six. That's one of the beefs I have anyway, lack of choices with the pools...more variety is better, I feel.