Premise: I think MA should return an error if you have no enemies with a ranged attack power, in at least the minion section of a custom group if you feed a custom group as the mission population. I believe that this should be a 'soft error' and only when a mission is published with this 'soft error' in place, should any enemies in the mission be given standardized ranged attacks. If even one enemy out of X, has a ranged attack available to them, in the minion and/or lieutenant group of custom enemies, I believe that the MA should accept the custom group with no soft error, and thus not force these ranged attacks onto anyone.
Some anecdotal information:
I'm creating a zombiepocalypse arc, I've got about a dozen zombies so far, and a fairly equivalent ranged+ melee, and melee+melee, and melee + defensive set of zombies so far, making more when I don't feel like playing my newest brute. I also have some necromancer type boss level creatures, to fuel the feeling of 'continuous onslaught.'
I have a gripe about the standard ranged attacks. Firstly, they're pretty powerful, like a "Hah, the mission designer tried not to have a ranged attack on every enemy in this enemy group, so you die now!" level of powerful.
Secondly: I have enemies with ranged attacks in my custom group, and THIS is what the MA should look for, and error out if there aren't any. "Standard ranged power" should be an additional selector as an option, only if necessary.
For example, if someone creates a group and feeds it 6 styles of minions, 3 lieutenants, and one or two boss types, say two for ease.
If I make 2-3 of those minions ranged, or defender or controller types, and one or two of the lieutenants the same, and one boss, a ranged type... Why the heck should my other custom enemies require a standard ranged attack? They should be the ones that charge in, and get defeated on the front line if there's a melee character to protect the squishies in a group. Or, if a squishy is soloing, with a flight power, those are the ones that should be safe to ignore for a short time, using, I dunno, strategy? to take out the ranged baddies first.
I've been one shotted by custom lieutenants on corruptors, dominators, defenders, blasters, and recently, a brute, so I know there's inherently a level of difficulty that presents a challenge, which is cool and all, but giving out standard attacks that can 3 and 5 shot the lower health archetypes? The spawns don't even need to commit a horrible alpha strike on a character, just cycle their standard ranged attack.
Was someone about to say: 'Easily fixed, just make sure to give all your characters a ranged powerset'? May I propose, 'no'? There's no hostility here, and I don't mind working a little harder to deliver my arc the way I intend it, it's kind of a 'you probably shouldn't live through this' arc anyway, but I don't want people unable to have at least a little zombie bashing fun before dropping.
I like to have a melee/buff, or melee/defense, or support/debuff character or two in a custom group. They shouldn't be whipping out an attack that removes the strategy of beating them at range, or beating them with control before they get in range to attack.
I know I'll get over it, and I'll live, but a lot of my missions, the custom enemies are no longer what I envisioned, and... when an enemy AI plays out a full attack chain, and then tosses in a standardized ranged attack to finish you off, it feels like salt in the wounds.
The worst thing I've encountered in a while, other than these new attacks, are: I recently ran into a level 52 radiation longbow commander, and it had all the powers of http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Longbow#...Warden_.288.29 as well as a screenshake power, which I assume was atomic blast.
Needless to say, the fight was going poorly enough before it dropped the big AoE radiation bomb on me that initiated screenshake. I encountered two of them, running cape/aura arcs, as well as one similar custom critter, running the dev choice arc, do-it-yourself laser moonbase, the radiation powersets are kind of evil, but at least they were on bosses/elite bosses, so I didn't mind the death or two per.
However, I took a couple of facefaults taking on some custom lieutenants that were obviously built as melee/defense. As an electric/willpower brute with high S/L/Psy resist, I was thoroughly 0.o 'ing.
Oh, hey, can we get a 'Deaths limit' option or something, maximum deaths per player, with a selectable checkbox, for mission failure? Or at least a "maximum trips to the hospital per player" Obviously a mission in which it's the 'end of the world' and one dies... there's no popping an awaken, well, there might be an awaken, but the hospital isn't functioning, so if you leave that way, the mission is a failure.
Hi guys,
Premise: I think MA should return an error if you have no enemies with a ranged attack power, in at least the minion section of a custom group if you feed a custom group as the mission population. I believe that this should be a 'soft error' and only when a mission is published with this 'soft error' in place, should any enemies in the mission be given standardized ranged attacks. If even one enemy out of X, has a ranged attack available to them, in the minion and/or lieutenant group of custom enemies, I believe that the MA should accept the custom group with no soft error, and thus not force these ranged attacks onto anyone.
Some anecdotal information:
I'm creating a zombiepocalypse arc, I've got about a dozen zombies so far, and a fairly equivalent ranged+ melee, and melee+melee, and melee + defensive set of zombies so far, making more when I don't feel like playing my newest brute. I also have some necromancer type boss level creatures, to fuel the feeling of 'continuous onslaught.'
I have a gripe about the standard ranged attacks. Firstly, they're pretty powerful, like a "Hah, the mission designer tried not to have a ranged attack on every enemy in this enemy group, so you die now!" level of powerful.
Secondly: I have enemies with ranged attacks in my custom group, and THIS is what the MA should look for, and error out if there aren't any. "Standard ranged power" should be an additional selector as an option, only if necessary.
For example, if someone creates a group and feeds it 6 styles of minions, 3 lieutenants, and one or two boss types, say two for ease.
If I make 2-3 of those minions ranged, or defender or controller types, and one or two of the lieutenants the same, and one boss, a ranged type... Why the heck should my other custom enemies require a standard ranged attack? They should be the ones that charge in, and get defeated on the front line if there's a melee character to protect the squishies in a group. Or, if a squishy is soloing, with a flight power, those are the ones that should be safe to ignore for a short time, using, I dunno, strategy? to take out the ranged baddies first.
I've been one shotted by custom lieutenants on corruptors, dominators, defenders, blasters, and recently, a brute, so I know there's inherently a level of difficulty that presents a challenge, which is cool and all, but giving out standard attacks that can 3 and 5 shot the lower health archetypes? The spawns don't even need to commit a horrible alpha strike on a character, just cycle their standard ranged attack.
Was someone about to say: 'Easily fixed, just make sure to give all your characters a ranged powerset'? May I propose, 'no'? There's no hostility here, and I don't mind working a little harder to deliver my arc the way I intend it, it's kind of a 'you probably shouldn't live through this' arc anyway, but I don't want people unable to have at least a little zombie bashing fun before dropping.
I like to have a melee/buff, or melee/defense, or support/debuff character or two in a custom group. They shouldn't be whipping out an attack that removes the strategy of beating them at range, or beating them with control before they get in range to attack.
I know I'll get over it, and I'll live, but a lot of my missions, the custom enemies are no longer what I envisioned, and... when an enemy AI plays out a full attack chain, and then tosses in a standardized ranged attack to finish you off, it feels like salt in the wounds.
The worst thing I've encountered in a while, other than these new attacks, are: I recently ran into a level 52 radiation longbow commander, and it had all the powers of http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Longbow#...Warden_.288.29 as well as a screenshake power, which I assume was atomic blast.
Needless to say, the fight was going poorly enough before it dropped the big AoE radiation bomb on me that initiated screenshake. I encountered two of them, running cape/aura arcs, as well as one similar custom critter, running the dev choice arc, do-it-yourself laser moonbase, the radiation powersets are kind of evil, but at least they were on bosses/elite bosses, so I didn't mind the death or two per.
However, I took a couple of facefaults taking on some custom lieutenants that were obviously built as melee/defense. As an electric/willpower brute with high S/L/Psy resist, I was thoroughly 0.o 'ing.
Oh, hey, can we get a 'Deaths limit' option or something, maximum deaths per player, with a selectable checkbox, for mission failure? Or at least a "maximum trips to the hospital per player" Obviously a mission in which it's the 'end of the world' and one dies... there's no popping an awaken, well, there might be an awaken, but the hospital isn't functioning, so if you leave that way, the mission is a failure.