The little "comets" spinning around toggle powers

I just noticed recently that the white comets that spin around active toggles seem to spin at slightly different speeds. Is there a reasoning behind the varied spins?

I vaguely remember, from the distant past, thinking that the speed of the comet thingy's rotation was directly related to how much end/second the toggle used, but I have no idea if this has any basis in fact.

I dont think they do, actually. Ive run several toggles all at one time, their "comets" were in sync. And they had different end/sec costs

I'm pretty sure there is some type of correlation between spin speed and end use but my best guess would be something along the lines of:

Normal toggle (end use between X and Y): spin at Z radians per second
High end use toggle (above Y): spin at A radians per second

It has been a while since I have looked but I don't believe there are that many 'speeds' they rotate at, but for an example of *fast* I think the Peacebringer's fly/phase power falls in this category as well as the Warshades jump/phase (and they drain an enormous amount of end).

I would have sworn certain powers have that little comet rotate faster than others. Like Fly toggled on will rotate faster than Rest toggled on.

But the way I rationalized it, it's not so much that it's a direct reflection of how much endurance they use per second. Because some toggles, like Maneuvers and Hover will rotate at the same speed even though one costs more endurance.

I always imagined that, the faster that it spins, the quicker it 'tics'. Some toggles (IIRC) tick faster than others. It's not that this would mean they cost more than ones that spins slower, just that it might be taking larger endurance chunks slower vs smaller chunks faster.

Having a toggle take small chunks faster or waiting longer to tap at your END could mean the difference between 1 toggle dropping and 4 toggles dropping.

The spinning happens at the same speed regardless, as long as there is no communications lag between the client and the server, or lag on the server, or graphics lag on the client computer.

When there's lag, the timer seems to go out of sync and you'll see very rapid spinning.

It has nothing whatsoever to do with the end per second or end per activation or any other factor of gameplay.

Weird. Hm.

Just checked on my Widow. Multiple toggles, all taking different amounts of end. All the spinners move at exactly the same rate.

Take Fly/SJ/SP and set it next to sprint and cut them on. Switch them on and off as you like. Not sure about super jump/speed but right now I'm swapping stuff on a brute that has fly and I've got tough, weave, combat jumping, sprint and fly. Playing with the comets, I can get them to 'collide' with the powers setting next to them.

Set on my tray is:

Fly || Tough || Combat Jumping || Weave || Sprint

The comets will alternately collide between each (that is, for weave, when the comet is coming 'up', the comet for sprint connects coming down and as the comet for weave comes down, the comet for combat jumping connects coming up). It works for Sprint, Weave, CJ and Tough but Fly's goes too fast. And this is me playing with each to try and time them right.

[EDIT] I take that back. It *does* work with Fly in the set-up. But it works because Fly's comet rotates *twice as fast*. That is, by the time Tough rotates once, Fly has made 2 revolutions and connects between them.

Further playing around with it:

I added Against All Odds next to Fly and tried to get the comets between them to connect. It worked for a few revolutions but eventually they would miss and then later, after a few revolutions that I forgot to count, would connect again. All the while, the pattern between Fly, tough, CJ, weave and sprint kept up.

So that's 4 definite different speeds right there:

Really slow = Against All Odds
Slow = Sprint, CJ, Tough, Weave
Normal =
Fast = Fly
Super Fast = Group Fly

Note: lag does tend to have an affect on their rhythm. I kept an eye on these rotations as I was in the market and emailing stuff around. The instant I ALT+TAB off the game and come back, Sprint was off and was missing weave every time.

And because I happen to be stripping this character so doing a series of respecs, I decided to try the Concealment pool's powers to see how fast they rotate.

Another wrinkle in the mystery: Invisibility's comet rotates pretty fast, faster than Fly's. Maybe because Invisibility costs more endurance? Well I tried Phase Shift which cost *way* more endurance but it rotates slower than Fly's.

So either there's some timing 'thing' going on with how much endurance is taken by these powers every fraction of a second or powers just have arbitrary revolution times baked into the powers.

Maybe the devs just wanted to add variety so all powers didn't circle together so tweeked their revolutions some.

My testing:
Sprint, Hover, Fly, Group Fly, the Leadership toggles, the GvE jump pack, Temp Invulnerability from the Energy Mastery pool, Hurricane, and Steamy Mist all spin at the same speed.

The Pocket D porter and the Mission teleporter spin faster.

Freezing Rain and Tornado spin even faster.

Well, here's what I got:

Hover, Fly, Tough, Leadership toggles, Invisibility; All the exact same speed. So something's off with your system, Leo G.

Video.

I couldn't use the same character I tested on lastnight because I deleted him and rerolled him. So this is the Earth/psi dom.

I wouldn't say it's 'something being off with my system' as this has always just been since I started playing way back 4+ years ago. I just really didn't pay it any mind. So it's not 'new' or 'screwy', but maybe there are variable settings that affect this.

Even with Ultramode up pretty high (although the recording software was quick and cheap), this occured even before ultramode existed. So there you go.

Leo,

That's REALLY wierd. I've never seen that kind of behavior.

My "comets" are all spinning at the same speeds, and nowhere nearly as fast as yours.

All of mine that I've tried so far (Fly, Tough, Weave, Hover, Sprint, and Stealth) are all
spinning at the same rate and are about as fast as your Sprint seems to be.

Your Fly toggle (and the other, couldn't make out which one it was) are spinning at what
appears to be easily 3x or 4x of any of my toggles...

I wonder if there's something that might be tied to the graphics levels or card used?

(Win7-64bit, GTX 480, Full Ultra-Mode [except water, I don't like the super-reflective oceans] -- but I've never seen that kind of spin rate even on my older machines or before Ultra-Mode)

I've noticed most toggles spin at the same speed, but others are faster or slower.

It's likely that toggles are in "brackets" so even if the actual end cost varies they're still in one "medium speed" bracket for the comet spinning. Like the vague descriptions on how fast something recharges.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.

I am such a dummy, I thought it had to do with recharge that was slotted in the power. Mine DO NOT synchronize either.

TLR

If it was by end/sec. Then toggle on Levitate, and Combat jumping. Or really, just look at combat jumping. It should be spinning 2 to 4 times faster than all other toggles.