Dev Chat Highlights, August 24: Beam Rifle with Second Measure, Positron, and Arbiter Moptop

Avatea stops by to say hi while she's still half sleepy and working on an Itrepid Informer article.

Zwill informs us of beta with a little program (It takes 3 server blades) that are AI and run into things and the like. They had 5500 of them and barely any lag. But a few times they had a mapserver with a 'chat bomb' all the bots simultaneously chatting at once.

They had 49 instances of Atlas going. The bots movement is terrible, they get sent to the hospital and can't get out.

Chat says they saw an Atlas Park 51. It's like Area 51, but with more catgirls.

Talking about training room events, beta, and general testing.

Soda burps.

Performance in BAF and ITF have been much improved, lag valley is pretty much gone. People are complaining that they're missing Prisoners cause they run at full speed now.

Zwill leaves tomorrow morning for PAX, as is Black Pebble. Zwill says they will be revealing the name of the VIP server.

No Ustream broadcast from PAX, maybe an update from the hotel room. Depends on bandwidth. Zwill says he will not if the latency makes the video "poopy."

Man,

I just hate poopy videos.

Discussion of PAX panels. Zwill says there will be a couple of interesting tidbits on Saturday.

Zwill says his brain has melted and failed several sanity checks. IA! IA! CTHULHU FTAGHN!

Hurricane Irene will not interrupt service since the servers are in Texas.

Zwill thinks Synapse forgot about the meeting. Zwill sicks Avatea and Arbiter Elbow to catch Synapse. Synapse is missing and not at his desk. So Zwill sends the Flying Monkies to fetch Black Scorpion.

More talking about PAX to stall for time.

No Black Scorpion or Synapse so we're stuck with Second Measure, who throws himself on the sword for the team, who are in meetings.

Awkward moment when Second Measure says Zwillinger smells pretty.

Synapse's meeting will be done in about 10 minutes.

Zwill: "Beam/Time Corruptors is extremely effective, though requires a lot of micromanagement."

A power gamer in another cube is nodding.

Second Measure has been testing an Energy Melee/Something brute. He forgets, it just has a few toggles and it's not Regen or Willpower. One of his favorite characters is a Willpower/SS Tanker, kind of based on Luke Cage.

He likes fast-playing sets that have a lot of options to click on. His Second Measure character is a Ninja Blade stalker.

Talking about Street Justice and once more mentioning it's internally referred to as Nate's Abuse of Power Powerset.

Zwillinger does a puppet Kim Jong Il impression "Wry y no release Stleet Justice?"

Exciting announcements coming at PAX.

They're putting the finishing touches internally on Titan Weapons.

It took a bit longer than expected to implement it from the technical team, Black Scorpion found some bits of code that made things a bit easier.

Zwill: "If I see a single Cloud out there, I'm going to reach through the screen and delete your character. No! No Sephiroth clones! Bad! Bad Final Fantasy fan!"

Zwill is excited about more powersets in the works that they can't mention.

Second Measure just realizes he cut himself shaving this morning by seeing his streaming image.

TANGENT: Zwill's electric shaver.

Second Measure shaves once every three weeks. Second Measure says he's rugged, Zweill calls him scruffy.

Chat calls Zwill's face baby soft.

Avatea is still working on the article.

It's a line by line breakdown on Beam Rifle.

They're trying to stall for time by giving personal grooming tips and not trusting Nate around sharp objects.

Zwill: "You're like the Brad Pitt of the gaming industry."

Talking about a new comic from the Penny Arcade and PvP people, the Trenches, it's about a guy in video game QA. There are some anonymous QA stories being told.

Some guy did QA in a barn for a week.

Nate started out in QA and tech support, but sucked at tech support and made himself valuable to the producers.

To fill time they do Q and A a bit early.

What in Issue 22?

Stuff.

Nate is excited about it, but nothing they can mention or else Black Pebble will slay them.

Zwill: "You dawg, I herd u lik slaying, so we put slaying in your slaying..."

Nate: "You are made of memes."

They're working on issue 23 and beyond they. They have up to ISSUE 29 planned, at least in part.

Release date at PAX? Zwill dances around the question and says he's hoping someone live tweets the panels.

Tangent: Meme summoning: "U mad bro" and "Come at me, bro!" for taunt.

Signature story lines wqith Issue 21 or later?

More info at PAX.

Zwill tells us to send our bugs to Second Measure by PM's. ALL OF THEM.

"Honestly, post them in the bug forums. Every day there is a new e-mail sent out with bugs from the forums."

"Will we ever have a chance to see the internal layout of some of the iconic restaraunts in Paragon?"

Up and Away Burger. Infront Steakhouse. City of Gyros.

Zwill laments that he has been eating terribly due to the various teams been working through lunch and having it catered with his favorite hot dogs, Hebrew National.

Zwill and Nate torture Patrice in a nearby cube by butchering the pronunciation of croissant.

Tangent: Con food.

Zwill sends Avatea out at Synapse.

Zwill discusses Frisbee Blast and various tosses. He pulls out the Frisbee to show.

Nate: "Phil isn't here, so let's talk about filler. Er... Phil Rifle. Beam Rifle!"

TMNT tangent: What Casey Jones had as weapons.

Nate thought he was just going to hold down the fort for a little bit. Positron says he wants to watch him suffer.

So we go into Beam Rifle.

Positron demands Nate return to his desk and finish an e-mail, or have McCann do it.

Disintigrate adds effects to other attacks.

Single Shot, Tier 1, moderate damage, Disintigrate targets spread the damage to 3 targets.

Arbiter Nameless/Doughtnut/Elbow/Sunnyvale is up front while Positron is in the background.

Charged shot deals a lot more damage than single shot, has a higher chance to knock down, and will do more damage to a disintegrate target.

Zwill loves the animation on Cutting Beam, the AoE. It's a pretty wide cone. It reduces defense.

Disintegrate is a DoT and a debuff that is even longer which is called disintegration, which can spread to other targets.

Random Coffee Delivery Arm.

The sounds are some of the best, says Positron. Zwill and Doughnut both play with sound off. The Net says they make the sound guy cry.

They added a huge chunk of new sounds to the game.

Aim is self explanatory.

Lancer Shot is your big single target shot.

Zwill: "Big bada boom. Multipass."

Doughnut: "What? I'm a terrible nerd."

Posi and Zwill are aghast that he hasn't seen Fifth Element.

At least he';s seen Ghostbusters. And he DID make a character named Ghostbuster.

Tunnel Rat has seen Fifth Element and she PM's Zwill precisely to tell him.

Lancer Shot has a 100% chance to stun, has a 40 foot range and is fast recharge.

Penetrating Ray.

Posi: "I feel bad for Penetrating Ray."

Zwill headesks.

Hioghest chance of spreading disintegrate.

Piercing Beam, like a 3 degree cone that can hit up to 3. disintegrated targets will suffer additional damage.

Zwill does another "Yo dawg" comment.

Posi: "You are the internet given human form."

Zwill: "The internet vomited something up and it was me."

Overcharge!

They all use Google Chrome in the office, Zweill thinks a window in the article looks funny.

Extreme energy targeted AOE, -Def, DoT, and it has a chance to stun. It singes the ground.

Does not have a crash. 3 minute cool down.

Hints and tips: Drop disintegrate on big targets.

Beam Rifle is primarily a single target set, though it does have decent AoE damge but it depends on micromanagement and a bit of luck.

Disintegration does not stack. Everyone can benefit from one Disintegrate. You can have one beam rifler focusing on spreading disintegrate and two more using the mezes and debuffs.

Zwill: "He used all these symbols and stuff. All fancy. He knows how to use the photoshop."

Lancer Shot is a great damage power and a great mez power.

Interruption of unknown person off camera, who is playing the beam rifle sounds into the mix from some unknown device.

Zwill: "Did we ever decide on a redname for her? Vox? Ok."

Zwill: "Positron, if you wet willy me, I swear..." (Adam Sandler impression) "I'm coming out of the booooooth! I swear, I'll make a Sephiroth clone and kill an Arieth clone, and make you cry!"

Steelclaw is lamenting that he can't play the game until Freedom is release.

Black Pebble stopped Zwill from playing the Beam Rifle video, but we just got the audio from it.

There will be an Intrepid Informer article on Beam Rifle going up later.

There are now actual in-water sharks in First Ward.

Mention that a lot of things are going to be announced at PAX.

Posi: "Oh look, Phil's here! Just kidding!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by reiella Until I see something that states to the contrary, going to assume VK is right .

Thanks for the write up VK!

Interesting hour long filler.

Thank you for the notes! Always a great preview when I miss the chats live, and a good review for the parts missed when something was said too quickly.

see, i would envy penetrating ray. the name kinda advertises to the positive, doesn't it?

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Soooo, I wonder if anything will be announced at PAX.

Last year was pretty big with inherent fitness. Looking forward to being there on Saturday.

I just took a gander at the Intrepid Informer... It looks like Beam Rifle is going to be the new go-to power set for taking down Giant Monsters what with all the -regen and stacking -regen it's packing.

Thanks again again again again again, VK!!!!


Hmm... The Rogue Isles need sharks in the waters too!!

Thanks, VK!

So no release date? But BP will be at PAX! I wonder if he'll be at the M&G, I'm still not convinced he exists... I wonder if brownies will improve his opinion of me...

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

Thanks for suffering through this one and posting the summary. I never would have made it through all the tangents and fluff.

Enough with the teasing us that "big announcements are coming." Just tell us already. Marketing is an evil evil thing.

Thanks for the info! I'm always asleep during these.

I hope the big announcement is

Look at all these awesome costume pieces you can buy in I21

One thing I like. i21 = new Temporal Character redesign for me, thank goodness she only ever leveled to 21. But after that I have to wait for two remakes because one will use Street Justice and the other, the one I really want to remake, must wait, impatiently, for Titan Weapons. <----So not a Final Fantasy Nod, but overcharged Zelda.... maaaaaaybe. Just kidding.