Null the Gull and Knockback


AmazingMOO

 

Posted

Of the many bugs plaguing this release of CoH, the one that makes me the saddest is the Knockback bug.

It appears that someone dropped a decimal point when figuring knockback, causing all knockback to be scaled down to (almost, but not quite) zilch.

The really, really sad part as that this was being cheered by many meleers.

(Really, guys. That hurts! Do Energy Blasters, Stormies, and FF Defenders cheer when you're nefed, accidentally or not?)

One person brought up the option of having Null the Gull give the players interfaces to control their own knockback powers.

I'd be willing to support that, except I happen to know a few individuals who'd harass others to turn off their knockback.

No, what I want is for Null to offer the following options: 'Regular Knockback', 'Double Knockback', and 'Increase Knockback with Power Boost'.

You haters can have a 'No knockback' in there, I suppose, but don't expect me to group with you if you want me to turn off my knockback beforehand.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO View Post
Of the many bugs plaguing this release of CoH, the one that makes me the saddest is the Knockback bug.

It appears that someone dropped a decimal point when figuring knockback, causing all knockback to be scaled down to (almost, but not quite) zilch.
On a particular powerset/AT? Because Gust and my Sonic KB cone were working fine on my Storm/Sonic Defender when I played earlier.


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Posted

I personally would never turn off my KB no matter how much someone complains, to me it is one of the best types of mez in the game it has saved me countless times already as something can't kill me if they are sat on their rear.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by lankey View Post
I personally would never turn off my KB no matter how much someone complains, to me it is one of the best types of mez in the game it has saved me countless times already as something can't kill me if they are sat on their rear.
Knockdown is actually more effective mitigation Knockback becuase where Knockback is typically followed by everyone chasing each enemy with single target damage since they can no longer be aoe'd, knockdown can be followed up with more aoe resulting in the greatest mez of all: Death.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by DreadShinobi View Post
Knockdown is actually more effective mitigation Knockback becuase where Knockback is typically followed by everyone chasing each enemy with single target damage since they can no longer be aoe'd, knockdown can be followed up with more aoe resulting in the greatest mez of all: Death.
I thought knockback and knockdown was exactly the same thing, mechanically.


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Posted

Is this true?
This means I can turn knockback off for my PB, forever?
Really??
Really??


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaunyeh View Post
I thought knockback and knockdown was exactly the same thing, mechanically.
Knockback is essentially knockdown but with higher magnitude values.
I love KD, I hate KB.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO View Post
(Really, guys. That hurts! Do Energy Blasters, Stormies, and FF Defenders cheer when you're nefed, accidentally or not?

Nerf? What nerf? This is a straight up buff to almost every one of my ranged characters with knockback.

I still haven't tested to see what happens with Repulsion Field, but Telekinetic Blast is suddenly great because enemies more or less fall over where they stand. My only complaint is that Psychic Tornado no longer plays the cool looking "knock enemy for a loop" animation, although enemies still fall.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Slaunyeh View Post
I thought knockback and knockdown was exactly the same thing, mechanically.

Yes/no/kind of. They have the same origin statistic in powers but knockdown is often a specific animation and not just a low range knockback. The difference is subtle, but if you watch a power like Ice Slick you'll note it isn't just a super low range knockdown, but instead the same exact animation playing over and over. Specifically, you'll notice that enemies that fall on Ice Slick never rag doll. Of course, players don't rag doll either.

What appears to have changed specifically with this bug?/feature? is the distance an enemy is thrown. It used to be that mag 1 knockback started at a minimum distance of around 10ft, and now it is much shorter. I haven't tested high powered knockback powers yet to see how they are affected.


 

Posted

If my Power Thrust is gutted, then there will be many happy level 1 Skuls in AP but I will RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. :P


 

Posted

Link to source?


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Posted

Wait...so instead of giving us the option to turn off KB...or a -KB IO...they just went ahead and completely turned it off?

That's BS.

I can understand why some people do not like knockback...but I happen to really like it.

I even slot KB enhancers to some of my attacks so that they actually do Knockback instead of Knockdown.

Also...they may say this is a bug...but I can guarantee they did this on purpose to gauge our reaction...as there has been an ongoing thread discussing this very issue for some time now.


 

Posted

Holy Carp! Can't wait to give my PBs a go this evening.

Devs Please don't fix this bug! Give KBers an option to make it higher if they want, but leave this, Pweeeeeeaase!


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Socorro View Post
Holy Carp! Can't wait to give my PBs a go this evening.

Devs Please don't fix this bug! Give KBers an option to make it higher if they want, but leave this, Pweeeeeeaase!
NO...

Change it back and give those WHO DON"T LIKE KB an option to turn it off.


 

Posted

Agreed. Fix it. Knockout blow deserves more than to see an enemy not even clear your chest. Your hand blows through the top of their skull rather than sending them flying. It's sad.


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Posted

Ok, so I tested Repulsion Field and got... strange... results.

Enemies still fly backward. How far backward? Hard to tell. It almost looks like they are getting smacked by a couple of pulses on their way back, but I can't be sure. It's definitely still throwing them away, so my dream of having the enemy bounce in place is, for now, not achieved.

Force Bolt at Mag 16 was throwing a same level minion a very short distance, incidentally making that power much better (but still stupidly awful compared to the debuff powers in other sets).


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO View Post
Of the many bugs plaguing this release of CoH, the one that makes me the saddest is the Knockback bug.

It appears that someone dropped a decimal point when figuring knockback, causing all knockback to be scaled down to (almost, but not quite) zilch.

The really, really sad part as that this was being cheered by many meleers.

(Really, guys. That hurts! Do Energy Blasters, Stormies, and FF Defenders cheer when you're nefed, accidentally or not?)

One person brought up the option of having Null the Gull give the players interfaces to control their own knockback powers.

I'd be willing to support that, except I happen to know a few individuals who'd harass others to turn off their knockback.

No, what I want is for Null to offer the following options: 'Regular Knockback', 'Double Knockback', and 'Increase Knockback with Power Boost'.

You haters can have a 'No knockback' in there, I suppose, but don't expect me to group with you if you want me to turn off my knockback beforehand.
Are you saying, don't fix this bug, but have Null give the ability to fix it per player?


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vitality View Post
Also...they may say this is a bug...but I can guarantee they did this on purpose to gauge our reaction...as there has been an ongoing thread discussing this very issue for some time now.
Wow, dude, that's a big tinfoil hat there.

This is a dead horse so old it has been beaten and revived by whole generations of necromancers. There have been so many other times there were big threads on this and nothing happened, it's nonsensical to correlate the current one with this event.


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Posted

I tested this on a Storm/Energy defender and an Energy/Energy blaster. In both cases, it seemed that KB was greatly reduced in all the Energy Blast attacks, Gale, Lightning Storm, Tornado, and the blaster epic version of Bonfire.

It looks a lot like exactly what people who hate KB would want to see it changed to. Nothing goes more than a few feet at most. Using Power Push whenever it was up, alternating with other blasts, I couldn't move a yellow-con boss outside of normal attack range before it was eventually defeated. Definitely does not play like it did Wednesday. Felt like I was playing underwater or something.

Please fix this bug.


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Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by UberGuy View Post
Wow, dude, that's a big tinfoil hat there.

This is a dead horse so old it has been beaten and revived by whole generations of necromancers. There have been so many other times there were big threads on this and nothing happened, it's nonsensical to correlate the current one with this event.
I'm sure you're right...and "guarantee" may be the wrong word to use...but I still have my suspicions.

Then again...does it really matter whether I believe this was done on purpose or not? No.

Either way. It needs to be fixed.


 

Posted

I agree: this does look deliberate. Like I said, if I hated KB, this is pretty much what I'd want done to it. Whether it made it to live deliberately or not, it looks a lot like someone was testing a low-KB option.

Whether it's a stealth test ("oopsie!") or someone forgot to use production values for physics constants, I don't really even care, but until they at least announce their intentions with this, with half my 50s being KB-based in some way (storm and/or energy) and now feeling very nerfy, I'm not investing further time in the game.

KD is great stuff. It keeps my Inv/Axe tank, electric scrapper, and shield scrapper alive. However, Storm Summoning should not feel like Battle Axe.


Virtue
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Posted

It may be deliberate, but the fact it's on live may be unintentional. It's entirely possible that the devs may be playing with a few different ideas for changes to knockback, and trying them out before presenting them to the players for testing... and one of those tests accidentally got included in the live build.


 

Posted

I agree with the people saying return it to normal as default, and give us the option to have it this way per character. Knockback has been working the same way for seven years, there's no reason the people who like it should have to deal with this big a change. But, just like the whole "unwanted movement speed buffs" deal, when you hate something that much, you're willing to take extra steps to get it out of your life.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by AmazingMOO View Post

No, what I want is for Null to offer the following options: 'Regular Knockback', 'Double Knockback', and 'Increase Knockback with Power Boost'.


You haters can have a 'No knockback' in there, I suppose, but don't expect me to group with you if you want me to turn off my knockback beforehand.
Giving Null the Gull the ability to selectively reduce or remove knockback still means that anyone who likes knockback would still be knocking enemies out of my melee range, so I'm not that interested.

And I'm REALLY not gonna sign off on giving those people the ability to actually increase what amounts to their enjoyment at my expense. Just fix the bug and leave knockback as is. Bad enough they're actually allowed to slot for it.

EDIT - that last sentence was purely tongue-in-cheek.


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Posted

Went to PI and tried this out with my Peacebringer. Not going to lie, really enjoyed the character for the first time. But this is clearly a bug and should be fixed.


The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.

 

Posted

Oh my...

Wormhole just got 100 times better*!

*Opinion based


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