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wibryz

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  1. Stupid question... my IGN on the test server differs from my IGN on live. Which one do I register as? Or can I change my IGN for the test server somehow to match?
  2. I can't seem to find the map. Is it not available anymore after the recent update?
  3. It would strongly encourage spreading your forces against potential AOE damage instead of grouping. As is, AOE damage doesn't strongly penalize grouping your units, instead it semi-promotes it, at least in some cases. You can send several, likely pre-damaged throwaway squads ahead, so that they eat up the AOE damage and leave your more important units protected despite being in the area of the damage. Like shielding your expensive units from a Thornbark using throwaways. Also, as is, faster shooting, lower damage AOE damage sources are much more effective than slow, big-number ones, in cases where the damage should be identical on paper. As far as to the existence of this bug... I suspect the developers at EA Phenomic might have been aware of this, or even left it in purposefully as a way to limit AOE damage, or, less likely, introduced such damage calculation in order to limit AOE effectiveness. If that was the case, I don't agree that this was a good solution to limiting AOE damage effects. Already a more elegant solution would be to limit maximum damage per target beyond the first X targets affected on a spell by spell basis, while preserving the damage total if enough targets are affected. In the sense of "maximum per-target damage for targets beyond the first 2 is limited to half the amount". Or using 2-zone AOE for the big AOE spells and effects. Or the gradient damage distribution like suggested above. Or by applying damage up to the max per target limit to the X first targets affected, and distributing any remaining damage evenly among units and buildings in the area. Not by covertly limiting damage in spite of an explicitly stated total damage value. Each of these solutions however is more difficult to implement than the current damage formula. This is why the post landed here, in the suggestions subforum. While I still consider this to be a bugfix, it also is a significant balance change. I am partial to WindHunters suggestion posted over on Discord to whitelist spells on a case by case basis. The way I see it, it would work both for slowly playtesting then changes, and as a staggered release. Though having some spells which handle damage distribution differently than used to, might indeed become confusing.
  4. There is a longstanding bug in the calculation of AOE (area of effect) damage, affecting spells, unit abilities and unit attacks which have a max damage per target and max overall damage. Examples of affected spells are Eruption or Fire Sphere, abilities like Rifle Cultists' Dark Grenade or AOE attacks of units like Construct, Frost Mage or Deepcoil Worm. TL;DR at the bottom! How the bug works: If an AOE damage effect kills a unit, only 50% of the overkill damage is transferred back to the pool of available damage which is to be distributed to other targets. Let's take Fire Sphere (u3) as an example. The spell has a maximum single target damage of 6000 and a maximum total damage of 8000. As it stands, the spell will only ever do its full damage if its primary target (closest to the area of effect center) has at least 6000, and its second target has at least 2000 health. If you use Fire Sphere on a group of weaker enemies, it's effectiveness will vastly diminish. Let's take for example a group of 8 Sunderers (u3), which have exactly 1000 HP each, for a total of 8000 HP. Fire Sphere will kill 3 of them, and damage a fourth Sunderer for 375 damage, leaving him with 625 HP. Total damage dealt: 3375. It would get even worse for lower health targets. Why does it happen? Because of faulty calculation in the damage formula, which returns only 50% of overkill damage to the pool of remaining damage. So what's the maths behind it? Before: max single target damage = 6000, damage in pool = 8000 Target 1: health = 1000, damage dealt = 6000, overkill damage = 5000, damage returned to pool = 2500, remaining damage in pool = 4500 Target 2: health = 1000, damage dealt = 4500, overkill damage = 3500, damage returned to pool = 1750, remaining damage in pool = 1750 Target 3: health = 1000, damage dealt = 1750, overkill damage = 750, damage returned to pool = 375, remaining damage in pool = 375 Target 4: health = 1000, damage dealt = 375, health remaining = 625 Is it a bug, or is it a feature? That's a non-trivial question. But so far, there is every indication that this is in fact a bug. 1. There is no indication whatsoever in the spell descriptions, especially the big AOE spells like Fire Sphere, that they massively lose effectiveness against groups of enemies, or that they deal only half damage to further targets. 2. Against a heterogenous group of enemies, the total damage dealt varies greatly, depending on which target was closest to the spell center, thus in which orders the targets are affected. 3. Logic dictates, that there is no reason for an explosion to lose effectiveness (as in: deal less overall damage) the more viable targets are affected. 4. Increasing "maximum single target damage" reduces the overall damage dealt by the spells, if they are used against groups of enemies, to a point where Lava Field sometimes deals more overall damage than Fire Sphere. How does that make sense? What's the proposed bugfix/change? To enable full overkill damage overflow. As in, if the single target damage is 6000, and the target has only 1000 health, let 5000 damage return to the remaining damage pool. Using the example above again, that's 8 dead Sunderers for a total of 8000 damage and a happy, fulfilled Fire Sphere. Can it be implemented easily? We've been hard at work and testing with Kubik (who's effort and insight are massively appreciated!), and the relevant code already exists, ready to be implemented. It also is easily adjustable, should it turn out that another value, like a 75%, or 80% damage carryover on overkillis the sweet spot. What will change if the bugfix is implemented? Every AOE spell, ability and attack, which has a listed damage per target and maximum damage will be affected by this change. However, the degree to which it will have an impact, varies greatly from one case to another. For most cards, especially with low damage numbers, the increase will be negligible (not JUST because these are low numbers, but primarily because those spells/attacks have a low chance to kill a target with any given shot). Generally, the bugfix is a direct buff to many cards and abilities. However, damage is only actually increased if 1. at least one of the targets is killed, 2. there are more viable targets in range than (total_damage / max_singletarget_damage) rounded up. Also, to be clear, damage is NEVER going to be increased for the primary target Spells which are affected the most, are spells which have high enough numbers, that they are expected to reliably kill some, or most of their targets. The greater the single target maximum damage of the AOE damage source, and the greater single target maximum damage in relation to total maximum damage, the more any given spell/attack/ability is affected. Also, spells/attacks/abilities which have a larger AOE and the above characteristics, tend to be affected more (because more targets fit into the AOE). My predictions concerning the impact on specific cards: High impact: Fire Sphere, Rifle Cultists* (ability: Dark Grenade), Boom Brothers* (ability: Boom), Necro Fury* (ability: Bone Shards), Altar of Chaos (against really large groups), Worldbreaker Gun (attack and ability: Heavy Snowball, though the latter only against really large groups), Shatter Ice, Comet Catcher (against really large groups). * - Unholy Hero increases the impact Moderate impact: Construct (attack), Giant Wyrm (attack), Ironclad (attack), Wasteland Terror (attack), Abomination (ability: Blessed/Tainted Fury), Skycatcher (attack), Gemeye (attack), Volcano (attack), Artillery (attack), Hatecaster (attack), Deepgorge (attack), Thornbark (rooted attack), Treefiend (rooted attack), Lost Horror (attack), Soulshatter (>3 targets), Backlash (depending on void power, may be low impact), Corpse Explosion (>3 targets), Morklay Trap, Shadow Phoenix (>4 targets), Lost dancer (ability: Necro explosion, only with lots of targets in range), Nasty Surprise (>3 targets), Necroblaster (attack, and shadow affinity ability: Tainted Voodoo). Low impact: Magma Hurler (attack), Sun Reaver (ability: Metal Spikes), Deepcoil Worm (attack), Twilight Bombard (attack), Lost Disruptor (attack, moderate impact against grouped very low health fliers), Shadow Mage, Eruption (>3 targets). My predictions concerning the impact on PVP balance: (I am not an active PVP player currently. I did play a decent amount in times of Battleforge, but I am in no way up to date, so take these predictions with a grain of salt). Shadow will slightly gain in power, as the explosions have actually high enough damage numbers to reliably kill at least some of their targets, but except for Shadow Mage, it only ever becomes relevant when there are >3 targets in range of the spell/ability. The slight buff to Eruption shouldn't have an impact. Otherwise I expect nothing much to change. The vast majority of significantly affected cards are T4. My predictions concerning the impact on PVE: Enemies: Long range AOE attackers, like Bandit walkers and high tier defensive towers (e.g. artillery) will be more proficient at murdering grouped units. Players: Stronger tools of destruction at player disposal. It should only really affect T4, and shadow at lower tiers (Shadow Phoenix in particular should be noticeably more effective against large groups, Necroblaster will get stronger, Corpse explosion and Soulshatter will also be noticeably more effective). Final thoughts: I was for a long time under the impression, that large AOE damage sources are somehow underperforming, without really understanding why. Fire Sphere! Enormous explosion! Which... kills 3-4 units out of a cluster of 15 units. Now that I found out why those spells underperform, I've taken the effort to try and fix it. That's the result. I consider it a bugfix, even though it is also a moderately impactful balance change. That's how Skylords Reborn, and earlier Battleforge, handled AOE damage. A bug that had largely become a feature. I propose we change it in a logical way. Maximum 8000 damage in the area? If the targets in range have as much overall health, the damage will be dealt in full. Special thanks: Kubik, for his unending patience and making the unreadable mess of code actually parsable for the human mind. TL;DR: High tier AOE spells and abilities promise big numbers. Against lots of small targets, numbers are much smaller, because overkill damage is halved (multiple times). The proposed change fixes stuff, so that big spells deal the promised damage. Fire Sphere -> big boom -> big damage -> lots of dead bandits. Vote big damage. Vote dead bandits!
  5. NAME: Damage bonus for Rogan Kayle and Forest Elder (green) aura don't apply together. DESCRIPTION: If an Unit is within Radius of Rogan Kayle and Forest Elder (green) auras at the same time, there is graphical indication of both buffs being applied to the affected unit, but the actual damage dealt is only ever increased by 25%. Neither of these Auras seems to stack with Home Soil or Motivate either, as this was tested separately at a later date. Only the highest value buff seems to apply (explicitly tested with home soil that it is NOT the last buff applied, but indeed highest value buff). Motivate and Home Soil don't stack with each other either. REPRODUCIBILITY: Tested in Forge against units, buildings and walls (using a Spitfire and Nox Trooper), not tested in an actual match. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: If the buffs are supposed to stack (which I would expect, barring explicit information to the contrary) apply a damage increase, either additively (50%) or multiplicatively (56.25%) whichever is adequate for how game handles damage multipliers. Otherwise, if the buffs are NOT supposed to stack, only allow one buff indicator to show on a Unit and modify the aura descriptions that they do NOT stack with similar effects.
  6. I would very much like that. Though I suspect that is a weird formula for all AOE damage splitting/overflow in the game and it would fundamentally alter how aoe attacks, abilities and spells distribute their damage, right? 😄 Anyway, I would like to see it.
  7. Hmm... maybe formulated it badly. Instead of "correctly" a more apt description would be "as expected". Also, sorry for not adhering to the bug report template. I kinda overlooked it. Spell description for Fire Sphere states "Creates a huge ball of fire that explodes after 10 seconds dealing 5340 / 5460 / 5700 / 6000 damage to enemies in a 15m radius, up to 6130 / 6500 / 7200 / 8000 in total. Knocks back small, medium and large units. Reusable every 20 seconds.". Since the spell description is already cryptic (6000 max per target? 8000 max overall? Or 6000 overall and maybe 8000 in some magical circumstance) I interpret it as: 6000 maximum per target, 8000 maximum per all targets. This behavior is observed however only then, if the primary target has 6000 or more health... which is a weirdness which is not to be expected based on spell description.
  8. If the target closest to ability center has less hitpoints than the single target maximum damage of an AOE spell or AOE damage ability, then the surplus damage doesn't overflow correctly to further targets, and is instead mostly wasted. For example: casting Fire Sphere (upgrade level 3, thus 6000 maximum single target damage, 8000 maximum overall damage) on clustered North Star buildings (picked because they have exactly 1000 hp each) causes 3 of them to be destroyed and another one left at 625 hp, amounting to 3375 damage dealt - a far cry from the expected 8000. There is some damage overflow, just not the full expected amount (since the damage dealt is 3375 and not 3000). The full damage is dealt only then, if the primary target has health equal or more than the maximum single target damage of the spell or ability. Tested with: Rifle Cultist ability (Dark Grenade) and Fire Sphere. Tested against buildings and units.
  9. Amii monument being T3 is where it should be. First, it takes up a precious slot in your deck, second, it does cost more upfront investment to get to T4 than actual T4, it doesn't entirely obsolete your T3, since you still need to be able to survive until you can pop it, and then survive the investment, it also doesn't provide you with additional energy supply like breaking through to your actual T4 would. The card requires quite some skill to use effectively, and a very good player to make it even remotely "gamebreaking" (except encounters with twilight and soultree, but who cares). The fact that there can be only 1 on a map prevents most abuse cases (and screws over decks that solely relied on AM). The card can be balanced further though, like slightly increasing the cost of picking an orb, or introducing an additional tradeoff, like 10% slower void power recycling as long as an the monument is in existence. Putting this card in T4 would render it trash instantly (except for maybe casting enlightenment -> amii monument and angrily holding out a middle finger to all those who advocated this solution).
  10. Enlightenment + Batariel (red) makes every deck better. T4 tempests are meh, throw them out. Throw out the T3 tower. T4 heal is awesome, add it.
  11. It's already become much more stable than it was on the first day of the stress test, and at least for me, it's no longer freezing during matches, so if you manage to login (sometimes you get in on 1st attempt, sometimes you need to try a couple dozen times). I'd say it's very much worth to log in
  12. It's called stress test and not open beta for a reason. It's more or less to see how the server fares under real load, and what the biggest hiccups are outside of the small closed beta environment. I am certain they will put the data gathered to good use. Again, it's for the devs to gather more data rather than for us (though it is appreciated we get to see that it actually works!)
  13. Just dropping by to say I'm cheering for you all
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