Patch R58 Discussion - Live 7/29

GuntherBlobel

IceIX wrote:

Some general stuff about Team-Ups:

- They currently work off of defeating any opponent. There is a chance post battle for that opponent to "drop" an applicable move for you to use at the level of that opponent. - Only certain moves can be used as Team-Ups. For the most part, it's anything that's not a Passive. - Team-Ups are usable only once, then they go away. Think Boosts in how they equip, but if you equip a Team-Up but don't use it in that battle, it stays. - Team-Up abilities can only be used once in that battle, so no spamming Magneto's abilities using it. - Team-Up AP works exactly like normal AP in that you gain one point per match. - Team-UP AP matches also work the same as other matches as well in that they actually deal damage. So no more trying to entice the enemy to match EO tiles to avoid getting hit. On the upside, no more getting left with EO tiles and not being able to actually hit the opponent. - Enemy teams can have Team-Ups just like you can.

Thanks for the info! I really like the idea of getting to use an ability that I don't have in my Roster. Cool idea.

Do TU tiles do damage? If not, do they interact with Crit multipliers the way Env tiles do?

IceIX

Spoit wrote:

IceIX wrote:

- They currently work off of defeating any opponent. There is a chance post battle for that opponent to "drop" an applicable move for you to use at the level of that opponent.

Finally an upside to 395 juggernauts?

What happens to high enviro characters like punisher?

Indeed.

For the most part, most characters are going to the same base Team-Up color strengths which is set to be the fourth color strength.

Spoit

Oh right, what happens after you use the team up/don't bring one

TheHueyFreeman

For negative effects to moves (self damage on sunder/headbutt or self stun from recharge), who takes that effect?

IceIX

Spoit wrote:

Oh right, what happens after you use the team up/don't bring one

If you use the Team-Up, it vanishes from your stock. If you bring it but don't use it, it goes back to your stock.

Spoit

IceIX wrote:

Spoit wrote:

Oh right, what happens after you use the team up/don't bring one

If you use the Team-Up, it vanishes from your stock. If you bring it but don't use it, it goes back to your stock.

I meant, what do the team up tiles do (since it sounds like the team up determines the damage?)

over_clocked

Surprised no one asked yet, but Ice, are you сontent with how sharding works at the moment? Seems same as S1 so far, not complaining as I bully lower level players enough to get my share of tough, but it may be unfair for those same lower lever rosters, too. Instead of 2-5 crazies in a bracket they may now get 10-15!

Edit: oh noes, he disappeared already

Unknown

Gone like the wind.

over_clocked

And he's back!

So. Sharding. Didn't have to look hard for this:

Skaramanga wrote:

I used to be able to get top 20 with 550 to 600, now I look at it and all the top 20 are close to 1000.

IceIX

locked wrote:

Surprised no one asked yet, but Ice, are you сontent with how sharding works at the moment? Seems same as S1 so far, not complaining as I bully lower level players enough to get my share of tough, but it may be unfair for those same lower lever rosters, too. Instead of 2-5 crazies in a bracket they may now get 10-15!

Edit: oh noes, he disappeared already

Nope, haven't disappeared. Trying to get a setup on multiple devices so that I can double check on that earlier question about Team-Ups appearing for enemies in Versus. Can't remember off hand if you need to keep it stocked or not. Pretty sure you don't, but trying to get the setup on the QA servers is taking a bit longer than I expected.

As for sharding, it's working better than it first was but not great yet. Still tweaking how people get shunted between shards to keep things
A) Even between shards for any given Event. Doesn't help to shard things if one gets overloaded and servers explode as a result.
Good feeling of opponent variety within each shard, especially if you rise or lower a bunch in scaling/rating during an Event.

We're definitely doing far better on A, still working on getting B in a place that we're happy with.

IceIX

Spoit wrote:

IceIX wrote:

Spoit wrote:

Oh right, what happens after you use the team up/don't bring one

If you use the Team-Up, it vanishes from your stock. If you bring it but don't use it, it goes back to your stock.

I meant, what do the team up tiles do (since it sounds like the team up determines the damage?)

The Team-Up tiles are essentially just another color of AP. They work exactly the same for both matching to gain AP and for actual damage dealt, including figuring out who deals that damage. Meaning whoever of your team has the strongest AP tile strength. The Team-Up equipped doesn't do anything for damage dealt via matching, it only affects the power of that ability usage.

IceIX

TheHueyFreeman wrote:

For negative effects to moves (self damage on sunder/headbutt or self stun from recharge), who takes that effect?

For the most part, those sorts of abilities aren't Team-Up applicable. Doesn't make much sense for Sentry to Sacrifice himself when that Sacrifice means nothing.

Unknown

Hi Ice, welcome back to the lunatic asylum that is the forums.

Questions:

-- If the power of a Team-Up awarded is based upon the power of the opponent defeated, then will there be the potential a logjam of different leveled "Adamantium Slash" Team-Ups in a player's inventory versus a single stack of that skill?

-- How many Team-Ups can be brought into a single fight? (The SDCC Marvel interview implied three.)

-- Are the drop chances of a Team-Up evenly distributed across the enemy roster, or are they weighted based upon star rarity of the opponents in the roster (easy to get 1* Jugg Team-Ups, very difficult to gain 4**** Fury Team-Ups?)

IceIX

Lyrian wrote:

Hi Ice, welcome back to the lunatic asylum that is the forums.

Questions:

-- If the power of a Team-Up awarded is based upon the power of the opponent defeated, then will there be the potential a logjam of different leveled "Adamantium Slash" Team-Ups in a player's inventory versus a single stack of that skill?

-- How many Team-Ups can be brought into a single fight? (The SDCC Marvel interview implied three.)

-- Are the drop chances of a Team-Up evenly distributed across the enemy roster, or are they weighted based upon star rarity of the opponents in the roster (easy to get 1* Jugg Team-Ups, very difficult to gain 4**** Fury Team-Ups?)

- You currently have 20 slots for Team-Ups available. May change that in the future. So yeah, you could run into a situation where you have 20 Adamantium Slashes of various levels. But that's no different to getting 3 more Crit Damage Boosts when you already have 20. You should probably use them sometime.
- Yep, three. Team-Ups take up the same slots that Boosts do. Meaning you can bring in 2 Boosts and a Team-Up or 3 Team-Ups, etc.
- Evenly distributed across all available Team-Ups. So if the enemy team has 7 available abilities, you've got a 1/7 shot.

TheHueyFreeman

So if you beat someone, how likely (25%?) are they to drop a team up move?

IceIX

TheHueyFreeman wrote:

So if you beat someone, how likely (25%?) are they to drop a team up move?

Very likely, if not 100%. We're still not quite decided but it's a simple knob to turn on our end if people aren't getting them enough to be worthwhile. Unlike Boosts which are supposed to be extra power on demand, Team-Ups are designed to be more of a meta changer to use on a more constant basis.

Unknown

Some additional questions just popped into my head (and editing a few out after your proactive response):

-- Are Team-Ups 1-time per battle, or if multiples are in inventory, will using the same team-up ability multiple times in a fight consume multiple team-ups (Do the abilities "disappear" off the Team-Up cast bar once used, or if a player has 3 Adamantium Slash Team-Ups in stock, can that ability be fired multiple times in the same battle)?
-- Are Team-Ups purchasable in the same way that boosts are, once inventories of a skill are depleted?

And not on team-ups, because it has to be asked:

-- Is high-end PvP devolving onto "Sentry-bombing" opponent rosters between shield breaks, as designed for this character? (And as a side corollary: is World Rupture operating in a way that was not intended, or is the combination of Sacrifice + World Rupture really meant to be that overpowered?)

IceIX

Lyrian wrote:

Some additional questions just popped into my head (and editing a few out after your proactive response):

-- Are Team-Ups 1-time per battle, or if multiples are in inventory, will using the same team-up ability multiple times in a fight consume multiple team-ups (Do the abilities "disappear" off the Team-Up cast bar once used, or if a player has 3 Adamantium Slash Team-Ups in stock, can that ability be fired multiple times in the same battle)?
-- Are Team-Ups purchasable in the same way that boosts are, once inventories of a skill are depleted?

And not on team-ups, because it has to be asked:

-- Is high-end PvP devolving onto "Sentry-bombing" opponent rosters between shield breaks, as designed for this character? (And as a side corollary: is World Rupture operating in a way that was not intended, or is the combination of Sacrifice + World Rupture really meant to be that overpowered?)

- One per battle, sort of. If you have 3 Adamantium Slashes, you can only use each one once. But you *could* equip all three (one in each slot) and use each one once.
- Team-Ups are currently only gained through actual gameplay, no purchases. We're actually more likely to investigate things like having them giftable between Alliance members before we have them be some kind of grab bag or directly purchaseable item.

- Sentry bombing, while existent, is actually less of a problem than you would think. It's a fairly high cost of upkeep method of climbing and keeping up on charts that isn't really sustainable. There are very few players that actually keep that style of gameplay up for any length of time as a result. It's far more common to see Patch and Magneto blasts than Sentry teams at this point which function off a similar style of gameplay but is less costly in terms of Health Pack/Boost use but more costly for time. It's definitely something we've noted though and will look into if it becomes a prevalent gameplay style to the detriment of the meta.

Spoit

So the current, season 1-style gentle nudges into death brackets are working as intended (to split the load, which to be fair, has had SIGNIFICANTLY fewer comm errors lately) then?

IceIX

Spoit wrote:

So the current, season 1-style gentle nudges into death brackets are working as intended (to split the load, which to be fair, has had SIGNIFICANTLY fewer comm errors lately) then?

"Players are being sorted into shards according to X (which is always tweaked)", yes. "Players are being sorted such that they are given inordinately more difficult brackets based on X", no.