Tabula Blogger 21/03/08 - Big Patch 1.7. News Sniper, Ranger & PVP Changes!
Todays feedback friday caught me by complete surprise I was expecting more reports on the test patch 1.6 changes and then BAM! out of nowhere comes some great information regarding 1.7.
If you step away from the emotional responses that are predictibly falling out of some players mouths there really is a lot of awesome stuff to look forward to in 1.7.
These changes may well be altered again before they hit the public test server but for now the latest info is indeed pretty big in the way of changes.
The team behind the Tabla Rasa combat felt that everything about the Sniper, Ranger and the Spy focused all on the weapons, we can now see a complete overhaul to the skillset.
I really like alot of these, I have already spoken about my ranger build and how I felt that reinforcements was reduntant and that carpetboming needed work. We can see that this has been directly addressed along with many others in the information to follow.
The Spy is definatly going into a more sneaky class with the use of the new ranger casts adding to the array.
A lot of these changes also seem very PVP orientated in particular the stealth changes, cloak wave and the Spotter arrival so i do wonder if the PVP everyone craves more of is on its way!
Now I know a lot of people will complain about the Spy's Blade reduction in damage, especially after the recent Torque Shell Rifle changes, and combat does seemed to be more about tactics now. I personally love this, and think it's very brave of NCSoft and I can;t wait to see it all in action.
For anyone that says that the game is slowing in development this really goes against all of that and shows a very active development team and strategy.
BRING IT ON!
Here's the full info...
The Classes and Combat Team felt the Spy and Sniper classes were focused on TSR and Blades. Their abilities did not provide them with the tools they needed to play their class effectively. While they had huge damage numbers on their weapons, that was all they had. Our goal now is to allow the player the option to use these newly tweaked abilities in addition to their main weapons to create a more interactive, well rounded combat dynamic. They will soon be better equipped to setup more affective shots, mitigate incoming damage, and escape otherwise certain death.
Polarity Field was swapped with Magnesium Flash and then Mag Flash was enhanced to become Tactical Evasion. Tactical Evasion was placed on the Ranger tier as lack of survivability is a problem that all Rangers share. Tactical Evasion is meant to assist in solving this problem.
Ranger:
Equipment: Stealth armor will now reduce the wearer’s radar signature in PvP duels. The distance that a player will show up will change depending on how many skill points they place in the skill and how many pieces of Stealth armor they are wearing.
Abilities:
Fire Support: This ability will replace Carpet Bombing and will now be a mixture between the area of effect damage that Carpet Bombing had and a single target, stunning Ion Strike. Rank 5 will also have a wall of fire that crafty Rangers can use in a number of situations. The reason Carpet Bombing is being replaced is to offer players more choices and a better skill. Since the higher ranks of Carpet Bombing had such limited use, the Classes and Combat team felt this skill should be reworked.
Fire Support I: (Rank 1) This ability functions similar to how Carpet Bombing 1 did previously. It creates a beacon that teleport high explosive bombs onto the battlefield.
Fire Support II: (Rank 2) Ion Strike. This ability calls in a single target laser that will stun the target and do damage.
Fire Support III: (Rank 3) This ability functions similar to how Carpet Bombing 3 did previously (more beacons, more destruction)
Fire Support IV: (Rank 4) Ion Strike 2. The ranger can call down a more powerful laser that will stun the target and has the chance to stun any nearby enemies.
Fire Support V: (Rank 5) Napalm. The ranger can call down powerful napalm bombs to first do damage to enemies in an area then set it ablaze.
Spotter: This ability will replace reinforcements. Tap into the Waypoint Network and open a gate, bringing an ally on to the battlefield to provide combat support. Once the ability's energy is expended the ally will return to base. While active, this Spotter will enhance your Radar by negating the effects of enemy Stealth technologies. Spending more skill points will add to all spotters ability to see enemy stealthers.
Tactical Evasion: This ability will replace Polarity Field. This primarily defensive ability is designed to offer the Ranger protection at both long and short ranges and continue to be effective at higher levels. At Rank 5 this ability will also allow the Ranger the ability to throw down a portable beacon to teleport back to during combat. The Ranger can utilize Logos to get themselves into and out of a fight while suffering minimal damage.
Mag Flash 1: (Rank 1) Generate a blinding flash of light around yourself. Nearby Enemies will be unable to target you for a short time
Smoke Screen I: (Rank 2) Create a ring of thick smoke around yourself which interferes with enemy targeting system. While within this protective screen, you and your squad mates will suffer less damage from enemy ranged attacks.
Mag Flash II: (Rank 3) Similar to Mag Flash I, but with a larger radius
Smoke Screen II: (Rank 4) Similar to Smoke Screen I, but with a larger radius
Tactical Retreat: (Rank 5) Activate this ability to place a retreat beacon. After some time has passed, you will be teleport back to that beacon.
Spy:
Sword: To compensate for the combat increased effectiveness of the Ranger and Spy abilities the Sword’s damage has been reduced.
Abilities:
Cloak Wave: This ability will allow the Spy and her group to become invisible. It creates a light displacement field around the spy shrouding the player and nearby squad members in a bubble of limited invisibility. In PvE combat this will drop aggro of enemies and cause them to wander away. In PvP combat this will render the Spy and her squad invisible to enemy players unless they are very close to their target. Attacking or using abilities will break the invisibility.
Polarity Field: This ability will allow the Spy to debuff targets to many damage types. Polarity Field was given a facelift because it was felt that the previous version was not as useful or impactful as originally intended. Previously, Polarity Field was used to turn a resistance into a debuff. This ability will now become a straight debuff allowing the player to choose the damage type. Also, ALL ranks of Polarity Field become more effective based on the highest rank you have learned. This is a new concept in TR skill management used in both Spotter and Polarity Field.
Electric Polarity Field (Rank 1)
Photonic Polarity Field (Rank 2)
Kinetic Polarity Field (Rank 3)
Incendiary Polarity Field (Rank 4)
Thermal Polarity Field (Rank 5)
13 Comments
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Comment by Tabula Blogger on March 21, 2008 at 10:58am -
your right the Spy players will go nuts, but everyone knows that the Spys damage is way imbalanced and needed changing. I'm sorry, but the 'far to late' card can't be called this time, it looks like we are seeing heavy class changes each patch now and everything is coming inline with player demands. Any change to improve balance is never late its an ongoing process in all MMO's.
I really can only see this in a positive light, but yes the whiners and the haters will use it as another excuse when really all they need to say is the game is not for them and quit.
Sidenote: can't wait for Jumpgate and Champions either lol, one of these will definatly be my secondary MMO if all goes well!
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Comment by Bad_Panda on March 21, 2008 at 11:49am -
Yeah your probably right but at the moment there are far to many radical changes for me. I think I will come back when the game has settled a bit more. But at the moment there is nothing that make me want to go back in game I enjoyed it all the way to level 30 but go bored after that.
Im happy to see that they are constantly changing stuff. But Im also pissed that they released the game so early as it still feels like beta with all these changes. When I was chatting to Herman Petersheck and Jeffery Steefel they both said that one of the mian reasons why WOW is such a huge succes is because they released a very polished product.
I hope to have the Jumpgate interview up soon as it was a great interview got so much insight in to the design process of that game.
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Comment by Silkmansungod on March 21, 2008 at 2:47pm -
hmmmm, WOW certainly wasn't polished when it was released!. I'm pretty sure a certain class on wow that wore plate and could heal had a MAJOR revamp about 4-6 months in, maybe eariler maybe later, but i do know that most of the seal system you see today was not incorporated at launch. The main reason its a success (or well subscribed!) is because of the popular Warcraft series and huge advertising (and hype)...I heard about it not long before launch and at the time thought (incorrectly) that it was the first of its kind, IMO this was probably a similar lookout for a huge number of people and led to one and all buying it and subscribing. Since Launch there has been numerous changes to skills and skill trees of all classes and if i also remember it took the devs over a year (or longer) to look at the totally flawed PROT and RET trees and eventually change a few* things round..luckily I stopped playing just before the last pala update so I don't know if its any better!
TR is in its infancy still, and the Devs are doing a fine job of listening to the player base on a number of subjects, Balancing the gameplay at this stage is a good move in my opinion. If it takes another 6 months to 'balance' correctly then so be it. Why wait till it settles? I just enjoy it as it at the moment, and when it changes, I'll enjoy how it is then, You can't not want to play and then suddenly like it because one class has had some changes surely?
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Comment by Teppo on March 21, 2008 at 5:42pm -
I've got to agree with the OP here: There is no "too late" call, there is no slowing in development here. We are giving feedback and the devs are listening. Every Single Time something is "nerfed" (and that's a pretty relative term anyhow) you're gonna get some whingers, no matter what game and I can certainly see why it can be annoying - you develop a style of play that matches the current abilities and priorities of a class and then it all gets changed on you. *shrugs* It won't take long to work out something new or just wait til someone else does and posts and new "guide to X class".
On a more objective point - I think that these changes sound pretty good - obviously the truth lies in the details but IMHO the devs are taking exactly the right move in making the Ranger more about tactical use of abilities and less about cloning at 30 - putting everything into Stealth, TSR/Blade and Rage and going for it :) As fun as that is in the short-term, I think alot of people might find the final 20lvls alittle dull with that rinse-and-repeat guide to killing. Or maybe that's me.
TR is still young, it IS undergoing some pretty significant stages and every single at least halfway popular MMOG release goes through this kind of process. It's almost impossible to create such a complex system as an MMOG and a) please everyone and b) get it all right and perfectly balanced first time around. I welcome the changes - It's also why I'm playing every class upto 30+, which'll take some time (I'm not a grind-machine) so that when things become more settled, I'm ready to enjoy them :D The nature of an MMOG is to play with people right? Not just too feel "uber" and "l33t"....right? :D
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Comment by Herc Muler on March 22, 2008 at 12:40am -
I can hear them screaming ;-) ... but I think the devs are right and if you read the Friday feedback to the end, the "nerf" is actually not that big. Damage of the blades will be reduced but I think if they use it correctly (backstab bonus) the damage will still be higher than for any other classes. Add the cloak wave fix and especially the polarity field change Spy players can debuff their enemies to the damage type of their blade and I guess this will bring the damage back to the current state. I will be more tactical and less hack 'n slay.
.. and damn it. Nothing for the medic and guardian ;-)
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Comment by Wraithkin on March 22, 2008 at 7:50am - No one can say they didn't see a spy nerf, sorry rethink comeing , everyone predicted it. i feel it's good to see it didn't just happen on it's own but with the other classes bringing them into better balance. we shall see what happens.
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Comment by Connor on March 22, 2008 at 12:55pm - I think that nerfing the spy is great and will add to the games balance. To have a great MMO you need to have great balance and TR is going through that phase in which it is still trying to balance itself out. The too late card though is still too early to pull out. I could see myself saying too late to this patch 5 months down the road but not now. I also love how much the developers are taking into account the players feedback. I really do love this game.
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Comment by Tabula Blogger on March 22, 2008 at 2:03pm
- Balancing in a game can (and should) go on for years!
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Comment by Jon Barton on March 22, 2008 at 2:57pm -
...even beyond that, balancing a game isn't something you can simply stop doing.
Players are always going to find ways to use the abilities you've given them in manners you've not anticipated, simply because they outnumber you thousands to one, and therefore have more "brute force" brainpower to throw at the problem than you do. It's possible they may find a way to use a skill that gives them an unintended advantage in the system (nerf incoming!), or it may be that a certain combination of skills simply becomes the "only" or "best" way to play the game, at which point it becomes imperative to do more tuning to make other "templates" equally viable, since the "magic template" probably forces your customers into styles of play that the don't like, but suffer along with for competitive reasons.
© 2009 Created by Gary Gannon
I think given a year this game might be worth playing agian but I think by then I will probably be getting my Sci-Fi fix from Jumpgate and Champions.