6.0 PTS Refresh #6 Operations Notes (25 September, 2019)

[MattPucevich]

 

Blue maps! Achievements! Our lil op is growing up so fast :`)

 

The Battery.... ... is Fully Charged.

 

Refresh Notes:

 

Nature of Progress Operation

 

General

All Modes

• Achievements have been added for the operation. These include both the standard boss kill achievements, as well as a fun new "Marks of Mastery" category for more specific brands of chicanery. ;D
  
• Blue Maps are now in for the CI-004 area.
  
• Infinitely spawning creatures (i.e. Red encounter adds, Holding Pens creatures, etc.) should no longer grant Renown. If you find some that still do, let us know!

 

Red

All Modes

• Part of Red's encounter area is now in a cave because the environment artists were feeling arty! It's cool! Lil purple mushrooms growing inside and stuff.
  

 

Veteran Mode

• Slightly reduced Red's health
  
• Slightly decreased the health of Rampaging Chargers
  

 

Breach CI-004

All Modes

• The event should no longer get stuck if players manage to wipe during certain key scripting windows.
  
• The ejection splash from Something Ill-Tempered now plays on the ejected object instead of some arbitrary location on the ground nearby.
  
• Lake Crab encounters should now properly resset when the event resets. Actually for reals this time.
  
• The two final Warden Droids in the control room are now named "Czerka Warden Enforcer Droids" to denote the fact that they're slightly different.
  
• Reworked the detonation FX for Incendiary Shrieks to be more readable.
  
• The damage of Photoreactive Hypergolicity (the Incendiary Shriek detonation) has been increased by +400%, but is now distributed over 6 seconds.
  
• Players can no longer unwittingly damage and/or kill invisible utility NPCs during the Breach CI-004 event (thus breaking the event to varying degrees of severity)
  
• Felshade Reapers in the Dark will now deal a small knockback to other enemies they're hitting (in addition to the damage they were already dealing).
  

  This both makes it easier to tell that their attacks actually hit other things in the area of effect (if you hadn't noticed, surprise!), and because it also looks funny to us when the big monster is batting around the smaller things.

 

Veteran Mode

• Warden Enforcer Droids no longer stand still while they Optimize.
  
• Warden Enforcer Droids can no longer self-optimize, as that doesn't go well for anyone else.
  
• Players left behind in the pens after the control room door is locked will now be appropriately murdered before being teleported to the control room, as intended.

 

Training Day

All Modes

• Greus' Ayhis & Eru attack channel duration decreased from 3s to 2s, cooldown increased from 6s to 7s. Damage slightly less than doubled.
  

  Just doing some timing and flow massaging with this... well, also more burning I guess...

• Titax Strike's damage will now (most likely pretty sure) be properly reduced if the target is knocked into a goo tank.

 

The Huntmaster

All Modes

• Something Ill-Tempered is now also living in the pond here.
  
• The Thing in The Pond now has more max HP for each thing fed into the lake during the encounter. In fact, there's an achievement for playing with this to an irresponsible degree.

 

Veteran Mode

• Confused and Infuriated will actually apply its enrage effect in Veteran Mode (it was previously only working in Story).

 

Apex Vanguard

All Modes

• The Apex Vanguard will now actually fire missiles during Zone Defense
  
• The Apex Vanguard can no longer use Rocket Salvo while Zone Defense is active because that's cheating (and very confusing).
  
• Attempted to fix an issue where the Apex Vanguard sometimes wouldn't regenerate immediately after its initial Photogenesis cast until the lights were turned off and back on again.
  
• Updated Acid Blast's ground FX to use a texture (as opposed to a flat orange). It's a tad less bright now as a result.
  
• Removed some floating work-in-progress assets from the Apex Vanguard's room.
  
• Dimmed emissive reflectivity of the patches of glass in the Apex Vanguard's room
  
• Updated Stim Station's visuals, also added a larger monitor on the wall over the station that displays the count of stims in the machine for all to see.
  
• Updated Disruptor Pulse and Ventilation Station's console visuals, so now each of the stations' interactive bits are visually distinct.
  
• Due to player feedback that the charge state of the battery was too hard to read, we have re-added the continuously pulsing "The Battery is Fully Charged" red text message to Story Mode, and also introduced it to Veteran Mode
  
• The previous note is obviously a joke. How could you possibly think we're that awful?
  
• Or is it?
  

 

Story Mode

• Flare and Stim station overhead symbols are now dimmed to visually reinforce that they're not used here.

 

Veteran Mode

• Ticks of Contagion will now properly spread Contagion to targets within the radius who do not already have it.
  
• Contagion now does something it didn't used to...

[OasisKid]

So Matt. I am just now realizing this. Why is there only four bosses? Like sure the one part is similar to a puzzle of sorts but like in SNV there was Oasis City and a boss. Perhaps could we get a 5th boss in this raid? PS your little toon is super cute and thanks for helping us after we broke the raid. I have been on vacation.

[GgGKanko]

That is a good step into the way it gets used to.

 

the escort is just a boss no more even facerolling *hype*

 

Granades have a missing ground circle when used or the shiny thingys it drops are disapearing by the camera options!? Intentional in the Darkness?

 

The Adrenal isnt in the right spot i guess; still you are getting knocked by the charge of the rhino.

 

Droids also working well whit movement.

[OasisKid]

Oh one other thing. I have not done the PTS since the refresh but can Huntmaster and Apex Vanguard get actual names? For example in Dread Palace each Dread Master had a name and then under it like Tyrans for example had Weaver of Dreams or something so could we name these bosses? No offense but not giving them real names seems a little lazy please don't take offense to that just a thought Matt and company. Thanks Edited September 29, 2019 by OasisKid

[Jerba]

Today we ran Dxun SM before the servers were shut down. While most bugs were fixed, the following bugs remain and should be fixed until 6.0 release:

 

After completing the Lights Out encounter, the group stays in combat and you do not receive the lockout for this encounter. You can continue with the operation normally, and when you die and release to area start you are no longer in combat.

 

When fighting the trash groups before the Mutant Trandoshan fight, the group receives a debuff that reduces healing. It is possible to pull all trash groups and kite them back to the elevator, where the group no longer has the debuff. This exploit makes it much easier to kill the trash groups, so maybe the trash groups should reset when you pull them out of the room.

 

In the Huntmaster fight, the AoE left by Firestorm Grenade is invisible. You can see the circle around the player with the grenade, and some flames when it hits but then the Firestorm Grenade is invisible even though the AoE continues to deal damage for another ~10 seconds. Please ensure that the Firestorm Grenade AoE stays visible for the duration of its damage.

 

When wiping on the Huntmaster fight and there are still adds alive (Deliberate Charger and Lurking Beasts), the encounter stays in progress even when everyone is dead, and you need to wait 15+ seconds until it resets. Please ensure that the encounter immediately resets when everyone is dead.

 

In the Apex Vanguard fight, the Acid Blast AoE is invisible to players that died inside the instance. The only way to see it is to leave the instance after every wipe and go back in. Please ensure that this AoE is visible even when you stay inside the instance after dying.

 

In general, both Huntmaster and Apex Vanguard felt significantly harder than the rest of the instance. For SM, I'd say they are overtuned, and too much of a step up compared to the other bosses. But any wide-ranging balance passes are probably no longer possible.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Jerba

[Jerba]

In addition to my previous feedback, we noticed the following bug:

 

The Synthium Derpidric Blossoms in the Red encounter remove players' stacks a total of four times but the AoE around the Blossom is only visible for the first two ticks. Please have the ability only tick two times, or if it is intended to tick 4 times, increase the duration of the AoE VFX so it matches the actual ability effect.