RAID Phase 1 Upgrade
Been a while
since I peeked under the hood of the RAID's. They have been left in
limbo for a while now and been only really useful to those that knew
exactly how to 'play the RAID' and the 'organised' captains. Hopefully today ushers in a new era for RAIDs.
I wont go on too much as later today (after a much deserved Tea Break) I
will post a Primer for the RAIDs in their Changed State. For now I will
post the actual changes and proposed additions.
Primary Change - ENTRY
The new entry system is ONLY interested in what your carrying in the
way of Weapons or Damage Boosters. Damage boosters would be things like
Targetters, Farnsworths or Hammer Reactors.
It will then allow
entry based on comparing these figures. Previously whilst it used
Boosters IN combat it did not take them into account on entry. This has
now been changed.
So Entry is no longer based on HP & Weapons, Just Damage and boosters.
PLEASE NOTE: The calculations take into account BOTH wep 1 and wep 2
slots. This is because we / I intend to add methods for players to Buff
other players in combat playing a healing role, along with select other
toys and functions. So if you don't want to have both count, remove the
weapons from the slot you won't be firing.
COMBAT - Based on Threat
During testing it's been called many things but the damage inside a
RAID now is based on how much THREAT you produce towards the RAID. So if
you produce a LOW threat the RAID will respond accordingly. If you
produce a HIGH threat, it will respond accordingly.
THIS ALLOWS
: For ANYONE to enter ANY RAID. Choose the Weapon for the task at hand,
add as much bulk to your ship as possible and head on it. No longer
will a small player with a 120 gun be blasted with 5,000 Crit Damage.
Overall Fire-power for the RAID's has been toned down somewhat. Along
with this, RAID missiles whilst still nasty are not as bad as they were.
TIME TO KILL VS SOLO KILLS
A lot of testing has been done
this last week by staff (thanks Guys!) We have managed to get the RAIDS
so they are non 'Solo' and yet with enough players easy enough to take
down in groups.
We fully expect RAID's be somewhat easier for
you 'RAID Professionals' but the key here was to allow ANYONE entry
without being slapped around like a wet fish. We will of course monitor
activities and players progress and adjust should we feel its necessary.
Matrix Use
Using matrix's in combat will no longer be penalised with an instant
reply attack. Basically you can think of it as taking a step back to
reload and then stepping back into the battle. The RAID will NOT see
this action as a threat so won't respond.
When I add 'Player to
Player' Buffing the system will see some of this as a threat based
mostly over HP repaired and who you repair. But that's to come later.
CHANGE TO XP
In many other games a Boss Mob or Large RAID boss will reset it's stats
if left alone for a Period of time. Nullifying any damage it has taken
previously. So we are going to follow this method. Essentially your
Damage for 'that RAID' is counted UNTIL the RAID FULLY REGEN's. At that
point it is deemed the RAID has managed to win that round so to speak.
All Damage against the RAID up to that point is removed from the
records.
This means that players who attack a RAID need to be
fairly sure they are going to kill it or at least return to it BEFORE it
fully heals. The Larger the RAID the more time it takes to fully
re-heal and as long as it doesn't reach 100% HP your Damage will remain
intact. Some of the current RAID's on Live can take a long time indeed
to fully regen whilst smaller ones will regen in short order.
I
think this is far more realistic and in keeping with how we do standard
combat. It allows players to grab three friends and go Kill a RAID but
it doesn't allow single lone players to Farm XP and get rewarded when
OTHERS do the actual hard work.
We have added the Damage
counted against the RAID by you on the Entry Screen. This will show
either a Number (your total damage so far) or Zero. It may be you have
not attacked this RAID yet or the RAID has Regenerated to Full Health.
REGEN ON EXIT
For now this has been completely removed. This will stop smaller
players making an issue for Heavy Hitting groups. So the RAID will no
longer have a chance to REGEN on you or any one else exiting. It's done
only by the Ticker Scripts. This change alone will make a big
difference.
RAID STATUS PAGE
We have added a RAID Status
page to your Bottom Left pull out tab in game. This opens in a new
window and you can refresh it at any time. This is an initial iteration
of this page and it will go through many upgrades and additions as time
goes on.
LASTLY AND I'M SURE VERY IMPORTANTLY!
Prior to
rolling out these changes this morning I took a snap shot of the RAID
Damage Table. This was because as SOON as I rolled out the new code it
Zapped ALL your combat damage stats as all the RAIDs had regenerated
over night.
During the next few days I will calculate the XP
and Credits you WOULD have got under the old system and add them to your
account. So you will have Lost Nothing.
Have fun guys and if in doubt ask a staff member - or wait for my Primer
Coops
http://core-exiles.com/