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Alliance Mission Map 3 - Ancient Sanctum Update

edited December 2017 in General Discussion
Greetings Commanders!

After much deliberation with the team, we managed to put together a list of quick changes that we hope will improve your experience of taking on Map 3. Before we get down to the details, I want to first address a couple of things:

First, I know that we haven't addressed every single piece of feedback that you have posted. To us, this will be an on going work in progress. We know we won't get it perfect for everybody. What we can do though, is to hear your continuous feedback and make changes to the map as the community grows and changes as well.

Second, we looked at the scope and potential impact of our changes before we decided to make them. As I stated earlier, we weren't able to touch on all points of feedback. There are changes that are easy to make and have a huge impact on your experience. There are also changes we could make that have less of an impact, but also requires a huge amount of effort. Coming from that perspective, we've made changes that we think will have a big impact on Map 3 while being low in scope so we don't add additional bugs to the game. These changes aren't the only ones we want to make, but they are the ones we are comfortable with making at this time.

These changes will be live for the next round of Alliance Missions beginning tomorrow morning.

With all that aside, let's go through the changes in detail!

ENCOUNTER CHANGES

We're moving Rhinox from the Attack Barrier path and swapping him with Mirage from the Replicate path

Context - Rhinox was behaving badly and we had to move him to another spot on the map. Rhinox's Signature Ability (Overclock) was not interacting well with Attack Barrier which caused him to deal shock damage even when players were taking the proper precautions during the fight. We will look into why that happened, but in the meantime, we've swapped Rhinox with Mirage on the Replicate buff where he'll hopefully behave himself.

**We're looking into compensation for players that had the pleasure of dealing with this specific Rhinox fight in the previous Alliance Mission event - more info to come!

We lowered the Signature Abilities of the following Bots on Map 3 and Map 2

After reviewing our win rate data and player feedback, we felt like the following bot abilities were overtuned. Additionally, these specific abilities do not have clear counter strategies, we've decided to tone them down.

Galvatron - Will of Unicron 100 50
"When fully charged, Galvatron has 0.5% chance for each percentage of the opponent's missing Health to become Unstoppable and gain 35.3% 22.2% Power over 6 seconds."

Context - More like "Chill" of Unicron, am I right? A combination of Galvatron's defensive AI and Sig Ability caused him to generate a large amount of power while the player struggled to knock him out of his block. We've lowered the power gain of his Sig to slow him down.

Megatron (Cin) - All Hail Megatron 100 50
"Megatron always comes back. When Health drops below 10%, Megatron Regenerates 30.2% 22.6% of his max Health over 3 seconds."

Context - I'll be back... with less Health. Megatron Cin was always a pain when his Passive Signature Ability came online. It doesn't help that we also put him on an Increase Buff Duration node. We've toned down his Health Regen to balance that out.

Waspinator - Waspinator Lives! 100 50
"If Waspinator would take lethal damage, he instead becomes Invulnerable, Purifies all Debuffs, and Repairs 20.3% 13.5% Health."

Context - I don't know about you guys, but Waspinator always comes back when I'm not paying attention. We're dropping his Sig which means he comes back with less health and hopefully this encounter won't sting as much.

Motormaster - King of the Road 100 50
"For every 20% of max Health lost, Motormaster's anger grants him a +60% 40.8% Melee Damage Buff."

Context - We put Motormaster through some anger management classes. He now gets a bit less angry, resulting in less damage output as he loses Health.

Rhinox - Overclock 100 50
"Rhinox ekes out extra performance from Shield Buffs, further reducing incoming damage to 60% of the opponent's Attack Rating. When reducing the damage suffered by an attack, the extra strain causes them to explode, inflicting 160.9% 112% Attack as Shock Damage. This effect is 50% less likely when struck by Scouts."

Context - Oh boy. This guy. This ability has been pretty devastating so far. While there WAS a bug on one of the Rhinox encounters in Map 3 (see above), we felt that the damage potential from a defensive ability scales way too high especially at higher map difficulties. We're dropping this down and I don't think it'll come as a shock to anybody.

BUFF CHANGES

We halved the amount of Power Gain on Hemophobia

Hemophobia 3
"Start with a Power Gain Buff generating 3.6% 1.8% of max Power per second and can be removed with Bleed Debuffs. Power Gain Buff will return after 10 seconds."

Context - Admittedly, we went a bit overboard when tuning this buff. Prior to this nerf, a bot would gain a full bar of power much too quickly (roughly 28 seconds) if a bleed was not applied. We've halved the power rate in order to give players more time to actually apply bleeds.


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Comments

  • REWARD CHANGES

    On to the best part! We understand that we missed the mark on what players are looking for when they are taking on the challenge of beating Map 3. We've reviewed each of the different reward channels and made some adjustments so players find the challenge worth their while.

    Point Changes

    We've updated the mini-boss point multipliers so they are now clearly giving more points than the basic encounters.

    Map Completion Rewards

    We've removed T1 Alpha Sparks Essences from Completion Rewards, added more T3B and T2A Essences and lowered the threshold for earning T3 Class Catalyst Crystal Shards (Difficulty 41 21).

    • Difficulty 1 - 20: Removed T1A Essences, Added T2A Essences, Increased T3B Essences
    • Difficulty 21 - 40: Removed T3B Essences, Added T3 Class Spark Shards, T2A Essences Increased
    • Difficulty 40+: Unchanged (T3 Class Spark Shards, T2A Essences)

    Rank Rewards

    While the actual point thresholds have not changed, we've increased the total amount of rewards from milestones.

    • T1A - 2100 6250
    • T3B: 500 4000
    • T2A: 1300 2000

    Rank Rewards

    In order to add more competition to the rank rewards, we've added T3 Class Catalyst Shards to the Top 3 Prizes.

    • Rank 1 - 1000 T3 Class Catalyst Shards
    • Rank 2 - 500 T3 Class Catalyst Shards
    • Rank 3 - 250 T3 Class Catalyst Shards

    WHAT WE WON'T BE CHANGING

    To be clear, these are things we won't be changing in the short term. Anything can still happen long term once we are able to collect enough data and feedback.


    Map Layout

    We are sticking to our initial goal of having all players in the Battlegroup contribute to success. We want all players to be active and participating. However, I do understand that people have lives outside of the game and for that reason, we will continue to look into solutions that won't punish the entire alliance if one player has a bad day, or can't log in for some reason.


    Recall/Step Back Mechanics

    These suggested solutions might be good at fixing accidental movement, however, we see it as more of a temporary fix rather than a sustained one. You could still make a mistake a second time, even after using a recall or step-back. I'm not diminishing the issue though. We hear you loud and clear on this and will be looking at solutions to prevent accidental selection of paths.


    OUR END GOAL WITH MAP 3

    With all this being said, I want to quickly share with you what we want this Map to look like as we move forward.

    We want players to coordinate with their group mates to arrange which bots get brought into which paths. The regular encounters should be manageable, provided the correct counter-play and strategy are selected. Mini-bosses should present a fair challenge to each group of 3 and the final boss should be taken on by all members of the Battlegroup.

  • ManthroManthro Posts: 2,752
    edited December 2017
    Not bad, and thanks for the update.

    As for recall/stepback for map path accidents... The only surefire easy way to do it is to install gateways on the paths much like we have class gates in story missions.

    The difference being, once a player steps through a path gateway, it doesn't allow another player through it.

    The only issue here is, if an alliance is actually not going for 100% exploration and wants to double up on paths... However I doubt there is any alliance doing that.
  • Great news on all fronts, so far.

    I will say though... regarding recall mechanics. I'm pretty sure that everyone would accept any amount of accidental back and forth and tons of energy waste if the overall result was still that there was some potential of still completing the map.

    Right now, ANY solution is better than someone ending up down the wrong path.
  • kranderskranders Posts: 479
    edited December 2017
    Absolutely needs a locking mechanic. Too many accidental path selections in the past for there not to be a safety measure.

    I think overall this is great. My only suggestion is to really consider the rank rewards for 4 and 5. Even if it's 100 and 50 t3c shards, it would be nice. Sure there is competition in the top 3 but the gap between #3 and #4 is pretty substantial.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    What are T3C Catalyst Shards? Are those just T3C random shards?

    If they are random, then I don't know how other players are going to feel about this, but the randomness of T3C might need addressing.

    As it stands now, it takes LONG time just to get a T2A from AM; and that's just one resource. Just imagine how long it will take to get one T3C from one class because there are 5 other spark classes out there players will randomly pull as well?

    Once the reality of that fact sets in for those trying to go for it, it could frustrate players, knowing it will take them months or more just to complete one T3C; and it may not even be the one they really want.

    I know Rank 5 4 stars are supposed to be the end all and be all in terms of bots (until the 5 stars come out) so I know they're supposed to take a while to obtain, but shouldn't you at least allow the player to choose which one they get? How about instead of crystal shards you give out pass shards that when they reach 10k, allows the player a pass to access to a T3C of their choice?

    I don't want to it to be an easy thing to get in a few weeks, but I also don't want it taking 6 months either.

    Thoughts?
  • LaprasLapras Posts: 258
    No update on the shattered lands cutoff? After last weeks last AM we had a few players decided to take a break. Unless we get their spots filled today we can’t do Map 3. This is part of the issue with 6 paths. I hope you guys will continue to rethink that decision.
  • LafozaLafoza Posts: 28
    I very like the changes you make guys well done.

    Got just one idea that you may thing about it. Can you make it posible for players to go back on the crossroad to pick a path if they have not killed any bots in the wrong path that they pressed by mistake and get the energy spended for that path back.
    Sometimes mistakes happend.
  • Hi Kabam Karma,

    Thanks to you and your team for taking our suggestions. All of these changes look awesome and you guys really put time aside to address most of the difficulties.

    One thing you didn't address was the path with Bludgeon that he gains Armour plus random effects every 15 seconds. A minute in a was doing less then 50 damage a hit with my IH SP2 because he stacked 2 armor and 2 physical resistance buffs. He then got a 3rd armor and I really couldn't do any damage so i had to restart.

    Only being able to do special damage on top of that is tough when you have so many defensive buffs going against you.

    Otherwise great reward and character changes.

    PS: Thanks for not making the the T3C shards huge. We don't want another error like the time you guys decided to grant a full t2a in milestones and there was a huge gap for 3 months.
  • MustangjonMustangjon Posts: 1,146
    The completion rewards of t3c are shards toward a crystal that will be a random t3c the ones you get from as crystal rewards are random class shards toward 10000 total. But completion once you get 10000 you will have a full t3c crystal to open
  • JKLJKL Posts: 997
    Any plans to change Focus Power Gain? Either lower percentage or more time? Prowl's natural power gain ability plus trying to bait him and the focus power gain certainly makes it pretty tricky sometimes. He can jump to two bars extremely quick, then trying to bait that before sp3 is tough.

    I know that was probably the point of Prowl on a power gain mod but sometimes it seems way too fast. Baiting can be hit or miss.
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    Mustangjon wrote: »
    The completion rewards of t3c are shards toward a crystal that will be a random t3c the ones you get from as crystal rewards are random class shards toward 10000 total. But completion once you get 10000 you will have a full t3c crystal to open

    That answers my question about what Catalyst shards are then. Well that's better definitely than random shards.
  • MustangjonMustangjon Posts: 1,146
    Now why they didn’t have crystal rewards match and give crystal shards as well is beyond me because having the two types is confusing
  • Thanks for your input on the changes, everyone!

    Remember, this is an on-going process of improving Map 3. This is by no means our final update to this map. Keep your comments and your feedback coming - we will read them all.

    On the topic of map cutoffs and being able to run Map 3 without full rosters, we are looking at this issue and will let you guys know when we are confident in closing in on a solution.

    In terms of tuning additional buffs and encounters, we will continue to review win rates and take in your feedback. While I can't promise that there will be an update every week, we will always be looking at data and reviewing your feedback on here.

    Recall seems to be a huge issue here and yes, we will be discussing ways to solve this as well.

    In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoys Map 3 a bit more and is aware that we are paying attention to you guys!

    Good luck in Alliance Missions this week!
  • LaprasLapras Posts: 258
    JKL wrote: »
    Any plans to change Focus Power Gain? Either lower percentage or more time? Prowl's natural power gain ability plus trying to bait him and the focus power gain certainly makes it pretty tricky sometimes. He can jump to two bars extremely quick, then trying to bait that before sp3 is tough.

    I know that was probably the point of Prowl on a power gain mod but sometimes it seems way too fast. Baiting can be hit or miss.

    I think Rhinox on this path is also a little abnormally hard to deal with. If he blocks your attempt at landing a few punches you can’t use a heavy while his shield is up to reset the timer.
  • Translation: map rework too costly

    Good job thou regardless
  • Manthro wrote: »
    Not bad, and thanks for the update.

    As for recall/stepback for map path accidents... The only surefire easy way to do it is to install gateways on the paths much like we have class gates in story missions.

    The difference being, once a player steps through a path gateway, it doesn't allow another player through it.

    The only issue here is, if an alliance is actually not going for 100% exploration and wants to double up on paths... However I doubt there is any alliance doing that.

    Gateways are a perfect mechanic for this! They actually allow you to go down a path, but should be easy to demand confirmation that it’s really wht you want to do
  • Btw, I like this approach of small tweaks in response to player feedback after consulting win rate data. It’s usually better to make a change too small, then a second change, rather than a change too big and have to undo it

    Also, I’ll have a revised version of the 411 Bot’s map reflecting these changes on here shortly...
  • These are great changes, thanks guys. I think the gates are a fantastic way to keep everyone in their lane, unless you pick the wrong lane lol.
  • This new map reflects the changes described by Karma

    We also made it a bit clearer which sharks belong to which lane, and made the path numbers a bit more intuitive. The Line version of the 411 bot has lots of other resources (bot list, even calendar, rank & level up requirements, forge guide, individual bot cards, links to the Line community forums...) so it’s good to make sure at least someone in your alliance is using it and can share all the info

    30sdkrcey4t1.png
  • LaprasLapras Posts: 258
    Also, I don’t think there was a need to nerf waspinator. He is pretty easy to deal with. I actually think Ratchet is more annoying at a high sig lvl. Every other special hit or heavy he is healing where wasp is only a 1 time heal.
  • I'm so happy Rinox was fixed. He made Jeffrey Dahmer look like an amateur.
  • that1guythat1guy Posts: 374
    Nice changes, pretty good so far! Although you've added extras for Ranks 1-3, which I'm sure those top tier alliances don't mind, will we see better rewards for ranks 15 - 4?
  • Great changes that reflect a lot of our frustrations, thanks, I have one more detail to add:

    Live AM 2D Map tab:

    This is one detail I would luv as an officer now more than ever that when we split into two groups we need the other three to decide on stuff alone.

    Can we have a 2D Map of the AM in real time. Imagine if we could see a map type MCoC AW ina special tab of our AM and then know what is happening if me are further up and just can see what’s happening behind us or on the other side.
  • DaveJLDaveJL Posts: 1,779
    I’m very underwhelmed. All that’s been done is a few sig abilities have been halved and one bot been moved because he is bugged and you are hoping moving him will fix him - speaking of which,

    can someone explain Rhinox’s sig ability? As far as I can tell, it says it reduces incoming damage and that the extra strain causes shock, but it doesn’t seem to state the CHANCE of applying a shock debuff. Does it reduce damage every hit? If so, shouldn’t it apply shock every hit? I know scouts have a 50% reduction in chance, apparently, but 50% of what?
  • KillMasterCKillMasterC Posts: 3,105
    edited December 2017
    DaveJL wrote: »
    can someone explain Rhinox’s sig ability? As far as I can tell, it says it reduces incoming damage and that the extra strain causes shock, but it doesn’t seem to state the CHANCE of applying a shock debuff. Does it reduce damage every hit? If so, shouldn’t it apply shock every hit? I know scouts have a 50% reduction in chance, apparently, but 50% of what?
    It is not probability triggered. Well, somehow it is. But it's related to the incoming damage. EVERY time your incoming melee damage goes over 60% of your attack rating, one of Nox's shield explodes and shocks you with 100% chance. Melee crit hits (which themselves are probability triggered) often go over the threshold and trigger shield shock. So if the attacker is a critical-happy bot like Sideswipe, he may often receive shield shock (well he also receive bleed against BC, poor Swipy). If Prowl attacks with 10 stacks of buff, he'll be shocked to death because any of his attack will go over the threshold. That's why Scouts has been granted a 50% chance to evade this shock after the update. Otherwise it's quite unfair for the Scout to Tech class advantage.
    Mirage's has low output, his mediums are even of 2-hit style, so he seldom triggers shock. However, because the shock damage is calculated on the incoming attack, if he fires a S3 on Nox, he'll eat 40% of his own S3 as shock damage!

  • Mufc14Mufc14 Posts: 643
    @kabam Karma
    I have read all your comments here & in the other article, I must say you’re the best.
    I have a question about the upcoming Bot Battle event, it didn’t mention how much points we can earn from map 3 at all just map 1&2.
    Can you tell us if we can earn points from map3& how much?
    Thank you so much.

    5t08bc4qrb9p.png


  • Same question on the bot battle. Love to do ASanctum map again but if no points would be a shame.
  • GojuanesGojuanes Posts: 46
    edited December 2017
    I still see the hemo path at 3.6% instead of 1.8%. Wasn't that change supposed to take effect today?
  • SynthwaveSynthwave Posts: 1,012
    Gojuanes wrote: »
    I still see the hemo path at 3.6% instead of 1.8%. Wasn't that change supposed to take effect today?

    Came here to post the same thing. Mod is still saying 3.6%.
  • Starscream is not using his specials. Had to restart the fight $^%*ing 4 times and he STILL has not used it

    FIX THIS
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