Test Discussion Episode 30: Injustice System

I just implemented a Rage immunity that will last while in the cell and 3 seconds after you exit the cell to allow Rage players to react accordingly.

Question
If a searching SWAT Drone is attacked from behind, should that set off its alarm?

Feedback
I know Owlman has an audio tell, but you won't hear it if you have the sound turned down. As such, can the "Disarm Bombs" warning be flashed a bit sooner?


It doesn't help to display the warning a couple of seconds before the bombs explode.

The mid screen actually happens twice. Once when the bombs start ticking down and again halfway through the timer, after 6 seconds. I actually erred a second more than halfway so I'll move it a second or two sooner. The timer does cancel if the citizens are all saved before the midscreen goes off again.

It wasn't set up that way initially but now is with the next hotfix or so.

Sometimes the "beginning" timer doesn't appear. Here is a video of two full bomb cycles from today:


The first cycle from 6 to 16 seconds worked.

I don't know when the second cycle started. The camera was panned up to attack Owlman and there was no starter warning. I saw the second warning for that cycle at 37 seconds a couple of seconds before they went kaboom.

I know Owlman gave an audio tell for that second cycle, but you can't always rely on that.

Unfortunately other mid screen messaging will queue up with each other, plus, any kind of messaging that shows up due to being reminded to hit Shift to clear crowd control type of messaging will get in the way and push the mid screen messaging back. Data wise, that mid screen is set to activate as soon as he starts talking about it.

I can 1) push the mid screen back until after his VO is done 2) give priority to that particular mid screen over the Perch mid screen and 3) put that particular message, since it's a difficult feat to get and difficult thing to survive if you're not aware of it, on the bulletin messaging in addition to the mid screen and above changes.

Thanks for the reply Charon.

Giving priority over the Perch message and putting up a bulletin notice seems reasonable.

Feat Description needs to be changed

If the following is true, which can be found on the development updates at
https://www.dcuniverseonline.com/news/dcuo-episode-30-earth-3-development-update-2017?cid=1071067

then the following feat description needs to be changed:

Quick, Fast And In A Flurry: Collect all styles in the Johnny Quick (Elite) set. Completing this feat will grant you a cost reduction on the elite Head, Shoulder, Legs, Hands, Feet, Back, and Waist items from the Earth 3 Equipment Supplier.

Since the Enhanced/Elite style is a loot drop and merely the regular style is available at the vendor, there cannot be a vendor discount at all.

The elite style feat should read:

Quick, Fast And In A Flurry: Collect all styles in the Johnny Quick (Elite) set.

Cheers,
AP

Thanks for the feedback. Can you post that in this thread if you haven't already? Thanks!

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/episode-30-rewards-feedback.292351/unread

Bug Report
What are the internal writing guidelines for comma usage at Daybreak Games? One thing that has been bugging me about Injustice System is the writer does not use the Oxford comma style. Instead, we get this:


Take a look at the "Charged With" line. All of the evidence files are written in this style. The Oxford comma is typically used elsewhere in game. Mepps uses the Oxford comma when writing news announcements. So what's different here?

Feedback
In the Judge, Jury, and Executioner fight, it is almost impossible to hear the audio tells related to what powers are being loaded and when they expire. Consider this video:


At 4 seconds, Zazzala's profile is downloaded and you only hear a very muffled audio clip. There is a clip at 26 seconds about the profile expiring. That clip is almost inaudible.

Unless you have subtitles enabled, you're not going to know what powers are being loaded and when they expire. That seems like important information. I know a message about downloading is displayed in the middle of the screen at 15 seconds, but it doesn't provide any useful information about who or what is being deployed. That's in spite of the fact that is impossible to see Zazzala's attacks being used (Are they even used in this video?).

There are more stop gaps being forced between VO overlaps soon. That may not help the volume tho as it probably is too low a pitch. We can no longer get that changed before launch but I can speak to Sound to ask them to increase the volume on that. In the interimI can add a bunch of new mid screens that spell out which one was downloaded. That can take place before it goes Live.



And yes, there are Queen Bee FX in there. I saw some pollen FX in the video clip (starting at 21 seconds). She also does pollen bombs but it all depends on what their AI has them do and how long that profile is active. That, coupled with, FX culling which can happen when a lot of FX are on screen by players and NPCs means you may not see all of them all the time sadly. We have no way to select certain attacks to always have FX visible regardless of client culling.

lol. I love that sarcasm

Feedback
1. Exactly how does the imprisonment mechanic work on the Judge, Jury, and Executioner fight?


None of the bailiffs are out yet at the 20 second mark. I think the Judge is doing a gavel attack on me, but I don't think that is tied to the mechanic. The warning for the Bailiff shows up at 36 seconds.

Also, am I getting hit with a "Power Debuff" at 27 seconds? Notice the red lightning bolt.


2. Aside from the audio issues in the Judge, Jury, and Executioner fight, it is really hard to tell how the Underground powers are going to manifest themselves. I can't say I saw anything that looked similar to Captain Atom or Major Force during that sequence.



2. A couple of issues on the Owlman fight:


a) By the 6 second mark, his audio is very muffled. His follow-up "If you think I care, at all, about the citizens of Gotham...think again" line is inaudible.

b) How long is counter-immunity supposed to last on NPCs again? I see him flashing blue in the video at 12 seconds. He's still flashing blue at 19 seconds. If Owlman gets counter immunity right before his skull attack and you try to lunge him to interrupt him, you're dead.


3. About those commas again, Oxford-style is used in the first office in this alert:


But the "Charged With" lines all use the AP style:


Would it be possible to ask the writer about the inconsistent usage of commas in content?

1) Bailiffs only come out now when one of the bosses gets defeated. The VO supports an old mechanic where the judge would debuff you (with those gavels) and while that gavel effect was on you, the bailiffs would subdue you and teleport you into the cells. Now the judge does that by himself with I find you in contempt VO. The VO can be edited to not say escort the players to the cells but not until our first hotfix. If it's too problematic and confusing, I can just take the line out entirely but there probably won't be any VO support for when the bailiffs are called. So - the judge does the teleport to either holding cell (it takes turns which one it does) and it happens at the end of the gavel attack.

2) More VO spacing was put in yesterday so it should be a bit less cluttered. As much as we're going to get probably. The robot VO for the download will be bumped up in a hotfix and if the stars align themselves, I'll be doing the midscreen messaging per Justice Underground type to go along with the VO and subtitles. I saw at least 2 sets of FX in that clip from Grodd and Star Sapphire. They happen. I didn't see Q-Ranger either but you were in the cell when he got his profile expired and put in that cell pretty quickly after he got the powers (see below).

Basically, they have it for roughly 40 percent of their health - whether it starts at 50 percent and ends at 10 percent health, or 70 to 30, etc. They are spaced out some so they don't overlap as much. Q-Ranger has 3 Quantum Powers. Each profile has 3 signature moves from the counterpart on our Earth. Granted, some are less fleshed out than others since we didn't have those characters in our game yet. Major Force isn't very fleshed out so I added other quantum powers to him like Quantum Life, Warp Barrage, and Quantum Wave.

They start 10 seconds to 15 seconds (roughly, some are different based on the power level) after the profile switch. I can make them happen sooner so you are more likely to see some of their powers before 40 percent of their health is chewed through.

You are suppressed in that cell. I chose that symbol to have a UI component to it. It goes away when you leave and you shouldn't be able to use tray powers while in that cell anyway. Sadly, we are limited to a very select and small amount of UI elements to show beneath your bar when affected by a debuff.

3) I can have the sound increased but again, hotfix. The VO is flavor and not relevant to mechanics. I don't know about the counter immunity thing, if it's global or something we can control on a case by case basis. I'll look into it. EDIT - it's global based on the profile we select (which are global per type of NPC if done correctly). It is correctly assigned to "group boss" which gives him 10 seconds immunity. If you see it last longer than 10 seconds, clearly, in a video - we can delve into it further but from what I can see, it got applied at 9 seconds and then removed at 19 (if it went beyond that I wasn't able to tell unfortunately).

4) I'll let the writer know.

Thank you for the reply Charon.


1. The subtitle for that part was "We find you in contempt! Bailiffs!"

So knowing there were going to be some Bailiffs showing up, my plan was to stay away from them. Instead I get sent straight to jail without knowing about the Judge mechanic.

If you're following the audio tells or subtitles, that could be confusing.

It isn't a game-breaker, but it does leave you scratching your head.


2. That's problematic. There were no subtitles about abilities for Grodd being loaded. There was just one for Q-Ranger. I saw one for Star Sapphire show up later in the fight. I can upload the clip for the entire fight if that would help you debug it.


3. For a skull mechanic that you're supposed to interrupt, 10 seconds of immunity seems rather long to me. The player's counter immunity lasts for a second and only allows you to absorb a fraction of the damage you're going to receive.

My lesson from this is "just block" if you're directly in front of that attack. There is a non-trivial chance you'll be killed if you try to react with the correct counter.

Removed the "Bailiffs!" Part in the VO some time ago for those reasons but the string tables didn't update for some reason, so I just removed them so that won't show up in the subtitles now. Good catch.

I assumed Grodd was downloaded due to seeing that purple sphere around you. That could also be from a Mentalist player in the group, potentially. There are subtitles for all of them but they can queue based on timing of other mid screen messaging/subtitles. I'm adding the mid screen messaging for each profile type as we.. type.

I'll look into #3 further a bit later today. If there's something else I can edit via the abilities he has on them then I can make changes. Otherwise, if it's global then it's global and a change won't likely come quickly since it will affect all other NPCs using it. Will require further investigation.

Also, the Justice Underground Abilities will fire off quicker so the results of the downloaded file can be seen more clearly/often.