Development Update: The Stats Revamp

ok well it was my only question for now ty for answering thoughtfully

Because we've all been through this before. It always turns out "great".

Notice the big changes they're making now? That's because of how "great" the last idea was.

theres the option of leagues, friends, and making your own group.

Well Im gonna go get as many mods i can before they run out, i hope you guys have a good alternative in place, otherwise you're gonna see a lot of complaining on forums when this goes live

The only other thing i am concerned about is if every powerset going to have a viable melee and range option. But ill wait till the test server update.
All the other ideas are promising

But these changes are reversing the "last idea" and in fact making the previous system even better, more fluid and customisable.

Ah, you're one of those. Never mind, carry on

A friend and I back in oc days were both full time trolls we loved trolling together and loved the challenge in keeping a group powered.

Trolling has become dumb and mindless so trust me true trolls will be happy with this change.

The only ones upset will be those people that don't accept what trolls primarily are and were for in the first place and that is blue bar healing.

It's not hard to do that and debuff and cc etc the only ones that struggled with that were not even good in the first place.

Not a problem

they know what they did was a big nono!!! now there trying to fix it...I hope. so, we will just have to wait and see. what good does it do to have a bunch off no skill ppl that are making ppl like me say...enough...im done. I have not payed or played for a time now. and wont till the fix is in and its working. whats the point of paying and playing when you can get nothing done with no skill players...???

Get outta here clipping is part of what makes this game unique and fun if you don't like it don't do it. But don't expect to do as much damage if you want to see your pew pew go off.

Go pug a group for DWF on the villain side and tell me how long it takes,

All theses changes are going to cause new problems like

Player segregation
"Oh you only have 190sp not running with you"
"you running with vendor mods not running with you"
"let me inspect you before I let you in me group"
"we don't want you to DPS only support roles for you til you have 250sp"

I pug DWF almost every week on villain side. What's the question?

All of that happens now....

I was one of those people that felt like sp didn't matter before this update, but I still have more then enough. When WM first came out I only had 121 sp and caught dead lagging behind. I didn't want that to happen with this update so I grinded on and off. If people lack the sp they have no one else to blame but themselves. If you're new, don't rush, take your time with your cr and get your sp as well, too easy.

Takes awhile to find support roles on the villain side. That's what he means.

I know it happens now. I wont run DWF with some one with a CR of 168 or lower. I just feel it will get worse and will be unplayable for those who have <150sp and are 175 CR.

So a power like Rage. Will it be able to still run melee powers and not rely on a weapon at all? Or are you wanting powers to be earned through using your Wep or controller? Also a good comparison of sps to have in Instances now is having your CR equal to your SPS. If someone is cr175 with 175sps and this update dropped now. Could that character still survive fine in the latest T8 content?

1 more quick question. Are you erasing synth mods from the game? Or just keeping the 6's and not making anymore after that point? Thank you for the time if you read this.

Well its actually nice to finally see devs realizing what we've been saying for years: WM/AM are limiting and they suck the fun out of the game. As much as saying i told you so is tempting, instead I think im going to congratulate you on having the balls to admit you made a poor game design choice, despite it being very late.

So instead of waiting another 2 years which will eventually end up in you admitting we were right again, lets start discussing of bringing back old style clipping and j/c. In fact what you need is to dust off GU33, take the combat from there and make some tweaks (PD from SS to iconics would be a good start) and give us the unique game we fell in love with.

The executes were being updated during the near/mid pass. The only ones that were not touched were the combo powers.

Had work today, was like ew. Then I saw this and am dancing away with the paperwork!

OK, I've reread the OP and watched the stream, as well as read much of the commentary in this thread. My overall take is that these changes, while likely time-consuming will take the game to a much better place than anything we got from GU 36 or 47.

Comments on specific aspects:

1. Stats Revamp:

One of my primary concerns about the removal of CR differential was the fact that without commensurate changes to the weapon trees and mods, stat boosts would actually be less significant. Additionally, the main issue with CR differential was the clunky implementation for the scaling throughout levels of content, making CR seem like a huge factor at times and a minor factor at others. The proposed changes address both of these issues. Boosts derived from SP and mods will be more significant and will scale appropriately, and the whole scaling system will be smoothed out. Yes, we will have inflated stats, once again, but it sounds like they will be handled better than before. Plus, some folks just like to see big numbers, rather than have them hidden in a scaling factor.

2. Removal of AM and WM bonus damage and power return:

Bravo. Seriously, bravo. While conceptually interesting, game play of these was mostly uninteresting. The AMs seriously restricted the number of viable abilities in an already restricted loadout. WM was never well-balanced, resulting in only a handful of viable weapons being used. Both created tremendous power creep, which lead to content being balanced around them and, in turn, alienating players who were less experienced or wanted to play differently. From one of the responses given by Mepps and some of the discussion on the stream, it seems that ability and weapon combo damage will be based more on total animation duration and whether the attack is ranged or melee. Damage modifiers are also being eliminated. These changes are particularly impressive, because they will open potentially up many more viable loadouts, including use of iconic and movement mode abilities.

The narrowing of the gap between damage and support is also needed, as it is part of the solution to damage stacking. We still need to see more support-based mechanics added back, though, if we want to see the return of balanced groups. This is a good start.

3. Enhancing Supercharges:

Yes, please! In most every other game I've played, SC are the well-timed nukes that you build up to throughout combat. They can make or break a run. Having them all be worthwhile as loadout choices will be amazing!

4. Modifying Power and Power Regeneration:

With the removal of AM and WM power bonuses, this is a necessity. I liked Avair acknowledging that controllers should not just be batteries and that the team wants to emphasize their actual controlling abilities in content. I foresee substantial power cost reductions across the board with improved self-regeneration. Controllers will PoT and only dump when the team is under duress. The rest of the time, they will focus on stuns and debuffs. This is how it should be.

5. Removing Power Points:

While this initially shocked me more than anything else on the list, the planned implementation shown on the stream looks great. This will only add to the build variety. No longer will you be forced to go deep into one part of the tree for a must-have ability and have to forego others, due to lack of PP. This, in combination with the proposed balancing, will blow the game wide open in terms of viable loadouts. What fun we'll have experimenting with orphan abilities!

6. Ending Midrange:

Yeah, no need for that anymore. While a lot of time was spent, it's good riddance. Too cumbersome and difficult to balance across powersets--not to mention weapon attacks.

7. Preparing for the Future:

I don't know if it's apparent to everyone how huge these changes are for future development of the game. Here are a few things to chew on. They've simplified scaling through improved systems. No longer should we have big differences in feel from one piece of content to the next. They've separated stat trees from weapon trees. Now, both can be expanded independently! Someone on the stream asked about new weapons. Avair demured, but the possibility is greater now than before. Previously, weapons were so closely tied to stat boosts that adding another really changed the whole setup. That's why, after WM was introduced, I figured we'd never see another weapon. No longer a problem there. Weapons and stats can be addressed independently. We may see more iconic abilities added, and since they all will only be purchased with SP (and be balanced relative to powerset abilities), the options are expanded even more. Think of how many situational armories you could create for a single character! Most importantly, this simplified approach will be much more robust going forward, allowing the team to focus efforts on what we all really want: new content!

TL;DR: These are the most promising changes to the game I've seen since joining in November 2011. They will take time, but they will definitely be worth the wait. Mark my words. The future is bright!

-Rem