Dev Discussion Episode 33: "Atlantis: The Throne" 8-Player Operation

Discussion in 'Concluded' started by JackFrost, Nov 8, 2018.

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  1. JackFrost Developer

    Howdy!

    We're happy that the new content is being rolled out, including the new 8-Player Operation entitled "Atlantis: The Throne." This is the thread I'll be most closely monitoring for any feedback you have on this particular content.

    Please comment here with any feedback you have specifically related to "Atlantis: The Throne." Any and all information you provide such as whether you're a hero or villain, whether you're playing normal, event, or elite, could be helpful.

    Thanks again to all of the folks who helped test and give feedback on all of the new content on the test server.

    And for everyone getting to play it now, we hope you find it fun!
    • Like x 2
  2. TheLQ-DCUO Loyal Player

    Hello!

    Visually this raid is stunning and up there with some of the best raids we've had normal wise. I really enjoyed running this raid in normal and the better of the two raids mechanics wise as well, doable but mechanics you have to pay attention to.

    I hear a fair few people are beating the elite version of this day 1 however so I'm a bit let down by the lack of difficulty in the elite version. Was really hoping it would be at least a week or two before the more skilful players would be beating this. If anything last boss in Crown of Thorns (Elite) is harder even though I don't know if that was intended. It's a shame as this raid would have been on its way to a 10/10 but if people are beating elite day 1 on the apparent harder raid of the two its dampened it for me a little.

    In terms of my own gameplay, I would have liked the Sea Beast to hit a little harder than it did on some of its attacks. Even without blocking the skull attack with the slam wasn't a massive danger to the group, especially when compared to the Murk fight in COT where wipes are possible and Murk can hit hard with his attacks. The Sea Beast's Slam Skull should have hit harder for those who didn't block, so that like Carol Ferris in Love and War (when it released) you had to block (as well as it be a gear check) to survive (besides the tank). I'd expect this to be much more of a feature in the elite.

    I also wish that the Sea Beast done its strafing run attack a little more often in the Corum Rath fight, again perhaps more with frequency in the elite. And maybe Morgwar could have more of its mechanics from SS, again particularly in elite.

    Maybe in addition if Corum Rath could use his AOE attacks more from the first boss that would give something else to look out for, more so in elite.

    Overall a nice raid with some of the best visual instances in a long time for a raid, and the better raid of the two mechanics wise, let down by its elite version. Personally for me the difficulty in normal is fine, but could be a touch more difficult than it is. Clearly needs buffs in elite.

    Just my two cents.
  3. spack2k Steadfast Player

    Where is the thread for the other raid ?

    -the visual on the ground for the Sea Beast charge is sometimes missing...
    -the visual of Corum raths purple bombs are barely visible.
  4. Shark Dental Devoted Player

    It's there. It an operation, not a raid, so it's harder to find. I had the same problem as you multiple times (finding the thread I mean).
  5. BRITTENY Dedicated Player

    All feedback is from the Elite version of the raid.

    Seabeast
    1. His eating phase and submerging phase can line up to where the person who gets eaten can no longer be freed because the Seabeast submerges. The player is left outside of the area. They can go in the water or on top of the dome that the rest of the group is on. However, they cannot attack the boss and can still get hit by his ground pound.
    2. The ballista doesn't always register the hit to free your ally. It's very spotty. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't, regardless if you hit the target.
    3. Are the brine swarmers supposed to one shot you if they land on you? The window to move when they do jump is incredibly small. I'm not sure if this will no longer be the case once you're fully geared. It's just a bit odd as they seem to act very similar to the Bee-Bots from the last episode. Those would eventually kill you if you didn't move, although they weren't a one-shot even without being fully geared. These will out right one shot kill you. They cannot be continually CC'd or pulled to help prevent this. If this is intended to be a one-shot, that's fine. Just wanted some clarification.
    4. You can be KO'd out in the starting area if you're standing by the entrance from the Seabeast's ground slam.
    Corum
    1. Corum doesn't always obey the tank when he comes out of his immune stage when he's using the artifacts. It's sometimes difficult to aggro him back, regardless if you've taunted him. He will jump to someone else (non-tank) and KO them. This results in an unnecessary death due to this issue.
    2. Are the Drift adds supposed to just stay on the NPC's? As it stands, you don't need to aggro them as the NPC's will just tank them. Is this intended?
    3. Could you also look at Morgwar and how his aggro works? At times, even though he's taunted to me, he'll still rush off to someone else if I'm not standing on top of him. He acts as if he's proximity aggro. I know how his normal attacks work, these are not his scripted attacks he's doing at other people.
    4. Is there a way to fix the screen from bugging out when you have a lot of adds/NPC's/players on the screen? I know the obvious one would be to do a better job at maintaining the adds, but that can't always happen.
    • Like x 2
  6. Ully Committed Player

    My groups have also experienced some of these bugs. The Ballista's need to be looked at because its so dodgy, its not very reliable. The Sea beast submerging players and removing them from the fight is extremely annoying and I'm glad you mentioned Morgwar, I had feeling something was wrong with him.
  7. JackFrost Developer

    Thanks for the feedback!

    Sea Beast
    1) I'll look into #1 shortly and see if I can get a fix in for it.
    2) An improvement for the Ballista ability should be out in the next hotfix that should make it more likely to hit when it seems like it should.
    3) I'm just wanting to make sure you're talking about the Brine Swarmers in the Corum Rath fight? If so, then they spawn when Corum Rath marks a player. They'll try to attack the marked player. They have reduced health and damage, but they do more damage the longer they're alive (up to a point). They're meant not to be ignored when they are summoned (in Elite in particular). If the mechanic is too brutal, I'll consider tuning it, but I don't want to shove in knee-jerked difficulty changes.
    4) Thanks! I'll try and get a fix for this in asap.


    Corum Rath
    1) A minor change was made yesterday which should go out with the next hotfix that should make him more tank-able during in 'invincible' phase, but probably won't affect what you're describing, though it sounds similar. That said, I'll see if I can do something to help with what you're describing.
    2) There are a few Drift adds that will focus on the enemy NPCs by design.
    3) As long as Morgwar is being hit by players, he'll not make a b-line for a pool of water.
    4) I've not seen anything like what your video shows, but I've sent it along for some folks to look at. Are you playing on PC? PS4? XBox One? Additional info may be helpful.

    Thanks again for the feedback/comments. I'll try to get a few fixes in as soon as I'm able.
    • Like x 1
  8. Kid Multiverse Loyal Player

    I really enjoy the first boss fight, it's so fun to see a giant Sea Beast as a boss. But as others have said, the crossbow mechanics are definitely wonky and could be tuned up.

    The final boss is just... miserable. Devs, this is not fun. The first run is kind of nifty but after that, this is a joyless, tiring slog. Please consider adding some additional mechanics to expedite this fight. It's not even that it's a challenge, it's just tedious, especially for the rewards. This fight is a real example of an encounter that just doesn't feel worth the time spent.
    • Like x 1
  9. BRITTENY Dedicated Player

    Yes, the Brine Swarmers. Does Corum do some kind of animation showing he's marked the player? Or is there something on the player to indicate they're marked? If so, I wouldn't change the damage then. If not, it'd be nice if there was some sort of indicator. I wouldn't change the damage as long as there's some way to show the player is marked.

    I'm not talking about that phase, but every time he teleports to the middle to summon one of the artifacts. He does this multiple times throughout the fight. You won't be able to damage him for a brief period of time when he's using the artifacts.

    I understand that. I picked up on that when I was tanking him. It's just at times he has a mind of his own and will go after someone else, not the tank, even though he's been taunted. These aren't his scripted attacks, just normal attacks that should be on me.

    I'm on PS4
  10. Schimaera Devoted Player

    Nope, Brit ment the Brine Creatures spawned in the Sea Beast fight. On the first, thrird and last spawn phase, two small and one big Brine Critters will spawn. The small ones jump to the non-tank players regularly and if you don't immediatley jump away, they will kill you right away.
    She wanted to know if it is intended (I mean, yeah you can just dodge them, not that hard) or not. I've seen many players struggling with them. But don't ask me. I really do think that aside from Corum Rath's purple Orbs in the Sea Beast fight, there is nothing that can easily be dodged :D

    /edit: Well I was way too slow. That's what you get from leaving your browser open without refreshing it before reading everything.. :p
    • Like x 1
  11. Schimaera Devoted Player

    As for Morgwar, Brit is pretty on-point.

    I don't have an issue with him charging to other players - he does that in Spindrift Station as well. What bugs me is that it is basically a random not really preventable one shot if you are using ranged combos or channelling powers since he does extra damage for interrupting you.

    As Prec DPS I get one shotted if it happens and I am not shielded by Controller or Healer. As Heal/Trol I also use ranged combos to generate power. It is pretty difficult to avoid it entirely because there is no tell and no pattern and the initial lunge kills you.
  12. JackFrost Developer

    Thanks for clarifying! I've passed info along about the UI/screen glitchiness you've seen.

    During the Corum Rath fight, while the Cancer Artifact (Crab-looking one) is active/empowered, Corum points a staff at them and fires an Orange-ish beam at a player, and marks them with an Orange-ish aura that will stay on the player until all of the Swarmers are KOed.

    Regarding when Corum comes out of the phases where he's powering up Artifacts, I'm working on a slight change now that will hopefully give players a moment to re-taunt him.

    Regarding Morgwar, he detaunts fairly frequently, so he can resume his priority to get to a water pool and grow. I imagine what's happening is that he's detaunting, and then a player is hitting him inadvertently with area attacks, causing him to hate that player now instead. There may be some adjustments that can be made, but I don't think any change to this behavior will make the next hotfix.

    Thanks again for the help and feedback!
    • Like x 1
  13. JackFrost Developer

    Thanks for chiming in and for the additional perspective! I will look at those Brine Hatchlings/Hulks when I get a chance.
    • Like x 1
  14. Schimaera Devoted Player

    This is just a side-question and more of a QoL thing, but have you thought about implementing visual de-buff symbols above or below the players health? It would be a really neat thing to have considering that somethings so many things are going on, that you can't identify every interaction and effect that is on you, below you or around you.

    Have to say, I haven't realized that this is the mechanic since these swarmers die super quick, but I really love those kinds of mechanics and would welcome more of them on a more difficult level on a regular basis :)

    Something else than big hits and stuff you have to block sounds super fresh and if there would be some mechanics that debuff you and you have to kite adds or maybe even tank swap, would be aweseome.
    Again, just a side note, debuff UI indicators for being marked or debuffed are cool and might even open more space for new mechanics :D
  15. BRITTENY Dedicated Player


    Yeah sorry about that. I was speaking about the brines that spawn during the Sea Beast fight. Not the Corum fight. I understand how those work. And can see the animation on the person they're targeting lol. Sorry for the confusion.
    • Like x 1
  16. TheLQ-DCUO Loyal Player

    Managed to 4 man the elite version of this raid last night. 2 and a half weeks after release. :D

    The only slight issue I can see is when the Brine Swarmers spawn (in last boss) and there are a lot of adds it does start to impact on the frame rate a bit. Not that this should be eased back as the elite raid isn't *that* difficult imo - but it is another of those situations that could potentially cause UI bugs or disconnects. If there was a way to look at frame rates during heavy add phases of raids without nerfing adds or number of adds it would be great going forward.

    I kinda wish that when the Sea Beast does his green goo attack on the outside (again in last boss) that it does a bit more damage than currently. I didn't really find it an issue compared with other factors. Also when Morgwar absorbs a water puddle and does his skull I kinda wish the attack has a slightly larger range. If you're halfway or more across the room it doesn't really do anything - though of course I would recommend blocking that skull/preparation animation before anyways. There'd be a red message about Morgwar absorbing the water pool so there would be time for the group to prepare for the skull attack - ie. Morgwar skull is very well messaged.

    Overall the elite raid is enjoyable and reasonably challenging - but would benefit from a few small tweaks harder here and there as aforementioned.

    I've also noted that recently Sea Beast isn't too keen to charge right after the red arrows appear, so thanks to the devs that seemingly addressed this. :)
  17. Schimaera Devoted Player

    First, congraz on this four man. Always happy to see people still doing things like this. I thought it already went extinct.
    Just a small personal feedback: I would have loved to watch the whole fight but a sped up version is exhausting to watch in general. I would have taken the time to watch the slow real-time run. That goes for all vids that way. :)
    Also I am kinda curious about the scoreboard. How many attempts did you need? How long were you in there? And gz to the Risen Runner feat as well :D

    On your post, I agree with you. The Sea Bests goo on the ground could be more damaging. Though I think that with the alread small area and corums up to two AoEs it would be just annoying.

    It woulnd't be a problem though, if Corum Rath's white AoE Circles had a much clearer tell, devs. Same goes for his orb-spin-attack of which I forgot the name as well. These are just random ranged one shots sometimes.

    Also, I would love it if you could raise the ceiling a bit? The camera angle turns all the time and it's sometimes difficult to have a clear view of Corum Rath flying around when fighting the sea beast.

    Speaking of the sea beast: Sometimes (but not that often) the red lines that indicate its charge only appear once it started charging. Meaning you can't get out of the way early and with all players without Enchanted Corals at Rank 23 it mostly means a quick death.
    Elite should be about coordination and movement and not about guessing a random direction :)
    • Like x 1
  18. Gambo323 Level 30

    Wassup with not getting op collections. Are you serious what do have to do to get these please help
  19. JackFrost Developer

    A fix that I hope resolves this issue (and similar issues) should go out with the next hotfix. I don't think that hotfix will go out for a couple of days though. Please let me know if you continue seeing anything like this later in the week.

    Thanks again for all of the feedback everyone!
    • Like x 2
  20. myandria Item Storage

    Hmm...

    Is it possible to move the investigations and briefings from the stair landings to inside the boss areas? It is difficult to get to them when other players rush in. I've had this issue with pug and non-pug groups; if you miss them there is no way of going back to get any of them and you have to do the operation over again (it took me 7 attempts before I could get them all).

    Or, consider changing the "auto-enter" group to an "enter encounter" portal to give other players time to get to those investigations and briefings. I do not like the idea of one person forcing the entire team to appear in the boss area if everyone isn't exactly ready.
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