Test Discussion Episode 30: Escape from Earth 3 Raid

Hello everyone! The three versions of the "Escape from Earth 3" Raid should now be on the PCTest server.

Note that the Event version of the raid is accessible by any player level 10 or above (though I realize on PCTest, level 30 is as low as it goes). Also note that the Elite version of the raid doesn't require that you've completed the Normal version.

I'm going to be monitoring this thread for any feedback specific to this raid. If you get a chance to play through this content, please leave any notes here. Also, please mention if your feedback is specific to the Event, Normal, or Elite version of the raid.

We really appreciate your help in further checking out the new content before it goes live! Thanks again!

Although I like the raids , I was hoping to see more than 3 bosses...I mean we only see Ultraman ,Superwoman and Owlman.
I was hoping to see evil version of Green Lantern ,evil version of Firestorm and others.

Normal Version:
No bugs found.
Feedback::
Just like Samuiel said, i expected to see more bosses. I like the 1st boss, but i expected the drones to do something, they can just be completelly ignored. The last boss fight is cool, but i think this raid is missing lore, there's a lot to be said about earth 3 that's been missed, i hope there's a earth 3 pt 2 in the future.

Is it intended for the raids to have only 2 loots? Panopticon and The escape.

Feedback
Regarding the end-game version of The Escape, can a different graphic be used for for the player encasement on the Killbot 3000 fight? Here is an example:


If you're a Gadgets player, that encasment looks very similar to a Neural Neutralizer shield, Battle Drone shield, or Absoprtion Adapter shield. I can see that causing some confusion.

Question

1. What interrupted my rally attempt and teleported me in this video on the Kill Bot 3000?


Is there someway to prevent myself from being teleported? Being teleported in the middle of a cog attempt is problematic for a number of reasons.


2. I get encased during the Kill Bot 3000 fight and use a breakout power. I was expecting to be freed of the encasement, but that didn't happen. Is that mechanic working properly?



3. What does this console in the final fight of The Escape do?


These tubes keep activating, but the game never tells you what they are supposed to be doing.

Feedback
The ending to Escape from Earth 3 doesn't feel very satisfying or make sense in some regards. When I saw the portal open up, I was expecting the third epic boss fight. Instead, the raid ends with a giant whimper.

My reaction was, "That's it? The CSA made a big escape and we're not going to worry about them at all? We're going to ignore Batman's warning about trusting Luthor? We're just going to leave this giant portal and ominous danger alone? After completely messing up the balance of power in this dimension, we're heading back to our Earth like nothing ever happened? Lex Luthor wants to stay and help out while Superman wants to escape? " Some of that strains suspension of disbelief.

The whole raid storyline felt rather forced to me. I had a hard time believing that a rational person like Lex Luthor - a man that always has a backup plan in DCUO and plausible deniability - would just run off by himself in a rage to invade the Panopticon. Nevermind the fact that he didn't do any recon work on Ultraman.

As is, the whole storyline ends with what feels like a giant blinking "To be Continued" sign. There isn't much sense of closure.

I had the same feeling, when i saw the portal i felt like the anti-monitor or something big was coming, but the raid just ends like: "Screw it, we have better things to do, doesn't matter if Alexander Luthor dies or earth 3 is destroyed, muahahahaha", the raid and the episode had so much potential just like Riddled with Crime, but was completelly missed.

I've seen the cutscene and it seems like it was referencing Omega Man. Would have been even better if he was summoned there and then and was like "You won't return to your world! All worlds will tremble before Omega Man" or such like. Then boss fight with Omega Man. Would have been an epic finale to the raid and with 3 bosses rather than 2.

Suggestions/Feedback
This is for the End-game version of Escape from Earth 3.

1. It is really easy to die without warning after the first cutscene:


You're only given a couple of seconds before the first set of NPCs spawns on the NE part of the room. That can easily get you insta-killed if you're on the north part of the cutscene lineup.


2. Up until the Kill Bot 3000 appears, the mission objective is to "Infiltrate Crime Syndicate's Panopticon." After you enter the first room and start fighting the Security Mechs, should that be replaced with "Eliminate the Security Robots"?


3. That Kill Bot 3000 isn't melee friendly at all. The people I saw trying to melee him at CR 210 died literally dozens of times and I had to keep rallying them.


4. Is this a case of bad grammar?


"Panopticon Defenses Summon Drone" doesn't sound right at all, especially when multiple drones are being summoned.


5. The game doesn't say anything about what the consoles do in the Kill Bot 3000 fight. I'm still not entirely sure what they do even after rewatching my playthrough. The results seemed to vary from taking down shields to summoning more drones.


6. In the final fight, the game doesn't say anything about what the tubes around the room do. Some messaging for those would be good.


7. Visibility is a real problem in the final fight if you have a bunch of pet users on the team. With three bosses, three allied NPCs, eight teammates, random orbital strikes, and lots of pets running around, the boss fight becomes quite chaotic. You're supposed to be watching for the tubes around the room to become active while all of that is happening. I don't know how anyone is supposed to see specific boss tells in an environment like that.

Questions
1. What did I get hit by at the start of this video in the final fight? It didn't put me in combat.


2. What drains my Supercharge meter at 5 seconds in this video?

It is intended for the Escape raid to only have 2 loot drops. I don't believe that's the intent for the Panopticon raid. I believe that the issue was reported in that thread (or the loot thread). We'll look into it. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback!
1) The video has some low rez graphics for the first ~10 seconds, but from what I can tell (without seeing a clear image or combat log), it looks like the Killbot was doing some swipe attacks that likely hit you. It didn't look like the red beams that the Drones fire were hitting you, but that's a possibility as well.
1a) You were being teleported? I'm not sure exactly which mechanic you might be describing. The Killbot will teleport around the room, but other than if your group triggers a matinee/cutscene, you shouldn't be teleported around at all by any of the mechanics.
2) The Lockdown Drone will encase players while its alive. Currently, that is unresistable/unbreakable for the duration of the ability, and therefore working as intended. I'll consider changing it, but it is meant to be annoying enough that you'll actually want to destroy the drones (ie. take down the shields in Normal/Elite, then destroy them).
3) There are 2 of them that activate at the same time. They both need be secured within the time limit to disable those Antimatter Batteries.

I hope this helps!

Players on here have been asking for more loot drops in raids for awhile now. But most of us thought the 3 drops wasnt going to change. Now its less for this raid?

Thanks for the reply JackFrost.

1. Something happens at 7 second mark in that video and it looks like my character is moved/teleported inside a set of orange rings. Several bombs appear shortly after that. I'm not exactly sure what happened. Notice how the camera reorients itself. Can you watch the video on Youtube instead of watching the embedded video? You'll get full HD quality that way.

3. Pardon my asking, but what do the Antimatter Batteries do? Is their functionality referenced inside the instance?

1) I'll move a few things around slightly to make it easier to be aware that the Robots have been summoned.
2) I was originally thinking of 'Infiltrating' as including the Security Bots being sent to defend the Panopticon, but I see your point. I'll get a change in.
3) During internal testing our tank was able to direct a number of his melee attacks away from the group. I think they were trying to stay on his backside as best they could. But I'll take a look at things and maybe make a couple of tweaks.
4) There's a notification every time a single drone is summoned by the Panopticon's defenses. Most of the time, two drones are summoned back to back, so the message triggers twice, but sometimes it's only one. I'll think about other ways of messaging when the Panopticon's Defense Systems summon a drone.
5) Well, there's a few ways I was trying to message what's happening with this mechanic, including the icons on the consoles, the mid-screen messages, the bulletins on the side of the screen indicating how many shielded drones are up (in normal mode), and the feat descriptions. My hope was that players would figure it out, but maybe there's something else I can do beyond spelling it out on the forums. I'll think it over some more.
6) I'll see what I can add to help message that mechanic.
Thanks for the additional feedback!

1) The Antimatter Accelerator, which Johnny Quick is powering up. It's what's opening the portal that the Crime Syndicate is trying to use to send the Panopticon to our Earth. As he speeds up, it pulses damaging energy more frequently throughout the fight.
2) The gold-colored Antimatter Battery Discharge field is what is draining your supercharge while you're near it (while its active). The blue-colored field drains power, and the red field ticks for damage.
I hope this helps. Cheers!

1) I'm about 99% sure that it's the Killbot's melee swipe. I'll look at it. I think it's a pushback, which I may remove.
3) I touched on this in reply to another one of your questions in this thread.

I have two questions about the encasement mechanic.

1. Are players shielded from damage while trapped inside the encasement? I'm just wondering if the encasement absorbs damage while the player is immobilized.

2. What happens if the tank is trapped? Will being encased cause the boss to drop aggro on the tank?

So...it seems like 2 bosses duos and alerts werent enoguh. Now its Raids too. Thats sad.