Test Discussion Episode 37: LexCorp Tower (Solo)

Not only H.I.V.E Master, but Steve too, though not every time, but where every 3-4 times (I did solo very, very many times today).

I just checked in a fix for this.

-Millbarge

Can you add a healing barrel too in the boss fights

Lobo’s voice sucks! That’s all i got right now...lol

- The implausibly impassable glass doors that gate our progress and make us watch Superman flail at and subsequently struggle to open them are pretty obnoxious from both an immersion and gameplay perspective (and they're quite ugly to look at)
- Mostly because of the constant gatekeeping, the solo takes ~45-60s too long, ultimately feels slow, and doesn't have the capacity to get much faster as we get stronger since most of the delay is due to waiting on doors and the actual fighting is already over very quickly. It would be nice if you'd remove the arbitrary progression blocks and let us train to the critical points then simply lock the CSs til all enemies defeated. That makes a lot more sense and is a lot more engaging for the player than "wait > kill 2 mobs > wait..... > kill one mob > ….waaaaiiit…… > fml." If the intent is to slow us down, please do it with more enemies instead; a good place for that would be the large vertical busted-down room with the beams protruding into the air, as it's a big open space with good verticality and would make for a fun free-for-all with a lot of enemies. Alternatively, you could have lobo become temporarily invulnerable once or twice during lb and force us dodge two his cycle's attacks in quick succession, which would also help add some gravity to the lb.
- The tech/gadgets/scan effect that comes out of Superman's eyes when he looks at the gauntlet at the start is awkward/wrong/out-of-place af imo. We all already know he can see things normal people can't so him turning into a tricorder for a sec is a lil immersion killing imo.
- Lois and Jimmy getting into an elevator in a bombed out building felt like pretty bad writing. Also, not sure if intended but Jimmy's camera bot started strobing pretty much non-stop on a few of my runs. Lastly, the shutter sound effect on the drone doesn't feel right (imo either something a lot more subtle or no sound at all would work better).
- Music throughout seems broken (eg. no boss music)
- Maybe it's just me but I found the camera angles on both Lois' and Black Canary's CSs to be extremely unflattering. Strongly encourage the use of a slightly wider shot for both.
- The camera direction during the HIVE Master cutscene needs work. Made me feel like I was watching an early-development N64/PS1 cutscene with the "weird fade to black multiple times to show peoples' backs at consoles" thing; made for a poor establishing shot. A pan shot or roaming camera would feel a lot better here (and prevent close-ups of the ugly af low res textures on the x-ray displays around the room).
- Lobo occasionally ignores me almost entirely during his fight
- Personally I like all of Lobo's VO except for the very first line the VA delivers. The intro line is week and leaves a bad first impression but the rest felt good.
- Lois' VO felt a lil clunky. Eg. she's alone with Jimmy, and talking to him fairly colloquially, but doing it in a very stiff anchor voice which made me feel like the VA didn't have context. Just feels a lil out of place.
- It's overall a decent enough solo and the Lobo fight especially is very well done but all the above-mentioned stuff gave me a bad first impression of this content. Just feels like it needs some polishing. As the (ideally) first exposure players will have to a new episode, the solo should feel better

Update: Finally got a run at the more appropriate 5:30 timeframe but my behaviour/movement/tempo was the same and mob/boss clear times were comparable so not sure where the delay is generally coming from. Sometimes Superman takes longer to interact with the doors than others though and, regardless, I think this would be a lot better without the doors at all.

Additional points:
- Lobo's bike's movement during the cutscene is a lil choppy when it's turning its nose subtly. Not huge but frustrating and more than enough to catch my eye in a negative light
- Any chance we could get a new Profanity Filter On/Off option for voice lines? I love that Lobo curses, and it's passable with it bleeped out, but I'd much rather actually hear it.

Bug Report


I was testing out what would happen if I tried wiping on each of the bosses. When I wiped on HIVE Master, I flew back and found I couldn't target him. Nothing I was doing would do any damage to him. He was able to do a lot of damage to me though.

Bug:

Adds respawn on the lower Level of the solo if you return from Lobo.

Everytime you kill them, then go back to the last boss room and return to the start they respawn.

The red ring was there from the start and no yellow ring anymore. I waited for the time to run out and then i could toggle the teleport Symbol. But Nothing happened.

And yes, i waited for 30 minutes for the Teleporter…

I changed it to a red ring so players were less likely to think it was an actual exit.

-Millbarge

This is probably a dumb question but is there an actual exit? Or am I just blind? Kept resorting to warping out (but haven't checked since this change).

This sign is still up, and the timer is set to ~30Minutes. After that you can activate it and nothing happens.

If this is not supposed to be a teleporter, then this is definitely confusing to everyone.

there is one on the window side of the room.

I may have missed it, but can we get a terminal to turn off the cutscenes in here, thanks.

I like that the solo is short, i mean even with cut scenes it took me literally 5 min... on live probably 4min.

People should still have the option.

I know It's just the event version but I think it should have some challenge to it still. Lobo just melts...He either needs more health or do more damage. This fight is just spank and leave. Normal is challenging for me but I'll just learn the mechanics, no need to touch it.

Just one note on regular: Why am I stuck in combat after getting knocked out and halfway away from Lobo?
I wanted to fix my gear and couldn't.

And, in any version, Supes can get stuck behind doors so he can't break the doors.

How you managing that? I'm speed dashing throughout the entire level when in combat, every add already melts instantly, HIVE Master dies in seconds (<5-6), but still with the long CSs and Superman being slow to open doors I'm lucky to trigger the Lobo CS at the 4:30-5:00 min mark. There's nowhere I can shave any time off that's within my control. How long is Supes taking for you before he interacts with obstacles and what's your spawn-in time?

Semi-related side-note: Looks like Lobo's health got a much needed buff recently, his fight feels a bit more appropriate now. Previously, he went down pretty much as fast as HIVE Master did which was trivializing his mechanics.

Feedback:

• It didn't happen in the recorded run but there have been a few times where Superman at the beginning of the solo got stuck outside the main entrance and didn't heat vision the glass doors so you are left standing around for 10+ seconds not being able to progress until they break, while superman will float up and down outside
• In the video when Hive Master does his laser he gets interrupted by the ARGUS Officer which cancels the heat vision but I still take damage from it/it became invisible at 3:37 in the clip
• I didn't see any consoles to skip cutscenes, I may have not waited long enough but that Lois Lane one is quite long and adds unnecessary time when we'll be repeatedly running this each day etc

Nothing much else was a good solo, fun, good duration, chances to die

This HAS to be fixed before it hits live. If I get knocked out once in the H.I.V.E Master boss fight he can't take any damage anymore and I will be getting damaged while stuck in combat:


It makes in unplayable forcing you to reqeue and do it all over again.