Engineer Nano Document: Summary, Discussion and Feedback.

[Takun]

What the hell is wrong with you? -.-

That neither of my professionals have taken an English course! That and neither of them worship at the temple of bacam.

The comment made perfect sense to me when I read it allowed. Wasn't even grammatically flawed or in need of punctuation.

Well being a bureaucrat I wouldn't expect much from you anyways.

I'd love a pulsing heavy NR boost, have it last say 3s every 40s, and boost for like 500 NR.

Passive things are bad. (just look at keepers!) Making a player react to a situation and use their tool set to deal with it is a much better idea - personally I think AO needs MUCH better management of buffs / debuffs (most likely a reduction in their number, and making certain things much more obvious to the player) if you want to start talking about doing things of this nature you need to do that first.

Greets,



Takun

[-Stage-]

This is as bad as the time he tried to tell Ella his greeting was wrong.

Regardless, stay on topic. Post feedback or post in another thread.

[quieter456]

That neither of my professionals have taken an English course! That and neither of them worship at the temple of bacam.

Many here, myself and Stage among them, have sipped of the kool-aid from your temple. It was not potent enough

Passive things are bad. (just look at keepers!)

I don't agree that passive things are bad. But having 3 random seconds of +500 NR every 40 is, frankly, useless in every conceivable situation.

[Takun]

Many here, myself and Stage among them, have sipped of the kool-aid from your temple. It was not potent enough

Perhaps you tried it on the wrong day, we do grape on monday - wednesday, cherry on thursday - saturday and sunday is a special treat, it's strawberry.

I don't agree that passive things are bad. But having 3 random seconds of +500 NR every 40 is, frankly, useless in every conceivable situation.

Passive POSITIVE things are okay, Passive NEGATIVE things are bad.

Example - having a passive +damage aura (like the one we have now) is okay. Most all of our passive negative (debuff) nanos need a rework, an aura should never be worked around having to 'recast' it to 'force it' into someones NCU when they get in range of it. What I'm saying is instead of having DVP be a passive AOE aura it should be something we cast when we're in trouble and the melee closes on us, something like -1000 AR + blind for 10 seconds which can't be broken by damage. (and then give it like a 40 second cool down)

To put it more into game terms, you see a martial artist, pet attack! Q! etc the martial artist gets in your face (you insta cast DVP) hes ****ed up and you kite / cocoon / whatever away from him.

Lastly I haven't been keeping up on all the new stuffs, but are damage shields still going to be halved in pvp? no real reason to anymore, since it is suppose to be part of many classes 'defenses' and I am certain low HP specs arn't really viable anymore. I would also ask that the NCU cost of our damage shields get lowered so we can actually use them on our widow to help him mongo crush!

Also I am fine with our damage shield line as long as the top one is called "shield of bacam" and buffs our chemical damage.

Greets,


Takun

[aramsunat]

the nano changes seem pretty much acceptable to me though I can agree with some of the concerns

also I would wish to add another concern; the nano cast requirements. With the current set of equipment available it takes more time (albeit using cheaper items) to swap to a TS gear than it took to swap to a nanoskill gear to cast neccessary things.

concern 1: tune some of the requirements, that they need minimal swapping by an engineer not in arith armor
concern 2: low-duration or "emergency" nanos should not require any swapping
concern 3: masters bidding will remain largely unchanged. This means we will have to IP nanoskills to use MB?

[Mostadio]

This means we will have to IP nanoskills to use MB?

No, it doesn't.

[agentwolve]

are engi's being considered for the damage to pet emergency thing

[Technogen]

no.

[Takun]

no.

yes?

[Technogen]

Nope, sorry.

[-Stage-]

Details on this thing are hazy as hell. However, I believe that when it was discussed behind closed doors, Tech and Ella were told that engineers could not keep bio shielding AND gain the DtN protection. They chose cocoon.

Personally I would have taken that one to the community before answering, and intend to do just that when we get more details about it. We'll certainly have enough IP for nanopool, after all.

EDIT: For the sake of clarity, I must mention that taking that to the community was probably not an option for them. The restrictions on what we're allowed to talk about in public are very hard to work with, to the point that I have probably broken them in this post... but I honestly can't see a way to avoid that without harmful omissions of information.

EDIT: For the sake of more clarity, I should state that I'm not trying to criticise those responsible for the restrictions. I understand why they're in place. Sometimes however it's difficult to comply precisely without submitting posts which are completely devoid of content.

[Kintaii]

Eh, screw it, I'll go ahead and drop this in:

Engineers will not be gaining a nano form of Damage-to-Pet. However, a group perk will be available for all pet professions which will be a damage-to-pet line. When perking this line you will *not* be able to utilize Bio Cocoon - You will have to choose which of the two you want.

(also, just as a small tidbit, in the next release of the engie nanodoc your aao debuffs will be of the same strength as the blinds in the newer NT document we released recently - just as an fyi)

[-Stage-]

Eh, screw it, I'll go ahead and drop this in:

Engineers will not be gaining a nano form of Damage-to-Pet. However, a group perk will be available for all pet professions which will be a damage-to-pet line. When perking this line you will *not* be able to utilize Bio Cocoon - You will have to choose which of the two you want.

Thanks. That sounds great.

(also, just as a small tidbit, in the next release of the engie nanodoc your aao debuffs will be of the same strength as the blinds in the newer NT document we released recently - just as an fyi)

Well that's something, but I still can't get anyone to answer the important question about this nano, which is, will it be designed to lower people's attack rating below our defense rating? It's virtually pointless if it doesn't. Frankly nobody is happy with the design you've chosen for the new blind, it just doesn't work for us. If that's really the form we're getting it in then we're all going to be unhappy. I formally request a return to the drawing board for that nano.

I also would like it if you and Genele would take a look at the feedback painstakingly compiled near the beginning of this thread, and respond to it.

[Kintaii]

I also would like it if you and Genele would take a look at the feedback painstakingly compiled near the beginning of this thread, and respond to it.

We will *when Genele gets back to focusing on the Engineer document again*. As I've said before, yes, there've been tweaks and changes to all of the documents, but she typically really *focuses* on one at a time when it comes to bigger changes. When she gets back around to Engineers, we'll have more to give then.

I'm not asking anything from you guys than I've asked from anyone else. Patience, and the understanding that this is (and i wish i had a nickle for every time i've used this phrase by now) an iterative process with changes being made constantly. If I haven't said anything to you guys it's because I have no information to give - Not because we've all the sudden forgotten about one of the professions in the game we're painstakingly attempting to rebalance. ;P Breathe easy, relax, chill for now - We'll talk more in the near future. =)

[-Stage-]

We will *when Genele gets back to focusing on the Engineer document again*. As I've said before, yes, there've been tweaks and changes to all of the documents, but she typically really *focuses* on one at a time when it comes to bigger changes. When she gets back around to Engineers, we'll have more to give then.

I'm not asking anything from you guys than I've asked from anyone else. Patience, and the understanding that this is (and i wish i had a nickle for every time i've used this phrase by now) an iterative process with changes being made constantly. If I haven't said anything to you guys it's because I have no information to give - Not because we've all the sudden forgotten about one of the professions in the game we're painstakingly attempting to rebalance. ;P Breathe easy, relax, chill for now - We'll talk more in the near future. =)

Yep, no worries. I'd be letting my guys down if I stopped bugging you about this though. So, you're like, warned and stuff. I have to keep bringing this up until each of the points of feedback in this thread have been addressed (even if you address some points with a simple "no").

[-Stage-]

When perking this line you will *not* be able to utilize Bio Cocoon - You will have to choose which of the two you want.

Er, hang on a second, do you mean just the Bio Cocoon perk will be disabled by perking the DtP, or the entire Bio Shielding line? Would we be able to use Bio Regrowth, for example, with the DtP line perked?

[-Stage-]

bockrocker: so like if engies have to choose between coon and damage to pet, does crat have to choose between dodge the blame and damage to pet? ;p


Good question, no?

[Kintaii]

Er, hang on a second, do you mean just the Bio Cocoon perk will be disabled by perking the DtP, or the entire Bio Shielding line? Would we be able to use Bio Regrowth, for example, with the DtP line perked?

If an Engineer perks the Damage-to-Pet perk line they will not be able to spend any perk points in the Bio Shielding line - Likewise, if you perk Bio Shielding, you will not be able to perk the DtP line.

Bio Shielding has Bio Cocoon, Bio Regrowth, and Bio Rejuvination - All three of these have a heavy focus on healing Engineer (and an area heal as well because hey, every little bit helps).

Damage-to-Pet will have the direct DtP perk, as well as options for the Engineer to restore health to their pets. Actions in this line will be similar to the Bio Shielding line in terms of relative strength. So it will be a choice with similar-but-different benefits.

[quieter456]

And when are more complete details on this group perkline, as well as how pets are being redesigned, expected to be shared with the consumer? Like...when engy doc is reviewed again, when changes hit test, 3 minutes before balance hits live, what?

[Gatester]

Somewhat off-topic? Can we expect similar perk line lockouts to weapon lines like pistol and shotgun or 1he and 1hb? Perhaps this will be applied to acrobat and bio shielding as well.