**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

The mighty charge description and functionality was changed, and there's ZERO announcements about it

2

Comments

  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Haji_Saab said:

    Pulyaman said:

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:



    This is a screenshot from BG's stream on Dec2019 when he explored V4-Ch1. As you can see the description was the same as what it is now.
    They changed the description on Oct2020 to your first screenshot which is marked in red. I think what happened was the interaction with AA and Apoc may have been unintentional and they reverted it. But, the node has always worked like this. Any debuff on the defender gets removed when they dash and they also become immune to debuffs till the dash ends. But there was no intimation on the change back to the old description.

    https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/215011/claire-voyant-and-mighty-charge-title-edited-for-clarity/p1

    This is a thread I made last year. The node always worked to purify debuffs as IT WAS CLEARLY STATED BY A MOD IN THIS THREAD. I noticed that Claire wasn't gaining charges, and I believe I even attached a few videos to it. Because of this, they changed the description to what is in that picture you screenshotted in the changelog. And the "purify" text was added. The node always purified debuffs first and foremost, which means champs like apoc could counter it. But with this update is the first time the node has worked differently, simply because it was SILENTLY CHANGED.

    So are you gonna tell me that it's a ffair approach they took? Like seriously? Make such a change and keep their lips closed about it? Like seriously?
    First, calm down. Second, I said in my earlier post that the node has worked like that. I think they did not take into account the interaction with OR or Apoc and changed it back to the old description. This discussion happened in Aug2020, Apoc released in Nov2020 and the description was changed in Oct2020. So, they may have missed it. I am giving the benefit of the doubt to the devs. There have been instances that they have missed certain things in the updates, it could also be a bug. No need to raise the pitchforks before any mod responds.
    Fair enough. I'll try to be calm then. Although, I'm fairly sure the mods are gonna air this thread like with the bishop issue.
    Ya. The issue is a valid one. There was no information regarding the change which is odd because when there is a change, it is usually indicated in the change log and What bishop issue?
    https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/272724/bishop-sp3-buff-ability-nerfed#latest
    This one.
    That seems screwed up. Yes, I saw videos where bishop carried over the Sp3 from one fight to another. Seems kabam needs to answer there too. I was so optimistic too.
    He was becoming a hardblock in AW /AQ. Hence, the change. But it screws over an aspect of him as an attacker as well ... so the change isn't ideal .. they need to do a attacker vs defender thing like Airwalker who can do sp3 when he is defender but can't as attacker on 1st fight ...
    I understood why they did in both here and the bishop situation. New champion abilities sometimes interacts weirdly with old nodes and they need to update the interaction. But, the lack of announcent just decreases the credibility. I did not encounter both these things because I have all content done except aol and lol. I have no interest in ranking up any champ as of now. So. Bishop is not my priority.
  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    ItsDamien said:

    This is honestly my biggest issue with Kabam as of late. (Shocking! The guy who "defends" Kabam so much has an issue with them?!)

    They need to communicate these changes. There has to be an announcement when ANY gameplay mechanic changes in any form. It shouldn't be left for players to discover. There's nothing in the changelogs mentioning that they were going to do anything with these things, no announcement, no in game mail. They have to start announcing changes that affect gameplay.

    It's funny when people think everyone takes the same side everytime. That almost never happens. πŸ˜‚
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Gonna assume some of the disagrees are from the usual spammers. Don't bother to read, don't bother to do their own research, just open the thread, check the poster name, scroll down to click disagree, and be on their merry way.

    If any of you would like to prove me wrong, then I'd love to see you posting a link to an official kabam announcement on this subject matter made in the past 3 months.
  • magnus_xixmagnus_xix Posts: 2,019 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Pulyaman said:

    I've tested this with a bunch of champs and here's what I've found.

    Bishop: When the opponent dashed in and they had a debuff on them, they took energy damage. When I went to parry against a skill champ, I didn't get a passive stun.

    Sunspot: When the opponent dashed in whilst they had incinerates on them, I gained a small trickle of power

    Havok: Opponent took around 1500 energy damage when they dashed in whilst having 2 plasma debuffs on them. (My havok is r4)

    Apoc: Debuffs were being removed

    Conclusion: the node works as it was described in the first screenshot provided by OP

    Kabam themselves have confirmed it. Defenders purified the debuffs when they dashed. That is why the description was changed. I think they worked out a way to make them immune and changed it back without any announcement. That or this is a bug which. Hope a mod responds to this.
    The description has always stated that the defender is immune. It got bugged at some point or maybe Apoc was bugged, allowing him to keep debuffs on the opponent even though the defender should be immune to debuffs. Now the immunity has been added back like the node described so Apoc no longer works.

    The first node description was this. It left out the purification part.



    Then it was changed to this to be more accurate as to what was going on.



    Now it's been changed back to the first description which was not completely accurate for whatever reason. They also added "until the dash ends" which isn't that significant



    The node has always worked the same. Apoc was bugged in such a way that he could keep debuffs on an opponent who should be immune to all debuffs when dashing in which I'm sure you can tell shouldn't be the case.
  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Kill_Grey said:

    Gonna assume some of the disagrees are from the usual spammers. Don't bother to read, don't bother to do their own research, just open the thread, check the poster name, scroll down to click disagree, and be on their merry way.

    If any of you would like to prove me wrong, then I'd love to see you posting a link to an official kabam announcement on this subject matter made in the past 3 months.

    I ignore those disagrees. I try to search around before posting something to support or oppose the theory. I misunderstood your initial post because your second pic was how it was described earlier. I had no idea it was changed back to the old text. Just ignore the disagrees and just interact with people providing reasonable arguments. It will make your life way easier.
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

    Just tried Apoc in variant 4 and not only my debuffs were purified, but i wasn't even able to stun a dashing opponent, something that i was always able to do with him. I just want to believe that this is a bug and that it will be fixed, hopefully in a resonable time ^_^

    Exactly this implication is one of the things I pointed out. Apoc was my favourite counter to the node because he would completely disable it. I think there was a path in 6.3 or so with mighty charge that I used him for, and this was LITERALLY LAST MONTH! I believe I even told some of my ally mates about apoc being such s great counter. Well, in the space of a month it's now nonexistent.
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    edited July 2021

    Pulyaman said:

    I've tested this with a bunch of champs and here's what I've found.

    Bishop: When the opponent dashed in and they had a debuff on them, they took energy damage. When I went to parry against a skill champ, I didn't get a passive stun.

    Sunspot: When the opponent dashed in whilst they had incinerates on them, I gained a small trickle of power

    Havok: Opponent took around 1500 energy damage when they dashed in whilst having 2 plasma debuffs on them. (My havok is r4)

    Apoc: Debuffs were being removed

    Conclusion: the node works as it was described in the first screenshot provided by OP

    Kabam themselves have confirmed it. Defenders purified the debuffs when they dashed. That is why the description was changed. I think they worked out a way to make them immune and changed it back without any announcement. That or this is a bug which. Hope a mod responds to this.
    The description has always stated that the defender is immune. It got bugged at some point or maybe Apoc was bugged, allowing him to keep debuffs on the opponent even though the defender should be immune to debuffs. Now the immunity has been added back like the node described so Apoc no longer works.

    The first node description was this. It left out the purification part.



    Then it was changed to this to be more accurate as to what was going on.



    Now it's been changed back to the first description which was not completely accurate for whatever reason. They also added "until the dash ends" which isn't that significant



    The node has always worked the same. Apoc was bugged in such a way that he could keep debuffs on an opponent who should be immune to all debuffs when dashing in which I'm sure you can tell shouldn't be the case.
    Buddy, we've been fighting mighty charge for months and years. I've been using AA, Quake, etc on that node and they could counter it in the past. AA with his bleeds, Quake with her concussion. They have always been able to counter it, along with the others I mentioned who have been in the game longer than apoc. I assume you decided to skip the other thread I linked in a previous post here. You should go through it. Kabam has changed the description in the past, but this is the first time they've ever changed the way the node functions in terms of practicality.
  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    Yup, that part was a little annoying at the time, lol. But since it's a matter of purification, then those counters that have always worked should still work πŸ€·πŸΎβ€β™‚οΈ.
  • magnus_xixmagnus_xix Posts: 2,019 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    I've tested this with a bunch of champs and here's what I've found.

    Bishop: When the opponent dashed in and they had a debuff on them, they took energy damage. When I went to parry against a skill champ, I didn't get a passive stun.

    Sunspot: When the opponent dashed in whilst they had incinerates on them, I gained a small trickle of power

    Havok: Opponent took around 1500 energy damage when they dashed in whilst having 2 plasma debuffs on them. (My havok is r4)

    Apoc: Debuffs were being removed

    Conclusion: the node works as it was described in the first screenshot provided by OP

    Kabam themselves have confirmed it. Defenders purified the debuffs when they dashed. That is why the description was changed. I think they worked out a way to make them immune and changed it back without any announcement. That or this is a bug which. Hope a mod responds to this.
    The description has always stated that the defender is immune. It got bugged at some point or maybe Apoc was bugged, allowing him to keep debuffs on the opponent even though the defender should be immune to debuffs. Now the immunity has been added back like the node described so Apoc no longer works.

    The first node description was this. It left out the purification part.



    Then it was changed to this to be more accurate as to what was going on.



    Now it's been changed back to the first description which was not completely accurate for whatever reason. They also added "until the dash ends" which isn't that significant



    The node has always worked the same. Apoc was bugged in such a way that he could keep debuffs on an opponent who should be immune to all debuffs when dashing in which I'm sure you can tell shouldn't be the case.
    Buddy, we've been fighting mighty charge for months and years. I've been using AA, Quake, etc on that node and they could counter it in the past. AA with his bleeds, Quake with her concussion. They have always been able to counter it, along with the others I mentioned who have been in the game longer than apoc. I assume you decided to skip the other thread I linked in a previous post here. You should go through it. Kabam has changed the description in the past, but this is the first time they've ever changed the way the node functions in terms of practicality.
    I assume you didn't read my previous post where I outlined how multiple champs that interact with purify ability do work the way they should against the might charge node

    The only thing that has been changed to the functionality of the node is that concussion can now be removed by the immunity to debuffs which makes sense.

    I don't have AA so please test if you can turn off mighty charge with the right amount of neuros.
  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    Yup, that part was a little annoying at the time, lol. But since it's a matter of purification, then those counters that have always worked should still work πŸ€·πŸΎβ€β™‚οΈ.
    Not really. The defender is supposed to become immune and not purify the debuffs. Kinda like cleanse mechanic now. So, if they are becoming immune, they could code it like ghost removing debuffs, not a purify just remove period. Then your normal purify counters will not work. Let's see what the explanation is before we get into mechanics though.
  • magnus_xixmagnus_xix Posts: 2,019 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Pulyaman said:

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    Yup, that part was a little annoying at the time, lol. But since it's a matter of purification, then those counters that have always worked should still work πŸ€·πŸΎβ€β™‚οΈ.
    Not really. The defender is supposed to become immune and not purify the debuffs. Kinda like cleanse mechanic now. So, if they are becoming immune, they could code it like ghost removing debuffs, not a purify just remove period. Then your normal purify counters will not work. Let's see what the explanation is before we get into mechanics though.
    The defender is supposed to do both purify and immunity. It does the purify when the defender first initiates the dash then the immunity kicks in for the duration of that dash attack. Since the purification takes place first, there's no debuffs on the defender when the immunity happens so Claire doesn't gain charges.
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Pulyaman said:

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    Yup, that part was a little annoying at the time, lol. But since it's a matter of purification, then those counters that have always worked should still work πŸ€·πŸΎβ€β™‚οΈ.
    Not really. The defender is supposed to become immune and not purify the debuffs. Kinda like cleanse mechanic now. So, if they are becoming immune, they could code it like ghost removing debuffs, not a purify just remove period. Then your normal purify counters will not work. Let's see what the explanation is before we get into mechanics though.
    Ah, it kinda makes sense if it's now coded like cleanse.
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    I've tested this with a bunch of champs and here's what I've found.

    Bishop: When the opponent dashed in and they had a debuff on them, they took energy damage. When I went to parry against a skill champ, I didn't get a passive stun.

    Sunspot: When the opponent dashed in whilst they had incinerates on them, I gained a small trickle of power

    Havok: Opponent took around 1500 energy damage when they dashed in whilst having 2 plasma debuffs on them. (My havok is r4)

    Apoc: Debuffs were being removed

    Conclusion: the node works as it was described in the first screenshot provided by OP

    Kabam themselves have confirmed it. Defenders purified the debuffs when they dashed. That is why the description was changed. I think they worked out a way to make them immune and changed it back without any announcement. That or this is a bug which. Hope a mod responds to this.
    The description has always stated that the defender is immune. It got bugged at some point or maybe Apoc was bugged, allowing him to keep debuffs on the opponent even though the defender should be immune to debuffs. Now the immunity has been added back like the node described so Apoc no longer works.

    The first node description was this. It left out the purification part.



    Then it was changed to this to be more accurate as to what was going on.



    Now it's been changed back to the first description which was not completely accurate for whatever reason. They also added "until the dash ends" which isn't that significant



    The node has always worked the same. Apoc was bugged in such a way that he could keep debuffs on an opponent who should be immune to all debuffs when dashing in which I'm sure you can tell shouldn't be the case.
    Buddy, we've been fighting mighty charge for months and years. I've been using AA, Quake, etc on that node and they could counter it in the past. AA with his bleeds, Quake with her concussion. They have always been able to counter it, along with the others I mentioned who have been in the game longer than apoc. I assume you decided to skip the other thread I linked in a previous post here. You should go through it. Kabam has changed the description in the past, but this is the first time they've ever changed the way the node functions in terms of practicality.
    I assume you didn't read my previous post where I outlined how multiple champs that interact with purify ability do work the way they should against the might charge node

    The only thing that has been changed to the functionality of the node is that concussion can now be removed by the immunity to debuffs which makes sense.

    I don't have AA so please test if you can turn off mighty charge with the right amount of neuros.
    Nearly impossible to get neuros in the first place.
  • ChikelChikel Posts: 2,056 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…

    Kill_Grey said:

    Pulyaman said:

    I've tested this with a bunch of champs and here's what I've found.

    Bishop: When the opponent dashed in and they had a debuff on them, they took energy damage. When I went to parry against a skill champ, I didn't get a passive stun.

    Sunspot: When the opponent dashed in whilst they had incinerates on them, I gained a small trickle of power

    Havok: Opponent took around 1500 energy damage when they dashed in whilst having 2 plasma debuffs on them. (My havok is r4)

    Apoc: Debuffs were being removed

    Conclusion: the node works as it was described in the first screenshot provided by OP

    Kabam themselves have confirmed it. Defenders purified the debuffs when they dashed. That is why the description was changed. I think they worked out a way to make them immune and changed it back without any announcement. That or this is a bug which. Hope a mod responds to this.
    The description has always stated that the defender is immune. It got bugged at some point or maybe Apoc was bugged, allowing him to keep debuffs on the opponent even though the defender should be immune to debuffs. Now the immunity has been added back like the node described so Apoc no longer works.

    The first node description was this. It left out the purification part.



    Then it was changed to this to be more accurate as to what was going on.



    Now it's been changed back to the first description which was not completely accurate for whatever reason. They also added "until the dash ends" which isn't that significant



    The node has always worked the same. Apoc was bugged in such a way that he could keep debuffs on an opponent who should be immune to all debuffs when dashing in which I'm sure you can tell shouldn't be the case.
    Buddy, we've been fighting mighty charge for months and years. I've been using AA, Quake, etc on that node and they could counter it in the past. AA with his bleeds, Quake with her concussion. They have always been able to counter it, along with the others I mentioned who have been in the game longer than apoc. I assume you decided to skip the other thread I linked in a previous post here. You should go through it. Kabam has changed the description in the past, but this is the first time they've ever changed the way the node functions in terms of practicality.
    I assume you didn't read my previous post where I outlined how multiple champs that interact with purify ability do work the way they should against the might charge node

    The only thing that has been changed to the functionality of the node is that concussion can now be removed by the immunity to debuffs which makes sense.

    I don't have AA so please test if you can turn off mighty charge with the right amount of neuros.
    I used AA for the mighty charge BPCW in the April eq. He works for it
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Seems like this thread is gonna get aired by the mods. Typical.
  • CrcrcrcCrcrcrc Posts: 7,936 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Maybe just use someone else for the node? Clearly they didn’t mean to have purify be able to be canceled, and it’s not necessarily a tough node, so what’s the big deal?
  • Kill_GreyKill_Grey Posts: 8,666 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    Seems the bishop thread finally got recognition. Let's see if this one is gonna follow suit.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian
    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    I think there's another aspect to this that complicates things. Unfortunately, the word "Purify" has two meanings in the context of the game. There is the Purify effect and the Purify mechanic and I think the cleanse effect highlighted this problem.

    Cleanse the effect is described as purifying debuffs. But isn't that what Purify does? What's the difference? Both the Cleanse effect and Purify effect removes debuffs. The problem is that under the hood in the game engine, the mechanic that removes effects is called Purify. So Cleanse purifies debuffs and Purify purifies debuffs. But because those two effects are different effects it is possible to be immune to Purify effects but not Cleanse effects and vice versa. If you are immune to the Purify effect, you aren't immune to Cleanse even though Cleanse "purifies" debuffs. You can be immune to the purify effect, but not the purify game engine mechanic. That would be like being immune to subtraction.

    The devs should have explained this more clearly, but I believe when they changed the description for Mighty Charge this was part of a global effort to remove all references to "purifying debuffs" when it doesn't happen due to the Purify effect. When "purify debuffs" is referring to the game engine mechanic, it is just technical jargon that means "remove" and using the term can cause confusion. As part of this process, I suspect they are also reviewing the interactions that are occurring and changing "purifies" that are not supposed to be purifies into effects that interact with purify effects in the way they were intended to if a developer used a short cut under the hood that was doing unintended things.

    Yes, this should all be documented much more carefully. I'm just saying that's what I think is happening, not that it absolves Kabam from documenting the changes and process more clearly.
  • PulyamanPulyaman Posts: 2,365 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    DNA3000 said:

    Pulyaman said:

    @Kill_Grey I think the kabam mod even said this was an unintended interaction. She was not supposed to gain any charge from the node even though the defender purifies the debuffs. I think they figured out how to make the node work like it was supposed to work and changed it. Someone just forgot to inform the masses. πŸ˜‚

    I think there's another aspect to this that complicates things. Unfortunately, the word "Purify" has two meanings in the context of the game. There is the Purify effect and the Purify mechanic and I think the cleanse effect highlighted this problem.

    Cleanse the effect is described as purifying debuffs. But isn't that what Purify does? What's the difference? Both the Cleanse effect and Purify effect removes debuffs. The problem is that under the hood in the game engine, the mechanic that removes effects is called Purify. So Cleanse purifies debuffs and Purify purifies debuffs. But because those two effects are different effects it is possible to be immune to Purify effects but not Cleanse effects and vice versa. If you are immune to the Purify effect, you aren't immune to Cleanse even though Cleanse "purifies" debuffs. You can be immune to the purify effect, but not the purify game engine mechanic. That would be like being immune to subtraction.

    The devs should have explained this more clearly, but I believe when they changed the description for Mighty Charge this was part of a global effort to remove all references to "purifying debuffs" when it doesn't happen due to the Purify effect. When "purify debuffs" is referring to the game engine mechanic, it is just technical jargon that means "remove" and using the term can cause confusion. As part of this process, I suspect they are also reviewing the interactions that are occurring and changing "purifies" that are not supposed to be purifies into effects that interact with purify effects in the way they were intended to if a developer used a short cut under the hood that was doing unintended things.

    Yes, this should all be documented much more carefully. I'm just saying that's what I think is happening, not that it absolves Kabam from documenting the changes and process more clearly.
    Ya. I think they took a shortcut while the node was originally designed. But with champs able to stop purify now, they need to go back and look at all those shortcuts and fix them for the nodes to work as intended. Just need to be transparent about it. If the node works as before, I don't think people will be that upset.
  • TitoBandito187TitoBandito187 Posts: 2,072 β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…
    edited July 2021
    Hasn't it always worked like this? I mean, they can remove all active debuffs during the charge (let's say DoT bleed, armor break, poison, incinerate, etc) AND THEN, your parry would fail next (aka removing new buffs until the charge ends). That's why you see those 1st projectile hit champs on these nodes in AW so often.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian
    walkerdog said:

    I think you're probably correct @DNA3000. I wish they'd build a more consistent keyword rule engine and maybe this is a first step but it seems like maybe between the design folks and the programmers and then also the people who oversee the game that there are constantly disconnects. Design makes something that is OP and cool. People implementing them don't test them fully against the relevant nodes. Then the leads go "wait we didn't mean for it to work on that node that uses the same word!" But they only announce it a month or three later.

    This isn't the first time this has happened, either. This happened with the word Passive. Originally, passive was just an internal tag, one of many. And the developers did not use the word "passive" in a consistent way: passive had a game engine meaning, but it also had some implied meanings that people *believed* were true but the game engine itself did not enforce or consistently honor. As a result, the devs had to make the decision to define what that word meant explicitly, and then change all the in-game descriptions to match, and then also change their own language so that when they used the word they always mean the same thing, and conversely when they meant something else they used a different word.

    The reason why this comes up repeatedly is due to a game design concept of abstraction. Game Engine Features have names, and often the Effects and Abilities that use them have similar or identical names. Which is fine when the connection between the two is universal. But when multiple effects use the same engine feature and thus have to have different names, that's when confusion can occur. Sometimes even for the devs, who took it for granted that X Effect was always synonymous with X Feature.

    The obvious solution to this problem would be for the devs to expose more information about how the effects in the game are constructed from the underlying mechanics. But that is something game developers tend to shy away from, because there's a duality to trying to do this. Knowledgeable players will tend to benefit from such things. But the average player can get even more confused. Worse, they can get the impression the game is a lot more complex than it is and shy away from even playing it. In an effort to portray the game as simpler and more approachable than it is under the hood, these kinds of glitches tend to be an inevitable side effect.

    I tend to fall on the side of more information and documentation. I would rather be given more, and decide for myself how to simplify things from there. I also think that in the long run game studios should work with their player communities to smooth over complexity: there's a large number of players capable of taking complex game information and simplifying it for the playerbase in ways that are frankly far superior to anything the game studio does, or even is capable of doing. But I acknowledge this is a problem they struggle with: games perceived to be complex tangles tend to be less successful. That's just an unfortunate fact of mobile gaming. Players want games to be *rich* but not *complex*. Which is not an easy line to straddle.
Sign In or Register to comment.