Artifact Feedback

I popped on tonight with my medic to try out the new-and-improved blast and sphere. Awesome. Not too powerful and the cost is just right. Didn't see any immediate issues. Good job guys!

There were talks of some adren artifacts being overpowered, but I don't remember hearing which ones. Maybe a junkie could fill in that blank.

When I made the MegaBlast have a "redeemer-like blast", perhaps I carried it too far. If the firer ghosts before the explosion occurs, it takes out team mates.

I speak from experience. Beware.

I am unsure about the repulsion artifact, that massively "knocks back" the enemy. On maps with lava or space, it perhaps dominates the game too much, and provides too easy a way to get instant kills.
Two initial options would be to increase the adrenaline required, or to make deaths caused by it give back less adrenaline?
At the moment, with surge 2, if you blow 2 titans off the map, you end up with more adrenaline than you started with, so you just keep doing it.

Thoughts?

Looking at the team artifacts, I think the medics are doing fine with the healing blast and sphere. However, from my limited playing time online, it is not often I see the invulnerability sphere running, and the damage sphere virtually never.
Do we perhaps need to lower the adrenaline on them?
Currently the globe invulnerability takes 12 adrenaline per sec, while the sphere takes 20. The triple damage takes 10 adrenaline per sec, while the double damage sphere takes 20.

An alternative might be to drive those spheres using a different set of conditions. For example, make a sphere run until the summoner moves. So, while he is still, the sphere remains. Or it stays until he fires a weapon. And just take say 200 adrenaline as the initial charge for setting it off, rather than taking adrenaline every second.

Adrenaline and Damage Spheres: I use them but mostly on tighter maps when I know there's a bunch of people around me.

Lighting Beam and Bolt: These both do the same damage, correct? Then we should get rid of the unguided one.

Repulsion: The maps where you can do that are rare and you don't always get away with it. But boyo is it fun.

Does the repulsion blast make a shild gun sound? I played Stormwitch yesterday and I think somone set that off and I was bounced about 1/4 mile strieght up over the lighthouse....nice view up there. So if that's what it was, it does us friendlies also.

Szlat wrote:

Looking at the team artifacts, I think the medics are doing fine with the healing blast and sphere. However, from my limited playing time online, it is not often I see the invulnerability sphere running, and the damage sphere virtually never.
Do we perhaps need to lower the adrenaline on them?
Currently the globe invulnerability takes 12 adrenaline per sec, while the sphere takes 20. The triple damage takes 10 adrenaline per sec, while the double damage sphere takes 20.

An alternative might be to drive those spheres using a different set of conditions. For example, make a sphere run until the summoner moves. So, while he is still, the sphere remains. Or it stays until he fires a weapon. And just take say 200 adrenaline as the initial charge for setting it off, rather than taking adrenaline every second.

The idea of set and forget (all cost at once) is perfect. I, for one, would use them more often. The "invunerablity sphere" should pay a high price but maybe "damage bonus" could come down some.

BotFodder wrote:

Lighting Beam and Bolt: These both do the same damage, correct? Then we should get rid of the unguided one.

I think the aimed one (Beam) should do slightly more damage. The defaults have 6 damage per adrenaline rather than 4, but I don't know what Dru has configured.

Flak Monkey wrote:

Does the repulsion blast make a shild gun sound? I played Stormwitch yesterday and I think somone set that off and I was bounced about 1/4 mile strieght up over the lighthouse....nice view up there. So if that's what it was, it does us friendlies also.

It shouldn't do friendlies (but there may be a bug)
The sound is ballgun_launch, which is the sound of the bombing run bomb launcher, so not the same as a shield gun, but similar.
I wonder if it was a nali with a very good shield gun?

Szlat:

Not sure, it's what I remember, correct or not. I know someone who was playing at that time had the same happen to him, whether it was then or a previous map.

Ok, thanks for the warning anyway. If others experience the same, can they let me know please, and we will try to find out what is causing it.

Flak Monkey wrote:

Szlat:

Not sure, it's what I remember, correct or not. I know someone who was playing at that time had the same happen to him, whether it was then or a previous map.

That other player was me. Very strange indeed. Was there an adren player playing at the time? I know there are jump pads on that level, but I don't know how that could have caused us to both be rocketed upward at the same time.

ECHO wrote:

That other player was me. Very strange indeed. Was there an adren player playing at the time? I know there are jump pads on that level, but I don't know how that could have caused us to both be rocketed upward at the same time.

The other point is Repulsion pushes enemies directly away from the player initiating it. For you to be sent up in the air, the person would have to be underneath you?

Szlat wrote:

I am unsure about the repulsion artifact, that massively "knocks back" the enemy. On maps with lava or space, it perhaps dominates the game too much, and provides too easy a way to get instant kills.
Two initial options would be to increase the adrenaline required, or to make deaths caused by it give back less adrenaline?
At the moment, with surge 2, if you blow 2 titans off the map, you end up with more adrenaline than you started with, so you just keep doing it.

Thoughts?

Not sure I agree.

Yes you get adren. Yes you get score.

You get 1 xp per kill. That's it. So it's like a vorpal in that respect. What's worse is that in my experience those maps are rarely voted or available, and you'll have trouble getting a kill streak (especially if it takes a bit of falling before whatever you knocked back dies).

In other words, we might want to leave it the way it is now and the Adren Masters might want to start thinking of it as a tactical tool instead of a monster killer. It might take a while for this to happen. An AM isn't going to get a lot of XP from this artifact.

Once you have repulsed a titan and it is fading off into the distance, if someone else shoots it with an instant hit weapon (e.g. assault rifle) will they get the points when it dies?
If so, that could deter AMs from using?