Played Multiple games today where Repair drone was either regenerating shield or ammo!!!!!!

 

So glad this is back!

This makes waking up with all this blood in my mouth worthwhile. Thanks Bioware!

Yep I also was playing this morning on Harbinger with my mate Purple-font and repairs on my spearpoint and ammo icon came up yaaa!

Is anyone brave enough to try out the sab probe snare talent? You know, for science?

Did they re-revert ion-rail too?

Did they re-revert ion-rail too?

 

The ion railgun is either a tooltip bug or a values bug. I'll queue up one with the snare when I play later today. If that goes 12 seconds as stated then it will be worth setting up the energy regen test.

Regen drain still at 100%

I'm fine with that tbh. I'm not at all sure whether the ion change is a values bug (incorrectly using old values for regen drain (100%) and snare (6 seconds, 40%)) or a tooltip bug (incorrectly still claiming old values for regen drain (65%) and snare (12 seconds, 55%)). Presumably the fixes go hand in hand- either they change the values to match the tooltips (double snare duration, increase magnitude, nerf regen) or they change the tooltips to match the values and change no functionality.

I'm fine with that tbh. I'm not at all sure whether the ion change is a values bug (incorrectly using old values for regen drain (100%) and snare (6 seconds, 40%)) or a tooltip bug (incorrectly still claiming old values for regen drain (65%) and snare (12 seconds, 55%)). Presumably the fixes go hand in hand- either they change the values to match the tooltips (double snare duration, increase magnitude, nerf regen) or they change the tooltips to match the values and change no functionality.

 

The change definitely changes the dynamics of engagements. It's certainly an interesting decision not to fix it

Well, they need to either fix the tooltip and keep the functionality, or fix the functionality and keep the tooltip. I don't like to use "fix" without qualification on the various tooltip errors, because we don't know what the dev intent is.

 

 

In terms of what makes the better game, I personally feel that the Ion Missile nerf hurts the game (and should be reverted, along with the tooltip), the EMP range nerf hurts the game (and should be reverted to match the tooltip), the Ion Railgun energy lockout is a bit too powerful but the 65% regen dampen is too weak (and should therefore be somewhere betwixt them), and the 12 second 55% snare is a little too good and the 6 second 40% snare moderately too bad (and a better solution would again be in the middle), and the sab probe bug doesn't hurt the game but should be fixed (it's a very minor nerf to a very niche component, because the workaround is not picking the broken talent). But these are just my opinions: I don't feel that we get to claim that "Ion railgun T5 is bugged", because it's just as valid to say "Ion railgun T5 tooltips are bugged".

Awesome! I thought I noticed that last night, but was too busy working on Graendahl's new Ocula to test it out. Finally broke down and bought one. Just too many matches where I want a build that isn't my current build...

Played Multiple games today where Repair drone was either regenerating shield or ammo!!!!!!

 

So glad this is back!

 

Candidate for best GSF stealth fix ever?

 

Wondered about this when I loaded the patch up... but for some reason didn't actually test it *facepalm* tinkered with a bunch of my builds last night I think today will be checking for more GSF new years gifts.

 

Awesome! I thought I noticed that last night, but was too busy working on Graendahl's new Ocula to test it out. Finally broke down and bought one. Just too many matches where I want a build that isn't my current build...

 

I love my Angry Bee Hive, and am perhaps the only person other than yourself to openly acknowledge flying one When the meta allows it (ie lots of scouts) having 2 T2's on your bar can be devastating.

Edited January 14, 2015 by DamascusAdontise

I love my Angry Bee Hive, and am perhaps the only person other than yourself to openly acknowledge flying one When the meta allows it (ie lots of scouts) having 2 T2's on your bar can be devastating.

Right now, I hate it, and think it's hideous. That may change over time, though. I've already softened on it a good deal, just because it makes me happy that I'll eventually be able to field an alternate build.

 

That said, I really do think there's a good case to be made in having 2 on the bar with different specs. I prefer a dogfighting build that's heavy on turning, uses Clusters+BLCs and Booster Recharge, because it's a lot of fun, and I do tend to do more dogfighting than anything because I truly love the chase. But there have been SO MANY TIMES that I've been in a DOM that had a lot of bombers on the opposing team, and I'm absolutely screaming for BLCs/Pods/TT (or Quads/Pods/TT) in a build that uses Regen Thrusters and the extra engine power off of Retro so that I can chew through bombers, or go Gunship hunting because it's what we need to have a chance at winning.

 

The builds I settle on may change when I get to that point, but just knowing I'll have options fills me with the fuzzies.

 

Edit: The scariest part to me at the moment is that I've got too many alts, so if I get used to it, I may have to pick the equivalent up on 1-2 of them...

Edited January 14, 2015 by nyghtrunner

Played Multiple games today where Repair drone was either regenerating shield or ammo!!!!!!

 

So glad this is back!

 

HYPE. I've been meaning to pick up the Legion for srs, but the bug killed my enthusiasm.

 

This makes waking up with all this blood in my mouth worthwhile. Thanks Bioware!

 

Nosebleed or something? I've had some bad ones, but I woke up to it pooled on my pillow.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Armonddd

Well, they need to either fix the tooltip and keep the functionality, or fix the functionality and keep the tooltip. I don't like to use "fix" without qualification on the various tooltip errors, because we don't know what the dev intent is.

 

 

In terms of what makes the better game, I personally feel that the Ion Missile nerf hurts the game (and should be reverted, along with the tooltip), the EMP range nerf hurts the game (and should be reverted to match the tooltip), the Ion Railgun energy lockout is a bit too powerful but the 65% regen dampen is too weak (and should therefore be somewhere betwixt them), and the 12 second 55% snare is a little too good and the 6 second 40% snare moderately too bad (and a better solution would again be in the middle), and the sab probe bug doesn't hurt the game but should be fixed (it's a very minor nerf to a very niche component, because the workaround is not picking the broken talent). But these are just my opinions: I don't feel that we get to claim that "Ion railgun T5 is bugged", because it's just as valid to say "Ion railgun T5 tooltips are bugged".

 

I feel like it's a pretty safe assumption to say the "railgun is bugged" rather than the tooltips. When the change is not mentioned in the patch notes, and either the ability or tooltip is changed, but not the other, I think it's safe to say it was an accidental change. In this case, I find it unlikely that they intended to change the ability, but failed to mention it in the patch notes *and* failed to change the tooltip.

 

This especially true considering BioWare's hilariously awful version control, which has been demonstrated numerous times in the last year. The most likely explanation is that in the process of changing something else, they accidentally reverted Ion Railgun to an earlier state. Similar things have happened elsewhere in the game. I think the most ridiculous was that quick travel terminal on Oricon. It was broken (would not stay unlocked) when it launched, then they fixed it, only for the next patch to revert it to its original broken state. Then they fixed it again, only for *another* patch to revert it to its broken state yet again. It took three attempts before that fix finally stuck.

 

 

edit: Armondd: the Imperium's repair probes have worked since the patch that fixed most of the broken talents. It was repair drones that remained broken until yesterday's stealth fix.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Delta_V

Pod users rejoice! It's going to be great not having to search for yellow orbs or pray for an elusive mastered Clarion to be in the game.

 

 

The builds I settle on may change when I get to that point, but just knowing I'll have options fills me with the fuzzies.

 

Edit: The scariest part to me at the moment is that I've got too many alts, so if I get used to it, I may have to pick the equivalent up on 1-2 of them...

 

Even with 2 different builds it's hard to fit all the options on the bar of 5.

 

My NovaDive is a deathmatch specialist with TT10%/Reg Lasers/Pods/DF/Powerdive/Dampening Sensors/Kira Carsen/Wingman. The reg lasers have better tracking and less energy draw than the overall similar DPS Quads, which I find is generally more important in deathmatch when you're often firing more and at faster moving targets. The dampening is also nice when you get focused. Powerdive to deal with ion rail spam.

 

The Flashfire is the Domination specialist with TT10%/Quad/Pod/DF/Retro/Kira Carsen/Wingman for killing bombers under nodes as well as hunting GS. Powerdive isn't as necessary because there usually aren't as many gunships and there are typically more LOS opportunities.

 

The Skybolt is the anti-scout Dogfighter with TT15%/BLC/Clusters/DF/Retro/Qyzen Fess/Wingman. Sadly I don't keep this on the bar much because I want to leave room for a bomber, a gunship, and either the Clarion or a 'fun' ship to use in easy games such as Starguard, Pike, or Sledgehammer.

 

Really if everyone is playing the optimal meta, they should have these ships:

 

-T1 Bomber with CP and Beacon for anti-bomber in domination OR T1 Bomber with overcharged shield for anti scout in domination

-T2 Bomber with railgun sentry for anti-scout and GS support in deathmatch

-T1 GS with ion AOE for killing anything in dom and deathmatch

-T2 Scout with TT/Quad/Pod for killing GS and bombers in dom and deathmatch

-T2 Scout with BLC/clusters for killing scouts in dom and deathmatch

 

...but then the Spearpoint is also useful at the start of the match

 

 

We really need to have a bigger bar

Edited January 14, 2015 by RickDagles

Even with 2 different builds it's hard to fit all the options on the bar of 5.

 

My NovaDive is a deathmatch specialist with TT10%/Reg Lasers/Pods/DF/Powerdive/Dampening Sensors/Kira Carsen/Wingman. The reg lasers have better tracking and less energy draw than the overall similar DPS Quads, which I find is generally more important in deathmatch when you're often firing more and at faster moving targets. The dampening is also nice when you get focused. Powerdive to deal with ion rail spam.

 

The Flashfire is the Domination specialist with TT10%/Quad/Pod/DF/Retro/Kira Carsen/Wingman for killing bombers under nodes as well as hunting GS. Powerdive isn't as necessary because there usually aren't as many gunships and there are typically more LOS opportunities.

 

The Skybolt is the anti-scout Dogfighter with TT15%/BLC/Clusters/DF/Retro/Qyzen Fess/Wingman. Sadly I don't keep this on the bar much because I want to leave room for a bomber, a gunship, and either the Clarion or a 'fun' ship to use in easy games such as Starguard or Sledgehammer.

 

Really if everyone is playing the optimal meta, they should have these ships:

 

-T1 Bomber with CP and Beacon for anti-bomber in domination OR T1 Bomber with overcharged shield for anti scout in domination

-T2 Bomber with railgun sentry for GS support in deathmatch

-T1 GS with ion AOE for both

-T2 Scout with TT/Quad/Pod for both

-T2 Scout with BLC/clusters for both

 

...but then the Spearpoint is also useful at the start of the match

 

 

We really need to have a bigger bar

I totally agree with you there. I've largely run out of room for "fun" ships, but... I'm just a scout pilot. I think I end up in a scout in about 85% of my matches, and a Sting in like 70%. I keep a bomber because sometimes you just need one. And I keep a Jurgoran if I need it in a gunship battle in a TDM in Shipyards (It's the only GS I'm competent with). I usually keep an Imperium or Bloodmark as my "fun" ship. And that left the Blackbolt/Bloodmark (depending on if I'm going after saviors in durdle matches) and the Sting.

 

Honestly, though, I'd be largely happy with 3 scouts (BB, Sting, Ocula - Separate builds in the T2), the Jurg, and the minelayer. I could let go of the BB, for a Bloodmark if I want to have "fun", but I actually find the BB to be a lot of fun, and occasionally deck it out for total speed, with StE, Booster Charge, and Power Thrusters. And just let myself be less deadly to the opposition in favor of being able to do all the high speed maneuvers I so love doing.

 

Who knows, maybe I'll just set my bar up with 4 scouts, and leave it at that. Regardless of how I end up, I'm excited to have options.

Edited January 14, 2015 by nyghtrunner

1)- Nyght, I still like you!

 

2)- I had blood in my mouth from a wisdom tooth extraction. I woke up and spit all that out and still had the taste in my mouth when I went to sit down at the comp.

 

3)- Yes, this is a "buff" to pods scouts. It was a pretty crappy accidental nerf to them previously. While almost every girl bomber runs repair drone, not every Clarion runs repair probes, and the repair drone is self serve- a good Clarion can often guess who needs heals (god forbid we have a UI element for friendly hit points, that would just take the fun out of it), but there's almost no way to know who needs ammo outside of voice comms. I'm really happy to see this fixed, because this bug was hurting a lot of good strategies / teamwork.

 

4)- I really wonder why this wasn't in the patch notes. This is a pretty decent sized fix, certainly on par with all the "some random fish guy now cuddles you 15% longer after spawning on your leg" type notes that we actually do get. Still, no reason to look this gift horse in the mouth.

 

5)- I think we are all the way back to pre 3.0 functionality as of this patch. Longer standing bugs haven't been touched in any way, including the obvious tooltip bugs or version related issues, and of course, sab probe snare talent has been broken for over seven months now- but this does mean that there are folks who are ACTIVELY looking at the code and testing elements of it, and the bugs they fixed first were the most game breaking ones. That's VERY good for us.

1)- Nyght, I still like you!

You mean at no point in any of my interactions with you have you hated me?! Dammit! I'll have to try harder!

 

Cheers, Verain!

Question: is it really sensible to take ammo refill over shield refill for Repair Drone?

 

I mean, Repair Drone can repair 225 shield every 3 seconds, or 75 shields a second. Considering the Legion/Warcarrier alone, that doubles its shield regeneration rate when it's not being damaged, and ensures it still gets shield regeneration even when in the shield-regeneration-delay window. That seems pretty important when holding a satellite. And of course that regen is applied to allies as well.

 

On the other hand, ammo refill lets you refill the ammo of Pods and Clusters. My question is ... if your allies are really running out of Pods and Clusters, and not dying at all, isn't the match likely a noobstomp anyway?

 

I feel like a Repair Drone that refills shields has at least some chance of helping you win a tough match, while ammo refill really just helps you win already-assured victories faster.

 

Now, Repair Probes is a different matter. Their shield refill is only 37.5 / second, which is pretty pitiful. The same logic could still apply (that ammo refill is mostly only needed in roflstomps), but I think it's a harder choice then. Plus the Imperium/Clarion itself can keep its own supply of missiles fresh.

Edited January 15, 2015 by Nemarus

Question: is it really sensible to take ammo refill over shield refill for Repair Drone?

 

I mean, Repair Drone can repair 225 shield every 3 seconds, or 75 shields a second. Considering the Legion/Warcarrier alone, that doubles its shield regeneration rate when it's not being damaged, and ensures it still gets shield regeneration even when in the shield-regeneration-delay window. That seems pretty important when holding a satellite. And of course that regen is applied to allies as well.

 

On the other hand, ammo refill lets you refill the ammo of Pods and Clusters. My question is ... if your allies are really running out of Pods and Clusters, and not dying at all, isn't the match likely a noobstomp anyway?

 

I feel like a Repair Drone that refills shields has at least some chance of helping you win a tough match, while ammo refill really just helps you win already-assured victories faster.

 

Now, Repair Probes is a different matter. Their shield refill is only 37.5 / second, which is pretty pitiful. The same logic could still apply (that ammo refill is mostly only needed in roflstomps), but I think it's a harder choice then. Plus the Imperium/Clarion itself can keep its own supply of missiles fresh.

I think it's totally dependent on the ship, honestly. I think that in the case of bombers, it makes a lot more fundamental sense to take the shield option, especially if you're not sure if you're running with people who use pods. I've talked to someone about it once in the past, and I think we came to the conclusion that in a way, taking shields over ammo can be a little "selfish" from the standpoint that it's definitely there to help the bomber stay alive, but it doesn't really help others outside of the bomber that much. That can certainly be both good and necessary for some matches, but I do think it's fair to say, especially since the scouts and strikes don't usually sit under drone effects unless they're actively trying to heal. At that point, it doesn't really matter that you're getting shields, since you're probably not taking damage. I could be wrong, and just drawing a parallel to when I'm consciously looking for heals, but that's how it "feels" when I'm flying a scout or strike. But I may well just not be noticing the times that I'm under a friendly drone, and the bit of heals and shields is keeping me alive.

 

Chances are, my focus is very much not on the drone and getting healed if I'm actively involved in a melee.

 

However, with that said, I run Repair Drone on my Bloodmark, and while I'm not usually in a Bloodmark outside of a stomp, I actually like the ammo refill there because the scouts shields aren't as relevant as a bombers shields, and also, the ammo on the bloodmark can be a bit limiting, and taking the ammo upgrade there allows me to use Jaesa/Qyzen (I think it's Qyzen that gives Pinpointing and the +2° arc?), and go for extra range on my secondaries if I'm running Ion or EMP Missile without a second thought.

 

So anyway, I do think that it makes more sense to have ammo refill on a SpearMark. I also think that generally, it makes more sense to have ammo refill in TDM. But I do think there's an extremely strong case to be made for shields if you're solo Qing as a bomber, and you get a DOM.

 

Also, while most of the times I'm running pods and run out, it's a bit of a stomp, there have definitely been games where I run out of pods, and am largely in carry-mode, and have to make a decision as to whether I should suicide to get back to full offensive capabilities, or run to the sat I just left that is now under pressure because I went to reinforce B or something. If I suicide, and it's bad timing, I'm locked out of the match for 10-12 seconds, and we lose that satellite. If I run to the sat, and there's a bomber, and I can't kill it on my first pass with just BLCs, it's quite possible that something gets me, we lose the sat, and then lose the game. It's a complete and total edge case, but I'm NEVER sad to see ammo refill, and I'm occasionally sad to see shields. This is speaking as a scout pilot, so it might be tainted in that way, but themz mah viewz.

Edited January 15, 2015 by nyghtrunner

4)- I really wonder why this wasn't in the patch notes. This is a pretty decent sized fix, certainly on par with all the "some random fish guy now cuddles you 15% longer after spawning on your leg" type notes that we actually do get. Still, no reason to look this gift horse in the mouth.

 

5)- I think we are all the way back to pre 3.0 functionality as of this patch. Longer standing bugs haven't been touched in any way, including the obvious tooltip bugs or version related issues, and of course, sab probe snare talent has been broken for over seven months now- but this does mean that there are folks who are ACTIVELY looking at the code and testing elements of it, and the bugs they fixed first were the most game breaking ones. That's VERY good for us.

 

I've wondered this too. Call me a cynic, but given all the unintentional reversions we've seen re: other components (most recently, ion rail energy drain going back up and slow duration dropping), doesn't it seem likely - or at least possible - that this "fix" was purely accidental? Meaning, something they did in the latest update simply rolled repair drone back to where it was before it became broken.

 

I don't code, so I have no real sense of how unlikely it is to accidentally fix something - I've just seen how frequently stuff gets busted in a similar manner, and how little dev attention we've received overall. I mean, is there any precedent for this? Have we ever seen anything stealth fixed prior to this?

 

EDIT: not that I'm complaining. Bloodmark is back on the bar after a lengthy absence. I've missed that silly little ship.

Edited January 15, 2015 by MaximilianPower

Question: is it really sensible to take ammo refill over shield refill for Repair Drone?

 

I mean, Repair Drone can repair 225 shield every 3 seconds, or 75 shields a second. Considering the Legion/Warcarrier alone, that doubles its shield regeneration rate when it's not being damaged, and ensures it still gets shield regeneration even when in the shield-regeneration-delay window. That seems pretty important when holding a satellite. And of course that regen is applied to allies as well.

 

On the other hand, ammo refill lets you refill the ammo of Pods and Clusters. My question is ... if your allies are really running out of Pods and Clusters, and not dying at all, isn't the match likely a noobstomp anyway?

 

I feel like a Repair Drone that refills shields has at least some chance of helping you win a tough match, while ammo refill really just helps you win already-assured victories faster.

 

Now, Repair Probes is a different matter. Their shield refill is only 37.5 / second, which is pretty pitiful. The same logic could still apply (that ammo refill is mostly only needed in roflstomps), but I think it's a harder choice then. Plus the Imperium/Clarion itself can keep its own supply of missiles fresh.

 

In my opinion taking the shield regen on repair probe is only beneficial to the Bomber that drops it. I've never flown to a repair drone sat there to heal to full and been like thank god that healed my shields. If you're counting on a repair drone to heal your shields while you're in taking damage in range of it, you're opponents aren't doing a very good job of killing that first and as you said earlier it's probably a stomp.

 

With double volley clusters and Rocket pods being the game unless you are sure no one with these weapons are going to be on your team I think ammo refill is always more beneficial. Even in tough matches you can eat threw 50 Rocket pods before dying pretty easily.

 

The only time I'd use shield regen is if I were making a specialized Gunship protection Bomber spec, because then atleast that repair drone is being protected by the Gunships and also regenerating 2-3 ships worth of shields.

I've wondered this too. Call me a cynic, but given all the unintentional reversions we've seen re: other components (most recently, ion rail energy drain going back up and slow duration dropping), doesn't it seem likely - or at least possible - that this "fix" was purely accidental? Meaning, something they did in the latest update simply rolled repair drone back to where it was before it became broken.

 

I don't code, so I have no real sense of how unlikely it is to accidentally fix something - I've just seen how frequently stuff gets busted in a similar manner, and how little dev attention we've received overall. I mean, is there any precedent for this? Have we ever seen anything stealth fixed prior to this?

 

EDIT: not that I'm complaining. Bloodmark is back on the bar after a lengthy absence. I've missed that silly little ship.

I would guess it's pretty unlikely that it's an incidental fix. It's possible, but it would require a pretty careless code merging process on their part, and would probably require them to be actively be editing the GSF module's codebase for something completely different (which may be an awesome thing, right?).

 

It's a whole lot easier to incidentally break a bunch of things with an update than it is to accidentally revert a part of the code, but only a specific part of the code that in theory hasn't changed for a patch or 2. If it were a revert "fix", in this case, it's entirely possible that there would be a revert "break", where the list of 3-dot bugs came back with a vengeance, or something similar. There was something that didn't gel with the skill trees in GSF with 3.0, and while they fixed a bunch of those, they definitely missed 1 or 2, which leads me to believe that the fix was implemented in the GSF module, and at the ability level, rather than something higher up the chain*, where a single fix would have fixed all of the issues (this is not that different from the Disto bug for instance, if you want a direct component comparison, and a higher level fix would probably have fixed both). As such, I do not think a revert could have fixed this.

 

I can only speculate why it wouldn't be in the patch notes, but I'd be incredibly surprised if the fix wasn't intentional.

 

*Edit - IE - Something along the lines of "bAllowGSFSkillTrees = true;"

 

Edit 2 - It could be that they are going back through and manually reverting various code things for GSF now that they have the main list of broken components taken care of, but it would still require the implementation of the 3-dot fixes, which puts it back in the realm of intentional.

Edited January 15, 2015 by nyghtrunner