Playtesters needed! (1.3 Chronomancers)

[PurpleXVI]

Okay here's some binaries. Note these are only for testing.

http://te4.org/dl/tmp/test12.zip

That fixed it, thanks!

[edge2054]

The first time, it claimed to have have prevented 29 damage, and 9 the second. So the second attack should have been 20 points more damaging - but it wasn't. Since this was the same enemy hitting several times in sequence, all the attacks should have been about the same.

That's not actually true. Especially with dual-wielding, there's a damage penalty on the off-hand attack that starts at 50%.

Here's the same Rogue hitting me a turn or two later:
[LOG] #UID0#Rogue misses #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST#.
[LOG] #UID0#Rogue hits #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# for #aaaaaa#(9 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#30 physical#LAST#, #LIGHT_GREEN#(1 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_GREEN#4 nature#LAST# (34 total damage).
[LOG] #UID0##fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# hits Rogue for #YELLOW#5 light#LAST# damage.
[LOG] #UID0##fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# hits Bandit for #YELLOW#5 light#LAST#, #YELLOW#5 light#LAST# (11 total damage).
[LOG] Gravity Locus hits Rogue for #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Gravity Locus hits Bandit for #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST#, #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# (36 total damage).
[LOG] #UID0#Bandit hits #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# for #aaaaaa#(9 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#(9 fatewever)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#30 physical#LAST#, #aaaaaa#(5 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# (48 total damage).
[LOG]

That looks about right to me. I'll take a closer look at the log you uploaded a bit later.

[Toranth]

The first time, it claimed to have have prevented 29 damage, and 9 the second. So the second attack should have been 20 points more damaging - but it wasn't. Since this was the same enemy hitting several times in sequence, all the attacks should have been about the same.

That's not actually true. Especially with dual-wielding, there's a damage penalty on the off-hand attack that starts at 50%.

Here's the same Rogue hitting me a turn or two later:
[LOG] #UID0#Rogue misses #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST#.
[LOG] #UID0#Rogue hits #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# for #aaaaaa#(9 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#30 physical#LAST#, #LIGHT_GREEN#(1 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_GREEN#4 nature#LAST# (34 total damage).
[LOG] #UID0##fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# hits Rogue for #YELLOW#5 light#LAST# damage.
[LOG] #UID0##fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# hits Bandit for #YELLOW#5 light#LAST#, #YELLOW#5 light#LAST# (11 total damage).
[LOG] Gravity Locus hits Rogue for #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# damage.
[LOG] Gravity Locus hits Bandit for #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST#, #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# (36 total damage).
[LOG] #UID0#Bandit hits #fbd578#Nnzzz The Impossible#LAST# for #aaaaaa#(9 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#(9 fatewever)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#30 physical#LAST#, #aaaaaa#(5 dissipated)#LAST#, #aaaaaa#18 physical#LAST# (48 total damage).
[LOG]

That looks about right to me. I'll take a closer look at the log you uploaded a bit later.

I think both hits were offhand hits. I accidentally trimmed one line too many - the first attack by the Rogue was also a miss/hit. The entire encounter should be in the attached log. I don't know if it is possible to send you the save file for the character I was using, but I have a save at approximately that point, so I can duplicate it as needed.

[PurpleXVI]

I noticed that Precognition and Foresight have been changed, and while not everyone might agree, I feel like this was a good change. Personally I never used Precognition, as it was, except to fire it up and instantly cancel it to trigger Foresight's bonus effect.

EDIT: I also think you mentioned some changes to Speed Control in your branch, were those reverted? Or are they just subtle? Because currently I'm not seeing the tree being a lot different from what it was.

[edge2054]

Subtle.

Celerity builds when you use a non-instant talent, giving movement speed for a few turns rather than one. Time Dilation builds when you move and buffs your cast rates etc. for a few turns. They're also a bit buggy right now and give to many stacks if your talent level is above one. It's a known issue but one that I think is in the method. I'll call them manually if it doesn't get sorted out before 1.3.

Haste gives you global speed based on your total stacks of both.

Time Stop can be cast as long as you have Celerity or Time Dilation stacked. But I might have it require both before release if it's not restrictive enough (random bosses will have this talent so it has to be carefully balanced).

Slow, as a status effect, was moved to Gravity Well.

[PurpleXVI]

Am I correct in saying that the skill descriptions have not been updated to reflect these changes yet?

EDIT: Actually, on testing, at least Celerity appears to function exactly like usual. Did I screw something up when trying to grab your branch?

EDIT2: Playing around a bit with the Spellbinding tree, I think Matrix might need a buff. It cuts off roughly 10% of cooldown time per point invested, in a relatively linear progression, which means that at 5 points, it's useful for just about ANY skill. But at low point investments, like 1 or 2, it's really only going to be useful for skills with cooldowns of around 8 or 10, which I don't have that many of, and a good few of the ones I do, also have Fixed Cooldowns, rather than modifiable ones. I'm not quite sure how I'd change it, but maybe starting it out with a higher cooldown reduction(maybe 20% or so?) and diminishing returns at higher skill points investments, could make it more generally useful. Extension suffers from a bit of the same issue.

EDIT3: Matrix rounds down very aggressively. When I've got it at 26% cooldown reduction, it takes 2 turns off of a 4-turn cooldown. I suppose that does provide some of the extra usefulness I was asking for, but it also might be a bit overpowered to be, say, hurling out a Gravity Spike every second turn(or every other turn, when you can whap someone with the Temporal Bolt), especially considering how powerful Gravity Spike already is.

[edge2054]

I may adjust some cooldowns back up in gravity once matter is finished. I'll have to play around with it. And yeah, matrix and extension round in favor of the player so they're viable at one point.

[PurpleXVI]

Another infinite error loop! Interestingly enough, though, this time things didn't seem to screw up as soon as I entered the level, but instead triggered when I overlapped some squares of lava with my Gravity Well AoE. I posted this in the "bugged traps/terrain"-thread in Bugs, but I'm also crossposting it here just in case Gravity Well is part of what's causing the problem in this case specifically.

[PurpleXVI]

Time Stop can be cast as long as you have Celerity or Time Dilation stacked. But I might have it require both before release if it's not restrictive enough (random bosses will have this talent so it has to be carefully balanced).

A thought on balancing Time Stop. Why not make it require a high Paradox? In the way that most Sun Paladin/Anorithil talents boost your energy pools, but only a few drain it, maybe Time Stop should have a massive, "negative" Paradox cost. Say, 500 or so, meaning that it requires you to really push your Paradox into dangerous zones before being able to use it(perhaps make it so it cannot cause anomalies, but will always go off correctly), or to maintain your paradox at rather dangerous heights(not that high Paradox is as dangerous as it once was, but an unlucky anomaly can still ruin your day).

Additionally, simply make all damage you do while Time Stopped zero. You can start off projectiles on their path(won't move until the Time Stop ends) or set off damage-over-time effects(though they'll do no damage and register no hits until the end of the Time Stop), but you can't instantly nuke anyone. A huge reduction to damage done is fine... but I think some bosses would still be quite able to one-shot players by time stopping and then nuking.

This forces Time Stop into more of a support function(you can heal, relocate, cure, start off effects, etc.) and means that you either have to enter battles in a really risky position(sky-high Paradox) or find yourself only able to bust it out after the battle has proceeded some distance.

[edge2054]

Interesting idea. Right now I have it requiring both Celerity and Time Dilation stacks in order to cast.

The current scaling on it is mostly the damage penalty and cooldown, but I've yet to put a second point into it. When I do cast it it's more just for the fun of it rather than because I need too.

Any other thoughts on Time Stop and specifically giving it some decent scaling without making it game breaking?

[Parcae2]

Time Stop can be cast as long as you have Celerity or Time Dilation stacked. But I might have it require both before release if it's not restrictive enough (random bosses will have this talent so it has to be carefully balanced).

A thought on balancing Time Stop. Why not make it require a high Paradox? In the way that most Sun Paladin/Anorithil talents boost your energy pools, but only a few drain it, maybe Time Stop should have a massive, "negative" Paradox cost. Say, 500 or so, meaning that it requires you to really push your Paradox into dangerous zones before being able to use it(perhaps make it so it cannot cause anomalies, but will always go off correctly), or to maintain your paradox at rather dangerous heights(not that high Paradox is as dangerous as it once was, but an unlucky anomaly can still ruin your day).

Additionally, simply make all damage you do while Time Stopped zero. You can start off projectiles on their path(won't move until the Time Stop ends) or set off damage-over-time effects(though they'll do no damage and register no hits until the end of the Time Stop), but you can't instantly nuke anyone. A huge reduction to damage done is fine... but I think some bosses would still be quite able to one-shot players by time stopping and then nuking.

This forces Time Stop into more of a support function(you can heal, relocate, cure, start off effects, etc.) and means that you either have to enter battles in a really risky position(sky-high Paradox) or find yourself only able to bust it out after the battle has proceeded some distance.

That's a really neat idea, but the problem is that the AI tends to spam spells when it knows you're there but can't see you, sometimes resulting in its entering battle with very high Paradox.

[edge2054]

Darkgod urged me to make it no_npc_use so it's been rebalanced substantially.

Talent level scales duration and cooldown. Caps out at 3 turns. Damage you deal is reduced by 100% while active.

Thoughts?

[Toranth]

Darkgod urged me to make it no_npc_use so it's been rebalanced substantially.
Talent level scales duration and cooldown. Caps out at 3 turns. Damage you deal is reduced by 100% while active.
Thoughts?

If the ability to do damage during a Time Stop is eliminated, why cap it out at 3 turns? A movement infusion can easily give 1000% or more movement (roughly equivalent to 10 turns of Time Stopped'd movement), while Temporal Reprieve can give you up to 7 turns of no-damage-dealing, no-damage-taking, no-move self-repair. You might consider making it mirror-image Reprieve - 2-7 turns of movement and cooldown but nothing else.

By the way. I haven't tried it, but how is Time Stop supposed to affect your summons/golems/allies?

[edge2054]

Allies will be stopped as well. The talent literally gives you extra turns.

The damage penalty may be arbitrary honestly. I just don't like the idea of Time Stop, nuke, nuke, nuke. I don't think it's very engaging.

What you can do though is cast summons, drop map effects, use infusions (including movement which would probably let you cover 20-40 tiles), shoot projectiles (fun for wardens), debuff as much as you want.... and surely a bunch of other things. There's just really one thing you can't, which is nuke.

[0player]

Suggestion (from IRC): Static History could change existing Stop stuns to Removed From Time on cast. (Rather, Stop stun should check for Static History on source and transmute if necessary, of course).