#10 Dinosaur & Weapon Balance

[Highway]

Hiho dino rangers,

First off we would like to thank every player who shared their feedback & ideas on our last Dev Shack #9, or in the feedback sections of the forum. It helped us identify the core aspects that we should focus on for the next Dino Storm updates. Now there is a long list of issues and ideas that we will go through and prioritize which ones go first.

As many of you noticed during the Easter event, we had performance issues on some servers causing network lag and delays which made the game unplayable at peak times. We have identified several issues that were causing this. Many optimizations were done in the course of several updates during the last few weeks to improve performance without any changes to gameplay.

But one adjustment proved to be a tough one as it changed how the game was played/perceived by you. The very high frequency of shots being fired was causing massive network traffic during battles and had to be adjusted. So the time between individual shots was increased to not go below one second for the fastest attack interval, and the damage output of the weapons and skills was adjusted to make up for this change—the resulting dps (damage per second) is about the same as it was before. We can understand that some are not happy with that adjustment but it was necessary for improving performance and needs to stay this way. But we are sure that there is a way that we can bring the “fun aspect” back to the weapons without sacrificing playability again.

So that brings us to the first thing we want to work on for the next Dino Storm update. We want to balance the dinosaurs & weapons more fairly so that it is more fun to use different kinds of combinations of dinos & weapons without having that one preferred setup which bests all the others. This is a really tricky and complex thing to get right as many factors come into the equation. To achieve this we are currently taking a deep dive into analyzing dinos and weapons with their entirety of skills and effects.

Planned Changes

• Achieve greater balance among dinosaurs (attributes & skills).
• Achieve greater balance among weapons (attributes & skills).
• Introduce that each weapon has their own firing sound & visuals to match the adjusted attack timings.

Let us know what you think.

Stay safe

 

[Mercurio]

PERFECTTTTT,

it was all we wanted !!!

 

[xVirus7u7]

Y cuando implementaran esas Actualizaciones?

 

[Highway]

Y cuando implementaran esas Actualizaciones?

Once we have a release schedule we will post it here.

 

[xVirus7u7]

Oh ... I understand haha, can you fix the BUG of daily fame?

 

[Enix]

If it stays like this, IMO, For the Showstopper, its better to put a reload sound of loading in a heavy ammo inside the barrel during the interval of next shot. Since the clock value of Showstopper is lowest, it should fit there precisely.

 

[ArgentH]

*To achieve this we are currently taking a deep dive into analyzing dinos and weapons with their entirety of skills and effects.*
Does this mean you will change dinosaur & weapon skills (like removing battle cry from the t-rex and chaning it with a new skill OR change what the skills do now such as '50% dodge chance for 4 seconds')?

 

[DalekRaptor]

About the weapons update, you need delete the leveling or prevention of kill in one shot, because that we are doing less dps than before hunting things like smilos and extra battle cry is usless with that weapon update. Also high damage weapons like showstopper, peacemaker and hammer only can reach 22k of damage using violent booster to another player by shot and skills, and this isn't fair because the high frecuency weapons too can reach 22k of damage. And this being said, leveling is making imposible kill players that are using violent booster and too low levels like 50 or 45 can kill a level 55 easyly now

 

[-Frigg-]

sorry, but i'm not particularly impressed by this devshack.

these are all things that should've been done as you went along and should've been taken care of regularly. we've had problems with certain abilities, dinos, etc for MONTHS that people have complained about but no action has been taken. the game has become so unbalanced that essentially the only combo people use in war is pachy+gatling. and now with the clock update, the other guns fire horribly slow, especially compared to gatling. it puts others at a severe disadvantage when using anything *but* gatling. i hate gatling and prefer yager, and yager's clock isn't as slow as others, but its still outpaced by gatling to a ridiculous degree. not to mention that gatling's confusion ability lasts WAY too long and you can confuselock people with it because by the time its cooled down, you can just use confusion again. and this is especially annoying because lower levels use it to kill bigger players because (as dalekraptor stated above) you removed the ability to one shot. there's honestly no reason for there not to be one shotting lower levels - either level up or use protection. i'm max 55. a level 40 should NOT be able to shred through my health the way they do. what's the point in upgrading when someone 15 levels under you can kill you anyway?

not to mention that the slowing of the clock on all weapons didn't even do anything for the lag. my lag didn't start to improve until you made updates to the server hardware. the only effect it had was ending the war in america 2 and making the game as dull as it was before. pvp is boring, war is near nonexistent, and the current mechanics and meta make zero sense. being level 55 doesn't make it feel as though i've hit the top and i'm really strong. it just feels like a waste of my time because low levels can gang up and kill me whereas it didn't used to be like that before.

maybe this comes off as mean but at this point i don't care. it feels like dinostorm gets the short end of the stick compared to pirate galaxy and the features and updates we've wanted for months/years just get glossed over in favor of fixes and updates that don't add anything.

 

[Sandysauce]

There's a lot I want to say about this:

1st - Thank god we're getting re-balance, despite several players telling GM's and complaining on the forum here, nothing has been done about the fact that some items, specifically Gatling, are way OP. You almost see no other gun. Even after the reduced firing rate, people still are using Gatling and shredding health or using the confusion.

Bringing me to 2nd - Confusion is ridiculously OP. You get confused once, you will die. No if's, and's, or but's, about it. There is no counter there is no way to stop it. The length that you remain confused should not be the same amount of time it would take someone to build EP again. I had a GM talk to me about how if you get stunned once you die, which isn't the case, but there's also a way to combat that, don't want to get stunned? Stability. Don't want to get confused? Oh well!

3rd - I did not realize how broken nixing the One-shot kill would made PVP until our fire rate was lowered. Low levels will absolutely Shred high level's health like no tomorrow due to this. Not to mention the previously pointed out it renders things like battle cry completely useless. There was no point to making it so players and animals could not be one-shot killed. Its not 'fair' all it has done is made lower levels lazy and they do nothing but cause trouble in chat all day instead of leveling up because there is no reward in it. They could just tag team with a few other low levels and kill a high level player instead of leveling up themselves to kill the player. Some players don't even need other low levels to kill a high level player. Why level up when you cause more damage than a higher level player and thus can kill them on your own?

4th - I really don't think the main problem was with any of the game play with the event. There was absolutely no change in lag for me until you did the hardware update. Which should probably say something, perhaps the hardware (or the servers you host on) have issues. Not every thing is able to be diagnosed in diagnostics, especially if you run servers that are international, but your home base is relatively close to the servers location. Of course there would be no lag on your end from the servers, but plenty of lag on players end who live across the globe.

Honestly, I feel like a lot of the updates lately have just made the game harder on the players causing many players to quit playing.

 

[-Frigg-]

Honestly, I feel like a lot of the updates lately have just made the game harder on the players causing many players to quit playing.

honestly there's a million other things i could say but in the end it really comes down to this. the game isn't nearly as fun as it was before and the update with the clock about killed it. am2 at least has gone mostly inactive yet again. even i've started to play other mmos in place of ds because they actually listen to what their players have to say. ds has felt like its on the way out for a couple years now and this kind of just solidifies it for me.

 

[Thround]

Bringing me to 2nd - Confusion is ridiculously OP. You get confused once, you will die. No if's, and's, or but's, about it. There is no counter there is no way to stop it. The length that you remain confused should not be the same amount of time it would take someone to build EP again. I had a GM talk to me about how if you get stunned once you die, which isn't the case, but there's also a way to combat that, don't want to get stunned? Stability. Don't want to get confused? Oh well!

I don't think there is something wrong with Confuse effect itself. Yes, it can be considered "OP" but that's only because PvP duration is short; no time for players to heal, or counterattack. If PvP lasted a little bit longer, I do not think it will be as dangerous.

Confuse effect do have an "Anti", and that's Agility implant. if the Skill Pinpoint got dodged, the Confusion effect will not be activated. And considering that Gatling Focus attribute has been lowered, Pinpoint are more likely to miss without even the need to use agility implant.

 

[-Persus- Ame2]

Estou animado para saber sobre uma atualização futura para melhor equilibrar o jogo. : p

Você poderia me responder uma pergunta?
1: este é um dinossauro destacado na imagem. Ele seria implementado no jogo no jogo a ser montado ou caçado ou é apenas um modelo de referência? : inseguro:
2: a equipe de desenvolvimento planeja implementar uma armadura de dinossauro? se não, por que? : inseguro:

 

[Enix]

I don't think there is something wrong with Confuse effect itself. Yes, it can be considered "OP" but that's only because PvP duration is short; no time for players to heal, or counterattack. If PvP lasted a little bit longer, I do not think it will be as dangerous.

Confuse effect do have an "Anti", and that's Agility implant. if the Skill Pinpoint got dodged, the Confusion effect will not be activated. And considering that Gatling Focus attribute has been lowered, Pinpoint are more likely to miss without even the need to use agility implant.

If a player is using Anky + Gatling combo, he/she gets double chance to trigger a confusion state on the target. Maybe one chance can be dodged but two of them being dodged is rare. Also, if none of the two chances are dodged, you can keep confusing the target forever.

 

[xVirus7u7]

Estou animado para saber sobre uma atualização futura para melhor equilibrar o jogo. : p

Você poderia me responder uma pergunta?
1: este é um dinossauro destacado na imagem. Ele seria implementado no jogo no jogo a ser montado ou caçado ou é apenas um modelo de referência? : inseguro:
2: a equipe de desenvolvimento planeja implementar uma armadura de dinossauro? se não, por que? : inseguro:
View attachment 37070

No creo que implemente Armaduras a los Dinos, ya que eso lo hicieron hace algunos años y fue un fracaso daba mucho Lag, y ahora con el problemas de retraso seria peor....

 

[-Persus- Ame2]

No creo que implemente Armaduras a los Dinos, ya que eso lo hicieron hace algunos años y fue un fracaso daba mucho Lag, y ahora con el problemas de retraso seria peor....

Hmm, no sabía esa información :v

 

[Thround]

If a player is using Anky + Gatling combo, he/she gets double chance to trigger a confusion state on the target. Maybe one chance can be dodged but two of them being dodged is rare. Also, if none of the two chances are dodged, you can keep confusing the target forever.

Ankylosaurus Confuse effect was not included as one of those effects that misses if skills are missed, So no, Agility will not be considered an "Anti" for it, it was meant for Gatling Confuse. However, Ankylosaurus Confuse is only 5 seconds long, and it can be only activated in close range.

No, Confusion will not last forever. There are two cases:

• First Case with Gatling Confuse, there will be 2 seconds chance for player to do a counter-attack before the next Gatling Confusion hits, as any Skill take approximately 10 seconds to reload and be used again.
• Second Case, first Gatling confuse will hit and last 8 seconds, then extend it with Ankylosaurus Confuse for additional 5 seconds, means 13 seconds in total. Then a gap of approximately 3 seconds, because your Extra Power bar will not be refilled in only 5 seconds.

 

[xVirus7u7]

Hmm, no sabía esa información :v

Ahora la sabes. v:

 

[Sandysauce]

Confuse effect do have an "Anti", and that's Agility implant. if the Skill Pinpoint got dodged, the Confusion effect will not be activated. And considering that Gatling Focus attribute has been lowered, Pinpoint are more likely to miss without even the need to use agility implant.

In order for something to be considered a counter for something else, it would have to actually do something. Agility almost never works properly, and is entirely luck based. I have used agility in PVP to test vs Confusion and confusion never missed. It also isn't a good counter to have the options be

1.) the attack miss, and the player wasted their EP

or

2.) the implant failed and now you're confused

Stability with stunning is a good example of a good counter. Stun times are reduced rather than outright gone. So the player dealing the stun doesn't feel like it was a waste, and the player who was stunned isn't dead in the water immediately. Perhaps more thought should be put into how to counter Confusion rather than just blanket statements of "agility is the counter".

 

[-Frigg-]

In order for something to be considered a counter for something else, it would have to actually do something. Agility almost never works properly, and is entirely luck based. I have used agility in PVP to test vs Confusion and confusion never missed. It also isn't a good counter to have the options be

1.) the attack miss, and the player wasted their EP

or

2.) the implant failed and now you're confused

Stability with stunning is a good example of a good counter. Stun times are reduced rather than outright gone. So the player dealing the stun doesn't feel like it was a waste, and the player who was stunned isn't dead in the water immediately. Perhaps more thought should be put into how to counter Confusion rather than just blanket statements of "agility is the counter".

plus even if agility were a decent working counter to confusion, that doesn't stop players from ganging up on you and spamming confusion. especially if any of them are anky users. at least with stun, it lasts a shorter amount of time each time that someone stuns you.

 

[Thround]

plus even if agility were a decent working counter to confusion, that doesn't stop players from ganging up on you and spamming confusion. especially if any of them are anky users. at least with stun, it lasts a shorter amount of time each time that someone stuns you.

With the current gameplay, I would say that 1v2 is impossible anyway even without using Confusion at all, but if it's a scenario where lower levels are the one spamming confuse. Well, that's a thing that should be considered since One-hit prevention makes it harder to eliminate them after the reduction of fire rate.

 

[Sandysauce]

With the current gameplay, I would say that 1v2 is impossible anyway even without using Confusion at all, but if it's a scenario where lower levels are the one spamming confuse. Well, that's a thing that should be considered since One-hit prevention makes it harder to eliminate them after the reduction of fire rate.

Lower levels do in fact spam it to confuse higher levels. I've had it happen to me on AM1 before, and I've used this mechanic to my advantage on AM2 and taken out a full 55, at 45 with a level 30 as back up.

 

[rishab17]

There is one more thing that needs to be fixed I guess, as GM thround told me once, that the dmg attribute value is now increased to 3/4th from 1/4th , so is the clock reduced by 3 times, so working of aim tech and shield implant is still uneven. For example : aim adds 1k+ dmg, so earlier in 3 shots it used to add 3k+ dmg but now in the same time it remains 1k+ dmg only , same goes for shield implant, if it used to resist 3k dmg so now it does 1k only.

Thank you

 

[Enix]

Ankylosaurus Confuse effect was not included as one of those effects that misses if skills are missed, So no, Agility will not be considered an "Anti" for it, it was meant for Gatling Confuse. However, Ankylosaurus Confuse is only 5 seconds long, and it can be only activated in close range.

No, Confusion will not last forever. There are two cases:

• First Case with Gatling Confuse, there will be 2 seconds chance for player to do a counter-attack before the next Gatling Confusion hits, as any Skill take approximately 10 seconds to reload and be used again.
• Second Case, first Gatling confuse will hit and last 8 seconds, then extend it with Ankylosaurus Confuse for additional 5 seconds, means 13 seconds in total. Then a gap of approximately 3 seconds, because your Extra Power bar will not be refilled in only 5 seconds.

Extra Power can be refilled in 5 seconds, if you are using Rage Implant. Also, the Ankylosaurus' Confuse skill affects more than 1 target, unlike Gatling's confusion skill. So that does make things a bit OP.

 

[Agusdim]

The new balance has to start with the dinosaurs, it is ridiculous that the Rex (Dinosaur that requires spending money and a lot of time to obtain it) is a mockery in PvP. Implementing "Passive Effects" for all the dinos would make them more interesting, so that they stand out in what they should highlight, and in turn be able to reinforce the weak points a bit, the same for weapons. Examples:
-Anky is supposedly "Defensive" type, but his first skill with extra does 500%, doing almost the same damage as a Carno or Rex ..
-Gatling in theory his damage should be very low, to compensate that he shoots really fast and to wide areas, but his first skill with extra towards 600% before and 300% currently, exaggeration of damage, if you compare the Gatling vs a weapon that this focused on doing a lot of damage, for example Shower or Pacifier, the gatling wins only for her ability, it is illogical.
-Clan boosters should also be analyzed and even add more, allowing variety in combat.
Finally, it would be ideal if the game did not focus so much on 1vs1, since most of the players belong to a clan, the clans have a lot of potential. example:
-A clan could study "skills, abilities, proficiencies" that benefit their players and give properties that make them stand out in damage, or in hp, or in armor, or in speed... etc.

 

[WindofChange]

Suggestions:
- Pleave give the poor hammer some usefulness .
- Many dinos feel underpowered since the ones with ranged skills rule right now.
- Fighting MOBS with low frequency is a torture.
- Add some transformations to the dinos while u balance them ( 20-55 all the same is pretty strange).
- Give Maujak implants something to be bought for.
- Clan boosters are so good; please add other ones for dinos and guns to use.
- Any new Gel?
-Stability is a great counter , pen too. Make other perfect counters.
-Claws is...
-Guns need much more diversity in their attributes.
-Pvp is super weird: all about who shoots first, calculating 10,3, 20 and bla bla.
-Fame is needed for one thing only :/
- Add Spinosaurus? (Sorry, it's the habit).

 

[Highway]

Very helpfull and detailed feedback on the topic so far. Keep it rolling

 

[Enix]

Parasurolophus, Brachiosaurus, Centrosaurus etc can be brought back to action by rebalancing their attributes which will attract the users. Para users are very rare. It would be a great change of taste when that dino is brought up in light. Also, the rex should have a bit more defensive attributes because it is very difficult to survive in a war with a T-Rex.

 

[OrionZG]

Otro detalle que consideró bien es que, al igual que las Armas con su enfoque de atributo, y el Anky con su Armadura extra; tal vez podría aplicarlo con los otros dinosaurios, dejando los atributos básicos (Fuerza, vitalidad y resistencia). A lo que digo es, un atributo extra.
Dependiendo de la característica del dinosaurio, por ejemplo: Coelphysis con Agilidad, Centrosaurus con Escudo, Carnotaurus con Recuperación, Pachycephalosaurus con Agilidad, Brachiosaurus con Estabilidad, Parasaurolophus con Furia, Rex con Recuperación, obviamente no deben ser los que digo, pienso que tal vez sería una pequeña ventaja adicional para el combate junto al equilibrio.

 

[Mercurio]

it would be interesting the effect (battle cry) in addition to making enemies flee also disable the dino skills during these 4 seconds of effect, because players use the 'jump' ability to break the effect , thus leaving the rex at a disadvantage if need run etc...