I am not posting this as a schadenfreude thing.
Really. I'm not. I wanted Champions Online to do well.
But holy heck, this is...this is...
See the general Champions Online forums. Notice how it's full of angry threads bitching about a patch, demanding it be rolled back - or, alternatively, full of threads grumbling about how other threads are being modded or locked.
The longest existing thread is here, by the way - 146 pages after two days.
So what's going on? Well, Cryptic put in a global nerf to passive powers, unannounced, without proper patch notes, on launch day (Tuesday, Sept. 1st).
From what I gather - I'm not familiar with the Champions combat engine, so this is just my ballpark understanding...the nerf went in because defensive passives were too powerful, making some builds all but invulnerable to enemy damage.
The player complaint, though, is that by nerfing all passive powers (including, apparently, offensive/support ones), it's a nuclear bomb of a nerf that whacks pretty much everyone. (EDIT: it seems passive powers are the main means of self-defense in Champions. So the whole game's much harder for everyone, and where some players were apparently taking on three-to-five enemies at a time, they now can die one-on-one. Stuff like that.)
Some folks are saying their characters are literally unplayable now. Which may well be true, since from what I can gather, no free respecs were given out.
So let's recap, right - Cryptic didn't give any warning this change was coming. The changes weren't properly documented. The main result of the nerf is that players are much less powerful (which, to a CoH player, has shades of purple patch and ED thinking right there). Players weren't given respecs.
And this was on launch day.
Why's that a problem? Well, the game officially launched on Tuesday, yeah. But many folks have been already playing since Open Beta and pre-order headstart. Mind, I can sorta sympathise with a company nerfing their game after launch, given, y'know, with increased player numbers comes increased datamining, but...
Nerf on launch day has gotta be some kinda new record, especially since it punishes the people who preordered the game and have already been playing for a few days. Indeed it's kinda worse, since many folks are claiming they're of sufficient level, after the headstart weekend, to have basically borked their own characters under the new patch, but not of high enough level to afford respecs.
Annnyway, so now Cryptic's saying there will be a test server in the future, and all patches will go on there before they hit live.
Uh...yeaaaaah...what the hell, Cryptic? Seriously? What the hell?
I want to cry, because they're the people developing Star Trek Online, and I want to play that game. =P
Oh well...
EDIT: Apparently CO's respec function was broken throughout headstart. It now works with the post-launch patches, but you still need to pay for each power choice you rollback. Ain't free, and very expensive to completely rebuild a character.
-- Acyl
Really. I'm not. I wanted Champions Online to do well.
But holy heck, this is...this is...
See the general Champions Online forums. Notice how it's full of angry threads bitching about a patch, demanding it be rolled back - or, alternatively, full of threads grumbling about how other threads are being modded or locked.
The longest existing thread is here, by the way - 146 pages after two days.
So what's going on? Well, Cryptic put in a global nerf to passive powers, unannounced, without proper patch notes, on launch day (Tuesday, Sept. 1st).
From what I gather - I'm not familiar with the Champions combat engine, so this is just my ballpark understanding...the nerf went in because defensive passives were too powerful, making some builds all but invulnerable to enemy damage.
The player complaint, though, is that by nerfing all passive powers (including, apparently, offensive/support ones), it's a nuclear bomb of a nerf that whacks pretty much everyone. (EDIT: it seems passive powers are the main means of self-defense in Champions. So the whole game's much harder for everyone, and where some players were apparently taking on three-to-five enemies at a time, they now can die one-on-one. Stuff like that.)
Some folks are saying their characters are literally unplayable now. Which may well be true, since from what I can gather, no free respecs were given out.
So let's recap, right - Cryptic didn't give any warning this change was coming. The changes weren't properly documented. The main result of the nerf is that players are much less powerful (which, to a CoH player, has shades of purple patch and ED thinking right there). Players weren't given respecs.
And this was on launch day.
Why's that a problem? Well, the game officially launched on Tuesday, yeah. But many folks have been already playing since Open Beta and pre-order headstart. Mind, I can sorta sympathise with a company nerfing their game after launch, given, y'know, with increased player numbers comes increased datamining, but...
Nerf on launch day has gotta be some kinda new record, especially since it punishes the people who preordered the game and have already been playing for a few days. Indeed it's kinda worse, since many folks are claiming they're of sufficient level, after the headstart weekend, to have basically borked their own characters under the new patch, but not of high enough level to afford respecs.
Annnyway, so now Cryptic's saying there will be a test server in the future, and all patches will go on there before they hit live.
Uh...yeaaaaah...what the hell, Cryptic? Seriously? What the hell?
I want to cry, because they're the people developing Star Trek Online, and I want to play that game. =P
Oh well...
EDIT: Apparently CO's respec function was broken throughout headstart. It now works with the post-launch patches, but you still need to pay for each power choice you rollback. Ain't free, and very expensive to completely rebuild a character.
-- Acyl