Hi all,
In this thread, please post your ongoing feedback specifically about your experiences with battle sprites on the preview server. For other feedback on other, non-battle-sprite content, please post over here. We've read the feedback in the main thread, and now we're trying to organize for ease of reading future feedback.
Thanks!
My feedback continued. ..
I absolutely love the battle sprites! I am excited for the day we have 10+ to choose from :)
How to improve them (in my opinion):
Auto target/more intuitive aiming
Treat each skill independent of the other. I agree that the sprites are a nice addition, but the universal cooldown decreases their utility significantly
I love this piece of the proposed update, and wanted to make sure I mentioned that again. My issues are with the non-sprite related updates
Expand on how Evo Catalysts are obtained at the lab, the NPCs were of no assistance in that category.
Seraphynx
I can't help but feel that the hitboxes and damage from the Holy Beam are underpowered. Fix Heart attack above all things, in my trial it I must have used it at least 3 times to test the frequency, with no effect in it's respective trial mission on Elite difficulty. I played with Whitestorm and he had the same problem with his permanent sprite in a Normal difficulty arcade run.
Drakon
I find the Fire attack slightly overpowered. Without a harness, it destroyed over ¼ of a Lumber's health, that's not good in Tier 1. Maybe that's just because it was the trial one from the mission, but still. Flame Aura is fine the way it is as far as I'm concerned.
Maskeraith
I feel like I combined a Toxic Needle and a Toxic Catalyzer and Caustic Quills was the result, which is good. The Shadow Cloak isn't too long, just enough to get away and get back in the fray while negating aggro. I've noticed Oilers still pursue, but don't attack when I'm cloaked. Seriously intelligent slimes.
Overall, I don't find myself using them very often, and when I do, they're not likely to turn the tides much. I guess that is a good thing if the goal was to make them helpful but not heavily reliable or dependant.
I absolutely love the battle sprites, they are exactly what I wanted their result to be.
They should probably be given auto-target as attacking with them can be difficult. Another thing I have noticed, the Drakon sprite has no wings but it did in the concept art. The most powerful out of all three seems to be Maskeraith and I personally think that the Seraphynx one should have a buff since it is inferior to the other two. I'm glad that the sprites were made to be more of a backup than a resource you would depend heavily on in battle. Heating them is an issue, since as Ellthan-Cosmolion said, it is impossible to heat them after level 15. They should be easier to heat below level 30 become gradually harder on the way to level 50 and then very hard on the way to level 100 in heat.
They are a bit underwhelming in T3. However Maskeraith proved useful in the Snarbolax shadow lair. In short, Drakon and Seraphynx should be buffed since Maskeraith is a lot stronger than the other two.
I've only played around with the Maskeraith so this is my personal experience with him:
Quill Spray needs more spread and/or more range. I think it should be more like a Blitz Charge shot in spread, in order to hit a large variety of targets with quills, yet still give the option to pound a single target with dozens of Quills. I'm going to assume that quills are currently glitched, in that each target can only have 1 quill on him at a time. Most of the time, it only hits one or two targets, despite having a large number of quills.
I really wish the invisibility allowed you to pick up and place/throw items like keys and pots, or gave you a bonus on the attack that breaks invisibility. It really doesn't do as much as you would think. To progress in a level you often need to break through blocks or open doors, and combined with its cooldown, it doesn't help you sneak. There's no offensive reason to use it, especially when dash/bash help you get close to a group of range enemies like Devilites or Retrodes. The only time I found it useful was when I was goofing around against the Rabid Snarbolax(s), but that honestly just got my allies killed instead of me (which was amusing, I'll admit). The casting delay doesn't help either.
The third skill I love. SO FREAKIN FUN, and it doesn't feel that broken. It doesn't seem to increase in duration if I'm hitting more targets, because using it in a compound against some of the swarms of enemies lasts just as long as using it in the ATH against single enemies.
Seraphynx needs an entire overhaul as non of the abilities are useful. You need to increase the range of the "laser" attack and/or give it the ability to pass through enemies. The "heart attack" skill does nothing (needs fixing) and the Shield skill needs to last for a longer time than 5 seconds and be a slightly larger radius than it is now.
The cool-downs are way to long for any of the sprites and need to be bound separately by skill not in total.
Sprites need the ability to auto target their enemies rather than shoot directly in the direction a knight is facing. This would be great during a moment of "run away and shoot"
Heating takes way too long past level 15
You also need to inform people of the locations of where you can buy the materials needed to evolve your sprite (evo-catalyst was never mentioned as to where you could acquire it.)
The Maskaraith's invisibility power will leave a heavy shadow effect on some armors when invisible. (Found on Almirian Crusader armor.)
Also the cast delay on the invisibility power is too long between activation and actual effect.
Other than that the Drakon is pretty good overall.
The ultimates needs to give this shock or stun or a radically widened hitbox.
The shield is only good for running up to priority targets and assassinating them while you're alone or for impatient people who want to cross traps.
If the shield is supposed to have such a short duration, you need to make it activate instantly. There can be no delay whatsoever on this. If you can't make it activate instantly, the shield needs to be literally unbreakable. If it can't be unbreakable, the shield's health needs to scale with the amount of party members in the team and there needs to be a good indicator for how much damage it's taking and how much more it can take. The ability is even more vague and unreliable than heart attack, which we at least know exactly what does at the moment (which is nothing). The shield should be bigger and last longer.
Maskeriath
-It has okay moves like the shard shooters and hex circle, but the cloak seems a bit off. you can't hit the enemy and remain cloaked, but it's good for getting out of tough places.
-if its moves gets fixed this sprite will be useful when dealing with a large number of enemies.
Seraphinx
-This has some of the weirdest most I've seen. It has one weak laser move, one shield move that doesn't protect for that long, and a heart move that does nothing.
-if its moves are fixed, and made, it could be a good use for mostly defensive people.
Drakon
-this sprites moves are very powerful for tier 1 and 2, but at tier 3 it gets a little useless. its moves are mostly all offensive and fire based
All Sprites
-They all have cool and unique looks for each stage, Good job
I've kinda fallen in love with the Maskeraith, but playing with it has given me a few ideas about how to enhance 1) this particular sprite and 2) battle sprites in general.
First off, the cloak isn't particularly useful. Normally, I'd use it for sneaking up on an enemy and unleashing a powerful attack, but since I can't charge anything up with it on, it's far less useful. However, it gave me an idea: what if you let the player stay cloaked if he shield-charges? Most charge attacks perform an attack first, which naturally breaks the cloak. But shield-charging doesn't perform an attack, so allowing the player to charge while cloaked in this way will coerce them to learn this interesting technique.
Then, with the cooldown being so long, I feel cheated when I have to decloak prematurely. I was hoping that the cooldown (not the ~50 sec ability countdown, I mean the ~15 sec bonus) would resume from where it left off when I cease doing anything that broke it.
I would also like to see the ability cooldowns separated, which would allow the Maskeraith to cloak you and then perform a surprise attack out of cloak. But I'm not convinced that this is balanced; anybody got opinions on that?
Some of the above players would like to see the sprites auto-target. I like that idea too, but I don't think it goes far enough. If we are allowed to tell the sprites to stay or come, countless strategies are opened up. But if the sprites auto-target, they need to choose the targets 1) that the players point at or 2) that are closest to the sprite when the player isn't pointing at anything in particular.
Drakon:
Fire Ball- Good. nothing seems to be wrong with it. cool down timer is acceptable.
Flame shield- I enjoy feeling like a mini vana.
Flame wall- My Ash of Agni can do better.
Improvements- The drakon is only limited to a fire status effect. Though it can output shadow and elemental damage type, you should allow it to vary its status effect type between Fire, Shock, and Freeze. Similar to that of dragons from a DnD game.
Seraphinx:
Ray of Light- Compared to the other sprites, This attack is barely usable. Low damage output and extremely short range.
Heart Attack- Every time I use it nothing happens, regardless of the new difficulty setting. Only noticeable thing about the attack is a very faint pink aura that surrounds the targeted monster, and when that monster is killed it drops basic loot. No increased drop rate of hearts like it was stated to do.
Overshield- Not sure if it is or not, but when maxed out I am loving the five seconds of invulnerability.
Improvements- Give the Ray of Light a stun effect and a much longer range, and perhaps allow the attack to track a targeted enemy for the duration. Heart Attack needs a drastic improvement, everyone is complaining that it does nothing. Overshield, Give it a bigger radius? and allow it to cure status afflictions upon players in the radius as well as protect them.
Maskeraith:
Needle shot- Good, Like the poisoning effect
Invisibility- Good, if your not a bomber. I am going to sneak past all these enemies and plant a bomb right behind them and, what? I am not invisible wile I am charging OH NOOOOOoooooooo. Also what is the point of extra defense when you are invisible if nothing is attacking you? Make it so you have and offence boost just as you leave camouflage so you can make that surprise attack count.
Hexing Haze- A little overpowered if you ask me but it is cool what it does.
Improvements- Mostly on the invisibility needs work. and perhaps the ultamite for the haze can be a curse (not Hex) or sleep effect.
I promise I will not generate an obese block of text for this post, like I usually do. Obese blocks of text are for serious complaining :3.
I greatly enjoy the look of the sprites, and rescuing them was adorable and enjoyable, and should be a good "hooking" experience for new players as well as old. I like the abilities, some are cliche, some are not, and that's good balance - expectations and surprise. The damage of the Drakon is a bit much for the lower tier, but, then again, it is a dragon. And that boss! It gave me a bit of a fright! I want to fight a tougher one. Also, love the icy battle pod coming out of the shell like that, and the lights bzzting before shorting out, though that's not battle sprite talk.
What I Want: A colorizing option. I love the prismatic (personal color matching) aspects, but I also love maximizing variety. Seeing toasty and cool, dusky and divine themed sprites would be ever so delightful. Some skins could be limited availability, like divine, or shadow...man, that would be sexy. This is a bit far fetched, but I would also love ability color tints. Walking around with a blue-fire shooting drakon, or a green-laser-beaming kitty would be neat. Blue fire burns hotter <3.
More snuggles. I know they're self modifying robots, but I want to program mine to be even more adorable. Like don't just stalk my shoulder, sheesh, wander off, bob up and down, doze off before I do and wake up with a shake of the head when I move. Elaborate: in haven, a sprite could wander off, catch a snipe, carry it back to you, then get distracted and put it down, and then go catch another one. That would be so...so...squee and laaaaaag-tastic in crowded instances. In non-combat zones (because interacting with a sprite in levels would drive people NUTS), interacting with your sprite will have a little thought bubble pop up, with a ":)" or a "<3" or a ":S" for hunger. Also flipping in the air once in awhile would be cute. And seeing another sprite/user (not in a level): a friend/guildie = happy noise, a stranger (not a Stranger) = hides behind your back. Happens when you get in range, once, in a lobby, not in haven - too crowded for that. And more things. Squee!
For the food making: creating in bulk would be fantastic. I can make more than one pancake at once when I'm at home. I should be able to make more than one x-mote, too. Especially for people who plan ahead, and are patient with heat - they will know exactly what they need. Clicking that button repeatedly, even though the preview lets you spam levels with that superfood, was annoying. Bulk food crafting makes logical sense. One dozen cookies. This is different than crafting armors (well, some people spam craft) - you're making food, not clothes. Bulk! Bulk!
Don't like that one ability cools them all down. I've never seen that in any game before, ever, so I'm going to assume this is a bug. Each ability has its own cooldown time in every other game I have ever played, and that makes sense. Especially if overall exhaustion is depleted when you spam all of them in succession, mandating a longer cooldown before any ability can be used again, if, and only if, all of them are used rapidly, within the cooldown of the first one used. Count that as a suggestion if it isn't a bug.
Harnesses need more explaining. Perks need better selection obviousness.
Can't wait to test ult attacks and forms.
Inability to feed your sprite, they were alot of times unresponsive and thats about it from me
Advance Training Hall damage info: (Level 89 Sprites, Maxed Augments, brackets show cooldown)
Drakon
Seraphinx
Maskeraith
Observations:
Glitches:
Personal Recommendations:
Using Maskeraith, I found cloaking handy when I needed to get right up to Menders. Combine with Acheron, Gran Faust, Umbra Driver, or your favorite Autogun for best results. I can also see it being used to get hearts while being swarmed by poisonous enemies, or to take the flak off yourself in a room full of turrets.
EDIT: You could also use Invisibility to revive teammates that are past enemies, which would promote teamwork... OH WAIT. (That's not off-topic. That directly concerns a use of Maskeraith.)
[Edit to remove off-topic point]
I do like the Battle Sprites quite a bit. One thing that worries me, though; 100 LEVELS TO RAISE A SPRITE THROUGH. Then again, the 'grinding' of a sprite is basically equivalent to 'playing the game' which is the whole point of the game.
[Edit: This thread is for Battle Sprite feedback only. Feedback on other parts of the game or testing should be made in the appropriate thread]
[Edit 2: Health reviving is directly related to Battle Sprites due to the fact that it makes Maskeraith more useful while present. Saying otherwise would be like deleting a point about invincibility frames in a thread discussing the Dread Venom Striker.]
I won't give you too much to think about, but please increase damage output for Drakon. Drakon needs to be the popular choice, make him favorable please. Having 70% of T3 using Maskerwraith doesn't feel right.
Seraphinx' laser has invincitinks?
What's wrong with you people? That laser is the one good thing about Seraphynx and it isn't even all that strong to begin with. And then you go ahead and cut its potential like that? What happens if I line it up with a greaver, hit that greaver with three ticks of the laser, and the greaver then decides to attack? The laser has failed its defensive purpose, that's what.
Stop solving nonexisting problems, and stop doing it with arbitrary hit limits.
Edit: Apart from that, Seraphynx is pretty good now, with the latest patch combined with the fact that I figured out the secret to using her.
Seraphynx, a second opinion
So I took my trusty Seraphynx, Useless-Fleaball, for a stroll in RJP with Qwote. I had a suspicion about how to use the laser and it turns out I was entirely correct.
Guys, you are not supposed to aim at enemies with the laser, that's doing it wrong.
The laser is meant to be put up as a barrier between you and the enemy. Aim it sideways, and use it as cover. It's difficult for enemies to get through, but you can just run past it no problem. It has the defensive benefits of spikes and fire traps, for example, that enemies have taken advantage of for so long. That's why it's persistent. If you use the laser like this, it'll gather up jellies, zombies, devilites, wolvers and other easily kited enemies up for you. The laser gives you time to charge your weapon and will gather enemies up for you so that you can easily unleash that charge. This is, to put it bluntly, a vortex-on-a-stick.
The laser also has a lot of other utility. You can use to to demolish large quantities of rocks, for example. It is a fantastic defensive ability and the only thing that needs changing about it is the removal of invincitinks. Having the laser automatically aimed would completely ruin it. It's much harder to laser-lock enemies if you hit them head-on.
Furthermore, with the latest patch, hearts are now dropping again. As a result, Heart Attack turns out to be totally worth it! We used it in the fight against the Royal Jelly, and basically leeched off the royal minis so that they healed us more than they healed the boss. It was an amazing synergy of mechanics and I would heartily recommend Seraphynx for any dangerous situations.
Catch a breather with laser wall!
Heal your entire goddamn team!
Run across spike pits like it's nothing!
Get a Seraphinx, it's the best sprite!
I love the news zeddy, now I can be even more of a rebel and meta-maker by picking the maskewraith c:
I've really only gotten through the missions and leveled up my Seraphynx, so I'm not completely sure what I might be missing yet. However, I'm afraid that these sprites are going to go too far and invalidate offensive armor completely. Since there's a limit of +6 on increase offensive effects already, it is alarming seeing High to Very high damage on all families, low CTR for all weapons, low ASI for all weapons, and low damage for all weapons. Defensive armors really weren't all that interesting in the first place, and getting a setup like this also removes any desire for weapons like the antigua lines, with their family bonuses.
Edit: I didn't notice that you can only pick one of the perks. It's still really strong, but not as bad as I initially thought.
As far as mechanics from the early tests:
-Can there be some indicator on the sprite for the ability being on cooldown?
-Seraphinx has a hit cap on the laser, and I'm not sure I follow why.
-Hopefully, when it's live, leveling up skills will include tooltips to explain what each level up does.
-Special pet items need their own tab. It's going to be annoying to dig through 70+ materials for these items which aren't used as any part of crafting.
-Maskerwraith only seems to have one quill stick on a target. If this is intended, the cone is much too narrow to get good use of it. Also, in the test missions, his damage amp hits really hard (nearly as hard as appropriate alchemers at +6 damage).
I want to get a run with Seraphinx to see just how much easier it makes things (I suspect a lot)
Sprites do not invalidate offensive armours. If you use a full shadowsun set, you can get the medium handgun damage and gain max without having to resort to trinkets. This has been sorely lacking for gunslingers, seeing how much guns are in need of damage bonus to work well.
You could also spread your bonuses out, using armour for power and sprite perks for speed. Swords and guns have three different aspects to boost, and even with chaos+swiftstrike there is still room to max out some of them.
Plus, once you get MSI for your sprite you're really not going to want to go back from +4 MSI.
Also, there is an indicator when the abilities are done cooling down. It's a flash similar to shields.
On sprites invalidating offensive armors, that was something that I missed. I was under the assumption that it was not pick 1 perk, instead you just getting them all.
As far as the indicator, I was more looking for "Hey, this is still on cooldown". I haven't really reliably noticed that shield animation in a full fight (though I do know it exists), and the item/sprite indicators are pretty out of the way (in my opinion).
I've only used the Maskeraith, I plan on trying out the Seraphynx later. Although I heard that the Angelic Aura of the Seraphynx is both time and health based. Could you please at least display a shield bar that lets players know how much of it is left?
I love the way you've worked the defensive abilities for the three sprites. I'm fairly sure the damage that the shield defends against depends on what harness yor sprite is wearing. You can choose to go with an offensive harness, matching the damage type enemies are weak to so your offensive ability is more effective, or you could go with a defensive harness, matching the damage type enemies deal so your defensive ability is more effective.
Note that I've had a lot of difficulty getting the abilities to work due to my shoddy laptop, 98% of the time when I try to use an ability, my character points, but the sprite does nothing. That being said, I've tested out the abilities outside of combat and I like what I see.
Caustic Quills
Unfortunately I was unable to test this extensively, as most the times when enemies were around my abilities wouldn't activate
Shadow Cloak
So far is my favorite ability. I noticed that quite a few actions would cancel the cloak if performed while the cloak was up. However, since there's a delay on when the cloak activates, it gives a quick fingered player time to start charging a weapon before the cloak is enabled. The 16 second cloak time is absolutely wonderful, giving the player "practical" invulnerability, by that I mean that enemies will never actively target you, even if you have a haze bomb damaging them. And it makes the cooldown (42 seconds, I think it was) seem minor. (since it's only ~26 seconds left once the ability has worn off)
This would be a quite effective way to escape Vanaduke. When you create too much threat and he turns and faces you? Cloak! He'll turn back around and attack your teammates again :P
But you said that when you take damage, it dispels. I didn't see this happening. And the damage resisted is barely worth it. It seemed to be around a 10% decrease in damage, but I've yet to do more tests on this.
I honestly can't wait to see what two ultimate abilities are available for this, It's already a wicked ability in its own right.
Hexing Haze
This seemed pretty fun. I loved the explosions. However, as said previously, the time of the haze isn't extended at all when monsters are tagged. In fact, the time isn't really displayed at all. Please fix this.
Notes:
- When a harness is changed at the weapon boxes at depth starts, the harness model itself will not change, but the properties of the damage will. The model changes once you've reached the next depth.
- Heart Attack is still broken
- Holy Beam seem better hitboxes are better, but still not up to par.
- Hexing haze sometimes has a 4th explosion even though the encircling haze is gone, but the marks remain. Not sure if that's supposed to happen or not.
Opinions
I agree with Gear-Storm's post: "Cooldown applies to all skills instead of the one used. Penalizes lower level skills for just using higher level ones." After trying utilize my sprite more, the static cool down is vexing in regards to trying make it efficient in combat. Albeit this is designed to counter any possible spamming.
The Shadow cloak is great, but if it's just an escape tactic it's not very useful, and by extension, a feeling devoid of proper investment. Gear-Storm brings up a good suggestion: "would be better is if the user was given a damage boost for the first attack used to break out of cloak"
My take on it is maybe just a defense debuff/chance of inflicting poison, or decrease movement speed with the first strike after emerging.
Hexing Haze makes up for this quite a bit, but it somewhat defeats the purpose of debilitation and impairment if it, just from what I've seen, simply blows up enemies in the radius, which is great in arenas, and super fun in the training hall. This is very ironic given the fact it rivals the Flame shield for the offensive based Drakon, a little too well, possibly even surpasses it in terms of damage. I don't have any alternatives, but it overall seems a little OP. I don't have any alternative suggestions but as long as I'm heard I don't very much care.
Suggestions
Questions: 1.How often can you rename your sprite at launch? Is it infinite like in the test preview?
2.Does each sprite get the same perks?
3. What are the purpose of the pink materials that are dropped?
After finally getting to play and mostly doing testing of the Seraphinx, here's what i found:
1. Heart attack works alright on a high level once you've fully upgraded it, but doesn't seem to do much (if anything) at lower levels. I had several instances where I killed 4-8 enemies within the heart attack range at the same time but did not see any heart drops at all. Once I had it powered up considerably, it worked a great deal better, though, so maybe just some tweaks on the lower levels.
2. I agree that the cooldown on some of the powers are pretty high and could do with a bit of tweaking.
3. I find that if I"m using the beam attack just after I've spun around to face the different direction, the sprite may not have caught up with me yet and will shoot in a totally different direction from the one I had expected. It's a bit hard to aim, and I wouldn't mind seeing just a little more power (or a wider beam, really). I understand that the Seraphynx is meant to be defensive and support rather than offense, so it makes sense that it wouldn't attack as strongly as a Drakon, but with the narrowness of the beam and the difficulty in aiming it, the power isn't as useful as it could be.
4. I didn't see anywhere that it listed what damage types each harness did or which sprites could not use which harness ... I expect that's going to be added before release?
Overall, though, the sprites are fun to use, and I did enjoy running around the Arcade with Sol using them.
- I think the door to the Lab needs to be deeper (the loading screen starts at the door frame)
- I think a leveling up animation is needed when sprits jump from one size to the next
So in other words, use the laser to give players time to take out melee threats and the 3rd skill to protect vs bullets.
Wow, that's incredibly useful.
Instead of leveling up through feeding a Sprite, I'd much like to see a system in place where sprites level up via usage of the Sprite (How often is your sprite used?) instead of material feeding. It would save us a bunch of trouble to grind for materials; Which will get tedious if all we're doing is simply leveling up our sprite. I have been a witness to this in other games and I feel it might promote the allusion of growth and advancement for the betterment of the Sprites. I believe that this will also give the allusion to the player that "Oh, my sprite is growing so strong with all of those battles won!". Similar to Pokemon in a way.
Additionally, when a sprite goes to level up, I feel a fair market price for these Evo Catalyst and other Evo stone (which I can't quite remember the name of) would be the cost of a 3* and 5* item respectively in Energy. This is my own opinion.
Otherwise, I don't have much to say about the Battle Sprites. The Drakon, in my opinion should have a buff to it's damage. It is claimed that this battle sprite is focused primarily on damage and for knights that like to jump into the fray of battle. At the current point in time, I forget what difficulty I was on, but I could take out a Tier 3 Slag Zombie in about three hits (Less than 3 seconds or so) if I'm equipped with say, a Vog Cub set with a Barbarous Thorn Shield and two Elite Slash Modules whereas it took longer for my sprite to kill the Slag Zombie. I think the Battle Sprites should be able to have more of an influence in combat, damage wise, than they do now.
I can't use the mouse wheel to use the sprite abilities. This might be just me though.
I've played with the seraphynx for a good amount of time now and I have to say, it has a lot of potential to be good (and I would LOVE to use a good suppourt sprite), but It there are several things that just make it bad. Any positives are overshadowed by it's brokenness.
What I like:
-The ideas behind the skills are genius. If they worked, I would love them.
What I dislike:
-Ray of light still has too small a hitbox to actually be useful.
-The cooldown time on the shield skill is waaaay to high for the amount of protection it provides (very little)
-Heart attack still does not seem to be working
Suggestions:
I've thought of two ways to fix the ray of light. Fist and most obvious, Make the hitbox bigger. Or just turn it into a cone shape. Second, re-purpose it entirely. It's a support sprite, right? Let's make it even more so. Let the beam block projectiles and/or interrupt lunge attacks from zombies, kats, trojans (maybe), etc. It would provide a good cover for a gunner, who is more of a support class in the first place. It would also be pretty funny to see a zombie lunge at you, only to trip over your angelcat's laser.
For heart attack, just make it work and I would be happy.
The shield is simply not protective enough to actually be useful, ever. It *could* be useful for running in and reviving a downed teammate, but You can't do that anymore anyway! It would be highly appreciated if it were to have either a shorter cooldown and greater strength, or have the effect last longer and give it much greater strength. Or just turn it into a non-recharging form of the PvP Guardian shield, one that would have a bit more endurance and slowly regenerate your party's health.
When you do the sprite missions, you have a companion sprite that is Level "x" (don't recall), however, when you choose one to bond - you get one that is weaker.
From a plot / story perspective - why would I not get one of the three I've already rescued / traveled with, that I have a relationship with?
Would it break things to give us one that is already at the same level and letting us assign the skill points?
+1 for "autotarget" option for sprites.
If they've evolved / have become more intelligent - then they should be able to zap the nearest enemy or head into a mob for area of effect abilities like Heart Attack, to maximize effect.
+1 for sprite items / materials getting their own separate tab. Presumably these things will end up on the AH, so same there as well.
The overall number of sprite levels seems a bit excessive (90 -100) and overly "grindy".
The sprite level up mechanics also don't feel intuitive. Maybe a pop-up when your sprite wants food? (color code it differently from regular chat).
Sprite "food" machines. These should be available throughout Haven and Clockworks, anywhere there is an alchemy machine. (caveat - I didn't explore everywhere to confirm the lab isn't the only location). The lab should not be the only location, otherwise it's a lot of extra travel / scene cuts.
Choice:
I'm mostly enjoying the new mechanics on the sprites. Unfortunately we are only allowed to choose 1 of them, and we can't switch to another. This means that I must get my enjoyment of the other 2 that I don't choose, on the test server only. This opposes the reason that I play this game. I'm a collector. My goal is to have as many items in this game as possible, and to learn as many different ways to play as possible. This "choose 1 of 3" gives me a feeling of having a door slammed in my face -- in the way that I play, and how I collect. It reminds me of how the veterans of the game were unable to gain a flak jacket (proto) when they were introduced to new players - and how we were never given the option to gain them. I'm also noticing that the harness colors are based on our proto colors, and it has been said that the upgrades of those harnesses will replace the lower level harnesses. So if I like the style of the original harness, which I do, I can't choose the old one for decoration/costume for my sprite. Also, to individualize our sprite we get 1 of 2 ultimate skills. I thought it was funny how that was explained as a way to make our sprite different from all the other sprites. (from my count, there are 6 possible ultimate configurations of sprites, 3 sprites, 2 ultimates each)
To recap the rambling:
-1 of 3 sprites, no take backs
-upgrade the harnesses, no take backs
-1 of 2 ultimate skills, no take backs
gone are the days of collecting, when it comes to these sprites, at least from what I'm seeing.
My suggestion would be for each of the sprites to be available to everybody in some way. A premium maybe? Maybe have the 1st one free, each future sprite for a fee? I wouldn't mind that, because at least we would have the option to try a different playstyle.
Can we choose their colors? Costume harnesses? Please maintain the variety that I find so appealing.
Grinding:
The grinding part of the sprites is okay. I'm used to that. It's how this game is played. It adds another goal. Thumbs up.
Bonuses:
I also like the bonuses we can choose from on the sprites. It allows for better flexibility on the gear we choose. 3 Thumbs up.
Abilities:
I hope that there will be levels or enemies where the sprites will be useful. I've been getting used to having the floating friend by my side, however waiting 40 seconds to use his/her ability again makes me forget he's there altogether. I get excited when the timer is ready, and I'm about to come up on a wave of enemies. Then I get disappointed when I hit the ability button, see that I didn't get any hearts, or hit the shadow cloak to hide from the wave of 4 enemies. I debate on why I tried to hide in the first place. Then wait 40 seconds to do it all over again. Cooldown is too long, makes me forget I have a sprite.
I find it difficult sometimes to use the abilities effectively while surrounded by enemies. It seems that the point of the sprites is to assist with enemies, but I have to lower my shield to activate an ability, and wait for the animation to start before i can shield up again, usually causing me to get hit. The timing is very weird, and the reaction of the sprites are very slow. Can this be changed to allow for shielding while using the sprite? Or is this already in effect and I just can't use it because I'm using a controller? (mostly in reference to aiming the caustic quills) Could the quills have auto-target please?
for Maskeraith:
Shadow Cloak:
"Grants you partial invisibility and a defensive boost for a limited time. Shadow Cloak is cancelled if you take damage, attack, or perform any other action."
What does having a defensive boost mean, if you lose the cloak when you take damage? Does that mean I can just take 1 hit, that would have less damage done to me than a normal hit?
Hexing Haze:
Do I have to keep the enemies in the haze for it to be effective, or can I just mark as many as I can, possibly having enemies leave the haze? Is this haze intended to not work on Trojans? It hasn't been working for me.
Couldn't the Shadow Cloak and the Hexing Haze be combined into one ability, and a different 3rd ability be added? Just make it a full recon sprite, you know you want to.
Materials:
Are the new materials we are finding going to be used for crafting sprite food? I hope so. Just so it doesn't affect the value of the other materials in the game. This way everyone starts on the same level with mats - at least when it comes to food.
Feedback? :
It would also be nice to hear some devs feedback on how we are supposed to be using these sprites. Are we to talk to each other to figure it out? Are we even doing it right? How would we know? I know that half of the fun is discovering new things for yourself - but it's a testing venue. The client has been updated a few times, but what has changed? Are we supposed to be looking at particular things?
Whoever reads this, I appreciate it.
Each skill for each sprite has 2 ultimates and you get to pick an ultimate for each skill. It's at least 3x3x2 end-sprites.
During my testing, the cloak does not actually break if you take damage, even though Nick's description said you would. I tested it just now to make sure.
For hexing haze, just mark your enemies with the X and then leave them alone until they explode, at which point you can mark them again. It works just fine on Trojans, but you need to get behind them just like with any other attack, I tested that just now as well. This wasn't the case one patch ago and I'm sad to see it go.
I agree on dev feedback. We really need to know what these things are supposed to be doing so we can tell if they're doing it correctly.
I think all the sprites are good in the own way but one thing that would have been better, if recharge time is reduced and if when the maskeraith cloaks u he tranforms to look like u attracting the monsters to him meaning u could come from behind and kill the monsters. This would be especially useful for soloing, especially trojans as they follow u making it harder to hit them from behind.
Maskeraiths cloak should allow you to interact with keys, totems, and placement statues.
Quills dont stack.
Drakon is almost useless in all places where the monsters have a fire attribute.( In FSC the defensive orbs went right through the slags. Its third move, flamethrower type thing, also didnt work on monsters with the fire attribute.)
Seraphynx beam has a very small and narrow hitbox. Damage is pretty low. Heart attack gives no hearts.( All monsters I heart attacked, didnt even drop
the regular amount of hearts). It's protective shield needs a buff.
Maybe it's just the test server so you dont exactly need all those minerals up front but that is a crazy amount of minerals required in total. A possible slight reduction in the required minerals.
I also noticed that occasionally, minerals drop from defeated monsters. So should that make minerals tradeable?
I agree with Flame, instead of heat maybe a form of usage/Exp. points.
Universal cooldown is kind of a bummer. The cooldown times are also a bit high.
Dont think we were supposed to see this but: I dont think BattleSprites should be allowed on pvp. As some BS are more usefull than others. And in a certain pvp map I wont name, you couldnt go back in your teams base to heal. Idk if it was a bug or maybe a new way to play.
From what I saw so far.
The only thing I expected battle sprites to do was do something I tell them to do while I am doing something else.
- I can't use a sprite while I'm carrying a key or a statue
- I can't use a sprite while I'm fighting for obvious reasons (besides the fact I'm busy, I can't even use their attacks if my knight is attacking too. For example, I cannot use their attack while I'm releasing a blitz charge or charghing some weapon)
- Their attacks barely equals one voltedge's hit
- The shadow cloak disappears if I sneeze
- The laser is useless
- The inchant is useless (I think its description should be "locks for 40+ seconds your sprite")
Conclusion: battle sprites - to me - are just something to impress noobs visually. They are not effective on the battlefield.
I think you would have rather listened to our suggestions after the new UI was released (still no current weapon display) instead of thinking about those sprites.
I've played enough to agree on a few things. First off:
Recharge: While I'm not sure about the invidual recharge raits, the universal recharge is an issue, especially with the last two skills; kinda makes a sprite feel like a flying decoration. Since there does need to be some means of preventing chain spamming, simply have the other skills go into a set cooldown, rather than a cooldown related to the skill used. So if you use Shadow cloak, the other skills will start a cooldown of, say, 5-10 secs. That way sprites will still have some skill use. Balance as needed.
Ray of Light skill for Seraphynx: I do agree to some degree that the beam is just a bit tooo thin. Widening it by a small degree would help, irregardless of how it might be used a barrier (As sometimes you don't always have an opportunitry for good placement. twitch fire.)
Regarding sprite leveling, it does feel a bit grindy before I started using the super food, though that's still iffy for obvious reasons.
More later.
It has been brought to my attention that seraphynx looks like it's urinating while using it laser
I'm not sure I can look at it the same way again
I mean, I didn't want to bring it up, but that's pretty bad
Poisoned Toxigel. (obviously not my screenshot, through I have access to Test Server myself)
...
What could possibly go wrong?
...
You sure you'll fix it till 17th?
The seraphynx's heart attack has no noticeable effect.
I love the defense buff ability! However, the countdown to tell you how much time it'll stay only goes between 1 and 0 rather than actually counting down.
Ray of light is kind of meh. I think it's because it takes so long (comparatively) to set up and it takes awhile for the sprite to head back to you.
I think the cooldown times are okay. It would be nice if we could choose which ability has the 16 sec cool down, though. I don't think it takes too long for them to recharge.
Seraphynx's movement animation is just weird. The knights lean forward when they run. I think it would be neat if the sprites did too. Even cooler if they bob a bit.
@zeddy: I stand corrected. And this saddens me even more. More locked in choices that we won't be able to test or reverse. So now we not only might regret our sprite choice, we'll regret 3 power choices as well.
Choice continued:
Morlin's attitude shifts a few times in the dialog:
(select sprite) - "are you sure"... "really, that one?" (uhh, i'm scared)
then
"...and don't worry about applying skill points the 'wrong way' since you will eventually gain enough skill points to max out all your skills" (sigh of relief)
then
"...You may only select one ultimate skill per sprite skill so choose wisely!" (so much pressure!)
I regretted my choice, twice even. Is this the intended effect, to inspire us to create more knights, just to have different sprites and their varying ultimate skills? This is essentially dividing the playerbase into 3 camps.
Maskeraith continued:
I tried the cloak and charge combo. This works brilliantly! If you were to change it, please allow more options while we are hiding.
In the training levels, the light sensors (?) detect you when cloaked. When I saw these sensor areas, I was expecting the cloak to come in handy finally. It didn't. Worked nicely on gun puppies though. (this sprite is still my personal favorite)
Seraphynx:
The 'ray of light' reminds me of the 'care bear stare', just less effective. I still haven't seen 'heart attack' work as intended. The 'angelic aura' duration is way too short.
Drakon:
This sprite would be more effective if his damage output was equal to or greater than your knights'. After using drakon's as well as the other sprites attack skills, I felt like I could've done a better job with a charge shot from any gun or brandish. The time it takes to line up the sprite makes this very ineffective. I enjoyed drakon's shield much more than seraphynx, mostly because the duration was longer, twice as long it seemed.
What is the appetite for? Is this a daily limitation on how much you can upgrade your sprite? Or just in regards to playtime, ie, the more you play, the hungrier the sprite gets, and the more you can heat/level him up? I'm sorry, i skipped ahead with the super food, and I haven't seen any patch notes for what we are to expect when playing. Because I'm now at a dead-end, I guess I'm finished testing.
Hope this helped.
Thanks OOO, I really like what you have done with the sprites. I do have a few suggestions on them though. If I recall correctly I believe that Nick was saying that the first attack on the sprites was to be offensive, this brings me to my first suggestion.
-Maskeraith: The fist skill is supportive, the knight has to attack to make it effective, not offensive. Perhaps if the quills did some small damage or if the spread was a 45 degree spread to hit more than one enemy to make up for the lack of damage.
-Seraphinx: The first skill seems to short, perhaps a tile or two added to the length would make it feel on par with the others.
-Darkon: The 3rd skill needs some initial damage as well as the status infliction.
Ok, so I got the launcher and started the first mission, been there done that. I get the temp drakon. No idea how to use it whatsoever. Halp ._.
Thanks for opening the testing server. I enjoyed the playtime.
Seraphinx
laser seemed weak, perhaps a status effect could be added.
buff needed
at times ( while using seraphinx) the heart animation did not disappear once i picked them up, often they didn't heal me
sheild broke wheever i actioned, and was really weak. smallish.
Maskeraith well balanced
cloak was extremely useful and well balanced, not being able to charge/act keeps it from being overpowered
Drakon
add more orbs so that it feels right
AoA attack felt right
Drakon's attacks really worked with it's "class" type
boss was pretty easy in the collector run.
perhaps the lifelong bond to your sprite would be annoying. Maybe let people get more once their sprite gets to a certain level
because Seraphinx is somewhat weak, and because you do want to have people playing with it in parties, it migt be wise to buff it, maybe by healing the owner a little everytime they kill something; or letting the maskeraith owner get two pet revs; or by letting the owner do health sharing revs.
allow sprites to be uesd while carrying items.
sprites should help various classes:
Drakon-rus in and kill
maskeraith- hide do tactical hits
seraphinx- support, heal, be really defense buffed.
separate cooldowns for abilities would work for me, also zeddy's idea is great
All battle sprites are always at right from a knight. It is good and this is how would right handed knight use it if it would be real.
How about left-handed players, could we still have a chance to make our knight left handed and place our battle sprite at the left too?
Thats not about equality, it is because it's really uncomfortable. If you are right handed, please, try to play with left handed character.
I hope you will understand what am I talking about.
Thanks.
Hello, Thank you for the opportunity to test the sprites, however thinking that i was going to be able to try them all when i was done with the brief missions where we were introduced to them, i haphazardly rushed through it and quickly chose the cool looking one.(drakon). So i was not able to test out the rest of them fully. I would first off say thumbs up for introducing some new material into the game.The sprites are interesting to say the least but seem more like a decoration then a useful follower in the game. I was a bit taken back to learn that the sprite is not a separate entity that is there to assist you in battles. It is more like having a 5th weapon slot. It doesn't make sense to me to have a follower obstructing you view most of the time and only helping if given the command. i was under the impression that they would be more autonomous and auto attack when you encountered enemy's.
It doesn't make sense that you have to stop everything you are doing and face the enemy to use a super weak sprite attack that may or may not hit depending on if the enemy moves or not. And as we all know enemy's in this game are constantly moving. My hope is that they will either become autonomous with the option to use a special attack or there attacks will "auto-target" at least. Also my hope is that heating these sprites will be much faster that the current rate. It is completely absurd to do 3 jelly runs and only gain 1/16th of the heat for each level.
About my experience using the (DRAKON), I was only able to obtain level 70 because i rushed in and crafted some items i wouldn't be using, thus using the shards needed to finish him. i found myself completely forgetting he was there most of the time or knowing he was there but not having the opportunity to stop what i was doing to place an attack. The shield ability i found to be useless and only effective in getting me hit a lot. The fire-stream
was fun to use but again still needed to be well placed in order to have any effect what so ever. And as for the fire strike, The animation is slow to respond and the hit is extremely weak.
I am thankful that you are trying to improve the game and look forward to future updates. I am not bashing your new update, just giving my personal feedback on my experience with it. I am hoping you will listen to what the community has said and make corrections accordingly. I hope this helped.
Seraphynx
1 Works not bad, but animation show longer than attack.
2 It doesn't work.
3 Not bad, god mode for a few seconds but you cant see current time.
Drakon
1 Too weak.
2 Too weak.
3 Too weak.
Absolutely useless pet now, combuster can make his work faster and better. Add second second circle of spheres and buff them, Buff spit. Make third skill looks like agni of ashes.
Maskeraith
1 Not bad in some cases.
2 Some people want to use it.
3 Good field, helps alot.
The best sprite now.
For all
1 Common recharge time isn't good
2 Let us to use them with charged weapons
3 It's close to impossible to feed them only with favorite food, i need about 10k minerals to get it. Other food works bad like usual mats, you have to bufff it.
4 I see 4 harnesses in the shop, but i can use only 3 of them.
5 As i can guess 90 level will gives one more perk to use thats why it shouldn't go to coliseum.
6 Sprites fly too far from player and sometimes they look like enemies.
7 Sprites have low accuracy.
i didn't tested sprites much, but i suggest to add more story about them, like seraphyx learned magic in owlite tome, then one of seraphyx caused katastrophe(or something like this), drakon overpowered by vanaduke then its caused more fire and maked shadow fsc, maskeraith stole artefact from jelly palace and slimes become agressive to knights and sprites :)
also i think, that invisibility is not much good. you have to stay to be invisible, but i suggest not reduce invisibility, just reduce time of invisibility.
also its strange, that seraphyx produce constant light beam like in rt-levels. its electrical or elemental. why not add some other sound and colors?
What's sadden me is the cooldown of those ability
I only resorted to the first ability because it had a short cooldown and I would remember about it. After playing for 2 years the same game, the same way. It's kinda hard to add a shield bash (which I don't use) a dash (which I use to get out of danger but fail half the time) and now Battle sprites with 40 sec cooldown on a spell that I want to use often.
I don't see my gameplay-style changing much with those Sprites TBH... I will use one ability at the start of each arena and then forget about it for the fight... or spam the weakest skill.
*people whine on dash with 9 sec cooldown reduc* *puts 1 minute cooldown on skill*
I feel the game is going more toward MMO than RPG now... -_-
4 I see 4 harnesses in the shop, but i can use only 3 of them.
If you read the information thread, you would have learnt that each Sprite has a harness it cannot use. Drakon cannot use the Golden (piercing) harness, Seraphynx cannot use the Shadow Harness, and Maskeraith cannot use the Elemental Harness.
After testing The battle sprites, I have 3 complaints:
1.) The skills, the cool down is too big to make battle sprites effectively used in combat, even when fully upgraded, I think it sould be cut in half, also, fix the bug binds the cool down meters.
2.)Heat, after a certain level (around 15 I think) it is almost impossible to heat up the sprite, decrease the value needed to heat them up.
3.) Damage, yes, in T1 they may seem overpowered, but in T3 they are totally useless, a fully upgraded firebolt (the dragon's first skill) only deals 40 damage in T3 making it useless, I say buff the Damage or make it increase more with higher levels.
Also some other minor observations:
1) The cat sprite is useless, the beam is week and has a minimal area of effect, the ''Heart Attack'' isn't helping anything, and you can't use the actual defense ability until a very high level. Diffidently Needs a buff or total rethinking of every ability.
2)The phantom is all good round, I think some value increases can help but nice work here!