Twitchy Questioning 14: Questions in Flux

Questions below or on [my Google Drive].

See also ['database' of previously asked / answered questions].

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Thanks for being here to answer questions! For this week BSN used ‘dot voting’ to arrive at consensus around question categories.





Pleas for Mercy: questions / proposals for ways to alleviate the massive uphill loot grind (already mostly asked / answered, but you can vote for this again if you want)

16

Enemy Behavior: dodging/evasion, enemy awareness of players, Sharpshooters, enemy speed, spawns behind the player

12

Supply Buffs: questions / proposals to buff First Aid, Ammo, and Revive packs to their ME3 equivalents

7

Lobby: Game In Progress indicator, Host Ping indicator, points shown in lobby not matching points scored in game, visibility of kick votes

6

Platinum Difficulty: what telemetry Bioware examines, feedback they've seen, mix of enemy types (heavily Armor now), Plat-specific objective questions, player survivability

5

Critical Bugs: respec bug still exists (respec < Rank X or Level 20 may not refund all skill points), extremely bright shot particles that could induce epilepsy, screen coloration with neo-weapons

4

Challenges: 35,000 points too much for some Daily challenges, frustration of Daily challenges expiring while player is on a mission, why not Melee challenges?

3

Game Mechanics: how does matchmaking work? diminishing returns on accuracy? cryo ammo weaker than other ammo why?

3

User Interface(ish): charging indicator bars on weapons, stronger audio cues for enemies, separate MP/SP game settings

1









Just for Fun



What is the Angara Avenger saying when her shields drop? We think we’re hearing something risqué







My Dictatorial Powers Moved These To The Top



How does matchmaking work? Are we ‘region locked’? (is it possible to be matched from Europe to U.S.A., or Asia/Pacific to U.S.A., for example)



The Fiend’s swipe attack freezes the game on XB1. This seems more prevalent on Paradox, FWIW. Are you aware?

(BSN post bsn.boards.net/post/838757/thread)



Would you consider adjusting the Batarian Vanguard’s passives and fitness to Offensive Biotics and Barrier respectively? These would synergize better with his niche as a biotic front-line combatant.



Failing that, would you increase his base shields to make him more survivable? Unlike the Krogan Vanguard, Batarian doesn’t have Fitness DR + Rage regen.



Now that there’s precedent for detonating with melee, would you consider adding this to the Krogan Gladiator’s hammer? It would fit her perfectly!







Pleas for Mercy



Bioware survey questions around same topic

imgur.com/a/Wj5Ox



Would you consider an *option* (toggle-able in U.I.) to *completely skip* weapon variants until base weapons are at X?



Because there are now 2x as many UR char. cards to unlock, would you reduce the MF price for the Random UR Character? (currently 960 MF)



For Mod Variants, would you add stronger explanations in-game/in-app that these can only be purchased with MF and won’t drop in packs? We’ve seen bug reports about it.



(illustrative thread on reddit)

www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6n7v8m/bug_not_getting_new_common_weapons_mods/



(another one)

www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6rpfvd/unlock_checklist_updated_for_110/dl6zj7w/



(another one)

www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6sdf4e/how_do_you_get_the_new_weapon_mods/



AR Targeting mod variant has stability penalty attached (and has exact same stats as AR Recon Scope), but says nothing about negative traits in description. Is this a bug? Also, why can't we equip this mod on the Soned?







Enemy Behavior



Enemy behavior in general: are enemies behaving the way you want them to? Is there anything you’re looking to adjust?



Enemies continue to spawn behind players. Not our imagination nor being flanked. Feels unfair and makes smart map control impossible. Will you please revisit?



Enemy evasion behavior is unnaturally precise and fast, with apparently no cooldown on their dodges. “Infuriating” in one BSN-er’s words. Will you please revisit?





Enemies seem supernaturally aware of player approach, reacting instantly to acquire players rounding corners or peeking out of cover. Will you please revisit?



Sharpshooters are still annoying to fight due to their run speed, which is faster than player sprint even on-host, so not due to latency. Will you please revisit to make Sharpshooters less obnoxious?



(video showing annoying enemy behavior)

bsn.boards.net/thread/10481/yo-bw-funny



(reddit thread 1 Aug 2017 of similar complaints)

redd.it/6qzpv2



Observers: we appreciate the tell-tale red light and chargeup time, but multiple Observers are still vicious and frustrating to fight because of how quickly they drain you. Will you please revisit?







OUTRO



Thank you very much for answering our questions! We appreciate that you take the time to talk with us about the game.







[everything below this double-line is lower priority]







Supplies Buffs

questions / proposals to buff First Aid, Ammo, and Revive packs to their ME3 equivalents



First Aid Packs: could these please refresh player shield- and healthgate and/or grant damage + stagger immunity (i-frames)? Would make them more useful for skilled play and encourage more frequent use.



Ammo Packs: could these please grant bonus weapon damage? Would make them more useful for skilled play and encourage more frequent use.



Revive Packs: a while back you mentioned these should grant i-frames upon revive, but they don’t. Can this be revisited?



A Cobra RPG will often *not* kill basic enemies, let alone bosses, due to enemies’ high effective HP. Particularly painful on Plat where Cobras can literally only one-shot Breachers and Agent Clones. Will you please revisit?



Would you please allow Cobras to bypass shieldgate? Currently they’re the only explosives in the game that do not.



Compare

www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6r4n5l/do_they_ever_plan_on_reversing_the_changes_to_the/dl2lofb/



(in 1.09 Cobras had damage reduced but radius increased)

cf. my post about Cobra damage - “Cobras are useless”

bsn.boards.net/post/788452/thread



There’s apparently no upper limit on the number of Consumables a player can own. Would you make one? So we can obtain Boosters once we have a large supply of all four Consumables.







Lobby

Game In Progress indicator, Host Ping indicator, points shown in lobby not matching points scored in game, visibility of kick votes



Any update on a Game In Progress (GIP) indicator and/or a way to tell what wave a game is on from the lobby?



The Host Ping Indicator is a great addition, but it raises a few questions.

Host Ping 1 of 2: What does the indicator mean for the Host? (ex. you receive < 4 bars to yourself)

Host Ping 2 of 2: For non-Hosts, could you explain what the bars mean in terms of latency, packet loss, etc?



The Host Ping Indicator frequently has 4 bars on hosts with ping up to 120ms-140ms, which makes for a laggy game. Will you please tighten the criteria so 4 bars indicates a playable game?



compare XBL Detailed Network Statistics which shows: DL/UL speed, DL/UL packet loss (percentage, > 5% is problematic), MTU (1384 needed by XBL), latency, wireless strength (percentage)

support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/networking/network-settings



We noticed that the points shown in the lobby no longer counts points from medals. Does this have any effect on XP/Cr earned for a game?



Would you allows us to see kick votes on ourselves? Sometimes players use that as a way to communicate ‘please hurry up’ or ‘you’re too low level’ or so forth.







Platinum Difficulty

what telemetry Bioware examines, feedback they've seen, mix of enemy types (heavily Armor now), Plat-specific objective questions, player survivability



We’re curious: have you collected data on Platinum missions and if so, what are your thoughts? (What's working well? What can be improved?)



Do you have data on how changes to Hacks and Devices has impacted the player base? Overall sentiment was Hacks were changed for the worse, and that the timer on Devices is a little too short.



Given the Platinum enemy composition is mostly Armor, this reduces considerably the effectiveness of some characters, esp. Biotics and crowd control. Are you willing to revisit enemy composition on Platinum to improve diversity?



When looking at your telemetry for Platinum, what can you tell us about...

(telemetry 1 of 3) - usage / success rate for certain characters (particularly infiltrators)

(telemetry 2 of 3) - usage / success rates for weapons

(telemetry 3 of 3) - success rates in games when Hack is an objective vs. games without







Critical Bugs

respec bug still exists (respec < Rank X or Level 20 may not refund all skill points),

extremely bright shot particles that could induce epilepsy,

screen coloration with neo-weapons



You encourage us to report bugs on EA Answers HQ, but there’s little engagement there from EA_(people). Out of 30 bugs on home screen, only 3 had EA response. What can we do to get some attention?



Also re-iterating our request for separate MP vs. SP bug reporting areas.



Some weapons (ex. Avenger, Ghost) have extremely bright shot particles that are borderline epilepsy inducing. Can you please reduce the strobe effects?

i.imgur.com/uGmrxJL.gif

i.imgur.com/9pvtIlK.gif

i.imgur.com/uhqHUx9.gif

i.imgur.com/kH0sooa.gif



See also my thread on BSN listing 21 bugs introduced with patch 1.09

bsn.boards.net/thread/11975/1-09-bugs-introduced-patch







Challenges

35,000 points too much for some Daily challenges,

frustration of Daily challenges expiring while player is on a mission,

why not Melee challenges?



Daily Challenges for Combat / Biotic / Tech are 35,000 pts, which is hard to get within 2-3 games (your stated goal for Dailies) because Combat / Biotic / Tech pts only count base dmg (not combo dmg). Would you please reduce the number of points required for these Daily Challenges?



Would you consider a grace period for in-progress Daily Challenges? It’s frustrating when you start a game with ~20 minutes to go, the game takes unexpectedly long, and you get no credit for what is now yesterday’s challenge.



Would you consider adjusting the Map Challenges so they don’t require playing on specific difficulty levels?



Will you add Platinum difficulty Challenges? It would be cool to have red & silver nameplates!



Will you add Melee Challenges? There are Challenges that track almost everything else.



Would you add longer-term community challenges similar to what we had in ME3 that reward us with special packs (like Apex Elite or similar) and/or hefty chunks of MFs or Credits?







Game Mechanics



Powers (even at max evolution + boosters) do considerably less damage than weapons. ‘Space magic’ is what differentiates MEA from other shooters, so we’d like it if you could re-examine the overall power-to-weapons balance.



([This post on BSN](http://bsn.boards.net/post/799850/thread) shows that a charged Kishok X shot can do 20,000+ damage. By comparsion [the best theoretical damage of Incinerate](http://bsn.boards.net/post/799972/thread) is ~6300 impact + ~5900 DOT = ~12,200 total, or about 61% of the Kishok hit.)



The damage done by barrels was reduced massively in 1.09. Why?! This was one of the most fun parts of the game!



How does matchmaking work? Does it take into account geographical distance? (is it possible to be matched from Europe to U.S.A., or Asia/Pacific to U.S.A., for example)



Cryo Ammo has penalties to the number of bullets it takes to prime certain enemies, but Incendiary and Disruptor Ammo don’t have such penalties. We would like Cryo to be brought up to par with the other ammos.



Is there a cap or point of diminishing returns with weapon accuracy?

Ex: stacking a weapon scope, the Turian Soldier passive tree, Turbocharge, and Fortify accuracy.



On XB1, consistently, about 30 seconds after you join a game, the game stutters and then recovers. What is happening at that time?









User Interface

Note: Lobby-specific questions are a separate category



The ‘new stuff!’ exclamation points re-appear even after you clear them. Can you please look at this? Also can we have a *global* ‘mark all read’ button?



The veteran bonuses max out at 39% which is… odd. Is this supposed to be 40%?



Below are vaguely U.I.-related...



Can you please notify us when balance changes are made? (esp. to char. skills) -- on the blog, in-game, and in Apex HQ. Currently we have to figure it out by process of elimination.



(Ex: several weeks ago, Turbocharge had its cooldown and evolutions changed; and Angara Exemplar’s cooldown bonus was reduced.)



Is it possible to have separate game settings for MP vs. SP? Some players like different graphics settings or keybindings when playing MP vs. SP.



Could you add better + louder audio cues and controller rumble when enemies approach?

(Ex: Wraiths, Fiends, Destroyers, Ascendants are nearly silent / non-rumbly even when right behind you.)



The Kishock has a helpful charging indicator bar. Is this something you can add to other chargeup weapons?



Can you adjust charge-up weapons so that the charge is maintained even when jumping, etc? Currently the charge-up is easily interrupted and you must release the trigger and then hold it down again.



(Charge weapons questions from ddrguy)

bsn.boards.net/post/830924/thread



Bulwark when active has a blue aura, which is difficult to see when a Kineticist is in Ascension mode. Could you change one of these to something more easily visible?







Weapons



Why do most SRs have a hipfire penalty? Shouldn’t SRs do the same damage regardless of whether you Aim Down Sights (ADS) or not?







Packs and Drop Rates



How are items weighted in packs? It seems like at any given rarity, stuff drops in the order characters, weapons, mods.



Are you willing to reveal the actual weighting of characters vs. weapons in Reserves and Arsenal Packs respectively?



Re: variant wpns, Bastiaan on reddit - “currently has a very small (less than 10%) chance to drop a variant IF you have rank 10 guns.” Unclear what this means. Also the chance for variants seems much higher than 10% based on our data gathering.



www.reddit.com/r/MECoOp/comments/6qqbj9/veteran_ranks_fixed/dkz97rc/



(DoctorDAM on BSN)

bsn.boards.net/post/839106/thread



What is the official rarity of Character Respec cards? (Out of curiosity.)







Long-Form Questions

(for future ‘talking heads’ episode)



What areas of the game do YOU consider important to address?

(as the developers / designers / producers)



What is Bioware's philosophy in introducing balance changes to a running game? What do you want to achieve for the game, long-term?



Which criteria do you apply when deciding on a balance change?



Which rationale/justification do you take for their balance changes?

Do you review game data from your servers analyzing game statistics?

Do you consider criticism/praise from the player base? If so, how do you know if someone’s feedback is truly representative of a larger portion of the player base?



Are you willing to share any numbers or percentages around players at various difficulty levels, characters and weapons being used (or not!), trends over time, etc?

I went all in on enemy behavior with the dot vote. There are many things that need fixing (i.e weapon balance per tier, some sounds not playing or no sound, FPS) but enemies spawning behind you and randomly across the map, sharpshooters, and the Asari dancing partner among many others needs fixed. Fixing these type of issues would make the game more fun. More fun makes people play more. More people playing makes the game more money(in theory). Well, not from me because they closed my wallet with my first impression of this game and I will not reward it unless something fantastic happened.

I voted for Pleas again. They already addressed this last week with a nonanswer, but I would like to bring it up again because I'm not satisfied with their response and I would like to make it a point of emphasis. That said, there is a merrit to putting points else where so I put 2 points into Pleas 1 point into enemy AI. I don't expect a solution anytime soon, but it would be nice to know what their thoughts are on the subject, and if they think they have made an progress (I've given up on the Fiend and have come to accept the fact that he is a giant teleporting gorilla ninja. Thank goodness they turned of sync-kills). With regards to buffing consumables, specifically ops packs and medi-gels, how would those be buffed to ME3 levels? Incivility frames?

That's what I'd like to see. Why use an OPs pack when you could just die then gel or even wait for a teammate? I can't seem to break the habit of OPs packs, though. I became addicted to them in ME3. But now, in a tough situation, I use 1 and see that it worked but those 37 observers have me down to nearly dead after one step. Sometimes to recover from a minor mistake, it takes 2 or 3 to get back to some cover. With 0.5 seconds of iframes you wouldn't have to blow your whole supply because you turned a corner and there were 3 or 4 enemies with insta-targeting shooting you. A little bit of iframes for a medi-gel would ok but, I wouldn't mind if they got left alone.

Please, this needs to happen. He'd finally be worthy of the UR status. As it stands, the Batarian Scrapper is the UR, and the Vanguard is the Rare.

Do I have to start handing out demerits again because people aren't reading?
*thwack with ruler on knuckles*

*thwack*

"There’s apparently no upper limit on the number of Consumables a player can own. Would you make one? So we can obtain Boosters once we have a large supply of all four Consumables."

They have reacted badly to "why" questions so I will shy away from that part.

Best. Typo. EVER!

But *thwack* because here are the questions:



Of note, in the past Fernando mentioned that he thought Revive Pack already provided i-frames or was supposed to... I should poke them about that as well.

Fair enough. I was curious how many people would feel that way, hence its inclusion in the vote again.

Yup, I would like to hear that as well.

I guess we can ask, although I consider such a wholesale change unlikely.

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I'm convinced! You've got my vote!

Oh wait I don't vote in my own survey.

I voted but idk if I'll even read the summary this time. They're not going to say anything I want to hear and there's a pretty good chance they'll say something infuriating again.

Added several questions.

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Would you consider adjusting the Batarian Vanguard’s passives and fitness to Offensive Biotics and Barrier respectively? These would synergize better with his niche as a biotic front-line combatant.

Now that there’s precedent for detonating with melee, would you consider adding this to the Krogan Gladiator’s hammer? It would fit her perfectly!

The veteran bonuses max out at 39% which is… odd. Is this supposed to be 40%?

Enemy behavior in general: are enemies behaving the way you want them to? Is there anything you’re looking to adjust?

The Host Ping Indicator frequently has 4 bars on hosts with ping up to 120ms-140ms, which makes for a laggy game. Will you please tighten the criteria so 4 bars indicates a playable game?

Are you willing to reveal the actual weighting of characters vs. weapons in Reserves and Arsenal Packs respectively?

Re: variant wpns, Bastiaan on reddit - “currently has a very small (less than 10%) chance to drop a variant IF you have rank 10 guns.” Unclear what this means. Also the chance for variants seems much higher than 10% based on our data gathering.

Seems doubtful given that they REDUCED the base shields of the Krogan Vanguard a while ago.

Anyway with Saving Barrier and biotic punch shield restore, the BatVan would probably be fine.

I've been schooled! Thanks.

Unfortunately the answer to both of these was 'no' the last time this came up. Not directly asked about 'challenges' but weekly events in general.


I think I am supposed to *thwack* you for not reading the old questions, but these are pretty old (esp. the first one) so I'll let you off with a stern glare.

Oh, I see, you mean a challenge that lasts for an entire week. (Not: a challenge that appears on Day X of the week and lasts for 1 day.)

What type of challenge would be appropriate for a week-long period? What reward would we get from it?