Twitchy Questioning 18: Commander Shepard in the West Twitchies

Dropped the ‘Long Form Questions’ because they weren’t getting any traction in the votes.

Ammo packs!

Follow up on all the ‘looking into it’ questions that are still remotely plausible?


Equipment & Boosters


Equipment: a few weeks ago we thought all remaining new Equipment would show up in the Store before it became a truly random rotation. Can you please force the new Equipment to drop over the next several weeks?

Is it possible for MP to reuse MP assets to create new Equipment items? Ex: copy Shield Enhancer and rename with new abilities?

Can you please increase the damage bonus from ammo? Even at Rank IV, 10% is not much of a bonus.

Can you please increase the shield bonus from Cyclonics? Currently they make no difference to enemy Time To Kill, given the low base shields on player characters.



Challenges
why not Melee challenges?; Map Challenges shouldn’t be tied to difficulty; asking them to check if new maps are actually in the challenge rotation

Is it possible to adjust Map Challenges so they don’t require playing on specific difficulty levels? i.e., Bronze (or higher), Silver (or higher), Gold (or higher), Platinum (or highe- joking).

Can you adjust the Daily Challenge rotation to be less truly random? To have fewer repeats. So we don’t get stuck with the same map / enemy / etc. day after day.

Is it possible to reduce the number of points required for Tech Challenges? Those powers don’t deal as much damage as Combat or Biotics, so Tech takes much longer.

Is it possible to add Platinum difficulty Challenges? It would be cool to have red & silver nameplates!

Is it possible to add Melee Challenges? There are Challenges that track almost everything else.

Is it possible to add Weapon Challenges? Such as X points (*not* 35,000!) with a class of weapons like Pistols or Shotguns.

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.



Possible Future Support

Will you please release the remaining characters and weapons sooner than later? The playerbase seems to be drying up. If you wait, there might not be anyone left to appreciate them.

Will we still get Tiran Kandros videos for upcoming characters? BSN-ers enjoy those videos, but we didn't get one for the Batarian Vanguard nor the Human Juggernaut.

Is it possible for MP to reuse SP assets to add new enemies? Ex: swap in Architect as a boss instead of X enemy?

Will the Apex HQ app continue to receive updates? (We know it’s a separate team, but we didn’t know where else to ask this.)

Could you pin a list of known MP issues on EA Answers HQ, Bioware Blog, MassEffectDOTcom, or somewhere? Explain what can and cannot be fixed, and cut down on repeated questions and new bug reports.

Because everything going forward will be a server-side change, can you please notify us when the changes are made? (esp. to char. skills) -- on the BW blog, Apex HQ, and in-game if possible. Otherwise, we have to figure things out by process of elimination.

We talked about how enemies spawn behind players as result of arena map setup. Is it possible to set a minimum distance for enemies to spawn in relation to players? So we have more time to react.

Is it possible to make the timer on Devices slightly longer and/or pause the timer while Device is being worked? Currently, it’s too easy to fail - more frustrating than enjoyably frenetic.



Weapons

Halberd needs help. BSN proposes: Halberd was 189 Damage 300 ROF. Change to 140 Damage 405 ROF. This gives same DPS but in a much more responsive feeling gun.

Sandstorm needs help. BSN proposes: Sandstorm was 199 Damage 210 ROF. Change to 500 Damage 100 ROF. This increases DPS, but Sandstorm badly needs it. Plus gets it in line with other Rare ARs.

Valiant: Is it possible to reduce the in-scope view-kick? The huge kick makes its actual fire-rate *feel* bad due to visual recoil. I find I space out my shots too much, unconsciously.

Piranha: Can you please take another look at the Piranha? It's really awful for both an N7 and an Ultra-Rare.

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



Powers

Energy Drain: Is it possible to change rank 5B to make it a multi-detonator? Would make Exemplar better at dealing with Platinum armor hordes, and would also be nice booster to Asari Sentinel should she go Double Throw 5A+6A.



Characters

Is it possible for MP to copy its own assets to create new characters? Ex: copy the Kineticist, rename it, and give it a new set of powers?

Is it possible for MP to *modify* its own assets to create new things? Ex: take one of the Human duplicate characters and replace its powers with entirely different ones?



Game Mechanics

The Host Ping Indicator was a great addition, but it raised 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?

When looking at your telemetry for Platinum, what can you tell us about...
Telemetry 1 of 2: usage / success rate for certain characters (particularly Infiltrators - are they overused?)
Telemetry 2 of 2: usage / success rates for weapons (feels like only a few are Plat viable, which is boring)



Packs and Drop Rates
Direct questions about how packs and drop rates work. They have been surprisingly forthcoming with this information.

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

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

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

Double-O Shepard?

Is it actually possible to get the halberd to fire at 300 rpm? Is the 300 even an rpm value or is it just a random number?

Because I sure as hell can't get it to fire at 300 rpm.

Looking good on the questions, as soon as the votes up I'll place my points & I wholeheartedly agree that weapon type challenges, should not be 35k, I think that 10k would be sufficient for that.

Anyhoo, you're doing good work so thanks in advance.

As long as they do the twitch, we should ask questions imo. Why not? It isnt your precious time Jrandall is wasting after all.

Forgive me if I sounded rude. It was not my intention. I think attempts to have a conversation or communication is always better than keep silent.

Shit they've taken?

Oh poor bioware! My heart is bleeding! ... said no one ever. People will complain whenever they have the opportunity to complain. Perhaps bioware should close its twitter account to get rid of this "toxic community" of ugly customers, it worked so well with the official forums ...

 ... and you are doing a good job. Good luck with it.

Awesome questions, TheThirdRace!

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Also this question has been on the list for a while:
What specifically is 'awful' about the Piranha? Does it need more damage? More bullets? Faster reload? Somebody gimme some numbers!

Things piss me off all the time but as an adult, I try to express my feelings in a constructive way rather than with shitposting. (OK, sometimes also with shitposting.)

OK: "This thing you did is very hurtful to me because of X, Y, Z. I am angry at you."

Not OK: "Hurrdurr fuck you #savethequarians (picture of middle finger)."

If people on the Internet would start behaving like adults... WTF am I saying, that will never happen.

You can express your frustrations without shitposting, is my point.

Here is an effective technique and yes I am dead serious - I use this when giving negative feedback in my job.

STAR/AR
(Situation, Task, Action, Result / Alternative Result)

www.ddiworld.com/ddiworld/media/client-workshops/workshops_fsw_prework.pdf

prezi.com/2ak5xrcur6-p/providing-feedback-starar-model/