I really enjoy playing this game and I do truly love all the new content and items that you continue to generate. Overall, I would like to offer kudos to you and the staff at KI. However, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated as new content is released. The reason for this frustration is that I feel you should be giving more priority to known (and acknowledged by KI staff) bugs in existing content before trudging ahead with new content. A case in point:
I reported a bug with prisms and damage over time spells back in October of last year. I have re-reported it at least one other time as well. I frequently see new topics pop up about it in these forums and I'm sure others have reported it. The support staff has acknowledged that you know about the issue. Every time I see a new release (test realm change goes live) I try the issue again. As of 10 minutes ago, the bug is still here.
Just in case this issue was multi-faceted, I will re-iterate what exactly happens. If it would be helpful to (re)open a ticket on the issue, please let me know. The bug, specifically, appears to be in relation to gear resistance. I used my daughter's ice wizard and bought a hat for her which adds +5% fire (note, fire only, not global resistance) resistance. Therefore, fire damage should do less damage than ice damage. I then cast frostbite at her. I then immediately cast an ice prisms (converting ice damage to fire damage) but the second go round was unaffected. The damage was:
91 - initial strike 210 - first go round (convert went on at this point) 210 - second go round (it used the convert on this go) 210 - third go round
It is important to note that the shields DO work properly, and the damage indicates that they are working properly.
While I like new content, I find it frustrating that you are not giving priority to existing bugs. Please consider giving more priority to known and acknowledged bugs over new content. Thank you.
*** Edited to more precisely convey the intent of the message. As written it could have been taken to read that I feel KI should fix all known bugs before adding new content when what I meant to convey is that they should increase the amount of priority they place on known bugs, particularly gameplay related ones. ***
If the daughter's character had a 5% fire resistance, then when he converted the ice to fire, it should have taken off 5% of the damage! That is where the bug is!
This also happens in reverse. If there is say 40% fire resist and fire puts on a convert, then casts heck hound, the first damage is converted to Ice just fine, but if you add in a convert after, it does not convert the damage to ice on the other rounds.
Because I was wearing a hat that added 5% fire resistance, the second go round where it used the prism should have done less damage than the other two go rounds because it was changed from ice to fire damage. If there had been a fire shield there below the convert, the fire shield would have been used and the damage would have been reduced by the rating of the fire shield. This has bigger implications on Player vs. Enemy where bosses have insanely high "gear" resistance for their school...
If I am ice for instance, attacking an ice enemy with frostbite, only the initial strike will actually "convert" the damage to fire. Even though subsequent "go rounds" will consume prisms, and even report visually that it is boosting fire damage, the actual damage done stays in line with ice damage. With spells such as heckhound and scald which do not have an initial strike, prisms will never convert the damage from fire to ice, even though it indicates otherwise visually.
If there is say 40% fire resist and fire puts on a convert, then casts heck hound, the first damage is converted to Ice just fine, but if you add in a convert after, it does not convert the damage to ice on the other rounds.
You know, I haven't confirmed as of this most recent update (the one with the new amulets), but since it still isn't fixed, I have no reason to think its any different. Last time I tested, spells like heckhound and scald that don't have an initial strike never convert any damage at all.
then casts heck hound, the first damage is converted to Ice just fine
I just double checked. spells such as heckhound that lack the "initial strike" never convert against gear. To test, I used my daughter's wizard (with a hat having +5% fire resistance) and my fire. I placed a fire prism, then cast heck hound. If the damage was really being altered, the first go round should have done more damage when it used the fire prism to convert to ice damage. Instead it did:
First round: 273 Second round: 273 Third round: 273
then casts heck hound, the first damage is converted to Ice just fine
I just double checked. spells such as heckhound that lack the "initial strike" never convert against gear. To test, I used my daughter's wizard (with a hat having +5% fire resistance) and my fire. I placed a fire prism, then cast heck hound. If the damage was really being altered, the first go round should have done more damage when it used the fire prism to convert to ice damage. Instead it did:
First round: 273 Second round: 273 Third round: 273
Just an FYI. :D
Hmm, interesting, I have not checked on that. So, there is a huge problem with converts and DOT Spells then?
Great post. I have been having problems converting fire damage with prisms in PvE. I first noticed this when going against the fire boss Maglump in Celestia. I used a heckhound and laced several prisms beforehand. As each prism was used it indicted that there was a damage bonus, however the damage remained normal.
Hmm, interesting, I have not checked on that. So, there is a huge problem with converts and DOT Spells then?
In my opinion... Yes.
Okay, I just finished testing the fire attacks! Dragon and Elf, which do initial damage and then DOT, they do convert the first damage, but not the remaining damage at all, convert or not!
Now, Link and Heck Hound, Like you said, the Damage over 3 rounds spells, they do not convert at all! Does not matter if you have a convert on or not, they do not convert over!
So, yes, there is a very serious problem here, you are quite correct!
I'm sorry, maybe I'm just dense, but I fail to see how this is a big deal. It may be that your or their math is wrong. It may be that it took the 5% off the initial strike but not the other dot strikes. Remember, 5% off of 100 is only 5, so you may have gotten your 5% off, but because of the high strike value, maybe you didn't see it. Or maybe somewhere, the wizard striking has +5% equipped and it nixed the 5% off. I highly doubt this is an actual bug, and maybe that's why it's not "fixed". A bug is something like "the enemy disappeared when he cast a spell on me" or "there's blocks around the spell being cast" or "I can't place a piece of furniture on that floor over there" not "the math isn't right and I'm not getting the hits/resist I think I ought to be getting".
I'm sorry, maybe I'm just dense, but I fail to see how this is a big deal. It may be that your or their math is wrong. It may be that it took the 5% off the initial strike but not the other dot strikes. Remember, 5% off of 100 is only 5, so you may have gotten your 5% off, but because of the high strike value, maybe you didn't see it. Or maybe somewhere, the wizard striking has +5% equipped and it nixed the 5% off. I highly doubt this is an actual bug, and maybe that's why it's not "fixed". A bug is something like "the enemy disappeared when he cast a spell on me" or "there's blocks around the spell being cast" or "I can't place a piece of furniture on that floor over there" not "the math isn't right and I'm not getting the hits/resist I think I ought to be getting".
Nobody is saying you are dense IvoryJade, but I will help you to realize the situation.
I took my Legendary Fire into DragonSpyre today. I went to fight Victor Snowcrusher, who is a fire boss.
I put down 2 converts from fire to ice, he had no ice shields. I cast dragon on him, the initial attack did convert to ice, I got the boost and it did good damage, however, the remaining 3 attacks over time, 1 which had a convert, it used the convert and only did 63 points of damage, same as the other 2 without a convert.
Then, I tried a different approach, I put down a convert, put on a fire blade, got 7 power pips and cast heck hound with a gargantuan on it. Here is the math on that scenario. 14*130+225=2045+48% damage boost from gear=3026+35% fire blade=4085/3rounds!
Now, that should be 1362 a round, plus boost to ice since the convert activated, but it did not work. Victor has mega fire resistance, so it only did 368 points of damage a round, with and without a convert. Do you see how this is a major problem now?
I'm sorry. No, I don't see how this is a MAJOR problem for KI to fix. And even if it is, I can understand why they don't fix it. Have you considered that the whole problem may be rooted down deep inside their BASIC programming from the conception of the game and that if they try to fix it, it may shut down the game for longer than anyone wants it shut down for? You remember what happened a few weeks ago when they were fixing the "exploit" in gardening? It was horrible. So maybe they figure that spell hit math is the least of their concerns and they are focusing on the bigger concerns. Like keeping the rest of the players happy with new stuff coming out or fixing real bugs. Now, I'm not saying that your concern might not be important to them, but maybe it's a case of they CAN'T fix it.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm just dense, but I fail to see how this is a big deal. It may be that your or their math is wrong. It may be that it took the 5% off the initial strike but not the other dot strikes. Remember, 5% off of 100 is only 5, so you may have gotten your 5% off, but because of the high strike value, maybe you didn't see it. Or maybe somewhere, the wizard striking has +5% equipped and it nixed the 5% off. I highly doubt this is an actual bug, and maybe that's why it's not "fixed". A bug is something like "the enemy disappeared when he cast a spell on me" or "there's blocks around the spell being cast" or "I can't place a piece of furniture on that floor over there" not "the math isn't right and I'm not getting the hits/resist I think I ought to be getting".
I think you're missing the point of the post. I reported this in detail last October. KI confirmed in the support ticket (both of them) that this was indeed a bug. The point is that I feel they should prioritize known bugs over new content which they are clearly not doing. I only posted the details to explain to another poster that it is a bug. I realize that it sounds nerdy with all the math and whatnot but if you have a wizard (let's say a fire wizard) and you're trying to fight a fire boss and you happen to have heckhound and some prisms come up, you're prisms are at that point useless. The damage from a heckhound will NEVER be converted to ice damage except as it applies to shields. That's a pretty significant bug.
I'm sorry. No, I don't see how this is a MAJOR problem for KI to fix. And even if it is, I can understand why they don't fix it. Have you considered that the whole problem may be rooted down deep inside their BASIC programming from the conception of the game and that if they try to fix it, it may shut down the game for longer than anyone wants it shut down for? You remember what happened a few weeks ago when they were fixing the "exploit" in gardening? It was horrible. So maybe they figure that spell hit math is the least of their concerns and they are focusing on the bigger concerns. Like keeping the rest of the players happy with new stuff coming out or fixing real bugs. Now, I'm not saying that your concern might not be important to them, but maybe it's a case of they CAN'T fix it.
I would submit to you that if you don't think its a major problem then you probably don't have a wizard that uses damage over time spells. I do know a thing or two about programming so of course I have considered the possibility that it is a core flaw, but that is unlikely or it wouldn't work against shields and just not against gear values. But it still doesn't matter. We're not talking about an emergency fix like with gardening. We're talking about a well known issue that they have had on their plate for at least 6 months and realistically probably longer. Since it only affects schools with DoTs (and only against enemies with resistance to those schools) it clearly doesn't affect the majority.
I feel that I have been pretty patient so far. However, I do find it very frustrating that they have time to create new amulets which add a whole new dimension to the game but they can't find the time to fix a well known bug that affects a LOT of people and spells and has for months. This is precisely my point. I'm not demanding that they stop everything and fix it. I'm expressing an opinion that they should prioritize and fix known and acknowledged bugs over new content.
Ty for pointing this out, I would hope that KI fixes this asap as it does affect the gameplay of schools with DoT effect. Good effort to those who tested the theory and put it to paper. In my opinion these are the type of issues that require immediate attention.
I'm sorry. No, I don't see how this is a MAJOR problem for KI to fix. And even if it is, I can understand why they don't fix it. Have you considered that the whole problem may be rooted down deep inside their BASIC programming from the conception of the game and that if they try to fix it, it may shut down the game for longer than anyone wants it shut down for? You remember what happened a few weeks ago when they were fixing the "exploit" in gardening? It was horrible. So maybe they figure that spell hit math is the least of their concerns and they are focusing on the bigger concerns. Like keeping the rest of the players happy with new stuff coming out or fixing real bugs. Now, I'm not saying that your concern might not be important to them, but maybe it's a case of they CAN'T fix it.
is your intire post hypothetical? Lol. Listen, the op is pointing out a REAL problem with spell conversion within the programming that should and probably will get fixed. I know you like new stuff and all but there are things that should be set straight in the game. This might not affect you directly depending on what school you have chosen but I'll lay some math down for you too. Ten million wizards in the game, let's say 10% of them are fire so right there is a 1 000 000 fire wizards that are directly affected by this glitch. New stuff is great but we can't forget to polish the stuff we have from time to time. The spell is broken and you can't argue with that? Right?
Here's the situation from KingsIsle's point of view.
1) They have to keep current players interested in the game. To do that, they need to offer new things (i.e. Celestia, Gardening, Pet update, School Amulets). Those require extensive coding.
2) They have to deal with probably thousands of technical support questions a week, of which probably 90% could be solved by a 2 minute search. Each one has to be read and replied to.
3) They have to moderate this forum.
4) They have to worry about the game dynamics and fix imbalances within (particularly for the PvP players, and we all know it's impossible to keep them all happy).
5) They have to fix the many (probably hundreds, if not thousands of) bugs.
They can't drop all of the others to concentrate on just "prioritizing bugs" (#5). If they did, they'd fall behind on everything else, and that would cost them subscribers and make many current subscribers unhappy.
If they're like other MMORPG's, they set a priority for each. Only the most serious bugs (such as an update that doesn't allow anybody to log on), will get top priority. The others will probably be ordered in a general list, based on how badly they mess up the game or game-play, how much complaining there is about them, and/or on a oldest-first basis. The oldest-on-list is probably near the bottom of priorities until such get really old and/or much-complained about.
The bottom line is that they only have X number of employees who have x amount of time to handle a boatload of issues to deal with.
They can't drop all of the others to concentrate on just "prioritizing bugs" (#5). If they did, they'd fall behind on everything else, and that would cost them subscribers and make many current subscribers unhappy.
I am an IT industry veteran. I understand what they are dealing with and going through. Its important to note that the example I gave with prisms is just that... an example. I am not suggesting that they drop everything to focus on bugs. This is not an all or nothing situation. However, I know of quite a few bugs which directly affect game play (such as my prism example) that KI has been aware of for months. Meanwhile, we watch them add new content, fix cosmetic issues, move NPCs around, etc. It seems to me that some of their priorities are out of whack. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I don't work for them so there is no way I could know.
However, I don't see the issue with expressing my opinion as a customer that they are not giving priority to the things that keep me a subscriber. After six months of waiting for gameplay related bugs to be fixed, I'm getting frustrated. Are you saying I shouldn't tell them how I feel and give them a chance to correct what I see as an issue? (Please don't take that last statement as argumentative. I legitimately don't understand where you were leading with the post.) Do you think my position is completely unfounded or somehow unreasonable? Does it not frustrate you when you continually see new content, cosmetic fixes, and myriad other changes and additions yet known gameplay related bugs continue to go on unmitigated?
They can't drop all of the others to concentrate on just "prioritizing bugs" (#5). If they did, they'd fall behind on everything else, and that would cost them subscribers and make many current subscribers unhappy.
I am an IT industry veteran. I understand what they are dealing with and going through. Its important to note that the example I gave with prisms is just that... an example. I am not suggesting that they drop everything to focus on bugs. This is not an all or nothing situation. However, I know of quite a few bugs which directly affect game play (such as my prism example) that KI has been aware of for months. Meanwhile, we watch them add new content, fix cosmetic issues, move NPCs around, etc. It seems to me that some of their priorities are out of whack. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I don't work for them so there is no way I could know.
However, I don't see the issue with expressing my opinion as a customer that they are not giving priority to the things that keep me a subscriber. After six months of waiting for gameplay related bugs to be fixed, I'm getting frustrated. Are you saying I shouldn't tell them how I feel and give them a chance to correct what I see as an issue? (Please don't take that last statement as argumentative. I legitimately don't understand where you were leading with the post.) Do you think my position is completely unfounded or somehow unreasonable? Does it not frustrate you when you continually see new content, cosmetic fixes, and myriad other changes and additions yet known gameplay related bugs continue to go on unmitigated?
I have to agree with you completely gtarhannon. There are several gameplay related bugs that do need to be fixed.
I think those bugs should get fixed before adding more new content and compounding with more NEW bugs.
I have seen several ideas that could be added to the game to help keep players busy and happy so long as they know that some of the issues they are having are getting fixed.
In my opinion, there will be more players lost because of the unsolved bugs than there will be for the delay of new content. If you can't run your wizards because of certain bugs, then what is the use to pay a sub and not gain anything by it.
If the reasons for extended down time are explained to the players, the majority will understand that these issues are being addressed to make their gameplay better.
I know that a lot of the recent problems I have had started with the pet pavilion so I stayed away from it until about 2 months ago. Now that I have started going back, the problems are still there and the Tickets I submitted on it have been answered with things such as "you need to update certain drivers, or the problem is with your ISP."
I have spent hours running all available scans, checking for driver updates of which mine are all current and talking with my ISP.
Now I am getting problems being able to stay connected to the servers. I did not have most of these problems until all the maintenance updates that KI has been doing. Granted I know they need to do the maintenance, but every time they do, I have a new problem arise.
These issues as well as some to the ones that have existed in gameplay now for a long time are the ones that are going to cause the loss of players.
I am not the only one that has been having problems. Some of my friends have too and I have seen some of the discussions during gameplay that others are having them too.
TO THE ORIGINAL POSTER: The issue of fire being bugged has not been addressed for well over 2 years (when I first reported the issue). Because others miss noticing that the converts do not work on the DoT spells, only means that few are observant and it is low on the priority list.
As for the disconnect issues being raised in this thread, considering they are a really a new topic, the posts are totally off topic and really do deserve a thread of their own.
