Communicating Changes And Responding To The Community

[Invisum]

After having read several threads about the changes to Excalibur's Radial Javelin (the reintroduction of the 15.2 LoS change), I decided to compile the relevant posts from DE concerning the matter.

 

Also, this is in General Feedback not Warframe Feedback because I'm giving my input on how DE's handling the situation, not the changes themselves.

 

Previously, Excalibur's 4 created a ring of ethereal swords that launch outward and was generally accepted to be a weak power. (Technically opinion, but widely accepted enough I'll just leave it at that). This lead to DE reworking the ability as per the following post in update 15.0 (Archwing). The thing to note here is that it purposefully and specifically was designed to hit enemies behind cover.

 

Excalibur Changes:

 

Radial Javelin:  All enemies within radius of this ability will now be hit with a javelin.  Instead of having this ability radiate out from Excalibur, javelins will now spawn directly around opponents. Javelins will optimize to find a point on each enemy that is safe to be hit, bypassing enemies that may be holding shields or otherwise in cover. There is also no longer a target maximum for this ultimate, meaning anyone in the radius will be an eligible target. Additionally, if the javelin does not kill the enemy, each target that survives will be put into stun for a brief period of time.

 

Also in update 15 came the new Syndicates, and the pressure to get affinity and reputation. Which in turn lead many players to search for the fastest way to do so, Viver. Many things contributed to Viver which I'm not going to go into in depth here. But suffice it to say, the map was too small, the spawns unlimited, and the range of various ultimate's (Radial Javelin and Shield Polarize) could effectively wipe the map at will. 

 

DE took exception to this, which is their right as developers and implemented the following changes.

   

Warframe Changes:

 

Excalibur’s Radial Javelin and Mag’s Shield Polarize will now check for line of sight when targeting enemies.

Quote shortened to keep it relevant.

 

This lead to the uproar which got the whole series of events term 'Vivergate.' Besides the arguments of whether they made sense or not, it was clearly a reactionary measure to the players use of Viver. Whether it was an exploit or not (and what exploit even means in Warframe) aside, DE didn't want players to play that way and changed things.

 

What they didn't do is tell anyone or gauge the most likely response to said changes (indignation and accusations flying everywhere, such as it was). By changing an intended feature of Radial Javelin (hitting enemies behind cover) they essentially made a 'snap' decision revoke arguably the most effective change made in the rework of Radial Javelin.

   

Honored Tenno,

 

Well, we screwed that one up, didn’t we? In our panic to address exploits we’ve rolled out some half-baked changes, and didn’t test them nearly enough. Worse - we didn’t communicate the changes and explain the rationale.

 

Warframe Changes

 

Removed LOS checks for Radial Javelin, Energy Vampire, and Shield Polarize (reverted the 15.2.0 change).

 

And so the players went back to using Radial Javelin according to it's original (post-rework) design of hitting all enemies regardless of their cover status.

 

And then this.

   

PSA: Excalibur Radial Javelin

 

We understand there is some confusion regarding Radial Javelin’s recent adjustment.  Our original version of the power had built in Line of Sight, and was never intended to push through terrain.  As such, Radial Javelin as it currently stands is functioning as it was always intended to.  We apologize for the confusion this has caused and will do better to communicate these refinements in the future.

Sidenote- Brackets removed from around [DE]Megan's name as it was causing formatting issues.

 

Yes, the original version had LoS. That was one of the biggest things DE removed from it when they reworked the power because they acknowledged that it was lacking. After attempting to revert that change when they implemented a new motivation (getting rep for the sake of syndicates), they realized that the community did not appreciate the lack of LoS, and more than that, the lack of communication as to why this was done.

 

And now the LoS has been reimplemented with no warning, no discussion, and wasn't even in the original patch notes. DE claiming that it 'was never intended to push through the terrain' is technically correct in that it didn't push through terrain. But it was also so poor of an ability it got reworked into one specifically meant to avoid cover and almost guarantee strikes against all enemies in range. "All enemies within radius of this ability will now be hit with a javelin" (DERebecca in U15 Update Notes).

 

Also the assertion that this was always how it was always intended to function falls flat after the history of the ability. This iteration of it was designed to hit all enemies within the radius, as per 15.0 update notes.

 

And that turned into a bit more of a history lesson than I intended it to.... But the short of it is, the latest change to Radial Javelin, while completely within DE's rights, was poorly implemented. It is a well known sore spot for many players and the latest change shows no inclination of DE to take into account how past changes and lack of communication affected their playerbase when considering design changes.

 

Also as a semi-relevant sidenote - Delaying the Devstream when implementing this sort of change only adds to the feeling that DE is avoiding subjects that players disagree with.

[Karam3lpi]

DE will, and DE probably wont care...Nerfmageddon is happening...whether they tell you or not.

[VoidPunch]

So much truth. This is all that ran through my head when they implemented this again... We all know why they implemented the LoS again. The lack of communication though, again might I add after they said they wouldn't... That's the slap in the face. Not the nerf itself, no, its the intentional lying about something they said they wouldn't do. For the second time.

Edited March 21, 2015 by HandsOfnArtist

[Exinanis]

Why can't I upvote this anymore than I have?!

[-GM-Cha_Dude-]

Nice post. I agree vehemently 

[BattledOne]

Also a change not documented in the patch notes is that Dark Sectors and Void mission credit reward has been reduced substantially (more than half)

[CBAROG]

Agreed. U16 is full of ninja nerfs. And the way DE handle it.... I don't want to start swearing but I don't have any other words.

[Mxysptlik]

DE will, and DE probably wont care...Nerfmageddon is happening...whether they tell you or not.

+1 for Nerfmagedon