Shadows of the Dead Quality-of-Life Improvements

[Inarticulate]

After playing Nekros (Prime) extensively after the rework with a build focused on Shield of Shadows and enjoying almost every minute of it, I've been noticing a lot of small tweaks that would make Shadows of the Dead better from a purely quality-of-life standpoint. I'm pretty sure a good number of these have been issues since long before the rework.

Shadow visibility

Especially in Mobile Defense sorties, it's very hard to tell my own shadows apart from enemies, and this is especially true of Nekros Prime's shadows.

It would be nice if shadows were more visually distinct. For example, they could have an Eximus-like outline that glows in your energy color and Nekros Prime's in particular could be darker and less reflective with their un-shadowed, textured parts made darker to match.

Shadow ability visibility

With the single exception of Nullifiers, ability effects from shadows are indistinguishable from those of enemies. Nullifiers notably have bubbles that match your energy color, but other abilities do not follow suit. The most egregious examples are the swarm clouds produced by Swarm-Mutalist Moas, the gas clouds produced by Mutalist Ospreys, and the mines produced by Sapping Ospreys. The only way to tell if one of these is from a friendly unit is to walk into it and see if you take damage. These abilities should be made to glow in your energy color instead of their default color.

Shadow ability interaction

Some abilities interact very poorly with players. Here's a non-exhaustive list of the largest offenders:

• Shadow Sapping Osprey mines can be destroyed by players.
• Shadow Scavenger Drones pick up loot, preventing players from picking them up until the shadow is destroyed.
• Shadow Swarm-Mutalist Moa clouds, as best as I can tell, can be dispelled by rolling. I assume that allied clouds have the same effect on players that enemy clouds have on Infested. Allied clouds also shroud your vision in the same way that enemy clouds do.
• As best as I can tell, shadow Oxium Ospreys attempt to self-destruct at low health.

It would be nice if shadows could be made to not apply detrimental effects to players (as in the case of the Scavenger Drone and Swarm-Mutalist Moa), not have beneficial effects be nullified unintentionally by player actions (as in the cases of the Sapping Osprey and Swarm-Mutalist Moa), and not self-destruct (especially because Oxium Ospreys are relatively heavy units).

Shadows with useless abilities

As far as I can tell, shadow Boilers don't actually do anything at all. At the very least, I've watched an enemy Charger just continuously attack a shadow Boiler with the Boiler not making any attempt to respond.

As far as I can tell, Ancient Disruptor auras have no effect on any enemy abilities, though I certainly don't pay attention enough to be sure with so many Infested running around. Perhaps their aura could reduce the effect of enemy Eximus auras as well as give allies in range the ability to steal energy from enemies (probably with a fixed limit per enemy).

Shadow AI

The largest improvement to shadow AI could be made simply by having shadows avoid various hazards, in particular, Nullifier bubbles, Swarm-Mutalist Moa clouds, Tar-Mutalist Moa tar, and Sapping Osprey mines. I really don't mind if they take cover and hide all day as long as they at least make an effort to avoid certain death and the more annoying hazards so that they can keep drawing aggro for me instead of needlessly dying.

Eximus enemies

Shadows of the Dead is unable to summon Eximus enemies in any capacity. At the very least, allow it to summon the non-Eximus form of the same enemy. This appears to be the same behavior as Inaros's Devour and the Synoid Heliocor's specters, but I don't think there has ever been an explanation why we couldn't at least get the non-Eximus form instead.

Dismissing shadows

It would be nice to be able to dismiss shadows to make room for newer kills without having to wait for the shadow to die of its own accord. It's been suggested that Soul Punch be used to trigger this, but because we are limited to seven shadows anyways, I think it would be better to trigger this off of the gear menu. Displaying all currently active shadows on the gear menu would not only allow us to dismiss shadows easily and without fear of missing (because some shadows are fast or have odd hitboxes), but it would also allow us to check on the condition of our shadows without having to find each individual one and manually move the reticle over them.

EDIT: Current shadow pool

On the subject of adding a list of your current shadows to the gear menu, it would be nice to also have a list of the next seven shadows in the queue, obviously ordered by summon priority, so you know what you're going to be getting if you choose to dismiss your current shadows or let your existing shadows die.

EDIT 2: Shadow summoners

Units summoned by shadow summoners, such as Drahks and Maggots, should be clearly marked as shadows. As far as I am aware, they appear identical to enemy units without the shadow texture. Because they also don't have a link to Nekros when Shield of Shadows is active, it's literally impossible to tell that they are allied until you actually attempt to attack them.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Inarticulate

[Dogefighter]

Please, DE?

[ShiraHagane]

"Shadows of the dead won't require modding for duration"

am I the only one who remembers that?

[Inarticulate]

5 minutes ago, ShiraHagane said:

"Shadows of the dead won't require modding for duration"

am I the only one who remembers that?

That's not strictly a quality-of-life change.

Also, it might just be me, but I'm not finding the shadows' health decay maintenance much of an issue at all, especially considering I'm recasting Shadows of the Dead anyways to keep my energy from staying topped off for too long at a time so that Equilibrium keeps pumping me more health.

[Inarticulate]

Yesterday's sortie reminded me that shadow Mutalist Osprey clouds are just as obnoxious to tell apart from enemies'.

Added another improvement suggestion for the gear menu that I forgot about previously. It would be nice to see what the next set of shadows you have on queue are. I find that now and then I'm not entirely sure if an enemy, usually a Nullifier or a Bursa, that died was killed by me or a squadmate, so I'm not sure if I should delay my next cast until a shadow dies so that I can get the new shadow.

[Tizodd]

On 9/21/2016 at 5:11 PM, Inarticulate said:

Dismissing shadows

It would be nice to be able to dismiss shadows to make room for newer kills without having to wait for the shadow to die of its own accord. It's been suggested that Soul Punch be used to trigger this, but because we are limited to seven shadows anyways, I think it would be better to trigger this off of the gear menu. Displaying all currently active shadows on the gear menu would not only allow us to dismiss shadows easily and without fear of missing (because some shadows are fast or have odd hitboxes), but it would also allow us to check on the condition of our shadows without having to find each individual one and manually move the reticle over them.

Overall good suggestions.  I especially like this one and have asked before in multiple threads for it to happen.  I suggested Soul Punch be used to dismiss them as it adds a bit of ability synergy however, your idea sounds decent as well.

[MotherofHermes]

There is a megathread for this kind of stuff right now with over 1000 replies. Still no change or response. However I feel that this topic should still go there to make the collection of info easier for community devs later. I'm hopeful things like this are just on the backburner til TWW is done.

[Inarticulate]

5 minutes ago, milesthefox said:

There is a megathread for this kind of stuff right now with over 1000 replies. Still no change or response. However I feel that this topic should still go there to make the collection of info easier for community devs later. I'm hopeful things like this are just on the backburner til TWW is done.

This doesn't belong in the megathread because it is not specific to the Nekros rework. As I have mentioned, the majority of these issues predate the rework.

My only suggestions where changes from the rework are relevant are the two involving the gear menu due to (1) the new limit to the number of shadows you can have making it more reasonable to display information about your current shadows and shadow pool and (2) the fact that recasting Shadows of the Dead will fully heal all existing shadows, making it difficult to get rid of shadows that have been made obsolete by your pool of better shadows.

[RealPandemonium]

Can we just get the old SotD back?  Then they can add these QoL improvements over time.  

[Inarticulate]

8 hours ago, RealPandemonium said:

Can we just get the old SotD back?  Then they can add these QoL improvements over time.  

I personally think the rework is much better than what it used to be. The main points being:

• It's hard enough to figure out what is going on when there are only seven shadows.
• Being able to sustain your current shadows by healing them with a recast of Shadows of the Dead means you no longer need to completely cycle through a new set of shadows after the ability expires. This also means I no longer need to fill my shadow pool all the way to the top before the ability expires.
• The health decay I've found to be a non-issue. I'm constantly recasting Shadows of the Dead anyways to keep my energy from topping off so that I can pick up energy orbs for Equilibrium to run refill my health. Honestly, without the health decay it would be even harder than it is already to clear your current shadows to make room for newer, stronger shadows.
• The short cast duration for a heal and teleport is extremely helpful for reviving squadmates that have fallen a short distance away from where you are and is also good for those ohS#&$ moments when you're on the move between objectives and you still have your full set of shadows loitering about the previous objective.

 

Also, added one more suggestion to the topic post.

[RealPandemonium]

1 hour ago, Inarticulate said:

This also means I no longer need to fill my shadow pool all the way to the top before the ability expires.

With a max SotD build the shadows would fill the pool for you before their time was up.  This rework is a massive nerf to actual minion master builds with pretty much zero compensation.