Afterburn and Null Factor Field

[bondct]

The promise of Afterburn and Null Factor Field have been the staple answer to how we are going to fix the (dont hate me cuz im beautiful but server no other purpose) TS...

And I realize that in reference to these skills we may not be specifically talking about them as the final skills but rather 2 skill slots...

But, I was just on the character planner and noticed that these 2 skills are only L5 skills... it would seem to me that it would take L7 skill to be really class defining... and the only L7 skills i recall seeing were hull patch (which is a questionable L7 skill at best since its mostly used out of combat) and navigate and propect (which is a given)... in comparision it would seem that the ts is lacking in L7 skills overall compared to the other classes...

At 368 max skill points the TS is 2nd to last to the JS with 358 except that the JS has a great build list (well except for engines) and a really nice already in game skill set...

So I can see where all the new classes need more places to put their points, as they all lack compared to the original 6

I am just wondering at this point what people might think 2 class defining skills that are useful in RAIDS might be... and these need to be L7 skills... so if Null Factor would significantly (and not only a little bit as was written) reduced the chance for a mob to hit you... then L7 Null factor would be a group significant reduce chance for mobs to hit you... now thats a real RAID SKILL...

[Terrell [BT]]

I agree with you Avani, Scout's skills of Afterburn and Null-Factor should be Level 7. Those are supposed to be class unique skills, so it only makes sense to make them L7.

Oh and minor nitpick, Jenquai Seeker takes 379 skill points to max everything (Reactor Opt 7 isn't listed on N7 Skill set for JT). However having leveled one to 150, the key combat skills, Beams, 3 of the 4 techs, Recharge Shields, Reactor Opt, Scan, Cloak are all maxed, so is Negotiate, only thing left to put points into are the last level of engines (or devices if they switch that back to L9), 3 build skills, Projectiles, and the last 2 levels of Fold Space.

I'm curious to know what each level of those 2 skills will do in terms of breakdown. (Also curious what the PT ultimately gets.)

Edited June 18, 2010 by Terrell

[Kyp [LDEV]]

I agree with you Avani, Scout's skills of Afterburn and Null-Factor should be Level 7. Those are supposed to be class unique skills, so it only makes sense to make them L7.

Oh and minor nitpick, Jenquai Seeker takes 379 skill points to max everything (Reactor Opt 7 isn't listed on N7 Skill set for JT). However having leveled one to 150, the key combat skills, Beams, 3 of the 4 techs, Recharge Shields, Reactor Opt, Scan, Cloak are all maxed, so is Negotiate, only thing left to put points into are the last level of engines (or devices if they switch that back to L9), 3 build skills, Projectiles, and the last 2 levels of Fold Space.

I'm curious to know what each level of those 2 skills will do in terms of breakdown. (Also curious what the PT ultimately gets.)

I may rework them a lil bit, I'll tell you what, if you want to help with the leg work I'm open to talk about it a bit. However, the mob avoidance will probably start off tight and be loosened so I don't have to nerf it later if it's too overpowered.

Here's what I need to see to think about the skills again, the two of you go and figure out what you'd spend on each class if you were to play it. I want to see what kind of skills you have by the end and how many points you put into them. It'll give me an idea for a few things.

[Terrell [BT]]

I may rework them a lil bit, I'll tell you what, if you want to help with the leg work I'm open to talk about it a bit. However, the mob avoidance will probably start off tight and be loosened so I don't have to nerf it later if it's too overpowered.

Here's what I need to see to think about the skills again, the two of you go and figure out what you'd spend on each class if you were to play it. I want to see what kind of skills you have by the end and how many points you put into them. It'll give me an idea for a few things.

Could you give me a discription of how each level works right now, as a L5 cap skill? Same for Null-Factor field.

I'm thinking along the lines of something like this for Afterburn if it's a passive skill:

L1 1% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase base speed by 25

L2 1% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase base speed by 50

L3 2% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase acceleration by 10%

L4 2% chance of avoiding incoming fire, Increase acceleration by 15%

L5 3% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase acceleration by 30%, & increase base speed by 100

L6 4% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase acceleration by 45%, base speed by 100, and apply to group.

L7 5% chance of avoiding incoming fire, increase acceleration by 55%, base speed by 150, and apply to group.

(if you avoid an incoming shot, you don't take damage from it)

(maybe those numbers for damage avoidance could be halved at first, to make sure it's not overpowered, and raised as needed)

For Null-factor field are we only going to have the 3 types of damage I remember in Live? Gravitational (in BBW), Radiation (Aragoth Major in VT), Magnetic (Glory's Orbit). Also will Radiation damage penetrate your reactor if intense enough, like in Live, if so does Gravitational or Magnetic damage do the same?

If so then:

L1 Decrease damage taken by radiation by 50%

L2 Decrease damage taken by radiation by 60%

L3 Decrease damage taken by Magnetism by 50%

L4 Decrease damage taken by Magnetism by 60%

L5 Decrease damage taken by Gravitational anomaly by 50%

L6 Decrease damage taken by all environment dangers by 75%, reflect 2% of damage back at attacker, except for Explosive damage

L7 Decrease damage taken by all environment dangers by 90%, reflect 5% of damage back at attacker, except for Explosive damage

(Those damage reflections may need to be changed, the idea is to have it reflect more damage back than L6 and L7 e-shield, but less than PE's repulsor field.)

In Live damage reduction on shields/reactor meant that they drained more slowly than a ship without protection. I don't know if that could be changed so that 50% protection meant your shields were halved, rather than drained at half the rate. Not sure how to figure in the reactor issues. Currently if you have a low level shield and get hit by damage it drops your shield. This would be an initial idea, subject to change.

Edited June 18, 2010 by Terrell

[Kyp [LDEV]]

These are from the last time I worked on the descriptions:

Terran Skill Rework and additions:Scout -•	Add Afterburn - Max Level of 5, giving three ranks of the skill with tone increase to it's effects between each rank, with the final rank being a group-wide buff.•	Add Nullfactor Field - Max Level of 5, nullifying environmental effects and converting it into a reactor recharge rate increase.  Recharge rate increase scales up by a percentage per level of the skill.  Usable among group wide at max level.  Does not stack with Environment Shield.Skill Descriptions:Afterburn -	Non-targeted skill.  Increases thrust, turn rate, warp speed, and attack avoidance by a	percentage per rank of skill.•	Rank 1 (Mach I - Superglide):  Increases thrust, and turn rate, by 2% and attack avoidance (mob chance to miss) by 2%.  Energy cost for skill activation at this rank is 3% of maximum reactor capacity.  Lasts 10 minutes.•	Rank 2 (Mach II):  Increases thrust, and turn rate by 2.5% and attack avoidance (mob chance to miss) by 2.5%.  Energy cost for skill activation at this rank is 3% of maximum reactor capacity.  Lasts 10 minutes.•	Rank 3 (Mach III - Ramjet):  Increases thrust, and turn rate by 3% and attack avoidance (mob chance to miss) by 3%.  Energy cost for skill activation at this rank is 3% of maximum reactor capacity.  Lasts 15 minutes.•	Rank 4 (Mach IV): Increases thrust, and turn rate by 3.5% and attack avoidance (mob chance to miss) by 4%.  Energy cost for skill activation at this rank is 5% of maximum reactor capacity.  Lasts 20 minutes.•	Rank 5 (Mach V - Ludicrous speed):Increases thrust, and turn rate by 5% and attack avoidance (mob chance to miss) by 5%.  Energy cost for skill activation at this rank is 8% of maximum reactor capacity.  Group-wide buff, lasts 30 minutes.Nullfactor Field -	Surrounds the Scout's Ship with a field of exotic particles which counteract environmental	hazards (Radiation, EM interference, Gravitic Shear, Gravity Wells), converting the 	energy into a slight increase in reactor recharge rate.  This effect is group-wide, and does	not stack with the Jenquai Explorer's Environment Shield. Player must manually deactivate, it will 	take their reactor offline (without draining remaining reactor energy if possible) for a period of 	5-20 seconds•	Rank 1 (Reactor Reconfiguration):  Nullifies Environmental Effects (Radiation only).  2% reactor capacity energy cost.  Increases Reactor Recharge rate by 2%•	Rank 2 :  Nullifies Environmental Effects. (Radiation and EM/P)  4% reactor capacity energy cost.  Increases Reactor Recharge rate by 4%•	Rank 3 (EM Modulation): Nullifies Environmental Effects.  6% reactor capacity energy cost.  Increases Reactor Recharge rate by 6%•	Rank 4:  Nullifies Environmental Effects.  8% reactor capacity energy cost.  Increases Reactor Recharge rate by 8%•	Rank 5 (Singularity Generator):  Nullifies Environmental Effects.  10% reactor capacity energy cost.  Increases Reactor Recharge rate by 10%

[seekeronos]

Here's what I think we could do with the missing TS skills:

Afterburn - provides an *acceleration* buff (i.e. you can go from 0 to 1000 - or whatever your top end thrust/impulse speed - much faster than your base acceleration).

For example, with my default mining kit I equip a NOS, a Trifid 8 and Supernova 8 (after buffing for stealth w/ Pleiades 8), with a Golden Tooth, Roc 9, Miner 8 and Zen Nav computer to round out the other equipment slots.

It takes me about 15sec to get up to my max impulse of 1364kps (inc. activated Supernova)

Afterburn should reduce this acceleration time down to about 3sec (or a 5x increase in acceleration) at top level, with a "target friend" buff at L5, and group acceleration buffs at L6-L7.

This would serve to allow the TS to be the fastest moving class, bar none... and in lieu of a comparable skill to "powerdown", "menace", or "cloak", allow a TS to evade aggro mobs in areas where warping is inhibited (Gravity Wells and highly Z-axis-displaced asteroids)

HOWEVER: using the skill comes at a noticeably sharper cost to reactor charge, since you are using more power to "get out of dodge" faster. While in use, target's reactor does not recharge, and consumes energy at a cost scaling with the skill level.

L1 - "Military Thrust" - Increase combat speed by 50, and improves base impulse acceleration by factor of 1.25 at a cost of -1 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 5 seconds.

L2 - "Full Thrust" - Increase combat speed by 75, and improves base impulse acceleration by factor of 1.5 at a cost of -2 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 10 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 10%.

L3 - "Thruster Overdrive" - Increase combat speed by 100, and improves base impulse acceleration by factor of 2.0 at a cost of -4 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 20 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 15%.

L4 - "Thruster Megadrive" - Increase combat speed by 150, and improves base impulse acceleration by factor of 2.5 at a cost of -6 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 30 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 20%.

L5 - "Engine Override" - Increase targeted ally's combat speed by 200, and improve their base impulse acceleration by factor of 3.0 at a cost of -8 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 30 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 25%.

L6 - "Squadron Megadrive" - Increase group's average combat speed by 250, and improve group base impulse acceleration by factor of 4.0 at a cost of -12 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 30 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 25% on self, and by 10% for group members.

L7 - "Squadron Override" - Increase group's average combat speed by 300, and improve group base impulse acceleration by factor of 5.0 at a cost of -16 units of reactor charge per second while using impulse thrusters for 30 seconds. Increases chances of successfully evading enemy fire by 30% on self, and by 15% for group members.

NullFactor Field - A rough parallel to the Enforcer ability "Rally", this skillset reduces or mitigates the effect of skills cast upon the Scout and his allies by enemies. This is a group-wide skill

L1 - Gravitic Nullification - Reduces the effect of enemy gravitation skills such as "Gravity Link" by one skill level. Activation cost: 10% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

L2 - Disruption Nullification - Reduces the effect of enemy movement skills used against friendly targets such as "Summon" or "Menace" by one skill level, and gives increased bonuses to previous NullFactors (weakening affected enemy skills by an additional -0.5 skill levels). Activation cost: 12% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

L3 - Electromagnetic Nullifaction - Reduces the effect of enemy hacking skills friendly targets by one skill level, and gives increased bonuses to previous NullFactors (weakening affected enemy skills by -1.0 skill levels). Activation cost: 15% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

L4 - Psionic Nullification - Reduces the effectiveness of organic enemy enhancements (mob buffs) by one skill level while giving additional increased bonuses to previous Nullfactors (weakening affected enemy skills by -1.5 skill levels). Activation cost: 15% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

L5 - Improved Nullfactors - Gives additional increased bonuses to previous Nullfactors (weakening affected enemy skills by -2.0 skill levels). Activation cost: 25% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

----

L6 - Enmity Nullification - Causes enemy's enmity to decrease at twice the normal rate toward group members who are not attacking it, and also gives additional increased bonuses to previous Nullfactors (weakening affected enemy skills by -2.0 skill levels). Activation cost: 30% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

L7 - Enhanced Nullfactors - Gives additional increased bonuses to previous Nullfactors (weakening affected enemy skills by -3.0 skill levels). Activation cost: 35% of reactor capacity. Duration: 20 minutes.

Edited June 19, 2010 by -Seeker-

[bondct]

Where would I put TS points at L150 (no bonus points)... Well lets get the obvious out of the way... Missile, Jumpstart, Prospect, Device, Shield, Reactor and Engine all to max before L150. Yes, engines and only cuz the sig on the TS is so damn high that a Terran, the best engine everything in the game needs to buy a L9 Trifid (not a terran engine, made by Sundari) to even remotely manage not to get killed. Now on to the other skills.

Neogtiate L5 while leveling to 150 and then CF and remove all points until much later on... Credits will never be an issue in this game.

Navigate L0 - speed is not an issue in this game and so many other items give these same buffs.

Scan L5 - only cuz I have so many points and have no where else to put them

Hacking L5 (tentatively) - I am not sure if Hacking has a purpose for the TS. It does not help while mining, and I would probably be forbidden to use it during raids. But again I have waaay too many points to spend so why not.

Hull Patch L5 - nuff said imo its the only useful raid skill other than JS the TS has... and then again its mostly an inbetween fighting or recovery skill.

Build Engines L7 (disclaimer) - until AB and NF are put in the game I have so many points and its the most useful of the least useful skills I have, even though its a waste of points and credits (again, things I have too much of anyway).

Afterburn L7 - I like the AB that Seeker described now that is a real skill that will get other toons booted outta a group in favor of a TS. Chance to evade fire (or -hit) has to be a big number. If you are fighting a CL66 mob and your CL50, that mob has a 99.9% chance to hit you and then some so you are going to have to a big -hit to combat that... With that kind of -hit you could almost take the place of someone with shield recharge and then HP becomes raid viable since you are not getting hit as much. keep in mind even if you get down your -hit down to 80% that is still 8/10 shots that hits you... some mobs hit for well over 50k (easily) and then some... and this would also mitigate some +hit debuffs that might be on you, so I dont think 30% self at L7 is overdoing it... especially since TS has L8 Shields and is a support toon with JS, which means you will be on the lowest priority for heals if any all... Note, as for the 15% group I feel that is still very viable but, this skill has to stack with anything else we have in game

Null Factor L0 - as stated on any post I have read this skill is a waste... none of these enviro effects make this skill raid worthy... there are already a ton of reactor buffs in the game and I am sure there is no way you would let this stack so keep it, this is a minimally useful skill at best. I think that the devs would have put raid enviro effects in the game if this skill ever went live... but since it didnt we dont have a use for it... and most raid strats are kinda tank and spank anyway... I think this skill needs to be totally rebuilt from ground up... I would say keep the reactor buff but raise it to 15% at L7 and let it stack and then figure out what other features to put in... maybe like an activate shield buff lets say that the TS uses its engines to create a warp field but not goto warp and extends that field around you to absorb damage?

gotta eat now... thats its for now...

[bondct]

Just had a great idea for Null Factor... gonna post it quick gettin huge wife aggro... sry if this is not totally thought out....

Null Factor Field - Rename the Skill to Warp Factor Field. Ok, lemme splain... If the TS is the king of speed and movement and engines (inherent being a Terran)... I would describe Warp Factor Field as a TS ability that is able to create a Static Warp Field and extend that field around himself. This skill would then provide a shield boost as the warp field would have the ability to absorb damage... BUT...

but this would not be like the JD bubble, as the TS could only cast this on himself... there would be an initial cast cost, but instead of the Warp Factor Field being on a timer... it would require reactor energy to keep up so if the TS dies or loses reactor power or drops group the Warp Factor Field drops and it would only apply to the TS or group memebers within range of the field...

The variables of the field could be as follows

1. Amount of extra shield boost, this is plus shield cap and not recharge

2. Range of effect around the TS

3. Boost to reactor power stackable at X% per level

4. Amount of reactor power required to keep shield up

Note... this skill would now give us the ability to create new gear... umm say engines (just spitballing here) that have buffs on it that actually apply to the TS helping out this skill... and since its Warp Factor Field, it would make sense for the TS and make sense for something we could put on engines...

/edit it would also make the TS a more integral part of the team as now other support members might get involved with keeping the TS reactor up, keeping the TS shield up and give those classes something extra to do, make the warriors work to protect it

Edited June 20, 2010 by Avani

[bondct]

bump so any comments on my idea of Warp Factor Field... I am sure there are criticism knowin this forum... anyone?

[Terrell [BT]]

My likely configuration for a Scout at L150 using the official descriptions given would probably be something like this.

Afterburn: 5

Beam Weapon: 1

Build Devices: 7

Build Engines: 1

Device Tech: 8

Engine Tech: 8

Hacking: 1

Hull Patch: 7

Jumpstart: 7

Missile Weapon: 9

Navigate: 5

Negotiate: 5

Null-Factor: 2

Prospect: 7

Reactor Tech: 8

Scan: 5

Shield Tech: 8

Skill Points remaining 2.

I wouldn't put any points into Hacking, as I really see no use for it, and according to the description of Null Factor, L2 would probably be all I need, prior to L150 (unless more orefields have environmental hazards that aren't radiation/EMP). After L150, I would raise afterburn to L7 given the option to do so, followed by Navigate, then Beams. I wouldn't put any points into Hacking until everything else was maxed since IMO it's the least useful of the Scout's skills. Most of my play with an explorer class (Explorer, Scout, or Sentinel), would be spent mining, but I would put points into those skills that I think are group useful. Raising Build Engines on my Scout would have higher priority than raising the skill on my JT, but I think my TW would be the most likely toon to be building engines (looking at the planner, and TW's skills).

Seeker's version of Null-Factor would make me reconsider SP distribution, at the very least it would take priority after 150, maybe before.