Beta 6 Runemage Feedback

Reborn Beta
#1

Hi folks, please let us know how you feel about the Runemage changes and general balance!

  • The way that spell casting and missile tracking works has been redone, and now you will notice that after you have successfully cast a spell, pressing the button again to fully cast it should no longer have a delay, and guiding the missile with your wand will be significantly more responsive.
  • The Empowered spell effect now grants a 15% damage boost, and the Runic Diversity talent now grants a 30% damage boost.
  • The base damage of all Runemage spells and abilities has been increased by approximately 10%.
#2

there is a delay after you’ve cast a spell where you can’t start casting another one, basically just moving the problem from original orbus and not fixing it

#3

Previously there were two delays. The delay from the time you press “submit cast” until it verifies that you successfully cast a spell, and then a second delay from the time you press “do cast” (after it’s on your wand) until you actually see the missile flying through the air (and also delays in guiding the missile). There is now no second delay, it’s instant, and the missile guidance is much better as well.

The original delay between when you draw the spell and submit the cast is still there because the server has to figure out what you actually cast and if it was successful. But it is exactly the same as the original game in that regard.

Are you saying you are seeing a new delay of some kind that is keeping you from casting a spell as quickly as you can in the current game?

#4

I have experienced the delay I’m talking about a few times, but now it’s after every spell. it’s not a long delay, but when starting to draw right after having pressed the button to release the spell it won’t draw and I have to redo. it might have always been there, but not a problem before because of the delay there was in normal orbus.

#5

I see okay, yeah that’s not intended and I should be able to fix that, I’ll dive into it here in a bit.

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#6

The starting runemage (in character creation) has no pickaxe in the inventory

#7

okay well get that fixed, you should be able to buy one from the salvaging NPC for 50 dram, but well get it added to the inventory

#8

Hahaha like 50% of my casts in the original game are like this so this is def not new. :sob:

#9

If I press the trackpad to cast a spell, sometimes it does nothing, other times it lags and then the spell will go off. Also, dot spread does not work anymore for me. I checked and I do have the talent selected.

#10

Okay so basically what we found out on this was that there massive server CPU usage going on for all the zones due to a new mechanic put in unrelated to this. Basically without the new changes you wouldn’t have even been able to cast spells at all it would have been so laggy, it was like every server was using as high of CPU usage as during the Dev Boss fight.

We have fixed that issue and in 30 minutes we’ll do a restart to roll it out; once that happens this should get a lot better, but there are still some other things I am planning to do to fix it completely and make sure even if the server is busy that delay doesn’t happen.

#11

I don’t know how, but I cast 1 firework spell and got 2, don’t know if it can happen for other spells.

#12

There is still a good amount of lag after the spell launches, before you are able to start drawing the next spell. There are also a few times where you can draw the spell, but when you cast it doesn’t pop or send a spell.

#13

I mean…that’s still way faster than the current game, right? Just to make sure we’re on the same page.

#14

Beforehand, the lag was consistent. It was obvious when you couldn’t draw yet because of lag: the spell hadn’t left the wand yet. Most of the time, when the spell was off the wand you would have no problems drawing the next spell.

Reborn seems to have reduced the lag from sending the spell off the wand. However, the lag before you are able to draw the next spell is pretty bad (especially because it’s unpredictable and without indication: you just have to hope that you’re able to start drawing the next spell and waste time restarting the spell when you’re wrong). I also noticed that I’d often shoot 2 spells at once when casting quickly (not as if the spells were late to the server from lag, but just as extra added spells).

As it is, the frustration of having to repeatedly restart your drawing because the initial rune didn’t actually draw is worse than the delay from waiting to send your spell (as a medium latency player).

#15

Okay, I mean that is good info for sure.

I think it is possible I can eliminate the latency there at the end, honestly my concern is that this going to result in a pretty dramatic increase in DPS for Runemages chain casting spells. What I might do is see if I can come up with a way to fully standardize it so that there is a bit of a delay still between the spell allowing you to cast it off your wand that is consistent, but no delay in drawing since as you said that is frustrating.

Are there any instances of the double spell casting happening in your video? I didn’t see any but just making sure.

#16

More duplicate spells:


It also seems that while the duplicate spells are being fired, you can’t start drawing the next spell. These issues are probably related.

As for balancing:
In the current Orbus, very fast mages do about the same single target damage as well optimized rangers when there is more than 1 mage in the party (only 3 afflictions total for all the mages). As the mage count increases, mage damage decreases further (especially in raids past 3 mages, becasue fire/frost DOTs also stack up to 3). Even if latency is removed entirely, fast mages should still be around as fast as ultra low ping mages from Orbus.

Even if you still decide to nerf mage damage, putting a speed cap in place is the wrong approach. Mage is a great class becasue of the ability to get better and cast faster. Especially if lag is no longer an issue, mage damage should be based on how fast they can cast. It’s hard to balance for mage because of the wide skill distribution of mages, but forcing everyone to perform at the same level isn’t the answer.

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#17

I think a counter to that argument would be Mage casting speed is only one potential axis of mage skill and I hesitate to design the game such that it’s the only one that matters. That said, after testing it locally I don’t think it’s going to be as much of an issue as I initially thought since a) you still have to wait for spell verification in the first place and b) as you said, some low-ping mages (e.g. <80ms) probably had this speed of casting before anyway, and this is really just evening it out for higher-ping players.

I should have an update with a fix out later tonight.

#18

Speed is absolutely not the only axis of skill, as demonstrated by the DPS output of EU mages dealing with lag in current Orbus. There’s no reason to get rid of any skill axis for the sake of balancing, though, when the numbers can just be tweaked.

I’m looking forward to see how it works after the patch. I’ll be sure to share my experience.

#19

multiple times in overworld, after casting a few spells, the wand would stop drawing. i kept having to pull both triggers to get to draw again.

#20

i can actually cast affliction 2 on the reborn servers! yay!. (still cant cast frost 3 though)