ATTN: Community Reps/Dev Team: PUPs of Vanadiel DEMAND a response on Automaton A.I.!

[Glamdring]

Sorry for the delay, but here is some information from the development team in regards to your feedback!




The maneuver duration, recast time, and overload are all balanced very subtly; through maneuvers, the automaton’s operability, as well as the frame and attachments, are largely affected. Due to this, we plan to create balance by adding and adjusting attachments and abilities without changing the operations of the base maneuvers.

Annoying since for much of this the problem is AI, not attachments, and we're running out of room for necessary attachments, but whatever, it's your game...

In regards to abilities, we are making adjustments based on the original execution timing, however, for weapon skills we are looking into making it possible to select the execution timing manually. For magic, we believe the top priority is the revamping of recast times, so once we finalize those adjustments we plan on looking into being able to select the timing for that, as well.

other than making skillchain/magic burst a bit more likely this was never actually a concern for me...

We understand that there are times this is inconvenient for ranged/mage frames. We will look into increasing the distance for using Deploy.

Thank you, I know alot of players would rather the thing ran into melee. Me, I like my auto to live a bit...

With the current system, Scanner will detect resist rates, so by using a Scanner it should make it so your automaton does not cast this.
However, if there is even a small chance that the monster uses magic, the automaton will start to cast silence. The chance of there being a bug related to this isn’t impossible, so we will be checking on this.

Also, if you have any feedback such as “I don’t want silence to be cast on enemies that are highly resistant to silence” (ex: Make it so it doesn’t cast silence when the resist rate is over 60%) please make sure to let us know.

can't you just borrow it from the NPC fellow AI? think it's been a few years since I saw my NPC try to silence a normal beetle...

We are looking into changing the automaton behavior. Since this is something that we have received a lot of feedback about we will be looking into it, but since the workings of the automaton logic are so complex it will take some time.

ABOUT ****ING TIME!!! tell them we want this fast-tracked, they've had about 5 years now, they must have had SOME thoughts on the issue and all told I think this is THE top priority issue for most pups

We understand how you feel and are looking into separating the recast timers.

nice, thanks, but I wasn't actually worried about this

While we would like to do something for this, we would first need to perform a lot of work to revamp the user interface, so this will be difficult to accomplish right away. Sorry

another big issue, #3 on my personal list, just get it done

We plan on revamping attachment stats, so there is a possibility that we make it so that there is no consumption of maneuvers. This doesn’t mean that we will be adjusting every attachment for this, but we will be looking at each one separately. If you have any feedback please let us know!

sooner the better, or else beef up the performance on the attachments that DON'T eat manuvers so we don't NEED to use the one's that do

We will be performing adjustments on attachments that need adjusting as necessary.



Planning to implement this in the form of an attachment.



We are thinking about making adjustments in the form of attachments, not on the automaton or puppetmaster side. For example, how does implementing Strobe II sound?

whatever works...

Currently, we are thinking more in the direction of implementing superior lubricant, such as Lubricant +3, instead of directly increasing the physical resistance.

sorry, but honestly, for a pseudo-pld the ability to take a hit should simply be an inate characteristic, using a consumable for this is a bad idea in my opinion. you COULD make either the Armor plate or equalizer perform better, and that WOULD be in keeping with that tank-type role

It doesn’t crit because it is recognized as a special ability. We are looking into it.

this never should have been classed as a special ability, especially since it still gets all the PENALTIES of being a ranged attack. so yes, fix it please

First we will be revamping attachments that need adjustments. After that we will take a look at the balance and look into this.

faster attacks, more dead autos, {You Can Have This}! I honestly think the speed of attacks is fine as is. Using ranged only attack my pup still generally pulls hate off any tank or anything else in 1-2 hits as it is, and that's WITH the stealth screen. And it can't take a hit

We definitely understand. Since automatons are different than player characters, and it is difficult to adjust the positioning of the automaton, we are looking into easing up or even eliminating the distance factor.

have the auto automatically move itself to the sweet spot and stay there unless a command is given otherwise? the real reason most pups are asking for this is the usual QQ about "my job is broken, it's not the game's top DD" by people who just want to deploy right on the mob so it will melee, too to add to the almighty DPS parser

We would like to look into new automaton WS ideas, however, since you can recover MP through Deactivate/Activate and by using the Mana Converter, we think it would be better to look at different effects.

absolutely right. people been complaining about the unfairness of ADA for MP for awhile now, let's not give them even more reason to try to have our auto's nerfed like the witch hunt they did about bst -pdt. because you know which way that will turn out and it rhymes with turf

The damage is calculated as a special WS, however, we will be looking into making this easier to use while making use of its special properties since we hear a lot of people saying it keeps doing zero damage…

Good.

Now for my biggest concerns. Are there any plans to remove the misguided, unnecessary and completely unjustifiable from either a game balance or difficulty standpoint caps on new spells for Stormwalker and Harlequin autos?

[Kojo]

Hey, why not add a special Maneuver-like JA that makes the Automaton Cure or Raise and give Soulsoother Raise? Just thought of how handy that'd be.

[Karbuncle]

faster attacks, more dead autos, {You Can Have This}! I honestly think the speed of attacks is fine as is. Using ranged only attack my pup still generally pulls hate off any tank or anything else in 1-2 hits as it is, and that's WITH the stealth screen. And it can't take a hit

Unless you've hit Enmity cap that must be a very very bad tank... Even @ Enmity cap it must be a bad tank >_>;;

I agree with the rest of your points but I just, and really not trying to be mean, literally laughed out loud when i thought of how bad a tank must be to lose hate to an Automaton after 1-2 shots...

I know the RNG Frame is strong but lordy loo i don't think its so strong reducing Delay between ranged Attack will make it a constant thread to Enmity :P

[Glamdring]

I really don't want a "nuke attachment"

I don't want to have to burn an attachment slot for functionality that should be native to the Automaton. That's ridiculous. Every Ice slot we lose, that's less damage/accuracy a nuke has, depending on the attachment you choose to sacrifice. We should we have to suffer in damage or resistance rate just to get our Automaton to do what it's supposed to do from the get go?

The baseline A.I. for the Automaton should be able to assess the situation and use the most effective nuke as opposed to the most "Accurate."

precisely, losing attachment slot(s) to compensate for a basic error in AI is NOT a smart solution, it's a way of avoiding the NEEDED fix of the AI to accomplish something that doesn't need player control, just a repair of BAD CODE! don't encourage laziness on the part of the devs to "sorta" address an error that was oricinally created by them in the 1st place, FIX THE ERROR!

[Sparthos]

The tank must be dead if an automaton is pulling hate with the /ra.

As it stands, the pet just doesn't compete against human players when buffed. The more buffed your party is, the more the Puppetmaster takes over as primary DD and the less the automaton contributes.

[Kojo]

Another thing I'm not completely sure of, dunno if there's a way to do this already because I don't use Spiritreaver too much for fear of double procing, but why can't we control nukes with maneuvers? Like Ice = Blizzard spells, etc.

[Glamdring]

Unless you've hit Enmity cap that must be a very very bad tank... Even @ Enmity cap it must be a bad tank >_>;;

I agree with the rest of your points but I just, and really not trying to be mean, literally laughed out loud when i thought of how bad a tank must be to lose hate to an Automaton after 1-2 shots...

I know the RNG Frame is strong but lordy loo i don't think its so strong reducing Delay between ranged Attack will make it a constant thread to Enmity :P

I don't have AF3 +1 yet of my pup gear, still using ACP/MKT/ASA gear, and it all boosts the pet (a legacy from my building the set for my bst). And I'm talking about good tanks, or well equipped/merited mages for that matter. Not being sarcastic in the least. I also use Empy weaps along the elemental path, a mage set that's +MAB, a physical set that's +ACC. My pup misses about as often as the planet has total solar eclypses. I don't even use + damage attachments unless we fighting MB in Aby or an HNM, I concentrate on EVA once I've maxxed out Auto-repair or refresh (or both) on my auto.

I never even double up on a single element, I always use 3 different manuvers, except when resting when I MIGHT double light or Dark for faster recovery. And I haven't run out of MP since I got the Mana converter, not once.

oh, and both my ranged and valoredge autos are 25-40 skill off cap in their respective offensive skill categories.

[Glamdring]

one other concern, the DRAIN/ASPIR complaint. I don't actually have an issue with my pup casting these, if it's casting them it's because he needs HP or MP. But the YIELD on these spells considering my mage Autos are capped (and merited to make them even better casting) is, to put it honestly, PATHETIC. Can't the yeild be scaled to your auto's magic skill? if it was, your auto wouldn't sit there and spam (relatively speaking) them unless there were damage issues going on that the auto needed to correct for, i.e. fighting mobs that were draining/aspiring the auto, or in the face of high dark resistance when the scanner (or the built-in scanner we hear so much about but never actually see working on the spiritreaver head) should prevent your auto from using.

[Mercilessturtle]

And I'm talking about good tanks, or well equipped/merited mages for that matter. Not being sarcastic in the least.

Of course you are not being sarcastic, you are being delusional. Let's look at your claim, giving you every benefit, no matter how absurd. We'll even call the tank a pld since they suck so badly.

Let's pretend your automaton is pdif capped against whatever NM your pretending this happens on. So he does 630 damage per shot. He shoots every 20 seconds. So best case for you is 1260 damage in the span of 20 seconds. Lets pretend this imaginary NM is only level 75, since that gets you way more enmity than if it were a realistic level. Your automaton has 1938 CE and 4615 VE without using any of the -enmity attachments.

A pld who isn't engaged and is just relying on gaining enmity from JAs and spells (the worst possible way to gain enmity) generates 6240 VE and 543 CE in the first couple seconds just from popping sentinel + DE + flash. Toss in a cure4 and their other JAs and the pld has capped their VE at 10,000, even if they take enough damage to completely zero out their CE, they are still 3500 enmity ahead of your automaton.

Now imagine you aren't using a horrible tank, but a DD. Lets say monk, and let's make them /nin. Do you think a mnk/nin is going to do more or less than 1260 damage in 20 seconds? A Taurine Cesti mnk/nin with an amazingly low 1.0 average pdif (impossible considering we're pretending your automaton is pdif capped, but let's give you every magical fantasy land advantage possible) will deal 1140 damage if they have 0 (or negative) fstr, only have haste, don't WS, have a 0% crit rate (pretty cool trick especially with impetus) and aren't countering because of shadows.

Is that your definition of a good tank? Because that completely impossible scenario is the only way your automaton can be pulling hate, and that is with an automaton that has no -enmity attachments like you claim to use. With stealth screen on, and no water maneuvers to enhance it, you wouldn't be pulling hate even in that hilarious fantasy scenario. Please stop making up crazy nonsense because you want to imagine your automaton is some kind of godly killing machine. Your automaton is exactly the same as everyone else's, and they suck.

[Bhujerba]

Another thing I'm not completely sure of, dunno if there's a way to do this already because I don't use Spiritreaver too much for fear of double procing, but why can't we control nukes with maneuvers? Like Ice = Blizzard spells, etc.

actually maneuvers does influence the type of elemental magic the pet may cast, I found out about this 100% when I was fighting Weak to Wind NM I dont recall it's name, the BLM pet defaulted on casting Aero V, I added 1 Ice Maneuver and still Cast Aero V, then I used 2 Ice Maneuvers and the pet switched to casting Blizzard V, still I'm unsure if this "control" only works against monsters with elemental weakness or any monsters...

this actually may turn into a serious issue once we get Thunder V, since thunder > Ice the pet will default to casting Thunder but with "ice" attachments we will be forced to use Ice Maneuvers thus forcing the pet to use Ice V instead of Thunder V..the only reason this wasn't obvious or an issue before, its because by design it was only going to affect Thunder elemental (Thunder IV specially), but in both capped level (the current one and at 75) BLM pet never had access to the next Thunder Tier magic for a long period time to make this issue apparent to players (the first cap increase we completely skipped thunder 4 to Stone V) I think we were lucky..