Animists in New Frontiers
Producer Matt Firor explains the use of Animist turrets today, read on!
- There's a lot of concern in the community about Animists and their use of summoning turrets in New Frontiers keep sieges. This post is to explain how Animists turrets work (with our current line of sight code), what the problems are, and what we are going to do to alleviate some of the frustration.
First of all, line of sight in New Frontiers keeps works in such a way that anyone standing at the edge of a top of a wall can be targeted by players standing below. Animist targeting is implemented so that they can summon turrets to any place in the game where a player standing in the same spot can also be targeted. This means that Animist turrets can be placed up on top of New Frontiers keep walls.
As keep defenders under attack from Hibernian invaders well know, there is a dynamic in New Frontiers where Animists summon turrets on top of the defender's walls. This makes it extremely difficult - and immensely frustrating - for the defenders, as they have very few safe spots from which to deal with the turrets. In addition, perfectly placed turrets on the top of the outer wall of a keep can sometimes cast on defenders standing on top of the center keep. While the ability to place turrets on top of the walls was an intentional design choice, we have decided after reviewing logs and player feedback that we need to place limits on this dynamic.
Today, we are implementing on Pendragon a system that will allow keep defenders to have a "safe spot" from which to be able to deal with the onslaught of turrets. It is intended that Animists can summon turrets to the top of walls (and to the "balcony" of towers). Under the new system, now turrets placed on those areas will not be able to target players standing on top of the tower (in the case of a tower) or on the center keep (in the case of a keep). Now, to defend yourself against the turrets, have a ranged damage dealer (AE caster, archer, nuker, etc.) ready on top of the tower, or on top of the center keep, to deal with the turrets once they start popping up.
This change will be on Pendragon this afternoon, and will roll live in the next few days, depending on testing. We'll keep looking at this situation and making changes as necessary.
Tags: DarkAgeofCamelot, News