Upcoming Accuracy Bug Fix / Countermeasure Update
In response to community feedback, we are making an effort to address long standing bugs and quality of life concerns. Here are two we discovered that had major impact to your recent experience, that will be in part of the 8.26 update scheduled for the week of June 26.
Accuracy Bug
The Battle Pirates team has discovered a bug which has caused any weapon or countermeasure equipped to a ship (both players’ and enemies’) to unintentionally be granted a 100% bonus to accuracy. We want to ensure that equipment is working as their stats indicate, so we have fixed this issue to remove the bonus to accuracy.
To ensure this does not dramatically change your gameplay experience, the team is working to rebalance the targets that have been released since this bug was introduced back in February. This process may take several weeks and during that time please don’t hesitate to make note of your experience through feedback so that we can ensure we balance combat accordingly. Due to the large number of targets, and the variety of builds that people use, we’re counting on coordination with the community to stabilize this aspect of gameplay and we appreciate your input.
For reference, there are a number of places this bug touches the game:
PVE Targets
All of your ship mounted weapons and countermeasures
All enemy ship mounted weapons and countermeasures
PVP
All conqueror weapons and countermeasures
All defender weapons and countermeasures
TL;DR
Correcting bug that granted 100% accuracy buff to ship mounted weapons and countermeasures
Adjusting targets to maintain current experience
If you see something that looks unexpected please let us know
Countermeasure Update
The team is updating the way that countermeasures work, to bring them in line with the expectations of how they should behave.
Currently, most countermeasures that target rockets or missiles get a single shot at countering that projectile, while countermeasures that target mortars get multiple shots at countering that projectile. UAVs act differently, in that they can get targeted by countermeasures until they reach their first target, at which point the UAVs become immune and will move from target to target .
When introducing countermeasures that were able to target both mortars and missiles, such as Zelo’s built in Duality Countermeasure and the Nightwatch Countermeasure, this introduced problems with how they interacted with projectiles. A dual countermeasure treated both missiles and mortars the same, which means it either repeatedly targeted both missiles and mortars, or it only took one shot at either missiles or mortars. As such, combining these countermeasures with other countermeasures could cause poor performance (see Example #1 below).
When a missile is fired at by a countermeasure, it is “tagged” so that it will not be targeted again. When a mortar is fired at by a countermeasure, it is not tagged and can continued to be targeted by counter measures. Currently, this tag is defined by the countermeasure. Moving forward, we are changing this to tag a projectile, or not, based on the specific projectile that it is firing at. Let’s look at some examples:
Example #1:
Currently: The Nightwatch Countermeasure is “tagging” all projectiles it shoots at. So, if you have equipped a Nightwatch Countermeasure and Gale Defense System III and the Nightwatch shoots a mortar, it becomes “tagged” and the Gale Defense System III will no longer target it.
After the Update: Nightwatch Countermeasure no longer “tags” mortars and Gales Defense System III continues to fire at that mortar (as will the Nightwatch).
Example #2
Currently: The Zelo’s built-in Duality Countermeasure does not “tag” any of the projectiles it shoots at, which means that it can repeatedly target any missiles or rockets that it fires at. However,if you had a Phalanx Anti-Missile System IV equipped on your Zelos, once it targeted a missile it would be “tagged” and no additional countermeasures (including Duality Countermeasures) would target it.
After the Update: Zelo’s Duality Countermeasure “tags” missiles or rockets that it fires at, and no other countermeasures fire at them.
Changes to Specific Items
Countermeasure | Before Fix | After Fix |
Deep Sea Countermeasure . | Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles. | Targets missiles & rockets only once. Repeatedly targets mortars. |
Nightwatch Mortars | Targets each projectile only once. | Targets missiles & rockets only once. Repeatedly targets mortars. |
Coxial Turret | Targets each projectile only once. | Targets missiles & rockets only once. Repeatedly targets mortars. |
Elite Countermeasures | Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles. | Targets missiles & rockets only once. Repeatedly targets mortars. |
Duality Countermeasure | Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles. | Target missiles & rockets only once. Repeatedly targets mortars. |
TL;DR
We are updating counter measures to act as expected, and maintain consistency across the game
Mortars and UAVs will be targeted by countermeasures repeatedly
Missiles and Rockets will be targeted by countermeasures once
Conclusion
With both of these changes, your experience in Battle Pirates is being brought much closer to what is expected based on listed stats. We are striving to improve the experience of Battle Pirate every day, and we appreciate your being a part of this journey.
This bug as you describe really only helps the player base, and all targets have been designed with it n mind. the removal of this "bug" will only hurt us players IMO, and further make targets harder to deal with, regardless if they are changed to compensate for removal of bug. If someone is able to give a counter as to why this bug's removal is good, please give why, otherwise i stand at that the removal will only hurt players.
In-game name: Cyanide Sandwich
Home Sector: 21 Ship Design Discussion Group (Open to all): https://www.facebook.com/groups/118022991724717/
Okay well, what about removing the invincibility of UAVs then? If im not guaranteed to kill them, they will tear apart the ship they are sitting on endlessly because LOL DRAC CARRIER PVE GUARDS VS ZELO+MONO FLEET.
No seriously, my Zelos is tired of getting BOMBED REPEATEDLY BY INVINCIBLE UAVS.
Im dumbfounded as to how you only fixed it now when the behaviour of the cms have been apparent for a very long time. No offense but do you guys even play your game?
The devs have no concept of how to do that. They have no concept of what that even means. They always go overboard on everything and call it "new and exciting" or a "challenge".
I am getting worried due to how effective the sprint is, when the bug is fixed every mid to high end fm fleet will have some serious problems with rocket dmg if this isn't handled carefully.
But if its a bug that doesnt help players and may even cause your fleet damage, we just let that go.
**Insults Removed**
Countermeasure
Before Fix
After Fix
Deep Sea Countermeasure .
Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles.
Target only missiles or rockets or mortars.
Repeatedly until destroyed
Nightwatch Mortars
Targets each projectile only once.
Target only missiles or rockets or mortars.
Repeatedly until destroyed
Coxial Turret
Targets each projectile only once.
Targets closest missiles & rockets & mortars.
Repeatedly until destroyed.
Elite Countermeasures
Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles.
Targets closest missiles & rockets & mortars.
Repeatedly until destroyed.
Duality Countermeasure
Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles.
Target only missiles or rockets or mortars.
Repeatedly until destroyed .
Why not fix the things that are truly broken first? RnD that will not start......Lag due to appearing wall...... pvp imbalance the pointlessness of bounty...ship like hydra and bud etc not being valid hulls for a year like promised.....This seems to be a thinly veiled attempt at yet another coin grab RIP BP.
I know it is impossible to get it right all the time but even a 50/50 split would be encouraging to your customers, some of whom have being playing this game for over 7 years. To constantly attack your player base is really disappointing. Do the powers that be also understand that this becomes a representation of how your Company operates and will undoubtedly do damage to your other games by having no cross migration of players to them as you release new products. Please think through your actions before implementing them. There are some really great players in this game that you could ask for help in addressing these problems and understanding from a players point of view what would make them happier to spend their hard earned money on, if only you had the foresight to ask for help. You may develop and own the game but to get the best amount of revenue from it to pacify your CEO I would suggest that you take on board the above and move forward in the right direction by embracing your customer base not continually alienating them.
U gonna lose players even faster than u r now!
So, KIX is making anoter change, that will increase the damage to the players by 100% or more. Where is the rebalancing of the targets?
Where is a fix for a broken raid? Where is the focus on players experience of the game?
1) Fix the fleet stop, that has been broken for a while. Fleets can't be stopped with down arrow they just keep going.
2) Fix the Freaking game crashes, that has been problem since game was first launched. I just started a campaign and game crashed entering battle screen and fleet was dead before I could get back in game. thanks for the 22hr repair for that crash.
I have about a 22 item list of bugs I'd like fixed but if you get those taken care of, I will be much happier...
...
Elite Countermeasures Repeatedly targets all valid projectiles. Targets missiles & rockets only once.
Repeatedly targets mortars.
...
This mean that you will fix the "bug" , when the MSC gets in range with the elite countermeasure it stop firing completely?
Or this is another issue that we don't care?