Anthem |OT| GaaS Effect

[panda-zebra]

Pretty underwhelming for Ranger and Storm but the others are kinda cool.

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Storm gets screwed again. Very little chance of being around the other two bubbles to take any advantage because being down on the ground or near it is no place for a Storm to be. And its own perk, 20% more gear damage, is effectively $fuckall in the grand scheme of things because it'll just be base damage and that's going to make hardly any noticeable impact. The already OP Colussus gets stronger still, smh.

While it was probably silly to expect anything too interesting from these supports, they're just boring supports, I did hold out at least a tiny little hope they'd been kept back to use as a nice juicy carrot, a real excuse to play and grind for something, but it seems like they just hadn't got around to making them in time for release or held them back just because.

 

[Number45]

They need to change the support skills to be maybe a little weaker with a much wider radius for damage buffs, so that people can play normally and get some benefit. For damage absorbing skills it makes sense to stack and would be useful for example when titan/fury homing projectiles are in play.

 

[Zastava]

Colossus and Interceptor support abilities stay winning, Storm and Ranger ones stay losing. Honestly a lot of these abilities are not well thought out or implemented. Considering how important mobility is in this game, any bubble/field ability that confines you to a small area is always going to be a bit shit. It makes sense in a ground based game like Destiny, not in an Iron Man simulator. Particularly since the benefits are pretty much meh. They need to be stronger and I'd make it so the bubble is larger and travels with the user so mobility isn't constrained.

 

[shinobi602]

Colossus and Interceptor support abilities stay winning, Storm and Ranger ones stay losing. Honestly a lot of these abilities are not well thought out or implemented. Considering how important mobility is in this game, any bubble/field ability that confines you to a small area is always going to be a bit shit. It makes sense in a ground based game like Destiny, not in an Iron Man simulator. Particularly since the benefits are pretty much meh. They need to be stronger and I'd make it so the bubble is larger and travels with the user so mobility isn't constrained.

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They're not the greatest design but bubbles can work well if you time them right. I usually wait until enemies are preoccupied with others or activate them afar and use a sniper. I do agree I'd rather they just be mobile though or be much wider.

 

[Zastava]

They're not the greatest design but bubbles can work well if you time them right. I usually wait until enemies are preoccupied with others or activate them afar and use a sniper. I do agree I'd rather they just be mobile though or be much wider.

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Fair enough that I'm probably not using them optimally. I still think they need to be reworked. The effects aren't strong enough generally for the hassle.

 

[grendelrt]

Only time I use ranger bubble is when I am rezzing a downed player cause that's the only time I am standing still. I am like a squirrel on cocaine wearing a jetpack.

 

[Zastava]

Only time I use ranger bubble is when I am rezzing a downed player cause that's the only time I am standing still. I am like a squirrel on cocaine wearing a jetpack.

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Exactly. And even then if it's GM 2 or 3 it can go down before you've even started the rez.

 

[AegonSnake]

Did the devs say anything about embers taking the place of item drops in chests? It's starting to really bother me at this point. My drops have never been worse.

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nope they didnt. they did add a hot fix a day after the update but made no mention of it, and their initial talk of the next patch did not talk about fixing it either.

I got to open 2 Elysian chests today and they both contained nothing but alloy. I know its beaten to death at this point, but the chests continuing to have crafting materials is just... I'm flummoxed. I can't even begin to follow the train of thought that led to that decision, honestly.

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This was one of the reasons why i finally uninstalled the game after a 100 hours. i just dont understand these decisions. It's shocking. You can only earn one key a day and then have to suffer through a long boss fight only to get crafting mats. it's bizarre, its insulting, and simply unacceptable.

 

[FSmallhands]

When are the content updates happening now?

 

[Anton Sugar]

Here's a pretty good data-driven look at loot before and after the patch: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/comments/b7stwg/loot_drop_data_103_vs_104/

The conclusions of which are (based on their drops):

Freeplay Chests now has more embers. APEX creatures drop legendaries. Otherwise no clear changes. ---

GM3 Freeplay SOLO provides 1.2legs an hour or around 2% legendary droprate and is still a very viable way to get legs. If you see no legs and do GM3 SOLO freeplay World Event farming then try this method

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This pretty much matches my experience, except I'm in GM2. Since the patch, I've gotten about 5 legendaries in maybe 8 hours of play.

Here is reddit's latest theory on inconsistent loot drops: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnthemTheGame/comments/b61gnv/psa_delete_loadouts/

Loadout bugs, they say. Could be a crazy theory but given the other issues, it's not entirely illogical. If the game has trouble loading your pilot profile/gear, the backend may be calculating things wrong. Maybe related to the health bug?

I definitely am confused when people say they've been playing tens of hours of GM2 or 3 and haven't seen a Legendary. Maybe this will help.

 

[Nezacant]

This pretty much matches my experience, except I'm in GM2. Since the patch, I've gotten about 5 legendaries in maybe 8 hours of play.

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Same for me. I played about 8 hours yesterday on and off and got 7 legendary drops in GM2 across all of the different game modes. That's much better than it was for me before the patch.

 

[Gero]

The game is so clunky holy shit man. I tried the ranger and now im playing colossus but the movement and combat is so clunky. Also the shit fps on the pro isnt helping either. Just fought a titan, had like 10 fps. Meanwhile im playing BFV with 64 players at 60 fps on the same system...

Tarsis is a joke, its dead silent. What the hell bioware thought when they designed this place? So many bugs, glitches, perf and server issues. This game is still far from finished and the lack of polish is shocking. Also the whole "open world" is so lifeless, boring and empty.

 

[Raide]

The game is so clunky holy shit man. I tried the ranger and now im playing colossus but the movement and combat is so clunky. Also the shit fps on the pro isnt helping either. Just fought a titan, had like 10 fps. Meanwhile im playing BFV with 64 players at 60 fps on the same system...

Tarsis is a joke, its dead silent. What the hell bioware thought when they designed this place? So many bugs, glitches, perf and server issues. This game is still far from finished and the lack of polish is shocking. Also the whole "open world" is so lifeless, boring and empty.

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Disagreed with the clunky feeling. Colossus is heavy and clunky-ish but thats part of how he works. Play an Interceptor or Storm and the freedom is great.

Not sure whats going on with the Pro if it drops that bad. Only have minor issues on 1X after the recent patches etc.

Tarsis is quiet at the start and as the story progresses it fills out. more vendors, more people walking around and more things in the world that flesh it out.

As for the bugs/glitches etc. Sure there are some issues now but certainly not as bad as it launched with. It does need more polish and that will come with the regular updates etc. The open world could do with more going on and sometimes you go from world event to the next and it feels chaotic. Sometimes you miss them all. The key part of this is just head towards where the other players are in freeplay and jump in with there stuff and you will always have things to do.

 

[shinobi602]

The game is so clunky holy shit man. I tried the ranger and now im playing colossus but the movement and combat is so clunky. Also the shit fps on the pro isnt helping either. Just fought a titan, had like 10 fps. Meanwhile im playing BFV with 64 players at 60 fps on the same system...

Tarsis is a joke, its dead silent. What the hell bioware thought when they designed this place? So many bugs, glitches, perf and server issues. This game is still far from finished and the lack of polish is shocking. Also the whole "open world" is so lifeless, boring and empty.

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Agreed about the open world feeling a bit lifeless (especially with only 4 players out and about) but hard disagree on it feeling clunky. All the Javelins control pretty smooth to me, especially the Ranger, Storm and Interceptor. Guns, abilities, flying and general movement are always smooth in my experience. 99% of the time at least.

 

[Razgriz417]

heh the anthem reddit today

 

[Hyun Sai]

Yeah, for all the numerous problems the game has, I didn't feel it "clunky". I didn't play Colossus, but the Ranger was as smooth as it can get. Only gripe, they could add some queue on your actions, would be even more fluid.

 

[Raide]

After watching the Bloody Palace DMCV footage, it makes me wish Anthem had some kind of timed arena mode. Could make it team based as well.

 

[oakenhild]

Agreed about the open world feeling a bit lifeless (especially with only 4 players out and about) but hard disagree on it feeling clunky. All the Javelins control pretty smooth to me, especially the Ranger, Storm and Interceptor. Guns, abilities, flying and general movement are always smooth in my experience. 99% of the time at least.

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Open world definitely needs work. I've spent maybe 5% of my time in there, mostly because I only play with randoms. It just doesn't work with random players as it is now.

The game is so clunky holy shit man. I tried the ranger and now im playing colossus but the movement and combat is so clunky.

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The colossus is clunky in such a good way. It feels like a big heavy javelin. It's so different from the ranger and others too. The combat and movement is the one thing that Anthem nailed, in my opinion.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Yeah, there's really not much that is clunky about the gameplay/combat.

 

[Complicated]

Yeah, there's really not much that is clunky about the gameplay/combat.

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I played quite a bit on PC and Xbox and even on Xbox at 30 fps it feels great juking around with the Interceptor. So much so that I chose to play on xbox over PC.

 

[panda-zebra]

Colossus feels weighty, but never clunky. I think they did really well making all 4 javelins feel different, yet still have the same base movement speed. And 10 fps on ps4 pro? Never seen that and I've played easily 200 hours. I play it at 1080P on my 4k screen to guarantee performance, it's never been an issue.

 

[Dany]

cant connect on ps4??.

edit: well I connected and im trying to do the last mission but no one else is online or on this server? I had to bump it down to normal because I kept dying solo on hard.

 

[Dany]

OH cool. Server was lost while I was beating hte final boss. WHat a fucking mess

 

[Wyze]

Subreddit is salty as fuck, nothing but memes and general toxicity over there.

 

[RaySpencer]

Subreddit is salty as fuck, nothing but memes and general toxicity over there.

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There is a r/LowSodiumAnthem sub Reddit that's much better, the main one is just complaining all the time. Like igrt it, shits not perfect, but damn chill.

 

[Gero]

This game have some "great" mission design. Kill 1 ursix, go to the next room kill 2 ursix, next room 1 ursix with million health. Great job gameplay designer team. A 5 year old child can come up with a better ideas than this. Jesus christ...

 

[Deleted member 12317]

This game have some "great" mission design. Kill 1 ursix, go to the next room kill 2 ursix, next room 1 ursix with million health. Great job gameplay designer team. A 5 year old child can come up with a better ideas than this. Jesus christ...

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Replace "Ursix" with "Titan" and you have one more type of mission :D

The worst type being two Titans in enclosed and tight areas such as caves, as a Storm it's really not fun at all..

 

[AegonSnake]

PSA: How I fixed the Legendary loot drops.

So after uninstalling the game over the weekend after going 8 hours with just one legendary drop (which turned out to be for a different class), I thought i would never come back to it. But then i read a Forbes article about how the author was having more luck running GM1 Heart Of Rage quickly than running it on GM2 which can take forever thanks to the boss having an 500% health on GM2.

I also watched a video where a guy pointed out how having more luck (over the supposed 90% cap) has worked out for him and his friends and they get a drop or two an hour. After all, everything in this game is broken so maybe the luck cap or the luck stat is broken too. So i stacked up on luck, literally everything i equipped had luck on it for a total of 260 luck. (or 360% luck if you count the initial 100% luck everyone supposedly starts with)

And finally, i deleted all my loadouts and started from scratch after reading a reddit post claiming that the real issue in the game is with Pilot Loading Data Errors and loot drops are somehow tied to your loadouts not syncing with the server. So i deleted everything and went into freeplay with a 0 level storm build like he said and came back out. Built my luck build and went into GM1 HoR.

Here are my results.

• First chest dropped a legendary. But this could just be the welcome back bonus reddit was freaking out about.
• Fury dropped a legendary. Ok, maybe this is still the welcome back bonus since we got to the furies within a few minutes.
• Monitor dropped a legendary..... Ok, maybe it's just RNGesus finally being kind to me. I have never had more than two legendary dropped even on GM3 difficutlies, but on GM1?
• 2nd Run. Titan drops a legendary.
• 3rd run. No legendaries, but a lot of MWs. Like 6. I usually average 2-3 per GM2-GM3 stronghold.
• 4th run. Second Chest Dropped a legendary.
• 5th run. No Legendaries but a lot of MWs.
• 6th Run. Another fury dropped a legendary.
• 7th and 8th runs. Monitor dropped three MWs himself. 6-8 MWs.

Each run took like 6-8 minutes. boss goes down in seconds. overall, i got 6 legendaries in 1.5 hours. I usually average one every 4-6 hours. I dont think its a conincidence. I think the welcome back bonus only applied to the first stronghold where i got three legendaries but i have taken longer breaks before and have only gotten 1 from the first enemy i would kill and then nothing for hours. whereas this time i kept getting them.

TLDR; Stack up on luck. Play GM1 HoR over and over again. And delete all loadouts and start from scratch. Anytime you get Pilot Loading Data Error, its time to delete everything again.

 

[panda-zebra]

Yeah, but that's just the Anthem AI reading ERA, seeing you deleted it and bringing you back into the fold... it'll be back to normal next time you play ;-)

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Jason Schreier teasing something, most likely Anthem related...

 

[Gero]

Jason Schreier teasing something, most likely Anthem related...

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Oh yes it will be. Cant wait. This game is a god damn mess.

 

[Frozen Viper]

"6 Years of Development" came out to around creating and shipping in 18 months, almost exactly like Andromeda. Hoo boy.

Link to Jason's full story

 

[oakenhild]

"6 Years of Development" came out to around creating and shipping in 18 months, almost exactly like Andromeda. Hoo boy.

Link to Jason's full story

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That article is amazing. Such a well-written deep dive into Anthem development hell. Could easily have been a couple chapters in a new book.

 

[Complicated]

A great and horrific read. I wish there hadn't been so many casualties along the way, but I'm glad the studio came out of it with a fun game and something great to build on. Hopefully marginalized voices will be lifted up within the studio and lessons will be learned.

 

[grendelrt]

Most of what people expected for the reasons the things ended up they way they are, frostbite, running out of time, etc. I just hope they keep building and the game gains more fanbase, I have almost 100 hours so far and still enjoy the game. I have 3 friends that I play with and they all enjoy it as well. The combat and flying is awesome, they just need to fix the loot and content issues.

 

[Hyun Sai]

Like I suspected, aside from Frostbite, big problem was the leadership team having gigantic ego, and not listening to any advice from people more experienced in online MP. I didn't expect something as insane as banning any Destiny talk LMAO. How stupid can you be.

If those people are still in charge, good luck.

 

[Deleted member 47843]

If those people are still in charge, good luck.

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From the article, it sounds like they aren't and things turned around a lot when the new guy (who ended up first in the credits despite not joining until late 2017) took over.

If anything, it's amazing the game is a good and fun as it is (even with all the bugs and flaws) given the development hell. Given it was mostly done in 18 months or so, with apparently the bulk of work in the last year, it's pretty clear they could have made it great if given enough time. That bodes well for being able to pull a Destiny style turn around if given time and resources to 1) fix things and 2) put out a really good Take King/Forsaken type expansion down the road that really turns things around.

 

[Landford]

A great and horrific read. I wish there hadn't been so many casualties along the way, but I'm glad the studio came out of it with a fun game and something great to build on. Hopefully marginalized voices will be lifted up within the studio and lessons will be learned.

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Read Biowares blog post. They wont. The people who made this mess are still in charge, and they dont even see what they did wrong.

Also, what exists of Anthem now its all that has been made. New content will not happen before at least a year down the line.

 

[Complicated]

Read Biowares blog post. They wont. The people who made this mess are still in charge, and they dont even see what they did wrong.

Also, what exists of Anthem now its all that has been made. New content will not happen before at least a year down the line.

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I think I'll listen to Jason's reporting from inside sources and Bioware's official statement unless you're claiming to have insider info as well. Or maybe you didn't read the article?

 

[Landford]

I think I'll listen to Jason's reporting from inside sources and Bioware's official statement unless you're claiming to have insider info as well. Or maybe you didn't read the article?

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I did. But the higher ups at EA and Bioware as a whole are still in their positions. Mark Darrah assumed the Anthem project leadership (And now hes probably back at Dragon Age) just so it could ship. With the exception of Warner, nobody that is responsible for the mess that Anthem is right now got affected with how poorly and broken it launched.

 

[Complicated]

With the exception of Warner, nobody that is responsible for the mess that Anthem is right now got affected with how poorly and broken it launched.

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Jason's reporting has not touched on this and neither did Bioware's statement, so I'm not sure where you're getting this.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Jason noted that Bioware's response was written before they could even read his article in full. That's not encouraging.

Also, what exists of Anthem now its all that has been made. New content will not happen before at least a year down the line.

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Without your source(s), I'm taking this with a grain, but if that's true, the game is dead. Full stop. Content is the only thing that will keep the game alive.

 

[dumbo11]

TLDR; Stack up on luck. Play GM1 HoR over and over again. And delete all loadouts and start from scratch. Anytime you get Pilot Loading Data Error, its time to delete everything again.

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I did this:
- copied the default interceptor loadout to a new loadout.
- switch to the new loadout.
- delete the default loadout.
- select the new loadout and run GM2 HOR.

1 legendary in the first GM2/HOR, 2 legendaries in the second. It still could be a placebo.

 

[AegonSnake]

Read Biowares blog post. They wont. The people who made this mess are still in charge, and they dont even see what they did wrong.

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this. their response proves everything Jason's source said in the article was true. these guys are incapable of handling any criticism.

 

[Gero]

Yeah after that article im pretty sure this game is dead. Many of us wanted a redemption ark here but lets be real, its not happening

 

[Deleted member 47843]

Yeah after that article im pretty sure this game is dead. Many of us wanted a redemption ark here but lets be real, its not happening

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There's no way to know that. Both Destiny 1 and 2 had similar development hells with late reboots meaning the games were built mostly in 18 months or so. They managed to not have as many bugs (thanks Frostbite), but had similar problems with lack of content, bad stories, boring end game loops etc. and managed to get the ship righted. I think Bioware can as well, if EA gives them time like Activision did with the Destiny games (or Ubisoft with The Division 1). That's the big question, but with the long dev time and all the extra teams they had to throw on in that last year I'd think they'll want to try and salvage it vs. just scrapping it. Time will tell though.

 

[Razgriz417]

Jason Schreier teasing something, most likely Anthem related...

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much earlier than I expected but another damn good article. Confirmed my belief that this was hobbled together in less than 2 years. But holy shit at the idea that they took out flying multiple times.


Also didnt realize that Bioware Austin essentially was given a bucket of shit and told that they'll be needing to support and fix everything over the next few years.

 

[Anton Sugar]

This game could be amazing...but I just have zero faith in them after that article and response. I think I'll shelve this until things get better.

 

[Zastava]

Jason noted that Bioware's response was written before they could even read his article in full. That's not encouraging.

Without your source(s), I'm taking this with a grain, but if that's true, the game is dead. Full stop. Content is the only thing that will keep the game alive.

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I don't want to speak for Landford, but the previous assumption was that they must have a team working on post launch content for some time, so they could have stuff ready for release over the next few months while prepping future content.

But if they had to work ridiculously hard with all hands on deck just to shove out the half finished mess we got for EA's deadline, who are the people who were working on this post launch content?

It would also track with the piecemeal approach to content we've had since launch. A few new MW items here, a couple skins there. This is all stuff they've worked on in the last couple months. People were pissed it took a couple extra weeks and a patch for the new interceptor and colossus Scar skins after the ranger and storm ones were in the store, but it seems likely that the reason was because they needed the extra time. And before that, people were raging about the repeat of the same 4 skins available since launch. There's been conspiracy theories on Reddit this was some sort of plot to waste coin, while the most likely explanation is simply that they didn't have anything else ready.

Having said all this, I don't agree with Landford that this means no new content for a year - there's supposed to be guilds and another stronghold this month, masteries and cataclysms next month. I think they're going to pump out as much content as they can as they finish it so we're going to get lots of regular small features coming over the year. So, that's the upside. The downside is that it's unlikely it'll be properly tested because they're rushing it out the door, so the two steps forward and one step back dynamic will continue with each patch. Secondly, it means we're unlikely to get a Taken King style full expansion and revamp, Anthem 2.0 as it were. Instead, by the end of the year we're going to have the finished Anthem 1.0 - a more stable, better performing version with more strongholds and skins and cataclysms and lots of little quality of life features and improvements that should have been in at launch. Probably more guns and bits of gear. Maybe a slightly revamped mission structure to make it a bit less repetitive. But whole new maps? New javelins? Game modes? The new enemy faction they teased? Only if we're very lucky.

 

[disco_potato]

PSA: How I fixed the Legendary loot drops.

And finally, i deleted all my loadouts and started from scratch after reading a reddit post claiming that the real issue in the game is with Pilot Loading Data Errors and loot drops are somehow tied to your loadouts not syncing with the server. So i deleted everything and went into freeplay with a 0 level storm build like he said and came back out. Built my luck build and went into GM1 HoR.

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The last 2 days were the only 2 days since hitting 30 that I didn't sign on and do my LCs. Saw your post, got excited, and followed your advice. Deleted loadouts, went into freeplay with a base javelin. Quit to Trasis. Made a new build. Went to free-play. Error loading pilot data. Closed game. Went back to forge deleted loadout. Went to free-play. Back to forge. New load out. Back to gm2 free-play. 1st 3 chests, embers. First WE, embers. Then random enemies started dropping purples, and MWs. Bag is almost full but game is freaking out with freezes, enemies disappearing, combos being delayed. With all that said about 50 minutes later I have 3 MW to show for it. Deleting loadouts and going for LCs to see if anything improves.