[2021] Dauntless Experimental: Frost Escalation Playtest Jan 15 - 18

Originally posted by Nick_au_42

Is there really a Frost Embermane?! I got the invite but when i try to install it says i don't have permission.

Originally posted by abufhad

Repeaters test mod turret needs a proper icon , glad repeaters is getting new perks.

Originally posted by llMadmanll

This time around we have invited a random sample of players who have killed Valomyr at least once to test out Frost Escalation.

r/oddlyspecific

Originally posted by Arusalah

From my testing around in the Experiment, I found just a few things. First off, all weapons are doing wound damage? Is this a glitch from pike reforge or is it how pike reforge is supposed to happen? I do have video evidence of this without me having barbed or acidic on my build at all. Second, though I couldn't do some of the more questionable tests I wanted to do with the frost wall as I only had 1-13 instead of 10-50. There are tests i wanted to do with showd and reza that the partners I watched did not do. Anyways. The wall needs a slight cooldown or damage nerf. The 700-800 damage it does per wall and being able to spam it nonstop makes any level 20 weapon do about 2,000 dps on the build i was using which would have probably been around 3,000-4,000 dps if I was able to make a proper build. When interrupting with the wall, I noticed that it only booped when the wall was still being built while the bahemoth hit it instead of interuppting if they hit an already built wall. I also noticed that most bahemoths took one wall to interrupt while quillshot was the only one to need 2 walls every time.

Edit 1: I have a question about the new Cascade Cell. At 4 it gives the semina duration, at 5 it give the health, and at 6 it gives the power. Shouldn't it be that at 5 it gives health and stamina then at 6 it gives all 3 or is there a reason to keep it split?

Edit 2: Charrogg spawned in one of my 1-13s on round 4. Please tell me we won't have another situation like when pangar was spawning on round 4 of blaze esca..

Edit 3: Sometimes, the crystals seem to glitch and offer only gives 3 amps options instead of 4.

Edit 4: why does the frost wall not block beams? I know I can't test this on reza since I'm having trouble getting around the bug thats keeping me from accessing 10-50 but I was able to test this on drask. The beam goes right through the wall. Why?

Edit 5: I found someone to take me into 10-50 and though I enjoy the difficulty of the Fresca leading up to the boss, the boss himself is really fast to kill but we break no parts. Is this another situation like we had with the thrax or does it just not have drops yet therefore you made it to where we can't break parts?

Edit 6: Thanks to finding someone who wanted to run 10-50 with a team. I was able to do my tests on reza and showd. The test I did on reza is to see if there was a threshold on damage from projectiles hitting the wall and im glad that it actually blocks them all instead of breaking half way through. The test I did on showd was to see how his goop affected the wall. If it spattered onto the wall, hit the wall then spattered on the ground, or if it splattered then vanished like everything else. Im happy it doesnt stick around but I was kinda hoping it would be cool if it stuck to the wall to warn slayers to still not go through it.

Edit 7: This isn't a bug or anything. Just a suggestion. With the new pylons for frost esca. Please consider bringing back the poison immunity tonics for tera esca. This would help out a lot especially with newer players. And maybe even later replace the fireproof cell with a fire proof tonic for blaze esca. Even replacing insulated with a tonic too for shock esca would be amazing. Just food for thought to weed out cells people may not use as much anymore and bring some more spice to dauntless.

Edit 8: I see from others posts that I had forgotten to mention this. Frostbite gain is alright in 1-13 because things do die fast enough but when you go into 10-50 the raise is too fast especially with things dying slower. I understand that technically with the Never Bothered Me amp, you probably want us to get the lnsulated Gear amps but not everyone will choose them together which could end in lots of complaining. Also. Would you consider changing the Insulated Gear amps to be named Heated Gear or something as we already have an Insulated cell?

Edit 9: Another bright side. I absolutely love the lore of dauntless. Always have and always will. I'm happy you are bringing more lore to esca with the journal entries. Also. I just finished going back in and testing to see if I could get any bugs with any weapons because the person who got me to 10-50 was saying their hammer wasn't starting with ammo. I haven't found any problems but still may want to look into it?

Edit 10: I did reforge the chainblades in experimental to test how the reforges on the exp nodes are marked and as suspected, no matter which weapon you reforge, it counts. Though, in experimental theres over 10 reforges have been done here and the exp nodes aren't updated for that. Is that a bug with previous reforges or is that just an experimental thing?

Thats all I can think of right now.. I will do more tests and edit this one if I find anything.

Originally posted by M-Maggonagall

Hi

i ve tested the experimental, first of all its cool realy good job you guys .

there are few issues such as without getting full esca talent points (25) it would be realy hard to go 10 to 50

there are few parkour issues, such as you may fall trying to find the path, its a bit coplicated run beamoth to beamoth.

there is this heat issue, even tho you go the areas that will heat you its just works for a second, wouldnt be better if its work for longer perriod?

but my main issue is the parkour. you go to heat and turn arround... you made it so confusing. i ve got lost feew times :D

also i would like to update other armours to try if it works better but we can only test with your choice.

ohh alsoo new everyday collectibles its imposible to see them.

other than these its all good.

Thanks for choosing me :)

Originally posted by mewz4life

Thank-you for letting me test early, I was soo stoked to play in a couple weeks but to play early was unexpected and so nice to come home to!!

Right off the bat, you guys make the visuals of this game so easy on the eyes, I have an animation background so I'm always looking at details and I love the art in this game and its the main reason why I started playing in the first place.

Thank-you for all your efforts over the years!! You guys are my happy place, and being a front line worker, and coming out of working on a COVID positive outbreak unit over Christmas where I saw 8 people die, 12 of my coworkers get sick and I missed going home and being with my family due to risk of infection, it was the one small thing I could hold onto that was normal. I appreciate it. <3

OK, Lets get into it!

Pros:

- visuals are stunning landscapes are crazy fun to run through, very atmospheric and immersive!

- love the new perks at the start, I like how it limits everyone from playing the exact same - it would be nice to get to choose in the load screen somehow so I can make it work with my build better, but if not im ok with the first come first serve.

- the build up to the final behemoth is epic, i was legit scared running in for the first time

- I felt to me like it was getting more and more difficult each time I played it through 10-50, but if felt as difficult as the other escalations already at this stage and I liked that.

- I love the new frost behemoths and all their new abilities, this is my favorite part about escalations, I live to learn new behemoth mechanics!

- I love the added challenge of "frostbite" - something else to monitor while fighting in the 10-50 - it would be nice to change the 10-50 somehow so the lower levels are not being carried to the end, that we have to deserve to be there, and the handicap of the frostbite might be that thing.

- I like the sound cue of you not being able to hear tells you you're close to freezing, just need it a little sooner so I can run to a fire

- I LOVE THE NEW ARMOR SET!!! ITS SOOO SICK!!! ><!!!! and I've seen some new weapons >.> I fan girl sooo hard over the artwork in this game.

- I like the final Behemoths attacks, they seemed less predictable and more varied.

- I like that it seems you're trying to make escalations more about really enjoying the flow of the game and less about grinding out Behemoths. I totally get that vibe from this escalation. It's such a breath of fresh air from the other escalations

Cons:

- I really dont like frostbite in between battles... i want to enjoy looking at everything and appreciating the effort thats gone in rather than looking for fires and making sure I dont fall off the map.. dont get me wrong, i DO like the platforming.

- theres a few sections from when after the fight you get the powerup and then go to the jump that feels disjointed... they should be closer together - there's a couple I didn't know where to go, you get turned around...

- frostbite is stuck at 50%? not sure what I've done but now that my escalation is lvl 25 my frostbite sits at 50%, feels like a handicap, was that intended?

- This final Behemoth is in some desperate need of some textures. Also this is a BEHEMOTH right?? shouldn't he be big?? so what about hit boxes that are harder to hit, yeah hes the final boss, maybe some parts need to be broken with particular weapons. I was scared until I saw this tiny cat... Design is amazing though, he looks way cool.

- His roar pushes you back but its random he just runs to a corner and pushes you back and you're maybe not even close to him, the timing of this mechanic doesn't make sense to me.

- There were some games that behemoths would never hit me, their attacks would just go through me but I was able to hit them ( I mean that's cool and all, I've always enjoyed God mode but.. lol)

- I also am getting a lag bug or something where I can't see behemoths until I'm dead or I fall off the map, or theres a 1-2 minute delay

- when you're stuck in frostbite, there needs to be a time indicator (I'm sure you guys know already)

- Also the fires take away from the atmosphere.. maybe not metal ringed fires, but maybe a flower or plant of some kind giving off heat, or a rock/stone/geyser? Also i like the wooded bridges but you've created a world here, I'm sure you can make something more 'Dauntless Isles' and less 'Ramsgate city'. What about bringing in some nature pr visual light, or gravity elements? like you do with the weapons, maybe not in the mechanics but as textures. making the glacier darker with your feet lighting up underneath you?

Sorry for being so long winded, hopefully you found these things helpful!

Cheers and good luck!! REALLY looking forward to playing the finish product, but I'm going to TOTALLY enjoy the sneak preview while I have it. <3 <3 <3

Much love and appreciation

Epic user thecatsmewz

Originally posted by Radazuken

I'm not entirely sure if this is some combination of unintended effects but hitting stagger values (without investing into things like knock out king, etc) of 45k+ had made the entire thing easy for me personally. The frost bite mechanic was pretty neglible (both in groups and solo) and the only time I felt I had clutch moments with frost bite is when ever I ran the talent "never bothered me anyway" which cut the effective maximum of the bar by half.

If you want the frost bite mechanic to feel like a real threat, it definitely needs a tune up because it's way too easy to ignore in solo and in groups it's clearly even easier.

Originally posted by BusBattler

(Heads up - There might be mistakes in my text bc I am unsure on some of the terms in the game and english is my second language :) )

First of all I´m grateful for the chance to test out the new escalation and I enjoyed seeing the new environment. I also enjoyed trying out the new Warden marks mechanic and the new esca- perks.

I played 4 escas in total- 3 solo (1-13) and 1 in a team of four (10-50)

I played the three solo escas (1-13) without unlocking any of the perks and heres my thought from those playthroughs

- Frostbite was too easy to handle. I never got above 50, maybe never even above 30. I didnt change the pre-made build all that much so maybe it would be more difficult with my own build. Maybe put one fire before and after every fight, but make them a bit more effective.

- I believe the distance between the fights might need to be shortened, but not by a lot. The time it took to get from one fight to the next is just long enough for some stacks to be lost.

- This is a smaller point, but ties into the previous. The first perk choice point (the crystal pylon that slayers charge their lantern with) is located in a way where it becomes awkward to get to the next aetherbridge (correct term?) that takes you to the next segment. I first have to run to the pylon, then away from it, then towards what I call the aetherbridge.

Heres my thoughts from the fourth esca (10-50) that I played in a team with three other slayers. Before this esca I chose some points from Arkan Drews perk-machine (sorry, cant remember the name right now). Of importance is that I chose all three "Insulated clothing"- perks (wich reduces the frostbite build up) and the "Never bothered me"- perk (which resembles the discipline cell in that you always have atleast 50 frostbite).

In this run frostbite was waaay harder and the others had to carry me (felt awful). It was difficult for me to see how much frostbite I had and how close I was to being unfrozen by my team- mates efforts. I think its a good idea to have the environment challenge you and the frostbite- meter is not inherently bad at all, but the effect of it is what bothers me. Being completely frozen and unable to do anything is not suited to a game like Dauntless IMO. I dont enjoy fighting Skraevs precisely bc of their ability to freeze me and make me wait to get back in the fight. My suggestion is that being frozen is replaced by health loss (specifically- at 100 frostbite your health drains), bc that would tie in with the fight and give a sense of urgency to get from one fight to the next.

This was all written in one go, so maybe there are some points that are unclear- if so please tell me and I will try to correct that :)

Again- I like this idea and the environment!

Originally posted by bunheadwhat

Thank you so much for writing all of this up for us, it's super helpful. As far as the wound damage: everyone was given the same cloned account, and it happened to have every weapon reforged 2x. When you reforged pike you do more wound dmg, so that explains that!

Originally posted by Freezer_Burn99

Behemoth bugs: Frost Gnasher ice ball launch occasionally breaks before full animation completes and does not launch a projectile
Frost Embermane has fireball rain animation but does no damage nor launches projectiles
Mint: Combo against slayer doesn't appear to do as much damage as it should
Equipment bugs: Empowered turret does a minimal increase in damage and has the same fire rate despite the appearance of another gun
Suggestions: Frostbite rises very quickly making the 10-50 escalation near impossible for some slayers.

Originally posted by cristina1236

Thanks for the opportunity to explore this on experimental. Here are my thoughts after playing a couple of 1-13 and a few 10-50, both in a party, and solo. Overall I think it's a great effort, it's fresh and exciting, with great graphics and cosmetics, and I think it has great potential with some minor tweaks. I am sorry if there are any mistakes, English is my second language, but I'm happy to clarify anything further :)

Frostbite is not really an issue, if you have lantern level 25 and play with a team. I've attempted 2 solo runs on 10-50, and I was not able to finish it, due to the frostbite. Also, the flames (spots to warm up) don't last more than a second. When played with a party, it is easier to manage.

Unfortunately, I had the bug with keep on falling to the map (already reported). By the time I was able to return to start I was already nearly completely frozen, and there were no flames near by, so I was completely frozen. A timer on the flames so they can be used again. I know there are options around being frozen, but it would be a better mechanic to not require another player to pause their game and come and unfreeze you. Or like it was suggested in another comment, put a timer on it, so at least the player is not stuck until the esc is completed or everyone dies. Otherwise, it'll leave no other choice that Alt-F4 and restart the game, which will be a shame.

I really enjoyed the graphics, and the environment. It feels different and refreshing compared to the other escalations. I also loved that the path between behemoths is different, and doesn't follow the same pattern as before. Would love if the path was a bit shorter (at least so I don't lose the stacks and level for the weapon, especially between round 3 and 4, and going into the lair of the wolf. Also, after round 1, maybe the amp crystal (where we chose the amps), could be moved closer to the path for the next round. I really don't get the point to go fourth, then back, then right. Similar, between round 3 and 4 on 10-50, there are 2 mini-islands (for lack of a better word for it), and the one to the left of the main path seems extra. If maybe an aether jet could be added to take to upper platform, or even just remove it completely. It will make the run feel a bit less like a maze

The frost behemoths are lovely made. Especially embermane, he's probably my favorite of the 3. The frost boss (Mint it think is the name) fight was balanced, but it felt at times that he was running away from the fight, like it was scared or something. But could be that we are just so used to behemoths constantly attacking the slayer.

I was very excited anticipating the special effect of Mint's weapon when I read about it before the fight. I want to like it, but I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe I didn't get the hang of it, but all it does it's create a giant dark blue square, that stops the behemoth from going through it/move around if the 'shield' is placed in them, rather than in front. It's supposed to interrupt (which it didn't; hope it's a bug), and deal damage to behemoths that touch it (it only shows about 2-3 K damage in total). Overall, it feels unpolished and doesn't contribute to the fight, except to maybe block one behemoth in a duo fight and to interrupt if timed right. I would have enjoyed it more if maybe it was more see through, maybe had the same smoke effect as in the weapon cosmetics of current HP. Just another small note, the icon for it shows exactly like the one for Agarus special ability. I'm assuming this will be changed with the official launch..

With that said the new cosmetic of Mint, both his own and the one from lantern, are looking really neat and polished.

Also, it's interesting how on the amp tree there are 3 spaces occupied with Insulated Gear I/II/III, each with only 1 level max of upgrade each. I can see how it can be helpful at the begging to tackle the frostbite. But I don't really see why not take 1 space with 3 upgrades,and perhaps use the remaining 2 slots for more amps.

Originally posted by Freezer_Burn99

Sorry I do not. It might have been a one-off sort of thing. It might be from porting over some general code from the Embermane behemoth and one of the subroutines just ran very similarly to the original.

Originally posted by cristina1236

Hey. Thank you for taking the tine to look into this.

It was between round 3 and 4. Just as you come from round 3, there is a small island cluster. 1 in the middle, 1 to the left and right of the middle one and 1 to the right of the right island. I fell on the left island and the other guy fell from the first aetherjet on the right as you go up. At the time I was using Torga + hellion axe if it helps. I hope it's less confusing than before.

Originally posted by Arusalah

The bug isn't fixed though 😅. The wound damage bug went forward through into the 1.5.2 patch and it's so unsettling seeing my weapons do the useless amounts of wound damage.