Online Conquest Mode Broken

[Mordranon]

I have debated about making this post for about two weeks...I have been playing the game and streaming my invasions and have encountered multiple very serious game breaking issues but I would like to focus on the most important one and some concluding thoughts. Thank you for your time and please consider what I am saying at least possible.

The Berserker class orc can gain a standing active regeneration that is not listed in his character sheet. This regeneration has to be upwards of 500 hps per second because the captain can shed repeated headshots and might attacks when directed at him while cursed and poisoned and will still heal himself faster than the character can do damage. When you have to confront one of these orcs in a match he is capable of killing every other captain in play including multiple dominated defenders at the same time. Upwards of 10 captains all fighting him on the last capture point for ten minutes and he repeatedly downs them all with ease. Fighting one of them is bad, fighting three of them is worse. Even if you survive, they will wipe out your entire assault team. I have seen them about four or five different times now either alone or in combinations but always they seem to be a Berserker. I have only been able to kill one. They have been repeatedly wiping out my invasion teams. This is all on top of the spider summoner whose spiders will instantly kill your entire team.
I have to say very clearly again that this captain has absolutely nothing listed that would indicate that this is an intended game mechanic and with almost 500 hours of play these enemies dont appear in any other game mode. He can heal himself so quickly that even if he has fear of pinning or fear of execution and you repeatedly daze him and hammer away like mad for 40 minutes while he is completely helpless he will still heal himself faster than Talion can do damage. Of course all beast attacks are useless and he will instantly one shot any beast that attacks him as with basically every captain in the game.

Also as your counter increases and your damage heightens this works counterintuitively against you as it puts the captain repeatedly into a soft daze or a stun (stars around his head), which then sends him to the ground, where he will then automatically shut down your follow up by grabbing your ankle either immediately or after the first hit...this completely shuts down talions ability to follow through after about 90 seconds because after he adapts to your ground attack, execution, elven light, and charged shot after about three uses each you have absolutely no way to consistently do damage to the opponent without the game actively hiding him from your ability to attack. Even if you back away and follow with continued arrow shots to the head while he is on the ground and close when he stands and continue to initiate attacks he will still regenerate his health. It is a countdown to death.

Of course this is in addition to all the other fun little tedious things that the game does like allowing the defending orcs to exceed level 60 or how they stand back and cheer after you take the last capture point and get hit by archer attacks until they bleed to death and make you restart the duel with the overpowered orc with super regeneration to come save them or lose a team member because the archers keep spawning forever and they are happy to just stand there eating them.

Im not saying that this is an intended game mechanic however it does act as a way to make sure your attacking orcs die and you dont successfully capture every fortress so that you have a continually dwindling resource pool and an incentive to spend session time in the market page. It is disconcerting and questionable for example that defending orcs are unaffected by online play even while attacking orcs are easily and questionably eliminated.

I didnt monetize the game but orcs and time are now literally money, our money, and that is a concept that appears to totally escape these companies as they pump out these games with broken online end game modes and totally pointless swiss cheese 3 hour dlcs with zero replay value while trying to justify asking you to pay and then pay again and again like they are some poor crusaders coding for charity by coal heat in the dark while children huddle together with their mothers and cry as a lone dog howls off into the distance of the cold dark night. Thank you so much for your time. Have a great day.

[Disco DJ]

Now this is speculation on my part, but there was an ability back in SoM that allowed orcs to regen their health over time, (Regeneration). It was a slow mechanic, but one that was clearly visible in their stat card.

In SoW, there are hidden stats, most of which are carried over from SoM, (A.E: Vault Breaker, Blood Thirsty, Regeneration, Deadly, Jump Attack, to name a few). These hidden stats can be game changers depending on the orc you are fighting. Most orcs have abilities that are related to their class: Tricksters will always have Vault Breaker, Berserkers will always have Blood Thirsty, Assassins (mostly) have Jump Attack.

I've run into a few orcs with regen, I've recruited a few orcs with regen, and those orcs are incredibly annoying to deal with. More-so if those orcs are over level 60, as it would appear that the regen is even higher as they approach the level cap. If that orc also has Thick Skin, the regen is even worse. If the orc has Blood Thirsty, taking them down is even more of a chore. If the orc is immune to the elements on top of all that... good luck. Most of the time I just end up waiting for one of my boys to do the dirty work for me.

Hidden stats are horrible. The fact that orcs can only have seven stats in any slot is a great way to hinder orcs from obtaining full immunity to damage; however, it doesn't stop them from having certain stats, and some that I believe should clearly be visible on their stat card.

All of the stats can be found in the wikia: http://shadowofwar.wikia.com/wiki/Nemesis_Traits

Anything not normally visible in SoW could be a potential hidden stat, most of those are in the miscellaneous strengths list for SoM, and I do not believe that those stats are minor in any way. Not enough to warrant them being hidden from sight, anyways.

[Mordranon]

Thanks thats actually all very useful information. I am assuming it is actually just the game working completely as intended then. I really have not noticed any orcs in the regular game or on my own teams who exhibit that ability at that scale or at all whatsoever yet myself but that doesnt mean anything and it doesnt mean I wont.
While that also does explain a lot of the other strange things I am noticing when I replay footage that is slowed down to 1/4th beyond a huge amount of it looking completely scripted it raises more questions than it answers specifically about the intent of these features since having a game make classification, identification, exploitation, and domination a fundamentally huge part of the game and then hiding massively game changing mechanics inside that system is completely self defeating and almost assures the player will have a negative game experience but who are we kidding the genesis of video games is in itself nothing more than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the player out of his money and time as quickly as possible like a cheap carnival game and these games conduct themselves like the entire point is to spread as much apathy into the community as possible.
Personally I think its all just a way to chew up your orcs and force you into the recycling mechanic of the game since the abilities will be hidden...cant be compared or analyzed because you cant even measure your own damage per second and the advantage can always be stacked heavily to the defenders orcs as I have seen hundreds of individual instances of changed mechanics on the defensive orcs but cant think of a single instance of seeing anything more unusual than a team kill from my own orcs. I also think its interesting that I have seen defensive ratings above 1000 on fortresses and assault teams cap at 1000 so the incentive is always to protect the defensive assets at the expense of the offense because the defensive assets are insured and the offensive assets are not and this creates a very heavy handed casino style advantage especially with no control established and the games content compilers openly saying that there are hidden mechanics in play. I would make a comparison to some kind of common sense analogy or a parable or whatever but its probably beyond a waste of time.

[titanopteryx]

Of course if we could keep orcs we catch in online seiges that would be helpful. At least regarding replentishing lost orcs. I'm sorry if I said false information regarding the regen being cheating.

[Mordranon]

It is absolutely not a problem. I really sincerely apologize for using harsh language and being a little over abrasive this seems to be the nature of gaming at the moment and the result of a number of decisions that dont belong to me. I am really more interested in the balance of the game and I cant escape the feeling that there are elements shifting underneath the gameplay that are really shady. I am very thankful that anyone responded at all. I will say though that the skepticism I am feeling shouldnt be there in the first place as the game should protect the players time and possibly investments more effectively than it does especially if it wants to double and triple dip by placing the offense and defense at the same category of risk instead of using the game mode as a way to punish the active player intended or otherwise. Well...especially if intended thats diabolical.

[titanopteryx]

Originally posted by Caligulas:

It is absolutely not a problem. I really sincerely apologize for using harsh language and being a little over abrasive this seems to be the nature of gaming at the moment and the result of a number of decisions that dont belong to me. I am really more interested in the balance of the game and I cant escape the feeling that there are elements shifting underneath the gameplay that are really shady. I am very thankful that anyone responded at all. I will say though that the skepticism I am feeling shouldnt be there in the first place as the game should protect the players time and possibly investments more effectively than it does especially if it wants to double and triple dip by placing the offense and defense at the same category of risk instead of using the game mode as a way to punish the active player intended or otherwise. Well...especially if intended thats diabolical.

I understand the harsh language. You said you were trying to stream the conquest and it sounds like a poor game design super regen orc ruined it. I'd be harsh too.

[Mordranon]

...and thank you.

[Mordranon]

lol...It really just makes me wonder...I dont know I just imagine this alternate future and I am standing in line at McDonalds which is probably a mistake to begin with but anyways I remind myself how much things have changed since the good old days as I glance up at the menu. What the ♥♥♥♥ is a McLootbox?..... a flurry of disconnected images of food and prizes shift around the menu like a game show board. I order the McGold box and sit down as far away from the booth with the pool of vomit or diarrhea I cant ever tell which, as possible. I open the McGold box and it contains.

- McDouble that has been stepped on.
- McNugget box filled with french fry tips.
- Inside out baby sock that smells like urine.
- Diet Mountain Dew
- Ticket for another free McLootbox.

It takes five minutes to put it in the trash can.

[titanopteryx]

Originally posted by Caligulas:

lol...It really just makes me wonder...I dont know I just imagine this alternate future and I am standing in line at McDonalds which is probably a mistake to begin with but anyways I remind myself how much things have changed since the good old days as I glance up at the menu. What the ♥♥♥♥ is a McLootbox?..... a flurry of disconnected images of food and prizes shift around the menu like a game show board. I order the McGold box and sit down as far away from the booth with the pool of vomit or diarrhea I cant ever tell which, as possible. I open the McGold box and it contains.

- McDouble that has been stepped on.
- McNugget box filled with french fry tips.
- Inside out baby sock that smells like urine.
- Diet Mountain Dew
- Ticket for another free McLootbox.

It takes five minutes to put it in the trash can.

Gross.

[Brechnor]

What the heck was that last post lol!

[Craig [K.A.O.S.]]

Originally posted by Caligulas:

I find it really hard to believe that I am the only person who has encountered this playing the online conquest mode. I am assuming it is a bug or a cheat because the regeneration is just absolutely of the scale. The enemy captains health is regenerating so quickly that I am actively shooting him in the head in slow motion and you can still see his health regenerating in between hits as enemy arrows float past him in the background.

I've absolutely encountered the auto-regen effect you describe. At first I was questioning and disgusted by it, but then I decided to try and get some for my assault team (if you can't beat 'em join 'em).

This may be a bug, but is not a cheat. It's a hidden trait that shows up rarely in any class of orc, whether they have weaknesses or not (though mainly berserkers). The only way I've found to get these followers is by filtering hundreds of orcs through online pit fighting and seeing if they auto-regen. So I found a few and put them on my assault team. They never bleed, they fight each other all the time and never lose health, and in a group can kill an enemy auto-regen that Talion can't kill.

As for the last capture point, never capture it unless all enemy captains are at least broken.

[Mordranon]

Yeah I realized eventually that taking the last capture point can be a very bad idea...however..the game will put you in a very bad spot...one orc like that with regeneration is so overpowered that he can kill every other orc in the game at the same time I am assuming unless he has regeneration. In order to keep my team alive I have been forced to capture the last point and then split them up and confront them.
Everything you just described sounds like things nobody should ever be asked to tolerate. I understand that it offers the player an opportunity of an advantage but if I have to cycle hundreds of orcs through the online fight pit only to have them be instantly killed by any number of the games devious event scripts that completely supercede his regeneration or instantly killed by a spider attack I dont understand why I would even bother. Talk about an empty victory.
In addition to that it doesnt change the fact that the regeneration is so overpowered it is basically breaking the game. Shifting gear and abilities around to exploit counters is a possible solution to this problem along with using your own captains to help confront him. However when there are two or three of them at a time that simply is not going to happen since you can barely get a hit in between all your own captains and grunts and good luck having any kind of precision in that situation. What you are saying only works on paper. In reality your whole team is wiped out and you are putting an entire new team together.
I also have to suggest that if one of these orcs has execution immune and ranged immune with elemental resistances and savage counter he is essentially invincible. I simply just see these mechanics as a way to ensure the player cant comfortably control his own game experience or accurately assume the outcome of any given confrontation and I dont feel I thats even a questionable statement in any way. It is a waste of your time and your time is your life so...yeah...I am calling ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ on this kind of behavior. Put it in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game index you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[Mordranon]

Or better yet you know...adjust it so he cant regenerate six shadow strikes and two executes and three headshots in three seconds.

[Mordranon]

I am not suggesting that these mechanics were designed to have a negative effect on the game because I cannot prove that although I highly suspect it. However..I am claiming that they are having a negative effect on the game and player efficiency and they need to be given some serious thought because they literally make no sense, destroy player agency, and if I am thinking this through correctly...would give a player with less patience the impression that he has been cheated or even cause him or her to make assumptions in the general based on the specific that are completely false.

[Mordranon]

Punch Count-
Talion:1500 Haku:5

Winner by TKO....Haku...what an impressive performance by the new champion...I have never seen such an exciting and explosive performance. What a fight...can you believe what we just saw...Haku is such an amazing technical fighter...he has a big future ahead of him everybody...martial arts has changed forever...what an amazing moment...just incredible...I have never seen anybody take so many open punches to the face and just miss every single punch for so many rounds...

[Mordranon]

>y<
x b
a

I learned it by watching you.