Remember when fog spells slowed enemies down?

[Rice]

Waves of exhaustion!

Way better than any ol' fog spell. And it's permanent.

[mediocresurgeon]

Anyone actually /dev/null'ed, ahem, I mean bug reported, this?

Yes. Almost a year ago.

But since since Acid Fog/Solid Fog work correctly against PLAYERS, the devs don't care that it doesn't work properly against MONSTERS.

Acid Fog & Solid Fog broke the same time they made changes to Cloudkill. Coincidence? I think not.

EDIT:
How the %&%& did I respond to a post made after the post I made? Even the forums are buggy. Can't even keep posting order straight!

[Arctigis]

Anyone actually /dev/null'ed, ahem, I mean bug reported, this?

[Ghirmeshk]

Both solid fog and aicd fog slow monsters down a little, but the effect is barely noticble atm, <10%. Much less than what it used to be.

Stacking both fogs on each other seems to slow them down a whole lot though, maybe 40%.

tested--these numbers seem right

[Hirosue]

i bug reported it once a week for about 4 months. many casters did the same. Lots of posts about it on the forums alo. dev respons was not forthcoming.

i dont expect them ever to fix it. which is a shame

[MadFloyd]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

[Arctigis]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

I don't play anymore but the issue was that it went from being useful to virtually unnoticeable

[sephiroth1084]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

Before the spells got changed, it used to be possible to kite stuff through an Acid Fog at a walking pace, as monsters' speed was reduced by 50% or more. Weaker monsters would die just traversing the fog once or twice. Now, a monster takes 1, maybe 2, ticks of acid damage crossing the fog once.

The change was from about -50% movement speed to something like -5% or -10% movement speed. We were given no notification about this being an intended change, no confirmation as to whether this was intended or a bug, or what.

Please go back and do some more work on this one. Solid Fog used to be one of the top spells at level 4, but is now almost worthless, since the slow effect hardly slows stuff down enough for it to be worth using over kiting normally.

[Bogenbroom]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

That has been my impression, that there is *some* slowing, but the monster's speed is *significantly* increase than with the original effect. It also *seems* that players are impacted as per the original effect, but not monsters.

These are not hard numbers, but it seems monsters may be slowed 20% or so, where as players are slowed 50%.

I can't speak to melee speed, just movement speed.

[Lifespawn]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

If this is WAI it needs to work the same on us as it does to them in other words it needs to be useless.

[Dark_Helmet]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

Aaaaaaaaaand, that is the issue with QA just closing things out and no feedback to those reporting the issue: Instead of researching it and noticing it doesn't slow enough per the spell (or how it worked in the game before if they played it when it was working correctly), they just notice there is a slight change and call it a day.


Solid Fog:
This spell functions like fog cloud, but in addition to obscuring sight, the solid fog is so thick that any creature attempting to move through it progresses at a speed of 5 feet, regardless of its normal speed, and it takes a -2 penalty on all melee attack and melee damage rolls. The vapors prevent effective ranged weapon attacks (except for magic rays and the like). A creature or object that falls into solid fog is slowed, so that each 10 feet of vapor that it passes through reduces falling damage by 1d6. A creature can’t take a 5-foot step while in solid fog.


Acid Fog:
Acid fog creates a billowing mass of misty vapors similar to that produced by a solid fog spell. In addition to slowing creatures down and obscuring sight, this spell’s vapors are highly acidic. Each round on your turn, starting when you cast the spell, the fog deals 2d6 points of acid damage to each creature and object within it.

Even if you look at the Slow spell, it isn't as drastic as the above spells:
An affected creature moves and attacks at a drastically slowed rate. A slowed creature can take only a single move action or standard action each turn, but not both (nor may it take full-round actions). Additionally, it takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves. A slowed creature moves at half its normal speed (round down to the next 5-foot increment), which affects the creature’s jumping distance as normal for decreased speed.





That is from the D20 SRD - should I have to call that the 1-20 SRD?

[rest]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

You have got to be kidding me. I want to bake the QA folks a cake. I know they'll enjoy it because they sure aren't spending any time actually assuring quality and can instead enjoy delicious cake!

[Freeman]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

*Facepalm* Here's an idea: How about having people in QA run things by someone that actually plays the game before closing a bug report? For the entire time the game was in existence up until it went F2P, the fogs worked correctly, slowing down mobs and people down to about 1/4 speed or less, which is in line with its PnP equivalent. After the F2P module dropped, both Acid Fog and Solid Fog worked as they currently do, with almost no change in speed, making them useless(Well, at least Acid Fog still does damage. Solid Fog is useless though). Of course, if a mob casts the spell on a PC, we get the full movement speed penalty.

And people wonder why I say bug reports are useless. A completely one-directional flow of information results in outcomes like this, while a process that included any kind of feedback would have saved QA some embarrassment.

[DasLurch]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

I applaud the effort on your part, i just wish that the QA folks would have matched it. the spells are not working as they were before, and I'm not even certain that the concealment factor works on them either. I hope you can get them to check again, because I'm thinking they saw it was close to quitting time and called it a day once they saw you could cast them. The slow effect is really just sad if it is now WAI.

[RTN]

That has been my impression, that there is *some* slowing, but the monster's speed is *significantly* increase than with the original effect. It also *seems* that players are impacted as per the original effect, but not monsters.

These are not hard numbers, but it seems monsters may be slowed 20% or so, where as players are slowed 50%.

This. This is the problem.

[MrWizard]

slow spell still works.
I believe I have seen solid fog slow down enemies somewhat and stacking it with acid fog does, if i remember correctly, actually work to slow them further.

someone needs to test.

[Freeman]

slow spell still works.
I believe I have seen solid fog slow down enemies somewhat and stacking it with acid fog does, if i remember correctly, actually work to slow them further.

someone needs to test.

I did. Yes, the spells do slow enemies down slightly. I couldn't tell a difference when stacking them, but I didn't test that aspect much, since there's no real reason to carry both spells. I haven't bothered to carry Solid Fog in a long time, other than to run tests occasionally. However, as MadFloyd stated, the effect is very subtle. And when I'm using magic to manipulate the forces of nature in order to defeat my enemies, subtlety is NOT what I'm going for. The spells should slow things down to about the equivalent speed as the penalty you get in the first tier of Defender of Siberys, not to "If I pay attention really closely, I can kinda tell they aren't moving quite as fast".

[Scraap]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

Right. So not a bug, and hence not a QA matter going by literal interpretation (Assuming the ticket said 'doesn't slow em down' not 'doesn't slow them down enough' as the phrase has been used in shorthand here a few times). What's Eladrin's take on it as a utility issue then, since (iirc) he's lead there?

[Barumar]

I did. Yes, the spells do slow enemies down slightly. I couldn't tell a difference when stacking them, but I didn't test that aspect much, since there's no real reason to carry both spells. I haven't bothered to carry Solid Fog in a long time, other than to run tests occasionally. However, as MadFloyd stated, the effect is very subtle. And when I'm using magic to manipulate the forces of nature in order to defeat my enemies, subtlety is NOT what I'm going for. The spells should slow things down to about the equivalent speed as the penalty you get in the first tier of Defender of Siberys, not to "If I pay attention really closely, I can kinda tell they aren't moving quite as fast".

I think your DoS comparison is a good one - as that is how I remember Solid Fog USED TO WORK!

I really hope the QA team takes another look at this (and I will do my part and Bug Report it tonight!) and look at it from the perspective that the Spell got broke - and although it may actually cause mobs to be slowed down, it is so pathetic compared to how it used to be that it is unusable!

Ironicially, a spell that was worthless for years is now useful again = Cloudkill...

Barumar

[Riggs]

I got a bug report of this pushed through QA, but they have closed it, citing that they were able to slow monsters down using Solid Fog and Acid Fog.

I think the issue is that the effect is subtle.

There is no real way a QA methodology like this is ever going to inspire 1 shred of confidence that there is actually something useful going on there.

Please let us know if sometime in the future bug reports will being read by people that know what the game is actually supposed to be doing.

I think players are perfectly capable of writing something down and throwing it in the trash all by themselves without having to take up any time from possibly paid staffers having to go through the motions before throwing it all out just the same. It will make it easy to 'catch up' on the backlog of bug reports if no one files any more. Cheaper for everyone.