From : awuffleablehedgie
Sent: 4/19/2010 10:07:18 PM
Yeah I've been looking into this as well. I found out about the form switching being unsilenceable and I've been able to reproduce it like you said. I'm okay with those being unsilenceable although I didn't actually know that was the case. Now I know not to Silence an Open queen 
One of the things that scream to me this is unintentional is that you can use Symbol of Purity while Misted as Erebus. Sure, there is no reason to, but you still can. Luckily, you still lose mana like normal and you aren't able to use Batswarm or any abilities or consumables so it isn't a big issue.
I'm fine with opening this up to discussion once the tournament is complete. The issue is I play a very very aggressive Silence Sedna and this favor item alone would completely destroy my build and playstyle if it was known to the public at large; eg, they could keep it hidden until I do my normal Silence bullshit, they break Silence, get a kill, win the tourney .-.
So that leaves out pacov and just about everyone else ^^; once the tournament is over then I don't see a reason for not bringing it up for discussion or whatever even though I won't be happy about it being used against me in pug games, though I consider that unlikely.
Never-FukWit-anOak is the person who suggested it originally and he is the only one besides you and me that knows. And he agrees that it shouldn't happen.
Regarding "In contrast, IIRC silence was actually supposed to be an antimagic effect. If this is the case, then it does make sense to prevent Symbol of Purity use while under silence." Again, see my comment I made before about how this favor item was used as a stain-lock counter.
The gametext for Silence says enemies in the area around Sedna are unable to cast (the antimagic field). I would consider "casting" any activated ability or item. I also feel this was one of the gametexts that has a lot of lore or "fluff text" along the lines of Armor of Vengence. The gametext for Deathbringer says: "Silence target, preventing any abilities for 5 seconds".
Again, I'm not against the idea that Silence should be dispelled. If another character comes in and cleanses a Silenced Demigod they should be unsilenced. I mean, heal III doesn't cure Stuns even though they are "debuffs"... at least I'm pretty sure. You could verify that by using a 10 second stun on a demigod (Universal Gadget effect) and then try healing them with Heal III or using Shield. But the point of Silence is that they are "shut down" completely.
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From : Ptarth
Sent: 4/19/2010 9:30:40 PM
Hmm... I need to think about this one.
As you say, the Symbol of Purity says that it cannot be used while Stunned or Frozen, however it does not include Silence. This suggests that it should be legal.
In contrast, IIRC silence was actually supposed to be an antimagic effect. If this is the case, then it does make sense to prevent Symbol of Purity use while under silence.
To add to the list of NotSilencible = true:
- All form terminations (Angelic Fury off, Vampiric Mist off, Ooze off)
- Form switches (Torchbearer and Queen of Thorns)
To add it to the UberFix I would have to add it to the Buglist and BugFix Lists, so the ploy would become open knowledge. It would also still be viable in Demigods 1.20 (the current version).
Again, I'm not sure on this one. Who else knows about it so I could get some second opinions and without opening it up more?
Thanks for giving me the heads up. I really do appreciate all the help you've provided with finding and duplicating bugs.
Ciao,
Pt
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From : awuffleablehedgie
Sent: 4/19/2010 7:59:13 PM
Keeping this out of the general Uberfix thread for a reason
Mostly because this is an exploitable issue.
So, I've been experimenting with the Symbol of Purity favor item recently (in competitive games). It's pretty nice to use to cure Spit and all the other debuffs that you can be hit with, so it's actually a rather nice and frequenly overlooked favor item. I think that most people don't realize that it gives a +250 hp bonus on top of it's short 30 second cooldown (25 on Cataract).
Anyway, so a friend of mine asked "can you use Purity to remove Silence?" I was like "I don't think so, you shouldn't because Silence stops other favor items, like Cloak of Night and Symbol of Purity says specifically that it cannot be used while Stunned or Frozen so why should you be able to use it while Silenced?. Well, me and my friend lab it and lo-and-behold, you can use it while Silenced!
I took a look at the code in Achievement_Items.lua and I see this under it's blueprint:
NotSilenceable = true,
This is the only Consumable and AchievementItem that has this attribute.
Back in the original beta of Demigod, there was no such thing as Stun immunity, so stuns were rampant and chain stunning was how you won. Symbol of Purity used to be able to cancel stuns, and then when GPG added Stun Immunity to all stuns (except for Grasp), Symbol of Purity become overwhelmingly powerful. So, they removed the ability of Purity to be used like that.
I think that this is an oversight that the developer's had and the NotSilenceable attribute should be removed. This is the only item in the game that has this attribute (that I could find).
I /do/ agree with Silence being the only "stun" that can be removed from Heal III, Shield at any level, and now Occulus' Brain Storm because Silence is only a debuff. That isn't what I'm complaining about: that works as intended and should remain as it is now. The thing you have to be careful with while using Silence is you have to remember to make sure you Silence Oak/Sedna/Occ so that they can't de-Silence their allies.
But, you should never be able to de-Silence yourself with an item. The whole point of Silence is that you cannot use items or abilities.
Silence is one of the best counters to a Shield III Oak at your portal, and Silence also has a whole bunch of other utilities (Silence to cover a teleport away or a lock. Erebus can do this with Mass Charm, Rook with Boulder Roll and TB can do this with Frost Nova, it's not a special ability only Sedna has). Now, an Oak with Purity can get Silenced, pop Purity, then shield port away anyway, or interrupt Sedna as she is locking. Like I said, it's one thing if a seperate demigod comes up and removes the debuff and then they can use their abilities. They shouldn't be able to use an item on themselves to do so.