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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
BR "rework" (just getting rid of it actually)
ayunu
Member, Alpha Two
So, just gonna write some thoughts about the BR (I know, it's pretty much stepping on a dead horse at this point but whatever).
Only going to mention what imo the design problems are rather than the pletora of bugs / typos / dead queues etc...
Right now, if you encounter no bugs at all, you can still have a pretty shitty experience :
- drop next to someone, they get a red bonesmasher and you get a blue silencer. Yup, you're probably going to die unless they suck waaaaaaaaaay more than you do. back to queue
- meet someone playing with 5 archmage staves. They'll just spam active ability for free and use all their stamina to run / block. Interactive gameplay here.
- get a good drop, and fair early duel. lose it. Now you either spectate or are back into queue.
The point is, you spend so little time actually playing the game, because of the loot mechanic and it being 1 life only. Like, it's supposed to be giving combat data, but what data do you get out of someone getting killed by red bonesmasher when all they have is a bronze axe and a potion ?
My suggestions would have for goal to reduce the proportion of time spent waiting in queue / spectating, as well as solving the frustration out of getting only shit loot (mainly getting rid of tiers).
1. no more loot (chests, weapons lying around, etc...). Players choose a loadout in lobby, or are assigned one randomly if necessary, to avoid some weapons never being picked.
A loadout consists in 1 melee weapon, 1 range weapon, 1 magic weapon, a boot skill and a chest skill. Everything is red tier (ie everyone starts with 100 armour, weapons are all red tier).
You don't need to waste time running around hoping you won't get fucked by RNG, now you drop -> you fight.
The only loot possible is from dead players (they drop their full loadout).
Would also avoid players easily stacking 5 times the same weapon to abuse ability spam (can still be done, but harder).
2. make it possible to have same mode but with respawns like a traditional deathmatch. This would make a game with more action, no more need to either spectate or requeue as soon as you die, and more fighting -> more data. Like, right now BR feels pretty bad, because either you're good and you're going to spend 80% of your match looking for people, or you're bad and you'll spend 1 min actually playing and then you'll die, either going back to queue or staying to spectate until the end.
Like, honestly the mechanics aren't that bad, but you get so few time of actually playing the game. Only having blue armour feels so bad when you get jumped on by someone who got full red. Same for weapons. The only moment you actually feel like you're playing a fair game is when you're full red fighting full red opponents. It feels heavily underwhelming.
So yes, basically those suggestions make the BR not be a Battle Royale anymore, it turns into simple Deatchmatch, but I don't think there's anything the BR does that a simple deathmatch couldn't do as well if not better.
Only going to mention what imo the design problems are rather than the pletora of bugs / typos / dead queues etc...
Right now, if you encounter no bugs at all, you can still have a pretty shitty experience :
- drop next to someone, they get a red bonesmasher and you get a blue silencer. Yup, you're probably going to die unless they suck waaaaaaaaaay more than you do. back to queue
- meet someone playing with 5 archmage staves. They'll just spam active ability for free and use all their stamina to run / block. Interactive gameplay here.
- get a good drop, and fair early duel. lose it. Now you either spectate or are back into queue.
The point is, you spend so little time actually playing the game, because of the loot mechanic and it being 1 life only. Like, it's supposed to be giving combat data, but what data do you get out of someone getting killed by red bonesmasher when all they have is a bronze axe and a potion ?
My suggestions would have for goal to reduce the proportion of time spent waiting in queue / spectating, as well as solving the frustration out of getting only shit loot (mainly getting rid of tiers).
1. no more loot (chests, weapons lying around, etc...). Players choose a loadout in lobby, or are assigned one randomly if necessary, to avoid some weapons never being picked.
A loadout consists in 1 melee weapon, 1 range weapon, 1 magic weapon, a boot skill and a chest skill. Everything is red tier (ie everyone starts with 100 armour, weapons are all red tier).
You don't need to waste time running around hoping you won't get fucked by RNG, now you drop -> you fight.
The only loot possible is from dead players (they drop their full loadout).
Would also avoid players easily stacking 5 times the same weapon to abuse ability spam (can still be done, but harder).
2. make it possible to have same mode but with respawns like a traditional deathmatch. This would make a game with more action, no more need to either spectate or requeue as soon as you die, and more fighting -> more data. Like, right now BR feels pretty bad, because either you're good and you're going to spend 80% of your match looking for people, or you're bad and you'll spend 1 min actually playing and then you'll die, either going back to queue or staying to spectate until the end.
Like, honestly the mechanics aren't that bad, but you get so few time of actually playing the game. Only having blue armour feels so bad when you get jumped on by someone who got full red. Same for weapons. The only moment you actually feel like you're playing a fair game is when you're full red fighting full red opponents. It feels heavily underwhelming.
So yes, basically those suggestions make the BR not be a Battle Royale anymore, it turns into simple Deatchmatch, but I don't think there's anything the BR does that a simple deathmatch couldn't do as well if not better.
0
Comments
They don't mind being attacked as soon as they land because they usually win that fight. Everyone else has to land far away and that's a problem.
If you land far away it gives you time to find armor and weapons but if you get killed as soon as you leave town it feels like that game was a waste of time.
If you fight after leaving town and win then it's a fun game because at least you killed 1 person.
If you don't find anyone to fight then you run around looking for someone until you decide just to wait for the final circle. The final circle is fun unless corruption takes away 1/3 of your health while trying to get in.
So the way to fix this I think, is to have set spawn points that are far enough away from each other to allow players enough time to suit up, but not so far away from each other that they can't find someone to fight.
Respawning into the same game will also help. If you take a moment to think about it, how many times do you die in Overwatch? 4-5? 5-10 per game? But you don't notice it because you respawn into the same game. It all feels like one thing. One game. Instead of last man standing they could add a timer. There won't be any point to trying to milk the clock because corruption will still chase us all in and fighting won't be a problem because we just respawn.
Yes, this will not be a BR but who said it has to be? I think Steven made it a BR because that's what's hot right now but if people don't like it change it to something else. There's no law that says it has to be a BR.
Smaller map/shorter overall match time makes the game more palatable than the larger map.
The BR is fine for what it's intended to be, but...
Yeah, Castle Siege would be better sooner rather than later.