Bugs and Balance Housekeeping Update - 22/07/2015 v47800

(spookify) #21

No new merc on this patch but much needed stuff!

(maxxxxlol) #22

Did anyone even test out what you did to the knife swing before putting it into the patch? Disgusting.

(qlum) #23

I know I know the Phantom needed a nerf but rather then push him towards his main focus (being a melee who punishes lazy campers) the nerf did the exect opposite.

His melee turn speed is nerfed big time (with the katana) This makes it impossible or at least a lot harder to crash a camping spot as you may be able to aim at 1 or two but the whole bunch is impossible.

The running speed with the katana is nerfed in such a way that its no longer feasable to chase a skyhammer or similar class once you initiate combat making it very hard to mellee kill a skyhammer with half a brain.

On the ranged side the nerfs are much milder: a bit less health a bit of a nerfed smg and a bit longer armor cooldown.

Personally I find this a pretty sad balance of nerfs that really destroys the role of the phantom as a whole.

I know people hated the melee deaths but personally I think it was a nice shakeup for teams I for one think he should have had armor ignoring damage which would have resulted in more damage to heavier classes but removed the ability to instagib medics. As a fan of games like chivalry I am sad to see this nice shakeup to digging in go away. Yet still allow him to be a boring old ranged class.

So basically he is still viable as long as you don’t rely on melee.

Please note that this is my initial impression and like with each balance patch it takes time to get a final verdict

(dommafia) #24

Agreed, this feels horrible and it feels like you are having control taken away from you. It’s really taking away from the fluidity of the game’s movement/control.

(Phantomchan) #25

“XP Mission values updated so Game Mode and Support are now quicker to complete”
God yes!

Not sure whether I should agree with all the Phantom nerfs though, sure he was quite strong and I agree that tweaking was needed. I just hope that all these tweaks don’t make him totally unviable.

(ragnak) #26

Some nice changes, even some audio love (not even close to enough but its a start) but kek/crotzni nerf bothers me a lot. I dont mind the nerfs, as i rather nerf things than buff them but accuracy nerf is NEVER a good idea, at least its not minimum spread i guess.

(PixelTwitch) #27

This has got to be the worst patch I think I have ever seen in this game…

I really don’t know what more to say…

(Phantomchan) #28

So I have been playing for a bit and I think that the melee turnspeed stuff is really dull, it kills the aspect of melee to be honest. I have found that just spraying with my MG in CQC is more viable than attempting to smack someone with a bat.

Also, missions are broken for me and it’s very hard to join a server (takes very long time before I get a response back like ‘Server full’ or when it switches to the level load screen).

EDIT : Also when I try to refresh the server list, it often returns nothing. I haven’t had any problems with this game pre-patch.

(Tanzverbot) #29

[QUOTE=Phantomchan;535047]

Also, missions are broken for me and it’s very hard to join a server (takes very long time before I get a response back like ‘Server full’ or when it switches to the level load screen).

EDIT : Also when I try to refresh the server list, it often returns nothing. I haven’t had any problems with this game pre-patch.[/QUOTE]

Same here. Also takes ages to sign in.

edit: Actually, i cannot sign in at all anymore now.

(fzl) #30

levels are resetted for all players???

is that a joke?

(Kl3ppy) #31

[QUOTE=fzl;535051]levels are resetted for all players???

is that a joke?[/QUOTE]

I dont care about my rank as long as I keep my loadout cards + unlocked mercs

(kenpokiller) #32

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;534811]Have to say the changes to both Sparks and Phantom are exactly what I was afraid of…

Direct nerf to a couple of Mercs that where already at the edge of viability in high end play…
These should have been small functionality changes and not simply “make them weaker” fixes…

Really feels like there are 2 results we always seem to get with Dirty Bombs balance…
Broken or Boring… So close to recommending we let people just go 2 fragger, 2 sawbones and 1 engie/fo/sniper at this point…[/QUOTE]

I ****ing hate nerfwhiners

(poiuasd) #33

Could we get a detailed list of these new config clamps?

(Matuka) #34

Yeah I ****ing hate it when people know what they’re talking about… Grrrr

(alphabeta) #35

Not perfect but my impression is that this patch improves 75% of what people have been posting and complaining about most frequently. Not happy with accuracy nerfs. You should be rewarded for good aim. REALLY REALLY need to work on the anti-hax though. When players are advertising DURING YOUR GAME where to get cheats, then things are BAD!

Overall, good job SD. But not great. :slight_smile:

(PixelTwitch) #36

There is a massive difference between nerf whining and voicing concerns over certain mechanics.

First of all, these changes have very little impact on me as I rarely play Sparks or Phantom.
Second, people will continue to whine about Phantom and Sparks even after these nerfs.

Sure there was some small balance concerns with both these Mercs but not to the level they were nerfed. The problem here is more mechanic based, not balance. Even with the changes, people are still going to be killed by a nearly invisible Phantom that they have no time to react to, they will still drop to a fully charged revive gun across map and they will still feel that these Mercs are far to strong. By doing the changes that this patch introduced, you are only changing the balance of the Merc and not the perception of power.

Even with the changes you still have a 200hp Merc able to one shot you while invisible.

People complained about Phantom in a number of ways but rarely did they voice the core concern.
They would say “He has the best SMG, 200hp, Invisibility, Shield, Best Melee Weapon and much more.”
There real issue was “This ****er keeps one shot killing me and there is nothing I can do to stop it”

The biggest frustration causing thing in a First Person Shooter is the lack of perceived counter and no amount of numerical value nerfing is going to change that until you remove all viability. Quite often people will stop using X player, weapon or strat before people stop complaining about it. I think a good example of this right now is the shotguns in Dirty Bomb. They were slowly nerfed until people mostly stopped complaining about them. The discussion about the shotguns only really started to subside once a lot of people stopped using them. However, when a good player today starts going crazy with a shotgun all the complaints start arising again. If Splash Damage was to remove the gib from the snipers tomorrow the complaints from the public are going to continue (because no one revives anyway) and the usage in competitive will be dropped.

Basically… There are dozens of things that SD could have done to “fix” Phantom and Sparks…

Phantom

[ul]
[li]Cloak and Shield become seperate abilities that cannot be used at the same time.
[/li][li]Phantom cloak visibility increases on crosshair overlap
[/li][li]Katana secondary strike requires charging to do max damage.
[/li][li]Sound emitted while invisible has been increased
[/li][li]Ping the player on taking damage
[/li][li]decrease the time between swipes with melee weapons
[/li][/ul]

Sparks

[ul]
[li]Revive gun now has falloff damage over range
[/li][li]Damage scales from 1 - 75 after minimum charge
[/li][li]High speed reduction when Reviver gun is equipped
[/li][/ul]

(Phantomchan) #37

And any other merc which will be deemed “OP” after nerfs for previous mercs etc… Now it’s Phantom and Sparks, next month it is Rhino or Bushwhacker or something. It’s a never ending cycle and it’s hard to find a proper balance in games. Especially when people just cry NERF because they don’t like a merc or get killed frequently by X merc.

(Glottis-3D) #38

Spread increase is a bad way of nerf =(
and why nerf Crotzni? the gun felt great.
=/

(Szakalot) #39

strong disagree; there is a simple counter to phantom (pre-patch) one-hit kill, and that is to GTFOut of the way! I only play fletcher, who is pretty weak in direct confrontations against phantom, since sticky splash damage gets eaten away, and otherwise weapons are below average.

What you gotta do is just move away, and dictate the engagement.

If you expect to gun every opponent down with just good aim, you are hopelessly not keeping up with the game ; )

You wouldn’t contest an equally skilled aura on her station without explosives either, would you? is that ‘uncounterable’?

Phantom was OP because of being above average in every single way, and without any weaknesses.

(spookify) #40

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;535041]This has got to be the worst patch I think I have ever seen in this game…

I really don’t know what more to say…[/QUOTE]

They hardly changed anything?