Contracts are Actively Making DB less fun to play

(hawkeyeguy99) #1

When SD reworked missions into contracts their reasoning given to us was to:
“Allow players to play the way the want to instead of limiting them to certain mercs or playstyles.”

This is simply not what happened and instead the exact opposite has become true for me. Contracts actively make DB less fun and more of a chore as each time I play I feel like I have to play med, or sniper to get my support XP otherwise I’ll NEVER get it done. In the past I could just throw one of the required mercs in my squad, I didn’t have to play them if I didn’t want to, I could play exactly how I wanted to, I just needed to have them in my squad. And who knows? Maybe I would try them out for a match.

But now it’s just about how fast can I grind this dumb XP out of the way so I can get my damn credits. It’s punishing me for wanting to play Fragger instead of Aura. This NEEDS changing asap to allow for players to truly play how they want and be rewarded for it because right now it’s more of a punishment system than reward.

(Teflon Love) #2

If you want to play combat oriented but still get support XP play fire support. Put down an ammo station at a good spot or constantly deliver direct hit ammo packs and you should be able to get the small or medium support contract in reasonable time. As for the large support contract, just reroll.

That’s similar to how I deal with combat XP (which is the hardest for me to get with my bad aim) and it works ok-ish. Apart of course from contracts generally being an awful idea that drives players away. But we already have whole complaint threads about that so I’m not going to re-elaborate.

(n-x) #3

If you had support xp missions you faced the same problems like now. So it is not true that you could just throw a medic in your squad

(Press E) #4

Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. Honestly I think the other ones were better since these still force you to play a certain way if you want to get them done in a reasonable amount of time. And if you’re still being constrained to a playstyle, you might as well do it in an interesting way, like “try out this merc” or whatever. These are just so boring

(hawkeyeguy99) #5

Except that back then you could complete the entire mission in one game of stopwatch if you played well enough. Now you need to play 3-5 stopwatch full games of really killing it to get these contracts done. That’s 3-5 games of playing a merc or playstyle I do not wish to be playing compared to 1. That’s the major flaw in the current system.

(Runeforce) #6

Would it be too radical an idea to suggest that you skip the mission?

#7

Eh, valid points. I don’t particularly care for these new missions. Then again, I have no particular reason to care until they give us more things to do with Credits. I have every Merc unlocked and every single important first gen card, plus about 95% of the 2nd gen cards. Sure, go for Cobalts and Golds and what have you, but that isn’t really much of a ‘drive’ for me to earn Credits. It’s all an afterthought; I just play the game.

(binderr) #8

The whole contract system is nothing but garbage, its driving away players and theirs no sence of reward . you’re forced to grind for longer for far less reward that took half the less time before.
They’ve literally taken same missions and up the requirement by 2-3 times. IT’S PATHETIC!

(bgyoshi) #9

People still on the mentality of “I gotta play for 30 minutes to get my missions done!” and complaining that they can’t, when SD literally said “The ‘play for 30 minutes and get my missions done’ mentality is killing this game and we’re trying to stomp it out.”

They don’t want you to do them fast. You personally might not have run through your missions and then promptly left, but most people did. So they got rid of missions and replaced them with something that rewards people for continued play.

Contracts aren’t there as a goal for you to finish in a single day. They’re there for you to complete through the week. If you play DB with the goal of completing your contracts, you’re the problem they’re trying to get rid of.

They want you to play the game, not play the missions and leave.

If contracts ACTIVELY make the game less fun for you, then stop playing. They don’t want players that are just trying to do contracts. They want people who like playing the game.

(Begin2018) #10

The main reason it’s garbage is we have only one token per day, while previously we had new missions every 2h30. Then it was possible to farm missions all day long, but not any more, it’s one contract and then done.

(Szakalot) #11

@bgyoshi Dude, apart from trolls and abusive people I’m pretty sure SD would want ANYONE who wants to play. Reasons to play are secondary.

(hawkeyeguy99) #12

By that logic they should simply remove contracts completely and quadruple the amount of credits earned by simply playing the game. Contracts are there to give completionists (like me) something to do in the game, something to work towards. If they’re trying to stamp out the people trying to earn something in game they might as well remove all skins, all credits, all trinkets, and make all the mercs free so people will “just play the game”.

(HadronZodiac) #13

The main thing is not playing “for the contracts”

i mean yeah pick mercs who complete them, but dont think of it as I NEED TO MAKE THIS EXP JESUS cuz no mierda it wont be fun…

Only thing i think they should change it not make it so exponential, like x2 just for an extra 100 credits? ;p

maybe if it was, 1 / 1.5 / 2.25 id be fine

OR

badge exp works on contracts

(Teflon Love) #14

Personally I found it helpful to stop thinking of contracts as a major source of income. If you need credits, play the game several rounds in a row. The in-game credits per hour are higher than the were when we had missions, and after one round of Stopwatch or a few round of Objective you get 30% more.

Yes, contracts are awful, yes, missions made it easy to get rich quick with little effort and commitment, but still, the current overall income is not as bad as people make it to be.

(hawkeyeguy99) #15

You’re right here, I do earn more credits typically now than I did then I guess it’s more just frustrating to me to consistently have incompleted tasks every time I log into DB. As I said earlier, I’m a completionist and I hate leaving certain things unfinished. Contracts annoy the heck out of me because even when I finish a batch, there’s a new batch there just waiting for me. I don’t get satisfaction out of finishing the batch anymore because there’s always more… It’s… exhausting. (I know, first world prolems). I guess I would just like a system that encourages longer play sessions, but has goals that can be completed in one play session as opposed to several simply for my completionist self.

(bgyoshi) #16

There’s a very large difference between working towards completing a goal, and playing for the sole reason of completing that goal. As a completionist myself, I know when someone is using their need to complete as an excuse to play a game they don’t enjoy.

If you’re playing this game for contracts, stop. Contracts aren’t there to be a reason to play, they’re there to reward the play you’re already doing.

Contracts wouldn’t be “actively making DB less fun” if they weren’t your sole purpose in playing. If you enjoyed playing DB, then you’d be having fun playing it. But the joy you get from the game comes directly from your completion of the contract, obviously, because your inability to quickly complete contracts is ruining your enjoyment of the game. This is why contracts are infinite. This is why they take forever to complete. This is why you don’t get to re-roll them often. It makes people who don’t like the game, and only like the contracts, unable to get what they want. It forces you to play for the sheer enjoyment of the game, because you will never be able to finish your contracts and call it a day, dust off your hands, go to bed, and wake up to complete the next set.

That’s the sign my man. It’s time to give it up. Ignore the contracts and play the game for fun, or just stop playing.

(PorkyPerson) #17

Yep, I feel the same way. These new missions with huge amounts of specific XP are awful.

What they could have done to make people play longer is start a mission when you start a play session and have the rewards grow. Give people a small reward after an average of half an hour of XP, but if they continue playing they get more. If you take too long a break your rewards reset. If you complete too many missions in a few days or a week or whatever, rewards drop.

I’ve chosen to pretty much ignore missions, because they are awful now.

(henki000) #18

I think contracts are better now, was sceptical when they were introduced. Before you could complete them in one SW round, quit and repeat after “cooldown”. It didn’t push me to play longer period of time in one session.