DB´s replayability and it´s impact on the playerbase

(Glottis-3D) #21

if you have your playstyle, that means that you are good at it (you do something, that others do not do)
i meant not be good at everything, but find those things, that you like AND you make them better than other ppl.

(Beermachine) #22

Interesting read and while there are many points I agree with I’m going to concentrate on the ones I don’t.

Disagree strongly on class balance being low-mid priority, a good balance is essential even in pubs. A team with no medics and good aim will often be beaten by a team with a few and average aim. Same for engineers, fragger / naders etc.

If you make the game more tactical then it’s going to become like nearly every shooter in the past 10 years, where positioning > all other skills, aka camper fests. Currently, a poor mover / aimer will not beat a good one even with first strike and “shudders” aim punch, but at the higher levels of play positioning is still the deciding factor, where milliseconds make all the difference. Personally I would call these games casual, with mechanisms designed for low skill players to have a change against high skill, which is the exact opposite of what every competitive sport on this planet aims for.

W:ET Pro mod had very limited class selection, weapon choice, tactics, options etc by todays standards, but kept people’s attention for WAY longer than anyone would have guessed. While more maps etc would be great, for me, and I suspect many old school shooter fans, the longevity came not from more bling, more gold star achievements, more unlocks and other ultimately meaningless fluff, but from having a incredibly high skill ceiling.

Every game your improving, and being rewarded in game for that improvement. FPS’s that have mechanisms for incredibly high individual skill ceilings, with no / limited cheap newbie friendly weapon choices to “give them a chance” have been very thin on the ground for the last decade. Co-ordination and positioning have been the be all and end all skill set needed with average to good aim + movement, rather than an essential extra to individual skill for a great team.

Good matchmaking so people can develop and learn with and against people at a similar skill level is the key to sustainability, not changing the core gameplay with moba style hardcounters, ever changing gameplay / meta so players keep having their skill levels reset having to re-learn everything, or more tactical (lower TTK’s, positioning > all etc) gameplay like every other FPS, which would most likely cause failure as then DB isn’t a niche game but competing with the likes of CS etc.

More bling might bring people in, but it won’t make them stay as SD doesn’t have the same draw or “street cred” as a Valve, Blizzard etc.

(manowar75) #23

Map tools so players can make maps. Like in the old Days and this game Life will be mutch mutch longer. Allways some frech maps to play on…The good maps will stay and the bad ones will disepere by it self. And in the end this game whill have hundreds of maps and live for years to come just like Et Cod 1 and 2 quake 2 and 3. mm if you log in on this games you whill still find servers and plyers to play whit after all this years. Whay? Becuse the gamers hold them alive. whit new content.

(onYn) #24

Well, thanks for giving it a proper read :).

I agree that low-mid priority for the right class was probably kind of unfair. It is however quiet linear, and compared to how it could be not as impactfull since things like picking up others as well as doing objective is possible for EVERYONE. Improving the class system how we knew it in ET:QW for example with the diversity that merc abilities and augments offer, could have offered a much more interesting process of building a lineup of mercs. That´s why I initially rated it lower, since I feel that a lot of potential is being missed there, but I guess you could rate it higher.

With making the game more tactical I meant including gameplay elements and maps with a design that we know works in a setting like DB and can give it the tactical depth it is missing right now. Unfortunately I don´t believe that identifying the strengths of the tactical aspect of past SD games and implementing, improving or at least replacing them appropriately is what SD is going to do with DB.

(Beermachine) #25

In the context of a direct comparison with previous SD games, then I’m wrong and your bang on the money. Class selection, especially engineers not being unique and having to be guarded like the precious is a much lower priority. My points were more aimed at comparisons with the general state of the current FPS market.

Apologies for jumping the gun on the word tactical, even with your original post being quite clear on it’s meaning, it’s just a red flag to this old bull :wink:

Agree completely that more tactical decisions would be most welcome. Tactical decisions like the covert op doors, more meaningful secondary objectives, whether to quick gib or strogg host (loved that), the myriad of quick tactical decisions needed with FF + collision on etc would add much to the depth of the gameplay beyond the shooting side.

(onYn) #26

The only good thing, and truly my last hope, is the fact that we may, sometimes, eventually get better maps or even a way to make custom ones… I think with proper maps alone you are not going to unleash all the “potential” but at least give the game a soul…