Developer Q&A - December, 2015

(Faraleth) #1

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the slight delay on these ones again, things appear pretty busy over at Splash Damage HQ right now :wink: But alas, here are some more dev questions and answers for December! All the questions below were submitted by the community:

Can we ever get a “mute” button that mutes text chat as well?
If you mute a player in-game using the TAB menu this will also mute their text chat too. We don’t currently have a “Mute All” function, but it is something to look into.

Will Execution ever be a comp game-mode?
It would be great to see Execution as a stand-alone competitive game-mode and it is a possibility for the future, but we don’t want to split our matchmaking player base to that extent just yet.

Will you ever make it so that when someone is repairing/defusing/planting, unless the person is an engineer, they simply do not do the animation?
The repair animation currently already stops playing if someone ‘better’ is doing the objective. We recently updated this so that the Merc who is more proficient in repairing will automatically V-say they are repairing as an extra hint to the other player that their presence is not required. We feel that this, along with the animation not displaying is enough to let players know they’re not assisting the repair/defuse. We will revisit this though if it continues to be an issue.

Any ETA for public party match-making?
We cannot specify when as the date is currently unknown, but this is something we want to focus on and get in the game.

Could we ever see mission progress WHILE in a match (not just after, or in lobbies)?
This isn’t planned but is a good idea.

I have some useless CW cards that I’m likely never going to be able to trade with people, because they are just bad loadouts. Will these always be useless to me?
We have some ideas about what we could do in the future with cards like these, but as nothing is concrete yet we have no further information at this time.

Is Dome likely to get further improvements (such as changing the actual delivery point on the first objective)?
While we’re always open to making changes, at the moment we focussing on creating new maps for you, and plan revisiting existing maps in the future.

Is there any chance we will see some loadout changes in the future? (Such as loadouts actually receiving augment changes in order to balance them so there isn’t one “best” loadout for each merc)
Just as we do with Weapons, we’re currently working on making the weaker Augments more desirable so Loadout Cards become more balanced. The ideal end-goal is that all Loadout Cards are equally viable, it just comes down to personal preferences and play style.

If you guys have any questions, keep an eye out on the forums/subreddit as I will no doubt post another question request thread for another Q&A in the future!

  • Faraleth
(watsyurdeal) #2

Personally I don’t see why the can’t just swap augments in the cards. I don’t get why this would be difficult to pull off.

(Jostabeere) #3

So nothing really interesting tbh. Maybe SD just avoiding the important questions since I don’t really believe THAT’S all the community is interested in.
And sadly no informations about actual important things.
But thanks for the effort, @Faraleth Senpai.

(Naralin) #4

[quote=“Jostabeere;121981”]So nothing really interesting tbh. Maybe SD just avoiding the important questions since I don’t really believe THAT’S all the community is interested in.
And sadly no informations about actual important things.
But thanks for the effort, @Faraleth Senpai.[/quote]

+1000 on this.
SD just keep avoiding topics that are endlessly opened over and over again.
I came across their streaming yesterday and heard “We are listening to you”.
I guess not. We wanted some core tweakings, yet we are going to have new maps.

(MarsRover) #5

[quote=“Faraleth;21289”]Is there any chance we will see some loadout changes in the future? (Such as loadouts actually receiving augment changes in order to balance them so there isn’t one “best” loadout for each merc)
Just as we do with Weapons, we’re currently working on making the weaker Augments more desirable so Loadout Cards become more balanced. The ideal end-goal is that all Loadout Cards are equally viable, it just comes down to personal preferences and play style.[/quote]
Yeah, good luck balancing Sparks 373/181 to be as desirable as 383. Or Sawbonez SM81 as good as SM72. Or… OK, this could continue for a while.

Thunder/Stoker/Phoenix have a good mix of cards, but earlier mercs are impossible to balance without swapping augments.

Well, theoretically you could buff Chopper on Sparks 373 to like +100% to be as desirable as Get Up on 383, but that also buffs Chopper everywhere else. So now you need to drop shared augments and change them on a merc-by-merc basis. I don’t even know what would need to be done to make augments in 181 comparable to 383…

So maybe just do the easier and logical thing and rearrange loadouts so they are actually balanced. Cards like Sparks 383 just should exist. (I’m sorry all Sparks mains! Faraleth pls don’t ban me! :cookie: )

(Drcipres) #6

Maybe they dont won’t things like Drilled + Explodydendron + Unshakeable. Even if perks doesn´t matter too much, this will make unbalanced cards, making 1 the best over the rest, and that is not what they want

(watsyurdeal) #7

Maybe they dont won’t things like Drilled + Explodydendron + Unshakeable. Even if perks doesn´t matter too much, this will make unbalanced cards, making 1 the best over the rest, and that is not what they want[/quote]

I get that, I mean making certain cards that are already useless, swapping out augments so they become useful.

For example the knife cards for Phantom, throw Mechanic on one of those cards so we have a ninja defuse/repair/plant loadout. Or adding the augment that allows you to move faster while scoped to a grandeur card for Red Eye.

(Backuplight) #8

[quote=“Faraleth;21289”]Will you ever make it so that when someone is repairing/defusing/planting, unless the person is an engineer, they simply do not do the animation?
The repair animation currently already stops playing if someone ‘better’ is doing the objective. We recently updated this so that the Merc who is more proficient in repairing will automatically V-say they are repairing as an extra hint to the other player that their presence is not required. We feel that this, along with the animation not displaying is enough to let players know they’re not assisting the repair/defuse. We will revisit this though if it continues to be an issue.
[/quote]
Devs clearly don’t play enough pubs!

(Amerika) #9

I’m not sure why they just don’t allow it and put a big message saying, “somebody else is repairing” and not include any type of repair bar on your crosshair. That would fix the situation and be in line with any other game with similar mechanics that I’ve played.

(god1) #10

Well the “muteall” command is fully functional so whoever answered that is out of touch.

(DMaster2) #11

The sound is not going to work, most people won’t even notice it. Writing “somebody else is already repairing, do something else” would accomplish much more.

(titaniumCrouton) #12

Still waiting for them to fix Thunder. . . . . . .

(Faraleth) #13

@titaniumCrouton There are some fixes/tweaks in the next update :slight_smile:

(titaniumCrouton) #14

@titaniumCrouton There are some fixes/tweaks in the next update :)[/quote]

Yeah, still waiting on that. I would be patient but something about the whole “Break it in a hotfix” then let it rot like a carcass in the sun thing kinda gets under my skin.

(Drcipres) #15

Maybe they dont won’t things like Drilled + Explodydendron + Unshakeable. Even if perks doesn´t matter too much, this will make unbalanced cards, making 1 the best over the rest, and that is not what they want[/quote]

I get that, I mean making certain cards that are already useless, swapping out augments so they become useful.

For example the knife cards for Phantom, throw Mechanic on one of those cards so we have a ninja defuse/repair/plant loadout. Or adding the augment that allows you to move faster while scoped to a grandeur card for Red Eye.
[/quote]

Maybe being allowed to swap only 1 could make some shitty cards into good cards, and will make some variarity

(watsyurdeal) #16

Maybe they dont won’t things like Drilled + Explodydendron + Unshakeable. Even if perks doesn´t matter too much, this will make unbalanced cards, making 1 the best over the rest, and that is not what they want[/quote]

I get that, I mean making certain cards that are already useless, swapping out augments so they become useful.

For example the knife cards for Phantom, throw Mechanic on one of those cards so we have a ninja defuse/repair/plant loadout. Or adding the augment that allows you to move faster while scoped to a grandeur card for Red Eye.
[/quote]

Maybe being allowed to swap only 1 could make some shitty cards into good cards, and will make some variarity[/quote]

Just for clarity, I’m not asking that we be able to customize augments. I’m basically asking the devs to rework the loadout cards by changing augments around.

(Drcipres) #17

Maybe they dont won’t things like Drilled + Explodydendron + Unshakeable. Even if perks doesn´t matter too much, this will make unbalanced cards, making 1 the best over the rest, and that is not what they want[/quote]

I get that, I mean making certain cards that are already useless, swapping out augments so they become useful.

For example the knife cards for Phantom, throw Mechanic on one of those cards so we have a ninja defuse/repair/plant loadout. Or adding the augment that allows you to move faster while scoped to a grandeur card for Red Eye.
[/quote]

Maybe being allowed to swap only 1 could make some shitty cards into good cards, and will make some variarity[/quote]

Just for clarity, I’m not asking that we be able to customize augments. I’m basically asking the devs to rework the loadout cards by changing augments around.[/quote]

They are doing it already by changing some of the augments, springy is now no longer useless, but things like enigma, or sneaky, either get completely re worked like springy, or really can’t see how they can be usefull, and still waiting for the re work of Pineapple Juggler

(Black) #18

[quote=“Faraleth;21289”]Hello everyone!
Is there any chance we will see some loadout changes in the future? (Such as loadouts actually receiving augment changes in order to balance them so there isn’t one “best” loadout for each merc)
[i]Just as we do with Weapons, we’re currently working on making the weaker Augments more desirable so Loadout Cards become more balanced. The ideal end-goal is that all Loadout Cards are equally viable, it just comes down to personal preferences and play style.[/quote]

I’m glad this was brought up because I started to believe i was the only one noticing this problem.

It seems that no matter how balanced, stronger, or weaker the augments on a card is there is always going to be the “better” or “logical” one card to pick.
So a merc having 9 different loadouts, only ONE or maybe even TWO are going to be viable while the rest are either un-viable or extremely situational to the point you wouldn’t pick it.

Really I see the easiest way is just making augments customize-able because 7 cards on a merc are just going to not be used due to the bad and sometimes irrelevant augments on a merc.

(RyePanda) #19

Well, that would be ideal for balance, but a lot of people would be upset because the card they paid for is no longer as relatively powerful.

(brennanfreak) #20

I know there are better things to focus on but…
Skins showing up in 1st person when?