Yeah looks great for the game when you basically ignore the apparently ‘official’ forums.
I’m having a hard time believing that the few remaining PTS players were actually queuing up for ranked on a test servers. Sounds like bullshit. There’s been 4 seasons of ranked prior, one even released with broken stopwatch that awarded the winners a loss. Seems like the sort of thing you’d get right after time, instead we get not even a days notice that ranked isn’t coming till later this week, due to an undisclosed bug. So much for the promise for more communication.
There’s a plethora of things wrong atm; EV lag, server warp, FPS stuttering/drops, weapon swap bugs, broken melee, etc. These, along with CMM, have made the game less enjoyable for most players, subsequently leading to a new merc release not even slightly boosting player numbers (Guardian/Javelin drama aside).
These issues not being fixed shouldn’t stop ranked from coming back though. The pub experience is as important to the games life, along with ranked. As much as some players are looking forward to ranked, myself included, I’ll dare say it’s going to be the same old shit show that last season was, regardless of whether or not any of those issues have been fixed.
Partied players along with dynamic queue will never work well with the games current population. People should strive to play with more players, gather some friends or even join a clan or community and stop viewing it as a ‘elitist’ stigma. Playing a ranked style mode without communication isn’t a great experience, neither is queuing up with random players and expecting cohesion, especially when the level cap is level 7 (which everyone agrees is ridiculously low). Also the voice chat in this game needs some serious work, not being able to adjust player volumes is a joke and the standard volumes are a mess.
The one other stand out feature that ranked lacks is merc limitations. Ranked mode will never be truly competitive without it. The best solution I can think of is all mercs need to be unlocked for ranked. All bronze loadouts need available to players (selling these has always been idiotic in my eyes). If SD choose to keep the 3 merc system in place, you’d need subsequent warnings for players choosing a merc that’s already been picked, with an eventual lockout. Playing against 3-4 Arty’s on chapel for example, is absurd and shouldn’t be possible in a competitive environment.
Well, that’s all the ranting I can be bothered to do atm, not like any SD employee is going to reply on these forums anyway.
