Free Rotation...

(PixelTwitch) #1

I am sick to death of having my experience from rotation to rotation, as someone with thousands of hours, being dictated by this this awful system. I cannot believe someone thought it was a good idea to copy and paste a system from games that are so fundamentally different in their execution and still believe everything would be all good…

1st, The majority of games that use this system also limit the number of same “heroes” on the field at the same time.

2nd, The majority of these games run a match making / lobby system that for the most part keeps newer players with other newer players.

3rd, Dirty Bomb is NOT retaining its player base long enough to ensure that a higher percentage of players have access to a greater number of Mercs.

Dirty Bomb does NOT have interesting abilities and certainly does not have any “counter play” and for that reason the impact of the free rotation is massively more negative then it is positive. Joining a server with 13 other players to have most of them trying the most popular of the 3 Mercs on rotation is horrible! Underground with 5 Naders on the enemy team or even 4 Rhinos is one of the least exciting and engaging gaming experiences you can have. In competitive we restrict the number of Mercs allowed for good reasons and balance is only one of the small ones! We try and maintain the diversity the game is supposedly designed around, we understand how multiple of the same Merc can skew balance and we want to give players MORE choice by not having them forced to play this “Best Team Comp”.

You either need to get this match making done quick, Change the rotation mechanics or come up with a system for limiting multiple of the same Mercs.

Heck, I challenge you to do a ALL YOU CAN MERC event next weekend where all Mercs are unlocked for 3 days and watch not only the player numbers rise but the average time a player plays, sky rocket also. Most importantly however, see how much people enjoy the game more.

(poiuasd) #2

I actually don’t mind that I can’t play right now due to issues with my ISP.
Bushwhacker, Rhino and to a lesser extent Nader should NEVER be on the rotation with eachother, even alone their kits tend to make the game a really miserable experience when you’re facing multiples of them.

(Rémy Cabresin) #3

Force 5vs5 Unranked as casual, force drafting or merc everywhere and all this is fixed. Use serverbrowser only for custom shazam where free rotation doesnt apply.

(Kl3ppy) #4

I only use 4 Mercs (Sawbonez, Stoker, Skyhammer and Bushwacker) + the merc I have the mission with.

(Demolama) #5

Yup… with the rotating door of low level players with little to no aiming skills the servers are filled with an increasing amount of spam. I mean seriously this game is creeping towards TF2 amount of spam, which says a lot about the direction the game is going. And who thought buffing shotgun ranges with little to no spread was a good idea? Nothing says I’m a better player than getting one shotted by a shotgun from almost sniping range.

#6

No thanks.

(Szakalot) #7

yes please,

and if you are bitchin about free rotation, it means you are stomping non-minlvl10 servers; so shame on you : P

go to minlvl10, people play whatever they want, and there is a lot more variety

(LifeupOmega) #8

Keep in mind that Pixel did say that this affects the newer players far more than it does the better ones. This isn’t about stomping pubs it’s about creating an enjoyable game that will keep those new players playing. A game with 4 Rhinos on the same team will not be a fun first game for them, and with the sheer number of free games out it’s vital that Splash keep that in mind.

(PinkFrog) #9

I understand the point that the stacking of mercs makes gameplay very, very different from a competetive match. But it can also be hilariously funny. I’m not sure if a strict prohibition is desirable.

I’d more like to see some kind of incentive to diverse. Not sure, though, how that could look like because common sense already supports diversity.

(Mustang) #10

Rotations only last a few weeks, I quite enjoy the frequent change in meta they introduce.

(Exedore) #11

When we did the all Merc Free Rotation last year, player numbers and play time both fell.

(light_sh4v0r) #12

lol, fair enough :slight_smile:

(spookify) #13

The Free Merc rotation is just a small part of the overall problem… Dedicated servers you can hop in and hop out will always have some type of unbalance.

Those pub servers are along with map design make DB a kill to win meat grinder game. I think that the meat grinding effect is what is dropping player retention. There is no addictive aspect of this game. There is no reason to grind in a meat grinding atmosphere.

Ranked MM with the 5v5 and everything else associated with it gives people a reason to grind to gain a rank and possible perks/rewards.

Whats the reason you play DB right now? (Right now) Answer that simple question.

I think my answer to that question right now would be to rage noobs, release stress, pop heads, piss people off by out-shooting them and win of course. So basically rage noobs and try to get over 100 kills in a SW map. I basically play for 1 or 2 hours a day and I either leave happy or 100% pissed off based on my noob team that can kill or game performance.

What pisses you off the most about playing DB game play?
If my team can kill and or help out with the objective I’m happy. If I have more kills then my entire team combined that is when I rage!!! Even those level 10 - 15 players that join min level 10 servers and SUCK ruin the game!

There is no reason for me to grind DB right now. Ranked MM is broke but should get better. There are no detailed stats and no rewards. There is also no progression toward anything!!! Its just kill repeat kill repeat!

(ZGToRRent) #14

It was not all merc free rotation, you just enabled 7-8 mercs per day.

(poiuasd) #15

Pretty sure there was a weekend where all mercs were free some time after the last server reset. Last year means 2015, not 14.

(ZGToRRent) #16

http://dirtybomb.nexon.net/news/3425/free-merc-weekend/

I see only 2 solutions right now, how to prevent from stacking one merc in a team:

  1. Bigger cooldowns on combat abilities to prevent spamfest and to make game less chaotic
  2. 4 or 5 merc rotations instead of 3, c’mon we have 18 mercs right now, If I’m correctly the switch from 2 to 3 mercs after fletcher update(9 mercs).
(Demolama) #17

This is 100% the spoken truth.

(PixelTwitch) #18

The way the last one was handled was garbage though, never gave players a chance to settle into anything…
Not only that but the time when you the event was as you started hemorrhaging players!

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You know what caused that dip?

Phantom…
From the looks of things the whole event was an apology for that **** up.
Sure its not JUST Phantoms fault, hype died down in general, execution and bla bla bla…

(Glottis-3D) #19

what you can hope to get away with in the closed beta, may cost you a lot more in the openbeta.
OP Phantom was much more OP than he needed to be even in turms of ‘over do, then undo to find a spot’ policy
in open beta any iver-do can cost you players. koz ppl tend to not come back to f2p imba openbetas

(Nail) #20

I always thought the free rotations were to test out the ridiculous, you’d never get a bunch of normal beta testers to have 6 Vaselines otherwise