Dear reader,
First of all I would like to mention the fact that this post will contain feedback and ideas on Dirty Bomb in general, the competitive aspect of Dirty Bomb, some findings while playing the different maps and the general ‘meta’.
I have noticed you created different sections to mention different subjects. I hope you are okay with me doing it in one post.
Also note that these are my views and I am not in any way trying to tell you how it’s done.
I am simply trying to give feedback to help you improve Dirty Bomb.
My framework of reference
I think it is valuable to know from what kind of viewpoint I am writing, since I believe that most of the feedback I will be giving is based on my previous experiences with different games.
I have played quite some games competitively. The game that I invested in the most was Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory for sure, I guess around 3k hours. Besides that I have played a fare share of competitive Call of Duty 4 and Enemy Territory Quake Wars. For me Dirty Bomb has a lot of similarities with ET and ETQW and this is something that excites me and at the same time lets me experience the differences, small or big, in a unique way.
General thoughts on the competitive prospects?
The team based, objective based and stopwatch based game play is just something that immediately inspires competitive play. I am also convinced that this is a great concept for competitive play.
This combined with the class system is just unique combination and is something that is not really present in competitive gaming at the moment. However, the main idea behind competitive play is that players have an equal footing. I do understand that this is a f2p game and that there is a need for revenue.
So I thought about this and figured, when there is a special mode in which more attention is paid to the ‘static balance’ between the ‘opportunities’ players have, in mercs and load outs as well, the game would satisfy more of the criteria I think a competitive game should have. So in order to still be able to get revenue out of this my idea is to create a different mode for which a one time transaction is needed in which you are able to select any load out, but still need to own the mercs to play. The cases offer not any form of income, while the mercs do. In my eyes collection different load outs from cases is rng-based so collecting the right load outs is, in other words just, random. This does not mean specials skins or anything else should be given once you are able to enter this mode.
Another way to create a situation in which everybody has the same opportunities is to only enable the basic load out in the competitive mode. But this might take away some meta-based decisions and a deeper meta in general.
Right now the stop watch and objective servers feature from 6v6 to 8v8, I think, that these are quite large numbers.
I haven’t been able to play a ranked match yet since I could not find a match, but from what I have heard it should be a 5v5 match. Why are the public servers not featuring the same amount of players?
Another meta aspect which I would like to note is the ability to suicide. This is a great mechanic.
To be able to suicide effectively you need to know your own and the enemies spawn times.
I find that your own spawn timer is not really visible well enough.
And being able to insert the enemies spawn times once you get the information would be a nice option also.
Right now, in public servers, you lose experience once you suicide, I don’t think that this should be the case.
From my point of view you want casual players as well as more serious players to think about how they play and think about how they could improve. As I mentioned using the ability to suicide well gives you an edge. But punishing it with a loss of experience will make it less likely that people will start using this. To prevent people from suiciding every single fight you could still appoint the enemy player the kill.
What also could be an interesting mechanic is the ability to bypass objectives. In Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory this was done by getting an enemy’s suit and going through a door which only the defending team could open. I don’t have any direct ideas on how to bring this into practice, but Vassil could be that kind of guy.
Mercs and classes
So basically every merc can do ‘everything’ they can heal and build etc. but some merc do the one thing faster than others. This makes it so that not necessarily a proxy is needed to plant a C4 charge, for instance.
This means that when the game gets developed more and gets exploited more, it could happen that certain classes will turn out to be stronger in the combat aspect. Because you do not need a medic to revive or an ‘engineer’ to build or plant C4, it doesn’t challenge a team to make use of different classes. Actually this does not really reflect my online experience, since I really notice the difference when there a medics, or when there are no. I just felt like mentioning this cause I still think it is somewhat of an aspect to think about.
A lot of the classes have abilities are quite spamable and for competitive play this could be out of proportion.
This could be countered by just plainly saying that that’s the way the game is meant to be, it is however another thing to pay attention to.
Chapel
This is something I have noticed while playing online.
When escorting the EV the final few meters is like right next to the defenders spawn.
When the defenders are able to disable the EV right next to their spawn, it’s really easy for them to defend this.
This is not a bad thing per definition, when this was done on purpose. When it was not it could also be something to think about.
About the EV: When you run past it there is a spot near the back tier where you get stuck and it is really hard to get out of it. It really annoyed me when it happened a few times in a row and I don’t think this is intentional.
This is a portion of my thoughts on the status of the game from from what I have experienced and what I would like to share with Nexon and any person who is curious to see how this game develops further.
I am always open for discussion and am eager to know what other people think in general or about my views in particular. When things are not entirely clear, feel free to ask for clarification.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Kind regards,
Luc