Hello SD .. Its Time for Some Changes

(DarkangelUK) #61

Do you think that will drive players to use their classes more for their weapon loadout rather than for their class abilities? I’m guilty of swapping to a class for the shotgun when the fighting goes close quarters and indoors rather than to a class that’s necessarily required by my team… same way I do depending on what map/area I land in on CoD.

(Raviolay) #62

Really so would it not make sense from a business perspective, to rather then just sell characters with fixed loadouts. Why not sell the assets you have already made RE guns/nades separately also, reducing the workload while increasing your potential profits. I dare say a lot of call of duty and to a lessor extent some diehard Brink fans would be in favor of this.

I would not say it is nasty or surprising in all fairness if this did come to pass, most boxed retail FPS games have elements like this to them. Ultimately a lot of F2P FPS have it also, as it suites the business model, if you at it conceptually it fits better with agnostic objectives also. The core shooting is still fun, I kinda hope that your gear has EXP leveling also to gain higher proficiency.

I am done trying to fight it this is probably going to be better than what we had before just by virtue of it catering proven addictive gameplay sub-systems. That center on personalization, and RPG like time sinks rather that just raw gameplay. Nobody is interested in that in great numbers to warrant catering for it, hell even CSGO is getting drops, go figure.

(Smooth) #63

That depends on how useful we make the abilities, which should be ‘very’.

Characters/Mercs come as a package of weapon plus abilities, hopefully both of these things play a big part in why a specific character is chosen at any one point.

(DarkangelUK) #64

Makes sense, fingers crossed :slight_smile:

(acutepuppy) #65

I like this. Honestly I think they should be so useful that you could consider picking one character per half. Character choice should be part of planning, and everyone choosing 5 players in a 7v7 match is just way too much for an exciting metagame. The spectator certainly does’t want to follow 35 characters. With the open objectives, this could work as is, but the characters aren’t defined or exciting enough to merit choosing one per half. Also the open objectives aren’t too fun right now, but there are many solutions to that. Perhaps things like repair or defuse drones that allow the character to keep fighting while completing an objective?

Anyway, knowing which abilities I’m going to be facing for an entire match is way more “arena” in the way that previous SD titles held true to. I think this could be a nice chance to modernize it and bring a skilled based shooter into the modern “MOBA” environment.

With improved abilities the spectator experience would be exciting when players utilize them in clutch plays with situation awareness, coordination, and timing. Using a healing aura should be able to push an objective through to the finish, or the third-eye camera remote detonation should be strong and fluid enough to use quickly and stop a defuse push.

If you were to choose one player per match, weapon selection could open up drastically too. That way it’s would be more about the abilities when choosing a character, and gunplay stays free, open, and easy to balance. I’d enjoy the simplicity of having open weapon selection within classes, it just makes way more sense.

(INF3RN0) #66

*Limits nades to specific classes
*Tests agnostic objs

A few upset people start spamming forum and making ridiculous assumptions about everything? Like that’s going to do anything for anyone? /grow up kids

(fzl) #67

[QUOTE=INF3RN0;463188]*Limits nades to specific classes /QUOTE]

good idea!!

(Protekt1) #68

Sorry but it is hard to take this post seriously especially since the frag is on soldier 1.

(Ashog) #69

Yes, but it could be an optional upgrade for other characters. E.g. an engie has sticky mines as ability by default. It could be that one has to play 200 hours or pay 10 bux for unlocking the grenade ability and then swap sticky mines to grenades. Same for other classes. Such a possibility hasn’t been ruled out from what I gathered from Smooth’s posts and it is what I really don’t like.

(Protekt1) #70

I don’t think they have said you can exchange abilities, just weapons so far.

(montheponies) #71

In the short time since the patch has been out I’ve had more enjoyable games than anything in the previous 6 months. Whether this is the right approach or not long term I think it’s worthwhile testing the change and coming back with a well rounded response. The vast majority might be sceptical but without testing it for a reasonable period, posts like this look premature and alarmist.

That said, I’m still concerned that we’re testing a change driven by the current map design, not helped by the ‘dodgy’ spawntime/wave on the Objective server (and even the SW, as the spawnwave isn’t adhered to strictly). However, constantly repeating threads isnt going to help with that - especially with emotive and unfounded claims of copying CoD and BF…

(Demanufacturer) #72

I’m yet to play the patch (getting 9bytes a sec download as we speak we the launcher updated and download rate set to unlimited…) but the theory of it kinda sucks… as i’ve mentioned elsewhere.

On another note, just to vent, one aspect of the agnostic system i dont like is that i wont get to play as an engi and feel important and have people take care of me because i’m lazy and laud me because i defuse things. bah humbug.

(Mustang) #73

Fired up my launcher for you, hope it helps.

(Smooth) #74

I said it’s currently not planned at all.

Also, IF (big if, nothing decided yet, just a test etc.) we do consider Frag Grenades to be a merc-specific ability, then it would defeat the entire point of unique characters if you could turn everyone into ‘Fragger’ but with slightly different weapons.

I’m not ruling out ability swaps entirely (as long as they are similar to the original) but we do really want players to know what they are coming up against when they see a certain character :slight_smile:

(Seanza) #75

That increases the learning curve even more, don’t you think?

(Seiniyta) #76

But lessens the frustration. You’ll learn really fast which characters decides to leave a little present after you kill him. By experiencing nasty things from characters you can learn their nasty abilities. However, when your character itself can change weapons/abilities the amount you need to learn “oh, this character can do this this, and he also has the possibility of having that equipped” would make it a lot less certain what you’re up again and also a lot less fun.

(Ashog) #77

[QUOTE=Smooth;463388]I said it’s currently not planned at all.

Also, IF (big if, nothing decided yet, just a test etc.) we do consider Frag Grenades to be a merc-specific ability, then it would defeat the entire point of unique characters if you could turn everyone into ‘Fragger’ but with slightly different weapons.

I’m not ruling out ability swaps entirely (as long as they are similar to the original) but we do really want players to know what they are coming up against when they see a certain character :)[/QUOTE]

Thanks for making it clear, Smooth!
Still a very very sad day for me :frowning:

(INF3RN0) #78

What learning curve?

(en2ie) #79

TF2 is brilliant for this because the characters are so distinct from each other. Not sure if I am alone on this but I have real difficulty telling characters apart in DB. I know one character can self revive so I force myself to gib everybody! Classes are slightly easier to discern though.

(Seanza) #80

Just because we don’t experience one doesn’t mean new players won’t. Objectives, different classes, etc. etc. Don’t be ignorant :wink: