New Merc Roll-call might arrive only in end March people.
It’s going to be 4 months since Thunder’s release for us to get a new merc and frankly its not fair to the fans.
In the past it was like a month for one merc release and now its been dragged to 4 months.
While we understand that the devs want to release the most polished merc they could- without the public like you and me to test the merc out in so many different situations, that merc will still inevitably undergo changes after the polishing. Only the public players will push the merc to its limits on the playing field and that’s when we all truly see if the merc needs to get a nerf or buff.
Take Phantom for example. How much testing would it take to really avoid the current situation he’s in now? On paper he seems fine but it was only through the public testing that we all realise he’s bad. Look at Fragger, he used to have 2 grenades and now its been drastically reduced to 1 ( which was a good change from a fragger player myself ) but the point is, if the merc the devs are looking at right now is complete. Don’t bother too much on the polishing of the merc, the public will do it for you. Look at
Just assume if Aimee/Turtle is released in March, then we’ll have to wait another 3-4 months for the next merc? Imagine the disappointment from the fans. 1 year , we’d only get 2-3 mercs. 2015 was awesome because of the fast paced release of mercs.
Us players have something to look forward to every month, we’ll speculate which merc is coming out and everyone will get so hyped. I joined the Dirty Bomb game during the phantom release and the forums at that time were teeming with merc speculations ( Stoker, Thunder, Redeye, Sparks, Phoenix, Turtle, Aimee fans everywhere )
We lost all that hype now and frankly, maps doesn’t fill that hole. It eases it, but It can’t cover it.
Look at your youtube merc-roll call videos, there are so many views on those! Ironically, Phantom’s Roll-call video has more views than the Scrubs Trailer. This shows you that the mercs are the main pillars for this game. The longer its delayed, the more players will be lost.
My suggestion is to end the Known Mercs Arc quick to be fair to the fans and to save your own efforts on “Polishing” because I can’t emphasize this enough; The players WILL do a better job for you. If you’re worried about balances, just don’t let that newly released merc be used in competitive! Just like how MOBAs auto ban the new heroes from competitive for a few months. They understand that players will do the balancing for them.
After the end of the Arc when everyone is contented that all of their mercs are released, show us concept arts of NEW mercs and give us names for them. Make the people on this forum discuss and guess who the next merc is, what he/she can do, what guns they are given. Just like old times.
Bring that excitement and anticipation back.
Maps are important in a FPS game but put up a video showing the map on youtube and see if it attracts more views than your awesome merc-rollcall videos.
Mercs are what sets this game apart from the other FPS games out there. You slow that process down drastically - like now, people are going to move on.
We’ve established that the mercs are the backbone of this game and if that isn’t taken care of, everything else loses its function.
Those who might disagree with what I am saying here, just think back and remember the pure excitement you had when they announced the new Merc Roll-call video.
