[Patch Notes] PHANTOM IS HERE

MissMurder1 · 2015-07-07 20:55:43 UTC

Thanks for the input guys. Waiting to hear how you like Phantom Also sorry that there wasn’t a whole bunch of content/fixes this time. The team is working on all the bugs you’ve mentioned and hope they will get a fix soon.

EnterDMZ · 2015-07-07 21:33:58 UTC

Any word on when the party system will be usable for playing casual games? I enjoy playing with friends and it’s usually pretty difficult to join each other’s games.

KayDubz · 2015-07-07 21:43:02 UTC

After several games…I definitely expect Phantom complaints to start pouring in again. He definitely needs his cloak to be more visible when running. Most other games that have had cloak characters, give them a much higher visibility when running than what Phantom currently has.

Like youll see the changes in reflection off his body or nearby objects more easily. As it stands, I think its way to easy for him to run around with it. Though motion and heartbeat sensors are more valuable now.[quote=“Kroad;40577”][quote=“Kay-Dubz;40563”][quote=“Kroad;40355”]so sparks can still gib downed teammates, make players invisible on revive and deal massive damage to EV/generators

nice

also love the aimpunch buff, screen jerking everywhere is exactly what i want[/quote]
The decreases to invulnerability time and windows fixes some of the cheap revives by Sparks. It should be a lot easier to finish someone before she can successfully revive them now.
[/quote]

gib changes are good (but next time please dont introduce such massive changes 1 hour before a cup begins), but the problem with sparks is the gamebreaking BUGS such as EV and objective damage and the fact that sometimes, a player revived by sparks will be invisible.[/quote]

ooooooh he actually meant “invisible” as in he couldnt see them. I thought the earlier poster meant to type “invincible”…since Sparks spamming easy distance revives and the invulnerability time was something people previously complained about.

Sinee · 2015-07-07 21:46:40 UTC

Got my gold Phantom already! He’s so fun and charismatic. Really loving this new merc. Thank you, DB!

bumbertyr · 2015-07-07 22:04:22 UTC

[quote=“Kay-Dubz;40726”]After several games…I definitely expect Phantom complaints to start pouring in again. He definitely needs his cloak to be more visible when running. Most other games that have had cloak characters, give them a much higher visibility when running than what Phantom currently has.

Like youll see the changes in reflection off his body or nearby objects more easily. As it stands, I think its way to easy for him to run around with it.

[/quote]

the phantom cloak isn’t much of an issue but is in fact the speed at which he moves inside of it, honestly it’s really easy to tell where he’s at as it’s not just a visual but sound warning as well. he needs a slight nerf to the shield is all.

singular · 2015-07-07 22:10:37 UTC

i cant wait for the “KATANA = OP” threads to pop up in a week’s time.

affableTricycle · 2015-07-07 22:36:56 UTC

Since you guys never check reddit I’ll copy and paste these highly upvoted posts from the subreddit here.

"Did some testing with a few mates in an empty lobby, mainly looking at his damage numbers ect. (All of this data is with the 20% extra melee damage perk which everyone in the right mind will be using)
Phantoms HP = 120
So, Katana light attack deals = 78 Damage.
A Katana heavy attack deals = 108 Damage.
Whilst refractive armour is active turrets do not track or shoot Phantom.
Whilst refractive armour is active a Vasilli headshot will not kill a phantom.
Whilst refractive armour is active a proxy mine will not kill phantom, he will survive the blast with full HP.
Skyhammer’s airstike will kill a phantom if multiple damage proc hit, the first will uncloak and the next will do damage as normal.
Arty’s airstike will uncloak and damage, second will kill him.
List of Mercs: An x signifies they will instantly die upon a heavy attack. (Number in brackets shows health left after a light attack)
Proxy (12) x
Aura (2) x
Sparks (2) x
Kira (12) x
Vasilli (22) x
Nader (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Sawbones (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Bushwacker (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Fletcher (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Skyhammer (42) (Health after a heavy attack = 12)
Arty (42) (Health after a heavy attack = 12)
Fragger (72) (Health after a heavy attack = 42)
Rhino (122) (Health after a heavy attack = 92)
Phantom can kill 36% of all Mercs with one attack, most of which that survive can be killed with one shot from any weapon. I feel like Phantom should drop 20 health to that of a Vasilli he shouldn’t be as tanky as a Skyhammer, he should also be revealed by turrets like which Vasilli’s heartbeat sensor.

“That’s not even the half of it.
His peak advantage is enormous. If still he’s pretty much completely invisible, just wait until people move past and KEK-10 them in the back. Or wait till one stands still and 100% headshot chain him.
He can return the objective while invisible.
He has effectively more HP than Rhino.
Oh yeah, did I mention he’s got a KEK-10?
This merc is completely gamebreaking.”

“gg Dirty Bomb, it’s been real. Wake me up when he gets nerfed to oblivion. It’s one thing to have an invisibility character. It’s one thing to have a tank character. It’s one thing to have a melee character. It’s another thing entirely when he has all three plus a KEK-10.”

The whole of /r/dirtybomb is pissed off about this merc.

PurpleNurple · 2015-07-07 23:00:43 UTC

Pretty fun. I’ve never felt so invincible when coming around a corner and seeing 3+ people.

cornJester · 2015-07-07 23:02:32 UTC

@MissMurder I personally think he is balanced fine and if any nerfs are needed it should only be a reduction to 110 or 100 HP, I’d prefer 110 to start. Small steps, not massive nerf hammers.

But for the love of everything do not nerf the katana! (or chopper for phantom as that makes the playstyle more viable, letting you be a melee focused merc) That is half the fun of Phantom, it’s balanced in damage vs speed and exposure.

KayDubz · 2015-07-07 23:28:39 UTC

[quote=“bumbertyr;40742”][quote=“Kay-Dubz;40726”]After several games…I definitely expect Phantom complaints to start pouring in again. He definitely needs his cloak to be more visible when running. Most other games that have had cloak characters, give them a much higher visibility when running than what Phantom currently has.

Like youll see the changes in reflection off his body or nearby objects more easily. As it stands, I think its way to easy for him to run around with it.

[/quote]

the phantom cloak isn’t much of an issue but is in fact the speed at which he moves inside of it, honestly it’s really easy to tell where he’s at as it’s not just a visual but sound warning as well. he needs a slight nerf to the shield is all.
[/quote]

Guess I need better audio =(

Khimaira · 2015-07-07 23:31:33 UTC

So just my 2cents on the matter of this new merc and other in game issues.

He needs a lower health pool because as a squishy merc ( proxy etc… 90hp pool mercs ) if you see him and manage to shoot him he can still rush you before you have the chance to kill him or lower his HP enough to help your team kill him… maybe lower it by say 10hp thats all it needs a slight tweak.

My second issue is Spawn camping.

Since this merc was put in place all ive seen is high level players in groups rush spwans after a few kills and then proceed to camp the living shit out of us as we ofc spwan… we have no way to fight back then add bushwacker turrets into the mix and well yeah your stuck in base / spwan for a round of been turned into a exp / kill farming session not very fun at all.

TLDR:
Nerf phantoms HP down to 100hp from 120hp

Make spwan camping a thing of the past have some auto turrets in place to stop people from pushing so far into the spwans and placing items like Bushwackers turrets and Proxy’s mines, Fletcher sticky bombs

much thanks Joe / Khimaira

tangeloCompany · 2015-07-07 23:31:33 UTC

Sadly, i’m going back to cs. He dosen’t belong too a fps shooter. If you can’t see why, then i feel bad for you.
Thank you for the fun time DB!

KayDubz · 2015-07-07 23:31:57 UTC

[quote=“affableTricycle;40761”]Since you guys never check reddit I’ll copy and paste these highly upvoted posts from the subreddit here.

"Did some testing with a few mates in an empty lobby, mainly looking at his damage numbers ect. (All of this data is with the 20% extra melee damage perk which everyone in the right mind will be using)
Phantoms HP = 120
So, Katana light attack deals = 78 Damage.
A Katana heavy attack deals = 108 Damage.
Whilst refractive armour is active turrets do not track or shoot Phantom.
Whilst refractive armour is active a Vasilli headshot will not kill a phantom.
Whilst refractive armour is active a proxy mine will not kill phantom, he will survive the blast with full HP.
Skyhammer’s airstike will kill a phantom if multiple damage proc hit, the first will uncloak and the next will do damage as normal.
Arty’s airstike will uncloak and damage, second will kill him.
List of Mercs: An x signifies they will instantly die upon a heavy attack. (Number in brackets shows health left after a light attack)
Proxy (12) x
Aura (2) x
Sparks (2) x
Kira (12) x
Vasilli (22) x
Nader (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Sawbones (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Bushwacker (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Fletcher (32) (Health after a heavy attack = 2)
Skyhammer (42) (Health after a heavy attack = 12)
Arty (42) (Health after a heavy attack = 12)
Fragger (72) (Health after a heavy attack = 42)
Rhino (122) (Health after a heavy attack = 92)
Phantom can kill 36% of all Mercs with one attack, most of which that survive can be killed with one shot from any weapon. I feel like Phantom should drop 20 health to that of a Vasilli he shouldn’t be as tanky as a Skyhammer, he should also be revealed by turrets like which Vasilli’s heartbeat sensor.

“That’s not even the half of it.
His peak advantage is enormous. If still he’s pretty much completely invisible, just wait until people move past and KEK-10 them in the back. Or wait till one stands still and 100% headshot chain him.
He can return the objective while invisible.
He has effectively more HP than Rhino.
Oh yeah, did I mention he’s got a KEK-10?
This merc is completely gamebreaking.”

“gg Dirty Bomb, it’s been real. Wake me up when he gets nerfed to oblivion. It’s one thing to have an invisibility character. It’s one thing to have a tank character. It’s one thing to have a melee character. It’s another thing entirely when he has all three plus a KEK-10.”

The whole of /r/dirtybomb is pissed off about this merc.[/quote]

great post

omegaskorpion · 2015-07-07 23:44:14 UTC

Where do i start:

Phantom:

He seems to be pretty good, i havent played him yet but i have been istakilled by them for 35 times today. Only thing that realy needs is health, while he is cloaked ahnuld needs more than 3 headshots to break the cloak (there are few pellets also missing head) and after that other 2 to kill him, but that is too long time considering: weapon is shotgun, it takes long time to shoot again and by the time i have breaked phantoms cloak he will stab me to Death.
Since i dont know any of the cloak health bumbers yet, i cant say anything about it, however at least hes normal health needs to be 100 thanks to his mobility.

Katana:

Seems pretty solid, but pretty op with melee damage augment, making him 1 shot almost everyone, so i could say pls, remove the melee damage/speed aguments from phantom and replace them with someting els, like ammo mags (because he rarely uses his guns).
Why would anybody use the loadout cards without katana? I mean, the katana is mostly part of the phantom so why dont all loadout cards have katana OR atleast long reach melee weapons like criket bat?

Stiletto:

I realy feel the nerf was unnecessary, since it has lowest reach of all melee weapons

Other unlooked weapons:

Weapons that still need balancing:
SMG-9 < Crotcni
BR-16 > Stark AR
Felix < Moa
All pistols.

KayDubz · 2015-07-07 23:49:23 UTC

This TotalBiscuit gameplay vid of Phantom does not make the new merc look good.

Huge uproar across reddit, steam, and youtube about Phantom btw. Consensus says hes OP and that the devs didnt balance him well at all. I agree. There’s no reason he should have a super strong sword, a nice SMG, on top of a cloak and armor.

And how hard is it to simply get cool downs right on him and other mercs? People keep asking for cooldowns to be properly implemented.

Gaspoline · 2015-07-08 00:02:49 UTC

“-Sped up several lobby and warm-up times”

dissapointed this didnt include deploying times in games already started…I mean, my body is in the game and loaded, why do I have to wait 15 seconds to be able to use it???

jetJester · 2015-07-08 00:17:41 UTC

The only thing i noticed in every guy that was whining on steam about phantom is that he didn’t had more than more than 25 hours playing DB; sadly i can’t check that on this forum but i think to know the results
Besides it’s way too early to tell if he’s OP or not everyone is still learning how to counterplay him

Harlot · 2015-07-08 01:30:07 UTC

Question, MissMurder. Can you tell us why we shouldn’t be hacking in Dirty Bomb? Very frustrated that I ran into a triggerbotter who, using a Google search, has been noted as a hacker for nearly 2 weeks. In a game that is attempting to bill itself as a competitive esport, running with zero antihack protection is kind of pathetic. Reddit is now overran with threads and screenshots of the same duo who are completely destroying competitive matches. I would love to do my part and record footage, but others have reported that SD isn’t even viewing the footage, based on the view count never going up and support refusing to disclose if the players were banned, and I don’t have time to be recording the 3 to 4 triggerbotters I run into a day now.

How can this slip through the cracks? This was an issue back when the beta was still closed.

fuzzel · 2015-07-08 01:35:32 UTC

about this noob merc…

invisibility time is too long

they need the same weapons like sparks…he is op enough…!!!

% of katana attack is too big…

you have to balance this…think this is no fun atm on the servers…

my idea:

a merc (or ability) for removing invisibility ( exept heartbeat sensor) … or reduce time and weapons…

KangaJoo · 2015-07-08 01:48:01 UTC

[quote=“Kroad;40355”]so sparks can still gib downed teammates, make players invisible on revive and deal massive damage to EV/generators

nice

also love the aimpunch buff, screen jerking everywhere is exactly what i want[/quote]

I’d be so happy if they just got rid of aimpunch and no, I don’t main vasilli. I just think it’s dumb that in head on gunfights I’m rewarded more for aiming at the chest than I am for actually aiming at the head. Even when you watch competitive players stream they tend to start aiming at the chest as soon as they start taking damage because you can’t get consistent headshots.