For those who often miss the news feed, this year’s round-up was posted by Neil ‘Exedore’ Alphonso to the Dirty Bomb news feed yesterday. For the full article: http://dirtybomb.nexon.net/news/5678/playing-dirty-in-2015
We thought that the holiday period would be a great time to say ‘Thank You’ to all of our players for what’s proven to be an exciting year, as well as talk about Dirty Bomb’s Open Beta so far and address some of the most common questions from DB’s community regarding our near and longer term plans. Dirty Bomb was conceived as a long-haul project here at Splash Damage, and that hasn’t changed. Open Beta has been one of the early chapters in a story that we’re dedicated to giving a long life yet!
2015 OPEN BETA HIGHLIGHTS
The Journey Begins
In Dirty Bomb’s Open Beta phase of 2015, it quickly became the most updated publically available game in Splash Damage’s history. We’ve learned a lot and changed a lot thanks to this, and there’s definitely more of both to come.
A World of Mercs
Dirty Bomb’s cast of Mercs have always been the stars of the show. Since Kira and Rhino kicked off the Open Beta phase with a bang, Sparks, Phantom, Redeye, Phoenix, Stoker, and most recently, Thunder, have all had adjustments and significant tweaks before re-entering the fray… and inspired a wealth of fan art, wow! This hasn’t all gone to plan… Phantom’s initial release was a particular low point for us in terms of gameplay quality, and similar issues frustratingly raised their heads again with Thunder. There are certainly lessons learned for the future, such as the importance of additional community testing before major releases.
The War Has Just Begun
The treatment of the Containment War release – our biggest in Open Beta, – shows the event-driven approach to content that we’d like to pursue next year, consolidating our big feature-focused releases while continuing to keep an eye on bug fixes and balance between them. The aim is to focus our teams’ efforts on delivering “meaty” updates with cool new content while still addressing community feedback and making improvements to the game.
A Safe & Secure Home
We freely admit that game security was less than ideal when Dirty Bomb opened its doors earlier this summer, and while things have improved considerably we believe there’s still room for refinement. We want to continue to build on our security features so that the community can get to the point where hacking and cheating are viewed as isolated problems.
2016 AND BEYOND
Maps & Mercs
Right now we’re hammering away at two maps – the Objective map Dockyard, and a new Execution map which will incorporate lessons we’ve learnt since the release of Overground and Market. We’re planning to share these with you in blockout form for your feedback early in the new year!
New Mercs will continue to join the fight, though releases will be less frequent as we move out of this phase of Open Beta and into uncharted territory. We want them in top shape before they hit the cobbles!
Match Balance
Creating better balanced casual and ranked matches is near the top of our list for 2016. You’ll probably know that the game sings when it’s a balanced match, but can be tough when it’s not, and we don’t feel that the average match hits that sweet spot enough of the time.
Our goal is to expand our use of smarter matchmaking so that we can give players better match experiences across the entire game. We also recognize that we urgently need to support party play throughout every aspect of the game , and matchmaking helps us do that. SD is a studio that came to be because of friendships formed through clan play, so a big part of the long term vision for the game is to create fertile ground for such potentially life changing experiences.
The Loadout System
The Loadout Card system has evolved considerably in the past year, in no small part thanks to your input; making all functionality available at Bronze, making all Bronze cards available directly, clarifying drop rates and aesthetic rarities are just a few of the improvements we’ve made based on the community’s direct feedback. But there is more work to be done. For instance, we heard your frustrations about the drop rates for the Containment War Meltdown, and added a feature - Our ‘What the Dickens?’ Trinket Hunt event is our first event-based attempt at specific, gated goals and rewards.
Finally, one of the major things we need to address in 2016 is to give different goals and rewards for different sorts of players. Given the complexities of the current loadout system, this will be a gradual process rather than a sudden overhaul, but we’re also planning on adding further features that are separate from the loadout system with fixed path rewards.
Bugs/Performance
Thousands of bugs have been squashed in 2015, but still we want to make sure that we’re responding rapidly to the issues that affect you most.
Improving overall game performance and reducing the number of crashes is one of our other top priorities for 2016. Inconsistent framerate effects every player of the game, no matter which way you look at it… The frenetic pace of Dirty Bomb and its blend of fast movement and accuracy have become a signature for the game, so we want to do our best to make sure that technical impediments aren’t hindering that.
The Competitive Scene
With Ranked Season 1 kicking off near the start of 2016 and with the promise of regular Ranked Seasons to follow, the competitive side of the game will be getting some love.
As mentioned previously on the topic of security, for the scene to gain a foothold we feel the game needs to be a tight ship. You need to have a reasonable amount of confidence that you’re on a level playing field, and that’s what we aim to deliver.
We know the game also needs some spectator improvements to make it more watchable; relay servers, better demo functionality, and all the latest bells and whistles on the casting client (telestrators, dynamic match stats, etc.). DB has a lot of depth that often isn’t immediately apparent, and our end of the casting experience could communicate what’s going on in a match considerably better.
Mercs, match mayhem, maps… to borrow a phrase, it’s been an emotional year. Thanks for reading, and thanks even more for playing. I hope this leaves you looking forward to 2016 as much as we are!
Neil ‘Exedore’ Alphonso, Lead Designer
