Summer Squash

(Exedore) #1

Hey all! Firstly, we want to thank you for playing Dirty Bomb, helping each other out, shooting each other in the face, showing noobs the ropes, and being an awesome and outspoken community in general.

We’ve been reflecting on how the Classy Art Hole update has gone so far, and while there have been positives, we feel that we need to be transparent about what we feel were some mis-steps on our part and how we’re going to do things a bit differently in the future.

Execution Mode

With the introduction of Gallery bumping us up to a total of three Execution maps, we’re drawing a line under the mode for a while. We’ll continue to fix bugs and optimise the Execution maps further, but now that we have a few maps for fans of the mode to enjoy, our focus will be primarily on Objective and Stopwatch modes – the core of Dirty Bomb.

Crafting

We still believe that Crafting is the future of the Loadout Card system, but we know how controversial it has been to many of you. It was a major failing on our part to not communicate the workings and values of the system much earlier than we did, for which we apologise and stress that it’s a mistake that we won’t make again. We feel that we did a much better job with preparing you for the introduction of 2nd Edition Loadout Cards, and will endeavor to be much closer to that level of communication for these sorts of features going forward.

As a way of an apology and a gesture of goodwill, for a week at the end of August (Aug 25th - Sep 1) we’ll be temporarily increasing the Fragments gained from Recycling by around 20%, reducing the Fragments needed to Craft by around 20%, and reducing Crafting Kit costs by around 40%. Alongside this, we’ll give you a Crate that contains the possibility of a variety of Crafting Kits, Weapon Kits, and Cases for every day you log in during this week. We want to give you a full month’s warning this time around, so that you can plan ahead with the management of your inventories.

We realise that this won’t address everybody’s concerns completely, but hope it’ll give you veterans a bit of a boost.

Credits Boosters

And speaking of boosts, we’re going to be lowering the price of all Credits Boosters for good in the next patch, as we feel that the new prices will provide better value for you. This does also mean that we’ll be removing 1 Hour Credits Boosters from Arsenal Crates! If you currently have an unopened Arsenal Crate, if you don’t open it until after this change it will update to the new version automatically.

Pricing changes:

[list][]1h Credits Booster – Removed entirely from Store and Arsenal Crates (if you have one already, it’ll be fine)
[]3h Credits Booster – Reduced to $0.79 (from $1.49)
[]6h Credits Booster – Reduced to $1.49 (from $2.99)
[]12h Credits Booster – Reduced to $2.49 (from $5.99)
[*]18h Credits Booster – Reduced to $3.49 (from $7.99)[/list]

Removed from Arsenal Crates:

[list][]1h Credit Booster
[]3h Credits Booster
[*]5x Equipment Cases[/list]

Summer Squash

Which leads us to what we’re doing now. We agree with the opinion voiced by many of you that splitting our efforts across maintaining the game, creating complex events and implementing new features has come at a cost for Dirty Bomb’s core gameplay, especially in the areas of performance and bugs.

We’ve decided to put most of our feature work on the back burner and focus the team on improving the game’s performance, fixing bugs and improving balance in a push we’re dubbing our ‘Summer Squash’. We don’t yet know how long this will be for, as we have bug fix and performance targets that we want to hit first and foremost. Our aim is to release fairly regular updates which you will hopefully feel improves the game substantially.

We know that you want fresh content to sink your teeth into, but we hope you agree that improving the foundation of the game is essential before we can build more on top of it. We want to keep you in the loop during this process as much as we can, and will be sharing in the small wins and in the bigger victories with you as we go. We thank you as always for your continued support!

#playdirteh
[SD]Exedore

(jokingShale) #2

What an amazingly empty platitude. It literally ignores every single complaint and apologizes for something tangentially related at best.

(EverythingElse) #3

FREE STUFF!
MOM GET THE CAMERA
And its great that you guys are working on optimizing the game, I dont know how the hell I got to lvl 37 with an Pentium and Intgrated Graphics so good job!
[spoiler]Though if anyone else does have a potato, do 4:3 800x600 and fullscreen dat shit, it works[/spoiler]

(X-aited) #4

omg. this.

[quote=“Exedore;31717”] Our aim is to release fairly regular updates which you will hopefully feel improves the game substantially.[/quote] - pls…

[quote=“Exedore;31717”] We know that you want fresh content to sink your teeth into, but we hope you agree that improving the foundation of the game is essential before we can build more on top of it.[/quote] - omg yes. (However - i discovered this game way too late. I would be fully satisfied with a new method to get new/old Logitech/Alienware loadout cards)

(RyePanda) #5

RIP Turtle. :frowning:

Oh well, hopefully this will crush the remaining major bugs!

(TheStrangerous) #6

I forgive you SD.

(pumpkinmeerkat) #7

(Xyfurion) #8

  1. Thank you for finally shifting your focus to your main gamemodes (Objective & Stopwatch)

  2. Crafting will still be controversial. And although I appreciate the changes you are making (despite them being temporary), I still feel it can be improved a lot. The feeling of progression needs to return. Crafting costs should be lowered and/or fragments received from recycling should be more. Weapon kits should be easier to get (45 for a cobalt when they are rare as fuck is unreasonable). I know you need to get paid every month, so can you at least make them paid? Just so you know, I feel you guys at SD overvalue cobalt cards. Cobalt cards are not as rare as you make them to be.

  3. Doesn’t really make too much of a difference in day-to-day play, but still, at least I know I’m not getting a goddamn 1 or 3 hour booster when I level up.

  4. ‘Summer Squash.’ Now how am I supposed to be mad at you guys? You’re improving performance and fixing bugs. I think that’s awesome on your part. Good on you!

All in all, I appreciate you giving us this quick update (and free stuff).

(HonourBound) #9

Thankyou very much for the update @Exedore it was very informative and honest, as well as being transparent. I hope the bug hunting over summer goes well for SD and as you expect! :smile:

(Yoma) #10

If you mean rope like the kind of rope to hang yourself, then yes, many show the noobs these… . (Sadly this ain’t even sarcasm…)

Well, communication is indeed a lacking part since a while already and it always is great to see that we actually get some insight towards what you are up to and why you are.

As for crafting… well i wont say anymore than that everything has been said in the forums and that i didnt touch it yet and gonna wait for end of august to (maybe) touch it. (But really, Weaponkits are way too rare…, make them e.g. come out of normal cases with a ~5% chance would be good)

About Arsi-crates, i appreciate it (who wouldnt) but i would like to ask if its possible to get a new loottable because the weaponkits already should have changed something and with the removal of 1+3h booster and 5xnormal cases it should be quite different then. (Just curious)

Well as for bugs, ya lots lots lots of bugs and some are already around for god knows how long. They are simply annoying and should be focused on rather than new content for the moment, otherwise the amount of bugs will increase and ruin the game. (More than they already do… .)

Well, im noone who takes a word as a thing which will become a fact so i will simply see for myself if you can live up to your promises/statements. (Hopefully you can)

(BananaSlug) #11

finally we can expect cool changes, work on core gameplay, then work on stuff like crafting, please

(*OCB* alphabeta) #12

All for squashing bugs and improving gameplay as the most recent update seemed to introduce a great deal of microstutter and freezes. But please maps maps maps. We need some increase in variety!

(deftMoon) #13

Wow, great post honestly. I really expected it to be some vague writing but i can finally settle down. Bugs and focusing on the game’s core, obj and stopwatch. Great plan.

(TR_Kama) #14

what they should do is

  1. give us Turtle NOW
  2. give us Dockyard NOW
  3. now do your fixes and performance testing keep the public playing
(ArsonistCow) #15

Good. We literally had a day between the information and the update and I barely got my post (warning people about trade up devaluation) out a few hours before it went live. So many people got screwed by this…

That’s a nice bandaid for the people who got screwed. But there are still big flaws with the new system, most notably the significantly increased RNG. And no, this isn’t something that weapon kits will fix without completely changing how they work. Only reducing “trade in” costs will help with this (i.e: making cards recycle for the same fragments they cost to craft).
I did write an exhaustively extensive post about this. Please give it a read.

[quote=“Exedore;31717”][list][]3h Credits Booster – Reduced to $0.79 (from $1.49)
[]6h Credits Booster – Reduced to $1.49 (from $2.99)
[]12h Credits Booster – Reduced to $2.49 (from $5.99)
[]18h Credits Booster – Reduced to $3.49 (from $7.99)[/list][/quote]
A step in the right direction, but aren’t these still terrible value?
I know you get 12 credits per minute base-value, but I’m not sure how much, if anything you get extra for your performance.
If 12 credits/min is all you get these result in a pathetic 2734 credits per dollar for the 3h booster and 3713 credits per dollar for the 18h booster. This is far worse than the 5005 credits per dollar of buying mercs. And you don’t even get the benefit instantly…

These boosters would have to cost 0.49$, 0.89$, 1.69$ and 2.29$ to make them worth roughly the same as buying mercs outright: 4408 to 5659 credits per dollar.

(frostyvampire) #16

And obviously the timing on this event announcement (like always for me) kinda sucks because just yesterday I crafted a cobalt Rhino (and got a bad card) because I thought you won’t be changing the crafting or doing anything .-. Well at least it will be only next month and it’s better than nothing :slight_smile:

But I have 2 questions:

  1. Turtle? Is will he also be released with that update? Or will he come earlier/later?
  2. If I get any Arsenal Crates now and keep them until the event, will they be able to contain the low time boosters? Or will they be updated to the new drop rates AKA should I keep them until the event or just open instantly when I get them?
(Eox) #17

Please, consider to pull out a few permanent change on that loadout crafting system. A lot of people are unhappy with the credit costs : I do think it’s for a fair reason.

I look forward to see the next changes to the game’s performances, bug fixing and maybe balance. The Classy Art Hole update brought up some interesting and fair changes : I do think there’s still a few things left to tweak, and I think you guys can pull out some great changes to them. :slight_smile:

(BerylRdm) #18

YEAH! The news I was waiting for!

(Smile.jpg) #19

I want to believe that it doen’t mean more graphics and less fps.

(hawkeyeguy99) #20

Great post and I appreciate the transparency. But while I love the temporary fix for the crafting system, why is it temporary? I agree it’s too drastic to make permanent, but something needs to be done. Right now, I can’t justify crating a cobalt when I can craft 2 or even 3 golds for near the same price. Please, take a look at your crafting system and make some permanent changes in the near future. Otherwise, I fully support the direction this post indicates you are taking.