I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for the last couple of events, but this latest one deserves more attention due to the increased frustrations of the playerbase.
This post will detail the pros and cons of the event, and give suggestions based on the playerbase as to what should be changed or fixed to make DB more fun and enjoyable while still netting SD profit.
I will be expanding this if there is a general consensus to do so. Thanks for reading.
TL:DR - The event is an interesting try to be different, with many exciting ideas/prospects. However, it was executed poorly in multiple areas.
Pros - Trinkets, An attempt at making it easier to get cases by playing (The IDEA of drop boosters), Obsidian Card, Player-based evaluation for a merc at the end of the event.
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[] Trinkets - The idea of allowing players to get trinkets by playing the game is an excellent one. It’s actually the one thing that was done as well as possible in this event. Good Job SD!
[] Obsidian Card - Giving players a continuous option to get Obsidian cards is a great idea. It’s probably the thing that should get players to pay the most, tbh. However, tying it to a merc they cannot fortell is not the smartest of things. Many players would have preferred to have just seen an Aimee obsidian card as a possibly buy from the get go.
The other thing is that many people intentionally saved their credits to buy Aimee with credits. Tying an Obsidian card to a merc is NOT a good thing anymore, when players used to not really exist for the game, like back in alpha and beta. I truly recommend that you allow players to buy just an obsidian card, separate from a merc.
On a personal note, I’d be willing to buy an obsidian card alone, for 10$ rather than the 15$ for a merc I already had credits for. Realistically, based on past prices, obsidians are also only really worth about 5$. They’re easier to get money-wise than Cobalts.
[*] Player-Based Reward - The culprit was a smart move, but honestly not the best one possible. The culprit is an end event reward for those who do not know, and it will be a special card for those who purchased cases, for the most played merc in Dirty Bomb. However, I’m not sure this was the smartest idea. The most played mercs are often more noob friendly, and in a game where skill and play style is left to the players, forcing players to have what others prefer was the only thing wrong with this move.
I recommend that in the future, you allow the players of DB to sum up to a certain thing. Such as if all players buy x cases in the store, everyone gets a free guaranteed event case. This allows RNG to still wreck havoc, but it also doesn’t limit players to other players’ preferences. Basically, this reward is one of the coolest moves I and others have seen DB attempt, however, it honestly just isn’t the coolest thing possible for an event focused around everyone’s opinions.
A possible approach is Instead letting players choose from the top four mercs in the last week as their obsidian and culprit case merc. That the same cards won’t appear for everyone, and it adds more value to people who play differently.
[*] Drop Boosters - Oh gosh. I just cringe as I see all of the failed communication here. This is both the biggest pro and the biggest con of the event. To make things easier on SD, I’ll explain the general populations request as sweetly as possible. People want to be able to earn their cases. Put a kind of gate on them sure, but don’t allow RNG to play with everyone’s lives.
People desire that if they play, they have chances to earn the guaranteed cases, of course. However, allowing RNG and drop case limits to accumulate over time was a bad move, and the low rate as well as dependency on equipment cases being dropped was terrible as well.
Players wish to see when they will get the case, how much effort will be put forward, etc.
So - Instead of allowing the engine to give players a guaranteed case randomly after a while, I recommend that you give players much harder missions to earn an event case. So instead of 4500 support xp or something. Give them a mission on the side, as part of each week. If they play 15 hours, they get a case. If they Win 30 times, they get a case. Or, make it playtime based, instead of experience and grind based. An example: Every 6 hours of playtime, you’ll get a case. That way the people who DO spend 30 hours in one week trying to get that dream arty, have 5 chances throughout the whole week out of a possible 36 different cards they can get. And then at the END of the week, allow players to buy the extra guaranteed cases under elite case/event case combo things. This allows players to decide at the end of the week if they want to buy cases to make sure they get something good.
Of course, if you want cases to be more rare, you can keep them at 10 hours, etc. But allowing a broken and extremely difficult system to stop players that try is just downright harmful to the community.
Possibly, Drop boosters should lower the amount of experience or difficulty of mission or time needed so that players can get them faster. Such as if it were 20 hours of playing, buying a drop booster lowers that by 2 hours.
It’s incredibly easy to see why players were angry with Drop Boosters. They were poorly explained in how they work, and the system behind them barely worked.
TL:DR - Allow players to earn some event cases, and then they can buy if they STILL don’t get what they want. This move was a really good attempt to let players try and get more, but it barely affected the possibility of getting cases, while destroying player economy.
EDIT: DB has allowed a sort of middle ground on letting people get cards at the end of the event for cheap. With a sad limit of one per account. dirtybomb.nexon.net/news/9682/last-chance-rogue-en-vogue-sale
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Cons - Drop Boosters, Trying an Obsidian Card to a Merc, RNG eliminates player efforts, entirely skin based.
- So… Three of these were already explained under pros. If people wish for me to move the bad part of things into cons, please comment below. I’ll skip ahead to entirely skin based.
- Skin basis - The community really does like player skins. It allows fashion, etc. However, having continous events where it appears the artists for SD are more focused on player models, rather than maps and more interesting events has started to also drain the community. Just like the CW war event, some map details, and maps, should be added with every event if possible. That is all.
Edits - one tl:dr was somewhat innacurate. Another was somewhat also addressed by SD by their Last Chance sale on steam for the ReV event.
