Top 5

(INF3RN0) #1

In regards to retention problems with DB these are my top 5 for what I think will have the biggest impact on reversing the decline. Albeit these aren’t necessarily what I personally want, but what I think will be most significant to the masses- and the hope being that more players/activity means more funding for the kinds of patches/content a hardcore DB player wants.

1) Anti-Cheat

Without question becoming one of the leading issues regarding retention/growth on all levels. Some hackers have made it as far as the higher 20s without bans and simply create new accounts once they do get banned.

2) Performance

This should have never been an issue for an u3 game, but when people with top tier PCs are still having issues (and on an escalating incline since alpha), this should be a much bigger concern. At this point I am more motivated to play a game I don’t enjoy as much simply because it runs smoothly.

3) Steam Market

DB needs a steam economy simply because of how attractive it is to the general population. The loadout card system would need to accommodate this better, which I think would require breaking things into smaller marketable pieces (as has been discussed before). Either way it is a highly effective ‘distraction’ when it comes to retention/growth and a source of income that should be utilized.

4) TDM

I’d never play it, you’d never play it, but I think it is necessary. TDM has always been the most popular mode in games, but I think it is a necessary stepping stone for a new player just to master the most basic mechanics. I imagine the natural transition being TDM>OBJ>SW>MM, which you would motivate by progressively better rewards for each game mode. Ideally MM would grant the highest credit earn rate and perhaps even better drop chances. And of course fully functional party systems and more customizable servers will help, though I know it’s already in the pipeline.

5) Bug Fixes/Quality Control/Community Tools

Less new content, more polishing of current content. Releasing new mercs will only do so much, but I’d rather see more done with the current pool of mercs and taking advantage of ways of customizing current content to make money (ie more in depth loadout cards/market/etc). At the moment I think a lot of people could care less about when the next merc is coming, especially when there are so many more prevalent issues that need to be solved first. A lot of shooting in the foot has been happening as well, ie the premature phantom release and melee changes as well as the guaranteed bugged merc abilities that never get caught. Hopefully the alpha testing portal comes through soon because even though the community isn’t large, there’s a lot of highly motivated/talented people willing to work for free given the proper tools. The more you take advantage of that, the more things can be prototyped/tested and perhaps even prove worthy of integration into the actual game.

(Phantomchan) #2

Steam market please no, I don’t want another trade simulator. Atleast don’t let it inflate so retardishly compared to CS:GO with skins worth 2000 euros.

(Szakalot) #3

Good list, here is mine:

  • anticheat
  • proper pub/comp balance; good matchmaking system
  • fixing all the major bugs that still remain, fixing clunky UI issues
  • performance optimization
  • more content
(prophett) #4

Pretty solid original list.

  1. Anticheat
  2. Performance Improvements
  3. Steam workshop (community maps and skins)
  4. Steam market (trade skins/cards)
  5. New content (mercs, weapons, modes, maps, cards, skins, etc…)
  6. Once games goes live - sponsored tournaments timed with store sales

How CS:GO became the second most-played game on Steam

Chart taken from;
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-explains-how-csgo-became-the-second-most-played-game-on-steam/

(ragnak) #5

Gonna share my top 5 as well !

  1. Hit detection/netcode: It was mostly fine till kira patch but after that its pretty much unplayable for me (but it seems that most people dont have a problem ;( ).

  2. Performance: Huge fps drops are a big fat NO. It shouldnt be this bad on an old engine (especially that other UT games works just fine for me).

  3. Cheat protection: Was said enough about it.

  4. Better audio: The audio in this game is one of the worst i heard in years. There was a lot said about it as well, but at this point i lost hope that it will get good enough at some point.

  5. Bug fixing, balancing: There is still ton of bugs and badly designed/overpowered/underpowered things. I would like loadout system to have a rework, at the moment we have like 2 optimal loadout cards per merc and thats about it.

As much as i want more content (a lot of people do i guess) DB is simply not ready for it, there is way too many problems. I bet that SD was forced, for one reason or another, to start open beta but at this point i dont think that it will be ready for open beta till 2016 :).

(shibbyuk) #6

Seems to be a split in opinion of how important new content is. I think I agree that it’s not the highest priority; there should be more than enough to entertain a new player for a good 6 months or so. I don’t think that’s what’s preventing retention at the moment. For me, the top 4 in terms of first impressions are:

  1. Anti-cheat
  2. Better match-making (getting pwned must be very off-putting)
  3. Performance
  4. Enhanced UI - it could be more engaging

I can’t decide on #5… Perhaps audio, practise mode, tutorial, loadout system…

(Kl3ppy) #7
  1. Anti-Cheat
  2. Improve Match Making
  3. Performance/Optimization
  4. Improve Audio (footsteps)
  5. Add a store were cards can be sold/trade (I have a phantom gold card but the loadout does not contain the kantana -> useless)
(Glottis-3D) #8
  1. Anticheat. Until its too late.
  2. Performance.
  3. Maps for SW. New one, and fix old ones. Its the main mode, and all maps are still broke in several parts.
  4. RE-think some gameplay desisions, like: “moving spawns” (realy destroys some nice mapparts), “no nades, except for soldiers” (WE LOVE NADES).
  5. Matchmaking
(tangoliber) #9

I think TDM just artifically boosts the player numbers. You get a slightly bigger number in the “Steam Stats”, but in reality, your Stopwatch player population would be much smaller. New players would use TDM as a crutch to not bother learning how to play Stopwatch.

Dirty Bomb is not a great deathmatch game, and nobody is going to fall in love with DB from playing death match. They wouldn’t understand why the game is so good. We want to improve the player population, but not with flakey players who don’t want to learn Stopwatch (or Execution.) Only the players who fall in love with the game will stick around…so we want as many people learning Stopwatch (or Execution) as possible.

(spookify) #10
  1. Anticheat
  2. Performance Improvements
  3. New content (mercs, weapons, modes, maps, cards, skins, etc…)
  4. Anticheat Again!
  5. Bugs
  6. New content (mercs, weapons, modes, maps, cards, skins, etc…) Again

TDM I dont think is that important at all… This game needs a mode that fits into the game and not just a TDM. OBJ Mode is basically a TDM right now. Hardly anyone plays OBJ in OBJ mode… You need a mode that is balanced for both sides and not super time detailed in steps. Example a Baserace + Hardpoint + Capture the flag all wrapped into one.

Steam Market - Blaa again at this stage get the game right. CS:GO weapons and trading are toxic…

Get Anti Cheat with in game reporting and improve performance first!

(Szakalot) #11

pretty much this! a mode like this is perfect for this game, and I really hope its gonna come at some point, and not TOO late

(Phantomchan) #12

Useless? tell that to the people who got rekt by me running around with an SMG :^). I think using ranged weaponary is way more effective than melee in Phantom’s current state.

(Thundermuffin) #13

[QUOTE=INF3RN0;535895]

4) TDM

I’d never play it, you’d never play it, but I think it is necessary. TDM has always been the most popular mode in games, but I think it is a necessary stepping stone for a new player just to master the most basic mechanics. I imagine the natural transition being TDM>OBJ>SW>MM, which you would motivate by progressively better rewards for each game mode. Ideally MM would grant the highest credit earn rate and perhaps even better drop chances. And of course fully functional party systems and more customizable servers will help, though I know it’s already in the pipeline.[/QUOTE]

Instead of TDM, I would prefer to see something like CTF as it would hopefully bring a lot of neat things to both casuals and comp players.

It allows the casual crowd to have an easier mode to get into first, but it doesn’t lose its team-based aspect as much as TDM does. For those who are just looking to shoot things or warmup, you aren’t being completely worthless in comparison to an obj mode as that’s a massive requirement to push into a base and get the flag.

When it comes to competitive, I could definitely see the possibility of a league forming around CTF. I can’t really name a recent game that has had a strong CTF following, but it used to be popular in the Quake/UT days. I’d love to see it come back and DB’s movement is probably the best suited for it out of most modern games. Plus, it’d be an easier way for people to get their feet wet without having to devote that much time into it.

The only major downside to this vs a TDM mode is that TDM could just reuse the current maps as they exist right now, while CTF would have to have special maps made for it (maybe using a set piece from the existing maps that’s duplicated and flipped with the mid area made for parkour and vertical play?).

(Raviolay) #14

The game is live… if anyone can get it and it has a functioning cash shop. I would say that classifies it as released, slapping a beta logo on it does not change that. The logo is only going to give them another 6-8 months public grace to get there house in-order at best. With regards to fixing what has been pointed out years ago. Yet alone have some new actual content that has always been slow coming & maps a modes are a low end priority IMO for them as they don’t sell them.

(alphabeta) #15
  1. Anticheat - anticheat - anticheat!
  2. Performance optimization (FPS)
  3. New content - weapons, scopes, cards
  4. Fix the bugs! Really!
  5. Maps. We have been playing 5 maps for 2 years
(FishStix) #16

[QUOTE=prophett;535907]Pretty solid original list.

  1. Anticheat
  2. Performance Improvements
  3. Steam workshop (community maps and skins)
  4. Steam market (trade skins/cards)
  5. New content (mercs, weapons, modes, maps, cards, skins, etc…)
  6. Once games goes live - sponsored tournaments timed with store sales

How CS:GO became the second most-played game on Steam

Chart taken from;
http://www.pcgamer.com/valve-explains-how-csgo-became-the-second-most-played-game-on-steam/[/QUOTE]

The thing about CS:GO’s esports investment to remember is that Valve actually made money on those events: only a portion of esports case purchases went to the prizepool, the rest went into Valve’s pocket.

(Phantomchan) #17

My Top whatever :

1.) A proper anti-cheat and reporting system rather than jumping hoops @ Nexon with minimal result.
2.) More stable servers/better netcode.
3.) FPS/graphical optimizations.
4.) More Objective maps
5.) More mercs.

(DarkangelUK) #18

Well everyone else is doing it so why not. Not saying anti-cheat as thats too obvious and already being worked on.

  1. Named (privately run) public servers to have common places to gather with like minded players. Adding everyone to friends list doesn’t work, the best servers were the ones where everyone knew each other and congregated in the evenings. Ask anyone about their fave fps game and more than likely they’ll also tell you about their fave server to go with it. These generic servers don’t bring a sense of community at all.

  2. Detach loadouts from skins. I want my cosmetic choice to be based on personal taste rather than the loadout that comes with it. Pointless getting a rare skin when the loadout sucks and you dont want to use it. Also a greater variety of skins not based on colour (bronze, silver, gold etc.)

  3. More modes always active, full time Execution mode with all its available maps in rotation (sorry peeps) and TDM as well for the reasons inferno stated.

  4. Proper demo recording. Helps tag cheaters but also nice for those of us that don’t have shadowplay enabled cards.

  5. More maps, getting bored of the same ones after so many years of playing.

(BomBaKlaK) #19

1 - Anti-cheat improvement
2 - Server rental (like Darkange said and like I said since now 2 years, WE NEED THIS !)
3 - MAPS ! We need more maps, the actual ones are not so good …
4 - Otpimisation !
5 - A fresh beer !

(NoSoup4U) #20

This is one I’d really like to see. Apparently it is possible to give third parties access to servers (as I understand that DirtyCups had their own server(s)), so I don’t understand why it’s not made possible for people to rent their own server; Which possible disadvantage does this have for the game?

I’d say the server admin(s) should be able to do the following:

  • Change the name of a server to what they want.
  • Be able to change map/gametype/player amounts, kick/ban players: the same options available as through the voting system.
  • Write a message to somebody/everybody, which is displayed in a different UI-part than the current chat is (can be used for warning somebody)
  • Maybe be able to run some (vetted) plugins/modifications; Possibly making it so that any plugins that affect gameplay will also automatically disable players from gaining any XP/credits (to avoid abuse).

Ideally, the private servers would have their own server tab, where you are able to select and filter them.
A player clicking this ‘private server’-tab will get a clear message what it means, and what possible consequences it might have (for instance, no XP/credits at the end of a match): Same is happening at the moment with Team Fortress 2.

As DA stated: The servers are an important part of the puzzle. Privately owned servers make it possible to meet up with like-minded people, and make you able to play some good games without being harassed by either cheaters or assholes.
It makes it possible to quickly organize scrims, or train with your clan without bothering other people.
Each individual server, and their owners/regulars, gives a bit of personality to it all.

These servers are part of how a community is built.

And I still think (even though more and more developers are swaying away from giving players the option to host a server) that there’s a place for private servers in the F2P-model.
I have no clue why SD/Nexon haven’t been exploring renting out servers yet; Is there anything that I’m missing here?