TL;DR: I don’t think the current loadout system is working at its full potential for either the players or the game makers. There is a lot of info here. Skip to the part you want by looking for subheadings.
Link to Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dirtybomb/comments/46pu7a/unlinking_cosmetics_from_loadouts/
I just wanted to get my thoughts out about the whole situation and where I stand as a DB fan and average joe gamer.
Loadouts Impact In Game:
I think linking the weapons to augments is fine. In general augments don’t have much of an effect on the game, most weapons are balanced and having set loadouts brings a bit more variety to the game depending on personal preference.
Current System:
It’s not well known to new players that bronze and above cards have no effect.
Currently with cases it’s too expensive and far too random. I personally don’t see value in spending £4 each or £2.79 if you buy in bulk.
If you wanted a loadout for a specific merc (we all have our favorites hence the flair on this subreddit) you first have a 1 in 9 chance to get that merc. There is then a 1 in 9 chance it will be the loadout you want. I believe that makes it a 1 in 81 chance from the start. You then have an 80% chance it will be silver, 15% gold and just 5% cobalt. On top of all of this there is a 50% chance on the rarity skin. Cobalt has blue or silver, Gold has black and red or green and bamboo, Silver has silver digital or carbon fiber (although I’m unsure if that last colour change is locked per loadout).
It’s not fair to work out how much money you’d need to spend to theoretically get the card you wanted at cobalt because along the way you can trade up and there may be several loadouts for several mercs you’d be happy to get.
Benefits of unlinking:
Players get what they want and can clearly see the effort/time/money they will need to invest to get to their goal.
The makers get more money? I have to admit I have no idea how much money you guys are actually making from selling cases, there could be a silent majority who are spending hundreds on cases and you’re very happy with your income. I think if much larger companies like Valve, Blizzard and Riot are all sticking to the same platform of not having in game abilities linked to cosmetics then you maybe don’t want to reinvent the wheel. They’re probably paying a lot more people a lot more money to come up with ideas of making money from their games and they’ve all settled on the same idea of pure cosmetics.
When you release amazing skins like you’ve been doing for events you don’t get a shit storm of people complaining and crying because they didn’t get what they wanted.
How Unlinked Cosmetics Can Work In DB Alongside Current Card System:
The default card per merc has every loadout. You put time or money into the game to by that character, why do you only get part of it?
In games like Diablo and WoW when you get some armour it’s unlocked for transmog. Now saying “you’ve got a gold card, all your characters can now use gold level cosmetics” would be a bad idea. I like the fact people can see I have higher quality cards and the effort (or pure luck) that went into getting them. (Side note, we should be able to see each loadout every player in game is currently using without having to get killed by them). So I think locking quality skins per Merc is the way to go.
This way you can still do trade ups and still do cards from cases and players still get a rush watching the carousel of RNG spinning. Trading up will probably have to be reworked to require more cards to unlock the tier above so that it’s still hard to get to cobalt level.
!!!THE MONEY!!! - Standard Cards
So in this world where each merc needs to unlock the cosmetic tier wanted how will cases and special event skins work?
Well cases could probably be left as they are. The small chance of getting a cobalt now makes sense as you wouldn’t then need to craft your lower tier cards to reach the next level. It would be like teleporting to the finish line for that merc and it would feel fucking great. If someone unlocks a cobalt it’s up to you if that means they unlock every tier below that or just that level. Duplicate cobalts can be side traded for other mercs.
As someone who is somewhat of a completionist I would be playing the game more often to grind cases to unlock cobalt level on every merc and buying elite cases to help me get there.
!!!THE MONEY!!! - Special Edition Cards
Money I’ve spent in game so far:
- £23 Starter Pack
- £10 Credit Boosters (approximate)
- £4 Sparks Trinket
- $12 Humble Bundle (unsure of what % I allocated to Devs)
In terms of Cases:
For Containment War I gave you nothing.
For What the Dickens I gave you nothing.
For future events I will continue to give nothing.
For special events I could see myself spending £5 to unlock that skin for one merc and I would have bought maybe 2-3 skins per event at that price. I would spend between £15-25(at a push) if I could have the event skins unlocked for every merc.
What I Currently Don’t Understand:
Is the inconsistency of how you regard loadouts and their quality. It’s currently very difficult to get cobalt or even gold cards and almost impossible for special events without spending money. But you constantly give out special edition cards for Alienware, Logitech and the best loadout and amazing skin for Phoenix for free. I’m not complaining about the free stuff, that’s great and we really appreciate it. But why is it so much harder to get a gold than a rarer and in my opinion nicer looking special edition?
Potential Backlash:
You’ve been selling loadouts and cases for money, which some people have been buying for a specific set of weapons/augments. To change the system now would potentially make all the money they’ve invested seem a waste in their eyes. I understand changing you payment plan is not simple in terms of what you currently have is probably working well enough, the massive ingame changes of unlinking loadouts and creating a new tier based progression system for card quality and admitting that your idea for a loadout system probably wasn’t the best decision.
Why I Think It Will Still Work:
The general conciseness of the player base want this. It even seems like on dev streams whenever this idea comes up you seem unhappy about it and generally say “it’s just the system we have in place”.
In other games like WoW some people spent tens or hundreds of hours grinding mounts in game (Netherwing, Armani, etc…) and they needed to do this for every character. Then it was changed so if one character on the entire account has it, they all will (with some exceptions). People essentially wasted entire days of their lives grinding for duplicates or buying boosts and they managed to get over that. (Buying boosts still counts as although the money didn’t go to Blizzard it’s still money people were happy to pay for digital content).
Who The Hell Am I And Why Do My Ideas Matter?
I believe I’m your target audience at least in regards of how you make money. I do spend money on in game items, not including subscriptions and the games themselves I have spent hundreds of pounds on in game items. Like most people I don’t have unlimited money, I work a full time job that gives a living wadge. I’d say I represent a large portion of your untapped player base who do spend money in game, but just not on yours because I can’t see the value. Most times when I look at reddit people say they’re buying cases to support the devs. That’s fine for those people who earn enough money to do that. But you’re not a charity and when I buy something I want value.
