This is just a post to get my thoughts out on the game and what I think right now.
Why I left and prelude:
I found this game around 2 years ago at this point under alpha while searching for nexon games. This was shortly after the extraction to dirty bomb name. I signed up and after a few weeks i was lucky enough to get a key. The game was mostly dead and so i only occasionally played it although it was quite fun. The game came out for beta on steam and I was hyped beyond belief as I had a headstart over others and enjoy a competitive environment. Tournaments started and i started playing with a variety of teams trying to improve my skills to reach a high level. My dedication was set around competitive and that’s what drove me to continue. Playing with MX, nimbus 9 and 5pt i eventually stuck with 1 team and we spent everyday practicing and doing things. Eventually, the dirty cups tournament started and we put all of our work into this one tournament. The tournament eventually shut down quite early. This was due to bad communication between the person running the tourney and the other owners plus SD. I don’t know much about it as I didn’t look into it. Due to the cancel of the tournament I left and had uninstalled it. It was in an attempt to separate myself from this game as it was dying and I felt my time was wasted.
Coming back to the game:
not as much of my skill had diminished with that big of a break. With 2 days under my belt, I was able to keep up and occasionally do well in the dbnation pugs I took part in. I looked into tournaments and they seem to exist but are not as popular and smaller in size which is sad.
Gameplay has been improved with aim punch not as bad as it used to be and the merc balance overall quite fitting. Gun balance is on point with the kek 10 not dominating like it used to and snipers not instantly gibbing on headshot. The balance and use of old and new mercs is nice although I feel red eye is still fairly useless in high level play and right now bushwacker is not a good choice over fletcher at all right now. Phantom is balanced but again not useful in high-level play for the most part. Pubs have issues and are unbalanced towards whatever team I’m on 99% of the time, unless I’m with my friend in which case it’s balanced. Low levels are spawn camped and unable to do anything against me as I out aim and out play them in 1v6 situations. For example, when playing with my friend we will ignore each other and wipe our entire teams leaving just us 2 but we don’t do the obj. as we are the last 2 alive and in mutual agreement to let each other do our thing. This leads it to be matches where we both go 70-80 kills in a match each with everyone leaving at the end to join another lobby. The balance in pubs is horrible and as a low-level player I would quit the game going against other people like they are. Of course I am a bit at fault but my fun and enjoyment shouldn’t be ruined because of the fact that there are no decent players on either side of the pub. I can’t pug all the time as I feel more like I’m impeding on the matches when I don’t know how to use fletcher yet insist on being an engineer and using a low tier merc like bushwhacker. Casual matchmaking will fix this issue though as far as I know and hope.
I hate to see that this game is dying and there seems to be very little I or SD can do about it right now. As a hobbyist developer and with a good amount of knowledge in the industry I can understand a lot of SD decisions and actually stand by them for the most part. Although some are not quite the best and overall I think SD can be a bit prideful of what they develop in comparison to what the community wants. There is a clear path left for SD to take that gives them a decent chance at having a possible resurgence in the game. This path is of the launch. This game is not launch ready until CMM and MM are fixed and some of the merc are readjusted along with some smaller things. Crafting needs readjusted and an incentive to level and play at high levels is needed. Creating a card past cobalt is a smarter plan than trying to increase the rarity of them when so many people already of them and through f2p means. Adding in skins for certain achievments or levels is a good way to reward players for extreme amounts of play and allow people to know when someone has a great deal of experience. MM is broken and barely works as of now with it being a ghost town. Adding in something more like skins and other things might be a good idea as well. I’m not 100% sure, i don’t know your roadmap and goals set for development so I can’t say what’s best right now. But i do think skins are somthing that should be expanded upon for rewards as its a visual things for everyone to see and notice.
There is a way to save the game in my opinion and it looks as though you know it as well. This is to work on utilizing the launch of the game much like you did in beta to bring people back or to the game. Marketing should not be used at all right now, like you have said new features dont need to be yelled from the developers to let other know. This is because you should stay under the radar and work on the game. Than when it is time for release you advertise the game in a variety of ways to gain traction agian.
Other things:
Another thing to note, fucking work with the competitive community. Even more so than you do now with private server and whatnot. Allow it to flourish with tournaments and give it the needed things to continue. When launch happens fund and advertise a tournament and work with it.
SDK is a good idea as it will allow the game to last for years without your help or work. This would allow the community to dedicate itself to the game and keep it running. This would also be included with custom private servers that we can host and run.
TLDR: I like the game but it will die if not treated properly on release. Also the game as of now is not ready for release, although its close. Work with the competitive side of the community, tournaments and the such etc…
This was just me not ranting put outputing my thoughts on the game as i have been playing it non stop for about 6 days now. Very little changes have occured from when I last played it though. I don’t know what’s best and im only 1 person but I want to make sure that what information and knowledge I have on this game is shown and available to the community and developers.