Wait for the "big patch"/DLC?

(GreasedScotsman) #1

Been thinking about this a lot… part of me hopes that teams wait for the patch/DLC or whenever the spawn time changes hit before competing in the next league/tournament/etc. I don’t want players to get burnt out and then disappear… I want Brink to last, and if the latest patch is any indication, SD is getting down the list of problems and has starting to address some of the PC-specific issues.

Pubbing is pretty damn solid with the latest changes and I know from conversations in #splashdamage and elsewhere that the comp community will be getting some love soon.

Thoughts?

(INF3RN0) #2

As long as it all comes together before BF3 there’s hope :wink: .

(darthmob) #3

I have said it before somewhere. DLC makes frontpage news and gets the people back who already ditched the game. The issues must be fixed beforehand or people will leave again and won’t come back.

Gradually fixing the game does not create enough word of mouth to bring people back.

(Brainless) #4

agree, but there is still bfbc2.
But for Brink just wait and see the update we got today is a little impovement.

(wolfnemesis75) #5

some that left the game, didn’t want to leave, but were frustrated. a cool-down period, and some DLC will bring a lot of folks back. DLC is free, so that’s a big bonus to pick the game up again, or give it another go.

(itsme) #6

Nobody really leaves the game lol. They bought it so they can always reinstall the game if it suits them better

Most people just try out the game and expect a cod killer and then realise it is not about the k/d ratio

(wolfnemesis75) #7

[QUOTE=itsme;334845]Nobody really leaves the game lol. They bought it so they can always reinstall the game if it suits them better

Most people just try out the game and expect a cod killer and then realise it is not about the k/d ratio[/QUOTE]

Quoted for truth.

(BMXer) #8

I feel like the game is fairly dead atm due to a lack of competition. Are there currently any leagues/cups/tourneys going that are worth a crap?

My team is waiting for ESL and hopefully others to announce some details. I would assume teams would start scrimming again to prepare. At this point, it seems kinda pointless to scrim/prac when we don’t know what the rules will be and we know the game is going to change very soon.
At the moment, scrimming double full holds seems pointless.

I am also banking on the announcement of an official Brink tournament at Quakecon this year. If this happens, you can bet teams are going to come out of the woodwork and Brink will pick up again.

That being said, the evening of August 7th and Brink will officially be dead in North America and will die a few short weeks later in Europe after their lan finals.

(GreasedScotsman) #9

Holy **** BMXer, stop QQ’ing. Seriously… your impatience is ridiculous. I know you’re old enough to remember how long patches used to take for PC games. I know you’re old enough to remember that ZERO FPS games have ever been released bug free and balanced. In fact, most have taken months or even years of patching before they were the truly decent gems we remember.

Yet, in less than month, SD has fixed maybe 90% of the glaring issues with the game. Were there problems? Absolutely. Do many remain? Sure do. But at least they’re being fixed.

Have they fixed competitive stuff? Not yet. But they’ve started to… and the PC especially is starting to get attention.

Guess what… competition makes up like 1% of a game company’s sales. This is even true for a powerhouse game like SC2, so it makes sense to get the masses happy, and then try to claw back the competitive people.

SD will get there. Have some faith.

SD isn’t Infinity Ward. They’re actually patching their ****. Just because the competitive scene wasn’t first on the list doesn’t mean you’re being ignored. Stop the doom and gloom and give SD a chance. If they **** up or ignore the comp scene after the “big patch/DLC” then I’ll even join you in the chorus of lament, k?

(BMXer) #10

Sorry but what does anything you said have to do with this thread you started? My reply was directed at your first post by stating that there isn’t anything to play for atm. When teams have nothing to play for, the game dies.

…ill shut up and just let all the people who don’t even compete in this game be opinionated about the situation.

cya on LAN

(Cynix) #11

The heart of the competitive problem is the fact that the game is unbalanced. The only teams that are happy with ties are teams that don’t believe they can win in the first place. In most cases, both teams believe they can win, so a tie leaves both teams feeling robbed. A competitive community cannot exist when the game makes all of the players feel cheated. Pretty much all of the other issues with the game are trivial compared to this.

The frustration in the competitive community partially comes from the fact that the perceived fix for this critical problem is trivial: change the spawn times. It seems like this should be a trivial patch, but it hasn’t been done. I’m sure there is a reason for it, but I have no idea what it is. Maybe it would unbalance pubbing, maybe it requires recompiling the maps, maybe the publisher won’t approve the changes, but they haven’t told us the reason.

The success of the DLC depends on how balanced the maps are. If they release a few maps that are actually balanced it will help the competitive community greatly. It might even revive it for the summer. If the maps are unbalanced, people will come back to the game for a few days, see that nothing has changed, and leave even faster than before with even less of a chance of them ever coming back in the future.

competition makes up like 1% of a game company’s sales. This is even true for a powerhouse game like SC2, so it makes sense to get the masses happy, and then try to claw back the competitive people.

This is very true, but also a good reason for developers to get the game as comp-ready as possible before release (especially a developer like SD that has a competitive background). At this point, whoever is bankrolling Brink is going to be extremely discerning regarding any additional money that goes into patching the game. However, before release, they were probably a lot more flexible with where the money went. Of course, I also have no doubt that in this case Splash Damage would have spent more time on competitive features but were not given time to do so. Obviously the money ran out and they just had to release what was done (had the money not run out, the game would have just been delayed another year).

(blazen) #12

I don’t believe the content I’ve seen set for the DLC is worth ‘waiting for’ in a comp sense. It’ll add another layer to the game (though I smell more ability restrictions incoming).

The “fun sucker”, imo, is currently the lack of a few comp settings like adjustable spawn times and a pause feature. Things that I have not heard to be included in the patch.

At this point I believe the core competitive feel of the game has been set, this first DLC isn’t going to radically change it. Teams just need to make sure not to burn out by only playing aquarium :wink:

(GreasedScotsman) #13

Yes, but what if spawn adjustments come with the DLC? SD has been hinting at them for so long… or maybe I’ve just been pestering them so damn much… that my guess is they probably will.

(crazyfoolish) #14

How hard can it be to add an OPTION to change spawn times? seriously? It is baffling.

(Kendle) #15

[QUOTE=Cynix;335094]The frustration in the competitive community partially comes from the fact that the perceived fix for this critical problem is trivial: change the spawn times. It seems like this should be a trivial patch, but it hasn’t been done. I’m sure there is a reason for it, but I have no idea what it is.
[/quote]

I suspect the reason, without being dis-respectful to anyone, is that longer spawn times = less fun (i.e. less time in-game shooting people), especially for Joe Newb.

Imagine if Joe Newb has just bought the game, joins a server for the first time, joins the defending team, spawns, runs to where the action is (not far), dies, and then has to wait 20 - 30 seconds before he can play again, rinse - repeat a few times and he’s spent most of his first ‘x’ minutes in the game dead and waiting. I suspect he wouldn’t be too happy about that and might not be playing tomorrow.

We have to face the fact that this game was made for Joe Newb, to play for fun only, it wasn’t made for comp players, and the maps weren’t designed to be “won”, they were only designed to be “played”.

Of course, the “option” to set spawn times server side would fix this, and I can’t see any reason this couldn’t be added in a patch. The question is: will they do so in the next patch / DLC? If yes, then wait for it as GS says, if not the patch / DLC won’t bring anyone back.

Also, I wouldn’t put much faith in SD’s alleged “competitive background”. It’s true that “some of them” “a long time ago” played some Q2 clanned, but they’ve never released a comp ready game, and never patched a game to be comp ready, both their previous efforts required community mods.

(Darksider) #16

[QUOTE=Kendle;335354]I suspect the reason, without being dis-respectful to anyone, is that longer spawn times = less fun (i.e. less time in-game shooting people), especially for Joe Newb.

Imagine if Joe Newb has just bought the game, joins a server for the first time, joins the defending team, spawns, runs to where the action is (not far), dies, and then has to wait 20 - 30 seconds before he can play again, rinse - repeat a few times and he’s spent most of his first ‘x’ minutes in the game dead and waiting. I suspect he wouldn’t be too happy about that and might not be playing tomorrow.

We have to face the fact that this game was made for Joe Newb, to play for fun only, it wasn’t made for comp players, and the maps weren’t designed to be “won”, they were only designed to be “played”.

Of course, the “option” to set spawn times server side would fix this, and I can’t see any reason this couldn’t be added in a patch. The question is: will they do so in the next patch / DLC? If yes, then wait for it as GS says, if not the patch / DLC won’t bring anyone back.

Also, I wouldn’t put much faith in SD’s alleged “competitive background”. It’s true that “some of them” “a long time ago” played some Q2 clanned, but they’ve never released a comp ready game, and never patched a game to be comp ready, both their previous efforts required community mods.[/QUOTE]

Stay on track, they are talking about adjustable spawn times for COMP matches not regular pub games.

(Smokeskin) #17

There’s a simple solution to Joe Newb not liking long spawn times - only make spawn times adjustable in Competition mode.

(DonkeyDong) #18

How many games that were patched later truly ever recovered? And because of that is that what we truly want from this game?

[QUOTE=GreasedScotsman;335053]Yet, in less than month, SD has fixed maybe 90% of the glaring issues with the game. Were there problems? Absolutely. Do many remain? Sure do. But at least they’re being fixed.

Have they fixed competitive stuff? Not yet. But they’ve started to… and the PC especially is starting to get attention. [/QUOTE]

Fuzz gamers come and go but go more on the level of game we have. Replay players go because it’s just not worth replaying… notice a pattern? Can’t nurture a layer without somewhere for them to go. Or people will keep bleeding from this game.

that is a sad stat to present when 1% of the players are who replay the game over and over and give it the life and love that keeps games alive. the other ones are the cash cow and have a half life of about a month. so does it really seem right to appreciate the cash cow? sure, but then that certainly discourages me and lots of other replay gamers from ever playing competitive gaming. atleast not to the level that we’ve seen. this is where i believe vanilla tournies will come up for the masses,… which will be skill capped xbox style gaming,… that will have a half life of about 2 months tops (at least for replayers).
what pisses me off is that we beg, we talk, we show that we want a game to replay, shoutcast, and live long, but they are satisfied with putting out something that brings in their buck. again, not dissing anyone else but this is why you won’t see anyone playing this game or other games for long then a few months (as long as there’s no lans or prize pots).

if i could write a game, i would put in the fuzz layer that they’ve put out, but i’d also put in a layer that helps nuture the fish that grow big and want to keep playing. otherwise players just get burned out.

(Vozlov) #19

I wanted to wait for it, I really did, but this games trade in value is going downhill fast and I STILL cannot play the game.

In all seriousness I have never seen a game with as much marketing put together so poorly.

Literally the only thing this game has going for it from my point of view is the aesthetics, because quite simply I literally cannot play this game. I find a full competition game today for the first time since the games release ( always put in games of 2 vs 2 ) and yet again, the lagg that plagued the game from the start latches on and never lets up.

I would send a letter of complaint and demand my money back from SD but I know very well that isn’t going to happen. This game is a complete disgrace to anyone who works hard for their money and expects to have a working product when they hand it over.

Splash Damage have proved to me that they are literally unable to make a game on their own merits, without second hand help in creating the engine, and therefor I will never buy a product of theirs again.

I followed this game for years and put in my pre-order for a day one purchase, and yet still SD haven’t managed to sort out the problems, namely lagg.

They say they have, but I seriously doubt the ability of any developer whos response to crippling lagg is to cut down the maximum player count in games. This has to be the most pathetic attempt at sorting out a games problems I have ever heard in my many years of gaming.

That is simply the main course, the desert is the way in which they have completely neglected the most simplest of console standards in creating a decent matchmaking system. To actually put together the multiplayer the way they have just goes to show, yet again, their complete ineptitude when it comes to putting a game together. They quite simply don’t have the mental capacity to see the evident problems their ‘matchmaking’ system would cause.

It truely is a shame, because as with all SDs products there are obviously some extremely good ideas laying at the core of the gameplay. Unfortunately what they don’t seem to realise is that ideas don’t make the game, it’s the way it is put together.

At first I was annoyed at SD for releasing such a shoddy product, but now the annoyance is directed at myself for actually putting up with their extremely poor buisness practices for so long in the hope, a hope that is just about logically run its course, that they might be able to pull it around.

A shame SD. Judging by the influx of second hand copies I see of this game I’m not the only one who has been let down, and I do wonder how on earth the developers can actually cash in their pay checks with a smile on their face. Knowing full well they have quite literally screwed their fans out of their money.

I paid for a game, I’m still waiting.

(GreasedScotsman) #20

Are you on a console? PC players have dedicated servers that are quite solid… I’ve only experienced a few moments of lag across many hours of gameplay. From some of my console-itis friends, I’ve also heard their lag issues have gone away w/ recent patches. Perhaps you’re having unfortunate pairings? I wish you luck!