What's bad about Dirty Bomb?

[CCP1151]

Apologies for the clickbait title, but this wasn’t ever gonna be a nice thread.

Firstly, I like Dirty Bomb. This isn’t a complaint thread… well it is, but it’s constructive criticism as well as reasons as to why this game sucks.

So as we all know, all games have problems. Dirty Bomb is no exception. I have about 1 friend who actively plays Dirty Bomb, out of maybe 10 that have tried it out. Nothing seems to stick. I asked one friend as to why they left, and his response was: “It’s too CODy” (as in that militaristic shooter.)

Having never played COD seriously, I couldn’t really respond. Has anyone played COD? Is it similar? I’ve heard COD is relatively fast, in a bad way.

Another friend also called me cynical, and said I always dig out the bad in games, which is pretty true. Except for Dirty Bomb, probably some bias going on in my head. So, another question from me to you is what is bad about Dirty Bomb? Avoid saying hackers or cheaters or whatever, because that issue is being actively addressed.

So yea, are there any similarities between DB and COD? Was COD fast and fluid like DB is?
And what’s bad about DB? Constructive feedback only, noone wants to see any dumb comments like “my game lags”.

[JesseKomm]

I don’t see many similarities between Dirty Bomb and ANY Call of Duty game, they’re quite different in more aspects than less. I mean they’re fast paced, they got guns… that’s about it. Honestly the only things I see that are bad about this game is lack of content(Understandable for a Beta) and well some of the balance of things.

Really any and all problems that can be found with this game is directly related to it being a beta build, I’m sure your opinion as well as that of your friend’s will change once it hits full release.

[Faraleth]

I’d probably change the title, as it may encourage hasty or aggressive responses :L Just something like “What do I dislike about Dirty Bomb” or something?

As for it being Call-of-Duty-esque, I would hardy say so. It’s more along the lines of older FPS such as RTCW, W:ET, Unreal Tournament and Quake… It’s why I love it so much! The gameplay style is just very unique compared to a lot of the modern-military style shooters which encourage things like ADS. Just what I think

[Pecka]

Have not played latest COD, but the games are completely different. DB has higher learning time and people that turn away from the game quickly are usually people that don’t want to spend time learning. You should tell your friend that he is a freaking NOOB! >D

Right now, I really have only two complaints, that are so minor that they probably do not even belong here

• No pause function available yet in competitive MM
• Random disconnects (with something about game profile stop in console) , happening randomly to people almost every other comp match. (Have not heard any kind of communication from devs in regards to this annoyance)
• Friendly Fire is not ON by default

[Ghosthree3]

You ask a question then say the opposite in your second sentence?

[capriRocket]

its safe to say that people that think the game sucks dont use the forum so getting an answer from us is kind of hard.

why dont you ask your 10 friends why they think it sucks instead?

re COD:

i had a quake friend say the same. too many airstrikes and random spam he said.
also cod gunplay was pretty much hold fire on someone and wait till he dies, meaning little gun control required. run and spray.

when people hear “airstrike” it reminds them instantly of COD. i agree that airstrikes are kinda lame and dont add much to a shooter but it works in DB because its an anti EV ability plus you can see it coming most of the time.

if you play this game for the first time and run around as skyhammer killing people with m4 on full auto, tossing an airstrike every minute, it can remind you quite a bit of cods stale game/gunplay.

some people just prefer the simplistic way of cs or quake where you just shoot enemies without having to consider their abilities or how to counter them best.

being new and dieing many times to fletcher/nader/fragger nades or airstrikes can be reason enough for many players to ragequit and call the game bad. it IS rough at first, especially when going against level 30s that know everything about the gameplay and maps.

[B_Montiel]

What do your friends usually play ? If they’re more in the “reallistic” shooter niche (Arma, insurgency…) or even cs:go than in fast paced shooters like old SD games, UT, Quake and a couple of others, they will somehow call db a cod-esque shooter. Not so surprising in my opinion. But it is way faster it is far from competing in the same category. The “first to ads and shoot wins” logic you can see in all cod since the first modern warfare or in bf series is totally erased by the non ads nature and its speed.

From my point of view, and something I keep saying to whiny children in-game, is that, unless you’ve done your duties on w:et, et:qw, quake or a couple of others, most of the combat logic are way different to what we use to see nowadays. Tracking down enemies to the db extent is something people are not used to anymore. In fact, if you don’t consider old SD games, duels are pretty much a lightning gun duel in Quake 3.
On top of that, people still have a biased reaction : being good in a fps means having a good kdr. Damn no. I’d prefer ten times somebody who actually build strategies, die and retry for a couple of times and finally achieve, than somebody folded at the back behind its team mates trying to grab some kills.
Those two points, on top of others generate something unusual nowadays : random fps Johnny won’t have the full taste or the insight of what can be done in the game in 10 hours. The game accessibility and the skill curve is quite steep and is definitely discouraging some players into going going further. In a certain way, this is a problem because it somehow locks the playerbase to hardcore fast fps fans and it’s probably contradicting the free to play nature of the game. Strangely, I feel like people prefer to be restricted by an entry fee than facing a big wall of “this game requires some experience to be enjoyed at its full potential”.

Anyway, my biggest concern is maps right now.
We asap need new maps, and improvements on existing one. People are getting bored as they’re only 5 maps to play which ALL have proven defaults (lack of side routes, way too sided…). As I already explained a couple of times, I’d literally prefer to have the merc release flow on hold for 3 months to gain 2 new objective/stopwatch maps and maps improvements. Currently, a merc release entertain people for 2 weeks then it’s return to hibernation, while a new map would instantly be a big step forward. Except that, I really expect some server improvements. The feeling is sometimes far from 2015 standards…

[Pecka]

Great post Monty, actually the map adjustments/ new maps is something I would welcome as well. The lack of side routes + synced spawns are devastating on some maps. (i.e making the game really, really simple and defense sided)

[SereneFlight1]

Good number of the players are lobotomized by CoD and rest of the spunkgargleweewee clan (well, not really game’s fault but there you go)… good luck with having an interesting match instead of destroying or getting destroyed but when you have an good match… it’s SO MUCH FUNNNNnnn.

[Amerika]

I am the person responsible for getting the first Call of Duty game into it’s first major tournament, The CPL. I regret it everyday of my life. The game started with and has kept rolling with the mentality that Infinity Ward wanted to make a low skill ceiling arcade shooter (not a military sim like many try to claim it is). They didn’t want people to have to learn how to stay on target and track and they wanted the TTK low enough to encourage, at the time, a new style of play. Something somebody could easily pick up and immediately do OK with.

Well, that idea caught on and it has created an army of imitators and even its own spin-offs. Basically, something that was novel at the time has become the new norm due to how much easier it is to play than something like Q3/UT and it’s more grounded spin-offs like Urban Terror and ET.

What it boils down to is games like Dirty Bomb require you to have consistent tracking, aim and movement (strafe shooting) to succeed where Call of Duty and similar are built around allowing the first person to see the other to win a high percentage of the time. Also, coincidentally, CoD wasn’t built with a controller in mind but the gameplay lends itself easily to using a controller due to the mentality of how the gunplay and maps are designed.

In other words, CoD and Dirty Bomb are pretty much nothing alike other than they are both ground based FPS games.

Now that I’ve bored you with a history lesson my main issue with Dirty Bomb is that it was opened up too early and advertised way too early before key features were in the game. DB is only just now getting into a state where I would consider it a candidate for Open Beta as most of the key features are finally in (new AC, in-game reporting, solid credit system, private server functionality). Start fixing some of the long-standing bugs and get more maps into the game and announce some sweet stuff in the future and it would do quite well I think. But, that didn’t happen It’s not irreparable damage but it’s definitely a hole that it will need to dig itself out of now.

[Harlot]

Dirty Bomb doesn’t suck. The team behind it does. Same goes for Hawken and Nosgoth. Small, F2P FPS games with fantastic ideas and great core gameplay, backed by teams who have no idea what they’re doing, whether it’s changing directions for the gameplay multiple times (Hawken) or struggling to deal with a terrible, terrible publisher and not being able to give the community features they demand (Nosgoth) or not being able to implement anything into the game correctly the first time, or in a time manner (Dirty Bomb).

These small teams really struggle, and all it takes is a hacker infestation, a patch that breaks optimization, or a lack of content to kill off your community.

[watsyurdeal]

Dirty Bomb is actually pretty damn good right now compared the competition.

The problem imo, is certain classes do need to be buffed, and there needs to be as much rng removed as possible. So each gun needs recoil patterns that are predictable and easy to adjust for, and aimpunch needs to be purely visual and not affect spread.

Other than those things…more maps would be nice.

[Harlot]

[quote=“Watsyurdeal;84660”]Dirty Bomb is actually pretty damn good right now compared the competition.

The problem imo, is certain classes do need to be buffed, and there needs to be as much rng removed as possible. So each gun needs recoil patterns that are predictable and easy to adjust for, and aimpunch needs to be purely visual and not affect spread.

Other than those things…more maps would be nice.[/quote]

There’s almost no competition right now. That’s why DB is still alive. There’s TF2 and CS:GO. That’s all. My buddy and I sat around last night trying to think of a game to replace DB with, at least until Overwatch, and found nothing. Overwatch and LawBreakers will likely fill that void, both being free to play and likely of higher quality.

[Jostabeere]

Is it just me or the thread sounds like: “I’m not racist, but…”

COD isn’t bad because it’s fast. COD is ba dbecause the mechanics and gameplay together suck. UT, Quake and so on were and are much faster and people love them!
personally, I don’t have a issue with DB. much things people list in “DB Suxxxxx” threads are completely subjective.
Well, maybe the lack of maps. 5 aren’t that much and get repetative after some time.

[Rip-Off]

The lack of new maps. Would really prefer new maps over new mercs. And maybe a bit more time here and there for the attacking team.

What really sucks is people not playing for their team but only for themselves. For example: I consider snipers useless. Almost completely. They don’t really add anything to the force of a team. If I play with a team (e.g. 6 on 6) and two guys are sniping - even if they are good at what they are doing - the team mostly fails.

[watsyurdeal]

[quote=“Harlot;84662”][quote=“Watsyurdeal;84660”]Dirty Bomb is actually pretty damn good right now compared the competition.

The problem imo, is certain classes do need to be buffed, and there needs to be as much rng removed as possible. So each gun needs recoil patterns that are predictable and easy to adjust for, and aimpunch needs to be purely visual and not affect spread.

Other than those things…more maps would be nice.[/quote]

There’s almost no competition right now. That’s why DB is still alive. There’s TF2 and CS:GO. That’s all. My buddy and I sat around last night trying to think of a game to replace DB with, at least until Overwatch, and found nothing. Overwatch and LawBreakers will likely fill that void, both being free to play and likely of higher quality.[/quote]

Then the market is ripe for the picking imo, I think once the game goes out of Beta, and we get the things I proposed I think the game will pick up.

Competitive players like games with as much focus on skill and as little randomness as possible.

Dirty Bomb is getting there, and I think it’ll be a damn good shooter once it starts getting the attention it deserves.

Not only that…but Overwatch and Lawbreakers have more in common with TF2 than Dirty Bomb. They have that distinct Quake/Unreal Tournament feel to them, whereas Dirty Bomb feels more like Counter Strike if it were fun to play. shots fired

[Harlot]

[quote=“Watsyurdeal;84672”][quote=“Harlot;84662”][quote=“Watsyurdeal;84660”]Dirty Bomb is actually pretty damn good right now compared the competition.

The problem imo, is certain classes do need to be buffed, and there needs to be as much rng removed as possible. So each gun needs recoil patterns that are predictable and easy to adjust for, and aimpunch needs to be purely visual and not affect spread.

Other than those things…more maps would be nice.[/quote]

There’s almost no competition right now. That’s why DB is still alive. There’s TF2 and CS:GO. That’s all. My buddy and I sat around last night trying to think of a game to replace DB with, at least until Overwatch, and found nothing. Overwatch and LawBreakers will likely fill that void, both being free to play and likely of higher quality.[/quote]

Then the market is ripe for the picking imo, I think once the game goes out of Beta, and we get the things I proposed I think the game will pick up.

Competitive players like games with as much focus on skill and as little randomness as possible.

Dirty Bomb is getting there, and I think it’ll be a damn good shooter once it starts getting the attention it deserves.

Not only that…but Overwatch and Lawbreakers have more in common with TF2 than Dirty Bomb. They have that distinct Quake/Unreal Tournament feel to them, whereas Dirty Bomb feels more like Counter Strike if it were fun to play. shots fired[/quote]

There’s no competition right now and the game is still bleeding players. When there’s more competition, it’ll be even worse. Dirty Bomb isn’t really getting anywhere, though. Not with the speed that they release content. And I really don’t think it being called a “beta” is keeping players away. The game is just flat-out dying.

[Amerika]

People are a bit too obsessed with numbers. You don’t derive enjoyment from numbers in regards to playing an FPS shooter. You get enjoyment when there is enough players to play against and support. And playerbase raises and lowers based on advertisement and reminding people the game exists which has only been done once so far.

The game is not “dying”. If DB is dying then tons of other shooters with lower pops that have been around for years now are dying/dead…but they aren’t. Get some perspective before you go all Chicken Little

[watsyurdeal]

[quote=“Harlot;84690”][quote=“Watsyurdeal;84672”][quote=“Harlot;84662”][quote=“Watsyurdeal;84660”]Dirty Bomb is actually pretty damn good right now compared the competition.

The problem imo, is certain classes do need to be buffed, and there needs to be as much rng removed as possible. So each gun needs recoil patterns that are predictable and easy to adjust for, and aimpunch needs to be purely visual and not affect spread.

Other than those things…more maps would be nice.[/quote]

There’s almost no competition right now. That’s why DB is still alive. There’s TF2 and CS:GO. That’s all. My buddy and I sat around last night trying to think of a game to replace DB with, at least until Overwatch, and found nothing. Overwatch and LawBreakers will likely fill that void, both being free to play and likely of higher quality.[/quote]

Then the market is ripe for the picking imo, I think once the game goes out of Beta, and we get the things I proposed I think the game will pick up.

Competitive players like games with as much focus on skill and as little randomness as possible.

Dirty Bomb is getting there, and I think it’ll be a damn good shooter once it starts getting the attention it deserves.

Not only that…but Overwatch and Lawbreakers have more in common with TF2 than Dirty Bomb. They have that distinct Quake/Unreal Tournament feel to them, whereas Dirty Bomb feels more like Counter Strike if it were fun to play. shots fired[/quote]

There’s no competition right now and the game is still bleeding players. When there’s more competition, it’ll be even worse. Dirty Bomb isn’t really getting anywhere, though. Not with the speed that they release content. And I really don’t think it being called a “beta” is keeping players away. The game is just flat-out dying.[/quote]

Dying implies it’s hard to find a game quickly, which it isn’t, competitive maybe, but it takes a couple minutes tops for me to find a match.

And no, I do not think the game will have competition with Overwatch or Lawbreakers, as those games have a radically different feel to them.

Overwatch seems to be super casual, the abilities pretty much guarantee a kill every time. Where as Lawbreakers seems to be more like Tribes or Unreal Tournament than Enemy Territory and Brink.

And again, I think once they’ve added some things that tailor towards the competitive audience the game will pick up again. It’s not like CS GO had the same problem…oh wait.

[Harlot]

[quote=“Amerika;84692”]People are a bit too obsessed with numbers. You don’t derive enjoyment from numbers in regards to playing an FPS shooter. You get enjoyment when there is enough players to play against and support. And playerbase raises and lowers based on advertisement and reminding people the game exists which has only been done once so far.

The game is not “dying”. If DB is dying then tons of other shooters with lower pops that have been around for years now are dying/dead…but they aren’t. Get some perspective before you go all Chicken Little

[/quote]

You can say we’re obsessed with the numbers, but a lot of us are being realists. A lot of us have been through multiple F2P FPS’s dying over the years. We’ve seen normal dips and we’ve seen playerbases up and leave. Dirty Bomb is closer to the latter than the former.

Just because a game such as Hawken averages 380 players on at any given doesn’t mean it isn’t dead. Dead doesn’t mean 0 players and servers turned off. Dead implies netting a financial loss and lacking enough players to have quality matches without obscene queue times. Dead means it’s a matter of time before the development staff cuts their losses and turns off the servers or abandons the game.

Dirty Bomb has a garbage cash shop. Everything is over-priced and the cases are RNG based. Almost every single player I’ve talked to refuses to spend cash. But you look at Hawken, almost every person bought at least a few skins. Hawken likely could remain profitable with less players, given equal spending/overhead by the development teams.

With the way it’s losing players and a trash sales model, it’s a matter of time before it hits that threshold. Couple that with a slow development cycle (I’m honestly curious what they’ve been working on over the past year) a hacker infestation, and the inability to implement anything correctly the first time, it’s easy to forecast the game not being around a year.

I mean, we’re getting our first map in ~6 months. How long until the next map? Drip-feeding content is a fantastic way to kill your game off. Ask Toxikk. All 9 players on in the past 24 hours will tell you that.

Unless Splash Damage pulls out a pretty amazing content dump that works the first time, the game is going to keep losing players. There’s no arguing that.