Dirty Bomb Closed Alpha Progress Update - August 6th 2013


(Anti) #1

Greetings forum folk!

In our last closed alpha progress update we talked to you about some upcoming changes to the game in the areas of UI and Spectator Mode, as well as discussing some of the changes in the next game update.

Today I’m going to tell you about some even bigger changes to the game that we’d like you all to be testing. Some of these are quite radical, and the Closed Alpha is the perfect place to fully test them.

Our focus for these changes is on characters.

Character Focus
At the heart of Dirty Bomb are its characters, one of the things that we feel will make the game stand out from the many other free-to-play shooter games available. Each of these unique Mercenaries will provide the player with access to a characterful individual with a unique play-style and their own combination of abilities and weapons.

Or at least… that’s the plan. As the alpha has progressed so far we’ve felt that we’ve not really been delivering on the character front, and we’ve not always infused them with the gameplay personality and individuality they deserve.

We feel there are a few reasons for this:

[ul]
[li]Specific map objectives force players to ignore their preferred play-style in favour of the class that can do the objective, or the objective goes un-done and the game is spoilt[/li][li]We’ve not made character abilities as unique and powerful as they should be to make the character stand out. A good example is the underwhelming Airstrike ability on Skyhammer[/li][li]Class archetypes have prevented us doing more interesting and unique ‘hybrid’ characters, we’ve not always ‘followed the fun’ to use a common design phrase[/li][li]Fixed weapon load-outs for each character provide a barrier to players who prefer specific weapon types, but that want to use that character’s abilities[/li][/ul]
So what are we going to do to address these issues and make characters truly be the focal point of Dirty Bomb?

Well, starting with the game update later this week, we’re going to test a number of changes to the game that we feel will allows us to reach our goal of being a character-driven multiplayer FPS.

Characters Not Classes
To start with we’re going to drop the concept of classes and start treating each character as an individual.

In practical terms, this means the things that differentiate ‘classes’ remain and each character will still have a ‘role’ that they should be filling for the team, be that the frontline fighter, the supporting medic or the defensive engineer - it’s just that they are no longer limited by slot constraints or a few narrow and specific roles.

This change will allow us more freedom and variety in character design, player choice and accessibility. Ultimately, we’d like players to be able to choose their preferred play style(s), and pick their character load out based on that preference, rather than having to base it on a relatively arbitrary limitation.

Classless Objectives
By removing classes we are removing one arbitrary constraint on which character and play-style players can choose at any one time, but a bigger barrier remains in the shape of class-specific objectives.

In order to fully test our idea of a play style-driven game, we are changing all objectives to be class-agnostic. This basically means that we had to make it possible for all characters to plant, arm and diffuse C4, and allow all characters to interact with repair/construct objectives as well.

Our initial tests with this change have gone well so with the next update to the closed alpha we’ll be pushing that change out to you folks to test.

We do want to make sure that characters are still different, even with regard to the circumstances in the map at any given time - we just want to avoid imposing a particular play-style on any player just because the game says ‘now you must do it like this’.

To support that idea we’re introducing the concept of ‘proficiency’, specifically with the execution of what were previously class-specific interactions. The implementation is that anyone can place C4, only one can be down at a time, and anyone can arm/diffuse it. Some characters are better than others at arming/diffusing/repairing/constructing (using pliers). It all still needs some love (communicating/presenting this to players), but it works for now, and can be tested.

Frag Grenades and Unique Abilities
We expect this next decision to be quite controversial, but it’s one that we think is worth testing. As part of the next update we will also be removing Frag Grenades from each character’s load-out.

Up until now frags have toed the line between being useless and being better than many of the character defining abilities in the game, and they have actually detracted from a character’s intended role in many cases.

By removing the frags from the build we hope to be able to do two things:

[ol]
[li]We can give the frags back to a few specific characters and make them suitably powerful as a result.[/li][li]We can improve the quality and power of many of our other AoE abilities to the level they should be at, without having to worry that the game will become spammy.[/li][/ol]
Interestingly, it’s so far helping us to identify which characters have underwhelming or lacklustre abilities - the air strike is a good example of something that should be just as effective as but different in purpose to a frag grenade. If we take frags away from characters that should be appealing because of their unique skills, it forces us to fix the issues with those skills.

Alternate Weapons
In the long term we’re also planning to reduce the impact of another constraint on characters by providing each character with a number of options for alternate primary and/or secondary weapons. This is to prevent players feeling ‘cut off’ from certain characters because their weapon doesn’t suit the player’s play-style.

In this case there will still be some constraints; each character is going to have an effective combat distance that suits their role, so you won’t be swapping Machine Pistols for Sniper Rifles, for example. In the case of a character like Proxy, you will likely have the option to swap her Shotgun for something comparable like an SMG.

Get Testing!
We understand we’re throwing a lot of changes at you all at once with this update and some of you are bound to be sceptical about them. You folks had asked us if you could test some more ‘radical’ changes, so here they are. :slight_smile:

While some of you might not approve of everything in this update in principle, we do urge you to help us test these ideas, so that we can see what effect they have on the way you play the game.

Check out the update when it hits later this week, and let us know your feedback on each of these changes. We look forward to your thoughts!


(MrFunkyFunk) #2

Holy cow, talk about drastic changes.
I’ll edit when I’m not speechless anymore.

Edit:

[QUOTE=Anti;460532]

Classless Objectives
To support that idea we’re introducing the concept of ‘proficiency’, specifically with the execution of what were previously class-specific interactions. The implementation is that anyone can place C4, only one can be down at a time, and anyone can arm/diffuse it. Some characters are better than others at arming/diffusing/repairing/constructing (using pliers). It all still needs some love (communicating/presenting this to players), but it works for now, and can be tested.[/QUOTE]

That’s something I don’t like much on paper but that I’m all for testing.

The positive side of this is that it will probably balance drasticaly public games, and it’s a good thing.

In comp it looks like it’s somehow easing the strategy & required coordination/protection towards obj classes.
It would have been nice if the C4 was a carryable (eg: CS), one or two person have it, everyone can plant but it still gives a sort of target prioritizing and a way to delay the impeding doom for the defenders.
With your idea I hope it doesn’t turn each spawn wave into a mandatory “total elimination” for each team.

Frag Grenades and Unique Abilities
We expect this next decision to be quite controversial, but it’s one that we think is worth testing. As part of the next update we will also be removing Frag Grenades from each character’s load-out.

Up until now frags have toed the line between being useless and being better than many of the character defining abilities in the game, and they have actually detracted from a character’s intended role in many cases.

By removing the frags from the build we hope to be able to do two things:

[ol]
[li]We can give the frags back to a few specific characters and make them suitably powerful as a result.[/li]> [li]We can improve the quality and power of many of our other AoE abilities to the level they should be at, without having to worry that the game will become spammy.[/li]> [/ol]

That’s really something disappointing.
Nades have become an issue for me with the last content update (2 months ago?). I won’t go into details but I felt there were more rewarding before with their laughable radius. You needed pin-point precision to completely deplete hp from someone and there were still rather good to finish a player if you were less accurate.

Something I truly have fun doing is playing cvops and throwing a sensor into certain areas to deliver a grenade to someone. You can display a great sense of skill using surroundings for rebounds or balistic/fall-off curves above walls or other elements for long distance kills. I guess it will only be about airstrike now.

Alternate Weapons
In the long term we’re also planning to reduce the impact of another constraint on characters by providing each character with a number of options for alternate primary and/or secondary weapons. This is to prevent players feeling ‘cut off’ from certain characters because their weapon doesn’t suit the player’s play-style.

In this case there will still be some constraints; each character is going to have an effective combat distance that suits their role, so you won’t be swapping Machine Pistols for Sniper Rifles, for example. In the case of a character like Proxy, you will likely have the option to swap her Shotgun for something comparable like an SMG.

If you allow to switch to weapons within the same class existing weapons pool it’s a huge improvement. And it should be limited that way.
That’s the only thing I want, I’m not after the fops gun on every character but being able to have the Engie 01 SMG over the Engie 02 Shotgun and still being able to play with the lovely mine lady is awesome.


(Ruben0s) #3

LoL FPS :smiley:

Seems worth testing to me. I hope we will get some unique characters, also for me personally I’m more likely to buy a character now than before.

Question: So every one can plant a C4, but as a team you can only plant one?


(Tankey) #4

Well, to be honest, I don’t really like most of the changes mentioned in this thread (sorry Anti and others who may feel offended).

But hey, it’s the Alpha, and we’re here to test things out. So I’ll be glad to do so. But I think competition based games are pretty much over now, if you ask me.

I’ll see how the ball rolls. Maybe it’ll not be as bad as I expect.


(Rex) #5

Ok, first of all these character pictures look totally awesome! :cool:

You know that I’m willing to test and provide feedback on everything you’ll bring up, but I’m very sceptical about classless objectives and missing frag grenades. As I think it “fixes” something which isn’t broken or that there are other issues which need to be addressed instead.

I’m also interested what the next clanwars will say…


(Anti) #6

[QUOTE=Tankey;460537]Well, to be honest, I don’t really like most of the changes mentioned in this thread (sorry Anti and others who may feel offended).

But hey, it’s the Alpha, and we’re here to test things out. So I’ll be glad to do so. But I think competition based games are pretty much over now, if you ask me.

I’ll see how the ball rolls. Maybe it’ll not be as bad as I expect.[/QUOTE]

You don’t need to apologise if you disagree with us, as long as you give it a try and provide constructive feedback :slight_smile:


(.FROST.) #7

Looking extremely forward to all the above, since many, if not all, of the things you’ve mentioned, are really things wich bother me since quite a while now; some even from the beginning.

I really like the idea of a more complex and individual character management. Until now, there was basically no management of the single chars whatsoever and you basically have to take what was provided. I exclusively played Arty, mostly due to his main weapon and because I can give myself ammo. Those two things, kept me from picking any other class; especially the weapon thing. That was never an issue in Brink because I could take every weapon that’d fit my body-type. With other words; I never had a problem with picking the objective class, cause I could keep my trusty “Carb 9”.

Being able to choose the weapon that suits one the most is the most important thing in a shooter for me; taking that away, or not having it in in the first place, leads to some kind of forced play-style, that doesn’t reflect the players actual preferences and natural play-style.


(.FROST.) #8

[QUOTE=MrFunkyFunk;460535]Holy cow, talk about drastic changes.
I’ll edit when I’m not speechless anymore.[/QUOTE]

I was shaking of excitement, tipping my reply:wink:


(montheponies) #9

My main reason for playing this type of FPS is that it’s Class based - not Character based. Personally I couldn’t care less for the skin i’m wearing (felt the same about brink, though i know others get a kick out of this…), so can’t help but feel these changes are to align with the F2P model where you can sell a lot more stuff, to a lot more people, by making the Characters more ‘open’ to customisation.

Removing nades seems fairly drastic, particularly as I’m not really conscious of a lot of nade spam (the single nade per life cures that). I’d have thought increasing the power of the Airstrike/FFE would be a more obvious route to take. Sorry for the RTCW reference, but the LT had the airstrike and FFE ability available in the one Class (not split between two Characters that you can only choose before entering the game - that’s really not ‘following the fun’). At no time did anyone say a nade is more powerful than either of those…

Anyway will keep an open mind and try to put some time into it.


(Volcano) #10

being able to only plant one c4 at a time isn’t a good idea since you’ll want to plant them both as quickly as possible to get the best time you can (Victoria)
change arty duration so it is slightly longer and fatal damage to players when hit by a shell, airstrike distance slightly longer also find a way to decrease the cool down either by some sort of CP method or proficiency.


(Smooth) #11

It’s one C4 per objective :slight_smile:


(acQu) #12

Definitely a great idea with the characters. Seems a logical step to me, as even before, the character concept of DB was pointing towards it. I think this is great and i also understand and highly approve to the design-freedom you get behind these changes. Highly approve :slight_smile:


(Bangtastic) #13

Yes yes and YES :slight_smile:

So how about the squad slots per match? 5 char squad or do you also reduce the number?

I really like this idea to have “proficiency”. Especially for new players they dont have to really think about the obj or chars they pick in the first place, they can really pick up and play and can always go for the objective :slight_smile:

Cant wait how this patch turns out, its really exciting :smiley:


(Hansi) #14

Hehehe that are some real changes. I guess a lot of hate and flaming is incoming…

For me this is ok to test, the game might become more like team fortress 2 and less than W:ET (altough i prefer W:ET). We will have to see how this will impact gameflow, balancing and teamplay on the maps.

“Some characters are better than others at arming/diffusing/repairing/constructing (using pliers).” seems for me very important. It can be ok that everyone can do everything, but each one still have his specialitiy.


(Kordin) #15

The changes sound really interesting and i am looking forward to test them.

I really hope these characters bring some more variation into the game and make it more exciting to play in the long run.

But i also see a big problem coming up with the point that every character can do all objectives. It was allways a big part of objective/class based gameplay to suicide attack for example to get the one soldier/engineer of the enemy team to prevent them from planting/defusing and buy some more time for your onw team until they respawned. With these changes, this part of the gameplay would disappear almost completely. You just die while killing the planter and the next enemy medic finishes the plant/defuse…

It will be interesting to see how exactly your “proficiency system” works and if this will keep at least some aspects of the above mentioned gameplay up…


(Volcano) #16


(Anti) #17

[QUOTE=montheponies;460544]My main reason for playing this type of FPS is that it’s Class based - not Character based. Personally I couldn’t care less for the skin i’m wearing (felt the same about brink, though i know others get a kick out of this…), so can’t help but feel these changes are to align with the F2P model where you can sell a lot more stuff, to a lot more people, by making the Characters more ‘open’ to customisation.

Removing nades seems fairly drastic, particularly as I’m not really conscious of a lot of nade spam (the single nade per life cures that). I’d have thought increasing the power of the Airstrike/FFE would be a more obvious route to take. Sorry for the RTCW reference, but the LT had the airstrike and FFE ability available in the one Class (not split between two Characters that you can only choose before entering the game - that’s really not ‘following the fun’). At no time did anyone say a nade is more powerful than either of those…

Anyway will keep an open mind and try to put some time into it.[/QUOTE]

Just to be clear, we’re more concerned with individuality of play-style and abilities per character rather than appearance, that’s the primary driver behind characters over classes.


(.FROST.) #18

[QUOTE=Tast1c;460548]Yes yes and YES :slight_smile:

So how about the squad slots per match? 5 char squad or do you also reduce the number?

I really like this idea to have “proficiency”. Especially for new players they dont have to really think about the obj or chars they pick in the first place, they can really pick up and play and can always go for the objective :slight_smile:

Cant wait how this patch turns out, its really exciting :D[/QUOTE]

+1^

Oh man, cant wait to test.


(Tankey) #19

You bet I will give it a try :wink: I’ve been playing it for quite a while, and not planning to stop right after some changes which may not suite me well.


(Wezelkrozum) #20

[QUOTE=Anti;460532]Greetings forum folk!

Frag Grenades and Unique Abilities
We expect this next decision to be quite controversial, but it’s one that we think is worth testing. As part of the next update we will also be removing Frag Grenades from each character’s load-out.
[/QUOTE]

Nooooooooo! :eek:

Hmm ok. I’ll just have to stick to a few classes then.

I’m looking forward to the patch :wink:

Now I know why Toomic said he had to get used to the current patch because the internal build is “different”.