let people choose their own teams and play with their friends on objective public


(f34n0r) #1

It was already hard to get on your friend’s team or allow people to self-police and self-balance in objective public matches, now it’s impossible.

The result is that 99% of the matches I’ve played are either first objective full holds or super fast landslides. Today I watched bridge go down faster than I have ever seen it.

Stopwatch is too much map back to back, and everyone I know avoids it unless there is a mission, and then we grudgingly play one or two matches to get the mission over with.

Private matches aren’t open to the public and don’t earn $, so hardly ever play them either.

People are now basically moving into spec and wasting the first 2-3 minutes of every game trying to switch teams.

If someone feels like playing offense or defense they have no choice anymore. Taking that away lowers appeal.
Also, it is odd that people cannot choose a merc loadout for offense or defense anymore, they have to guess and hope or waste several minutes spamming to switch teams with the console command.

Put it back, and consider letting people form parties so they can stay on a single team together even in public objective mode.


(alphabeta) #2

Does have a point!


(BomBaKlaK) #3

you got my point, this absolutely stupid now, … I just don’t understand this move. the previous system works great and now we are not able to balance a team by our own … who say “control freak” ? Give more control to the players ! I feel like a monkey in cage …

And the lobby UI design … what can I say ?
100% dislike, orange and blue exploding my eyes, this vertical list of players without any team (except color) is a nonsens to me, and this massive chat nobody use in the middle of the screen is just a waste of space.
This is just not working for me.


(PixelTwitch) #4

It is honestly just one more step in the wrong direction from Splash Damage…
It really saddens me that this is the path this game is taking.


(Szakalot) #5

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;538744]It is honestly just one more step in the wrong direction from Splash Damage…
It really saddens me that this is the path this game is taking.[/QUOTE]

this change was needed for the casual objective experience. Now we just need to figure out where to put people who want to play with friends consistently, etc.

Community-rented servers solve all problems : )


(PixelTwitch) #6

[QUOTE=Szakalot;538746]this change was needed for the casual objective experience. Now we just need to figure out where to put people who want to play with friends consistently, etc.

Community-rented servers solve all problems : )[/QUOTE]

I mean I am a strong believer that trying to do this public lobby via server browser only works if it was community rented servers. However doing this amount of work on the system shows they are just securing their path down this route. I don’t believe that server browser should be the primary way to play Dirty Bomb because of the huge skill and experience gap. Sure we want a server browser for private servers and stuff right? however having a server browser for servers we have no control over is just silly… Why would you even do that? The current system is just lazy because when we have no control over the servers we just want to join and play right? Silly and makes no sense.


(Bangtastic) #7

to be fair, on most servers you have like few open slots to join. If you are like 4 players who want to play together, you have to join a more or less empty server. Server are so small, it is not rly possible to join a match in progression with couple of players. Imo it does not make any sense having a party function for public since there are so few server slots, cause you would end up on a empty server anyway with a group of 4-5 players. If you make it on a server and your friends are split up between teams, changes are high that you can’t change teams at all, simply because server are mostly full during a match.

Seems that SD wants ppl to play competitive together. I do not see the problem here.

I like this change because, it kinda prevents high level players stacking teams. When one player is like lvl 20 and playing with friends, they might be higher lvl too. (system does not always work 100 per cent correctly though)
Atm we might have more balanced matches than before.


(PixelTwitch) #8

[QUOTE=Tast1c;538749]to be fair, on most servers you have like few open slots to join. If you are like 4 players who want to play together, you have to join a more or less empty server. Server are so small, it is not rly possible to join a match in progression with couple of players. Imo it does not make any sense having a party function for public since there are so few server slots, cause you would end up on a empty server anyway with a group of 4-5 players. If you make it on a server and your friends are split up between teams, changes are high that you can’t change teams at all, simply because server are mostly full during a match.

Seems that SD wants ppl to play competitive together. I do not see the problem here.

I like this change because, it kinda prevents high level players stacking teams. When one player is like lvl 20 and playing with friends, they might be higher lvl too. (system does not always work 100 per cent correctly though)
Atm we might have more balanced matches than before.[/QUOTE]

I don’t know how often you have played recently when it comes to SDs “auto balance” stuff. However, I can say even though I have no idea how it works it feels like I get skrewed each time. Feels like I get the worst 5 players on the server put onto my team and I have to ATTEMPT to solo carry in order to have any chance of winning.

I do agree that the MM should be one of the main ways to play and I would use it all day if it had a solo que option. However it does not and I don’t fancy going up against full competitive teams because the number of people playing is so low.

The problems with connecting to a game via quick match, mm, server browser or even competitive all come from what seems to be a huge miss understanding of what games want from splash damage. I should not have to work hard to even play a game.


(Bangtastic) #9

Played couple of matches, was alright. Seems like you have too good stats :stuck_out_tongue: Im glad my stats are mediocre so I always end up on the right team. For example I (lvl 48) was on a team with bunch of level 10-25s against a team: 1 lvl 52, 1 lvl 33 rest was about 10-25. Can’t remember anymore. But the lvl 52 was always on the enemy team and sometimes the lvl 33 dude was on my team.

Yeah I know there is always a problem involved, no matter if you wanna play public or MM. btw I only use server browser, haven’t used quick match for over a month lol.


(shibbyuk) #10

I must admit, having played 4 or 5 matches so far since the update, they were all pretty well balanced. The gap between competitive and casual mode has expanded, though. A clan can still stack a 5v5 and these are the most unbalanced (and frustrating) games in DB.

You couldn’t pick a team in ETQW; I think people will get over it. Pixel, you’re a victim of your own success. Perhaps the quick-join MM algorithms could be tweaked to get around this, by looking for smaller skill gaps in casual mode?


(Loki.) #11

This is doomed to fail…
And could be a major nail in DB’s coffin…

You have just taken away a players ability to choose :
Whom they play with
&
Preferred game style : Attack or Defend…

Are you kidding me…! ?

All because of balancing based on, what, player level??

Give me a break! Before it was “supreme commanders” now its, they are level 25 or higher… stackers!!

pathetic…


(Destroy666) #12

Not a good way to solve the balance problem. Being unable to choose between defensive/offensive mercs is a huge drawback.

I’ll support this change only if:

  • a fully functional squad builder returns to the menu
  • you are able to choose both defensive and offensive squads in the lobby during intermissions. Then a proper squad is chosen from these 2 based on the team you were assigned to.

That would solve the merc problem. Not sure about teaming up with friends, IMO public Nexon objective servers aren’t a good place to do that because it ended up with unfair teams too often. Rentable public servers with an option to turn off the autobalance system would partially solve it.


(Protekt1) #13

Letting people choose their team is very bad.

Also, people being douchebags because they want to play the other side is pathetic.

Instead of changing it so you can pick your team, they should lock spectating for the first minute or two of the match. And then players can play smart by not picking 3 defensive or 3 offensive oriented mercs. Play it like stopwatch where you know you’ll need both.


(f34n0r) #14

[QUOTE=Protekt1;538806]Letting people choose their team is very bad.

Also, people being douchebags because they want to play the other side is pathetic.

Instead of changing it so you can pick your team, they should lock spectating for the first minute or two of the match. And then players can play smart by not picking 3 defensive or 3 offensive oriented mercs. Play it like stopwatch where you know you’ll need both.[/QUOTE]

Letting people choose their own teams is bad? That will result in people making the only choice they CAN make which is to not play. I’d love to see the population and match stats pre and post patch. I have a feeling the drop off after this will be worse than right after Phantom got put in. Also would be nice to see stats on objective matches completed, team switching during match and increase in other game modes.

This is supposed to be a revenue generating product for Nexon and SD right? Look at the poll, this is clearly not popular.

Also, you often need 3 offensive or 3 defensive mercs in your lineup to be able to switch to for different parts of the map or to counter different enemy strats. This is one of the reasons stopwatch is so unpopular.


(Protekt1) #15

[QUOTE=f34n0r;538807]Letting people choose their own teams is bad? That will result in people making the only choice they CAN make which is to not play. I’d love to see the population and match stats pre and post patch. I have a feeling the drop off after this will be worse than right after Phantom got put in. Also would be nice to see stats on objective matches completed, team switching during match and increase in other game modes.

This is supposed to be a revenue generating product for Nexon and SD right? Look at the poll, this is clearly not popular.

Also, you often need 3 offensive or 3 defensive mercs in your lineup to be able to switch to for different parts of the map or to counter different enemy strats. This is one of the reasons stopwatch is so unpopular.[/QUOTE]

Don’t talk about your opinion as if it was fact. I am referring to stopwatch. First saying it is unpopular and then claiming this is why. Give facts, not opinion dressed up as facts.

And your poll is clearly presenting biased options. And is not open to alternative solutions either. Nor is it even worth talking about since it contains roughly 40 votes and the playerbase regularly hits 4000 at peak times. It isn’t a sufficient sample, nor have people had enough time with the new system to really evaluate how well it does. They aren’t going to cut or change something based on kneejerk reactions. They give it time to settle and see how well it performs. Bitching about it now is premature.

Regarding phantom, again you’re stating opinion rather than fact. Dirty bomb’s numbers before and after phantom are roughly the same. The numbers didn’t start dropping til almost 20 days after phantom was introduced and even after he was balanced in a fine tuning update.

I’d rather people who want to stack teams with their friends to play in ranked, or just play a different game. Unbalanced teams is a way bigger issue than being able to choice your team before a match.

Btw this is a snapshot of a week before and after phantom update:

https://steamdb.info/app/333930/graphs/


(ifreborn) #16

change the first play choice to stop watch in the quick join. Stopwatch is more reflective of the game style. Objective play is not what the core game type and having it as second choice and does a poor job of socializing players to your game play type and style. Objective play in the end of the day is treated like death match.

Also provide a 50% increased reward over time for completing a whole stop watch game from beginning to end in terms of exp and credit.

Stop watch is the core of your game and your “long term” competitive advantage, not your weakness. you just need to do a better job of introducing this to your players an initiating them into your vision and making them fanatics who spread your virtues.

you can quote my last sentence if you like :slight_smile:


(KeMoN) #17

I voted yes, because I’m generally always in favor of increasing the freedom of choice of players, but your poll is definitely not representative!
Protekt1 already presented the arguments for that perfectly, so there is no need for me to post them again.
Time will tell.


(FireWorks) #18

I dont get why every noob can open a poll or why it even stays open if its totally biased like this.

And the games feel a lot more balanced to me, so I guess I like the change.


(Kl3ppy) #19

I didnt had the chance to test the update on the Lobby. But from what I’ve read (change log & feedback) I would like to see the following:

  • create 2 Squads, one for Defenders and one for Attackers
  • give community run servers, there will be a balance, auto balanced not needed
  • introduce some skill measurement like in SW on which the balance is made, not on the ranks

(ifreborn) #20

I just don’t like waiting 15 seconds when i join a match in progress on the lobby screen. seems pointless. it makes me want to change my load out or change a merc but i cant because im locked out and just aiting for the sake of waiting.