Fine Tuning - October Update v50528 - 07/10/2015


(Chris Mullins) #1

It’s been nearly four months since Dirty Bomb hit Open Beta. Since then, we’ve released four new Mercs, furthered development of the prototype Dome Map and Execution Mode, added new features like Private Matches and new varieties of servers, made countless improvements and enough balance changes to keep Dirty Bomb as competitive as it can be… and the best is yet to come.

We’re working on a major update, the biggest we’ve had since Dirty Bomb entered Open Beta, but we still need more time to get it ready. As such, October’s Fine Tuning update is coming now, containing a few improvements and another selection of balance changes and bug fixes. Stay tuned as we get deeper into October for more info about what’s coming up, and in the meantime enjoy October’s Fine Tuning Update.

New Feature: Loadout Trade-In

Have a few Loadout cards you don’t want to use, but don’t want to bump up the rarity? The new Loadout Trade-In system will let you trade in cards of the same rarity, from Bronze through Cobalt, for a random Loadout Card for the Merc of your choice at the same rarity.

None of the Loadouts traded in can be for the Merc you’re crafting a card for. Apart from that, any of your owned Loadout Cards can be traded in giving you a great use for all of those unwanted Loadouts.

NOTE: We will be adding additional functionality to this feature in the future based on your feedback, including trading in cards for the same Merc you wish to obtain.

Private Matches Min. Players Reduced to 5

After getting a lot of feedback from our players on Private Matches, it became clear that many of you wanted to have the minimum players required reduced from 6 to 5 so you could practice strats with your team. We have listened to your cries and done just that, so now you can jump into a server with your 5-man team and come up with your plans to take down sick6.

Removed Secondary Objective Missions

That’s right, they’re out of here!! (Credit to /u/UltraWideGamer for the source image)

Balance Changes

Phoenix

[ul]
[li]Slightly reduced the amount of time it takes to switch from Healing Pulse to other items[/li][li]Potent Packs augment now correctly increases the Healing Pulse health given by 20%[/li][/ul]

Redeye

[ul]
[li]Smoke now requires more than one explosion to be dispersed[/li][/ul]

Fletcher

[ul]
[li]Increased Sticky Bomb detonation time to 0.5s (from 0.366s)[/li]With Lock-On’s 30% faster detonation, time is 0.35s (from 0.256)
[li]Sticky Bombs can no longer be shot by enemies for 0.2s after throwing[/li][/ul]

Proxy

[ul]
[li]Reduced Proximity Mine cooldown to 25s (from 30s)[/li][/ul]

Sparks

[ul]
[li]REVIVR battery will no longer drain slightly faster than it should when using the Quick Charge Augment[/li][/ul]

Hollunds 880

[ul]
[li]Increased rate of fire to 90 RPM (from 86)[/li][/ul]

Dreiss AR

[ul]
[li]Reduced horizontal recoil by ~10%[/li][/ul]

Blishlok SMG

[ul]
[li]Increased effective range to 19m (from 18m)[/li][li]Reduced reload time to 1.8s (from 1.9s)[/li][/ul]

Kukri

[ul]
[li]Adjusted slash damage timings so it can no longer hit targets slightly off-screen[/li][/ul]

Everything Else

User Interface

[ul]
[li]Server Name is now displayed on the scoreboard[/li][li]Access to the console is now disabled when typing in a chat box in the front end[/li][li]Made several HUD performance optimizations[/li][li]Added personal Score Per Minute and KDR to the end game review screen[/li][li]Game now auto-switches away from dead players when spectating them[/li][li]Increased Warmup time to 20s again, as some players were not connecting in time[/li][li]Reduced End Game Review by 5s to 20s[/li][li]Increased Map Voting time by 5s to 20s[/li][/ul]

Animation

[ul]
[li]Fixed some issues with the Grandeur SR reload animation[/li][li]Improved Grandeur SR ironsight positioning when firing while sighted[/li][/ul]

Audio

[ul]
[li]Enabled hit beeps by default[/li][li]Made body-shot hit beeps a little more obvious[/li][li]Adding incapacitated audio confirmation for victims[/li][li]Win/Loss stings are no longer associated to the music slider but to the SFX slider.[/li][li]Added audio when a Booster is activated in the menu[/li][li]Added missing mouse over and click sounds to several buttons in the front end[/li][li]Continued work on improving the overall audio mix [/li][/ul]

General Gameplay

[ul]
[li]Reduce the amount of view kick experienced by players when receiving small amounts of damage by ~10%[/li][li]Significantly reduced the amount of player collision around Mounted Machine Guns[/li][li]Pressing Q to deploy an item in an invalid location will now switch back to the previous item, rather than leave the deployable in-hand[/li][li]Health Insurance XP is no longer granted if you heal an enemy player[/li][/ul]

Notable Bug Fixes

[ul]
[li]Fixed hit detection issues when shooting deployables[/li][li]Fixed a bug where player models could become stretched when using a Mounted Machine Gun[/li][li]Fixed a bug where Refractive Armor would not always be disabled if in-use when placing a deployable item (such as C4)[/li][li]Fixed a bug where IR Goggles could sometimes not be selected with Q[/li][/ul]


(spookify) #2

First! My thoughts to come while im sitting in the airport later :slight_smile:

#1) What or how will the SPM and K/D will appear? Only to you or on the same menu as your xp and kd at the end of a round or map?

STATS

#2) Very happy about the Phoenix switch time! It felt like something was broke!

#3) D-AR = Good start… for sure need a ROF buff with player speed mark my words…

#4) I agree with Sagon that its a weird buff and personally would like to see a 10% increase in initial spread and a 5% reduction in recoil or recoil recovery time. The gun is amazing!!! However the ROF over control and nessesary HS’s make the gun hard to use for light mercs… Note most mercs that have the Bloshlok are lower in HP so its a loss loss unless you are specifically camping with aura or lossen them up with fletcher whom has a lot of HP with that gun.

#5) The Kukri is still useless with the limited turn just like redeye alt. Again i am talking alt knife only. When he first came out i used the Kukri as a main anf now the main gun has to be a primary. The Kukri was once used to one shot small merc and escape fast… However you can one shot a fast merc if you hit them just right and then basically sit there and die…

#6) I like that hit body shots are easier to hear! HOWEVER when hit sounds are off make sure they are off!!! I have two friends that refuse to play DB because the hit sounds (off) still make of puff or pop sound… If they are off amke sure they are off. These people have crazy headphones or speakers and can pick that stuff up. Hit sounds off means hit sounds off!

#7) Updated Party Matchmaking Algorithm!!! Still need to add more rewards for solo ranked MM. Seem a little better with this change however why should people play and rank up?

Question to the community what reward would you like to see for playing ranked MM? Vauge question so answer freely!


(light_sh4v0r) #3

Fixed a bug where player models could become stretched when using a Mounted Machine Gun
.
The end of slenderman! :frowning:

Significantly reduced the amount of player collision around Mounted Machine Guns

Finally!

Everything else sounds good, will reserve judgement until it’s live :slight_smile:


(Kl3ppy) #4

Is the aim punch reduces when getting hit by fast shooting guns?


(Mustang) #5

Na I think it’s more to do with high RPM machine pistols.


(Chris Mullins) #6

If those fast shooting guns don’t do a lot of damage.

So for headshots not so much, but yes for the extremities


(Kl3ppy) #7

[QUOTE=shoe.;539204]If those fast shooting guns don’t do a lot of damage.

So for headshots not so much, but yes for the extremities[/QUOTE]

Ok, I noticed this when playing vs Phoenix with Hochfir.


(Sagan_on_Roids) #8

Have a few Loadout cards you don’t want to use, but don’t want to bump up the rarity? The new Loadout Trade-In system will let you trade in cards of the same rarity, from Bronze through Cobalt, for a random Loadout Card for the Merc of your choice at the same rarity.

Considering how much time/effort/pain goes into crafting a single cobalt card, I would’ve hoped that a trade down system that costs 3 cobalts + 25K would at least let me pick the exact card I want. It’s nice that this will exist, but as usual, the RNG upsets me.

Charging an arm and a leg to convert 3 useless cards into potentially 1 useless card, seems like an easy way to piss a bunch of people off…

Since the team-balancing system is heavily restricted when a large Party is involved, we wanted to introduce a system where the larger the searching Party, the smaller the skill variance they will search for. This means that matches involving a large Party will be more balanced in terms of skill but they can take longer to find.

Nice! Hopefully this means more teams will queue, and maybe solo queuing will actually be feasible now.

Hollunds 880

Increased rate of fire to 90 RPM (from 86)

I love you. This actually gives me a reason to use the Hollunds now! Just curious, what led to this change? Echo data, community sentiment, both?

Blishlok SMG

Increased effective range to 19m (from 18m)
Reduced reload time to 1.8s (from 1.9s)

To me this seems kind of unnecessary, as I’ve always thought the Blishlok was a very powerful but misunderstood weapon. Nonetheless this should make a lot of people happy.

Server Name is now displayed on the scoreboard

Yes! Finally! :smiley:

Continued work on improving the overall audio mix

Just wanted to say, props to your new audio guy. The Blishlock and Caulden really sound great. Any new weapon sounds we can look forward to?

Significantly reduced the amount of player collision around Mounted Machine Guns

I’m really curious how this will play out, since MGs have always felt a bit wonky.

Fixed a bug where player models could become stretched when using a Mounted Machine Gun

RIP Stretch Armstrong 2015, you will be missed.

Nice patch guys!


(Smooth) #9

Actually a bit of both, after the last update it’s been the shotgun that lagged behind the other two, which are seemingly fairly potent now according to the data. We want them to be in a place where they can rival SMG’s for general effectiveness, albeit in different situations.


(PixelTwitch) #10

I cannot believe the loadout card system is this bad…
I honestly don’t believe that SD and the community are on the same page at all with any of these changes…
VERY worried for the future…


(DarkangelUK) #11

Don’t be a child with this ‘first’ crap

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;539209]I cannot believe the loadout card system is this bad…
I honestly don’t believe that SD and the community are on the same page at all with any of these changes…
VERY worried for the future…[/QUOTE]

Sadly I’m in agreement with Pix, you’re pushing ahead with the current method almost in dire hope that it’ll somehow take off… though I’m thinking it’s because you monetised cards and you’re in too deep to undo it now.


(spookify) #12

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;539209]I cannot believe the loadout card system is this bad…
I honestly don’t believe that SD and the community are on the same page at all with any of these changes…
VERY worried for the future…[/QUOTE]

3 crappy cobalts to 1 crappy cobalt is still a crappy cobalt… I like the skin rarities however having the guns and especially perks attacked is a mistake! You need 100 more perks and or let us pick out own…


(spookify) #13

[QUOTE=DarkangelUK;539219]Don’t be a child with this ‘first’ crap

Sadly I’m in agreement with Pix, you’re pushing ahead with the current method almost in dire hope that it’ll somehow take off… though I’m thinking it’s because you monetised cards and you’re in too deep to undo it now.[/QUOTE]

Dark i am now at the air port and have proper time to reflect and the first was a joke as i was talking to some people in excitement of the notes coming out. :wink: still like yah bro and sorry that it came across childish to you but i will make my tiny phone keyboard work it ass off to replace that upper comment :wink:


(DarkangelUK) #14

Was still childish dude, scrambling for that first comment like it means something to your ego.


(spookify) #15

Had nothing to do even with the first comment or being childish i was in a very happy mood knowing notes were coming and i was over run with joy and yes possibly a little drunk even at 8 am haha! Even if i didnt write first i would have said cool notes or something haha. SD nor the community reads the first post any different them anyone below it. Neil, Smooth, fluffy read all the post and receive all of our feedback no matter where it is. For those of you that dont think that SD takes our feedback it turn post here! Ask queations :slight_smile: They, like us want to make this game great.


(DarkangelUK) #16

So what you’ll do next time is hold off and post a proper reply when you can instead of scrambling for that first meaningless reply :slight_smile:


(spookify) #17

Good point and I promise not to do that :wink: i wont debie i do post first a lot but im at work with nothing better to do :wink: this time was a little different knowing the notes were close and i was on vacation.

Side topic what you think of my first “second” reply :wink:


(Sagan_on_Roids) #18

[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;539209]I cannot believe the loadout card system is this bad…
I honestly don’t believe that SD and the community are on the same page at all with any of these changes…
VERY worried for the future…[/QUOTE]

Although I wouldn’t be so dramatic, I do agree that the loadout system is the worst thing about Dirty Bomb right now. There’s definitely nothing wrong with monetization, or having to grind to progress. The problem is that it’s bad monetization, and all it does is upset people until they eventually give up on the whole system. And with weapons, skins, and augments all being tied to this flawed system, it really is a detriment to the whole game. I’m positive the community would be ecstatic if Splash Damage cut their losses said they were going to just rework the entire thing, as long as people felt fairly compensated for the cards they already have when the new system is implemented. After all, this is still a beta.

Just to day dream for a moment, I would love to see all merc skins, weapon skins, augments, and weapons be decoupled, so that I could fully customize my loadouts for exactly how I want to play. This would have obvious balance issues, so a pointing system could be used to limit overpowered combinations.

For example, let’s say a player has a 1000 point budget and is making an Aura loadout. They can choose a primary weapon from the following pool:

  • Remburgh 7 - 400 points
  • Hollunds 880 - 400 points
  • Blishlok - 400 points

It’s also possible they could chose a stronger weapon, or just one that they aren’t usually suppose to have, at the cost of more points:

  • Ahnuhld-12 - 600 points
  • KEK-10 - 600 points

They could even chose to forgo a primary weapon entirely, and instead opt for a stronger secondary, melee, or augments. Some secondaries for example:

  • M9 - 250 points
  • Caulden - 250 points
  • S&W - 300 points
  • Simeon .357 - 300 points
  • Empire-9 - 400 points
  • MP400 - 400 points

Or augments:

  • Drilled - 300 points
  • Double Time - 300 points
  • Springy - 200 points
  • Spares - 200 points
  • Pineapple Juggler - 100 points
  • Try hard - 100 points

Or melee weapons:

  • Beckhill - 100 points
  • Cricket Bat - 200 points
  • Katana - 200 points

Then players could apply any skin they’ve unlocked/purchased for their specific weapons/mercs. You get the idea. X-COM had something like this for their multiplayer, and although that was an entirely different game, I think it would work well here. Sure, there might be some balance issues to be worked out, but if everyone has access to the same stuff then I don’t see it being a problem. Overpowered combinations can be settled by increasing the price of those items, or categorizing items so that they can’t be combined.

This kind of system would really bring a lot of diversity to the game and would really change the meta a lot. It would really bring a freshness to the game that I know a lot of players are craving. There would be tons of possible combinations, and people would obsess over finding the perfect ones for their play style.

In the long run this would also make things much easier on SD since augments/primaries/secondaries could be easily added/removed from the game without having to generate a bunch of new loadouts. And underpowered weapons/augments could be easier balanced by just reducing their cost.


(BioSnark) #19

Agree about loadouts being bad in terms of customization/progression, cosmetics, and monetization.

Was discussing recently in ocb ts. Customization and cosmetics via loadouts aren’t compelling. There’s little to spend money on in Dirty Bomb for those of us regularly playing. I know one guy who’s bought into the elite case thing and a lot of his argument in favor of it related to the amount of time we spent in Quake Wars. Shoe or mm seem to be discussing free event cosmetics on streams rather than limited edition (limited time on market) purchasable things.


(Szakalot) #20

[QUOTE=Sagan_on_Roids;539230]Although I wouldn’t be so dramatic, I do agree that the loadout system is the worst thing about Dirty Bomb right now. There’s definitely nothing wrong with monetization, or having to grind to progress. The problem is that it’s bad monetization, and all it does is upset people until they eventually give up on the whole system. And with weapons, skins, and augments all being tied to this flawed system, it really is a detriment to the whole game. I’m positive the community would be ecstatic if Splash Damage cut their losses said they were going to just rework the entire thing, as long as people felt fairly compensated for the cards they already have when the new system is implemented. After all, this is still a beta.

Just to day dream for a moment, I would love to see all merc skins, weapon skins, augments, and weapons be decoupled, so that I could fully customize my loadouts for exactly how I want to play. This would have obvious balance issues, so a pointing system could be used to limit overpowered combinations.

For example, let’s say a player has a 1000 point budget and is making an Aura loadout. They can choose a primary weapon from the following pool:

  • Remburgh 7 - 400 points
  • Hollunds 880 - 400 points
  • Blishlok - 400 points

It’s also possible they could chose a stronger weapon, or just one that they aren’t usually suppose to have, at the cost of more points:

  • Ahnuhld-12 - 600 points
  • KEK-10 - 600 points

They could even chose to forgo a primary weapon entirely, and instead opt for a stronger secondary, melee, or augments. Some secondaries for example:

  • M9 - 250 points
  • Caulden - 250 points
  • S&W - 300 points
  • Simeon .357 - 300 points
  • Empire-9 - 400 points
  • MP400 - 400 points

Or augments:

  • Drilled - 300 points
  • Double Time - 300 points
  • Springy - 200 points
  • Spares - 200 points
  • Pineapple Juggler - 100 points
  • Try hard - 100 points

Or melee weapons:

  • Beckhill - 100 points
  • Cricket Bat - 200 points
  • Katana - 200 points

Then players could apply any skin they’ve unlocked/purchased for their specific weapons/mercs. You get the idea. X-COM had something like this for their multiplayer, and although that was an entirely different game, I think it would work well here. Sure, there might be some balance issues to be worked out, but if everyone has access to the same stuff then I don’t see it being a problem. Overpowered combinations can be settled by increasing the price of those items, or categorizing items so that they can’t be combined.

This kind of system would really bring a lot of diversity to the game and would really change the meta a lot. It would really bring a freshness to the game that I know a lot of players are craving. There would be tons of possible combinations, and people would obsess over finding the perfect ones for their play style.

In the long run this would also make things much easier on SD since augments/primaries/secondaries could be easily added/removed from the game without having to generate a bunch of new loadouts. And underpowered weapons/augments could be easier balanced by just reducing their cost.[/QUOTE]

while ideas like this are great, it is definitely too late now. Best think of what we could do with the present system. like decoupling merc & weapon skins, adding more interesting augments, reworking the useless ones.