DEV STREAM ROUND-UP: 11TH APRIL 2016 [Exedore - Lead Game Design]


(Faraleth) #1

Remember, as always, unless specifically stated as confirmed, please take everything with a grain of salt.

Casual Match-Making Info:
Casual match-making will be coming to Dirty Bomb in the future. This will remove “Quick Join” and the server browser for the majority of servers.

[ul][li] The basic comparison is like that of MOBA game queues, such as LoL or DOTA.
[/li][li] Shuffling will be removed.
[/li][li] Matches will be balanced from the start, and leavers will be punished - these will be more relaxed than competitive penalties.
[/li][li] You will be able to queue with up to 5 friends.
[/li][li] The current planned server size is 6v6.
[/li][li] Match-making will likely eliminate 8v8. This may still be available through the traditional server browser if anything.[/ul]If drop-in, drop-out style joining returns it will likely be for some form of TDM game mode. This however is NOT coming in the near future and not even being discussed/worked on - it’s simply an example.
[/li]Along with this, game flow will receive updates including the match intro will be toggleable, although during this period you will only be able to stand still and see your team - not move.

Ranked Info:
Merc drafting is on the road-map.
A higher credit modifier and higher drop rates are on the table in regards to encouraging ranked play. Although they do NOT want to “force” players into ranked if they do not wish to play competitively.

Performance:
The optimisation complaints from this update have been heard, but they would love to hear more information on this. You can post your system info and any other information you may have on the Splash Damage forums for the devs to look into.
Live game performance optimisation is difficult because things on a live game are often updated. This means rerunning things over-and-over.
Exedore himself plays on a gaming laptop and understands some of the issues that come with poor optimisation.

Phantom/Thunder/Fletcher:
Merc balance is at the forefront now, due to Aimee being released and out of the way.

[ul][li] Phantom and Thunder are being looked into currently for extra functionality and usefulness to balance them among their merc counterparts.
[/li][li] Making Phantom more “powerful” and harder to play against is definitely off the table. It’s more of a focus to push usefulness than firepower and his “lone wolf” original design.
[/li][li] Fletcher will likely receive an AoE nerf (no nerf to stickied damage), making it more skill-based and less spamable.[/ul]
[/li]Second Edition Loadouts:
A Second Edition of loadout cards is most definitely coming in the future. Although there is no ETA on this.
When this is implemented, First Edition cards will likely not drop anymore, although they will likely still be available to purchase in the store to avoid possible advantages of older cards.
All current cards you have will be KEPT permanently. You will not lose anything.
The system was never designed to give you a “bad” card. It was just poor design choice in the initial card design. The second edition should solve this more from lessons learned.
A lot of work has already been done on them.
The second edition cards are aiming to be released at the same time as the culprit cards are put into the game.

Loadout Cards/Trinkets:
Loadout Card “favouriting” will be coming

[ul][li] This will push all your favourites to the front when selecting which cards to use.
[/li][li] When trading up or trading in, they will be pushed to the back.
[/li][li] If you try to trade up or trade in a favourited card, it will provide you with a warning.[/ul]You will also be able to link a trinket to a merc, as opposed to 1 trinket for all.
[/li]There will be an end-game overview screen showing player’s skins/trinkets for mercs. (Get your shinies on!)

Badges:
There are a few known issues with some of the new badges, especially in Execution. Those will be addressed very soon.
Steam achievements are designed to be relatively easy to get, because they want more focus on badges which provide exp rewards and visible totals in-game.
There will be MVP stats at the end of a match, such as “top scorer”, “top killer”, “top healer”, etc. (These are examples)

Rogue-En-Vogue Boosters:
Boosters ARE working. They were checked this morning by Exedore, and they are indeed functional.
They realise there was a messaging error, because they stated the end drop-rate (which is the same chance as an equipment case, with 10 boosters). This may be resolved by talking about the base drop-rates more.

Other Future Update Info:
There are concepts for more mercs in the future. It will likely be quite a few months between each merc release from now on, though.
The tutorial is being worked on currently to have some improvements, allowing people to get a grasp of the game better.

Extra Info:
The stream was ElectricSheep-bombed.
Fun Nuggets confirmed.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO PLAY NADER. Stop playing Proxy, damn it. Take her out of your squad! :wink:

  • Faraleth

(Glottis-3D) #2

thnx, Faraleth.

but what is the heck with 90% quiestions about cosmetics (cards badges, trinkets…c’mon!), and no question about something essential - like maps or roadmap?


#3

Thank you for another awesome stream round-up, Faraleth! :wink:

I’m a bit surprised of the upcoming casual matchmaking.
Looking at it from one point of view we’ll finally get some really balanced public games.
Furthermore I think we all appreciate the fact that shuffle votes will be eliminated.

On the other side I always enjoyed how I’m able to drop in and out of matches if needed so.
And while I understand that leavers do cause balance issues, I noticed that most people who leave are simply upset.
Perhaps they think the match is unbalanced while in reality it isn’t.
By performing the said actions balance will probably improve and less people will leave.

Other than that the other things looks quite decent, mainly cosmetical stuff so I’m with Glottis here…maps? :smiley:


(Chris Mullins) #4

Map wise we’re still working on Dockyard (OBJ/SW) and Gallery (EXE). Once those are completed and pushed live we’ll continue work on other maps. Both have/are still receiving design tweaks and textures are being added.


(Glottis-3D) #5

shoe. thnx for the answer about maps.

what about sharing some roadmap/plans for nearby monthes. like it was made several monthes before openbeta?


(Runeforce) #6

There’s a couple, posted within the last week, by Exedore, over in the closed test realm’s ‘general chat’ section.


(S0und_) #7

What happened to battleship yard? The last objective was to plant, and there was a moving crane? next to it. Personally i really like that, since the battlefield was always changing.