Hello everyone.
The Following has been sent to Splashdamage’s Community Manager on the 27’th of March 2016, and to their Facebook Fan/community page on 8’th of March 2016. No replies or written confirmation from Splash Damage or SD Community Manager. The following is an in-depth analysis of the game - feedback for the game with suggestions on how to fix certain issues. I’d also like to mention that the reason I’m now posting this here is to get some eyes on my analysis & feedback, and hopefully a dev or at least the community manager will see this. Currently I feel SD isn’t taking the feedback they get serious, because certain issues are still unadressed and breaks the game in so many ways.
Constructive feedback is encouraged and negative comments ignored!
So here is the message that was sent:
"Hello to the devs at Splash Damage.
First, I want to tell you that I’m experienced game tester and developer and after playing your game Dirty Bomb, I can be considered a beta tester for that particular game. I take that role seriously and leave you with feedback, suggestions how to fix certain issues. However its gotten to a point where just leaving feedback isn’t enough as I can see various issue have been left unaddressed for unknown reasons. Also to to mention here, that went from my initial feedback vote of 8 down to 1, as the feedback I left didn’t do anything, and my overall experience of the game kept getting worse and worse, because of several things mentioned later in this email.
I have a sincere concern for your game Dirty Bomb and in a way I’m trying to protect my investment of time and money spent on the game, but also to raise the quality and potential for the game. Its a fun game that quickly can be ruined because certain issues have not been addressed and rectified. I have a few issues with the game that you seriously need to acknowledge as issues with your game and address them as quick as possible. The game has some inherent issues because of the game’s unique design.
1/ Lack of Spawnprotection This is something that the game is severely lacking and is being exploited to the fullest in many games, ranked included. This ruins the experience and fun of the game. But not only that, it makes the game pointless because the whole focus of the defending/attacking team shifts to how they can most efficiently spawncamp, spawnkill, create a spawn-rape fest OR how to avoid it. The focus should be around the objectives and not about spawn-raping the other team or how defend against it or try to break out of it. As I mentioned this happens also in ranked. The game is not in any way fun when this happens and it complete ruins the experience of playing the game. Then you have to ask, why does this happen and how can this be prevented. Its really simple, the reason it happens is much like when trolls troll, because they can get way with it and NO ONE is stopping them. And could also raise the questions if those people exhibiting this kind of behavior in the game are internet trolls. But simply put, this happens because you let it happen because you’ve not implemented any form of spawnprotection, nor are the spawnzones inaccessible, not possible to be attacked, etc. This is why it happens because you have made it possible by not implementing spawnprotection, not even in its most common and rudimentary form.
As a result you will lose many potential customers and players who enjoy ranked play. I can already say alot of clans/competitive groups of players will steer clear of the game until this is rectified. And overall it lowers the quality of the game, I’m sure you’re not really interested in delivering a game that is low quality when considering titles you’ve already released. I’m also sure on that you’re interested in actually creating a game people find to be a fun experience. So you really need to step up and rectify this by implementing spawn protection, be more aware in your map design so spawnzones aren’t accessible to the enemy team, this also count towards spawn exits. Another way to prevent spawnkilling is to actually directly penalize the player. In every competitive first person shooter I know, spawnkilling is considered an act of cheating and clearly shows the player lack an understanding of what good sportmanship and fair play is.
2/ Core Mechanics + Core Game Modes + Gameplay + Uneven Teams Reinforcement timers and incapacitation - those seriously need to be addressed. The reinforcement timers are way too long, especially when playing with a low count of players on both teams. Incapacitation is fine, however a player should be able to revive himself, this doesn’t make the medic / defibrilator ability useless. And to balance this you could also put a bleed effect on the incapacitated player after a while so he/she has to try and get back to remove the bleed effect so that you can’t exploit being incapacitated. What this will do is that it will force the players to actually to attempt exectuting the incapacitated opponent in order to prevent them from getting back up - and here is why medics defibrilator ability isn’t useless, it will still get the incapacitated players back up fast - faster than what the incapacitated would’ve been able to in any case. This means that the defib ability saves precious time and help get the teams fighting numbers back up - which is the important aspect of it. Execution mode seem much like a ripoff from Counterstrike’s defuse maps. Try implementing others like Capture The Flag, Team Deathmatch, Last Man Standing, King of the Hill, Seize Ground - there many game modes that could be successfully implemented.
A very important aspect that very often can ruin the fun for the players with the fewest players on their team. Naturally there isn’t much you can do about disconnects, but there is a lot you can do about starting fair game by making sure the game doesn’t start until the lobby is full, but can be force started by calling a vote where ALL vote yes to starting. This is especially true in stopwatch mode, where the attacker usually ends up being only one player if there is only three players in the game, and I can say its almost impossible to win against two players while you have to attack/push the objective forward, while also having a long reinforcement timer. Take the map Chapel as an example - you have to be close to the EV to push the objective, but you also have to repair it when its disabled - which takes quite some time if you’re not playing an objective specialist, even if so it takes less time to disable it than it takes to repair it. So when the attacker was 1 player against 2 players and now it switches, now guess what happens - that player gets steamrolled most likely as one can safely push the objective while being protected, kept alive, etc.
3/ Map design. Overall you’ve created some interesting maps, but all share the common issues. All spawnzones can be access, which they should not be able to be. A spawnzone should be inaccessible to the opposing team and not possible to be attacked in. Poor spawn exits where you can be attacked all angles and basically can become a kill-fest because the opposing team camp right outside, mine it, put turrets up, etc. Basically preventing the team from effectively leaving the spawn-area to engage the enemy team and focus on completing the objectives. Certain points can severely be exploited by abilities, like Proxy’s mines, Kira Orbital Laser and so forth, but the first mentioned is one of those that are most often being exploited, because mines can be placed on the map in blind angles - meaning you can’t directly shoot them to set them off. So map definitely need to be reworked/tweaked to fix issues with them.
4/ Abilities - Balancing - Cooldowns Various abilities are interesting but way too powerful and can’t just be balanced by increasing the cooldown. For instance Kira’s Orbital Laser is way to powerful. Let’s analyze it: It penetrates ceilings and floors, it pretty much insta-kills anyone it touches, its contrallable and it can deny the players the objective and if timed correctly it can pretty much deny the opposing team access to the objective - ensuring a win! But also another point I think is important to raise here, mercs don’t have an equal amount of abilities and most don’t even compare in effectiveness, usefulness and power, where some are very circumstancial. - For instance the Medic Phoenix is seriously overpowered as a medic - it’s the ONLY merc with THREE abilities, it’s the only merc that get around the inbuilt mechanic of being incapacitated, its the only merc that can heal everyone around him on the fly. As stated earlier it should be possible to revive yourself, which would make his Self-revive obsolete. Stoker’s molotov deals way to much damage, you’re pretty much instakilled if it explodes and you’re caught by the flames - damage should be reduced so you have a chance to actually excape the flames but as it is that is not possible. Kira’s grenade launcher seems to be a bit overpowered as it can effective kill and entire team if they’re close by each other, which often happens in certain areas of the maps. Some mercs seem like they’re inadequate in terms of abilities an especially if you compare the different abilities. For instance Phantom’s refractive armor certainly is useful, however its very circumstancial, plus certain augments actually make that ability less useful because you’re more easily spotted, and some can spot you irregardless of the ability being activated - so I’d say that he could definitely use a secondary ability that supports his theme, like a distraction/decoy device - for instance a device that creates an illussion of him running from one point to another in a straight - line.
5/ Weapons & Abilities The game has an inherent game design flaw/issue with the abilities that functions like primary weapons, or should be considered primary weapons because of their function, power and uniqueness - weapons such as Nader’s grenade launcher, Rhino’s minigun, Spark’s Insta-revive gun, Kira’s orbital Laser Cannon, Arty’s Designator, Bushwacker’s Turret - however there exceptions here because not all should be considered primary weapons but definitely should be considered to be able to run out of ammo. -The grenade launcher should be considered a primary weapon rather than an ability and should NOT be getting ammo back based on a timer, but based on receiving ammo so you can’t just spam the the ability - because this is exactly what happens with Nader’s grenade launcher. Clearly you’re trying to theme Nader into an explosives specialist, so give Nader explosives - like time bombs, powerful C4 or similar as an ability. Also to mention that they actually have 3 weapons as opposed to two weapons. The same goes for Rhino’s Minigun, that should also be considered a primary weapon instead of an ability, instead give Rhino an ability to reduce damage significantly for a short while. Kira’s orbital laser is so powerful and controllable that it should be considered a primary weapon and spend “ammo” that only can be replenished by charging the device manually or with a charging station where she has to interact with it, much like how disarm works, just the opposite. Kira could get an ability instead like EMP grenade that disables everything electronically temporarily (with the exception of the objective) - this could be Proxy’s mines, Buschwacker’ Turret, Healing Stations, Ammo stations, etc. I hope you get the picture here, because I can go on with all the mercs that have abilities that should be considered primary weapons.
6/ Grenades These should not be abilities unless they’re a unique type - grenades should really be open to all mercs, because certain map points can be severely exploited with mines because you can’t directly shoot the mines because its in a blind spot where you need indirect fire to actually be able to set it off - which grenades can provide. Or say Bushwacker’s turret can be placed in blind spots/angles where it can hit you directly but you can’t it hit it directly unless you step out and exposing yourself too much.
7/ Trade-in A feature you should rework, because there is absolutely NO POINT in using it as its’ more a gamble than anything else and you would actually potentially get more out of trading up than you do trading in. I suggest change the Trade-in to be one card of same rarity and a price of 2-3000 credits, then it would make sense to do the trade in.
8/ A full team Party mode A feature that is seriously missing both in casual and ranked, and should certainly be in ranked before even attempting ranked play.
9/ Ranked play Currently you have chosen a solo/duo party mode for balancing purposes. You don’t launch a ranked season without having fixed core gameplay issues, map issues, balancing issues, merc abilities, etc. Besides the game is still in Beta and is no way ready for ranked play as it has some serious balancing issues, both map-wise, merc-wise and core gameplay, etch. One its issues has a severe direct impact on the core gameplay, which I mentioned above - spawnkilling. Also blasting off the first ranked season without full 5 player party is basically a big sign that says - the game isn’t really ready yet, but we’re impatient and want this show on the road. What professional players see on the sign - A waste of time and money because you can’t play with your clanmates - this game isn’t ready for ranked gameplay.
As most ranked play goes currently is much like casual play, not much communication going on, players just play randomly, teamkill, spawnkilling. In fact I’d get more out of playing casual in terms of xp and credit income.
I know I have written quite a lot, but I could actually write more, however I have written enough for you to get a clear picture of the many aspects of the game needs to be reworked or the very least tweaked.
I sincerely hope you take this to heart because I like the game and would like to see it reach its full potential. Plus I mean no disrespect when I write this because I wouldn’t waste my time writing this much in-depth if I really didn’t care about the game."
This was the message that was been sent.
Also to mention that I have sent them feedback from within the game almost everytime I’ve played it.
…and at this point my experience of the game becomes worse and worse everytime I’ve played it because of people being douchebags, spawnrapers, etc.
If this game were emphazing on FAIR PLAY it would do a lot better and people would keep playing it.
Thank you for taking your time to read this - leave a comment with your thoughts about it
/Tor.
NB: A little note in regards to Trade-ins… That definitely needs to be reworked - Because I’ve tried it and I ended up with one of the same cards traded in and the other cards lost. And I have noticed at least one other pointing out this on this forum.