Good morning,
We all know that there are issues with balanced matches in DirtyBomb, that’s why you are working on casual match-making and that is why you introduced the shuffle votes a while back.
There is a problem now, because you decided to trastically reduce the shuffle options without having changed anything in regards to more balanced matches.
Let me guide you through a random game experience on a Stopwatch server.
[HR][/HR]
We started the match with 4 vs 7 and obviously no one felt the need to balance the game while it was still in the first minute. No one made great effort for his/her side yet and the game is still completely open. That is the point where you shuffle and even out the teams.
One and a half minute later we stand at this point. You can see at the score of the last 3 players in our team that they just joined. Our team has merely 11.5% of the score of the defending team.
Unfortunately I have no screenshot of the first shuffle vote, but it failed.
Four and a half minutes later we have this scenario. Our team managed to shorten the score gap and now has glorious 14% of the score of the defending team. First guy already left.
Thanks to the time limit the second shuffle vote could only be called nearly halfway into the match. This is it 3 seconds before running out. Because basically every option was shut down I resorted to stay put and camp in there a bit.
Camping on the attacking side never works and I brought this on myself. They effectively cut out the left route and the generator has been down since minute one.
Only other option we have is take the right exit from the spawn. Entry: Rhino camping on healing station. Last spawn exit effectively shut down.
Let’s have a look at the scoreboard. We did manage to further shorten the score gap and now have astonishing 18% of the score of the defending team. One of our guys left and two new joined. Needless to say that there was no fluctuation on the defending team.
Rhino is still there but now we also have a Nader controlling the courtyard. In the chat you can see the third shuffle vote fail.
[HR][/HR]This is the last screenshot I have for you because I then left. I have better things to do with my life.
You knew balanced matches were a problem yet you still went ahead and reduced the chances of evening out unbalanced matches. Spamming shuffle votes in this case is a legit thing to do. First, the situation is obviously unbalanced and everyone saying something else probably thinks that Trump is a legitimate candidate for presidency in the US. Second, it increases the chances of it actually passing. Third, it also shows the enemy team that there is something wrong. Having to defend you inadequate actions every ~40 seconds is more inclined to bring a bad conscience compared to one every 3 or 4 minutes.
Besides obvious balancing problems this also perfectly shows the improvable level-design in Terminal.
I would be really curious how many matches don’t make it past objective 1 and in how many of these cases the generator was down. Two of the remaining spawn exits end up facing each other in the same courtyard.
First: Come into work on Monday and immediately push a hotfix bringing back the old shuffle vote system.
Optional: If casual match-making is ready by Monday you don’t need to revert the vote changes.
Second: Re-evaluate the map layout of Terminal
Cheers
//EDIT:
It’s now 7 hours later and the rant has passed. I apologize for my relatively harsh phrasing, but I stand by what I said.
Still a great game