What is the current goal of your balance strategies?


(HurtRusselL) #1

Not sure how active this forum is, but hey. :penguin:

Before starting DBomb around the end of the closed beta all the positive things I heard were essentially a high TTK, high skill ceiling, fluid fast-paced gameplay. The movement mechanics are still some of the best around for me, but why is it that the balancing over the past several months seems to be fighting against all of those positives?

Weapon damage has been massively increased on more than half the weapons in the game (off the top of my head, Dreiss, bursts, some SMG, now all pistols, possibly some of the snipers although I canā€™t recall,) DPS has been increased along with a lot of those changes (thus reducing the TTK), and guns have been make more clunky and awkward to use to compensate for damage (in the form of higher bloom, recoil, lower rates of fire, longer reloads, etc,) not to mention silly shotgun range increases. All of this combined has also lowered the skill ceiling to some extent since there are a plethora of weapons for which it is now a viable strategy to NOT aim for heads, but to aim center mass. Shotguns, dreiss, all sniper rifles (PDP, grandeur, moa, felix), burst rifles to some extentā€¦ all of these have such high dps, and all but the burst rifles and bolt-action snipers have such poor consistency in their aim that they can kill most mercs in less than a second with no headshots, but have difficulty maintaining a high headshot rate without missing shots entirely. Burst rifles and bolt-actions are accurate enough to get headshots consistently but the body dps is so high that it wonā€™t matter in a lot of combat scenarios.

Iā€™m not trying to cause an argument with people about whatā€™s viable and what isnā€™t, and Iā€™m not looking for strategy ideas or whatever else. I donā€™t have a problem with my own performance; my problem is that the game is feeling less fun over time. Is there any hope for the core mechanics of the game to stay skill-oriented and fun, or is balance going to continue the way it has? I canā€™t be the only person thinking this way with the exodus of the competitive sceneā€¦ it was a lot more fun playing with those guys back in the day.


(Glottis-3D) #2

Body damage does seem rewarding enough against most mercs to not go for headshots in the fight.
I can say that in the middle of a fight i usually go for body especially if i have fire on me and viewkick messes with my aim.

But against Thunder and Rhino going for body is suicide.


(MuffinCthulhu) #3

Dirty Bomb was originally billed as a return to the shooters of old and I think that the developers started out with good intentions. However, it does seem like the TTK has gotten progressively lower since last summer, which completely contradicts the specified intent of the game. I do feel like this is a conscious decision on the part of the developers and think that the transition from competitive-shooter to CS-clone was telegraphed to players when the Execution game mode was released. Since then, the gameplay keeps moving closer and closer to the twitchy/campy style of CS.

As much as I would like to, I canā€™t really fault the developers. They saw the competitive community collapse not long after the Beta was launched and have been struggling to retain players. I feel like they are caught in a spiral where they can either a) make changes in an attempt to revive the competitive scene or b) appeal the greater market. Despite the balance changes, Dirty Bomb is still not an easy game to learn. And, letā€™s face it, there is a giant chunk of gamers who donā€™t like challenges ā€“ especially when the challenge comes from another player. So, I think weā€™ll continue to see increased DPS across the board and the introduction of more one-hit KOā€™s devices because that what players want, which is evidenced by the number of Execution and 8v8-Objective players.

I really wish they had to resources to do both (a) and (b) because the fluidity of play is still extremely fun. But I donā€™t think they do. So, unless they release modding tools, I donā€™t see there being anything but Execution-playing, bunny-hopping, shotgunning, Proxy players left by this time next year.


(Nail) #4

I donā€™t think you have a clue, but gl


(Szakalot) #5

ttk didnā€™t change much since the ā€˜darwinā€™ update - november 2014

No idea what damage buffs people refer to, except the recent burst rifle meta.

Body damage is rewarding at longer ranges, but trying to spam someone down up close with bodyshots while they are popping your head off is not gonna work. Imo body vs head risk/reward are in a really good spot, and i dont see TTK differing much from that of RTCW/ET.

QW had high TTK but for all the wrong reasons : P


(shaftz0r) #6

i agree. it doesnt feel much different. the higher rof weapons seem balanced with the lower, higher dmg rof weapons


(_Eclipse_) #7

I donā€™t think DB TTK is any lower than the original ET honestlyā€¦ itā€™s lower than Q3 and UT of course, but a shooter with ā€œrealisticā€ weapons and a Q3 style TTK would suck


(HurtRusselL) #8

Thanks for the feedback folks.

I guess I didnā€™t communicate it very well, but I suppose my real issue here isnā€™t so much that the TTK is itself unreasonable, but that the overall changes that are lowering the TTK are also changing the gameplay and, I feel, lowering the skill ceiling.

Body damage is rewarding at longer ranges, but trying to spam someone down up close with bodyshots while they are popping your head off is not gonna work. Imo body vs head risk/reward are in a really good spot, and i dont see TTK differing much from that of RTCW/ET.

I actually feel like itā€™s the opposite right now. At range is where head shots really shine since damage falloff increases the TTK to a point where the player with the better accuracy will win virtually every fight; someone who isnā€™t hitting heads stands no chance. At close range, however, there are now a great deal of weapons which favor body damage due to their low accuracy (by which i mean a combination of high recoil and bloom) but sufficient DPS.

In a close range fight if both players are standing still or slowly strafe-dodging then sure, head tracking is relevant. On the other hand, a player aiming center mass has a lot more leeway with their aim which allows spastic movements and bunny hopping to combat an enemy tracking heads without reasonable risk of missing. As DPS for weapons increases and their overall accuracy is reduced I feel this becomes a more viable strategy. So itā€™s not so much the TTK itself that Iā€™m worried about, but this change Iā€™ve seen in the play style for many weapons.

I suppose I am just wondering if the game is going to keep moving in this direction as Iā€™m personally not a fan of gameplay based around rapid unpredictable movement and potential 1hkoā€™s (and in fact I really donā€™t like one hit kills at all unless there is a significant skill barrier and trade-off required.)


(BomBaKlaK) #9

For the moment when we talk about balance I have 3 majors things to look at :

  • Stickies : Way to powerfull, or to many stickies. 3 is a spam fest ! Players not even play with they primary they always run around with a sticky all the time ā€¦

  • Burst riffle & shotgun : something is really wrong with the balance of this 2 weapons.

  • Sparks ! Is still a huge issue to me, the Revivr is way to powerfull when we talk about healing, we need a real fall off for the revives (you can revive a full team full life for the other side of the map in a blink) and the empire 9 is still super powerfull, so Spark is the most versatil merc of the game. You can one shot from long distance as a sniper and be super efficient at close range with the empire 9. Then you can heal yourself in a blink and run away cause she is so speed ā€¦