With this update, the devs have showcased an astounding lack of understanding of their own game

Pretty much everyone on this forum has given their two cents about the "Agility Update". So far the response has been overwhelmingly negative, with the primary complaint being that players' ships are nearly impossible to control.

While that's a valid complaint, the consequences of the changes introduced in this update go far deeper than difficulty of control. Because the control issue is one that will fix itself over time; players will naturally adjust to the new feel of movements, and the world will keep spinning. A few others have pointed out far worse problems with the update, and that's what I'm here to emphasize.

Let's see, where do we even start?

Balance issues galore
As the creator of BayStats, I am one to frequently criticize the developers for glaring balance issues in their game. But I do appreciate the service that developers perform for us, the players. I still support them in their endeavors to improve the game. However, from a balance perspective, their decision to abruptly change the foundation of the game that they've been trying to balance for years appears to be, at best, sorely misguided.

The way in which ships can move dictates the power of ALL weapons in the game, because each weapon is unique in how they connect with their targets. Part of the core balance of the game depends on projectile speed and overall ease of damage output. Mortars require slow targets; torpedoes and slow-moving cannon projectiles require less agile targets; fast-moving cannon projectiles generally don't care. But since each weapon is unique in this sense, once you've changed the core movement mechanics, all of the game's balance is completely out the window.

• Now that ships can turn at a moment's notice, how much less useful will Mortars become?
• What about torpedoes? With super-agile ships, will they be even remotely viable anymore?
• Won't slow-moving cannon projectiles become even more frustrating to use?
• Carronade's turret-slowing ability is the only thing that made it useful in knife fights against slower ships, what will happen to that?
• Will fast-moving projectile weapons suffer any of the same consequences as the above item families?

All of this seems to have been either completely overlooked or ignored by the developers. This just shows me that they either don't value a balanced gameplay experience, or that they don't even have a basic grasp on how balancing works in their game.

The developers' reactions to Gear Lube and Rudder being underused is appalling
With their update, the developers told us: "Gear Lube and Rudder are the least used items in the game. So we just deleted them completely!"

...what?

...are you kidding me?!

Are the developers really so obscenely incompetent at balancing their own game that they just deleted two of their only six blue items, on the simple grounds that they were weak? Do they not know that one option is to change Gear Lube and Rudder to be more useful? They had plenty of options for doing this, and the community had no short supply of ideas for such options. Instead, we just made the blue-item selection process more monotonous! Hooray...

So what will happen if people continue to ignore frost items? Will we simply remove them from the game, and make all ships slower? What if everyone stops using Turbo - will we remove Turbo and make all ships faster? The logic that the developers employed for their removal of Gear Lube and Rudder is truly scary, because it is causing a regression in the overall player experience and in the diversity of items and ship abilities.

I get that the developers didn't exclusively state item usage as their grounds for removing Gear Lube and Rudder, but the rest of their reasoning was equally worthless. See below...

An entire layer of strategy has been lost
What makes Battle Bay unique? It certainly isn't the selection of weaponry or ship types, and it definitely isn't the combat dynamic of aiming and shooting at things. Those can be found in just about any 3D shooter game ever.

What makes Battle Bay unique is the depth of strategy:

• Rolling waves that can be used as cover
• Mindfulness of the map's obstacle, and the level of cover that each of them provide
• Awareness of the positions of teammates and enemies
• Strategic ship positioning and orientation, relative to all of the above listed elements

Now that ships can spin and change direction on a dime, a great deal of that strategy has been completely killed off. I am not exaggerating with that statement. What's the point of strategic positioning if my position can be changed in near-immediate fashion? How am I supposed to outplay my opponents by taking advantage of their poor positioning, when their position can be so rapidly changed? What about Speeders who used to run circles around less agile opponents - how are they supposed to leverage their speed advantage? It's really a shame to watch all of this strategic depth fall away due to a thoroughly misguided effort to make the game more "fun".

The rest of the developers' reasoning for eliminating Gear Lube and Rudder was that slow turret and turning speeds worsened the game experience. But once again, this is woefully ignorant of the entire strategic foundation of the game. Since slow ship movement, like what Defender has, makes the game less fun to play, then why haven't they maxed the speeds of all ships? In fact, why not give everyone max HP because that's more "fun"! Again, the logic that the developers have used to justify their actions in this case is quite scary, because of how truly flawed it is.

Maybe the definition of "fun" for the developers is giving the players more power over their own ship, and that's a stance that I don't totally disagree with. But things like maxing ship agility goes both ways in terms of player empowerment!! Now that all ships are more mobile, every single shot from every single weapon is now automatically harder to land on those ships. Any empowerment gained from increased agility will be entirely cancelled out by the difficulty of actually hitting our targets.

All of this nonsense from the developers really stands out to me as a complete and astounding lack of understanding of their own game. When I first played this game, I thought that the amount of strategy involved in combat was all part of a genius concept by the developers. But as time has gone on, and the developers have proven their incapability of grasping what actually makes their own game unique, I am now under the impression that this game concept was never some genius plot to make a strategy-based game. Rather, I believe that they stumbled upon it in a random stroke of luck, and that the actions they are taking now are all part of their misplaced sense that they are actually improving the game.

Solution
The damage being caused to the game and its community right now is not irredeemable! There are steps that can be taken to keep this game moving in a positive direction, and although the deletion of Gear Lube and Rudder is now fairly permanent, all is not yet lost.

1) Significantly reduce the turret and turning speeds of all ships
A small buff was probably warranted given the deletion of Gear Lube and Rudder, but the maxing out of agility was completely unnecessary and should be reverted ASAP before more problems are caused by another significant change. Sliders to adjust agility are not a downright terrible idea, but it's the wrong solution for this problem.

2) Actively attempt to maintain game balance
Balance changes lately have been occurring once in a blue moon - at that rate, we will never recover from these changes. The developers need to step it up to ensure that a well-rounded experience is being delivered.

3) Actually listen to the community
This one is always such a gimme that I don't know how developers (from many different games) continually miss it. It really isn't difficult to just listen to the feedback of your players, even if you don't like the feedback. If this step had been followed from the beginning, we certainly wouldn't be in this mess!

I don't really have any reason to believe that any of these steps will be taken, but one can always hope!

Thank you for reading - I'll be over here waiting for the next update that brings us full autopilots for shooting AND moving, so that we don't even have to do the tedious fighting ourselves! /s

 

Awesome summary.

 

I wish I could like this thread 10 times.

Regardless of how people, personally, feel about the update (love it or hate it), no one can deny that everything you’ve pointed out here is true, and should be serious cause for concern.

 

OMG, Tears Bay Team strikes again!



Let's go tearfuls.

 

Yeah, lap it up. People like you are quick to call everyone else crybabies, until the shoe is on the other foot. Then you’re the biggest crybabies of them all.

This topic is about something important, which effects all ships and players. If you don’t care about good balance in the game, and the way it is being run, then don’t post here.

 

One of the best posts I've read so far regarding the issues everyone is feeling about this update. Thank you for taking the time to but such clear thoughts together. I hope the developers will read your post to understand why so many of us are not happy with the new game experience.

 

Holy crap, you have so eloquently stated so many things running through my head! I am in full agreement all around here!

Absolutely brilliant assessment!!! There is not one thing you have stated that I can find disagreement with.

Many defenders are excited about this because in the blue boat, the controllability is easy to adjust to. They do not have the forethought to realize the long term ramifications. You are still slow, fat and easy to shoot. The other boats just got HARDER to shoot at. They will get better and you have already plateau'd!

Evidence that the devs do not listen to us.

^This bit about strategy is perfect.

SPOT ON!!!! This explains their inability to grasp that player input has value.

Good god I hope those guys are listening!

 

You'll learn to adapt to the new dynamics. People are still dying from torpedoes and speeders are still being wrecked by cannons. The sliders are the best possible solution, empowering each player to select and choose agility levels that best suits their game play.

 

Yep they have ruined our game in one foul swoop. Not spoke to anyone who is happy with this update. I am personally considering leaving the game.

Well put Epicular

Rovio please explain yourself we are all pissed off

 

It would be foolish to intentionally reduce your agility or turret speed. Maximum response is strictly better. It is best to become accustomed to the new response and take advantage of it.

 

Fix for something great? You Must be kidding.

And it has scientific research stating that the human being adapts to everything. Surely this study was not done with Battle Bay players.

They can not stand a change without complaining.

 

You are acting like this is a mere change in the feel of controls, and that difficulty of control is the only consequence of this update.

The problems go far deeper than that, as I explicitly state in the first few sentences of my post (and then elaborate throughout the rest of the post). I'd like to see you actually refute my reasoning instead of parroting the same talking point.

 

100% agreed. It's just beyond comprehension why they would destroy an entire facet of this game in favor of cartoonish gameplay that's gotten old by the end of it's first event. Yes rudder and lube was underused, because they needed to be combined into a one slot item, a suggestion that was repeatedly brought up in this forum by veteran players.

This isn't battle bay, it's something else entirely. It has less long-term build value and less individuality in play style. I have lost confidence in these developers to make the right decisions going forward to continue to make this game interesting.

 

Grow up

 

I despise the new maneuverability, could've kept it regular. Should probably make this optional?

 

This is what they inevitably will do to "fix" the backlash but it does not solve anything, the entire dynamic of the game and individual builds and play styles that come from it has been destroyed, the game has been diminished as a whole.

 

WOnder if they'll switch back. I've been regretting getting rid of those gears after putting so much effort getting them.

 

ONLY if the controls made it possible to control the agility. They are not up to snuff.

 

Heck i have troubles controlling my own ship at time, not realizing where my ship bow is pointing at times

This is crap. Even with the regular gear for maneuverability it wasnt this out of control(SHooter) Speeders' a headache using now.

 

Did you even read the post?