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.
Disagree. More on that later.
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.
Agree. So, if ships have the advantage of being more mobile and this dictates the power of ALL weapons in the game, then the best step towards a balanced game would be reduce the enormous gap between the movement of different ship types - which sounds like a great step towards balancing.
Mortars require slow targets; torpedoes and slow-moving cannon projectiles require less agile targets.
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?
"Slow targets" "less agile targets" .. So you're upset that shooters, defenders and fixers are less helpless against the items that have never been effective against yellow boats? Sounds like balance to me ..
I haven't had any issue hitting with my big torp post update - in fact, I believe I'm hitting with it more often. But, feel free to advocate for another speed increase.
Mortars are primarily used by shooters against shooters or defenders, so why are you so concerned with shooter vs shooter/defender interactions? They are the ones enjoying this update the most.
It might be slightly easier to avoid at an angle, but they didn't get a speed boost. I'm still getting hit by mortars. A flight time adjustment is easy enough to make, if necessary .. I don't see this as such a game breaking issue.
Won't slow-moving cannon projectiles become even more frustrating to use?
More frustrating than they already were against yellow boats??? Not really .. Shooters, defenders and fixers are still easy to hit .. it may be less guaranteed, but it's more balanced now imo.
Carronade's turret-slowing ability is the only thing that made it useful in knife fights against slower ships, what will happen to that?
I rarely see Carronades since the defense perk came out .. but it's still going to be an advantage to slow a turret.
Will fast-moving projectile weapons suffer any of the same consequences as the above item families?
It might be harder to hit at max range with a sniper .. Are you suggesting that's a bad thing? Should sniper and rails get a speed boost?
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.
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?
Wow ... Once a debate resorts to insults, an argument is lost.
Opinions may vary, but it's easy to see the logic in the changes - assuming you're not blinded by emotion.
So what will happen if people continue to ignore frost items? Will we simply remove them from the game, and make all ships slower?
Not likely. But, as much as people hate getting them over the yellow items they really want, I'm sure some wouldn't mind.
Slippery Slope Fallacy - asserting that a relatively small first step inevitably leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant impact/event that should not happen, thus the first step should not happen.
What if everyone stops using Turbo - will we remove Turbo and make all ships faster?
Or, more likely, what if the turbo use rate was 100%, why not make all ships faster?
Although, honestly, I wouldn't mind. Shields and Bandages give you enough options to customize a ship to your needs ... and I had a terrible time RNGing turbos.
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.
There were far more complaints about getting epic/legendary rudder and lubes, and the usage rate was virtually zero .. so I don't find the logic scary. It makes perfect sense. There has been no material change in item diversity post-update. And, O would argue that player experience has been enhanced since it's easier to get the items you want.
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...
I suppose that's one way to go -- rather than trying to understand the logic and debating that, you could just call the reasoning "worthless."
An entire layer of strategy has been lost
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
I agree. And, now all ships can enjoy this uniqueness.
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.
So rather than speeding behind a lethargic defender, hitting them 2-3 times before they can turn around, driving through their ship to the opposite side of their turret, hitting them 2-3 more times, over and over... You have to take your shot and move to cover ...? And, this takes less strategy?
Or, does it make the game more balanced and fair to allow ships a chance at defending themselves? With yellow speed items, there is nothing a defender can do to stop a yellow boat from getting behind him .. This isn't strategy. It's shooting fish in a barrel.
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?
As in teleporting across the map? Or turret placement? Because, as I said, you can be in a terrible position as a speeder, hit the nitro and instantly have the advantage against a ship that takes forever to turn around... These changes are sounding more and more logical to me.
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".
I believe it will be more fair and less fun for some. It's less fun to have a balanced match for some, but it is more fair. The speeder circle of death was nothing more than a game of keep away from the slow, fat kid. Now they have to work a little bit harder. This should increase the strategic depth of the game.
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.
"Woefully ignorant" .... ok
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.
You said earlier how important ship movement was for balance, so I'm not seeing how you find balance changes to movement scary. If, however, they used slippery slope arguments like this to justify their logic, I would be scared.
All of this nonsense from the developers really stands out to me as a complete and astounding lack of understanding of their own game.
But as time has gone on, and the developers have proven their incapability of grasping what actually makes their own game unique
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.
Yeah .. This pretty much sums up the entire post for me. It's a rant. I tried my best to find the logic in there but it's 95% insults and slippery slope arguments.
For those of you "liking" his post - whether you agree with the rant or not - make sure you're really looking for the arguments. It's a good habit to get in to.
Solution
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!
Dear developers; please don't.
I see now why your comments are infrequent. There is no reasoning with this type of stance. Whether I fully agree with all the changes or not, I see your logic and appreciate your hard work.
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