DevReply Update Info !

to be honest, people are slowly starting to come around like I thought they would it does make the game much more enjoyable... just work through that initial 'scary' part

ooh 1 more thing, I think Tesla shield the only thing that makes yellows good and that's coming from a speeder and I luv the experience in this moment right now #metareport

We really need SLIDERS to adjust these in controls to our play style

 

Can you let us know how drastically things might be changed / balanced? I was a speeder who is now adapting all my settings / gear to defender because I like how it sails with the high agility / turret speed, and it will be annoying if things swing back the other way again.

 

Thanks for your reply. But please look into this hot fix carefully so that I might solve the recent problems in a fair way for all of us.
Good luck devs!!

 

Thank you for the update. But I don't understand why you didn't mention enforcer on the ship turning adjustment list.

 

I've used Rudder and Lube with success, but I learned from the Max Agility Event is that I do not want Max Rudder... and Max Turret also comes with it's own problems. Both together cause whiplash and auto-aim exacerbates all of this. The game controls are not designed for those settings, and I have decided to not play the game any further until improvements are made.

My suggestions:

Joystick

• Problem: I'm used to going one a direction with the joystick and firing another, but it's too hard to watch your boat direction in one part of the screen and aim at enemies on another part of the screen. In other words it's too easy to go an unintended direction... if your joystick thumb gets just a few degrees off the boat can instantly be facing any direction in moments and I can't always watch for that. For example, when I am engaged with an enemy I'm focused on hitting them, and when I get rushed I want to get away, but I frequently find myself in a direction I didn't expect, and recovery can be fatal. I do have "Rotate camera with ship" disabled because that's just too hard to focus with this rudder speed. Currently for the boat to go straight you have to press the 0 degree position exactly... but that's nearly impossible to hit... thumb is too big, joystick too small, so I wind up thrashing back and forth trying to go straight. Using cruise control fixes "straight" but if I just want to go in a gradual arc, I'm back to thrashing back and forth.
  
• Solution: Because max Rudder allows you to turn on a dime, the joystick should work like this: Press the position on the dial you want to go and your boat turns and goes that way. The camera angle would then change with direction, probably slower than it does now, giving time for you to adjust your thumb position. Your right thumb is already the means for changing aim and camera angles more rapidly.

Individual Agility Controls

• Each boat should have a preference for percentage of max Lube and Rudder separately. Some boats obviously benefit more than others, some people like more than others, so per-boat tweaking would make everyone happy.

Either or both suggestion would, I think, address the issue for everyone, and get me back in the game. Until then, I'm out.

 

I haven’t really had any problems with the controls whatsoever. I already played Speeder with Rudder, so I’m fairly used to sliding all over the place, and having my target bounce. People getting used to the controls is not the biggest problem here.

The problem is that turret speed, and the ability to track other ships (most notably Speeders), was part of the game’s balance.

You’ve spent years trying to get the balance right between ships. It wasn’t perfect, but with so much fine tuning over such a long time, it was still relatively good. That is now completely out the window.

Speeder is at a pretty big disadvantage in terms of firepower and hp. That’s all predicated on the ‘supposition’ that it is able to be evasive. If it’s no longer able to be evasive, then it’s no longer balanced.

You can’t just leave it paying a huge firepower and hp penalty, for an advantage that it doesn’t have.

 

No enforcer fix?

 

Agree.

And to people saying speeders will have to adapt...
Of course some speeders will adapt to the change, but it'll become just another damage spamming ship. It will literally lose its spark (actually, it did at the "stun nerf" update, now it just got murdered).
Everything speeder was the best at, is done. It's uniqueness is over. Time to move on.

Edit: don't try persuade other non-speeders about this. They don't understand the ship, and don't understand how drastically this changes everything.

 

I’ve already tried the double torp double nitro speeder spam.

 

Looking forward for the changes and fixes. So glad that you all are listening to the community!

 

THIS TIMES A MILLION. Controls aren’t the major problem here. The major problem is that you’ve eliminated an entire layer of strategy from the game in one fell swoop. Not to mention that you can’t just change something in such a sudden and massive fashion without insane balance issues.

 

Stay calm...

 

Dang. Out of all the boats, I thought Enforcer was the most in need of an adjustment. The agility is SO high that it affects the aiming ability, unless you manually lock onto targets. I’ll be engaging someone, go in reverse, my ship will rotate just 45 degrees (although I’m trying to go straight back) and I lock onto someone else. I was playing Speeder just before the maintenance and didn’t think that it was too bad. I easily could’ve gotten used to it, but Enforcer is too much.

I do appreciate the attempt of adjusting the game, but in my opinion it still all needs dialed back just a little. There are a number of complaints that mortars and torpedoes are ridiculously hard to use now and I’d have to agree. I use grenade and I’ll be trying to lead my target, my example from above kicks in, and now I’m launching my grenade nowhere near my intended target As one of the “harder” weapons to use, this update made it much harder.

 

This!
I've got no problem with the controls, I'm up in infamy since the update.
I also think the new cannon got interesting mechanics (and that it needs a boost).. But...

The last updated traded strategy for action. I liked the strategy part.
It should hurt you getting your boat into a bad spot, facing the wrong way with no planned escape. Now all boats can simply turn on a dime and get out. This was a real skill.
I don't even play speeder, but a speeder on a properly planned attack vector should have the upper hand (for a short while), now the enemy can simply hit lock and his turret rotates around in 0.1 sec.

The game went from "Battle Bay" to "Bumper Boats". Yes, we can do donuts and circle each other all day, yes, there will be more closed range knife fighting and action, but you lost several layers of strategic gameplay.

 

THESE

GUYS

NAILED IT

 

I can't be the only one thinking this, but I might be the only one to say it.

The developers have NO perfect options at this point.

Options:
- Roll back this agility update to previous settings and maybe provide a small boost to the stats. Reinstate a gearlube/rudder item.
Result: This will make about 95% of the community happy, however the vocal 5% that like the update will be upset, so offer them the ability to Transmutate a blue item for a new gearlube/rudder item.

-Create slider controls for EACH individual boat. Not just a global slider.
Result: This now creates an new imbalance in the ships which you guys worked for years to hone to a fairly good balance as it was. Nobody was asking for a re-balancing of ships. Each ship had a role and their stats supported their role.

-Tweak the stats for each ship to something that the developers feel is right(which it sounds like this is what Grim Repair is implying they are going to do).
Result: Players still have no control over their individual taste for playing, so nobody is happy. Everyone is still going to be complaining about unfairness in ship balance, they want their ship tweaked more/less, etc etc etc. By the time the developers keep tweaking the stats, how many players are we going to lose?

Here is a suggestion for future updates:
There is entire "Suggestion Thread" on this forum with countless great ideas being suggested to improve the game. Apparently that thread is pointless, because nothing seems to make it to the updates. I loved the fact that BattleBay actually put a Poll on their Facebook page last month asking players to vote whether they wanted a New Ship or New Weapon. The winner was NEW SHIP.................. We got a NEW WEAPON. What was the point of that Poll? What is the point of the Suggestion Forum?
How many times do the developers have to add CLUTTER to the game play screen(AutoPilot Button) that is widely panned, without the option to remove it?
Every update thus far had good things and bad things. This update changed the game.

Where it goes from here, I don't know, but I will at least stick it out to see what happens.

 

I'm afraid that the "buff" defenders gained from this update will be gone.

 

One more suggestion.

Can you please revisit the carro slow talents. They were a handy way to get out of a defenders sights when you played a fixer. Now they spin on a dime, the weapon is back to being pointless as a defence weapon.
It’s needs to be extremely high like 60-75% and possibly add some ship turning reduction too.
Basically there no point in sacrificing the reduced damage for slows.