[FEEDBACK] The Ghost Recon Team must be better at communicating | Forums

[AI BLUEFOX]

First, thank you for your response. It is nice to get even partial answers to those questions. What baffles me personally is why you would wait until just a week and a half before the Beta drops to answer the PvP questions. Maybe there are some marketing secrets that I don't understand, but it seems to me that the more info that is out there the more(possibly) pre-orders you would get.

To the above list I would like to add:
5) How robust will gunsmith be? How much will we be able to modify and customize weapons?

It's a massive improvement over Wildlands, LoL. We didn't even know there would be a PvP until a couple of weeks before release of the game.

We had already been told that PvP and PvE were going to be separately balanced for damage to avoid the new starter disadvantage, but I think the shared progress will mean better weapons for those further progressed. The rest we will find out in the beta phase, but I get the feeling the betas will be focussed more on the PvE than the PvP, but I am hopeful more than expectant on dedicated servers. GR has never had them before, it has always been peer to peer, although Ghost War doeshave relay servers.

[Megalodon26]

The reason we didn't hear about Ghost War, until so late in the process, was because the game was meant to be a PVE only experience, After all, they already had Siege as the dedicated TC branded PVP experience. but because there was so much outcry from the community about PVP, they changed direction, and added PVP. But they weren't going to say so, until they knew that it could get it working, even if it was delayed.

Too bad we will never know just how much different the post launch PVE experience could have been, if their focus hadn't been divided.

[Virtual-Chris]

I wish I could share more with you at this point, but many teams are involved in the development and publishing of a game on this scale. From our side, the community team, part of our job is to try and influence the communication based on the community and provide specific community requested articles/info. So we are working on that, and soon we can share more with you guys.

And noted for the gunsmith and weapon customisation.

Thank you for your time and response .

Thanks for chiming in!

I've said this before, but I believe the folks at Ubisoft, from the executives on down, don't really appreciate what made Wildlands so special and thus what the key factors are for the success of Breakpoint. I say this, because of the way Wildlands DLC unfolded over the last two years... a rather bizarre mix mash of new game modes and cross-over content. Even though Fallen Ghosts was probably the most successful DLC for Wildlands, and thus rightly inspired Breakpoint, I don't think it's still well understood WHY it was successful. So far, the marketing of Breakpoint has been focused on the backstory and the protagonist... which is ok, but almost secondary or even tertiary to what makes these games special. In fact, I would suggest that focusing so much of the marketing on the fantasy island, unrealistic protagonists, and the high-tech drone armies was a poor decision - GR folks want realism, not Star Wars levels of fantasy.

I've been active on these forums and Reddit for the last 18 months and I've seen no end of requests for more weapons, different weapon customization, attachments, bipods, different character customization, more cosmetics, customizable belts and helmets, and more camo patterns, and camo that makes a difference. And the gun play... from ballistics, to damage, to reloading animations, to ammo and mag management, etc. Based on my limited perspective, I would say that this stuff, is WAY more important to your loyal Wildlands fanbase than any other aspects of the game. Yet we've not heard a peep. It naturally has many of us very concerned. Besides bloused boots, has any of our incessant requests for this stuff been incorporated?

[AI BLUEFOX]

The reason we didn't hear about Ghost War, until so late in the process, was because the game was meant to be a PVE only experience, After all, they already had Siege as the dedicated TC branded PVP experience. but because there was so much outcry from the community about PVP, they changed direction, and added PVP. But they weren't going to say so, until they knew that it could get it working, even if it was delayed.

Too bad we will never know just how much different the post launch PVE experience could have been, if their focus hadn't been divided.

They were working on the PvP before the 2015 game reveal. Yves Guillemot even let it slip in a 2015 interview. Apparently he's marketings biggest worry, LoL.

And we do know the difference in PvE as their focus wasn't divided, Bucharest made the PvP which extended the duration of the game through Yr 2 and into Yr 3 and allowed for more PvE content.

[Bone_Frog]

I've been active on these forums and Reddit for the last 18 months and I've seen no end of requests for more weapons, different weapon customization, attachments, bipods, different character customization, more cosmetics, customizable belts and helmets, and more camo patterns, and camo that makes a difference. And the gun play... from ballistics, to damage, to reloading animations, to ammo and mag management, etc. Based on my limited perspective, I would say that this stuff, is WAY more important to your loyal Wildlands fanbase than any other aspects of the game. Yet we've not heard a peep. It naturally has many of us very concerned. Besides bloused boots, has any of our incessant requests for this stuff been incorporated?

In all due respect, everything in bold has been answered in E3 game play videos and IGN exclusives. Yes I know that you have to sit through a lot of content creator pontificating to get to the various nuggets you may be interested in. Honestly I wish they had invited a few of the more devout GR fans to play and record at E3 who would have more directly addressed some of those issues. Sadly I don't think most of them have sufficient subscriber numbers and video views to get that sort of invite, and a few of the ones that might did their best to... um... alienate Ubisoft in various ways.

I have to say that Ubisoft bringing in content creators and allowing them to film their gaming sessions has to be considered communication. It might not be the clearest form of communication as again, I'm not sure most of the content creators that were their filming had the interests of Forum and Reddit communities in mind. Though again that isn't necessarily Ubisoft's fault.

[Megalodon26]

I think he was more referencing working bipods. We know that they have been added to the game, but it's still unclear if they will be functioning or not. Even the available footage from E3, not many shows the player using a sniper rifle, but when they did, they never went prone, or situated where one would expect that a bipod would be used.

[Bone_Frog]

I think he was more referencing working bipods. We know that they have been added to the game, but it's still unclear if they will be functioning or not. Even the available footage from E3, not many shows the player using a sniper rifle, but when they did, they never went prone, or situated where one would expect that a bipod would be used.

Personally I'm not that invested in the bipod thing. Most military snipers that I know never used them, between extra weight, their tendency to get hung up on things and make a lot of noise thus ruining your stalk, it just didn't make sense for them. But hey if people really want them, I guess why not. Seemed to me that they were shown as functional in the E3 footage, but I could have been wrong.

[Megalodon26]

Well honestly, I doubt there is going to be very much stalking in the game. But for me, I would not mind if one of the sniper specific gadgets, is a tripod.

[Virtual-Chris]

In all due respect, everything in bold has been answered in E3 game play videos and IGN exclusives. Yes I know that you have to sit through a lot of content creator pontificating to get to the various nuggets you may be interested in. Honestly I wish they had invited a few of the more devout GR fans to play and record at E3 who would have more directly addressed some of those issues. Sadly I don't think most of them have sufficient subscriber numbers and video views to get that sort of invite, and a few of the ones that might did their best to... um... alienate Ubisoft in various ways.

I have to say that Ubisoft bringing in content creators and allowing them to film their gaming sessions has to be considered communication. It might not be the clearest form of communication as again, I'm not sure most of the content creators that were their filming had the interests of Forum and Reddit communities in mind. Though again that isn't necessarily Ubisoft's fault.

I have watched a few game play videos since E3 and a lot of these things you bolded weren't evident, but maybe I'm not watching closely. I have seen bipods on rifles, but I don't know if that gives a buff to steady aim or is just for looks. I'm not expecting them to deploy as I can't imagine Ubisoft being ambitious enough to deal with the animation and clipping issues. Of course they've talked about prone camo, but I'm not aware of any comments on whether your choice of camo pattern for a given type of environment helps or hinders your detection or whether gillie suits make a difference. I came across a discussion that was talking about reload animations, but I don't think there was any certainty around whether they addressed the reload animations for racking the charging handle vs hitting the bolt release (or doing nothing) depending on the state of the gun - and actually doing proper animations for different guns rather than copy/pasting them. And from what I saw, it looks like the ammo pool is the same as in Wildlands. In other words, they've mostly ignored the top requests for improvements... am I correct? That would certainly explain the lack of marketing of these elements

Ps. no respect is due

[AI BLUEFOX]

I guess a few points of note

1. Working, functioning bipods were used in Future Soldier. They had a direct buff to recoil and aim, but delayed you slightly whilst you deployed them
2. Magazine management has featured in Wildlands
3. Camo has no effect in Wildlands, but ambient light and foliage does
4. The charging handle animation issue is well known, but is a "hollywood" effect
5. The projectile velocity in Wildlands PvP is significantly higher than it is in PvE

Which means that the studio know this stuff. They are deliberate and pre-determined gameplay effects that have been added and/or adapted to make what the Dev team feel is a better game experience. In other words, to argue for a change we need to describe it in gameplay terms not in real life terms. There doesn't seem much value in pointing out something that the Devs already know as the sole rationale for a change. That doesn't mean they would ignore the requests, just that they have most likely thought them through and decided on balance to go with the game as is.

We need better gameplay reasons in my opinion. To illustrate what I mean i'll start with magazine management. It is entirely consistent with the Breakpoint theme that a player should be made to feel that ammo is a precious commodity, one that should be used sparingly. Reloading with a partially full magazine should be a deliberate and not a casual act where the player is acutely aware that they have made a choice to prioritise reload speed over remaining capacity. It would add tension and excitement to engagements and also provide satisfaction to players that they are mastering a skill as they get used to having to think about rounds used.