By far, the most extremely disappointing State of the Game in history. It was bad. My expectations were low after reviewing the patch notes but holy ****. Don't use crazy metaphors that don't make sense to describe upcoming changes. Just talk about the changes itself and the logic behind it. Just be clear and informative. Last week's SOTG was good. It was informative. Sure, some things were left out. I thought it was start of turning a new leaf.
What happened? An absolute trainwreck.
No actual fundamental changes to PvP. No additional DZ PVP gameplay loops, No overhaul of core game mechanics. Just reworking the reward system for conflict and adding a new elimination game mode for conflict which doesn't help due to target farming being introduced in the light zone. The game didn't need a new PVP mode or extraction ambushes. We need open Dark Zones with more players and bigger incentives to go there. The Devs at Redstorm just don't get it. There is a huge disconnect with Terry Spier at the helm. It was clear he didn't want to be there from his body language. Don't sit and pat yourself on the back for minor changes like adding new music and loading screens to Conflict.
I know Terry and Keith care and are knowledgeable. At this point, PvP is a lost cause for TD2. I would rather have a 1.8.4 PVP Balance pass for TD1 that nerfs Classifieds + balance pass on weapons, skills, and gear. I am not seeing any significant innovation or changes made even after the community has brought forth tons of suggestions for TD2 PVP.
I mean, you said yourself not everything in the PTS or possible changes were talked about last week. So you complain about how nothing is being changed after this SotG...Use the same logic and I'm guessing there is other stuff they didn't talk about going to be in the PTS and possible get rolled out.
This was also my biggest surprise. I didn't know what to expect, but I didn't expect nothing at all.Originally Posted by Demiz3r Go to original post
Did you watch it? I know TU6 is in active development. There are no other changes for the DZ or PvP in TU6. Nevertheless, this was a perfect opportunity for Redstorm to talk exclusively about PvP and DZ. It was a stream about PvP with virtually no changes to PvP. This is why I am complaining. This is 2nd time we had Terry on the SOTG in 6 months, and there is an abundance of issues surrounding PvP and the DZ.
We have a full weapon balance coming next week and we just had a talents rebalance this week, what changes are you saying that they are missing? Because they talked about improving DZ vendors, supply drops becoming more dynamic, possible black tusks ambushes and improvemetns to hacking terminals. Are you saying they should just increase DZ player cap?Originally Posted by Demiz3r Go to original post
Trying to ensure servers are fully populated sounds like a big change to me. Adding incentives for people to farm the DZ (there are a LOT more boxes/backpacks lying around now) and an actual Thieves Den vendor should also help with keeping servers populated.No actual fundamental changes to PvP. No additional DZ PVP gameplay loops
ITs a big change that i 100% think backfires and the total population of the DZ's will go down almost immediately after its in effect. All the farmers arent going to continue to go in there if they are being met at the door by the ones looking for pvp. They essentially have killed farming the DZ i think.Originally Posted by dagrommit Go to original post
Originally Posted by xcel30 Go to original post
Balancing is a different topic.
Supply drops becoming more dynamic and black tusks ambushes won't bring players in the DZ when we have target farming being introduced in the light zone. There need to be more activities to increase tensions between players. Where are containment events? The DZ needs an increase in player capacity and changes to the map. Specifically, a multilayer space ( street, rooftops, and subways ) for us to explore and engage other players.
Target farming being introduced in the light zone. There is no need for players to farm the DZ. Why would you go to the DZ if you can farm more efficiently in the light zone? The only exclusive item in the DZ is the pestilence.Originally Posted by dagrommit Go to original post
Servers are not populated because there is no incentive to PVP or the farm the dark zone. It's still going to be more lucrative to farm the LZ than the DZ. New players are not going to flock the DZ when you can just target farm the items you need in the LZ.
Trying to attract players who don't want to be in there hasn't been working. It has been holding back the experience for everyone else that wants to be there.
As someone who doesn't go to DZ, making it so you were forced to use more extraction to get loot is what killed for my, while i do think landmarks fun, the PVP aspect balance wise always pushed me away because even if i have a strong build, it won't translate to PVP and the highest hurdle in DZ is other players, so just because PVP works more on build check than getting outskilled by other player just makes me think that the whole thing is a waste of my time. So honestly DZ should be fun for those that want to go there, not to make up reasons so people go there and get crushed by 4 man groups using meta of the month situation, that's how i see it.
I can't believe there are still players under the delusion that this game is PvP oriented. It isn't. It probably never will be. Even in D1 there was a LOT more PvE going on in th DZ than PvP. There were like 45 people who went in there for the PvP, which was just a meta circle jerk, and the rest of us were just grinding gear. This new DZ is too small to ever entice us PvErs into the DZ. We don't want to be griefed by the meta clowns every 5 min.Originally Posted by Demiz3r Go to original post
You really want fresh meat for the grinder? Make the DZ bigger. That will literally fix it. In it's current state people who want to farm the DZ but don't want to tweak out their build to compete with the meta avoid it because we can't avoid YOU. In New York I could run, hide, plan blah blah blah. In this DZ the only cat and mouse is how long will it take the psychopath I have no chance of killing to get from my corpse to the place I chose to respawn. Repeat.
The Darkzone should be a hybrid zone. It isn't. It is queuing up for PvP when you don't want to PvP. I would like the potential for PvP to break out, otherwise, I would play conflict.