|
Khannibal -> Has EpicDuel hit rock bottom? Please Discuss. (4/23/2011 0:29:30)
|
Hello everyone, my name is Khannibal, feel free to call me Ben.
I have been a member of the Battleon forums for over 6 years, and been a player of AE's games for over seven.
With this in mind you may understand that I have witnessed the start of almost every game to have been released, and seen how they have progressed.
This is where a completely unbiased viewpoint originates from, when observing EpicDuel, and the progress it has made since the release, including the feedback of those who play this game.
Those of us who played through Alpha and Beta have fond memories of how certain builds were overpowered, but had a wise counter, where weapons were few and far between as far as top-tier level 30 equipment was concerned, and how players made the most of the few armours they were limited to. If this gives you a better understanding of what I mean, then read. When a bounty hunter used either a Frostbane, or a set of perferators/Industrial claws, and it was the skill that the specific player had that defined how useful each build was.
Once Gamma was released, I noticed the majority of players with identical weapons, equipment, builds and all, with no originality whatsoever.
In the next few paragraphs, I will specify each point I wish to make seperately in order to give you a clear understanding of what I mean, as I understand not everyone has the time, or patience to read all of what I have stated.
So issue one. Lack of originality.
I have already given a brief insight into the issues surrounding originality, however you may see this as trolling, just because the game is evolving. This is not the case. This game is called EpicDuel, whereby players duel in order to test superiority, win, and challenge themselves as well as others. Back in beta we made similar builds that we had adapted from others, and that was criticised, because last year, everyone sought to create their own style of play which the tweaked and tested to be the best they possibly could. High win ratios were our aims, powerful factions and 1v1 champion badges, plus a spot on the leaderboard for the ingame fame we all wanted, this is what drove us to play.
Now, during late beta to present, I noticed builds taking the exact same stats, weapons and skills, with a monotonous playing style were people clicked hours and hours to get an award. These builds consited of one or two options, for example, a strength mercenary, who stuns, berserks, guns, rinses and repeats, or a strength bounty who smokescreens, guns, attacks, massacres, rages and repeats. This applies to support builds too, mercenaries in particular. Auxillary, Artillery, Gun, heal Auxillary. Now I accept that everyne must play how they see fit, but there has been no encouragement from the Devs to prevent monotonous overpowered builds from dominating a competetive game. Which brings me onto my next subject.
A lack of player acknowledgement
Back when I played in beta, the game had a few flaws, as every beta game does, and in having these flaws, the devs posted on the EpicDuel Forums requesting our advice on the game's current situation, and what we believe would make it better. I remember messaging Nightwraith every couple of weeks regarding a problem I had, he always replied within two days, which was something I completely admired, a staff member taking time to answer the questions of a player, and more importantly, from a business perspective, a customer of his company. I had complained regarding my character's name, EDZeron at the time, and how I had wanted to change it to Khannibal, since I had named previous accounts Khannibal and had purchased varium on the wrong account. He assured me that this issue could be adressed, and within a few week the ingame name change was released. I do not take any responsibility for this, as many players had similar issues, but that was staff co-operation.
Players had complained that Tech-Mages abused healing, which in essence was true, for those of you unfamiliar with the term "Heal looping" it is quite simple, a mage would give themself a high amount of HP, usually 110+ and lvel 4+ Field Medic, along with 6+ re-route. The result of this was that once a mage lost the designated healing amount of hitpoints, they would use field medic, and any damage they received after this would add to their mana, allowing the heal to be used multiple times in one battle. This caused a problem for a lot of players, as Angels Holocaust will tell you, and so the Devs decided it had to be stopped, they added another turn of cooldown to healing, which ultimately defeated the usefulness of heal looping. Similarly, Mercenaries would leave their stats dangerously low, give themselves beta equipment, founders armour and maxed artillery strike with massive support, which allowed them to dish out massive amounts of damage, and also Heal, and use their other skills at low levels to give themselves and if in 2v2, their teamates a massive advantage. The devs adressed this, and stated tht a dexterity requirement of 42 was needed to max our Artillery Strike.
However, now that Gamma has started, I have seen very very few major issues adressed to an acceptable standard, and instead a flashy but ultimately useless update in place to cover up the current shortcomings of EpicDuel. I saw a recent topic here on the Battleon Forums whereby a player had complained that major balance issues had been present for over a month or so, and in that time 5 unimportant releases had been prioritized, and a large number of players responded bringing this issue to light. A few posts after these players had adressed the staff directly regarding the issues, a player posted a question asking if a particular weapon would be around for much longer, which Titan instantly replied to. This really hit a nerve. To think that multiple long term players, who had supported EpicDuel from the very beginning, when there were just one hundred players around had been completely disregarded on the forums, where people voice their opinions and questions in the hope that they could get an answer, when it had been quite clear said staff member had observed, and chose to ignore the important topic for capital. There have been a wealth of balance issues throughout Gamma, and very few solutions provided by thos who disrupted the game mechanics.
When looking at these responses from a business perspective, I make a comparison;
If I had entered a shop, to purchase a laptop, and many of my associates had also done this, only to realise a month after purchasing the laptop, it had started to crash, and due to the way it had been poorly constructed, ceased to work as it had been intentionally created to, and we all returned to the shop in order to have our problem adressed and adequately remedied, only to discover that the person who had sold us the laptops completely ignored our existance despite repeatedly addressing them for 30 days straight, and instead a new customer had walked in from behind us and addressed the worker, only to receive a courteous, and instant reply to where he may purchase a new laptop, then the worker would not only be completely in the wrong, but liable for various charges.
Next point.
Money > Player
I am going to be reffering to Beta again, in order to give us a completely realistic view on exactly what is happening as opposed to another game or company, which would be the perfect reason to delete this thread.
Back in Beta, I was more than willing to purchase a 10,000 varium package, because I knew it would last me a long time, especially since over 30 GBP, to a Non-working student was hard to come by, and it couldn't be bought more than once without leaving me broke at the time. I bought the package, because not only did I have the opportunity to buy the all alluring varium items at the time, I received Founder's armour, the best armour ingame at the time, and the Beta Equipment, plus Founder status. Now that really was worth my money, so I thought. A new Bazooka, Sidearm and weapon at level 30 would set e back no more than 3000 varium and I'd still have 7000 for other thins, it was brilliant. Because in honesty, over 30 pounds is a lot of money to spend on a 2d turn based flash game in it's Beta stage, so people were less inclined to simply give way their money.
Now there were a few armour sets then and i'll guide you through them. The level 12, or maybe 15, i can't quite remember, Founders armour, the level 25 Founders armour, the level 12 and 25 varium armour for those unable to purchase Founder's, and the 12 and 25 non varium armour sets. The varium armours consisted of Mage armours such as Necro Mage, which gave +6 support and Dexterity, and +6 R/D depnding on Phys/Energy versions. Now these armours gave players multiple styles of builds to choose from, as some armours gae Tech and Dex boosts instead. There were few level 30 Varium weapons out at the time, Frostbane had been the only level 30 Energy Sword for around 9 months and very few weapons compared to it in terms of Damage, Requirements, Stat modifiers and versitility, not to mention it's incredible design. Plus it was a sword, a weapon that was usable by all 3 classes. This was 1000 varium, guns such as the Imperial ACP and Heartbreaker Blaster were justunder 1000 varium, and Aux's such as the Zeuszooka and Vendzooka were around 1000 varium too. Armours were released few and far between, infact since the start of the game, only the level 25 varium armour had been released along with founders and level 12 gear for well over a year. Then level 28 armours were relased, such as Seraph and Desert Ronin, which, given the space in which people had waited was necessary. This is where the story goes bad.
Gamma starts, and we have a new weapon practicaly every week, for an inflated price. The Rixty weapons were released as the first 31 weapons, for 2200 varium each, but ED noticing how completely unfair the price was decided to lower the price, buff the damage and stats, and please absolutely everyone. Everyone was amazed at the release of the Dragon Buster, an incredible weapon with excellent stats and damage, and the price was around 1500 varium I believe, 1.5x as much as the frostbane, with identical stats. Needless to say the top players bought this, and when the Chaotic Cleaer was released, everyone finally had a level 31 replacement for their Frostbanes, 10 months after it's release. Just one and a half months later, the Frostbane was buffed, making the cleaver underpowered against it, especially with the release of enhancements. Before this more and more weapons started to pour in, the Imperial Axe, the Liberty Scythe etc etc. Just a month or so after the Dragon Buster was released, th Azrael's Bane was released, a much stronger and more expensive replacement, so the DB hardly had it's 15 minutes of fame before another weapon was off the press. Over the past 2 months, several new and trivial armours have been released, each marginally surpassing it's predecessor andbeng stamped with a LIMITED EDITION stamp made everyone panic to buy them, only to discover 2 weeks later a new armour was out. Warbot, Junker, Banana, Bunny, more level 28 armours to replace the current ones as well, all for an elevated price. The newer bunnyzookas were released, with marginally better stats compared to last years, an the new ones have stat requirements, at ALMOST DOUBLE THE PRICE! And just tonight enhancements for Guns and Auxs were released. Strength mercs kept getting a new maul to replace their last weapon, due to every single holiday event in history coming to EpicDuel, mages got few staffs of use, causing class changes, more money. Players have requested a physical staff for almost a year with no response, the only weapon type to have no useful physical alternative. Now correct me if I have prices wrong, I don't have enough time to check over the massive influx of new equipment into Epicduel weekly, but I'm assuming 1500 varium for an armour, andI can't remember the cost of full enhancements so I'm going to assume 1000 for +9 enhances, so that's 2500 + a new gun for (1200+1000)+ a new aux (2000+1000) + a new weapon (1200+1000) + a robot (1200?) So how much is that? About 12000 varium? What would have cost us 3000 to have the best equipment in beta, would now cost more than the top varium package in Gamma. Prices people simply cannot afford. Builds are nerfed, which is neccessary for those who massively abuse stats, but then builds that relied on 45 of a stat, plus the enhancements and new equipment you blindly sold them and robots, so they could have a balanced +5 build were punished too, the higher the stats the greater the nerf. And then to counter than you introduce enhancements on sidearms and launchers to make up for the stat and skill losses.
I understand there is a stickied thread courtesy of Nightwraith, regarding the price creep etc. however it does not target specifics, and does not allow discussion, as this is a forum it is assumed that the members have the right to discuss certain aspects of the game, and how they believe, through the eyes of a gamer, the game is evolving.
I really do apologise for how long this is, I do believe it covers almost everything, but I have been writing it non-stop for an hour and a half and it's now 5am, and I don't believe I'm staying up after this is posted. If I have missed anything then please don't hesitate to tell me, I would like to ask you to use this post as the Flagship for any EpicDuel rants regarding varium and money issues so we don't spam up the forums, and this remains orderly.
This topic is not aimed at defaming or insulting anyone named within the topic, I just believe that the truth, when spoken, should be the truth, I have not made anyone out to be malicious, or accused anyone wrongly, I have simply stated orderly facts.
Thank you for your time, and do discuss.
Khannibal.
Disclaimer: This topic was not created in order to defame said parties mentioned, simply to state the facts of the topic itself. On creating this topic I believe I have not crossed any boundaries, or broken any rules/laws in which members of the forum are bound by. A removal of this topic without contacting myself, or presenting a reason that supports your reasons and the rules of the forum will result in requested personal contact with the responsible party, and video evidence of the deletion of this post, I have backed up copies of this post and have taken matters to ensure the time and date of the posted topic reflects current standards.
|
|
|
|
