88 replies to this topic

[Mcgral18]

I don't want moar robots, I want words


Words from the mouth of our beloved balance department, explaining some of the changes they do
They may help the community understand why a thing was done...because some changes are just nonsense, and the lack of changes disgusting.

[Appogee]

Paul played his one game for the month.

He was playing in his favorite Dragon-5N, but he was killed by a UAC Jager-DD.

So the Jager-DD was nerfed, and the Dragon-5N was buffed.

Any other questions?

Edited by Appogee, 20 October 2016 - 02:24 PM.

[Kaptain]

Appogee, on 20 October 2016 - 05:56 AM, said:

Paul played his one game for the month.

He was killed by a UAC Jager.

So the Jager had to be nerfed.

Any other questions?

Lair! Paul does not play this game and his catapult build is evidence of that.

Edited by Kaptain, 20 October 2016 - 05:58 AM.

[Bombast]

They nerfed both the Enforcer and Jagermech, so I think it's pretty clear this is some sort of Anti-Davion conspiracy, and any other mechs nerfed were just casualties of war, only changed to obscure this secret attack against the Federated Suns.

Save us, Hanse Davion!

[Bud Crue]

Mcgral18, on 20 October 2016 - 05:53 AM, said:

I don't want moar robots, I want words


Words from the mouth of our beloved balance department, explaining some of the changes they do
They may help the community understand why a thing was done...because some changes are just nonsense, and the lack of changes disgusting.

Amen. I'd also appreciate it PGI, if the explanations that you provide actually make sense (crazy, I know) and had some indication that you understand how and why people play this game.

[El Bandito]

Bombast, on 20 October 2016 - 06:08 AM, said:

They nerfed both the Enforcer and Jagermech, so I think it's pretty clear this is some sort of Anti-Davion conspiracy, and any other mechs nerfed were just casualties of war, only changed to obscure this secret attack against the Federated Suns.

Save us, Hanse Davion!

He can't. Too busy having a heart attack.

[His Holiness Pope Buster]

The DD UAC nerf was just silly. Plus, I rarely see DDs in my matches.

[0bsidion]

Mcgral18, on 20 October 2016 - 05:53 AM, said:

I don't want moar robots, I want words


Words from the mouth of our beloved balance department, explaining some of the changes they do
They may help the community understand why a thing was done...because some changes are just nonsense, and the lack of changes disgusting.

We peon players have been deemed unworthy of explanation by the developer overlords. Why would they owe us an explanation, after all, we only pay their paychecks.

[El Bandito]

His Holiness Pope Buster, on 20 October 2016 - 06:21 AM, said:

The DD UAC nerf was just silly. Plus, I rarely see DDs in my matches.

FP Clanners probably complained to Russ.

But yeah explanations for every balance change would be a nice thing. Riot Games always post explanation for each and every League of Legends balance changes.

Edited by El Bandito, 20 October 2016 - 06:26 AM.

[Bombast]

El Bandito, on 20 October 2016 - 06:16 AM, said:

He can't. Too busy having a heart attack.

It's only 3051. There's still time for the Fox to strike!

[Gas Guzzler]

I agree. In every patch notes for Overwatch I have seen, there are NOTES following each balance change describing what the rationale behind the change was. This would go a LONG way, and I can't see a reason to not include this...


...unless it really is balance by dartboard.

[Hunka Junk]

Mcgral18, on 20 October 2016 - 05:53 AM, said:

I don't want moar robots, I want words


Words from the mouth of our beloved balance department, explaining some of the changes they do
They may help the community understand why a thing was done...because some changes are just nonsense, and the lack of changes disgusting.

Ain't no time for words when planning MECH CON.

Hmmm. MECH CON has just taken on a whole new meaning.

[NoiseCrypt]

Balancing a PvP game witouth explanations is beyond arrogant.

I think that PGI might be the only game studio practising this methode.

[Ultimax]

Absolutely.

It is very clearly one of the major sources of frustration with balance in this game amongst players.

It consistently works to erode confidence in the direction of the game, because some very puzzling balance decisions are made with no clear explanation on why some (from a player perspective) low priority or even meaningless changes are made while other clearly high impact issues are left unresolved for months with no clear change even in the pipeline.


We have in this patch, a half dozen mechs or so - none of which are anything more than just average - suddenly having their UAC Jam Chance reduced. A change that is basially a net nerf to mechs that aren't even seeing any serious play, and are not even remotely overpowered or overperforming.


On the other end, the hands down most powerful mech in the entire game (KDK-3) still inexplicably has structure quirks that it does not need.

Light mechs and many lower tonned mediums that were already weak choices, were drastically nerfed through their upsizing in the rescale - have never been compensated with any kind of quirks or buffs to balance this (which is something Russ clearly alluded to).


These aren't isolated cases, these are the exact reasons that many here bitterly refer to it as "balance by dartboard"

Buffs and nerfs that are needed sometimes never happen, and buffs and nerfs that do happen sometimes leave us scratching our heads on just why the hell that was a priority of any kind.

Edited by Ultimax, 20 October 2016 - 06:59 AM.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

Bombast, on 20 October 2016 - 06:08 AM, said:

They nerfed both the Enforcer and Jagermech, so I think it's pretty clear this is some sort of Anti-Davion conspiracy, and any other mechs nerfed were just casualties of war, only changed to obscure this secret attack against the Federated Suns.

Save us, Hanse Davion!

yes, and the two remaining davion loyalists are pretty sad right now :x

[Bombast]

Toha Heavy Industries, on 20 October 2016 - 07:03 AM, said:

yes, and the two remaining davion loyalists are pretty sad right now :x

[Haipyng]

This is something that I think many players would like to see. Nerfing things always really pisses off the customer base that has laid out real cash for those things. I have mechs that I paid cash for that I never take out as they just don't work well after they were nerfed. *cough* Heavy Metal *cough* It feels like a bait and switch. You lay out cash for this and suddenly, nope you can't have what you paid for, you get this instead.

I often feel that there just wasn't extensive testing done before these things were delivered. How about letting us return a mech for a full refund after it is "adjusted"?

[TLBFestus]

Don't be silly OP, Russ made it perfectly clear that we are collectively a bunch of idiots that they don't need, or want to, listen to.

That, and all the useful constructive criticism they could sift out of the suggestions makes the "balance guy" look like he is incompetent.

[Haipyng]

Actually if you want a depressing activity, tally up what you have spent on this "Free 2 Play" game and look at how much has changed after you spent your money. :/

[Bud Crue]

Haipyng, on 20 October 2016 - 07:13 AM, said:

Nerfing things always really pisses off the customer

Um Yeah! It seems like both the cause and affect here are things PGI does as a matter of routine or maybe habit (I just gotta get a nerf in baby, comeon just one more nerf, that's all I need to make it thru.).

The fact that the nerfs seem both arbitrary and totally unrelated to actual game play performance are what I find so boggling. Alas, I doubt that any explanation that PGI would give is based on anything the players would recognize as being relevant to actual game play.

PGI hypothetical explanation of the latest nerfs:

"Well someone on Russ's twitter said that the meta was no longer laser spam and had shifted to ballistics. Someone else said that IS mechs are overquirked so, well there ya go, we listened to the players concerns and nerfed some over quirked IS ballistics values. That is what you wanted?"