Basically, I'd like to respond to the Founders Alpha Begins for Servo post...yesterday.
RTS is in BonusXP’s DNA, but in Servo your attention is on what matters: harnessing the awesome power of the lumbering metal monstrosities you designed, not telling villagers to pick berries.
I really like the idea here - harnessing the power of lumbering metal monstrosities. But unfortunately it doesn't quite feel like that yet. The Servos feel light, made of paper mache, and not impactful. I think a lot could be done to make them seem way more powerful!
Just as an example, I have an EMP Laser I found. When it attacks and enemy, the servo walks up to the enemy...points the laser at it...and sits motionless while the laser doesn't seem to do much, especially against bloomspawn (it tickles them). Then the little bloomspawn comes and starts tearing apart the giant mech
I really like how big the servos are. They just don't yet feel like they're big and powerful.
Every battle in Servo brings rewards, which can then be used to further customize your team.
Okay I hope this is getting improved because right now I'm getting a pittance of credits and barely any xp. When I do finally get 2000 credits for a loot crate, it's been incredibly underwhelming (I got a basic torso and a basic pistol in one)
Tailoring your Servos to your playstyle – whether that’s rapid expansion across the map, early aggression into the heart of the enemy base, building up to a devastating multi-Servo combo, or something else entirely – is the key to victory.
I think this is accomplished pretty well! I tend to expand and get bloom nodes, I've seen people build structures, I've seen someone immediately tech up, this is going great.
Whether you prefer your RTS action competitive, cooperative, with or against the AI or other humans, Servo has you covered.
Really like this. PVP stresses me out, so I love some co-op. The Last Stand for Dawn of War II was a lot of fun. Excited that this is part of the game.
Okay hope I didn't sound too critical, I really want this to be a great game because I've been waiting for a sequel to Metal Fatigue for so long now!
Thanks for the feedback.
We are absolutely interested in making the Servos feel like heavyweights. I think that comes across best in their relationship with the drones ATM. The rest varies. The game is absolutely not balanced right now;)
I think you're looking for impact FX and anims. Don't have those in yet.
The intent with the progression rewards is for you to get a crate fairly frequently. ~3.6 wins will get you one (assuming you're completing the daily quests at a reasonable rate). Certainly looking for feedback on that (see above balance comment;).
We did go with this crate-based route because it didn't feel right to drop gear in game. We wanted each multiplayer game to be the same from start to finish. Once you see an enemy's Servo, you know what he's got. So, we do end up with a different loot curve than something like Diablo (where you're often getting a lot more stuff, but you often vendor that same stuff).
Anyhow, not too critical at all. We're looking for feedback!
Great, looking forward to the balances and FX/anims. Servos are too squishy!
So, from the site's FAQ,
Do I still get parts if I lose?Yes! Not as many as if you'd won, naturally, but we want players to be rewarded for playing the game. It should feel good, not stressful, to jump back into matchmaking after a loss.
I haven't felt rewarded at all so far
Maybe if every match dropped a single part, and you could get crates for bundles of parts? It's really discouraging opening a crate and getting nothing interesting. I've just sold most of the stuff that I've gotten (like you mentioned for Diablo, often vendoring that same sttuff). Maybe if there was a guarantee that you got something you didn't have in a crate? Something to make open a crate and not go "ugh, wasted 2000 credits"
We can drop you a part after every game. But, the math will quickly mean that those parts are vendor trash. Apologies if the FAQ is confusing the issue; I can see that the looser words there are inaccurate if you're taking them literally.
The goal is to make it feel like you are always making progress, even a little bit. We're still very early on in figuring out the right balance, of course, so this feedback is useful.
To set expectations... You probably won't see a ton of change in the next build on the rewards bit. We really need to get the dropship leveling (that's what the XP is for) and a bigger sample of the vanity content in the game before we can really have all of our reward pieces in. We'll get there, though.
I did juiced the rewards a bit to help in the meantime.
Cool, looking forward to the dropship stuff.
I was playing with another player today and he had lots of gear, rocket launchers, minigun, and I asked how he got then. He said he just played a skirmish on Easy over and over and was able to get credits a lot faster that way. I'm not saying this is wrong or anything, but is seems a bit silly that you can grind parts that way better than succeeding in co-op games!
Yeah, that's not balanced, either. Scaling rewards based on difficulty is on the list.
So how is it supposed to be in the current build ?
I've won several skirmish. Always the same, 500 credits and 30 xp. So i have to play 4 skirmish to buy one crate, and when i open the crate i get craps i immediatly sell. Now i try to brainlessly rush Easy Skirmish, but i get nothing nice (credits and xp). I did that about 10 times maybe, only got 3 parts i think.
I only have one nice weapon, a minigun with a grenade launcher and a small AoE burst. Other than that, i have an almost useless rockets launcher on the shoulder.
Is it only bad luck ?
One problem that I'm having now is the quality system for gear.
It doesn't matter that I have a slow proc up cpu and a freeze rifle if the freeze rifle is of such low quality that the loader pistols I started with do more damage.
I think it would be a good addition to allow us to grind up weapons to improve the ones we want. In this way, I don't have to wait for the loot crate to drop me a specifically the right element and type of weapon and high quality of it. I can take a low quality version and grind up all the vendor trash that I'm getting or parts I simply don't use to improve it. Maybe even make it so that the different levels (common, better, artisan) of gear dictate just how high I can upgrade it so that there is still a reason to try and get the rarer stuff.
As far a suggestion goes for loot crates and the loot issue, I agree with everyone in saying that it kind of sucks to go through 3/4 missions to get a usually unexciting loot crate. The common part is almost always a very low quality weapon that is worthless, and the Better part has a very low chance of being something that I want. Worse still, I have had times where my Better item is a duplicate of something I already have, and not even as good. Weighting the system to give us items for slots we don't have the parts to fill yet would go a long way for this, as I have been selling off tons of low quality loader pistols and fists, while I have gotten a grand total of 1 CPU slot item.
That said, there are still moments where the loot crate has been awesome like my shield recharger I got recently or the very sweet fire rifle I got out of one. But in order to get those you have to sit through a lot of useless parts.
Great ideas Skoolbus.
Another idea is maybe combining lower quality gear into higher quality gear? I would still rather just randomly get the things I want, rather than sift through junk to get what I want.
In its current iteration I compare the loot crates to Hearthstone card packs. You start out getting only stuff you don't have, but once you have most of the common cards, it's just a lot of junk coming out of the packs. You then take the extra cards, disenchant them into dust, to use to make the cards you really want.
Some people complain about it, some people think it's okay. This is a tricky problem indeed.
@TChey: did you not get anything good in the founder's crate? That should have given you several useful things. I suppose we can slant that to be weapons-only since it's a one time thing.
Are you all not seeing any benefits/income from the daily quests? We don't message the completion there particularly well yet, so it can be a bit hidden.
Generally speaking, I don't think we'd want to put a ton of logic on top of the randomization of the crates. They are supposed to be a luck-based thing. I'd completely be down with tuning them up a little better. That's easy. But, as soon as we add on rules like preferring stuff you don't have, etc., we really change their purpose.
We have talked about a way to disenchant the gear or do some combine X things to get 1 new thing. Just haven't gotten to the point where that's highest on the list. We'd like to get the basic crate vs. buy direct thing working better. If you're dropping credits on 5 crates, that's probably not too far off of just buying a part you want from Korso. The intent is that there's an interesting tension there. Take a chance on something with the crates vs. buy something you know will be better from Korso.
The card pack comparison is apt, though we're obviously not a free game. We've been trying to compare it more to crates in COD.
Playing coop should have difficulties on-line so when your starting out do easy then normal etc and the rewards scale, also get small rewards per wave or objective complete then a big one for finishing it. Maybe some kind of endless one that you get rewards at say wave 5,10,15 etc.
I admit im the one that was grinding easy mode to get gear to test them out and yes ofline modes need scaling they all have same rewards i believe defenatly nurf easy, and less for ai then real person pvp and fairly good one for losing person pvp so people are not discoraged. also something in the chance to get a loot box as reward incereased slightly online.
Also my gear i have is 4 rocket pods a shield and a mini gun got this in round 10 loot boxes, i do have fair good luck in loot on most games but i dunno if its too much for the random luck generator of getting good gear.
Easy, 500 credits, so 4 matchs to get 1 crate with craps, sounds fair.
Medium : 750 credits, so 3 matchs to get crate, and some money left.
Hard : 1000 credits, so 2 match to get crate.
Offline :
Easy : 1 free crate every 5 matchs + small chance to get random reward "better". (so 1 item "better" quality)
Medium : 1 free crate every 4 matchs + medium chance to get random reward "better or more" (so 1 item better or more quality)
Hard : 1 free crate every 3 matchs, good chance to get "better" and small chance to get "more" (so 2 items, 1 better and one better or more).
Online : augmented chance for everything.
I Agree Tchey though still thin on map 002 atm easy pvp you can rush too easily defiantly more reward for online and a fair reward for losers too.
Think should be a 2v2 maybe 3v3 online also a players v AI mode. Love the idea of a area mode like Dawn of war 2' where you use onlt your main servo in up to 4 players against hordes of enemies.
In the build we're playing my premium parts range in price from 64000 to 175000, crates cost 2000 (superior 75000), that is not a 5-1 ratio.
@SneakyMaxx My usage of the word grind may have been confusing there as that's what I meant. I was saying to institute a system where I can take a weapon with an affect I like (let's use an example of a corrosive pistol) and then use the crappy pistols that I get from crates to power it up and improve its quality.
@Godgib The missions are helpful in getting the money that we need and do definitely speed up the process of getting crates. My big problem is that the rate that loot crates drop A) new items that I've seen or know that they exist but not gotten yet, or items that are actually better than what I have are awful. The drop rates for items are very bizarre, as I've gone 10 crates without getting anything besides swords and fists, only to suddenly have every crate drop fire rifles of amazing quality. In one evening and ~10 games, I went from having a ~14 dps freeze rifle and two ~12 dps loader pistols that I used, to having three 30+ dps fire rifles that easily could out damage everything I had before.
My suggestion for filtering the parts only applies until you have enough parts to actually equip your servos. Once I have 6 cpu parts they can drop down to normal because at least I have parts to put into those slots. Right now I get swamped with these useless weapons when I have exactly 1 cpu to use between the 6 slots I have for cpus between the three servos. All I'm saying is to weight it until I actually get 6, at which point I at least have something to put in there regardless of how useful it may actually be. Of course, this could be abusable by selling cpus until you get the one you want, but it could also just be weighted until you have received enough of an item to fill 3 servos with it instead of whether you currently do.
@wondible My premium parts are high but not that high. I have parts from 30k-75k credits. I'm not against grinding, but the sheer number of games it takes to get a 75k part, not to mention wondible's 175k part is ridiculous. Usually with missions I can get a crate every 3-4 games. Just looking at the math that means that to buy the cheapest item directly from Korso, I'd have to play 45-60 games to get a single 30k piece if I assume I was only focusing on doing missions the whole time. For easy math we'll call a game 12 minutes long or 5 games/hour, so that would be 9-12 hours of play to buy a single copy of the cheapest premium piece I can get. That's a little steep.
My highest premium part is 225,000.
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