This latest patch is just the newest offender, but there is a very real pattern discernable when looking back on your balance patches, and that is you have no clue wtf you are doing. It would be laughable if it wasn’tso frustrating. You have displayed a disturbing pattern of nerfing things that desperately needed buffs and buffing things that needed nerf.
It has become very clear you are completely incapable of properly balancing the game. Whoever’s making these decisions has no business being involved in balancing the game. Please assemble some kind of group of high profile community members to give you balance feedback before you break the game any more. Other studios have done things like this, but I have never seen a developer so incompetent in regards to balancing their own game. And it only seems to be getting worse. I dread to see where the state of balance will be even in a months time.
I have to agree that the balancing is going in an awful direction. OP stuff is getting more OP while there are some bizarre mediocre weapons getting serious nerfs. I’ve been scratching my head a little at many of the changes. That said, you might want to work on your tone as it comes across as just insulting which kind of invalidates your points in a discussion. Pointing out specific examples and explain what’s wrong is the best way to have it changed.
For example, Pyromancers special is still insanely OP and way too spammable. The executioner nerf was just absolutely out of nowhere for a weapon that was kind of on the pile “Ehhhhh at best” table. Meanwhile battle wizard and Witch Hunter Captain are absolutely awful right now. WHC has an insanely “average at best” ability with a GIGANTIC INSANE cooldown time. Battle wiz is just… not good at anything.
I think people are getting frustrated and tired of being civil. I know I for one have been bringing this up since beta that balance was going in the wrong direction, but I and others were shouted down by the “Nerfs are necessary” crowd and now here we are. They’re necessary in moderation and applied sparingly paired with buffs to keep player options open.
I think it’s more nerfs arn’t going to the OP things while the terrible things arn’t getting buffed either. As mentioned, Pyromancers special comes back insanely fast. Meanwhile the executioner sword gets nerfed.
Meanwhile the playerbase in game seems to think hunter kruber killing bosses in 2-4 seconds is “fine.” Then again bosses are still broken in a lot of areas, looking at you chaos spawn.
I’m fine with classes having a “Boss” spec where they take the right talents and item traits to be able to delete a boss, but I agree that kruber huntsman gatling handgun is an obvious unintended effect of his ability stacking.
Of course, there’s no actual guarantee. But when people look at things from different perspectives (Devs vs. players, stable groups vs. Quick Play with strangers, and simply different preferences) new thoughts and ideas will emerge, and they can be better searched through and decided what would fix what actually needs to be fixed, not just what seems wrong to the devs.
Things need to be looked at from “outside” to see the faults in them, as the people who make something are often blind to their products’ troubles. This is why artists may look at their drawings upside down or in a mirror, and why playtesters and proofreaders (professional and otherwise) exist. It’s why some board games end up with badly written manuals, even with vital information missing.
And that’s exactly why there needs to be a few more people looking at potential changes. From within the company, or outside of it. People who actually like the game and play it a lot see things that the devs may not, and a few of us already volunteered to help. Ones with sensible opinions too, as I see it. FS has a dedicated community, they might as well use it.
Okay. Then, if we assume that devs are incompetent in this topic, how are they gonna hire competent people? “ones with sensible opinions”. If they are incompetent themselves, and that’s the problem, they can’t discern who is competent and who is not. That’s a vicious cycle.
The point?
No one knows. No one will ever know.
Right now I am absolutely sure that FS is a pact of actual chaos cultists.
They are devotees of Tzeentch and made this game to harvest confusion from mortals like us so the Changer of Ways will be pleased.
While I myself am by no means an expert when it comes to game balancing, I think I at least have a certain grasp as to what a weapon needs in regards to buffs and nerfs (i.e. Great Axe being too unwieldy on light attacks and Pickaxe doing too little damage for its slow charged attack) and I would gladly love to help out in making the balancing in this game at least a bit better than it currently is.
So yes, I agree, get some of the high tier experienced players on a round table and have them discuss weapon changes together with your team, Fatshark.
We love the game despite all its flaws and drawbacks and want a game that just blows everyone’s mind. And for that to happen we need properly balanced weapons.
VT1 became more balanced over time, so will VT2. FS have a deep understanding of the game they’ve coded, the path they’re taking towards balance, and what is yet to come. Even if you’ve logged a million hours in game, you’ll only have 1/3 of those at best.
But besides those facts, FS does indeed listen to hardcore vet players. That’s why jsat & company were flown into Sweden to give feedback. It just so happens that there is little overlap between the true hardcore crowd, who have been playing thousands of hours since VT1, and the group here that incessantly complains about every aspect of the game.