The only problem we have with the PvE vs PvP thing is we can’t really get the numbers as which par of the player base is leaving or staying more than the other. Maybe the split is even.
I agree that the PvE player base is the “core” and ultimately the group that the devs should aim for.
I didn’t pretend to list every reasons those are just my take. I didn’t meant to have "the" answers because I know some people can barely play the game for hardware reasons and some have a hard time finding people to play with. Both aren’t issues I’ve faced so far yet they should be looked into. It’s just that I didn’t want to say things I “don’t know” anythng about or “can’t talk about”.
I saw a lot of threads and posts made by players whose computers have AMD products. I don’t fall in that group but I agree that some performances and framerates issues really should be addressed.
It’s on a smaller scale and I may not be the only one but the very beginning of The Saboteur is always laggy as hell for me (the first 2-3 thralls) and that’s an issue that has been there since the launch. It’s not game breaking but it’s annoying.
So far the numbers do show that the event brought a bit more people than we had before but we should wait for the event to end to really see. The release of the Attikus DLC should give us a good idea of what the community wants and how it reacts to such content.
Now the points :
1- 100% behind you. You’re right.
2- I’m not there yet, number wise, but as someone told me, if we allow trades between players wouldn’t that level the differences in gear and ultimately make some games like what you could see in Boderlands 2 where people would just drop (those were hacked) top tier gear to beginners so they wouldn’t even have to work for them ? It does remove a challenge or a part of the game that is “loot hunting” so to speak. I agree the present event does just that too. I’m not totally against it either because we help others fill the gaps in their loadout(s) and overall it could benefit your play group.
3- Yeah, that’s annoying, even more when you know some other games let you finish your match (not search for a new one though) while it’s the update time.
4- I understand that really well. The problem right now is we may not know exactly the split in the player base between PvP and PvE. If we knew which had more, maybe it could help focus the changes.
Only thing going to create a massive player base is insane advertising (Get your cartoons in movie theaters like OW did, Snapchat filters, etc.) or simply go free to play with microtransactions. Look at Evolve now. 35k players EST on a Saturday morning.
believe me buddy, Gbox has already given up on the PC version except for their contractual obligations with the publisher. If anything they have some long forward plan for eventual F2P but it will take a while as they have to finish off their current plan and wring as much money as possible from existing PC Bborn owners.
Gbox has ALWAY been great at cutting their losses financially when a game is underperforming entirely or on a specific platform.
Consoles have been tanking in population as well. BBorn just went for $20 on sale again and buddy we are TWO months from release. The game is down to THIRTEEN DOLLARS on the grey market sites. There really isn’t much of a financial barrier to new players for this game. It isn’t free (which would blow it up temporarily) but it is really cheap now.
Gbox has either given up and is just fulfilling their minimum contractual obligations or they are having regular meetings with consultants trying to figure out what went wrong and is it salvageable with f2p.
Can they solve redonk q times? Can they make the loot grind addictive? Can they make a LOT more people addicted to this game in general? Can they create a better matchmaking system despite a lack of players to fill it? Is it worth putting substantial dev time into major design changes or should they just do negligible tweaks that put on a good face?
Or should they just cut their losses and switch as many devs as possible over to their next new game? Based on Gbox’s history, this is likely in progress.
I don’t think that Blizzard did that on purpose to harm Battleborn - they simply don’t care. They can release a game whenever they want and still sells. The released The Frozen Throne in the middle of the 2003 european recordbreaking heatwave and it sold like hot bread. Plus they are one of the very few companies which can take as much time as they want because its a guaranteed hit. To say they deliberatly targeted Battleborn is nothing but speculation.
Overwatch generated a much bigger hype from the beginning. It still a game made by Blizzard and while no game developer has the demi-god status of the past, Blizzard is still a big name and any new game will automatically generate hype. Gearbox on the other hand had decent titles, but also stuff like Aliens: Colonial Mariens that damaged their reputation. Also, at the beginning it was not really clear what Battleborn was as it was not clearly communicated. Was it a FPS? A MOBA? Something inbetween? And why did it look so much like Borderlands? Overwatch did not make that mistake, it was crystal clear what it is and what it wants to be.
Gearbox dropped the ball themselves by not advertising enough (or too late) and not distinguishing it enough from Overwatch and Borderlands.
A lot of people out there don’t go into much detail when looking for games. So they saw: “oh, it has character classes in an fps and cartoonish-graphics - must be the same as Overwatch, but thats made by Blizzard so I go for that”. The other thing is Battleborns focus on PVP. I know there a people who think different, but when I play the game it always seems that the PVE was an afterthought or at least not the main focus of the game. Anyway, I talked to some friends who really liked Borderlands and asked them why they didn’t buy Battleborn it was mostly “its PVP and a MOBA, I wanted a new Borderlands game with big Coop Campaign”. I get that Battleborn wants to be different and that is not a bad thing, but it was not communicated properly. So people where confused, didn’t know enough and had a big competitor right next to it, so from the beginning it was not easy for the game. The technical problems, imbalances and the long queue times just made it worse.
But I don’t just want to complain. F2P is an option, but I would wait how the situation for Evolve goes. Not it has a big hype and many new players, but how many will acutally stick to the game? Keep in mind that they not only just made it F2P, they also changed a lot of the game. I think TotalBiscuit made a good video explaining the changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6wtVQEMH9s
tl;dr: they streamlinded the game, removed other game modes than its core and made it overall less complex. Will this work for Battleborn? I’m not convinced. It would just bring it closer to Overwatch (which is far less complex than Battleborn when it comes to game modes and characters) and the only thing different would be the price.
I think an Enhanced Edition with more content for PVE and technical improvements at a lower price (~20-30$) would do the trick. But gotta be honest, especially when it comes to technical issues on PC, Gearbox doesn’t have the best trackrecord. If they get it right the first time its good (like with Borderlands 2), but if they don’t they only fixed the biggest issues in the past (like BL1 MP after GameSpy shutdown). And turn down the progression system, it serves no purpose than streching the playtime with an endless grind.
PC version is just terrible and as much as I want to see it I doubt anything will save it. It has the worst matchmaking of any game I have ever played. I get put up against full 100 teams over and over with my team not having a single 100. Now I know rank shouldn’t matter but that doesn’t stop them form just rolling over my team again again. I know those other players are better than me but no new player is going to learn anything getting stomped all the time. I can count on one hand the number of times anyone on either side has ever made it to level 10, the game is usually over by the highest leve getting to 7. This isn’t after palying 10- or 20 games either it’s far more. I keep playing thinking I will get a more fair match but it just never happens.
I can’t even play all the map types it’s just incursion over and over and over and not only that but just overgrowth. Those games take me at least 10 minutes to get into and find a lop sided team, If I try anyother map Its like a 30 minute wait. I wait longer in the que then the game even lasts. Its’ a shame I really like this game but the horrible matching and the premades being allowed to run in casual just kill the PC community. All the people who had an excuse to play premades against new commers can now play against each other because there is not much else left.
I would stay for the PVE because its really fun but it’s the same problem there. very few maps and most of the time after waiting I might get one person to run with, I might as well run solo and that gets old quick. It’s a shame it really is. You can’t blame over watch lots of people gave this game a try but no one wants to wait in a que to get stomped and not even see there charater reach 10. And whats up with those robots we are supposed to defend? Why is it that one ranged class can destroy it all by themselves, that’s just ridiculous and adds to the quick games.
i wouldnt mind them making a seperate queue for premades now. its small enough (and elo is off!) if i queue with my friends at the same time we could play each other.
ie, i dont think the premade queue would get used for the same reason the competitive queue was neglected, but gbx wouldnt actively be taking away players ability to group up. and itd be even easier to do in house matches on discord (haha selfish i know, but its already easy). @Jythri any chance another matchmaking test will let this see the light of day for pc?
the playerbase on pc is so small, that the game is almost dead.
yes it is a competitive game and made for premades, but as most player still go random the focus should be on these players.
Every game that supports a small group of players (premade players) rather than the mass of players will die.
But Battleborn is exactly doin this at the moment. New Player get matched against veteran player or against premades.
Now pls give them a reason to stay in the game, when they have to wait a long time for their match and get farmed in it for 5-20 mins without any fun.
It is even hard for me to stay in the game, because there are to many leavers, matchmaking sucks and waittime for a match is to long, i have to fight constantly vs premades as long as i play solo.
This game is ATM only fun in premades and that reason alone kills the game.
The trouble is when you have a game that has PvE and PvP, it’s getting the balance right. Blizzard are obviously capable of doing it (just look at WoW), but they obviously have the advantage of being a larger company, so they can afford to split teams to work on the next big piece of content.
I don’t think GBX can really do that. They will just have to work on one at a time, hence why if you look at there current content/DLC plans for the next few months https://battleborn.com/en/news/view/en-dlc-plan-update-1-whats-next-for-battleborn/, they have worked on PvP stuff first (three new PvP maps), then we will get two of the new PvE maps, followed by a new PvP mode, finished up with last PvE DLC, not to mention the new characters in between that.
Now, if BB was to go F2P at any point, it would be AFTER they’ve done all this, plus, it give them enough time to see if Evolve has retained a sizable number of players, and, as one of the devs told me in another thread, what they would need to do in order to reward those of us that have stuck around for so long. It also give them time to polish the game and get rid of any bugs or other problems the game is currently suffering from.
To sum up in a tl;dr way:
GBX should just alternate between creating content for both PvP and Pve
Once the game is full of content and polished enough, with a plan set in place, they should go F2P
