Friday, February 8, 2013

017 - They really screwed this one up


What did change ?

Sorry for the title but I can't express myself in any other way.  You can read the changes on the English forum for yourself.   In a previous post I explained the changes on the skills for a dragon knight already.

If this wasn't enough, Bigpoint went a step further completely changing the PvP arena too.
A few 'highlights' :

  • No generation of life points in the arena anymore (what about the regeneration skill in the fame tree ?  And how do they think a dragonknight can engage without getting some healing in between.  Note that a DK has no ranged attack.  Once below 2000 life points, you're already dead)
  • No health potion dropping anymore
  • 3V3 is now played in rounds.  It's a totally different game now.
  • Less honour points can be gained in PvP. How do they expect you to get 50.000 or 70.000 honour points to level up in the fame tree in you only gain 300 at most when you win a 3V3 match ?
  • I'll probably forget some ... never mind

The reaction of the community

 Needless to say that community seems to be in shock.  The facebook page has already more than 200 comments, most of them negative to very negative. Both the English and the German Forum are crowed with negative comments.

Link to the English forum feedback page
Link to the German forum feedback page

On the English forum they went even so far that they held a poll if the one responsible for this patch should be fired or not ... ... I voted Yes :)  And along with me 80% of the voters. 

The above is a little funny, but the post of Fultre about damage control is not to be taken that funny.  He states that senior players are leaving the game because of the update and that Bigpoint should be seriously thinking how they can control the damage done.

I myself played  Path of Exile yesterday evening after only playing DSO for more than 1000 hours.  Lucky for BP I didn't liked it very much otherwise they could have lost a TGC member already.  I'm sure I'm not the only one looking at other games.  This can't be good for BP, just can't !!

Nothing positive ?

With all these negative reactions you would think there is nothing good about the update.  Well in the whole update there is maybe 1 good thing.  They decreased the effect of the essences in the arena.  Blue essence now only does +10% damage instead of +100%, red only +30% instead of +300%.  If this is really good, I don't know ...  ...

What do I think ?

Does it matter what I think ?  That's my first concern.  The patch was already active on the testserver and the comments we're just so negative as they are now.  Yet Bigpoint implemented the changes without any changes.  So does are meaning really matters ?

Secondly I ask myself if the developers are competent are not by implementing such an update.  They should have known that the player base is not happy about it.  If not, they are not competent.  That way we can expect everything in the future.

Why ?

This brings me to the question why they wanted these changes.  PvP balancing can't be the reason.  I see 2 possible reasons.

1. They did decrease the effect of essences.  I think BP also realize that they will be much less essences sold now.  By making the game much harder I think they hope players will by health potions to stay alive.  These health potions should make up the loss the fewer essences sold.

2.  The most players in DSO have reached level 40 for now.  I don't know how far BP can stretch the life of DSO any further for these level 40 players.  Can they make new worlds ?  Or, do they want these players to switch to the new character which will be released mid 2013?   I think this could be very well the reason.  I also predict the dwarf will be the most powerful character when it is released.  Just to make as many players as possible to switch.  This is of course the easiest (and cheapest) way the stretch the lifetime of a game.

Positive not

I just want to end with something funny.  A game needs to be relaxing, not frustrating.  Yet  ...





The new Dragonknight ... ...

1 comment:

  1. Good thoughts.

    I play a dragon knight myself and I´m also not pleased about the changes, because I mostly play PVE and NOT PVP. I`m at q4 and q6m2 and I surely need the possibility to heal myself.

    Unfortunately, Bigpoint doesnt matter what we gamers think and they wont undo the patch. This one is so enormous, its just the beginning of greater game changes (new archetpe, news levels). They will fix some minor things, but generaly the patch will be the basis for more changes.

    I´m not against changes. But I want Bigpoint to point out, to which shores the ship Drakensang Online is going to travel to.

    There is one more point I want to add. Yes, many players do not like the patch. But it seems that many mages are very satisfied the warrior being so weakened. Its the lack of common sense, that annoys me.

    My future in DSO: I will do the daily, maybe an event, but thats it (no more money, no more runs etc.).

    greetz
    Nachtjäger

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