Dark and Darker

Dark and Darker

Judarud 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 10:07
This Game is PvPvE. Not PvP, not PvE but PvPvE!
So I decided check the forums to see the discussions going on about the game and i'm immediatly smacked in the face with people whinning about how the game need a PvE only mode and then people whinning about that whinning.

So not a great start to the forums. This comes in great part because of the complete lack of understanding of what PvPvE actually means. A PvPvE game is one where the players have to navigate both the environment and other players.

That means having to learn the mechanics of the game and then constantly deal with traps, environmental dangers and mobs throwing a wrench into things. The PvE component is crucial to this kind of game, as much as the PvP is.
This kind of game lives and dies by how well it meshes the two.

So far I have some issues with the game, but the main one is the Battle Royale Circle. The Circle doesn't really fit with a PvPvE game, like at all. The purpose of that mechanic is to slowly drive the players together so force encounter, something especially important in the large open maps associated with the BR genre.

This is a Dungeon Crawler first and foremost, the tight corridors and maze like layout is not conductive to this kind of slap dash convergence mechanic. There's a reason why Tarkov and Hunt did away with it. Even CoDs DMZ mode, which is an Extraction Shooter Light has completely revamped it. With an expanding instead of contracting circle.
It even includes a diegetic reason for the mechanic, it's radiation spreading.

Now, multiple people suggested changes to the Circle to make it fit more with the approach and layout of the game, some really good ones too. But I think that's still not good enough. This is supposed to harken to Dungeons and Dragons 1e and AD&D except the inteligent mobs are replace with competing adventurers, I mean just look at the games acronim, so it's a good expansion to the approach. However some of the design is a bit too far from that concept.

It's extremely important to improve on the mobs of the game, 0therwise they become an extreme nuisance rather than an obstacle. Removing the Mobs or the PvP is just not an option for this kind of game since it goes completely against the premisse so imprements to the PvE component becomes necessary.

Switching the Circle for a different convergence, I favor shared objectives and marking extracts on the map, improving the PvE component are essential to actually develop the PvP. The game is a bit too clunky to just be a full PvP game like Chivalry.

Now there's also some controversy about people demanding a PvE only mode and screaming about how the game will fail if it doesn't add one. Nevermind that Tarkov and Hunt are still extremely succesful and Tarkov isn't even finished yet.

That's a terrible idea because there's only two ways to do it that I can think of;

1 - Have the PvP and PvE instances share characters and inventory.

2 - Have the two instances have their own seperate character pool and inventory.

Both are pretty bad.
Option one would completely break the Meta of the game, people would just farm the PvE and then go wreck people on the PvP, that means players that find the PvE unintersting by itself would be force to adopt the meta. It also adds room for trolling if the PvE instances are shared between multiple players.
Maybe having a pure co-op mode, just you and your party with no other players spawning? Well that would divide the teams attention even more because they would have to also balance the pure Co-Op mode. And if they just added it and never messed with it you know the forums would be filled with people complaining about it.

Number two would just completely divide the player base, this is not the kind of game that tends to have huge player bases, right now it's pretty high because a lot of streamers are interested, but when they move on there will be a dip in concurent players. So dividing the player base can easely kill the game, either by just having everyone leave or forcing the devs to just abandon the PvP completely which will very much upset the people that like it.

Alienating half your player base is not conductive to a healthy game, plus it would likelly kill and future streamer because PvP shennaningans are very popular with stream viewers.

The only option the devs have right now is reach a good balance between the PvP and PvE components so they integrate well. Demanding they take away attention from the core of the game, the intersection between Co-op and PvP is asking the game to die.

And being very direct here
Yes the PvP people are responsible for that too, they are saying not to focus in one of the most important components of a PvPvE game which would leave the game completely lopsided and ♥♥♥♥ it up but PvE players better beware that you're not some innocent onlooker, you play as much part in the unreasonable demand department. Worse even because some of you hide thoses demands behind fake reasonablity.

"Oh they should just add a separate mode. That's not that hard, they're just gonna kill the game if they don't catter to us!"

That's not reasonable or polite or anything of the sort, it's literally trying to flex power you don't have.

And to the PvPers, there's a PvE component, it's a part of the game and the Marketing.
The Dev Tags say

Online PvP
Online Co-Op

That means both components are equally important, because they're supposed to be balance. Not every game needs to be a Hardcore Full-Loot MMO the Ultima, Wurm, Mortal and Tibia days, my days btw,| are gone.

And even those games had/have quite a bit of PvE to them. Very important ones too because they were a big part of the progression. If you didn't farm mobs in those games you wouldn't be able to move to the PvP. This is harkening back to those games and that's what makes it interesting. Those games, again, had well developed PvE components that were essential to building up the PvP.

TL:DR Change Circle, Improve mobs, PvE important for better PvP.
Also eventually add Voip and Ad-Hoc Party making because that would incentivise Co-Operation and add an extra reason to be wary of Fighting players.
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目前顯示第 1-15 則留言,共 17
Dollop of Mayo 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 10:08 
The game is also in alpha and subject to change
Judarud 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 10:35 
引用自 Dollop of Mayo
The game is also in alpha and subject to change
All the more reason to talk about this now. Feedback is essential to Public Alpha tests.
Dollop of Mayo 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 10:41 
Agreed, that's why I'm suggesting a PvE mode would be cool for them to add at some point down the line, if they decide to do so.
Judarud 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 11:36 
Honestly, a PvE only mode is a very late addition if it ever occurs. Having the PvE work well with the PvP should really be their priority now.
Dollop of Mayo 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 11:39 
That's cool. World of Warcraft didn't have an Arena mode until a few years in. But they added it because people wanted it. It wasn't for me, but that's fine.
最後修改者:Dollop of Mayo; 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 11:39
CatWithGun 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 1:46 
I think that it isn't as much pve fans whining. More like pvp fans trying to convince pve fans that you must fight other people in this game, even though the game has almost zero incentive for you to fight other people. Especially ones, who clearly have no loot.
You do it, cause you are afraid they might fight you, so your strike the first blow.
You do it, cause you want to enjoy the feeling of defeating them
You... don't do it, cause the game doesn't require you to pvp. You only engage in pvp when you are forced into it by other players and that's a perfectly valid way to play the game.

It's an optional pvp game. Dungeon delving is the main aspect. PvP is the secondary aspect fully dependent on how much the players want to PvP.
Game doesn't care about pvp. You've defeated 10 players? So what? It did't significantly change how much loot you've brought back, so it kinda was just cause you wanted to do it.
Dungeon Delving is the main aspect. Interactions with other players are an another main aspect. No one is forcing players to fight. Well... except for lack of communication and paranoia.

So yeah, i think that this is a mainly pve game with pvp aspects. PvE is the core of the game and interactions with players are a strong addition to that core. PvP with other players is something players themselves choose to do.
So, i would classify this game as a mainly pve game with optional, but highly likely pvp.
Judarud 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 5:32 
引用自 Alexandra
snip

And XP, removing competition or just because you enjoy the combat system. Eventual Leaderbords and bossibly extra rewards. There's a lot of reasons to do PvP.

There's actually incentive for "ungeared" players to risk attacking geared ones, cause if they win they get stuff and risk nothing, just 30 seconds in a queue. There's a BR Circle Mechanic, the only purpose for that mechanic is to force PvP in the game.

Also, the only time you're notably likely ungeared players is right after spawning, less than five minutes in most surviving players will have at least a few dozen gold worth of loot. Which is nothing to sneeze at in this, especially if you're relatively new to the game.

The PvPers i've seen have frequently talked about just running away if you don't fell confident against a player. Especially in the Solo threads.

The game very clearly has a PvP core, it's tagged and advertised as such. The PvE exists to, at least in this build, prepare players for the PvP. It's like saying that Tarkov and Hunt are primarely PvE, even though the game is built around pushing the players together.

Mind you they have a more elegant and natural aproach but the point still is to have the players face against each other. Like I state, the old Full Loot MMOs that used to dominate before WoW still had significant PvE components because they were meant to build up and contextualize the PvP.

The PvP and the PvE are inextircable in this game, and so far all indications I got point to that being how they'll develop the game going forward.
Now mind you the PvP is to a degree optional but only insofar player can choose to avoid other players when they feel unprepared for the PvP.

Also, another way the two are intrisically tied, they both must interfere with eachother. If you want to always avoid other player you can do that, you would have to put the effort to do it. And I've already avoided fighting other players more than once and break their pursuit. The maze like nature already feed into that.

The PvPers are whinning because they feel like catering to the PvE in anyway is going to damage the PvP component. And the thing is i've seen plenty of PvE whinning that it's impossible to solo, that they don't want to have to activelly avoid players even though that's clearly the other half of the core gameplay.

I get it it's frustating to have to do that but it's fundamental to the entiree concept of an Extraction Battle Royale. And just to note, almost every single component of a video-game is optional, you can pick and choose what parts of it you want to engage with, sometimes to your own demetriment. The PvE is also optional, I can gear up and go out to fight exclusively other players and avoid all NPCs which is also possible
Bill.N 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 6:38 
引用自 Suspense
The game is currently PvP and PvE. Players are expected to treat all characters in the game as enemies unless on their team. But there's no reason not to ask for a feature that's not currently available or planned, and there's no reason for PvP fans to assume that Ironmace won't add PvE mode in the future. Arguing about this is futile.

If another player does the crouch dance with me, they are my ally, and will remain my ally right up until the moment they gank me as I open up my portal out.
revoblam 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 7:57 
throwing an idea that's not separating modes: Why not make the escape stones let 3 players of ANY team get out, while making the red stones only carry a WHOLE team, reviving and healing them up on the new floor.

Maybe make it so the blue stones can be sped up if more players interact with them, now you have an idea that if you band up with other surviving randoms, you get more chances to bring your loot back, hell, maybe teams of more to activate multiple stones?

This also makes others fight to get MORE rewards, ensuring that if one person survives the 3v3+ deathfest, they still get a good shot at getting even more loot in a new floor without getting ♥♥♥♥♥♥ over too hard.
最後修改者:revoblam; 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 7:58
Kankaku 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 8:07 
Wanna get technical it's actually a PvEvP game because player vs environment is more prevalent than player vs player encounters.
Bill.N 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 8:13 
引用自 Zombwich
Wanna get technical it's actually a PvEvP game because player vs environment is more prevalent than player vs player encounters.
More prevalent, but not necessarily more relevant. Play the game for an hour or two and tell me that the environment in this game is of any consequence, at all. It just gets in the way when geared humans are chasing your greyed out behind down.
Kankaku 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 8:19 
引用自 Bill.N
引用自 Zombwich
Wanna get technical it's actually a PvEvP game because player vs environment is more prevalent than player vs player encounters.
More prevalent, but not necessarily more relevant. Play the game for an hour or two and tell me that the environment in this game is of any consequence, at all. It just gets in the way when geared humans are chasing your greyed out behind down.
I know lol. I was just being unnecessarily articulate about it just for the sake of it.
Judarud 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 8:46 
引用自 Zombwich
Wanna get technical it's actually a PvEvP game because player vs environment is more prevalent than player vs player encounters.

Most extraction games have more time on the PvE, but the PvP is still the central component. That's what the circle is there for, to pull players towards each other. The PvE is an obstacle to introduce new variables to the PvP, and if you want you can completely avoid the player encounters, though the only way to guarantee that is generally to avoid the central objective or the desireable loot spots.

It's one of the reasons the Circle of Dormant is... not great, because it doesn't really drive the PvP in any way. It really needs to revamp it for a different tactic.
Kankaku 2022 年 12 月 23 日 下午 10:36 
引用自 Coronel Judarud
引用自 Zombwich
Wanna get technical it's actually a PvEvP game because player vs environment is more prevalent than player vs player encounters.

Most extraction games have more time on the PvE, but the PvP is still the central component. That's what the circle is there for, to pull players towards each other. The PvE is an obstacle to introduce new variables to the PvP, and if you want you can completely avoid the player encounters, though the only way to guarantee that is generally to avoid the central objective or the desireable loot spots.

It's one of the reasons the Circle of Dormant is... not great, because it doesn't really drive the PvP in any way. It really needs to revamp it for a different tactic.
For you it might be the "central component" but for someone else it might not be. Hence all the "we want PvE mode" posts. Just food for thought.
Memeplug 2022 年 12 月 24 日 上午 12:52 
I've been enjoying playing the game in both single play and group play. I definitely think something the devs could add to help appease some of the backlash towards the matchmaking system might be a single player mode and then a group player mode. Obviously this wouldn't make everyone happy with just this single change but I think it would at least make it easier to go into the dungeon and actually get some good PvE in with a less likely hood of getting mobbed by a team of 3.

I also think that the battle royal field should be removed and swapped out for something different. I like how in Tarkov you have set extraction points so maybe another meet in the middle point might be something like 2 or 3 set extraction points where multiple players can extract from and then maybe a handful of the blue extractions points randomly spawning. On the other hand maybe the blue extraction stones could be marked on the map causing multiple players to try going for the one stone. These are just things I thought of off the top of my head but I'm not a game dev so I can't really say how feasible this would be for this type of game. At the end of the day I think the focus of this game should remain a good blend of skill and luck. Maybe you get lucky and find good items or find an extraction stone, but you should also be skilled enough to survive the PvPvE environment. If you don't like PvPvE games then this just isn't the game for you.

This is just a play test for a game that is still in its early phases. I would definitely like to see if the devs take any of the feedback to heart and come back with another play test for the players to try the updates in mind. As it stands right now I don't think I would confidently say I would buy this game or for that matter play it for an extended period of time. I certainly have enjoyed the challenges and fun times the game has provided and hope that the devs are able to work along with the community to mold the game into one both the devs and fan base can love to play.
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張貼日期: 2022 年 12 月 23 日 上午 10:07
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