The lack of care has really killed this game

[Hellish Blizzard]

From the start of playing this game ive always loved playing the shark and i spent a lot of time learning everything. The first problem is the multiplayer, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the multiplayer crushes new players like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bugs. Theres no way for them to learn with their own network of equally unskilled players all indulging in the fun of the game at its foundation of 2 sharks and 4 divers. The high amount of sweaty divers clashed with streamers/newbies results in very displeasurable gameplay of constantly dying. Theres no room for enjoyment when the only way for it is from the perspective of the sweaty players who play diver. Theres no room streamers giving pleasurable watchable gameplay, when all it is, is sweat divers carrying or the sharks doing dog dookie nothing. Now theres nothing, the game has turned into a desert. The game is dead due to terrible sharks, crappy updates, lack of care for balancing gameplay with even the basic of mmr systems, and the balls to try using a crappy battle pass system. If only the developers actually took the time to listen to the community for ideas, like TF2 as the entire game is supported by the community. I would not recomend this dead game for anyone.

[Loxi]

just play against friends/bots if you find the normal matches too hard for you. or play during events, when there's more new players. i believe the next one is coming in 4 days

[Carina Ayland]

Multiplayer is the same as in ANY game: experienced players crush down the less experienced ones. Welcome to PvP gaming.
It is only worsened by the fact this game has a small playerbase so the game can't really do matchmaking. There's not enough people. You wanna help with that? get friends to play with.
As Loxi said, events also help because they bring new people so the game actually does a better job with matchmaking.

Game is far from dead, for now. Sharks are fine, not sure what your ignorant comment there is about but if you mean buffing them, that wouldn't fix anything, it would make matters worse actually.

Crappy updates? feel free to finance the developers so they can put more than just cosmetics in the game. We had new shark species even, that is a LOT for such an old game.

Lack of care for balance? they do their best with what they have. People complained about certain guns and evos being OP, they fixed them. Game is as balanced as it can get considering it's an ASYMMETRIC game. The only tweak it needs is a limit on the number of consumables because the spamming of them is still a problem.

Game DOES have mmr as I explained earlier, but not enough players for it to be noticeable.

They use a battle pass system so people can actually help and SUPPORT it, so it dies a little less fast and they can keep bringing updates to the game.

They listen to the community as much as they can, but again, they can't do much when the only ideas they get is "HURR DHURR MAKE IT FREE 2 PLAY". They're not gonna use what money they have supporting a dying game if it's not gonna give them any revenue back.

You don't like it? either get your friends to play or don't play at all. Just don't go talking crap about things you know nothing about and learn some manners. Asking nicely why isn't this game getting better support would've garnered a kinder reply.

[Princess Pelmeni]

They should make it free to play.

[Sharkbait]

Originally posted by |Bubba:

From the start of playing this game ive always loved playing the shark and i spent a lot of time learning everything. The first problem is the multiplayer, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the multiplayer crushes new players like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bugs. Theres no way for them to learn with their own network of equally unskilled players all indulging in the fun of the game at its foundation of 2 sharks and 4 divers. The high amount of sweaty divers clashed with streamers/newbies results in very displeasurable gameplay of constantly dying. Theres no room for enjoyment when the only way for it is from the perspective of the sweaty players who play diver. Theres no room streamers giving pleasurable watchable gameplay, when all it is, is sweat divers carrying or the sharks doing dog dookie nothing. Now theres nothing, the game has turned into a desert. The game is dead due to terrible sharks, crappy updates, lack of care for balancing gameplay with even the basic of mmr systems, and the balls to try using a crappy battle pass system. If only the developers actually took the time to listen to the community for ideas, like TF2 as the entire game is supported by the community. I would not recomend this dead game for anyone.

A few years ago they attempted a more strict Matchmaking in order for the matches to be more equally matched. Despite the efforts, it ended up with que times taking between 20 - 30 min for both divers and sharks, with several moments where the system struggled and still matched newer players with more experienced ones. With these que times they decided to go the route we are on now, at least from what I've understood it.

Probable reason is that the amount of players are too small, the skill diversity is too polarizing and the playersbase that play consistently are those who played for years and the rest are newcomers and event players who only show up for the event with a dash of casuals. pretty hard for any game to keep it balanced with those criterias..

[Shork]

Originally posted by DynamicDragon:

Game DOES have mmr as I explained earlier, but not enough players for it to be noticeable.

It most definitely doesn't even have a shred of MMR. lmao
Can't count how often I've been matched against absolute bots while the game had every chance to just match me against some sweaty premade or at least some fellow high tier players.
It doesn't even pretend that it's trying.

In any case, OP isn't entirely wrong here. There's a lot wrong with the game that simply is not being addressed anymore. Netcode (biggest issue of all), item spam (again, they SAID they would address it, but there's still nothing), certain evos (IP mako is STILL broken), performance (64bit/DX11 which has been sitting in the void for probably 2 years now), even weird bugs like Copper magically regaining health for a kill while being shot by the entire team ... lots of technical issues, even putting the premades and the premade griefers (2 sharks 2 divers) aside. And putting aside the vast amount of griefers and skin idlers.

Honestly, the game is as good as dead and you know it. No use denying it.
It is being kept alive by the Steam market.

And no, going F2P would not help this game at all. It would just be a testament of its death.

[Todd the Wraith]

Community is in a bad state, honestly. Everyone is gracious and polite when they win, and rarely openly salty even if they lose, but the higher the win % for people, the more it goes to their heads, I think. A year or so ago, I was playing on an unrecognizable smurf (I was getting stalked on my main steam account, long story).

Encountered full vet premade, some of them even on my main account's friend list, people I played tens of games with before, both with and against, people that had always treated me with the respect that I felt I was owed, at least on my main. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have a cowardly teammate that basically never died, though they didn't contribute many kills, either. I tryharded my mind out, it was literally one of my finest performances in thousands of games, and I narrowly won. It probably helped that they were a little cocky on safe 1, giving me a couple of easy kills, as they didn't recognize the names, and unfamiliar shark players aren't a threat to a full premade, who'll happily all open water with starters against new players. One of them was streaming, and because I like hearing variations of "dude, that guy is very good", I tuned into the recorded past broadcast after.

They hadn't typed anything in all chat, but wow, was I outraged at what I heard in the video. About halfway in, when they started feeling less than certain that they would win the game, they started complaining aloud that I was grabbing them because of high ping, that shots were going through me. I could literally see that I wasn't lagging, and that the streamer's crosshair (he was one of the most complain-y ones) wasn't near me when his shots "went right through me" on the stream. I never heard those complaints before from any of them, in the many games I played against them on my main.

These people played like 10 games that day before matching against me, showing no mercy to new players, just murdering them in open water from safe 2 onwards, basically with no deaths, except "o" presses to upgrade weapons. Like half their opponents ragequit against them. Occasionally, if their opponents complained in all chat, they would respond dismissively and/or sarcastically. Like, "what, are friends not allowed to play together anymore?".

They typed GGs and WPs at the end of every game, and even the occasional reassurance of "everyone starts out bad, keep practicing, etc.". Personally, I found that a little creepy, it was like watching a pro hockey team style on a group of kids that put their skates on for the first time, including body checking them into the boards. And then, after the almost-literal slaughter, compliment them in a tone that is so authentic-sounding, that you genuinely get confused as to if they are sarcastic, or remorseful and trying to get the kids to not feel so bad, or if they're genuinely confused at how the scoreboard works, and think the game was not one-sided and hopeless from the get-go.

Anyway, I don't know why I took the time to type this all out. It just bugs me when people give the same well-rehearsed argument of, "Nothing can be done. We can't have a matchmaker that will ensure new players don't get scared off, because we don't have enough players (.... as a result of new players getting scared off, primarily due to the lack of a proper matchmaker)". Even if it's true, which, sadly, I think it is.

[cheavyIZspy]

People care wayyy too much about winning.

If they don't the usual "suspect" is ofcourse lag... It's kindof funny as I play with high ping on US-East aswell and never mind it much at all.

It sometimes reminds me of when I was younger, playing table tennis and blaming my loss on "wind" (jokingly ofcourse, even back then). Yes even blamed it on wind indoors

Rarely do I get annoyed when losing these days, even back then really. In the end, this little life is about letting go, losing, dying.

Also there's losses in life, that cut so deep, that a loss in a game is nothing in comparison (i.e. losing "love", whatever that once meant to ya).

[Shork]

Originally posted by Shark Population Control:

Community is in a bad state, honestly. Everyone is gracious and polite when they win, and rarely openly salty even if they lose, but the higher the win % for people, the more it goes to their heads, I think. A year or so ago, I was playing on an unrecognizable smurf (I was getting stalked on my main steam account, long story).

Encountered full vet premade, some of them even on my main account's friend list, people I played tens of games with before, both with and against, people that had always treated me with the respect that I felt I was owed, at least on my main. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to have a cowardly teammate that basically never died, though they didn't contribute many kills, either. I tryharded my mind out, it was literally one of my finest performances in thousands of games, and I narrowly won. It probably helped that they were a little cocky on safe 1, giving me a couple of easy kills, as they didn't recognize the names, and unfamiliar shark players aren't a threat to a full premade, who'll happily all open water with starters against new players. One of them was streaming, and because I like hearing variations of "dude, that guy is very good", I tuned into the recorded past broadcast after.

They hadn't typed anything in all chat, but wow, was I outraged at what I heard in the video. About halfway in, when they started feeling less than certain that they would win the game, they started complaining aloud that I was grabbing them because of high ping, that shots were going through me. I could literally see that I wasn't lagging, and that the streamer's crosshair (he was one of the most complain-y ones) wasn't near me when his shots "went right through me" on the stream. I never heard those complaints before from any of them, in the many games I played against them on my main.

These people played like 10 games that day before matching against me, showing no mercy to new players, just murdering them in open water from safe 2 onwards, basically with no deaths, except "o" presses to upgrade weapons. Like half their opponents ragequit against them. Occasionally, if their opponents complained in all chat, they would respond dismissively and/or sarcastically. Like, "what, are friends not allowed to play together anymore?".

They typed GGs and WPs at the end of every game, and even the occasional reassurance of "everyone starts out bad, keep practicing, etc.". Personally, I found that a little creepy, it was like watching a pro hockey team style on a group of kids that put their skates on for the first time, including body checking them into the boards. And then, after the almost-literal slaughter, compliment them in a tone that is so authentic-sounding, that you genuinely get confused as to if they are sarcastic, or remorseful and trying to get the kids to not feel so bad, or if they're genuinely confused at how the scoreboard works, and think the game was not one-sided and hopeless from the get-go.

Anyway, I don't know why I took the time to type this all out. It just bugs me when people give the same well-rehearsed argument of, "Nothing can be done. We can't have a matchmaker that will ensure new players don't get scared off, because we don't have enough players (.... as a result of new players getting scared off, primarily due to the lack of a proper matchmaker)". Even if it's true, which, sadly, I think it is.

That about describes every full stack player.
There's a few of them who will basically never play outside of premades, usually full 4 mans as diver who will spam the living crap out of you with sharkshields the moment it feels like it might get tight.

There are indeed insane netcode issues with this game, though. Makes one quite darn paranoid after a while, so even very close misses might be dismissed as netcode issues.
What can you expect after one has experienced countless of hours seeing this sort of crap: https://streamable.com/r7ae3g

Though, for those full stack plebs, even that won't do as excuse.
One of them, who also streams, even has the audacity to have a ragequit counter on their stream. He acts all nice and cool, but he's an absolute PoS.
Imagine having a ragequit counter while you only play in premades, spam sharkshields and corner camp with volleyjet all day. bruh
The true peak of ego.
And then people say I ruin this already ruined game.

[cheavyIZspy]

One thing that does get tiring though, is being connected into the same premade stomp team 5 times in a row, or worse the stomp team even needing a bad diver friend or two to, you guessed it, even win at all.
That's just not fun, not because of losing, but because it's decided before it begins, rigged games suck, no one truly wins anything at all ( ).

[Shork]

Originally posted by cheavyIZspy:

One thing that does get tiring though, is being connected into the same premade stomp team 5 times in a row, or worse the stomp team even needing a bad diver friend or two to, you guessed it, even win at all.
That's just not fun, not because of losing, but because it's decided before it begins, rigged games suck, no one truly wins anything at all ( ).

Man I love those premades the most.
Not only too darn trash to win on their own, but so trash that they need to queue with 2 of their friends to feed for them ... and then often still lose. LMAO
Like why even play at this point? I'd just delete all games if I was THAT bad.

Suppose that's all they can do, being the bottom of the bottom feeders.

Sadly I long arrived at the point where the outcome of a match is decided not by who is the best, but by who has the biggest feeders.
The shared ticket pool needs to go already, for both sides.
15 tickets for each shark. 7 tickets for each diver, with the remaining 2 tickets going to the 2 top scorer(s) I guess.
But that would be coding effort that probably would break the entire game for good. They already broke quite a bit just adding skins at some point. Like, just new skins. No system or anything.

[IceAze]

The game's almost 7 years old and even on launch a lot of its popularity got stolen by evolved when I feel like depth deserved it more. Understandably the devs want to put their efforts elsewhere and well every multiplayer game has a steep learning curve if you're not playing near launch. I would prefer more gameplay content based updates rather than skins and I wish people had the ability to make their own maps and modes which people should play at their own discretion rather than it officially being incorporated unless it's really really good. But it's too late for that now, skins are more profitable than gameplay updates which isn't a problem exclusive to depth.

[Shork]

Originally posted by IceAze:

The game's almost 7 years old and even on launch a lot of its popularity got stolen by evolved when I feel like depth deserved it more. Understandably the devs want to put their efforts elsewhere and well every multiplayer game has a steep learning curve if you're not playing near launch. I would prefer more gameplay content based updates rather than skins and I wish people had the ability to make their own maps and modes which people should play at their own discretion rather than it officially being incorporated unless it's really really good. But it's too late for that now, skins are more profitable than gameplay updates which isn't a problem exclusive to depth.

Evolve stole nothing but people's money. lmao

[Sharkbait]

Premades are the result of friends coming together and having fun. It's both reasonable that this would be a thing in a team-based game, and even more so as communication and teamwork is key when facing good opponents. This is even more prevalent when communication is horrible in this game with randoms -and despite someone being an exceptional diver, its very difficult to carry against really good sharks.

I mean most games are more fun with friends than to solo so I don't fully understand the aggressive nature towards people who team up. I mean personally I came for the game but stayed for the community I ended up in. Otherwise I'd probably would have left a long time ago.

To me its more about the company and just hanging out, rather than trying my absolute best to win or ♥♥♥♥ on players. It has become more of a game we chill in while talking, joking around and exchange banter. Its not about becoming the best player (Too old for any gaming career XD,) for me at least. Tho I do enjoy honing my skills and practice... Or at least I did before in this game.

But it's a hard game for new players if they have to meet veteran groups, either as shark or as diver. It can also be just as hard for the veterans to adapt to new players as most actions has become reflexes of sorts. Another thing are the leader-boards. Those close to, or within the top tens like to grind every now and then and low level players are basically free points, so the game bring incentive for vets to just play for them free scores.

And yes leader-board means nothing really in terms of actual skill but it does feel good being displayed at the top ten for everyone to see. Also its basically the only thing left for a long time player to progress in.

In the end it's an old game with a very small player-base with the most active players being long time players who mostly enjoy playing this with friends. My advice is just to not take it so damn serious and simply not care too much. Premades exists in all multiplayer games, they won't go away unless the devs force them to split up, which would be very stupid to do as that probably would leave the game to become even more dead than it already is.

Just remember, life is a script, we don't have any real free will and nothing truly matters in the vast expanse of the multiverse! ;D

[AldrickExGladius™]

the game was fun when it first dropped. The devs have changed so much up about the game its hardly the same. I was done with it when they started buffing the divers and nerfing the sharks.