Pixonic Reddit AMA 3/5/2017
Mar 5, 2017 14:06:00 GMT -5
ShutUpAndSmokeMyWeed, BigBear, and 10 more like this
Post by Dredd77 on Mar 5, 2017 14:06:00 GMT -5
Here's a digest of the official Pixo comments in today's AMA. I love AMA's, but they can be chaotic, so I distilled the important bits here for us Forumites. I'll try and update if any more questions get answered, enjoy!
General Gameplay
Bots
Note: There are two different Pixo employees doing the AMA. Here on the Wild Bunch bot availability, they seemed to give contradictory answers.
Weapons
General Gameplay
Can we please please please have a button to reload your weapons? Seems absurd to have to cook off a few rounds for no reason to get the reload cycle started.
> We might have a solution for that pretty soon!
> We might have a solution for that pretty soon!
why does the scale of the bots seem to change? In the 3D view screen the fluff like the lights seems to indicate 20-30 feet similar to mechwarrior, but then in maps like dead city cars are the size of a Leo's toe.
> Nope! It's probably an oversized car. For little robots to drive, perhaps?
> Nope! It's probably an oversized car. For little robots to drive, perhaps?
Any plans on incorporating gamepad controls/mapping?
>A dedicated agent on our team is already looking into that for some time! Stand by for more news!
>A dedicated agent on our team is already looking into that for some time! Stand by for more news!
Would you still enjoy the game (if you were the one playing) when your opponents have all the upgrades and the best WP weapons, and you are just a lvl 25 with 4~5k WP? Have you tried testing that on your beta-tests? Why match us?
> In a rating-based matchmaking that only means that your performance with your current hangar is similar to the one of high-level hangar people and you can compete on the same level! It's actually a big achievement on your side if you are getting matched vs people with stronger hangars. Again, we'll keep monitoring the new League system behavior for any irregularities or oversights in order to polish it and make your experience the best.
> In a rating-based matchmaking that only means that your performance with your current hangar is similar to the one of high-level hangar people and you can compete on the same level! It's actually a big achievement on your side if you are getting matched vs people with stronger hangars. Again, we'll keep monitoring the new League system behavior for any irregularities or oversights in order to polish it and make your experience the best.
The game was more fun when we could switch to different level hangers and still get a fair match. Any chance this functionality will be restored to the game?
> Fair play is one of our top priorities and we're currently closely monitoring the new League system behavior in order to polish it and improve your experience in the game. The idea behind it in regards to your question is that if you switch to a lower or higher level hangar your rating will adjust over time and you will get a fair match. The old system as it was originally designed allowed for being abused, so it's unlikely it will be going back in its original form.
> Fair play is one of our top priorities and we're currently closely monitoring the new League system behavior in order to polish it and improve your experience in the game. The idea behind it in regards to your question is that if you switch to a lower or higher level hangar your rating will adjust over time and you will get a fair match. The old system as it was originally designed allowed for being abused, so it's unlikely it will be going back in its original form.
When can we expect the new "Moon" map?
> Which map? Wait, there's a Moon map coming? I'm kidding. Hold on a little longer.
> Which map? Wait, there's a Moon map coming? I'm kidding. Hold on a little longer.
Why are Android and Apple on separate platforms? I would like to play with my friends that have iPhones. Many other games I've played Android & iPhone users can play together
> War Robots has first been released for iOs and later for Android so the development process for both platforms was asynchronous. While it's technically possible to merge the platforms on live servers right now, it's also complicated from a technical point of view at this point and there's plenty of people that are against merging the platforms for various reasons.
> War Robots has first been released for iOs and later for Android so the development process for both platforms was asynchronous. While it's technically possible to merge the platforms on live servers right now, it's also complicated from a technical point of view at this point and there's plenty of people that are against merging the platforms for various reasons.
Why is there not an option for multiple hanger setups, it seems like a simple thing to add and it would make switching between setups alot easier, so I assume there is a reason for this 
> This has certainly became a thing as the metagame became deeper and more and more people started preparing various 'hangar setups' from their robots! We were glad to hear this feature is in demand and good news is - it's already in the works! While it might seem like an easy thing to implement, it's not as easy to make it both functional and friendly to the eye.
> This has certainly became a thing as the metagame became deeper and more and more people started preparing various 'hangar setups' from their robots! We were glad to hear this feature is in demand and good news is - it's already in the works! While it might seem like an easy thing to implement, it's not as easy to make it both functional and friendly to the eye.
Game modes? Clan vs clan, free for all, death match. This has been a thing for years now.
> You are mentioning two different game concepts in your question - custom games (clan vs clan or 1vs1 or 3vs5) and new game modes (deathmatch and others). Both concepts are currently in the works and you can expect some results really soon.
> You are mentioning two different game concepts in your question - custom games (clan vs clan or 1vs1 or 3vs5) and new game modes (deathmatch and others). Both concepts are currently in the works and you can expect some results really soon.
Is there a reason for not being able to see team mate's health bars? It annoying when you are teaming with a buddy and suddenly he gets destroyed and you didn't get much warning.
> This definitely became one of the hottest suggestions as more and more people turned to team-oriented gameplay. It's on our to do list!
> This definitely became one of the hottest suggestions as more and more people turned to team-oriented gameplay. It's on our to do list!
Is there any work being done on new maps also when is the targeting system going to be improved?
> A new map might be just around the corner! Have you noticed any changes on Shen Zhen on live server recently perhaps? Like, anything that hasn't been there before? We also plan to dedicate more resources to map development this year. You can definitely expect to see new map prototypes on the test server soon.
As for the targeting system, could you elaborate on the nature of improvements you're asking about?
> A new map might be just around the corner! Have you noticed any changes on Shen Zhen on live server recently perhaps? Like, anything that hasn't been there before?
We also plan to dedicate more resources to map development this year. You can definitely expect to see new map prototypes on the test server soon.As for the targeting system, could you elaborate on the nature of improvements you're asking about?
Anyway to stop people from only playing certain maps? The problem is people use specialized hangers and only play the maps that work for either all long range or all knife fighters. It puts people who play the whole game at a disadvantage. Also results in all trident furries on big maps making gameplay less interesting.
> With the new League system this problem will gradually go away as people would have to prepare for any kind of situation on the battlefield if they want to go up in ranks!
> With the new League system this problem will gradually go away as people would have to prepare for any kind of situation on the battlefield if they want to go up in ranks!
When we shoot an energy shield , does the damage we make is taken into consideration at the scoring system ?? If not tell us so that we don't bother shooting an Ancilot for example.
> Right now it doesn't, however we're looking into that.
> Right now it doesn't, however we're looking into that.
the in-game's shop and inventory interface should be improved.
it's too bad to find and pick one item, especially after the unboxing event (x-mas, lunar new year, ...)
> Quite so! On our to do list already
it's too bad to find and pick one item, especially after the unboxing event (x-mas, lunar new year, ...)
> Quite so! On our to do list already
Please explain to me, in detail what is attempting to be accomplished by incentivizing apathy toward beacons. As it currently stands, beacons are being ignored by most. This is (as I'm sure you're well aware) due to the fact that damage total is THE FACTOR in determining loss/gain in trophy totals. The net result, in my case, is: despite 2/5 ranking battles ending prematurely due to loss of connection, I am placed in silver 3. Currently I'm in danger of slipping into Bronze. That's disenchanting to say the least.
> We're monitoring league system performance really close, and the need of rewarding anything but direct damage is super evident now.
How to incorporate beacons into a league points calculation algorithm without inflating value of these points? That's tricky â we already threw away some concepts. But definitely doable! Some ideas are on their way to be tested internally as is now. Why does it take longer than a few weeks? We don't want to rely on crutchy solutions like "give one bonus point for every beacon" here in general. The reward system should be redesigned to support bigger array of playstyles. We acknowledge that and we're working on it.
> We're monitoring league system performance really close, and the need of rewarding anything but direct damage is super evident now.
How to incorporate beacons into a league points calculation algorithm without inflating value of these points? That's tricky â we already threw away some concepts. But definitely doable! Some ideas are on their way to be tested internally as is now. Why does it take longer than a few weeks? We don't want to rely on crutchy solutions like "give one bonus point for every beacon" here in general. The reward system should be redesigned to support bigger array of playstyles. We acknowledge that and we're working on it.
I would definitely rather wait a minute or two and not face Expert I and Legend hangers. I expect to see some of those level hangers while battling in Diamond III. But I feel we see far too many, especially on the same squad.
Isn't the whole point of the league system to pair you with similar competition?
If I'm going to battle Expert and legend most of the time, just let me advance to Expert without crushing me when I get within 50 cups of Diamond II.
Again,not a rant, just trying to understand how leagues are set up and why you get constantly matched with competition several tiers higher.
Seems like, for instance, Diamond III should see matches between Gold III and Expert III at the most.
Is their a chart that show how points are distributed after battle? Also some insight on the contributing factors of league placement?
> The player distribution in leagues is a bit of a mess now. As we untied league rankings from hangar power, some players got a bit too high and some hit a bit too low. It's going to even out with time, as people get to divisions they actually belong.
And we definitely don't drop the system as is until we find a proper way for people to get matched fairly. For example, in our list of priorities we have giving overperforming players more impulse in climbing, so they stop frightening lower-level people somewhat faster.
On the other topic, league points are distributed exactly like it's shown in the video here. It is 100% relevant now, but numbers might change at some point.
Isn't the whole point of the league system to pair you with similar competition?
If I'm going to battle Expert and legend most of the time, just let me advance to Expert without crushing me when I get within 50 cups of Diamond II.
Again,not a rant, just trying to understand how leagues are set up and why you get constantly matched with competition several tiers higher.
Seems like, for instance, Diamond III should see matches between Gold III and Expert III at the most.
Is their a chart that show how points are distributed after battle? Also some insight on the contributing factors of league placement?
> The player distribution in leagues is a bit of a mess now. As we untied league rankings from hangar power, some players got a bit too high and some hit a bit too low. It's going to even out with time, as people get to divisions they actually belong.
And we definitely don't drop the system as is until we find a proper way for people to get matched fairly. For example, in our list of priorities we have giving overperforming players more impulse in climbing, so they stop frightening lower-level people somewhat faster.
On the other topic, league points are distributed exactly like it's shown in the video here. It is 100% relevant now, but numbers might change at some point.
Please address the inequality in the cup scoring to actual game contribution. Damage alone is a poor indicator of skill. A cup placement system of either one point per 100,000 damage rounded down plus one point per kill and one point per beacon would better rate game contribution and "skill". One point per 50,000 damage plus one point per beacon would also work. This would help light bots at low levels, medium bots and mixed hangars for the majority of the leagues and premium/heavy bots would still rule top tier, making fir a more varied and interesting game play.
> Kill count by itself is far from being a valuable metric, since one can always chew off 99% of enemy HP for the last hit being taken by someone else.
But on beacons we totally agree, that has to be taken into account in post-match stats. Along with other ways of contribution to the team success. Damage soaking, anyone? In short, we're working on it.
> Kill count by itself is far from being a valuable metric, since one can always chew off 99% of enemy HP for the last hit being taken by someone else.
But on beacons we totally agree, that has to be taken into account in post-match stats. Along with other ways of contribution to the team success. Damage soaking, anyone? In short, we're working on it.
I thought the league system was supposed to make it so that you faced similar competition. I know that skill plays a role in league placement but there should be a range where you expect to find certain bots. For example you may expect to find people with hangers of level 10 bots with level 10 weapons somewhere between gold 3 and diamond 3 with most being in diamond 1 or 2. Any outlier should be an anomaly. The reality is that 10/10 bots are spread everywhere from bronze up through diamond.
The question is why if you are in say silver 2 does the MM not spend up to say 75 seconds looking to make a match just in silver 2, then fill it only with outliers from silver 1 and 3. This seems it would make the cream rise out of lower leagues faster and make more defined leagues in the process.
Also what are your plans to stop tankers?
As I said somewhere around, league distribution is kinda chaotic and finding a high level player in bronze-gold leagues is not a rarity. Yet. Increasing the queue times in favor of more accurate matchmaking is undeniably an option, but firstly we have to make sure that there are no 12/12 hangars in Gold, if you know what I mean. So currently we focus on separating people from different tiers a bit further from each other.
To the tanking issue. Leaver protection is going to be in place a few weeks from now if all goes right. No direct penalties, the general idea is to place those abusing the system to a separate queue where abusers play with each other without bothering others.
The question is why if you are in say silver 2 does the MM not spend up to say 75 seconds looking to make a match just in silver 2, then fill it only with outliers from silver 1 and 3. This seems it would make the cream rise out of lower leagues faster and make more defined leagues in the process.
Also what are your plans to stop tankers?
As I said somewhere around, league distribution is kinda chaotic and finding a high level player in bronze-gold leagues is not a rarity. Yet. Increasing the queue times in favor of more accurate matchmaking is undeniably an option, but firstly we have to make sure that there are no 12/12 hangars in Gold, if you know what I mean. So currently we focus on separating people from different tiers a bit further from each other.
To the tanking issue. Leaver protection is going to be in place a few weeks from now if all goes right. No direct penalties, the general idea is to place those abusing the system to a separate queue where abusers play with each other without bothering others.
Why are no rating points rewarded for capturing beacons? Beacons such an important part of the game, no beacons no win! yet none of us beacon cappers are rewarded for our efforts running around the map grabbing beacons on behalf of our teammates?
> There are no rating points for capturing beacons yet. In terms of player rewarding, War Robots was a game of raw DPS for quite some time, and now we're preparing to move away from that mindset by supporting more different playstyles. That's an incredibly interesting task to tackle, and we hope that we will make it work in the upcoming future. League point rewards for beacon capturing should be a good starting point, as we will find the best way for them to fit the system. It will take some time, but, we hope, not too much.
> There are no rating points for capturing beacons yet. In terms of player rewarding, War Robots was a game of raw DPS for quite some time, and now we're preparing to move away from that mindset by supporting more different playstyles. That's an incredibly interesting task to tackle, and we hope that we will make it work in the upcoming future. League point rewards for beacon capturing should be a good starting point, as we will find the best way for them to fit the system. It will take some time, but, we hope, not too much.
Why the skins are so expencive? they don't make any diference at the battle, 2.500 of gold just to see better? Whit that gold y can buy weapons or robots really powerfull!!! Why you decided to make so expencive the skins?
> First and foremost, skins are mostly about vanity and they shouldn't bring too much of a difference to the battle. It's up to you to decide whether it is worth it or not. With that being said, we definitely might introduce some skins in a lower price range at some point in the future.
> First and foremost, skins are mostly about vanity and they shouldn't bring too much of a difference to the battle. It's up to you to decide whether it is worth it or not. With that being said, we definitely might introduce some skins in a lower price range at some point in the future.
Is pixonic going to increase Ag reward in higher league? People at recruit league score 600k damage rewarded 250k Ag, but champion league player score 700k damage but was rewarded only 300k Ag? It's not proportionate as higher league face stronger opponents and should be rewarded more Ag. Otherwise lots of high level players will intentionally go to lower league like bronze to score higher damage and earn more Ag.
> We're looking into bringing more substantial prizes for climbing â that's for sure. As for adding bigger rates to regular post-game rewards, it is up for discussion.
> We're looking into bringing more substantial prizes for climbing â that's for sure. As for adding bigger rates to regular post-game rewards, it is up for discussion.
How about not taking away clan "activity points" that members play hard to EARN? so many players now inactive because its a pain to even maintain their points.
> Back then, activity points were designed precisely for giving a measure of player's activity. If one is super active â right here right now (or rather, on the current week) â it is reflected by his high AP count. However, as the game was developed this stat turned out to be flawed in many regards. In the future we are likely to rework it or merge with league points in some way. Feel free to suggest if you have any cool ideas!
> Back then, activity points were designed precisely for giving a measure of player's activity. If one is super active â right here right now (or rather, on the current week) â it is reflected by his high AP count. However, as the game was developed this stat turned out to be flawed in many regards. In the future we are likely to rework it or merge with league points in some way. Feel free to suggest if you have any cool ideas!
Bots
have you done anything in the recent months to affect the stalker invisibility mode? I've noticed i get hit more than ever in that mode now. feels like something has definitely changed.
> No, there weren't any changes made to Stalker's ability. My guess is people learned how to play against Stalker over time and are using weapons with straight line of fire and possibly area of effect damage to target you manually.
> No, there weren't any changes made to Stalker's ability. My guess is people learned how to play against Stalker over time and are using weapons with straight line of fire and possibly area of effect damage to target you manually.
For the dash prototype... You basically made it a Combination of a Griffin, Carnage, and Fujin. Maybe remove the energy shield, increase the cooldown time even more (not a two-second difference) and maybe it can at least be marginally balanced
> That's what the public test server is for!
> That's what the public test server is for!
Note: There are two different Pixo employees doing the AMA. Here on the Wild Bunch bot availability, they seemed to give contradictory answers.
Will you put the wild bunch robots available to buy,and would the cost of them be in gold,silver or wsp?
> Yes and no. We have something special prepared for those!
> Yes and no. We have something special prepared for those!
All I want to know is when you're going to release the wild west bots for purchase. Its been forever 「whiskey tango foxtrot」 is going on?.... If you're just going to keep them around as event prizes tell us so I can give up on them and stop seemingly uslessly saving currency.
> We don't have a general plan for them yet.
> We don't have a general plan for them yet.
How do you feel about the current state of gepards? For 1200 gold, they don't feel worth it. Do you have plans for them in the future?
> Thing is, it's a pretty challenging task to combine both the progression system where you go up in ranks and progress from smaller to bigger and more powerful robots and a balanced metagame across the board. We have a few ideas on this, so we'll see how things work out!
> Thing is, it's a pretty challenging task to combine both the progression system where you go up in ranks and progress from smaller to bigger and more powerful robots and a balanced metagame across the board. We have a few ideas on this, so we'll see how things work out!
Weapons
Are you familiar with how all around useless the zenit and noricom are? Is there a buff planned?
> We want to keep all the weapons onboard and competitive and will be planning further changes according to the live server statistics that we monitor.
> We want to keep all the weapons onboard and competitive and will be planning further changes according to the live server statistics that we monitor.
Are you guys going to do anything to boost kinetic type weapons? Right now they're only good as starter weapons, since they don't penetrate either of the shield types that are commonly seen in higher level play.
> Yes, we generally want to make all the weapons viable in the metagame in one way or another. If you have participated in the public test server some time ago, you might've seen the features we have planned for kinetic weapons and those are in development right now! We had to delay them for a while because of technical limitations, but you can definitely expect them soon!
> Yes, we generally want to make all the weapons viable in the metagame in one way or another. If you have participated in the public test server some time ago, you might've seen the features we have planned for kinetic weapons and those are in development right now! We had to delay them for a while because of technical limitations, but you can definitely expect them soon!
Are you still planning on a Heavy Machine Gun? And if so ... when?
> No, we're not planning. We're developing it! Since it first arrived on the test server, we've been hearing a lot of positive feedback regarding this weapon and it would be insane if we didn't move forward with this concept! Expect it to hit live servers soon.
> No, we're not planning. We're developing it!
Since it first arrived on the test server, we've been hearing a lot of positive feedback regarding this weapon and it would be insane if we didn't move forward with this concept! Expect it to hit live servers soon. When are you guys going to fix that horrible zeus bug? That bug has been festering for far too long already! I've been using the zeus for about almost a year and that bug is still there! There seems to be a 4 second lag in damage. Sometimes there is no damage registered, sometimes half damage, sometimes damage even lands on another opponent!
> Our statistics indicate otherwise. The damage could technically 'land' on another opponent if you switched targets in the middle of discharging Zeus. Could you perhaps send a bug report to our support team with ways of reproducing this so that our technical team could investigate?
> Our statistics indicate otherwise. The damage could technically 'land' on another opponent if you switched targets in the middle of discharging Zeus. Could you perhaps send a bug report to our support team with ways of reproducing this so that our technical team could investigate?
Are you going to reduce the accuracy of the trident like you did with the aphids? Considering it's splash and that it is most often employed in sets, it is a little OP. Also, you accidentally moved my Aphids accuracy to nesrly 0, lol. I shot a Griffen that was standing still from about 75 meters, and it only took a hair off of his health. They are now shelved.
> Can't really treat Trident the same as Aphid in terms of accuracy because the former has a straight line of fire while the latter fires homing missiles. As for any weapon balance changes, we're always basing them on a weapon's actual live server performance according to statistics.
> Can't really treat Trident the same as Aphid in terms of accuracy because the former has a straight line of fire while the latter fires homing missiles. As for any weapon balance changes, we're always basing them on a weapon's actual live server performance according to statistics.
The Punisher Mk2 and Molot Mk2 only do 60% or so more damage than their single counterparts. So for example a Patton with 4 Molots does about 40% more damage than a rog with molot mk2s. It's been this way for a couple years now, I know a couple years ago they got nerfed, especially punishers, but the ga,e has changed so much since then it seems like that should be reversed. It would at least make the punisher a viable weapon again. Can you address this?
Actually I just double checked, punisher fires 11 rounds/sec, and the Mk2 fires 16 rounds/sec. seems like the Mk2 should be 22/sec. also punisher capacity is 220 and the Mk2 is 330. Seem like Mk2 should be 440
Molot/molot Mk2 capacity is 80/120, but seems like it should be 80/160
The balance of kinetic weapons will definitely be addressed soon, expect changes!
Actually I just double checked, punisher fires 11 rounds/sec, and the Mk2 fires 16 rounds/sec. seems like the Mk2 should be 22/sec. also punisher capacity is 220 and the Mk2 is 330. Seem like Mk2 should be 440
Molot/molot Mk2 capacity is 80/120, but seems like it should be 80/160
The balance of kinetic weapons will definitely be addressed soon, expect changes!
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