Post by 079 on Sept 2, 2023 21:07:03 GMT -5
I am sure we all remember the first Depressed Veterans Club thread at the end of last year. It was a (at the time, not really anymore) rare moment where I just let out a ton of negativity and not much else. But at the end of that thread, I tried to be a bit positive and highlighted some good features that were on the way, like the update 8.7 balance changes. But, I also said in the first thread that saying the game has hit rock bottom was foolish by that point, and as it turns out, this statement, rather unsurprisingly, has aged much better. Because well, it seems another big-time vent is in order.
To quickly get the positive out of the way (do not worry, it is short), version 8.7 was an excellent update, almost to the point of seeming like a fluke. The tier-based equipment rebalances and removal of drones gave us the best month or so the game had in four years, but it could not have been more short-lived, with Pixonic reestablishing the status quo unsurprisingly quickly in update 8.8. So with that diamond out of the way, it is time to trudge through the rough that is the rest of 2023.
I said last time that we were in the deep end of the pool (in reference to the “going off the deep end” saying that applies all too well to this game), but now we find ourselves at the bottom of the diving section. The water pressure is tangible, less sunlight is reaching us, and all we want to do is leave this area. But of course Pixonic will not let us, and is actively trying to find deeper waters. What has happened to make the game worse than its lowest point yet in December 2022? Well, let us see.
This is probably a hot take, but I think the meta is actually better right now than it was in December 2022. Now, that is obviously a microscopic complement, as this meta is still really bad, and arguably even worse. Camping metas need no explanation on why they are arguably the worst kind, but I personally think they are better than the invincibility (Angler, Skyros, and Scorpion in a way) and target-seeking weapons (Mars and Bendies) meta in December 2022. So in that respect, the game has gotten marginally better, but it is still the second worst type of meta ever, and I am open to the argument that it is actually worse. So, how has the game gotten so much worse when the meta has not changed too much in terms of terribleness? Well, it is because Pixonic has been changing a lot more than the meta throughout this year.
2023 has, quite simply, been the year where nothing is sacred. We got a small taste of this in late 2022 with the rework of supply drops into the current supply center, and it was controversial. I think it is fair to say it has grown a little on a lot of us in the almost year it has been around, but it obviously could have been a lot better. But that is the least of it. The first rework of 2023 was the booster rebalance, which we all of course hate. It was unnecessary, removed customization from the game, and let Pixonic rob players with really bad, unavoidable conversion rates. We knew exactly what was going on at the time, but little did we know that these things would become a recurring event throughout 2023. Next up was the biggest of them all: the drone rework. It was unnecessary, removed customization from the game, and let Pixonic rob players with really bad, unavoidable conversion rates. Years of carefully crafted drone lineups were wiped away, old but still good drones were finally gutted, and to sour the change just a little more, a new currency was added so Pixonic can more heavily monetize drones. With such a perfect storm of predatory business practices coming off the heels of the glorious version 8.7, nobody was coping with any silver lining for this one. But sure enough, the worst was yet to come.
The worst thing of the year (so far, anyway) is easily update 9.3, simply for the sheer amount of things it brings (or more accurately, removes) from the game. All of these things are, say with it with me now, unnecessary, remove customization, and let Pixonic rob players. First up is memorium, which needs no introduction. Nobody had an issue with pilots being upgraded with gold (besides the prices) and were able to buy gold in bulk to upgrade pilots, so of course Pixonic needed to make it more monetized with a new, harder to get currency. Add on how Pixonic lied by saying it would let players on average level their pilots one or two levels higher than before, and you have a real stinker of a feature. Next up of course is mothership turrets now being destroyed when unequipped, which needs even less of an explanation. I mean, what an utter betrayal of this game’s basic hangar progression system. Newton, Tonans and Fulgur, and the Keel mothership deserve honorable mentions for being new lows of equipment, but we all know they will be one-upped later on, so they are not worth talking about beyond mentioning how they arrived alongside Memorium and the mothership turret changes. Pixonic can do worse than any one of the things in 9.3, but it would take a lot to outdo the whole package they brought us here. Similarly, there were some other changes Pixonic made throughout the year and hoped nobody would not notice, like halfing the sell value of everything, have robots be disarmed in deep storage (though this was reversed, thankfully), gutting the black market, making active modules cost several times more gold to activate, making the game spam you with several dozen pop-ups upon login, and severely reducing the prizes of extermination mode.
So if it was not obvious, the ultimate problem here is that, as I said, nothing is sacred anymore. Several major features of the game that had remained untouched for up to half a decade were suddenly completely reworked and always for the worse, each having big ripples on the player experience. And of course, this does not bode well for the future, as what is stopping Pixonic from making even more crazy changes? It makes it hard to get too invested in anything, be it leveling equipment, hoarding currency, or even just collecting anything not covered by the Collector title. And well, that kinda kills the whole thing for a lot of us in a way, because we all consider hangar building to be a cornerstone of the game, so with it in jeopardy, the enjoyment of everything else is lessened. So yeah, how do you outdo a bad meta? You just make literally everything in the game worse and make everyone question what the point is!
So, what is the point then? Well, the point is the community: this forum, Reddit and Discord if you are into them, YouTube, and the Time Drops, 6 Pack, and the Retro Tournaments. Now, this of course is just the silver lining, hence nobody recommending the game to others, but it can be worth it for those of us who have already settled somewhere satisfactory in the game. Pixonic can nerf our equipment, devalue our currency stashes, restrict our progress, and even rob us of real world money (changing things after we bought them), but they cannot take away our memories of the past and the friends we made along the way. Together we can make the game be fun despite Pixonic doing their worst, and for the foreseeable future, I, and I am sure many others here, see myself sticking around until the game totally dies for the community alone. Some people (like Manni) are fortunate enough to have full access to alternative games like Armored Core VI, and others have been hit a bit too hard by everything to stick around in good conscience, but the rest of us, we have each other. Besides, with the only thing I ever spent money on anymore, gold, becoming worthless in update 9.3, I can cease practically all spending and coast until the end. Many others are already doing this and enjoying the game with no fear of buyer’s remorse when the game dies, so I may as well join in!
Well, just like the first thread, I fell rather good after writing this one. I struggled for a while to figure out why I am remaining with this game despite everything, but in writing this, I finally figured it out, and that makes this worth it by itself. I am not sure if people will care about this one like they did the first one, especially since this one is more derivative of widespread ideas than the first, but well, just like Walter White, I did this for me. I am a depressed veteran of this game, but gosh darn it, I cannot stop trying to find fun this game, and when I cannot, I let others make it fun for me. Because, again like Walter White, I am too entertained by living on the edge and sinking time into this hollow, bloated, and greedy game with a doomed future. Bring it on Pixonic!
To quickly get the positive out of the way (do not worry, it is short), version 8.7 was an excellent update, almost to the point of seeming like a fluke. The tier-based equipment rebalances and removal of drones gave us the best month or so the game had in four years, but it could not have been more short-lived, with Pixonic reestablishing the status quo unsurprisingly quickly in update 8.8. So with that diamond out of the way, it is time to trudge through the rough that is the rest of 2023.
I said last time that we were in the deep end of the pool (in reference to the “going off the deep end” saying that applies all too well to this game), but now we find ourselves at the bottom of the diving section. The water pressure is tangible, less sunlight is reaching us, and all we want to do is leave this area. But of course Pixonic will not let us, and is actively trying to find deeper waters. What has happened to make the game worse than its lowest point yet in December 2022? Well, let us see.
This is probably a hot take, but I think the meta is actually better right now than it was in December 2022. Now, that is obviously a microscopic complement, as this meta is still really bad, and arguably even worse. Camping metas need no explanation on why they are arguably the worst kind, but I personally think they are better than the invincibility (Angler, Skyros, and Scorpion in a way) and target-seeking weapons (Mars and Bendies) meta in December 2022. So in that respect, the game has gotten marginally better, but it is still the second worst type of meta ever, and I am open to the argument that it is actually worse. So, how has the game gotten so much worse when the meta has not changed too much in terms of terribleness? Well, it is because Pixonic has been changing a lot more than the meta throughout this year.
2023 has, quite simply, been the year where nothing is sacred. We got a small taste of this in late 2022 with the rework of supply drops into the current supply center, and it was controversial. I think it is fair to say it has grown a little on a lot of us in the almost year it has been around, but it obviously could have been a lot better. But that is the least of it. The first rework of 2023 was the booster rebalance, which we all of course hate. It was unnecessary, removed customization from the game, and let Pixonic rob players with really bad, unavoidable conversion rates. We knew exactly what was going on at the time, but little did we know that these things would become a recurring event throughout 2023. Next up was the biggest of them all: the drone rework. It was unnecessary, removed customization from the game, and let Pixonic rob players with really bad, unavoidable conversion rates. Years of carefully crafted drone lineups were wiped away, old but still good drones were finally gutted, and to sour the change just a little more, a new currency was added so Pixonic can more heavily monetize drones. With such a perfect storm of predatory business practices coming off the heels of the glorious version 8.7, nobody was coping with any silver lining for this one. But sure enough, the worst was yet to come.
The worst thing of the year (so far, anyway) is easily update 9.3, simply for the sheer amount of things it brings (or more accurately, removes) from the game. All of these things are, say with it with me now, unnecessary, remove customization, and let Pixonic rob players. First up is memorium, which needs no introduction. Nobody had an issue with pilots being upgraded with gold (besides the prices) and were able to buy gold in bulk to upgrade pilots, so of course Pixonic needed to make it more monetized with a new, harder to get currency. Add on how Pixonic lied by saying it would let players on average level their pilots one or two levels higher than before, and you have a real stinker of a feature. Next up of course is mothership turrets now being destroyed when unequipped, which needs even less of an explanation. I mean, what an utter betrayal of this game’s basic hangar progression system. Newton, Tonans and Fulgur, and the Keel mothership deserve honorable mentions for being new lows of equipment, but we all know they will be one-upped later on, so they are not worth talking about beyond mentioning how they arrived alongside Memorium and the mothership turret changes. Pixonic can do worse than any one of the things in 9.3, but it would take a lot to outdo the whole package they brought us here. Similarly, there were some other changes Pixonic made throughout the year and hoped nobody would not notice, like halfing the sell value of everything, have robots be disarmed in deep storage (though this was reversed, thankfully), gutting the black market, making active modules cost several times more gold to activate, making the game spam you with several dozen pop-ups upon login, and severely reducing the prizes of extermination mode.
So if it was not obvious, the ultimate problem here is that, as I said, nothing is sacred anymore. Several major features of the game that had remained untouched for up to half a decade were suddenly completely reworked and always for the worse, each having big ripples on the player experience. And of course, this does not bode well for the future, as what is stopping Pixonic from making even more crazy changes? It makes it hard to get too invested in anything, be it leveling equipment, hoarding currency, or even just collecting anything not covered by the Collector title. And well, that kinda kills the whole thing for a lot of us in a way, because we all consider hangar building to be a cornerstone of the game, so with it in jeopardy, the enjoyment of everything else is lessened. So yeah, how do you outdo a bad meta? You just make literally everything in the game worse and make everyone question what the point is!
So, what is the point then? Well, the point is the community: this forum, Reddit and Discord if you are into them, YouTube, and the Time Drops, 6 Pack, and the Retro Tournaments. Now, this of course is just the silver lining, hence nobody recommending the game to others, but it can be worth it for those of us who have already settled somewhere satisfactory in the game. Pixonic can nerf our equipment, devalue our currency stashes, restrict our progress, and even rob us of real world money (changing things after we bought them), but they cannot take away our memories of the past and the friends we made along the way. Together we can make the game be fun despite Pixonic doing their worst, and for the foreseeable future, I, and I am sure many others here, see myself sticking around until the game totally dies for the community alone. Some people (like Manni) are fortunate enough to have full access to alternative games like Armored Core VI, and others have been hit a bit too hard by everything to stick around in good conscience, but the rest of us, we have each other. Besides, with the only thing I ever spent money on anymore, gold, becoming worthless in update 9.3, I can cease practically all spending and coast until the end. Many others are already doing this and enjoying the game with no fear of buyer’s remorse when the game dies, so I may as well join in!
Well, just like the first thread, I fell rather good after writing this one. I struggled for a while to figure out why I am remaining with this game despite everything, but in writing this, I finally figured it out, and that makes this worth it by itself. I am not sure if people will care about this one like they did the first one, especially since this one is more derivative of widespread ideas than the first, but well, just like Walter White, I did this for me. I am a depressed veteran of this game, but gosh darn it, I cannot stop trying to find fun this game, and when I cannot, I let others make it fun for me. Because, again like Walter White, I am too entertained by living on the edge and sinking time into this hollow, bloated, and greedy game with a doomed future. Bring it on Pixonic!
![](https://i.imgur.com/tNa1VMh.png")
