So I followed up my last Reddit post with this one. Just posted, so we'll see how it's taken. I really, really would love to see some actual Hi-Rez response...would really like to hear their response and see if they actually do listen, whether or not they take the advice.
I posted a few days ago about trying to keep things in perspective, and gave some kudos overall to the game we love (or hate to love, or are starting to hate, or whatever) and the development team behind it. (Or perhaps it wasn't so much kudos, but a plea for people to temper their rage)
I'm not a Hi-Rez homer. There are plenty of things I wish were different. But I'm also not going to scream because the game is unavailable for a day, or because I can't play Zhong/Thana until next patch (hey people, there are almost 100 other gods I can choose). I get people's frustrations. They're legitimate, but for some, I feel the intensity of their reactions are not.
What I'd said has been said before by others, and what I'll say now isn't really any different, but I thought putting together (what I feel is) a REASONABLE list of things that Hi-Rez might consider doing to improve SMITE would be a good topic (and I felt like writing). Again, for some, probably TL;DR, but for those that stick around, thanks for taking the time.
**BUGS BUGS BUGS**
The game is riddled with them. Some are random and relatively minor (oops, can't buy on the platform in Assault when I first get into the match, so I have to die...it's Assault so whatever), and some are game-breaking (crashes affecting ranked games, can't even get into game, etc.).
(Thanks HR by the way for fixing the mouse wheel scrolling, that was seriously annoying for years)
With the game on 3 separate platforms, there's some major work to be done.
Cleaning up the code and minimizing these issues should be their FIRST priority.
This is definitely easier said than done. I honestly have no clue how to code, so I don't envy this task, and I'm sure some of these issues aren't easily repeatable. But it CAN and SHOULD be done. Is it being done? I believe so. HR staff has said so. But I think they might be able to put more time and focus into it.
If it means slowing down patches, I'm all for it. HR might not be because staff meetings may point to the need to meet certain monthly $$$ goals and thus need to release those skins regularly, but I've got suggestions for that too.
**Skins, Bundles, Loot Boxes**
Backlash on loot boxes has been great. I'm glad the gaming community as a whole has been coming down on it. Spending money for randomized "prizes" is indirectly gambling, and if you want to do that, go to Vegas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26ZX7NbOhks
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/10/17447914/devolver-digital-e3-loot-box-coin-gag
https://kotaku.com/battlefield-v-shows-how-the-video-game-industry-is-turn-1826368029
HR should recognize this and start the process to get rid of this in their game altogether. I believe they've already started doing this to a degree, by offering (bugged? surprise!) Daily Bundles. You're still likely getting some skins or whatnot that you don't want, to get something you DO want...but at least the purchase is clear and 100% a decision you make, based on your estimation of the value.
Another thing people complain about is that there are too many exclusive and limited skins. It's HR's right to categorize those skins however they want, but I personally feel they'll end up seeing more revenue (and happy customers) by changing the ratio of directly purchasable and limited skins.
Solution? Take a good amount of those currently exclusive/limited skins, and make them directly purchasable. Oh, this will upset those people that already bought those skins due to them being in that category (and maybe spending a ton due to loot box randomization)? Solution: refund those people that already own those specific skins with a % of gems.
HR...you won't technically "lose" money by refunding those gems...meaning, you don't have to shell out any money yourselves. That's all just digital in-game currency, and can't be converted to crypto. You might lose out on future potential money because those people will have extra gems...but I strongly feel that, given the chance, you'll start seeing a shift and uptick in the amount of money spent.
Tell me you'll think about it, at least.
**Matchmaking, Queue Times, and Too Many Modes**
Okay, matchmaking is being worked on. I hope it works well. We need to give HR some more time to get it ready and implement it (and not have people react the day after it's implemented if you get a bad matchup!!!).
Queue times and # of modes sort of go hand-in-hand. DMBrandon stated recently that SMITE should reduce the # of game modes (something he's actually said countless times, I believe). Others have echoed the sentiment. This would help funnel players into situations where we get quicker queues and better matchmaking, which is a good idea in theory.
The biggest issue comes from the fact that different people have different mode preferences, or love being able to change things up. How do you balance the right for people to keep playing the modes they love, whether it's the pure Conquest mode, or the "casual scrub" Arena mode? (then of course you have both casual and ranked variants of some of these!) Because the only reason this game is still in existence is because there AREN'T just people that only play Conquest. Understand here...if this turns into an elitist game, it's probably not going to be here long.
I believe dropping 1 or 2 game modes will help, but I'm not convinced keeping only 3 modes is the best solution. In all honesty...I don't HAVE a solution. There are some great qualities (and terrible ones) about almost all modes (though some will argue that, of course).
I personally would get rid of Siege. I think there's legitimate reason to keep Joust. Same with Arena. And of course Conquest. MOTDs can be fun, though they're not typically my thing, but they offer the greatest variation of all "modes."
In any case, *some* change would be a good thing. Take this with the other things above, and I think you've got a winning combination to maintain the current player base, improve player-developer relations, and help grow the game.
Thoughts?
Everyone complains about crashes and bugs yet I never experience any of these things in any of my games, neither do I ever see any of the sorts in SMITE content (videos etc).
There'll surely be bugs and such, but I doubt it's even half as bad as some people make it out to be.
I don't mind the skins personally. From personal experience, the game runs just fine still and imho is pretty balanced right now. I'm by no means a pro player but have recently started playing again, about 1 or 2 games (Clash) a day and have been enjoying them. So I don't think the perhaps excessive amount of skins are taking away from the game's core quality.
I do agree that chests, aka lootboxes, are ****, and they should be burned in the hottest fires of hell.
I hear of people not being able to even log on, crashes a lot, etc. I can tell you from my own experience that, before S4, I almost never crashed. Sometime in S4, I started crashing more often, then it stopped (assume some patch fixed something that was causing the issue for me).
Then in S5, it started up again. It's been better recently, but I think 2 or 3 patches ago, I was crashing quite often.
This whole crashing thing doesn't happen with almost any other game I play. I can't remember the last time another game crashed.
I notice some other variations from patch to patch...all the way up to 2 patches ago, I'd log in and it would (eventually) go to the main start screen.
Now, it mostly starts in a little corner of my screen (just the window header), and I have to alt-tab twice (once to get the screen to come up, but it comes up in windowed mode, then again to go full screen). Why would it do that? What changed?
Until last patch, I always had scroll wheel issues. My pointer had to be in very specific areas to have it scroll through the god list or whatever. Now that's fixed. But it was YEARS and YEARS of not working correctly.
Most of the issues I've seen have been at least relatively minor...but they're still bugs.
- I mentioned not being able to purchase at the start of Assault. I have no clue what triggered it, but it's happened a couple of times, seemingly randomly.
- I hadn't accepted the daily reward (favor/gems) as I'd just logged in, and got invited to a group. I accepted the group as it popped up over the daily reward, and they queued. We IMMEDIATELY got into a match, but the reward screen was still on top. I couldn't accept it, nor choose a god. I got a 30 minute deserter for it.
There are other issues I've seen, but typically random and difficult to repeat. I also play this game more than any other, so I've had plenty of time to see bugs. But the fact is, they're there, and sometimes they're crippling to actual gameplay.I'm not complaining about that by raging...I'm accepting of these things. But I'm sure others are seeing other bugs too, so I don't feel blowing them and their complaints off is fair.
As for skins, I'm only making suggestions to appease those complaining, and I feel those suggestions are also reasonable both for the players and for HR. But if I can't afford a skin or multiple rolls to get a skin, I don't honestly care that much. Skins aren't what make the game fun to me.
You should care so we can get the abomination that is lootboxes out of our games. Dishing out money to get a cosmetic is one thing. Forcing me to shell out up to 8 times that because that certain cosmetic I want is locked behind an RNG dice is stupid.
Bugs and issues will definitely be there. I'm not neglecting that fact. But if I'm to believe the outrage of people, the game currently is 100% unplayable for anyone and everyone. Like the amount of crying I've seen regarding the past patches is... astonishing, to say the least.
The only reason I don't care so much (on an individual basis) is that I don't spend much money on skins to begin, and I skins are extremely secondary to my enjoyment of the game.
Bugs
Should be the priority. I have already programmed and worked with this kind of IT (C#, JAVA, HTML, CSS, PHP...) and I DO KNOW how difficult is find the source of the bug and mainly solve it. Sometimes you solve one thing and another starts to crash. But as said, it's difficult focus in solve the bugs and problems when you have to make skins and bundles and new ways to try to take away your costumer's money. From the time I wrote the last comment to today I lost 3 matches just because the game STILL F***ING CRASHING and I was penalized for it, like, is that my fault? It's understandable that it's not programmers fault, it's Hi-Rez policy at all.
Skins
Just stop focusing too much on it. The skins are important, keep the game alive but they should have other priority. And stop with "<insert a idiot name here> chest", also known as loot boxes. This is so outdated. And make more direct buy skins.
Matchmaking, Game modes
I guess they should divide the game modes in Ranked/Casual/Arcade. In the first one is the ranked modes as we all know. Casual games should have the other game modes that has some competition such as Normal Conquest, Joust, Assault, maybe Arena. And Arcade would have all the other nice game modes just for fun such The Adventures, Clash, Siege, The match of day etc...
They will use ranked and casual modes to balance the game. The arcade will be just for fun. Put in mind that is impossible make a 100% balanced game and there are some gods that is stronger in some game modes and weak in another. Taking my main,
And for matchmaking they just should ponder TIME x SKILL. It's a **** to wait seconds to get into a stupid team but also would be a **** wait 20 minutes to find a "balanced" match too.
And for matchmaking they just should ponder TIME x SKILL. It's a **** to wait seconds to get into a stupid team but also would be a **** wait 20 minutes to find a "balanced" match too.
The time part is easy. Easiest numerical component they can use is account level.
That said, exactly how do you propose they calculate skill??? You realize that's WAAAAAY easier said than done.
- K/D ratio? What if you're a Support main? Unless you're a completely dominant player and mostly playing the more aggressive Supports, your kills are likely to be below deaths, or maybe close to even at best. Your job as Support is to tank, peel, protect, and set up. Or maybe you're a damaging god (mage/assassin/hunter) but you hold back in relative safety except for when you recognize an easy kill, and KS more often than not?
- Win/Loss ratio? What if you team with high-skill players, but you're not their level? They carry you in games, and so you win the majority? Now you queue solo or with a completely different set of teammates...how do you propose that the game recognize that? Or the reverse...you're someone like our buddy Taco, and have to carry scrubs like me? You might still have a great K/D and have a dominant game but still lose.
- Total damage output, damage taken/mitigated? Goes back to role type, how aggressive you are, etc. You might have very high damage output overall, but you also die a lot because you have 0 awareness and go for the kills at the expense of your own life.
This is why numerical estimations of skill are wonky. This game has so much variation, not only with god choice and mode type, but also with each individual situation. The game won't be able to estimate skill perfectly because there are too many different factors. So instead, we get custom evaluations that turn into scores like Smite Guru's Elo, or Hi-Rez's own MMR. They will never be perfect...but I am curious to see how HR's new matchmaking will fare.Matches I checked with similar ELOs were balanced but if there are a good difference on it, the match wasn't balanced. You can check ELO rating system here.
I think Hi Rez should use a similar way to balance and if the waiting time starts to become too big, the system will start to match people with more ELO difference (of course that in both sides).
Do me a favor then, and address one of the points I already mentioned, this time with examples.
In essence, the Elo system is...okay. But it has plenty of flaws. It works more accurately in some systems than others. The more variables, the more difficult it becomes to be accurate. Any skill rating system based on so many variables (playing solo, playing with a team, who are the teammates, how good was matchmaking, who were the gods, are some gods just definitely weaker than others in a given situation or matchup?) is never going to be perfect, or near perfect. I can understand that, and I'm okay with it.
But based on "skill," I'm sorry, but the personal eye test I can give is likely going to be more accurate overall than whatever the computer system can pull out. And this is where it's difficult to evaluate skill as simply as you put it.
because ur a s***bag. This means you'll be matched with lower Elo players on BOTH teams. You already had low Elo players on your team. Now the enemy team will have low Elo players as well, giving you a better chance to win your games. Which essentially goes back to u saying the Elo system is OK but not perfect.