Why have the devs been 100% mum about the pre-release gem's potential effects on PvP?

[Televangelist]

When it was revealed that there was going to be, essentially, a 10% across-the-board health increase, many PvPers were shocked. Shocked that such a major change was coming with no apparent need or want for it, and shocked that there had been no discussion with the PvP community, no consultation, no explanation of why, for PvP, this was a good idea.

Now, add the third shock that there has been not a single developer post (to my knowledge, which I admit may be imperfect) on the potential effects these gems will have on PvP. Not a post of justification, not a post of acknowledging the widespread concern, not a post to say "We're looking into it, we'll give you more information later."

I've posted about this multiple times, I know. I've also written polite e-mails and PMs to the devs (Who I have great respect for) trying to get some sort of response for the DT community on this issue. But there's been absolute and total silence on this issue. There's posts on such wide-ranging and esoteric topics as adding a 'scouting' skill maybe a year or more from now, but a major, potentially game-breaking change to PvP which is coming *in our very next patch* gets no discussion.

I'm not asking for a comment on the change, since really, at this point I've given up on getting that. ;) Rather, I'm asking if we could at least get a comment on the reason for the lack of comment? Or a comment on whether a comment is forthcoming in the future? Heh.

Turbine's communication with its playerbase is generally good -- and when it comes to major issues it's oftentimes excellent, with multiple new dev-tracker pages to read each day (Though I wish there was some way to optionally filter out the posts by tech support about banning and technical issues?).

Which is why it puzzles me so, the complete silence on this. I know you guys are very busy with the expansion coming up, but the devs do still post here, and a simple 'we're looking at it' would take only twenty seconds or so...

(Not to mention that Jessica has the time to write humorously about her love life in player letters from time to time, hehe ;) )

Well, just tossing this out there, and hoping for the best. Looking forward to the expansion, even if the changes make dying in 1vs1 PvP as rare as one of those schnazzy new uber loot items. :)

~Quink of Darktide

[Ibn]

100% is an exaggeration, I believe I've commented on this publicly at least once to point out that the 10% increase is only to base health, not to buffed health -- any health increasing spells will not be taken into account when calculating the increase.

Regarding the gem in general, the current feeling on the team is that the potential impact to PvP does not justify removing the pre-order gem from the game. We understand that some players feel that this will "permanently ruin" PvP or Darktide -- we do not share that opinion.

[TerrorDT]

thank you for the reply Ibn, i means alot to the darktide community in general to hear from you.

[Televangelist]

Thanks for replying, Ibn. I appreciate it.


I understand that it won't "totally ruin" darktide -- I agree, that's an exaggeration.


But perhaps the dev team would/wouldn't agree, that there's a problem with high level PvP on Darktide, in that high levels, fighting against one another, tend to die too little?


Viewed in the light of this general problem, it is not so much that the gem will drastically hurt PvP (Though it may -- I'll really have to play it out before I can fairly judge) but that it's taking an existing problem and making it worse.

Put another way -- if you got two experienced teams of four players each, dropped them off at a random aboveground location, and said "Fight, but use all methods at your disposal not to die to one another", nobody would really die. You'd see mutual inepting, tons of potion-chugging, jump-spinning, aegis/idolbow usage, and general defensive play that so overpowers what offense can do in AC (at the high levels) that a lot of high-level fights (especially 1vs1's, where your easiest, untouchable escape route is "just run away") are, in a word, bloodless.

~Quink of DT

[ElronOfDarktide]

The problem is they are supposed to have justification before they dedicate resources to pvp. They are supposed to listen to the players as well. Players mainly say fights take to long, tanking multiple wars is a problem, we don't want more HP.

Dev's put in more hp...

you figure it out.

Elron

[Silifi Of Death]

Since when has Ibn ever been right about PvP? Since when did he become an expert on balancing it? Ibn, if you knew anything about how PvP worked (notice the past-tense) why would you take 14 MONTHS to try and fix it? If you knew what you were doing you could have done it in one, maybe two patches. But you didn't. You pussyfooted around the problems, made tiny steps toward balance, took them away, and in general flip-flopped (sorry) on what you were doing.

YOU NEED US. If you ever have any hope of saving PvP, you have to listen- 100%- to what we say. Don't pretend that you actually know what you're doing here. I don't care if there isn't a single dev on the team that likes or cares about PvP, as long as there's someone that listens to what we say.

I wonder how long it will take for my post to be deleted.

[SteveJobsDT]

it means level 8 wars will be coming soon ;)
+10% of base is still +34.. so i'll go from my 414 to 448.. lol. w/ wards that means it'll take at least 3 consecutive wars to kill another mage, 4 to kill a melee. It could take 4 or 5 if you get weak hits.. it's impossible to hit someone that many times before they can heal, lol.

[Virindi Clown]

Ibn, you continually increase defense, and have even been reducing offensive capabilities in PvP.

The problem with "balance" on DT is that people DO NOT DIE. That is it. No class is too powerful. EVERY class is TOO WEAK.

Every time you address "balance" problems in the game, you NERF something so that it is even harder to kill people!

Then you go and give people more health and more armor to no end! It doesn't begin to make sense!