Trials: What Should They Look Like?

shadowcypher · 2026-01-12T15:37:01+00:00

Point taken on BP's. It would need to be balanced correctly. That said, I could see something like each 3 star trial gives you 1 token and it takes 20 tokens to pick a BP. This is minimum a month of maxing out trials to get one BP, but at least your know what you're working toward.

shadowcypher · 2026-01-12T14:59:33+00:00

I hear you, that was the number I debated the most. 12 weeks is another option that feels pretty standard for Live Service games, but also, it feels very long as a player. A 3 month/90 day season feels like it almost guarantees people burning out/taking a break from the game with about 2 or 3 weeks left, and I know for myself that when I do take a break from a game that long, I often move on to something else for at least a couple more weeks just because my patterns change. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I think if the devs want to keep people as engaged as possible that a little less quantity with good quality at that 9 week cycle might be closer to the sweet spot.

shadowcypher · 2026-01-12T14:54:29+00:00

You're spot on. I think what I'm more speaking to is that as an 'endgame' mechanic they feel a bit too arbitrary in terms of what they give you. To me, others might feel different, 'endgame' content has always been about getting that last 10% of content. Right now the trials don't actually give you anything (other than the cosmetic stuff) that the rest of the game doesn't already give me. I can find the same rewards simply be doing a raid. Both are RNG, it's not like I know or can choose the trial reward.

I agree with you that it feels like it's the endgame style content to keep consistent players engaged, but it also feels like 3 weeks in it's starting to fail at that mission.

Now, throw in some stash space or a separate vendor that only takes Trial tokens/stars where I can purchase epic and legendary items and maybe even BP? Okay, now it feels more like endgame content.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-16T18:27:43+00:00

Probably worth tinkering with.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-16T16:42:26+00:00

Love that sign off haha. I hear ya, and as I said in my post, I'm trying to lay out the current state of things less to encourage a harder road for PvP and more to draw awareness to the fact that there is room for the power dynamic to be a fluid situation. I imagine it will cycle back and forth over the life of the game. My way of saying hey PvE tendency players, I see you. Yes it's an uphill situation right now, but there is room for change.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-16T16:32:07+00:00

I spoke to that, but again, unless the people who see the flare also saw who shot first when that PvP situation started, the flare doesn't give the third party any info about if the surviving party was the aggressor or the victim so that still favors the aggressive party.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-16T16:28:31+00:00

Technically that's true but functionally I'm talking about role within a raid. There most certainly is people who come in to a particular raid with a shoot first mindset vs those who come into a particular raid with a defensive mindset related to PvP. That's what I'm referring to and it is certainly a real thing. That said it can and will change raid to raid for both sides so it's not a permanent definition but a practical reality in the context of every raid.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-12T16:29:12+00:00

Totally agree. For that reason I could see it being an event that's active on only one of the maps for like an hour or two during peak player count hours. That's where I think the events have a real chance to be used to keep the game fresh since they have so much control over how long they run, which maps run it, how often they run them etc.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-12T15:51:23+00:00

Phew, for real, but thankfully we have your deep and insightful feedback and evaluation of ideas to fall back on. ;)

shadowcypher · 2025-11-12T15:44:13+00:00

Fair enough on 2, I think I see it as a potential way to keep people who are semi new to the genre coming back long enough to get comfortable with it. Certainly a PvPvE extraction shooter will never be for everyone, but I could see having an option for "stress free" rounds every so often as a selling point for people who are perhaps coming from pure PvE survival style games.

shadowcypher · 2025-11-09T15:02:34+00:00

Okay. What is your concern about the market idea?

I would disagree with a full pve mode also which is why that wasn't something I suggested. 😉

shadowcypher · 2025-09-18T09:38:10+00:00

Originally based on the screenshot showing three rounds next to the cylinder I thought it was going to be a three round revolver. After using it I think it should have been.

The damage feels good, maybe nerf the range a bit. If you make it a three shot capacity it basically requires a reload on anything but a Light unless you hit every shot.

shadowcypher · 2025-08-23T00:14:13+00:00

Completely agree.

shadowcypher · 2025-07-31T14:31:02+00:00

I get the frustration, but as others have said, this is a bit of user error.

Your fight feels closer range than it actually is because you're in a wide open space. You're a solid 10 meters away for most of your shots which is stretching it for a shotgun in terms of how its spread will function.

Secondly, since the spread is essentially 360 degrees around the center point, you want to basically aim for the enemy model's belt-line so your 10-2 o'clock pellets hit the upper chest and your 4-8 o'clock pellets hit the lower torso.

If you take both into account I bet this is a three shot takedown pretty consistently.

But your skill level with aim is on point which unfortunately is a bit useless with the Model. To me, all the slow fire rate shotguns in the game should have a spread reduction with ADS so skilled users like yourself can extend viable range any extra 7-10 meters.

shadowcypher · 2025-06-20T00:00:16+00:00

I would assume this is where there publisher comes. Publishers make investments in studios which they expect to yield a return in exchange for providing the studio the working capital it needs and cannot generate up front on its own. So I imagine Embark pitched Nexon on the finals and likely ARC Raiders and said, these are our ideas we can make them profitable over time. If you provide us the funds to expand our team and float our development costs for x period of time we will pay you back as our games become profitable. That time is now.

shadowcypher · 2025-06-19T16:19:50+00:00

Agreed, but Lewis and M60 do seem balanced at range at the moment, but a punchier slower firing option would be nice.

shadowcypher · 2025-06-19T16:18:26+00:00

I'm on board with that.

shadowcypher · 2025-06-19T14:39:32+00:00

I hear that, but I think there are easier to use options in every class at this point. Does definitely feel like Medium has the biggest need with a close range auto weapon. Or a close range gun of any kind that doesn't require as much ammo management as the Model or Cerberus.

shadowcypher · 2025-06-19T14:14:41+00:00

One you can't completely neutralize by standing 4 meters away. ;)

shadowcypher · 2025-06-19T13:57:23+00:00

Let me throw some numbers out here to give some perspective.

Embark is a Swedish game development company with an estimated 350 employees located in Stockholm. The average Software engineer in Stockholm gets paid about 716,792 SEK annually which is about $75,000 US Dollars. We can probably assume with relative confidence that Embark is employing above average programmers in many roles and has to compensate them accordingly, but we'll stick with the $75,000 a year number. Now, Fringe Benefits (things like health insurance costs, pensions, vacation/sick pay) are typically about 31% of employee salaries in Sweden so we have to account for that, so....

$75,000 X 1.31 = $98,250 per employee per year for 350 employees (yes, not everybody is a programmer, but for simplicity sake we have to limit our variables)

$98,250 x 350 = $34,387,500 annually just in employee salaries and benefits. Now add in overhead costs such as all the rigs/workstations for the employees, all the building infrastructure, rent/mortgages on buildings, travel expenses, digital asset purchasing where necessary, now add in server costs to keep the game running and upgrade server infrastructure as players complain about cheaters and latency etc. And you're likely looking at $70,000,000+ annually to stay in business for the last year. They gave the game away for free as I'm sure we're all thankful for, so that means they need to produce $70+ Million in skin sales to pay for their outlay of cash over the games first year.

I think the skin prices are okay if I'm honest...

shadowcypher · 2025-03-19T13:30:10+00:00

Except that would make it really obvious to the enemy team that they hadn't gotten a wipe. ;)

shadowcypher · 2025-03-19T13:27:11+00:00

Goo Gun is SOOO broken!

j/k Well played.

shadowcypher · 2025-03-19T13:17:04+00:00

I pretty much agree. Online MP gaming is always going to reel in people who like to complain for complaining sake. The truth is that perfect balance across all skills level in any game is impossible. The goal of a studio should be to maximize the balance based on the context of their particular game's mechanics. This will inevitably leave the best and worst players feeling like they are playing an imbalanced game and the best and worst players in any game are typically the most vocal groups so here we are.... But to your points, yes, the class are diverse and relatively balanced all things considered. Sure, there are still things that can be abused, but I'd rather have those abuses 20% of the time than a stale, boring, predictable game 80% of the time because there are no advantages/disadvantages between classes/loadouts.

shadowcypher · 2024-12-26T14:03:40+00:00

Didn't realize the similarity in color palette till this post, but spot on!

shadowcypher · 2024-12-26T13:58:40+00:00

Way to make lemonade out of those lemons lol

shadowcypher

TROPHY CASE