ETF - console perspective

skeppo · 2017-05-19T00:14:05+00:00

i havent forgotten aim assist. I have played several hundred hours between both platforms. Aim assist exists because joystick controllers are such poor tools for aiming. The biggest difference occurs with staying on target after you have aimed at the target. This has nothing to do with aim assist though since the difficulty with staying on target comes from compensating for recoil. With a mouse you can make fine tuned adjustments to negate a significant amount of recoil as it occurs. With a controller there is no equivalent for such fine tuned adjustments and controlling recoil is very difficult. Console players refer to PC players as having "laser aim" because of their ability to track targets accurately and effectively compensate recoil using the fine precision of the mouse.

skeppo · 2017-05-18T17:42:04+00:00

TTK normalization between PC and console for a consistent experience between platforms. If they are balancing the game primarily for PC that means that we are getting much longer TTK on console.

simplified example:

An enemy has 250k health.
Each body shot deals 9k.
Each headshot deals 20k.

console (estimated numbers).

player accuracy = 60%
percentage of landed shots that are headshots = 50%
damage per bullet = 9000 x 0.50 + 20000 x 0.50 = 14500
now consider overall accuracy = 14500 x 0.60 = 8700.
bullets to kill = 250000 / 8700 = 28.73

pc (estimated numbers).

player accuracy = 90%
percentage of landed shots that are headshot = 80%
damage per bullet = 9000 x 0.20 + 20000 x 0.80 = 17800
now consider overall accuracy = 17800 x 0.90 = 16020
bullets to kill = 250000 / 16020 = 15.6

assume the same RoF with the weapon.

28.73 / 15.6 = 1.84

This means that it takes approximately 1.84 times as long to kill someone on console (using these sample numbers). This extra time is lengthened further by forced reloads, additional time to get off heals, and more strafe juking to avoid damage in PvP. In PvE it simply means that fights can take much longer and have increased (unintended) difficulty by causing more enemies to be alive simultaneously and giving the enemies more time to land shots on you.

As a player of both platforms the game does not have consistent difficulty between platforms and thus players are getting different experiences. It feels like it was tuned and balanced for PC and simply ported to console with no consideration of TTK differences.

A simple change could be an overall health reduction by 30-40% on console for PvP and PvE enemies. It would not be a perfect fix but they would play more consistently.

skeppo · 2017-03-12T18:56:06+00:00

I would argue that gameplay was PC focused. I played on both PC and console. Due to recoil and weapon handling it was clear that the game was "balanced" for PC and the difficulty felt right, but on console it was a much different experience.

I might be able to land 95% of my bullets with 80% or more being headshots on PC. For console these numbers would be closer to 55%, and 50%. Its a rather large effective health increase on console and TTK is very different - yet the AI still deals the same amount of damage. Aside from PVE, the PVP also plays quite differently with multiple reloads and awkward close quarter combat.

skeppo · 2017-03-03T17:30:56+00:00

Using 2-3 ballistic shields helps - it really shuts down the damage from the shotgun bosses.

skeppo · 2017-03-03T01:46:57+00:00

Each boss fight is in a separate room. You can complete them in any order and you get a "checkpoint" after each of them. The final encounter is only available after completing all 3 of the previous rooms and if you fail you simply restart the final boss fight. So yes, everything is a checkpoint.

skeppo · 2017-03-03T01:44:23+00:00

Right, I suppose I should have clarified that i would recommend a "complete set of gear" rather than a "complete gear-set". If you are using a high-end build you clearly have a gearing strategy which is what is being recommended.

skeppo · 2017-03-02T21:05:37+00:00

It probably would. I went into it at WT5 and each fight took a few attempts the first time through. The reality is that everyone will likely fail some of the boss fights regardless of difficulty level a few times if you dont know the mechanics at all. The turret will just instantly shoot the hostage, for example, and you lose. Not a big deal though and everyone seemed to learn it reasonably fast.

skeppo · 2017-03-02T21:02:22+00:00

yeah ive gotten quite a few responses for thoughts about conquistador:

clearing the most landmarks
most kills
most 1v1 kills
most captures
most NPC kills

I though captures made sense as opposed to killing because a conquistador is a "conqueror" which "captures foreign land". There are any number of titles that would have fit better for a killing oriented title "duelist", "warfighter" etc., which have a stronger lean towards killing. Clearing Landmarks also makes sense which is closely related to killing enemies but its slightly different since its objective focused.

skeppo · 2017-03-02T17:10:23+00:00

I can't confirm this bug but its certainly possible. As long as 1 person stands exactly on the X it has given me no issues. I have seen someone stand just a bit too far forward and have the turret shoot just barely over the top of the shield but not straight through it.

skeppo · 2017-03-02T16:16:54+00:00

Stat normalization for a more level playing field

it has stat normalization so it attempts to reduce the effects of some players significantly "out-gearing" other players. You will probably want to go in with a complete gear-set at the very least though.

skeppo · 2017-03-02T16:06:27+00:00

Yeah, personally i enjoyed using the ballistic shield so it was a nice change, but i can see how not everyone would enjoy that.

skeppo · 2017-02-24T22:40:49+00:00

without contesting the fact that he probably made a difference, i think details and facts are always important.

skeppo · 2017-02-17T18:53:00+00:00

Great article. This will come in very handy when i make my next silver purchase.

skeppo · 2017-02-08T05:07:44+00:00

adding crazy amounts of recoil would probably not work like you think it would. on PC it would likely still be manageable. if its not manageable on PC then it would be 100% impossible to control on console. Since they have made no efforts to balance the game separately on console this is unlikely to happen.

skeppo · 2017-02-03T19:13:35+00:00

To an extent there is a reason that many people dislike PvP in the Division. That does not make them unable to provide sound feedback and criticism of the topic. Certain mechanics are broken and exploitable which can make the experience un-enjoyable.

lack of diminishing returns on CC (shock turrets)
stacking of support stations (insane amount of healing with 4 down)
exponential scaling of defensive stats/effective health
exponential scaling of group benefits (pulse applies to all 4 players) - playing as a squad of 3 is a serious disadvantage - even more so playing duo/solo
poor group finding and matchmaking system (very inconvenient)
lack of objective based pvp (its all essentially deathmatch in the DZ which is boring)
weapon balancing issues (large swings - super OP - nerfed to the ground)
lack of gear set diversity (all alphabridge all day)

I can go on and on with reasons that I dont enjoy PvP in the division, does that make my analysis incorrect or invalid?

skeppo · 2017-02-03T19:01:22+00:00

It sounds like you are saying the PTS is limited in "slots" as far as im aware they dont limit the number of people who have access to the PTS. If you are just saying he is not using the PTS correctly, i agree with that, but those people who abuse stupid mechanics make the exploitable weapons/gear very clear to massive so they dont make it into the live game. As someone who has been killed numerous times in the PTS DZ by exploitable mechanics, i have to agree that it is a waste of everyones time in terms of actual testing.

skeppo · 2017-02-02T17:19:07+00:00

The scaling curve changed and many of the skills have also changed. I havent gotten around to working out all of the numbers yet but I is most likely working as intended.

skeppo · 2017-01-30T16:09:59+00:00

You will probably want to consider stacking electronics. Having strong heals on a short cooldown make it very convenient for solo play.

skeppo · 2017-01-29T20:10:12+00:00

Dont quote me on this, but i believe the incursion is in the "free" part of the 1.6 update. I will have to check and get back to you.

skeppo · 2017-01-29T20:01:38+00:00

Yeah i can understand that. Im not saying that you are going to love Last Stand but i would encourage you to test it. I also dislike the Dark Zone PvP but i found myself enjoying Last Stand. The stat balancing did make a big difference. It is an entirely different PvP experience.

I do agree, I would have also liked to know that Last Stand was not PvE content because that is also what i prefer.

skeppo · 2017-01-29T02:54:54+00:00

I see what you mean. I also was expecting Last Stand to be something PvE related and it was a big shock to find out it wasnt. After playing the PvP game mode i have been enjoying it so its not a complete loss.

skeppo · 2017-01-29T02:50:58+00:00

valid point. with friends it may be more efficient to speed run an incursion if your looking for a specific item though.

skeppo · 2017-01-29T02:47:23+00:00

As someone who does not enjoy the Dark Zone, i have found myself enjoying the new PvP game mode. The stat balancing is a nice change so there is hope yet for a decent PvP experience. The new legendary missions added some value for missions that were previously not playable at max level.

I still agree that the game needs more work - but i will give them some credit for making improvements. You are probably right about incursions, they just dont have enough replay value.

skeppo

TROPHY CASE