Re: Swamp, zombie FPS by Aprone
Hey guys, today is my first day with free time to look over the mountain of bug reports. I've actually been reading through them since I rolled out of bed today, haha. To clarify to everyone/anyone who wonders why the testing team didn't catch these bugs, the reason is because they did not exist on the testing server. There is nothing they could have done to prevent this.
So far this morning I have read several emails throwing a fit about the changes made to armor and I have read several emails throwing a fit about the new slowing effect from zombie swarms. This is an extremely tricky situation, and I have not yet decided what I will do about it. Oh and of course, most people who are throwing their fits continually remind me that they are paying customers and that they'll stop playing if I don't change things back to how they want them. So whatever I decide does carry some consequences that I need to be willing to live with.
First off, a lot of players are so hopelessly used to 95% protection that they say they cannot play without it. These players don't try to avoid dangerous situations. In the old days we didn't even have armor in Swamp, and people survived. Players would carefully move around the maps and plan things out so they always had an escape route if things got crazy. I don't know how to actually solve this problem, but players have completely changed to this lazier way of playing. The maximum protection for high armor is still 95%, medium is 91%, and low is 87%. Worst case scenario means players have 8% less protection than they previously had. A measly 8% is changing the game so much that people are throwing huge fits and saying the game is unplayable?! What in the world are these players doing when they play? All I keep thinking about is the days when people had no armor at all, and we had like 800 people regu larly playing Swamp back then. Sure didn't seem unplayable.
Next is running speed. Like the armor protection, many players have gotten themselves used to running speed like it is some sort of crutch. These are people who simply cannot play the game unless they can outrun any zombie they encounter, and they also need to be able to just turn around and run through swarms of zombies without fighting anything! On a regular basis players were completing 180 death bringer missions without killing even 1 zombie! That is not at all how this game was meant to be played, and yet that is the reason behind so many people's anger over this new slowing effect. I want to keep the players happy, but there is something seriously wrong when players demand the ability to run through huge swarms of zombies without even caring that they are there. Why have zombies at all? Swamp becomes a game of running in circles around the warehouse... in fact, ever since the "/No Z" command was added, many players tell me that they keep zombie sounds disabled constantly. They don't need to be bothered hearing zombies because they just run through them anyway.
I know this was just a long complaint on my part, but I just don't understand what caused so many players to get into this situation. Swamp was a hard game at first, and it never tried to cradle you and hold your hand as you played. There are enough audio games that do that. Swamp made you work for what you got. Fast forward to now and players have a completely different attitude. Swamp isn't about dying or working hard. Swamp is about having every weapon in the game, not dying for 10 months at a time, soloing 200 crate missions with 180 zombies, and basically going through most of the game without ever having to fight anything. Any time I make a change to try and get us closer to how it was meant t o be, everyone loses their minds!
When I say "everyone", I don't really mean everyone. My entire post is only referring to a portion of the players, but it is a large portion. I guess I'm just complaining because it's been an overwhelming day of reading emails and skype messages. I am disappointment to see so many Swamp players turn Swamp into something it was not meant to be, but at the same time I believe it is my job to keep as many players happy as I can. There must be some sort of solution to this mess, but I haven't though of it yet. *heavy sigh*
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