RIOT Open Test Postponed to 5/10 (UPDATED 5/1)

[MattScott 15240]

Hi all,

 

It's been a very busy at Little Orbit following the Stress Test.

The team spent the majority of that time sorting through all the feedback from players, evaluating various options, and then creating a development plan to make changes.

After I reviewed everything today, I have decided to postpone tomorrow's RIOT Open Test for EU and NA.

Apologies for the late notice, but it doesn't make sense to put up the same build, since so many changes are coming.

 

EDIT: Due to the extended outage and issues this week, our devs haven't made enough progress for the test.

We are going to run the Open Test in both EU and NA at the same planned times on Friday, May 10th.

OTW EU will be first from 1800 - 2200 UTC time 

OTW NA will be second from 1900 - 2300 PDT time 

 

(apologies we got the time conversion wrong in the initial post graphic)

 

For May 10th, we are going to have 6 RIOT instances online for each test.

The goal is to be able to start matches every 2-5 minutes if there are enough players.

 

After reviewing the feedback, here is the list of changes we are going to incorporate for the new test:

• Make it easier to leave the match after dying and immediately join a new match
• Improve the end of match screen
• Remove AFK timer while spectating
• Display the name of the player your spectating
• Test a different starting weapon
• Make weapon pickups more accessible across the map
• Scale Access codes with the number of players
• Add objective text at the beginning of Riot for finding an Access code

 

The largest area we are re-working is Respawns:

• Respawns will have a starting cost that increases every time you die
• Respawning will now be automated if you have enough cash
• Rework the location of respawning to be less punishing 
• Remove Medikits

 

Thanks,
Matt

[CookiePuss 5356]

GG

[vsb 6130]

nice to see player feedback actually being taken into account 

 

 

2 minutes ago, MattScott said:

Remove Medikits

2 minutes ago, MattScott said:

Respawning will now be automated if you have enough cash

not sure this really changes anything tbh

 

while you havent given out exact numbers this new system doesn't seem to reduce the imbalance caused by extra lives, it might actually be worse - providing there's enough cash, a player now has infinite lives?

 

dedicated groups are still going to outstrip solos and PUGs collecting cash which will allow them to get preset loadouts (i don't see any changes to the frequency/price of loadout purchases) and then all cash can be reserved for extra lives, 

[dogfish 22]

1 minute ago, BXNNXD said:

nice to see player feedback actually being taken into account 

 

 

not sure this really changes anything tbh

 

while you havent given out exact numbers this new system doesn't seem to reduce the imbalance caused by extra lives, it might actually be worse - providing there's enough cash, a player now has infinite lives?

 

dedicated groups are still going to outstrip solos and PUGs collecting cash which will allow them to get preset loadouts (i don't see any changes to the frequency/price of loadout purchases) and then all cash can be reserved for extra lives, 

You drop half your cash every time you die. I think this system will be a lot better.

 

Other changes seem good as well.

[vsb 6130]

10 minutes ago, dogfish said:

You drop half your cash every time you die. I think this system will be a lot better.

it depends on the starting cost and how that cost scales per death, i won't worry too much about it until we get hard numbers

 

on the minor nitpicks side i find it kind of dumb that in a battle royale game, something like extra lives no longer really has to be found/collected

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by BXNNXD
typo

[MattScott 15240]

8 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

it depends on the starting cost and how that cost scales per death, i won't worry too much about it until we get hard numbers

The initial design change is to give one respawn for free with the second respawn for $1000. Then the cost doubles each time after that.

 

9 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

on the minor nitpicks side i find it kind of dumb that in a battle royale game, something like extra lives no longer really has to be found/collected

The original design had players pickup respawns or even having to buy them from specific locations.

During testing, when we combined those mechanics with everything else, the players were super confused.

 

For now we're leaning into the cash part of the game to see if we can create good "tension" in how players choose what to do with their cash:

- Extra lives that get more and more expensive

- Purchase their primary and secondary loadouts

- Or bribe the driver at the end game

[xkamVenx 5]

32 minutes ago, MattScott said:

Why don't you combine financial+waterfront in order to make it the RIOT map? 

 

[vsb 6130]

11 minutes ago, MattScott said:

The initial design change is to give one respawn for free with the second respawn for $1000. Then the cost doubles each time after that.

 

The original design had players pickup respawns or even having to buy them from specific locations.

During testing, when we combined those mechanics with everything else, the players were super confused.

 

For now we're leaning into the cash part of the game to see if we can create good "tension" in how players choose what to do with their cash:

- Extra lives that get more and more expensive

- Purchase their primary and secondary loadouts

- Or bribe the driver at the end game

i'd prefer if the first respawn cost money but i guess that would go against the "tension" as i imagine very few people wouldnt hold on to enough starter cash "purchase" a respawn, kind of defeating the purpose of having a choice at all - perhaps adding in the ability to purchase a resupply for your weapons (primary and secondary separately) would further add to the "tension" factor?

 

will there be any changes at all with either the price of loadouts or how common they are?

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by BXNNXD
typo

[vsb 6130]

12 minutes ago, xkamVenx said:

Why don't you combine financial+waterfront in order to make it the RIOT map? 

the financial only riot map was often very empty, i don't think a larger play area would really help riot mode at all

[MattScott 15240]

7 minutes ago, BXNNXD said:

will there be any changes at all with either the price of loadouts or how common they are?

This is an area of the design that is fully built out, but is not being used at the moment.

 

Currently (I believe) all the loadouts cost the same to unlock. 

However through testing, we can raise or lower those costs to balance the mode.

We can also individually price different loadouts to change the meta of RIOT each season.

[vsb 6130]

1 minute ago, MattScott said:

This is an area of the design that is fully built out, but is not being used at the moment.

 

Currently (I believe) all the loadouts cost the same to unlock. 

However through testing, we can raise or lower those costs to balance the mode.

We can also individually price different loadouts to change the meta of RIOT each season.

oh that's actually an interesting mechanic, when you say different loadouts can you force different prices for different weapons? shotgun/smg/sniper/etc-centric seasons would be a neat way to incorporate related new content rewards

[MattScott 15240]

Just now, BXNNXD said:

oh that's actually an interesting mechanic, when you say different loadouts can you force different prices for different weapons? shotgun/smg/sniper/etc-centric seasons would be a neat way to incorporate related new content rewards

Yes. Each individual weapon or category can be priced separately.
We did that so that if we see an over abundance of one weapon being OP in the mode, we can balance it by making it cost more.

Same with individual weapon mods. If we go down that road, we just need a better way to let players see what the RIOT unlock cost will be ahead of time.

[vsb 6130]

2 minutes ago, MattScott said:

Yes. Each individual weapon or category can be priced separately.
We did that so that if we see an over abundance of one weapon being OP in the mode, we can balance it by making it cost more.

Same with individual weapon mods. If we go down that road, we just need a better way to let players see what the RIOT unlock cost will be ahead of time.

i think that would do a lot to cut down on the advantage of preset loadouts vs weapon pickups

 

pricing changes could be put into a subcategory in the riot section of tutorial UI, or in a subsection of the new social contact UI

[Nanometic 265]

I'm a bit confused about the times, it was originally, for EU;

Friday 26th 11pm to 3am PDT

which was

Saturday 27th 7am to 11am UTC

 

Now its got two testing times? 7pm-11pm PDT and 2pm-6pm UTC?

[Guest]

Hey, no problems at all, i was literally thinking the same thing > "Open Tests with the same build? I don't think so, they should do atleast couple changes" and there we go, postponed to May 3rd.

Good work done by GM's on the Stress Test, they taken all the points and feedback, wrote down and shared with all of your team, very much appreciated, really.

Nice changes btw, obviously there will be much more in the future and i can't wait to see what you guys will come with.

 

1 hour ago, MattScott said:

The initial design change is to give one respawn for free with the second respawn for $1000. Then the cost doubles each time after that.

 

The original design had players pickup respawns or even having to buy them from specific locations.

During testing, when we combined those mechanics with everything else, the players were super confused.

 

For now we're leaning into the cash part of the game to see if we can create good "tension" in how players choose what to do with their cash:

- Extra lives that get more and more expensive

- Purchase their primary and secondary loadouts

- Or bribe the driver at the end game

Cool things im hearing, good.

 

1 hour ago, MattScott said:

This is an area of the design that is fully built out, but is not being used at the moment.

 

Currently (I believe) all the loadouts cost the same to unlock. 

However through testing, we can raise or lower those costs to balance the mode.

We can also individually price different loadouts to change the meta of RIOT each season.

Interesting, not bad at all Matt, honestly.

 

1 hour ago, MattScott said:

Yes. Each individual weapon or category can be priced separately.
We did that so that if we see an over abundance of one weapon being OP in the mode, we can balance it by making it cost more.

Same with individual weapon mods. If we go down that road, we just need a better way to let players see what the RIOT unlock cost will be ahead of time.

Genious

[MattScott 15240]

1 hour ago, Nanometic said:

I'm a bit confused about the times, it was originally, for EU;

Friday 26th 11pm to 3am PDT

which was

Saturday 27th 7am to 11am UTC

 

Now its got two testing times? 7pm-11pm PDT and 2pm-6pm UTC?

Apologies. Our time conversion was way off. I have corrected the post.

We want Friday evening tests for both regions so as many players can join as possible.

Test #1 7pm - 11pm London time for EU.

Test #2 7pm - 11pm California time for NA.

[corkyy 0]

I'm sad that the stress test was on NA and not EU but these new test, is at a perfect time for me, also i think the RIOT gamemode sounds really fun, but personal i thought that it maybe be a little bit miss placed gamemode if you look at what APB always been, but i have to try it out first before i can come with a conclusion on how i think the gamemode is gonna turn out. Cant wait!!!!! feeling like a kid on christmas evening waiting on the signal to be allowed to open my gifts ^^ 

[Saxtus 497]

Here are links to a popular time zone converter service for each test, for lazy people that want to see the correct time for their current place without any effort:

1. Europe open playtest
2. North American open playtest

 

Edited May 2, 2019 by Saxtus

[VanilleKeks 727]

7 hours ago, MattScott said:

Yes. Each individual weapon or category can be priced separately.
We did that so that if we see an over abundance of one weapon being OP in the mode, we can balance it by making it cost more.

Same with individual weapon mods. If we go down that road, we just need a better way to let players see what the RIOT unlock cost will be ahead of time.

Please do this as fast as possible. It sounds like a good way to introduce a much needed refreshing of the weapon pool that is used everywhere, without doing any actual balance changes yet.

[GhosT 1301]

I'm kinda missing the "removal of player loadouts and vehicles" in there.

 

One of the biggest things that makes a BR a BR is that you never know what you're going to play with, which includes weapons and vehicles.

If you can just meta spam the N-TEC and Pioneers every match, you've already got a huge advantage. Especially if you're premade and you can equip the perfect team loadout.

Loadouts should be randomized at any given point, and legendary drops throughout the map should be fully modded meta weapons such as the N-TEC or OCA instead of actual legendaries of which most are pretty bad.

We haven't experienced player vehicles yet due to the bug, but it won't be fun once we start seeing pioneers, espacios and 4x4s rolling around.

 

 

I understand that you want to release RIOT as it is right now, but its the very first release of RIOT, and thus the first experience for everyone, its also the most important release.

If you change things down the line, it's a good thing, but it certainly won't attract new players.

 

Look at Ring of Elysium vs Apex Legends. Both came out, a lot of people played them, but one of them miserably failed, even though they do a lot of changes based on feedback.

[KnifuWaifu 499]

8 hours ago, CookiePuss said:

GG

Heeeeee's baaaaack!

1 hour ago, Saxtus said:

Here are links to a popular time zone converter service for each test, for lazy people that want to see the correct time for their current place without any effort:

1. Europe open playtest
2. North American open playtest

You da real MVP.

[Mitne 712]

I think this changes might make RIOT actually mode which might be enjoyable to play, like others.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Mitne

[Tsumori 29]

I'm glad that you use our feedback and work with it.

[onionopinions 22]

good changes. can all players start with ca3 or even 2? Trying to heal can be very hard.

 

still would prefer if cash didn't purchase your weapon loadout because it defeats the purpose of finding other weapons in the world, which is the coolest part imo. 

 

[xHenryman90x 129]

 

May 3rd?