Coming into Open Beta, we knew there was still work to do, but wanted to get the game in your hands to validate feedback before digging into our competitive systems. Well… heard, chef! We were already working on a ranked upgrade for January/February, but have started yoinking things up to NOW per your feedback. So before we get to changes:
FOR THE FUTURE we would like to do a more comprehensive overhaul with plans for better leaderboards (friends, social, regional), rewards, and competitivityness. We also hear you regarding ranked feeling more grind-based than skill-based (we have some hypotheses as to why) and that doomed feeling as a solo player getting run over by a premade, but no promises yet, just plans.
FOR NOW: given all the constraints of shipping a patch within a week of launch and using the tools we have, we think we have a fun, temporary solution for the holidays.
If you’ve ever been the top 0.01% of anything (couldn’t be me), you’ll know it’s lonely at the top and no matchmaking algorithm will save you when you’re just… better. Something something bell curves. Giving custom game access to Legend+ players lets these gifted SUPERVIVERS play socially after grinding through Masters with halved premades, while also upholding a core community philosophy of Theorycraft: the power of self-organization! There’s simply no way a formula can matchmake the best, but you can, through the power of friendship. Godspeed.
P.S. inevitably we’ll be asked about why not giving Custom Lobbies to everyone so I will speedrun the context:
- Individual games of SUPERVIVE cost us for each instance hosted - meaning a 1-player game of SUPERVIVE is about as expensive as a 40-player game (this is me generalizing to an extreme)
- Custom games also pull players out of the matchmaking pool, which harms matchmaking quality and queue times
- Therefore: giving custom game access is very scary for us from a cost and game quality perspective
- We’re gonna do it anyway (for Legend+ players) until January 15 because we don’t have other acceptable solutions for our very best
We've heard lots of feedback on the changes to the initial circle size. While we believe the smaller size has improved our early game pacing—especially in cases where things feel real empty for the first few minutes—we also hear that some drop paths end up feeling claustrophobic.
We’d like to preserve our current game pacing, but want to alleviate that feeling, so let’s try this first set of changes. Keep the feedback coming!
MK7 Glyph Rifle (LMB) Ghost is looking weak across the board. Giving him a little more damage & mobility to bring him back into the fold.
We're seeing Hudson looking pretty dominant across all MMRs. Gun should go brr, but his mobility and range were feeling pretty out of line.
Flash Dagger (RMB) Our resident hot assassin is looking a little weak. This is also the last time we will use objectifying language for Jin, but he has recently just come into hotness and so we must celebrate (momentarily). To the change: we expect Jin to get better as people get more games in, but this small change should help him get there a bit quicker.
Arcslinger (LMB) Shiv was impacted disproportionately by a tech change to more precisely control projectile ranges. This change gives her a little more threat range so she can function better at mid range.
Vampiric Axe These changes are mostly based on data we’re seeing - specifically: evolution pickrates, win rates, etc. Small nudges here and there to bring things in.
Some of y’all are sleeping on this power (and we know who because we’re tracking drop rates), so we're hoping light buffs will make it more exciting to hold on to. Some tips: teleport resurrection beacons! Pre-drop teleports for mid-fight flanks! Try third-party kidnapping someone from a fight! Oh the possibilities!
Philosophically we feel the same as above (cool power y’all sleeping on), so we’re gonna buff it until you like it >:^)