It's been implied before that the TTK changes were mostly a product decision, given that they were doing new player retention analysis that led to the changes. It's normal for production and design to butt heads against product management--it doesn't imply there's any dysfunction on the team. Every role has their own methods for trying to get games to succeed.
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David Sirland, Multiplayer Producer for Battlefield, is leaving DICE (Dec 2022 update: he's back)
- Thread starter JigglesBunny
- Start date
It doesn't seem like DICE's normal. Although it's probably fair to say that it's EA's normal.
As a developer who has worked on MANY shooters, 3rd and first person, it is NOT normal to completely re-balance your TTK and weapons over a year after release... Especially 2 weeks after having a "Free to Play" weekend where you make new sales based on the current version of the game.
After reading through quite a bit of Davids comments, it sounds like he isn't being given the creative / decision freedom he is used to. Based on how BF:V is, compared to every previous BF game (I Have been playing since BF:1942) I would guess this is mostly accurate. I have seen it many times in studios that are either recently restructured or have new suits come in. Personally, I think mot of the BF team is working on BF:6 since the sales of BF:V weren't as high as they were hoping. I hope my assumptions are wrong and he is just tired of working on shooters, but, I kinda doubt it.
He's made many remarks like this over the release of BFV. The way the title has been handled surely made some decision small or big in his head to move on. I know that he was overwritten quite a lot and was not particularly happy about that. Oh well.
You don't need to guess, the 2018 TTK patch was deployed the same week he went on vacation. He is the producer in the environment where he has to take a back-seat when it comes to decision making.
This is one of the guys that Spearheaded the shift in Battlefiel 4 that made it a better game. But unfortunately couldn't do it for Battlefield 1 and V
It's a shame what Battlefield has become. BFV is just not fun anymore.
I generally enjoy playing anything while high, but JEEEEEEEEESUS, I played a round of BFV and I got mad while high... WTF. The TTK is ridiculous. How in the name of fuck can a semi auto rifle be outgunned by a submachinegun in medium distance combat???? I'm talking over 20 meters.
Anyway, I know DICE is doing their best. I just KNOW all these decisions are made by greedy higher ups.
I generally enjoy playing anything while high, but JEEEEEEEEESUS, I played a round of BFV and I got mad while high... WTF. The TTK is ridiculous. How in the name of fuck can a semi auto rifle be outgunned by a submachinegun in medium distance combat???? I'm talking over 20 meters.
Anyway, I know DICE is doing their best. I just KNOW all these decisions are made by greedy higher ups.
Have you worked on much GaaS? It's a different world now. The seasonal format makes it more common.
AFAIK Destiny 2 played with TTK as well.
EDIT: In fact, this fits my narrative perfectly. They had a F2P weekend, which is the perfect time to get stats on new players. They probably saw the same issues that they'd seen before--that new players were dying too quickly, or getting shot from offscreen enemies, and quitting shortly after. Thus, TTK/TTD needed to be addressed, and because game design didn't have a better solution, they had to resort to a blunt product fix.
If this TTK change has no effect on new players or causes churn among established players, expect them to revert. If they don't revert, that means it's working as intended, even if you don't like it.
It's the industry normal. Everyone is going to have to adapt. Traditional console/PC space is lagging way behind here.
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They're ignoring valid customer complaints while advertising tank skins. I think they're going to end up killing the game before BF6 comes out. I'm seriously considering dropping it myself.
Battlefield has done it with every title Since BF4 maybe even BF3.
BFV was set up for failure from the beginning. The problem is BF1 sold so much and was huge on the social media side of things but didnt actually have the gameplay or retention to back it up. It flounded instead of florished and going into BFV there wasnt as much hype for this very reason. Then couple that with the reveal trailer (which really wasnt that bad) issue it was downhill from there. Its been clear that internally there is a wrestle for power on how the game should have been made or should develop and it just didnt work so we have some frankenstein shit that says its like classic Battlefield(SPOILER: its nothing like classic Battlefield) but its actually just BF1 again with weapons without HREC and Spread. BFV is a lost cause. I hope DICE shifts to fictional wars again to allow some freedom.( as long as that freedom doesnt lead to vehicle spam, behemoths and suppression haha).
That said the new map actually looks nice cant say that about 99% of the current maps that are all basically terrible.
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I don't disagree as a player. I'm just saying there's precedent for what they're doing and I get their thought process.
more likely new players are quitting because every server is littered with cheaters and grossly imbalanced teams and the game runs like dog shit unless you have a highly overclocked 9900k.
BFV was and still is a mess. Easily the biggest disappointment for me this gen. I'm hoping they do better next time and that David enjoys his future endeavors.
Well well
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Hopefully
mean that this time around he won't have higher ups preventing him to do what he said he would do ( or actively do the opposite like changing the ttk a second time ).
Alot of them really. But big involvement in BFV. But wasnt happy really with higher ups demanding stuff from the game. Thats why he left really.
But his biggest achievement imo was when he was at DICE LA and he and his team fixed BF4 after DICE Sweden left it to die to work on Battlefront.
Started CTE also etc. Making BF4 to this day one of the best BF games wich wasnt likely after year 1
Ah ok ! My best bf memories are with 3. The way they phrased his return, looks like DICE will do very little to keep 2042s services going.
They already have for anybody that's been playing 2042 lately. It's markedly improved since the beta.