I guess it needs to be said, yet again, that pointing out a game's financial/development troubles is absolutely not the same thing as saying it's a bad game. I've enjoyed plenty of games that were sales bombs. We promise we're not shitting on your good times.
People are reading things into my post that are not there.
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
People are reading things into my post that are not there.
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
I double-checked this thread, and nobody said the game is dead. Except for multiple people saying "I'm tired of people saying this game is dead!" We just said this is probably a bad sign. And again, there's just some of us that find behind-the-scenes stuff interesting.
People are reading things into my post that are not there.
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
If people were chatting about Cataclysm and trying to form groups and what not, and other people were saying "Shut up, this is a dead game, you guys are delusional!" that would be very rude behavior that should cease. But nobody did that. Some people came by to say they loved Cataclysm and then there was a new update from the dev and people talked about that. There was really NO NEED for meta commentary of "don't talk about the major news item that the developer just released because it makes me feel sad."
People are reading things into my post that are not there.
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
If people were chatting about Cataclysm and trying to form groups and what not, and other people were saying "Shut up, this is a dead game, you guys are delusional!" that would be very rude behavior that should cease. But nobody did that. Some people came by to say they loved Cataclysm and then there was a new update from the dev and people talked about that. There was really NO NEED for meta commentary of "don't talk about the major news item that the developer just released because it makes me feel sad."
There had, in fact, been 5+ pages of people talking about the Cataclysm event and the new weapons. So, there has been plenty of positive talk about Anthem from people still enjoying the game. As I said in my post, I wish I was one of those people enjoying the game, on paper it's right up my alley. But we're allowed to discuss the negative in here, as well. This isn't Reddit, where every Anthem story gets a knee-jerk "neener neener Anthem is the worst game ever Fuck EA your idiots for liking Anthem".
People are reading things into my post that are not there.
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
If people were chatting about Cataclysm and trying to form groups and what not, and other people were saying "Shut up, this is a dead game, you guys are delusional!" that would be very rude behavior that should cease. But nobody did that. Some people came by to say they loved Cataclysm and then there was a new update from the dev and people talked about that. There was really NO NEED for meta commentary of "don't talk about the major news item that the developer just released because it makes me feel sad."
There had, in fact, been 5+ pages of people talking about the Cataclysm event and the new weapons. So, there has been plenty of positive talk about Anthem from people still enjoying the game. As I said in my post, I wish I was one of those people enjoying the game, on paper it's right up my alley. But we're allowed to discuss the negative in here, as well. This isn't Reddit, where every Anthem story gets a knee-jerk "neener neener Anthem is the worst game ever Fuck EA your idiots for liking Anthem".
I personally bounced off Anthem early (incredibly combat in a mediocre package), but I've been playing Bioware games since the second Baldur's Gate and count RPGs as my favorite gaming genre. I periodically check in on this thread for business news and a general overview of the state and future of Bioware.
Anthem's down to $9.99 on all platforms on Amazon, if you've been waiting on a good price.
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
Patch Notes! Halloween event! (lots of skellingtons thrown around on the floor) Remixed Cataclysm instances! Freeplay boss summons! Guaranteed Legendary chest purchases! Mass salvage button.
New Features
The Cataclysm is back with updates for the Season of Skulls. The higher your score, the more seasonal currency you’ll be awarded to spend at the seasonal store.
New Season of Skulls Freeplay events. Successfully finish three of these events in one Freeplay session to spawn a boss encounter.
Learn more about Season of Skulls lore through a scavenger hunt and new data archives.
Mass Salvage is now available on all inventory management screens.
The chance to obtain a legendary item from a war chest has increased by 250%
A Legendary-Only War Chest has been added to the Seasonal Store
Bug Fixes & Improvements
Fixed various crashes for stabilization.
Auto-loot now works for all high-rarity loot drops in a game session.
When flying into obstacles, javelins now automatically go into hover mode instead of crashing to the ground
General Cataclysm Changes/Fixes:
All challenges that awarded major crystals now reward 500 minor crystals instead.
Turrets will no longer respawn once destroyed in Sea of Takaro and Castle Kelrik.
Teleporters are now immediately re-usable after teleporting.
“Daily: Repair” no longer auto-completes when a player returns to Fort Tarsis.
Fixed an issue in which the Expedition Tracked menu could display incorrect difficulty level.
Updates to inscription tooltips for Combo Damage bonus clarify which javelin a bonus applies to. Colossus Combo damage bonus is now "Combo Blast Dmg", Ranger is "Combo Imp Dmg", Storm is "Combo Chains", and Interceptor is "Combo Aura Eff".
Fixed an issue where the Acid Status Effect would not increase damage taken from the “acid” damage type
Aim assist has been adjusted so that it doesn’t “pop” onto enemies as easily
Updated multiple weapon and gear piece descriptions to read “armor” instead of “suit health”.
The Badge of Devastation component no longer shares an icon with Emergency Power.
Gun Updates:
Assault Rifles
Defender/Elemental Rage/Pyrrhic Victory
Base Damage 16->24.1
Hammerhead/Ralner's Blaze
Base Damage 24.1->34
The fire status effect applied by Ralner’s Blaze is now correctly affected by damage inscriptions.
Light Machine Guns
Relentless
Base Damage 18.9->26.4
Artinia's Gambit
Base Damage 37.8->52.8
Havoc
Base Damage 14.8->22.5
Renewed Courage
Base Damage 23.7->35.9
Sledgehammer
Base Damage 28.5->43.1
Cycle of Pain
Base Damage 41.3->62.6
Marksman Rifles
Scout/Thunderbolt of Yvinia
Base Damage 36.5->39.7
Anvil
Base Damage 60.8->70.2
Soothing Touch
Base Damage 103.4->119
Autocannons
Torrent/Endless Siege
Base Damage 26.4->27.6
Cloudburst/Fist of Strahl
Base Damage 19.7->20.4
Mauler/The Last Stand
Base Damage 18.6->19.6
Fixed an issue that prevented Autocannon damage types from displaying as intended. The Anti-Armor damage type is now shown correctly.
SMG's
Fulcrum/Unending Battle
Base Damage 8.9->12
Trajector/Retaliation of Garretus
Base Damage 14.3->26.3
Hailstorm
Base Damage 6.9->10.8
Vassa's Surprise
Base Damage 15->21.6
Heavy Pistol
Barrage/Close Encounter
Base Damage 18.1->26.5
Resolution/Glorious Result
Base Damage 47.9->48.4
Shotgun
Scattershot/Papa Pump
Base Damage 16.6-20.8
Constrictor/Radiant Fortress
Base Damage 17.7->18.1
Vengeance/Rolling Carnage
Base Damage 12.9->24.1
Grenade Launcher
Fixed an issue that prevented Grenade Launcher damage types from displaying as intended; the Anti-Armor damage type is now shown correctly.
Sniper Rifle
Deadeye/Wyvern Blitz
Base Damage 240->246
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Whirlwind/Siege Breaker
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Anti-Shield damage.
Devastator/Truth of Tarsis
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Anti-Armor damage.
Pulse Accelerator
Bad Omen
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Rainmaker
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Blade Slinger
Fixed an issue that prevented Blade Slinger damage types from working as intended; all now correctly display and function as Physical damage.
Volt Caster
Jarra’s Wrath
The Electric status effect applied by Jarra’s Wrath is now correctly affected by damage inscriptions.
Javelin Updates
Ranger Gear Updates:
Venom Darts/Tactical Onslaught
Now displays the correct number of status effect stacks
Inferno Grenade/Explosive Blaze
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Frost Grenade/Cold Blooded
Status effect stacks increased to 100
The Gambit
Masterwork/legendary effect (as seen in the orange text on the item description) is now correctly affected by gear damage inscriptions.
Ember’s Lance
Masterwork/legendary effect (as seen in the orange text on the item description) is now correctly affected by gear damage inscriptions.
Relentless Pursuit
Increased damage by 50%
Vanguard’s Rampart
Vanguard’s Rampart masterwork/legendary effect (as seen in the orange text on the item description) is no longer reapplied each time a player enters the bubble.
Colossus Gear Updates:
Firewall Mortar
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Rubidium Furnace
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Damage is now correctly affected by local gear damage inscriptions.
Venom Storm
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Lightning Coil/Vassa's Arc
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Fixed an issue that prevented its damage type from working as intended. Now correctly displays and functions as Electric damage.
Shock Coil/Voltaic Dome
Fixed an issue that prevented its damage type from working as intended. Now correctly displays and functions as Electric damage.
Titan’s Hail
Masterwork/legendary effect (as seen in the orange text on the item description) is now correctly affected by gear damage inscriptions.
Storm Gear Updates:
Shock Burst/Seal of the Open Mind
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Icestorm/Winter's Wrath
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Binary Star
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Fire damage.
Interceptor Gear Updates:
Interceptor Combo Aura
Interceptors now deal the correct amount of combo damage based on enemy material (shield, armor, or flesh) if the target is primed by Electricity.
Venom Bomb & Serpent’s Veil
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Tesilar Trap
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Cryo Glaive & Absolute Zero
Status effect stacks increased to 100
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Ice damage.
Detonating Strike
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Electric damage.
Cariff's Talon
Damage is now correctly affected by local gear damage inscriptions.
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Electric damage.
Tempest Strike
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Sudden Death
Masterwork/legendary effect (as seen in the orange text on the item description) is now correctly affected by gear damage inscriptions.
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Wraith Strike, Shadow Claw, and Spectre’s Flash
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Physical damage.
Interceptor Melee Updates:
Venomous Blades/Twin Blades
Smalls hits went from 38->50 base damage
Big hits went from 105->100 base damage
Deathstalker Blades
Small hits went from 38->75 base damage
Big hits went from 105->150 base damage
MasterWork property - Used to deal 60 damage per hit on targets below 50%. Now doubles melee hit damage on targets below 50%.
Blades of Warding
Small hits went from 38->87.5 base damage
Big hits went from 105->175 base damage
Ultimate
Small hits went from 55->75 base damage
Storm Melee Updates:
Searing Blast
Fixed an issue that prevented the damage type from working as intended; now correctly displays and functions as Fire damage.
the statement posted on this page is corporate speak for 'we have scaled back our commitment to this project'
we are moving away from the Acts structure for updates
is corporate for 'large content chunks that require significant new assets are prohibitively expensive at this time'
additional seasonal updates
is corporate for 'halloween and christmas themed events where previously used content is reskinned and altered slightly and given a new reward structure'
New Features
The Cataclysm is back with updates for the Season of Skulls. The higher your score, the more seasonal currency you’ll be awarded to spend at the seasonal store.
New Season of Skulls Freeplay events. Successfully finish three of these events in one Freeplay session to spawn a boss encounter.
Learn more about Season of Skulls lore through a scavenger hunt and new data archives.
Maybe I'm some kind of weirdo, but I find seasonal events appealing. It's only around for a while, I play it for a bit here and there, snag a few skins or whatever, and call it a day.
Anthem was a solid flop with my group, but I enjoy it enough to get in a Cataclysm round or two here and there. I've given up on caring about the allied premium currency stipend each week, so it's something small to get me back in every couple of days for the event, but not enough that I feel the need to put in 5 hour marathon sessions just to get something out of it.
A casual level incentive with (in game currency) loot boxes to give the hardcore players and grinders that are left something to crack open.
Is it a major overhaul? No. Is it more than some were expecting? Absolutely, given the posts that essentially amounted to 'whelp, Anthem is dead'.
It's a matter of perspective and managed expectations. They told us we'd get seasonal events, we've got one. Yay!
Doing the Cataclysm from a new launch point alone is interesting enough for me, at least for the span of however long this is running for.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Yeah, IDK. There are only a handful of games-as-services that don't have a holiday themed event up atm, and those are either because they just came out of one, or pushed a major upgrade.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
It's almost as if developers are capable of simultaneously working on short-term insubstantial content as well as long-term substantial content and the existence of one doesn't preclude the other
Yeah their press release came out and said they are killing the schedule as they want to dive into the core stuff and fix it. Given the loot designer hires 6 months back, it makes sense to fix the foundation before releasing some major side content that they can market to get people to come back.
What's the trick with the starter puzzle? I've never been really good at that one. The gates strip the weights off as well. Do you have to have 2 people working together?
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
This being amplified if you're using APIs and tools that you cannot directly modify or adjust and instead have to work and/or liaise with other teams to do things who are also not solely dedicated to you, etc.
tastydonuts on
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
While true, it still seems very odd to completely shut down potential sources of revenue for this long. The smarter thing to do would be to keep the content shutoff at a minimum, and then keep dribbling out the fixes if necessary. Cutting off content to fix the game transforms a money-maker into a money-burner, and most companies would get twitchy about that after a two or three months.
I mean, I can't really think of an online game that had its new content shut off for this long and then recover. Well, Final Fantasy 14, but that was essentially rebuilt from the ground up in a way presumably Anthem isn't.
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
While true, it still seems very odd to completely shut down potential sources of revenue for this long. The smarter thing to do would be to keep the content shutoff at a minimum, and then keep dribbling out the fixes if necessary. Cutting off content to fix the game transforms a money-maker into a money-burner, and most companies would get twitchy about that after a two or three months.
I mean, I can't really think of an online game that had its new content shut off for this long and then recover. Well, Final Fantasy 14, but that was essentially rebuilt from the ground up in a way presumably Anthem isn't.
Anthem's future story content was to be free. There wasn't even a season pass for Anthem. The primary source of revenue for the game as a service is cosmetics. If they said "we're not making or providing new cosmetics to fix our bugs," your remark would have meaning, but they did not. This event that they put in adds more cosmetics, N7
costumes specifically.
There's also a new set of armors based on the enemies of Anthem, and those are pretty slick as well. Other features of the new event are increased Legendary drop rates (an increase of 250%), a Legendary-only War Chest, and new data archives.
I still don't have a MW Jav so I'll definitely be hitting it up for that.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
Unless I'm dense or overlooking it, I'm not seeing a price for the costumes yet, has anyone seen one?
Given that they're not in game yet (edit: or at least weren't when I put in a cataclysm run when I saw the event was live the other day), I'm guessing they'll be a later release, so until we know for sure, I'll just be stockpiling the crystals I accrue from occasional runs until I can be sure to get them. Those legendary chests are tempting, but I'm sitting on enough for most of my suits that the siren's call of limited time skins holds a higher priority.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
While true, it still seems very odd to completely shut down potential sources of revenue for this long. The smarter thing to do would be to keep the content shutoff at a minimum, and then keep dribbling out the fixes if necessary. Cutting off content to fix the game transforms a money-maker into a money-burner, and most companies would get twitchy about that after a two or three months.
I mean, I can't really think of an online game that had its new content shut off for this long and then recover. Well, Final Fantasy 14, but that was essentially rebuilt from the ground up in a way presumably Anthem isn't.
Anthem's future story content was to be free. There wasn't even a season pass for Anthem. The primary source of revenue for the game as a service is cosmetics. If they said "we're not making or providing new cosmetics to fix our bugs," your remark would have meaning, but they did not. This event that they put in adds more cosmetics, N7
costumes specifically.
*snip*
Which is very nice, but new content is the main thing that keeps people playing and, more importantly, paying for stuff. Only dribbling out new costumes every few months isn't going to keep people's attention and forking out for stuff. Without bigger events and more frequent cosmetics, the game has little chance of attracting more paying customers or even keeping existing paying customers. Remember, the reason always-online games exist is to be a continual source of revenue.
Unless I'm dense or overlooking it, I'm not seeing a price for the costumes yet, has anyone seen one?
Given that they're not in game yet (edit: or at least weren't when I put in a cataclysm run when I saw the event was live the other day), I'm guessing they'll be a later release, so until we know for sure, I'll just be stockpiling the crystals I accrue from occasional runs until I can be sure to get them. Those legendary chests are tempting, but I'm sitting on enough for most of my suits that the siren's call of limited time skins holds a higher priority.
Yeah, I don't know if they're in game or not. I just looked around to see what the cosmetics were possibly going to be since it is an event. There's also some armors that mimic the creatures in-game that were posted on resetera, the page I linked in that post has them too.
“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
The "increase of 250%" for Legendary drops feels like they're trying to hide something to me all the same.
Like, the rate was 1% and they bumped it to 2.5%. A 250% increase of "squat" to "two and a half squats" isn't super exciting.
If they'd just noted the actual percentage (original and new), I'd be less inclined to throw a little side eye their way. And yes, I get that the different difficulties have different drop rates, but listing the 3 (I think they can only drop on GM 1-3?) wouldn't be that arduous.
Maybe they've mentioned the rates in the past and I just haven't been paying close attention, but if so, including it again shouldn't be that difficult.
Perhaps I'm splitting hairs, it just feels like one of those 'are you lying (well, exaggerating) to me with numbers?' triggers.
'If you can't impress them with the raw numbers, do it with percentages. Or vice versa. Whichever looks best.' That kind of thing.
Don't get me wrong, 2.5x legendaries is good news in my books. I just think a minor change would be a better way of conveying it.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
The "increase of 250%" for Legendary drops feels like they're trying to hide something to me all the same.
Like, the rate was 1% and they bumped it to 2.5%. A 250% increase of "squat" to "two and a half squats" isn't super exciting.
If they'd just noted the actual percentage (original and new), I'd be less inclined to throw a little side eye their way. And yes, I get that the different difficulties have different drop rates, but listing the 3 (I think they can only drop on GM 1-3?) wouldn't be that arduous.
Maybe they've mentioned the rates in the past and I just haven't been paying close attention, but if so, including it again shouldn't be that difficult.
Perhaps I'm splitting hairs, it just feels like one of those 'are you lying (well, exaggerating) to me with numbers?' triggers.
'If you can't impress them with the raw numbers, do it with percentages. Or vice versa. Whichever looks best.' That kind of thing.
Don't get me wrong, 2.5x legendaries is good news in my books. I just think a minor change would be a better way of conveying it.
At least the gave a number to the increase. For a while in Destiny 2, they would just say: "Drastically increased the drop rate of [X]"
Steam - DoublySymmetric (43687993)
Blizz ID - DoublySymm#1758
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daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
It seems more than a little odd that, eight months in, they're still in emergency "cancel content to fix the core game" mode. You'd think the core game would be fixed by now, especially since games of this nature need constant content to survive. This really is starting to smell like PR-speak for "we're putting this thing on life support and moving resources elsewhere."
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
This being amplified if you're using APIs and tools that you cannot directly modify or adjust and instead have to work and/or liaise with other teams to do things who are also not solely dedicated to you, etc.
And the Anthem development was a complete hot mess, made worse by Frostbite and all the baggage that came along with having to stick with that mandate.
Coding is hard, but Anthem has had some really weird bugs that make me think they’re on pure spaghetti code.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
God their Halloween armors are so fucking gross I love it
Not sure why I keep giving this game my time. I finally get to 30, try GM1 and get 4 people, wooo! Better than anything on normal/hard. Of course the first challenge bugs out and we lose one of the orbs. All 4 of us came together, nobody had it and it wasn't in any of the devices. We all drop, I try another game and the full thing black screens me to death and locks up. Had to hard boot my machine. Next login the game crashes as I try and get in. Try again and I'm in, queue up for another GM1 run and this time I only get 1 person and they don't know anything about the challenge and just run around shooting things.
I'm at 590 with my colossus, I think I may try GM2. Maybe there will be more folks. Otherwise, I'm a couple missions away in SP and that may be it for me, as much fun as flying around killing things is.
Origin ID\ Steam ID: Warder45
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
The way they rebalanced GM2 is really that you could probably tough it out with the masterworks you got from sub-GM. It'd be damn hard and grabbing a bit of the wider masterwork loot table at GM1 will make things a lot easier, but you could string along and really leapfrog over GM1 depending on the drops.
I had the opposite problem where I played GM1 so much by the time I got to GM2 I was almost overlevelled lol
Tried GM2 and i was a bit under leveled. Had to hide quite a lot more but my gravedigger did decent damage. But after a couple rounds got a masterwork colossus piece that inceased my armor and shields 4x. Then got a legendary armor piece which will be great for all javs.
Interesting that some folks just beeline Vara, which gets you 800 or so crystals and your done in 5 minutes. Others hit the easy 3, then Vara.
Are the Mass Effect armors going to require event currency or normal currency?
Are the Mass Effect armors going to require event currency or normal currency?
I haven't seen it said, but the safe'ish assumption is that they'll be in the event store, which means event currency. I could be wrong, and it'd be kind of shitty to put literal 'Javelin Halloween Costumes' behind the Real Money Currency, but I'm uncertain enough I'm in no way saying either way definitively.
There are the 4 ME armors, and 4 based on creatures in Anthem, so I'm hoping/figuring they make some available asap. I'm getting a round or two in here and there, but if I'm going to need to abruptly grind out like 20,000 event currency on short notice, it'd be nice to know sooner rather than later.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Yeah I have 10K right now and I've got a burning desire to spend it lol. I'm able to use the Colossus to do GM2, but took my Ranger and it did not go well. So I figure I should try and get the legendary packs to see if I can get some better gear to help level up my other Javelins.
But I want those Mass Effect armors, so for now I'll just keep hoarding.
Posts
I don’t think people are attacking those who enjoy the game personally, or that somehow critique of EA/BioWare is a critique of those still willing to give it a whirl now and then.
Simply that reports of the game’s death are premature, and that if we wanted to hear about how this is bad... FOR OBAMA, err, BioWare, there are several handy Reddit’s and YouTubers who are quite eager to explain its pending demise at length.
We can safely say, we get it. The whole thing has been a shitshow, Cataclysm wasn’t flawless but it has been pretty fun as something new. It certainly makes me wish 2-3 of my friends were willing to pick it back up and not have to rely on pub players or wildly different skill/experience levels.
But, again, my point wasn’t that the game is beyond criticism or that I’m personally offended. Just that it was getting tiresome to have 7 new posts in a mostly dead thread only to find several of them mostly just calling it a dead game.
Like, folks, step back and realize that “whether or not anthem is dead” has been the continued focus of conversation. And I’m aware that I’m perpetuating that, but I’m also feeling misrepresented after trying to express a much more nuanced take on the matter.
That’s all. The game isn’t in a great place, even if it’s got something shiny and new for the first time in a while. Otherwise, we get it, and continuing to focus on the presumed killing blow that’ll land any day now isn’t contributing anything to the thread we don’t already know.
When it dies, sure, yeah, let’s go over that. Until then, haven’t the last half year of pending death proclamations been enough?
I double-checked this thread, and nobody said the game is dead. Except for multiple people saying "I'm tired of people saying this game is dead!" We just said this is probably a bad sign. And again, there's just some of us that find behind-the-scenes stuff interesting.
well, I do think that.
If people were chatting about Cataclysm and trying to form groups and what not, and other people were saying "Shut up, this is a dead game, you guys are delusional!" that would be very rude behavior that should cease. But nobody did that. Some people came by to say they loved Cataclysm and then there was a new update from the dev and people talked about that. There was really NO NEED for meta commentary of "don't talk about the major news item that the developer just released because it makes me feel sad."
There had, in fact, been 5+ pages of people talking about the Cataclysm event and the new weapons. So, there has been plenty of positive talk about Anthem from people still enjoying the game. As I said in my post, I wish I was one of those people enjoying the game, on paper it's right up my alley. But we're allowed to discuss the negative in here, as well. This isn't Reddit, where every Anthem story gets a knee-jerk "neener neener Anthem is the worst game ever Fuck EA your idiots for liking Anthem".
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
I personally bounced off Anthem early (incredibly combat in a mediocre package), but I've been playing Bioware games since the second Baldur's Gate and count RPGs as my favorite gaming genre. I periodically check in on this thread for business news and a general overview of the state and future of Bioware.
Ah fuck it. I’m just adding to the problem. I’m out.
My comedic pratfalls!
is equal to
I CAN SEE THE FUTURE
https://medium.com/@alascii
Maybe I'm some kind of weirdo, but I find seasonal events appealing. It's only around for a while, I play it for a bit here and there, snag a few skins or whatever, and call it a day.
Anthem was a solid flop with my group, but I enjoy it enough to get in a Cataclysm round or two here and there. I've given up on caring about the allied premium currency stipend each week, so it's something small to get me back in every couple of days for the event, but not enough that I feel the need to put in 5 hour marathon sessions just to get something out of it.
A casual level incentive with (in game currency) loot boxes to give the hardcore players and grinders that are left something to crack open.
Is it a major overhaul? No. Is it more than some were expecting? Absolutely, given the posts that essentially amounted to 'whelp, Anthem is dead'.
It's a matter of perspective and managed expectations. They told us we'd get seasonal events, we've got one. Yay!
Doing the Cataclysm from a new launch point alone is interesting enough for me, at least for the span of however long this is running for.
Novel idea, if true
What's the trick with the starter puzzle? I've never been really good at that one. The gates strip the weights off as well. Do you have to have 2 people working together?
...or maybe Bioware really is that disorganized. Anthem was slapped together last-minute after years of chaos, after all. (As was Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition.) Still, cutting off content isn't the best business move in the long run.
Programming is not magic.
Furthermore, debugging and optimization are both fields of expertise in and of themselves.
This being amplified if you're using APIs and tools that you cannot directly modify or adjust and instead have to work and/or liaise with other teams to do things who are also not solely dedicated to you, etc.
While true, it still seems very odd to completely shut down potential sources of revenue for this long. The smarter thing to do would be to keep the content shutoff at a minimum, and then keep dribbling out the fixes if necessary. Cutting off content to fix the game transforms a money-maker into a money-burner, and most companies would get twitchy about that after a two or three months.
I mean, I can't really think of an online game that had its new content shut off for this long and then recover. Well, Final Fantasy 14, but that was essentially rebuilt from the ground up in a way presumably Anthem isn't.
Anthem's future story content was to be free. There wasn't even a season pass for Anthem. The primary source of revenue for the game as a service is cosmetics. If they said "we're not making or providing new cosmetics to fix our bugs," your remark would have meaning, but they did not. This event that they put in adds more cosmetics, N7
costumes specifically.
Halloween Armor and other information here.
The armors:
Colossus gets Krogan.
Storm gets Asari.
Interceptor gets Quarian.
Ranger gets Turian.
There's some other stuff too, but there's no point in this conversation anyway.
edit: found a copy that didn't require me to resize and compress to paste.
I still don't have a MW Jav so I'll definitely be hitting it up for that.
Given that they're not in game yet (edit: or at least weren't when I put in a cataclysm run when I saw the event was live the other day), I'm guessing they'll be a later release, so until we know for sure, I'll just be stockpiling the crystals I accrue from occasional runs until I can be sure to get them. Those legendary chests are tempting, but I'm sitting on enough for most of my suits that the siren's call of limited time skins holds a higher priority.
Which is very nice, but new content is the main thing that keeps people playing and, more importantly, paying for stuff. Only dribbling out new costumes every few months isn't going to keep people's attention and forking out for stuff. Without bigger events and more frequent cosmetics, the game has little chance of attracting more paying customers or even keeping existing paying customers. Remember, the reason always-online games exist is to be a continual source of revenue.
Yeah, I don't know if they're in game or not. I just looked around to see what the cosmetics were possibly going to be since it is an event. There's also some armors that mimic the creatures in-game that were posted on resetera, the page I linked in that post has them too.
The Asari armor will be mine!
Like, the rate was 1% and they bumped it to 2.5%. A 250% increase of "squat" to "two and a half squats" isn't super exciting.
If they'd just noted the actual percentage (original and new), I'd be less inclined to throw a little side eye their way. And yes, I get that the different difficulties have different drop rates, but listing the 3 (I think they can only drop on GM 1-3?) wouldn't be that arduous.
Maybe they've mentioned the rates in the past and I just haven't been paying close attention, but if so, including it again shouldn't be that difficult.
Perhaps I'm splitting hairs, it just feels like one of those 'are you lying (well, exaggerating) to me with numbers?' triggers.
'If you can't impress them with the raw numbers, do it with percentages. Or vice versa. Whichever looks best.' That kind of thing.
Don't get me wrong, 2.5x legendaries is good news in my books. I just think a minor change would be a better way of conveying it.
At least the gave a number to the increase. For a while in Destiny 2, they would just say: "Drastically increased the drop rate of [X]"
Blizz ID - DoublySymm#1758
And the Anthem development was a complete hot mess, made worse by Frostbite and all the baggage that came along with having to stick with that mandate.
Coding is hard, but Anthem has had some really weird bugs that make me think they’re on pure spaghetti code.
WHY IS THE COLOSSUS HAIRY
That's for the warchests and it's gone from about 1 in 10 to about 1 in 3-4 or something.
I'm at 590 with my colossus, I think I may try GM2. Maybe there will be more folks. Otherwise, I'm a couple missions away in SP and that may be it for me, as much fun as flying around killing things is.
I had the opposite problem where I played GM1 so much by the time I got to GM2 I was almost overlevelled lol
Interesting that some folks just beeline Vara, which gets you 800 or so crystals and your done in 5 minutes. Others hit the easy 3, then Vara.
Are the Mass Effect armors going to require event currency or normal currency?
I haven't seen it said, but the safe'ish assumption is that they'll be in the event store, which means event currency. I could be wrong, and it'd be kind of shitty to put literal 'Javelin Halloween Costumes' behind the Real Money Currency, but I'm uncertain enough I'm in no way saying either way definitively.
There are the 4 ME armors, and 4 based on creatures in Anthem, so I'm hoping/figuring they make some available asap. I'm getting a round or two in here and there, but if I'm going to need to abruptly grind out like 20,000 event currency on short notice, it'd be nice to know sooner rather than later.
But I want those Mass Effect armors, so for now I'll just keep hoarding.
what if they gave the armors away for free? ha.