and yes, they also made Brink =/

They really need to remove some classes. The two newest ones, Rhino and Kira, are just crazily OP. Sawbonez and Aura could easily be merged into one medic class, and some classes like Arty have no special/desirable feature about them at all.

The maps look pretty good so far, but as you say they could use some improvement. And we need more (a 6th map is being made as a WIP as we speak too, called 'Dome').

And I tried their Execution mode back when it was in the closed beta, was pretty fun. I'd like to know when they're gonna reintroduce it for people to play.


Overall: great free game, but I wouldn't pay for it.

Firstly this is all from my perspective of playing the game for 200 hours in the past few weeks, observing a lot of scrims between teams like fnatic, ini, v586, lobbyboyz, foment, both LG teams etc. and also playing vs a lot of people in pickup games and scrims, as well as theory crafting with a lot of people you can find in the community...

Rhino... OP? You're joking me right? You're truly pulling my leg on this one because there is no way that you can consider Rhino to be OP, even in public games you're able to take out Rhino with ease, and he definitely has no place in actual matches because he isn't even viable, I can only think of one situation that he'd be useful in and that'd be holding the waiting-room on Terminal after the first objective, but even still players can circumvent him because he makes the incredibly loud wind-up noise for his chaingun. Rhino isn't OP at all. The only issue with Rhino is how he works with the broken reviving mechanic in this game, medics can bring him back up within seconds, but regardless that is a different issue and doesn't make Rhino OP (It makes reviving broken).

Kira on the other hand can just be abused quite easily with her silly stream of piss ability, but still easily circumvented... Remember that she has the same stats of a proxy and we all know how easy they are to take down. You frag her easily and just like arty, her weapons aren't exactly the most viable in competitive play and require a pretty on-point gun playstyle to get a lot of damage out, that its self should be rewarded.

Also please understand the pros and cons of each medic class before suggesting that they should be merged. They're clearly different and have their own benefits (albeit that Aura is pretty weak right now). Also did I mention that there are other medic classes to come, of whom will have their own different perks? Class variation adds a bit of interest into what would otherwise be a pretty dead system that we've all seen before in a countless number of class-based shooters, and honestly the genre needs it and I'd argue that the way Splash Damage is tackling it is pretty good thus far.

even in public games you're able to take out Rhino with ease

That really depends on what merc you're playing. If you're playing skyhammer with the default M4 loadout, for example, you basically need a 100% headshot hit rate to have any chance of taking him down, which is doable, but I wouldn't call it particularly "easy" if you're in a direct engagement. The only merc I'd say has an easy time of taking him down would probably be Vassili since the distance from which he'd usually engage would render the spread of rhino's fucking bolted on turret for a chaingun useless.

It's also quite literally impossible to take him down if he's travelling with a medic since a health station allows him to recuperate hp incredibly easily and it's a pretty ridiculously OP combination for holding a post C4-plant situation in any non-open area (think Underground's first objective). And then there's the revive times as you mentioned. Does that make Rhino OP or medics broken? Good point, because now you've mentioned it I'm not sure. But either way something needs to be fixed there, imo.

Kira on the other hand can just be abused quite easily with her silly stream of piss ability, but still easily circumvented... Remember that she has the same stats of a proxy and we all know how easy they are to take down.

The aforementioned stream of piss ability was the only real issue I had playing with her. I agree she's weak in direct engagements, but the stream of piss ability is so useful for multiple objectives that I'd argue it still makes her overpowered, since she can circumvent direct engagements, especially in public games. And let's not forget about the loadout cards which can bring her fragging ability up to the point of someone like a default Bushwhacker, for example. The best thing devs could do at this point would be to reduce the duration of her laser strike for a few seconds because it's literally ridiculous in some situations now.


And yeah, I know there's seven more mercs coming into the game which haven't been added already (forgot their names though), and I'm not excited about that. Adding more mercs just means you have to rebalance most of the existing ones and since the question of balance is so subjective I highly doubt they'll find something that pleases everyone - and that's without even mentioning that they're basically conjuring up unnecessary new classes to try and make money (£5.99 and £7.99 per merc? cmon) at the expense of saturating the game with lowskills playing with OP loadout cards/mercs that negate the individual strengths of most of the default mercenaries anyway. I don't have the same amount of hours played as you do, but it really seems to me like they've just made Dirty Bomb a pay2win game, and that's depressing since the gameplay itself, aside from balance issues, is pretty fun. I'd rather have paid £40 for the full game with every mercenary/loadout included so everyone could be at a level playing field, but maybe that's just me.

"And yeah, I know there's seven more mercs coming into the game which haven't been added already (forgot their names though), and I'm not excited about that. Adding more mercs just means you have to rebalance most of the existing ones and since the question of balance is so subjective I highly doubt they'll find something that pleases everyone"

it is not Adding, more like returning them. All 19 mercs were in the pool (except for the Turtle - an engeneer with a deployable cover.) a year ago. And balance was nice. If something was uncounterable and OP - it was nerfed down to good state. At some points Turrets, Nades, Airstrikes, Molotovs, weapons were OP or uncounterable. But they were balanced with time.

well, I haven't played anything outside of the default two + the past 4 or so free rotations. I have about 50 hours gametime, and I think that's enough to analyse the classes I have played, but I'm not claiming to be an expert on classes I barely even knew existed.

All I'm saying is that there's the potential that things could go wrong, especially with a topic as subjective as having "balanced loadouts".

I can't remember, but Javelin wasn't in the much earlier beta/alpha was he? He's basically the Panzerfaust of DB and you can play a pretty bugged version of him if you change some settings around on a local client-side server. Should be pretty fun.

yeah, i forgot about that guy =))))
so its 21 mercs, and 2 of them werent in the official test pool.

That really depends on what merc you're playing. If you're playing skyhammer with the default M4 loadout, for example, you basically need a 100% headshot hit rate to have any chance of taking him down, which is doable, but I wouldn't call it particularly "easy" if you're in a direct engagement. The only merc I'd say has an easy time of taking him down would probably be Vassili since the distance from which he'd usually engage would render the spread of rhino's fucking bolted on turret for a chaingun useless.

True, it does depend on what merc is being used, some mercs aren't particularly designed for fragging more than others (I mean, Fragger is literally the class for fragging, Aura on the other hand is just a incredibly hasty defib slave), but it's interesting that you bring out both Vassili and Skyhammer to be the classes you'd pick in order to take out a Rhino. You see with Skyhammer he has the M4A1 and Timik-47 of which have comparable stats, the Skyhammer would need to hit only a minimum of 7 headshots (Doing a total of 224 damage), this can be done optimally in just shy of under one second, (With an M4A1 the headshot DPS is 250, RPM of 536.7 - The Timik-47 is faster than the M4A1 by so little that it isn't a notable difference outside of theory crafting). Also I would argue that headshotting a Rhino is quite easy since in my experience his head hitbox is much larger than other models. In fact to further this, it will only take 1.57s to kill a Rhino with an M4A1 by using only bodyshots, still pretty damn quick.

Vassili on the other hand (assuming that the MoA sniper is used) would take a lot longer to kill a Rhino, requiring two headshots to do a total of 300 damage, that's . Vassili isn't optimal on all maps, especially since Vassilis will not usually be around in certain areas where a Rhino would be (Inside the first objective of Underground, Bell-storage halls on the side of bridge on White Chapel etc). It's hard to really say that Vassili is good at taking out a Rhino when he does less damage per second than a Skyhammer or Fragger, and cannot/should not be used in certain situations and areas of a map whereas Skyhammer and Fragger are more versatile in that regard. Only recently has Vassili been making more of an appearance in competitive play since with a strong Vassili you're able to pick off most targets making engagements easier or perhaps even weaken some of the strongest ones down for the rest of the team to fight against (of course, the former is preferred).

It's also quite literally impossible to take him down if he's travelling with a medic since a health station allows him to recuperate hp incredibly easily and it's a pretty ridiculously OP combination for holding a post C4-plant situation in any non-open area (think Underground's first objective). And then there's the revive times as you mentioned. Does that make Rhino OP or medics broken? Good point, because now you've mentioned it I'm not sure. But either way something needs to be fixed there, imo.

Take out the medic first, the Rhino has to wind-up his Chaingun before he can start shooting at you with it and that takes time, enough time for you to frag the medic (perhaps not gib, however you can leave that to other players though, or do it later if there are no other medics nearby). If his chaingun is already winding then you probably shouldn't be engaging directly and if you are to engage then you should be engaging from multiple angles with your team mates so that he can't cover all spots with ease. Furthermore judging from the way you are writing, you shouldn't be engaging a Rhino all by yourself, that's inane - This isn't CoD or CS where one person is capable of carrying their team, you require other members of your team to work together on fragging people more effectively, rather than just swarming into one heavily contested chokepoint that the Rhino is holding and dropping like fly's one by one. Sure in public games you will never achieve this kind of coordination, but you can certain still abuse the ignorant willingness of the level 2 drones that you now have on your team flopping in one by one and deal with the situation by yourself (flank that fat prick and his crew of divas).

but the stream of piss ability is so useful for multiple objectives that I'd argue it still makes her overpowered

lol no its not
how is it useful for planting c4s
how is it useful for defending c4s (especially since when it is placed directly on top of a c4, you still have the reach to defuse it)
how is it useful for repairing EVs
how is it useful for anything besides destroying an EV of which is beaten easily with Skyhammers airstrike capability which does more damage... It's not useful for objectives at all.

And let's not forget about the loadout cards which can bring her fragging ability up to the point of someone like a default Bushwhacker

Yes lets not forget about comparing a certain loadout to a default loadout, what a fair comparison. Following that let's assume that the Dreiss AR is the most versatile and viable weapon for her to use (At least in my opinion it would be), there is still not one single card that allows for her to be an extremely positive fragger in comparison to other mercs out there - You know why? Because she isn't meant to be and she never will be, regardless of loadouts or not - she will not be a viable fragger on an even playing field. In terms of cards that you have to choose from that use the Dreiss AR, you only have the D43 and D82 cards and neither of them are very spectacular. Kira is a situational pick, she isn't an all-round all-situation class much like Skyhammer.

Also I agree about mercs being incredibly pricey, however with the addition of missions being refreshed every 3 hours, I don't think anyone should be purchasing mercs with real money since you can earn enough credits to purchase a merc every day. Before it would of taken 2-3 weeks of just casual play to afford one of the 30k mercs, now I'm able to get at least 10k a day. Following that I can purchase the starter pack that is on steam for £20~, it gives me some of the most important mercs that are in the game right now and it'll also give me 50,000 credits in-game, so I can purchase another merc straight-away. Further more I too would also enjoy the possibility of purchasing a pack that includes all the mercs that are included in the game (And perhaps all bronze loadout cards for those mercs).

True, it does depend on what merc is being used, some mercs aren't particularly designed for fragging more than others (I mean, Fragger is literally the class for fragging, Aura on the other hand is just a incredibly hasty defib slave), but it's interesting that you bring out both Vassili and Skyhammer to be the classes you'd pick in order to take out a Rhino.

That's just because I've had the most playtime with them. There are still one or two mercs in the game I haven't even tried. I still believe my Vassili example is valid, given the distance from which you should realistically be engaging enemies if you're playing him. You made another good point - Rhino's head hitbox is larger than at least some of the other mercs, and he's slow as fuck. Personally I've never had trouble taking down a Rhino when I've played Vassili, although I've only played Vassili once outside of public games, probably 10-15ish more in pubs.

Take out the medic first [..]

Some nice tips, thanks.

how is it useful for

I prefer it to Skyhammer's airstrike since if that misses, it misses. Kira's laser can be remotely controlled and can be used to destroy pretty much anything including people - although I admit I have no idea about the difference between the raw damage output of both. Also, I'm not sure if it was the loadout card I had for kira or whether this is just a default option but her laser beam is huge, almost the entire width of an EV. Imo it's pretty versatile.

Yes lets not forget about comparing a certain loadout to a default loadout, what a fair comparison

That's basically the point I made in my last post - I don't like the disparity of power that certain loadout cards offer. As a completely hypothetical example, if two people of an equal skill level are playing against each other, but one has a default loadout and the other has cobalt, the one with the more overpowered card will generally get better results namely due to the weapon upgrade and potentially also due to some of the "buffs" (most of the buffs I've found on loadout cards seem to be relatively minor though, like 25% quicker melee weapon draw speed). Does that mean the guy with the cobalt card is any better? In the example I've presented, no. You could argue that such an example is an extreme case, hence the hypothetical nature I've attributed to the situation I've just described. But the universally applicable point I was trying to make is that Dirty Bomb is fine with ultimately lowering its skill cap by allowing players to overcome actual skill with more powerful loadout cards which will give them advantages over other players in certain situations. In my opinion, that's completely independent from the ideology of using different mercenaries in different situations (which is obviously a facet of the game's skill), although they've managed to create an imbalance there too, since just like loadouts, you have to pay for many of the mercenaries you need in order to play the game properly. And why are they fine with this? Because they just want to make £££ instead of a balanced game.

Your example of being able to purchase mercenaries through ingame credits earned is valid, although I'd honestly find it difficult to get 10k a day (maybe because I'm just not playing as often as you are, I'd only complete one set of missions per day max before I got bored, for example). The whole system just reminds me of LoL's RP model you'd employ to buy champions, although it's arguably not quite as bad in actual practice. I just disagree with creating an unnecessarily high barrier for new players that want to jump straight into attempting to play competitively. I know I personally found it frustrating when I first started playing the game and had airstrikes thrown into my spawn area by total shitters who finished the game with 3000 points and 7-20 kdr's.
I'd also argue that you need to be of a decent skill level to earn 10k coins per day, since many of the larger rewards come from gaining a certain amount of combat XP - given some of the (even relatively high level) players who I see ingame on public servers are pretty bad, I'd find it hard to believe a new player would be able to earn points to buy mercenaries from scratch employing the method you're describing.

Following that I can purchase the starter pack that is on steam for £20~, it gives me some of the most important mercs that are in the game right now and it'll also give me 50,000 credits in-game, so I can purchase another merc straight-away.

I didn't actually know that existed. Serious question: I got the game via the free Alienware key thingy posted here on ESR, would I be able to buy the starter pack on top of that too and have it act as some kind of bolster to my existing economy/loadouts ingame, or would it completely rewrite all of my progress so far?

Further more I too would also enjoy the possibility of purchasing a pack that includes all the mercs that are included in the game (And perhaps all bronze loadout cards for those mercs).

Let's hope they add it.

"As a completely hypothetical example, if two people of an equal skill level are playing against each other, but one has a default loadout and the other has cobalt, the one with the more overpowered card will generally get better results namely due to the weapon upgrade and potentially also due to some of the "buffs" (most of the buffs I've found on loadout cards seem to be relatively minor though, like 25% quicker melee weapon draw speed). Does that mean the guy with the cobalt card is any better?"

Cobalt, Gold, Silver and Bronze loadouts are the same except for Skins.

If you need the best loadout, you can use your ingame credits and by it right away.
Usually there are about 2 loadout card that are realy usefull. SO the choice is not so hard.
You just pick your vest weapon for this merc, and then take the card with best buffs.

Cobalt, Gold, Silver and Bronze loadouts are the same except for Skins.

Unless they've changed it since yesterday, bronze is lower than Silver/Gold/Cobalt. The reason why I selected cobalt was purely because the rarity is higher, and it's a higher MM rank. In theory though I agree it doesn't mean anything and was one of the reasons why I was so clear (or so I thought) at enunciating that the situation I presented was hypothetical.

I know how the loadouts system works perfectly well btw, my issue was with the fact that players who are just jumping into the game will be at a disadvantage. The only counter argument to this is that you need to be Level 7 before you enter MM by which time you should have accumulated credits/case drops/etc anyway, although if a player were to play pubs for the first time and get raped by someone who has a better loadout card than he does, it's discouraging. DB doesn't really require a tremendous amount of aiming skill, and the individual skill cap it did have has already been lowered by allowing people to purchase mercs/loadouts that will instantly give them the advantage.

Say what you want about it, my opinion is that it's a bad model.

patchnotes for a june the 1st update:
"Added loadout card variants that were previously only available at Silver/Gold/Cobalt
-These new cards are now included in the bronze bundles and prices have been updated to match the new additions"

and yes, i totally agree -loadouts system is bad.
but i can live with it.

damn, must have missed that. :(

you obviously play on pub

hasn't everyone?

I think what Medve is saying is that you play only on pubs... Pubs btw is not the way that Dirty Bomb was ever meant to be played, it's just that it happened to turn out that way. Splash Damage initially wanted the game to be matchmaking only but it's hard to do that when your matchmaking system is buggy as fuck.

Yeah I figured that's what he was implying, I preferred to just reply in an awkward manner because he was wrong. Although as I said in a previous post, I've had just under 50 hours of gametime, so I'm not claiming to understand the game as well as someone who's played since the beta first came out or thereabouts. To say I'm not as experienced as someone who's played 200+ hours is a totally fair point, to make assumptions about what my playtime comprises of isn't.

"I think what Medve is saying is that" theres a pickup with lots of leet finnish kids from et.

Great game, reminds me a lot of Wolf:ET. If you liked it back in the days, play Dirty Bomb.

I love ET and have been playing it for like 10 years and in comparison to it dirty bomb feels awful in almost every aspect, the only fun part is core gameplay is still almost the same and kinda brings some nostalgia.

Yes, ET is a better game than DirtyBomb, so is ETQW.
But DB is beta, and is getting better with every major patch.

Latency and response will probably not get better, but Maps will, i am sure.
For most part the whole fun is in great maps.
When DB maps will match the best from ET or ETQW - SupplyDepot, Goldrush, Salvage, Volcano etc etc then i will be satisfied.

its like brink but less bad

OPEN BETA

MY COMPUTER STILL CANIT RUN IT =[!!!!

Put some more coal it in you silly pole.

Dirty BOMJ

Been playing this non-stop for 2 months now. Finally a game that feels like ET.

played a sh*t ton of RTCW + ET back in 2002-2005 as well, hope DB really takes off when it gets out of BETA, already clocked 35hrs since late Feb.
I'm sick of all those retards comparing it to Team Fortress and cod, game is fast, fun and it stands out pretty nicely from the rest of the fps crowd, V57

http://www.crossfire.nu/articles/view/id/990

some very usefull config and console tips!!
-mouse input
-maxFPS
-visibility
-awesome binds

etc etc etc!

Should I play this? Is it better than gta5?
Is beta playable or is it cocaine and donuts?

here, watch some copmetitive gameplay from one of the latest cups out there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRKZPQV2_fc

this is all vanilla gameplay, there is no pro-mod or competitive mod yet.

Dirty Bong