Looking for feedback on the current state of racing / Season 8

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Hilbert wrote:

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janimauk wrote:

they should make DC and EL give no points if you die

But but.... then those races become unpopular as BLAMT.

i though ppl loved blamt fblamt elblamt because "lololol ahaha first monster killed me 100 times but i kept reroling, it was so much fun getting oneshot xdxdxdxd"

Honestly, I think it's dumb that you don't get points for dying in a "normal" race. You should get the points for the level you reached, but not for your placement for the race if you die.

D:C seems to be improved in the fun aspect, mostly because of the swords because using them is a blast (Kappa). But this race as a signature especially with these swords is a slap in the face to competitive racers.

Presumably, you reduced the length of the race so that pack density was less impact since players could not clear all of inner halls 1-3. But then you added the swords and players can clear inner halls 1-3 anyway. So once again, the race comes down to pack density. This is the same problem that both Descent and Descent: Champions have struggled with since their creation. You really had a chance this season, but it was ruined again by lack of testing and foresight by your development and balancing team. This seems to be happening quite a lot lately. Time to learn from your mistakes maybe?

Also this season has a horrendous schedule. Very little races at all for those who have a job in the US. I can usually only do 1 race per day, sometimes 2, sometimes 0. That is ridiculous. I have do all my races on the weekends and hope I don't die in any races to get any chance at the 1k point reward. I know that there is no perfect schedule or any way to make everyone happy, but this is ridiculous. I can mark an entire 1 week span that I cannot attend one signature race just because I work every week day.

Really hoping for some improvement on these things next season.

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Hybriis wrote:

Honestly, I think it's dumb that you don't get points for dying in a "normal" race. You should get the points for the level you reached, but not for your placement for the race if you die.

D:C seems to be improved in the fun aspect, mostly because of the swords because using them is a blast (Kappa). But this race as a signature especially with these swords is a slap in the face to competitive racers.

Presumably, you reduced the length of the race so that pack density was less impact since players could not clear all of inner halls 1-3. But then you added the swords and players can clear inner halls 1-3 anyway. So once again, the race comes down to pack density. This is the same problem that both Descent and Descent: Champions have struggled with since their creation. You really had a chance this season, but it was ruined again by lack of testing and foresight by your development and balancing team. This seems to be happening quite a lot lately. Time to learn from your mistakes maybe?

Also this season has a horrendous schedule. Very little races at all for those who have a job in the US. I can usually only do 1 race per day, sometimes 2, sometimes 0. That is ridiculous. I have do all my races on the weekends and hope I don't die in any races to get any chance at the 1k point reward. I know that there is no perfect schedule or any way to make everyone happy, but this is ridiculous. I can mark an entire 1 week span that I cannot attend one signature race just because I work every week day.

Really hoping for some improvement on these things next season.

its funny because the schedule is horrendous for working eu people too... who are they targeting with this schedule?

I've been looking at the schedule for the last week for the "signature races" Here's what it looks like for the U.S central time zone July 14th to 19th


Monday - 5:00 PM (Might make this one)
Tuesday - 3:00 Pm
Wednesday - 1:00 PM
Thursday - 11 AM, 5 AM
Friday - 10 AM
Saturday - 4 PM <-- probably the only one I can make

WTF? not sure if GGG understands this but... people generally work from 9AM to 5 PM. I'd be interested to know what the hours are like for primetime euro.

The week before descent champ ranges from: July 7th to 12th

Monday 12AM
Tuesday 2AM
Wednesday 4AM
Thursday 6 AM 8 AM
Friday 9 AM

so basically I have to wake up super early to even make one fucking single descent champions race during the weekday...

I guess it's coming down to having a job = get fucked from signature demis, top 20 demis.

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janimauk wrote:

]its funny because the schedule is horrendous for working eu people too... who are they targeting with this schedule?

Not Oceanic either. Races for the past week or two have either been during working hours or at 4am (lol).

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janimauk wrote:

who are they targeting with this schedule?

Theyre targeting boof.

#richgetricher

where is da boof?

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ GIVE BOOF ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

My feedback is as follows.

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Qarl wrote:

We are also making changes and adding to the Descent: Champions unique pool available at the start of the race. The two items we are adding are to specifically target the weakness of the Shadow class in this race format, and increase the range of builds available to all players.

It is very apparent to me that these new uniques were only tested in regards to shadow. This means that GGG did not, even once, use the most powerful and popular caster skill with the new items they added to DC.

There are 3 conclusions I draw from this:

1. GGG lacks the time to properly test new content (as evidenced by Invasion opening state). If they have trouble with a permanent 4 month league, how can they be realistically expected to be able to balance racing when it is not an area of major focus for GGG (reasonably, since most people do not race).

2. The persons who designed and implemented changes to DC lack understanding of the "Meta" of the racing scene, and because of (1) cannot discover the most obvious of butterfly effects of those changes. The fact that every single class can make use of the swords is obvious to the racing community. This quote

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We are testing these changes and want to allow for the development of new strategies in this format.

is unfortunate because for the classes that can make good use of the double sword start, they complete the race in the exact same format as when DC Was a 1 hour race. Ironically, Shadow is still (apparently) the worst class in DC.

3. Reluctance to admit that this cannot be handled internally is very, very disappointing to me personally. Many people in the community would gladly sacrifice their chance at a competitive demi (say for the first 15 races of the season), to help properly test this.

--Other Points--

Hybris is basically parroting what we discussed last night on mumble, and so I'll leave it to him, but I want to echo that the old point system needs to be reworked a bit to reflect the new meta of pushing yourself in every race (fostered by EL\DC giving points even in death).

Awesome replies you guys, really do appreciate this. If there are anymore newer races that have some feedback I really would love to hear it. :) Thx again everybody.