Once again we would like to thank everybody who took the time to fill out the feedback survey included with the latest wave of the beta. Based on that survey there are a few things we would like to share (as we have been doing), so let us take a look!
First a bit about you, those who have responded: Beyond more players taking the time to provide feedback to us (once again thank you), we are seeing a continued trend moving overall enjoyment upwards from previous builds. This tells us we are doing something right (or at least you think so!). Just under 90% of you are franchise veterans (another stat that has been edging upwards as the waves have continued) and we thank you for your continued interest and enjoyment of our games!
On to the big change in Closed Beta Wave 5 (CB 5), audio. We’ve noted the issues many of you have reported and are already working away at them. We are also continuing to work on some of the remaining sounds and audio balance levels between them. With that out of the way, it looks like overall the new system and sounds were a smashing hit among the testers - averaging a 4 out of 5 across the board (as a measure of enjoyment)! An interesting note, with the new music that was added, just over 50% have decided to leave it on always, with 25% choosing to do so situationally or as the mood hits them.
Now to gameplay mechanics, starting with the changes to the bleedout system (which has been switched to a hold that can be broken out of as well as other underlying changes). The majority reported in that they were happy, but it looks like there is some additional work we can do here that we’ll be looking at as we move ahead.
We will also be looking into the ease of picking up items as well as using emplaced weapons based on this round of feedback. While not in a bad place we feel we can get it better through additional system refinements.
And to round off our gameplay systems, the testers have voted not to vote kick the updated vote kick system!
The last few items to cover are movement, HUD changes and performance. With further HUD and messaging changes being a big part of the next beta wave, it is good to see that our updates to the Supremacy gametype overhead map have gone a long way towards helping players understand the mode and what is happening.
When it comes to movement we think we have a good idea on what to tackle to help players feel like the game is doing what they want it to do when it comes towards mantling (a quicker start) as well as major collision improvements across the maps for the upcoming beta so overall players should have a much better time navigating around and spending more time shooting!
Many of you reported client performance issues this round of testing and work is already underway to address many of the issues seen (especially on Hue), but overall this will be an item that we will be continuing to address through all final beta stages up til launch.
As a reminder we’ll be at PAX East this friday with a panel (details here: http://steamcommunity.com/games/418460/events/ - We’ll be talking about development and answering your questions! Don’t forget to ask your questions in the Steam event linked if you can’t join us in person, we’ll try to get to many of them!)