dreamstation
Gold Member
After what Hi-Rez did to the Tribes franchise I told myself I would never touch another of their games. Seems like they haven't changed one bit.
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Paladins players erupt in anger over 'pay-to-win' changes in latest patch
- Thread starter TheSpoiler
- Start date
Looks like some kind of airburst/flak cannon gun that detonates in proximity to airborne targets... which is problematic in a game where all other weapons are precision-based, hitscan weapons like rifles or explosives that detonate on impact. Tribes games had players spend a great deal of time in the air, so the highest damaging weapons, explosives, required proper skill and timing to detonate close to an enemy on the rare moments where their feet touched the ground.
EatinOlives
Member
So many Tribes brethren. We need to start a support group or something.
It was straight up filthy how often they'd introduce a deliberately broken weapon only to nerf the fuck out of it 2 weeks later, well after everyone either bought it out of the gate or raged at the brokenness of the weapon and bought it to stay competitive.
It was straight up filthy how often they'd introduce a deliberately broken weapon only to nerf the fuck out of it 2 weeks later, well after everyone either bought it out of the gate or raged at the brokenness of the weapon and bought it to stay competitive.
For many people game is better than Overwatch, due to being different and more team play focused.
OW is not better, is different.
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Problem is that current cost, which is based on currency that you earn in unpredictable way, of legendary cards hurts game longevity. New players or even players that do not play very regularly wont be able to be competitive.
Turin Turambar
Member
Because Paladins is more fun.
Technically both normal cards and legendary cards (that unlock a more different or poweful ability) are all side-grades, not upgrades. Every champion has a default, free, card loadout and a default legendary card. So it's true isn't a direct pay to win.
The problem is unlocking gameplay options behind a huge grind. Which indirectly can be 'pay-2-win' too, if some of those options are unbalanced (they make balance changes every patch but sometimes they need time to do it).
Yeah, they recognized they didn't make the best business model with Tribes Ascend, so they did it much better with Smite. I'm happy how they did it with Smite. You unlock gods (or buy them all with the pack), that's it, that's all the gameplay options you can 'pay'.
Now they are returning back to the same shit done in Tribes Ascend.
Which is the situation in many f2p games. Of course anyone can try and calculate how much they need to pay to reach the competitive treshold and if that cost is too high for what the game is offering.
CommandThrower
Member
Bingo. Before this update, Paladins was just fine. You got gold on the quick by just playing, and you could easily get the cards you wanted.
The new ESSENCE currency and the legendary cards are not something you can earn on the quick by just playing. If you want essence quick, you have to gamble with opening chests--they're now worse version of the Overwatch loot box, and they never used to be. I do think HiRez did a decent job with giving every hero a "default" legendary card that's effective enough as an all purpose card, but some of the locked legendary cards are quite good and have do have an impact on gameplay.
I think HiRez will roll this back to some extent, they have something with Paladins, and I don't think they want to squander it.
This sounds great for the players, but obviously the game wasn't generating enough revenue for the developer.
Turin Turambar
Member
I think the art style and the decision of dividing cosmetic items in pieces were mistakes. Smite is still receiving very well done, very detailed full skins, some that totally change the character design, while I look at the skins of Paladins and they seem... cheaper, more amateur.
GankzyMcfly
Member
I felt the same way after pkaying the tribes acend beta years ago..fortunatelyni gave them a second chance with smite and thatvwas a solid experience, enjoying paladins (for what it is) on xb1 at the moment in its beta phase. Dont think these changes have made their way to the console version yet but if they do im afraid im going to have to take another hi-rez vacation...im fine spending a few dollars here and there on cosmetics but i dont enjoy the frustration of worrying about spending money on the right cards etc.
Evolution of Metal
Member
Perhaps they could invest in making nice cosmetic content instead of gunning for more games in production. All other main F2P games (including Smite) had a continuous release of new content which only went up in quality.
Paladins have a lot of players on Steam, but Hirez has scooped all the freeloaders who didn't want to pay a dime for OW.
spindoctor
Member
Hi-Rez had a habit of "accidentally" releasing broken/overpowered weapons in Tribes on a regular basis. In this gif you see the player take damage even though the projectile clearly misses him.
Guns like this would stay broken for a week or two until they got around to fixing it. In the mean time, people who bought it with real money had a game breaking weapon and those who didn't want to spend money were faced with an insane grind to unlock it with the ingame currency.
bati
Member
I think the point of that gif is to show the VERY generous hitbox of the first iteration of Plasma Gun after it was introduced to the game. It was so easy to air burst people with it, I probably racked up ~500-700 kills on the first day with it
.spindoctor
Member
I remember it clearly. 188,000xp to unlock some weapons. You'd get around 2000xp per 15 minute game on average. A solid 20-25 hours of playing just to unlock one gun.
Hi-Rez ruined Tribes.
I played Tribes Ascend religiously for a few months when it was new, up through the second big patch. I even represented my favorite gaming site vs Machinima in a friendly tournament. I paid ~$30 to unlock pretty much everything, much like you would via buying a retail game, so I thought Hi-Rez was one of the good companies.
I had no problems with anything they did in TA regarding balance during that period of time. Did things change that radically? I heard that they made Ascend completely free or made a gesture along those lines not that long ago.
I had no problems with anything they did in TA regarding balance during that period of time. Did things change that radically? I heard that they made Ascend completely free or made a gesture along those lines not that long ago.
JigglesBunny
Banned
Hi-Rez has a reputation of poor balancing and scummy business practice with their F2P titles. Unfortunately, this was a bit inevitable.
Like many others have said already, look at Tribes: Ascend and everything they did to that game. Absolutely crazy disregard for balance and the community.
Like many others have said already, look at Tribes: Ascend and everything they did to that game. Absolutely crazy disregard for balance and the community.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
No idea why someone would choose to play this over Overwatch. As much as people say they are different games, you clearly wouldn't want to play both as they are too similar. Free is never free.
QisTopTier
XisBannedTier
it's crazy with how much love they put into smite how half ass they treat paladins
Vital Tundra
Member
At first I did, and in a way it's still true to me, but it was pretty enjoyable as a shut off your brain kinda game. I love Overwatch but Paladins was alright.
I play both and I even bought Paladins Founder Pack.
Yup, they deserve every bit of criticism for these changes.
I don't regret spending money on it because I had fun with it, but I'm not going back to it unless they bring the old system back or drastically change the essence cost for legendary cards.
This is ridiculous.
I also remember a few days ago someone suggested a Hi-Rez employee creates a smurf and show everyone how fair this system is. They said yes, but backed down. I wonder why? It could be that they don't want to commit to these changes yet, and are thinking of still implementing changes, so there was a rescheduling. Or they know this will just make them look even worse.
I don't regret spending money on it because I had fun with it, but I'm not going back to it unless they bring the old system back or drastically change the essence cost for legendary cards.
This is ridiculous.
I also remember a few days ago someone suggested a Hi-Rez employee creates a smurf and show everyone how fair this system is. They said yes, but backed down. I wonder why? It could be that they don't want to commit to these changes yet, and are thinking of still implementing changes, so there was a rescheduling. Or they know this will just make them look even worse.
ashecitism
Member
DryBear's post about upcoming changes: https://www.reddit.com/r/Paladins/comments/5vy7zd/essence_legendary_updates_thanks_for_all_the/
Turin Turambar
Member
The grind has been alleviated somewhat, but it's still grindy if someone prefers to play the game jumping from champion to champion (like myself), instead of focusing on a few ones.
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
The changes seem great. I have enough essence to craft every legendary I am missing and have enough essence left over for 24 legendary cards - so basically the rest of the champs they plan on adding.
Ploid 3.0
Member
It's fun, you can try it without any investment, it plays different than overwatch.
Jawmuncher
Member
Yep. Just makes a newer player base jumping into the game even less of a thing.
The last game I played where that was an issue albeit not F2P was TLOU MP.
Keep the ground even. Veterans will already have the time over beginners, no need to make it even less attractive to them.
SweetJohnnyCage
Member
Genuine question. What do players get out of the chests? Is it not just cosmetics?
Ploid 3.0
Member
Coins, cards, and probably some new stuff. Before this news, I liked the whole system a lot. It was easy to get the cards you wanted, and I liked sticking with one character and picking midgame loadout standard cards to deal with situations. Felt good.
That's exactly what they were doing until now. I don't get why they did this.
Mobius and pet octopus
Member
The OP isn't updated. The changes they made seem to have significantly quelled down the criticism - as far as I can tell.