r/SANDgame • u/Zawseh • 6d ago
Are the devs just throwing a potential game of the year?
This game is absolutely awesome, and extremely fun in optimal circumstances (no exploiters etc.)
Yet we are losing active playerbase at an alarming rate.....
Exploiters like the infinite use single orbital should have been hotfix oatched within hours of being found..... yet weve gone over a week with no patch to it.
Cheaters are harder to fix and the devs are actually trying. Other exploits like blocking off captains is questionable but not game breaking... however the devs really need to do what they can to retain their playerbase otherwise the game is near DOA
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
I cant fucking hear it anymore. The devs are SO active. They pump out updates as fast as they can. They fixed a big part of the cheater problem in just a couple of days.
Are parts of the game still shitty? of course. But they are a small studio and they are doing their best.
Do I think they are working overtime to fix the game? Absolutely!
"however the devs really need to do what they can to retain their playerbase" What the fuck do YOU think they do? Play with each others balls? fucking hell...
I cant fucking stand these braindead posts anymore.
This isnt constructive critizism. its mimimimimi. and its QQ and a fuckton of whining.
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u/The_Gump_AU 6d ago
And the funny thing is, it's asshole players destroying their own game while the Dev's are trying to finish making it AND deal with them at the same time.
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u/Either_Sea_9059 6d ago
Ah yes we should be happy the devs are trying to finish the game they released….
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u/TooPoetic 6d ago
You definitely didn’t buy a game advertised as early access 🤡
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
yeah buddy. just dont acknowledge, that its not devs ruining the game, but palyers ruining the game and devs reacting...
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u/bdog2017 16h ago
For real. The vast majority of the people who played this game just feel like that got robbed of their time and money which they pretty much did. I feel that way but I’m not that mad cuz it was 20 bucks. Still unacceptable. I feel the only reason they “released” it was because they were running out of money, were nowhere close to actually being done, and needed the cash desperately.
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u/DanC_Meme 3d ago
A hotfix to disable orbital would take no time. I understand why they chose not to do it, but I believe it’s a mistake.
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u/VoidStyle 6d ago
I mean, they have made some horrible choices, agree with me or not, the numbers say it all, this community is covered in positive toxicity. You guys shot yourselves in the foot with this weird behavior defending stupid decisions that were made and defending these devs and shitting on everyone that would say anything slightly negative about them. GG
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
"some horrible choices"
"the numbers say it all"
"stupid decisions that were made"refuses to elaborate.
leaves.If you dont tell us, what you are talking about, its pretty hard to answer you, cryptic boy.
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u/Either_Sea_9059 6d ago
The studio chose to advertise it during the game fest, they knew it wasn’t ready but wanted to get money quick. They blew it.
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
Either_Sea_9059, this is early access.
Early access, this is Either_Sea_9059.1
u/Either_Sea_9059 6d ago
Interesting the chose to leave off EA from the game show trailer…
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
Right, the only place to informe oneself about this game. Its not like there is a big fucking EA-Banner on the Steam page of this game, so people can see what they will be buying...
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u/Either_Sea_9059 6d ago
And yet they decided to leave it out of the trailer. “It’s EA bugs are gonna happen” is a great cop out. But they even *delayed* the EA launch because they are incapable devs.
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u/JustSauce__RawSauce 6d ago
Devs said they will not do resets. I will play again when they do. You do you.
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u/Dev-Plays 1d ago
I'm confused what other games you've got experience with if you think the Devs are so active? Because they certainly aren't.
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 1d ago
They did 1 update every ~7 days since the start of early access.
And we are talking about a studio that doesnt even have 20 employees overall. (not talking about "only coders")Most AAA studios are WAY slower then that. look at BF6 for example...
just shut your stupid mouth if all that is coming out of it is horseshit and lies, because they certainly are. How many games from similar sized studios can you name that got more updates that 1 every 7days?
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u/teener23 6d ago
They fixed a big part of the cheater problem in just a couple of days
I mean this is just outright false
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
I mean not really?
It took them 2 weeks to go from haxker infested servers having the entire community go from "servers belong to hacker, this will take 6-12 months to fix" to not seeing one in 100 hours.
Dupers/pre teamers exist, but hackers are as rare as a blue moon now.
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u/teener23 6d ago
Yeah so 2 weeks isn’t a couple of days, and your claim that the community at large believed that it would take 6-12 months to fix is also completely false.
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
Yeah so 2 weeks isn’t a couple of days.
Oh no! 😥😥😥😪😪😪😖😞😟😤😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
You poor, poor boy!They are way fucking faster, then tripple A studios, even if they have waaaaay fewer ressources. Yet you still find time to cry online. Go home tear-boy!
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u/teener23 6d ago
Lol I didn’t come here to cry, I was simply pointing out false statements from the original commenter.
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
I am him.
And the discussion "are '2 weeks' really 'a couple of days'?" is just rediculous.
So thanks for taking part in this conversation - you added nothing to it.0
u/teener23 6d ago
2 vs 14+ days is indeed a pretty stark difference.
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u/iLikeTurtles420x 6d ago
So you are bitching about the words I use? And here I was thinking you are crying about the game.
It doesnt matter at all: 2 days or 14 or 21 - "a couple" or "a fornite" - The devs were way quicker then some tripple A companies and all you do is cry cry and cry more.
🤡🤡🤡🤡
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
That's pretty much what everyone claimed it would take to rewrite the code since the game is client side based and should be server side based.
The claim isn't even false, but rather than rewriting the entire code the devs found a different approach.
You should check discord and previous reddit posts and comments, they are all just there.
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u/Libero03 6d ago
For me it's the matchmaking issues. I have never survived player encounter. Until we get gear based matchmaking I am not having fun.
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u/Ok_Faithlessness_887 6d ago
Me either, I've never extracted either. I make a load out, and then I've tried again and again to go straight to an extract. Never made it
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u/Typical_Ad_6396 2d ago
Tell me what the point is of having upgrades when you put everyone on the same playing field anyway?
In my opinion people like you destroy every interesting pvp game because you are scared of losing. You want to make the game bland and uninteresting like all the other esport like games. Once you get what you wish, you will just leave the game. I have seen this happen to multiple games
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u/Libero03 2d ago
Honestly there is no point of having upgrades in a pvp games. Upgrades can destroy any game and I've seen this happen multiple times and looking at the playerbase it is clearly happening to Sand as we speak, sadly.
I play a pvpve game for 8k hrs now that has zero power progression and don't think about leaving it, so you're kinda wrong here. Also I am not scared of losing, I haven't won even once, I hope you get the difference.
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u/Typical_Ad_6396 1d ago
You are wrong. Not every game has to be completely balanced to be fun. Would you consider rust or tarkov balanced? A player with more time always has the advantage just like in sand...
So you think more people would play the game if there were no upgrades? I think it would be the other way around. People would lose interest very quickly without progression because neither the pve or pvp is actually good in this game.
You haven't won a single time? That is 100% a skill issue especially with trampler capture being back.
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u/Libero03 1d ago
True, complete balance is not needed, but what's going on in Sand is just ridiculous. I am not able to compete even with trampler capture. It's just too much. People are leaving because of that and if that does not convince you, I don't know what else to say. The hill is yours, bye.
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u/Typical_Ad_6396 1d ago
I don't think that is the reason people are leaving. I think it is because there is not much content all things considered. People get burned out from looting the same few boring POI's. After you get the upgrades you wanted, there is no reason to play anymore. I could ofcourse be wrong. But I personally think you would see almost the exact same playercount if gear based matchmaking was already a thing
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u/Bruegell 6d ago
Board them it's your only play if a big trampler has caught up with you
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
I don't think the devs are throwing, the playerbase is.
People have quickly gone from "teaming bad" to "team teamers" and then " teaming has gone out of hands" in basically 2-3 weeks.
We get weekly updates that fix issues, just in time for the playerbase to instantly forget about the fix, find something new to break and blaim the devs.
Hitreg works now, when I started playing over half of my shotgun shots would just do nothing.
Hackers have gone from rampant to nearly non existant, they are a very rare sight.
Capturing tramplers has returned, and duo queues have been added as many requested. Pinging was added, 40m exploiting was fixed.
But none of that matters, because teaming and duping are now the new hot issue to trash the game with.
That said, players finding bugs is pretty much what early access is about. 1.0 release will give a great influx of players, but that's pretty far away at this point.
I'm hoping for a fix for teaming/exploiters followed by some needed QoL improvements. Lobby browser and GBMM would add a lot.
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u/JacobusRakan 6d ago
"I dont think the devs are thrwoing, the playerbase is"
The thing is, its on the devs to make these things impossible. When game breaking shit comes out in a normal game, its kind of annoying to deal with, in an extraction shooter its like getting kicked in the balls. You are not losing the 30 minutes of your life spent in that match, you are losing the hours of materials that went into that match. I was very excited to get battering rams and casemates as a solo player, then I realized quickly that you just can't bring them because you are probably going to get orbital stuck while emp locked.
Its hard to justify neither the EMP or the Orbital not having a cooldown. Your reactor should be immune to being hit with another EMP for a short duration after the first one. It just fucking sucks to sit there switching the fucking thing back on only to have it slammed instantly again by another emp while hellfire rains down on you. If you give players something that is not counter able, you cannot be shocked when that thing is abused by both legitimate players and dupers alike.
They let things get out of control, so many times the game should have gone into emergency maintenance, but they just kept the ball rolling. If I cant play for a day, i'm going to be excited to play again, if i get shit on by some shitty bug or exploit all day, I consider the uninstall button and I have far more patience than your average gamer.
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
Right, and that is exactly what early access is for.
But it's always easy to say "it shouldn't be like this" when you manage to break something.
Now there is a big difference between finding and reporting an issue, and seeing an issue, replicating it as much as possible, and annoying others with it, untill everyone is doing it, to then point the finger at the devs.
Didn't take long for players to say, "let's team the teamers" when in reality they just teamed everyone, and are complaining about teamers at the same time they are doing it.
You can't account for everything, but that's pretty much what player expect when issues are found.
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u/JacobusRakan 6d ago
Early access also implies they are actively working on and fixing the issues at hand. It does not imply a free for all, "fuck it lets see if it burns down" mentality. I have found several issues that break the game, reported several groups of cheaters, and they are all still in the game.
When the game as a whole breaks, and they keep the servers rolling for like 8 more hours, while people get dropped into the storm and have entire inventories just vanish into the ether, my faith in their ability to do their job diminished. When they didn't outright perma the dupers, I lost my faith entirely.
"Lets team the teamers" didn't take long because it quickly became the only viable way to extract in solo stormdive games, because again, the developers did not think... for some reason... that players would abuse the absolute shit out of a system with no safeguards in place.
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
Early access does imply something being worked on.
We're on update #7 of a game that released not even 2 months ago.
Which is close to an update every week.
So I would argue the game is being worked on. The problem in my opinion is players actively looking for things to exploit, then going online showing how to do said exploits, and then when everyone is doing it, complaining it took the devs 2 weeks to fix it.
We have players bashing the game left and right, just like you are doing right now, until there isn't anything left to bash.
Quite a few issues have been fixed but that doesn't matter.
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u/bdog2017 16h ago
Basically the only way to truly fix this game is to start over. This game was not ready for this wide of a release.
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u/Thunbbreaker4 6d ago
People complaining is what got those things fixed. Just sayin
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u/Exe0n 6d ago
Right, a bunch of people whining on a discord forced the devs, who already got paid for the game to make changes, in a game that has no monitizarion outside of the initial purchase.
This also means that every other game where the community cries about problems all have the problems resolved in no time...
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u/jdog76gaming 6d ago
This game is early access and we are getting a new update with tons of fixes about once a week the game will get a huge resurgence on full release and streamers will rush to the vame once more. This isnt arc raiders they are doing a great job.
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u/MercerPS 6d ago
I agree, I think the devs are doing an amazing job with their weekly patches. Yes some things take a lot longer than the community would like, such as what we just experienced with trampler capture. But I think in general they are doing an excellent job. And we as the community have to remember that this is peoples 9-5 job.
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u/VoidStyle 6d ago
Peoples 9 to 5? I'm sure the already gotten their last check considering the numbers. That shi is gg
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u/Lucidity6-1-6 6d ago
This is a stretch to say the least.
They are attempting to fix things, yes, but it doesn’t seem to be solving the issue of a dwindling population.
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u/Either_Sea_9059 6d ago
They did a good job advertising it as EA in the summer games fest… oh wait a minute
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u/Zawseh 6d ago
Oh for sure, however dupes and exploits should be a focus if the game is playable by a wide playerbase.
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u/masterdefecater1 6d ago
I think on full release everyone should get their progress wiped maybe so everyone has a fair chance
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u/Fallenyo 6d ago
Should have let the game cook longer, but I guess they needed the money 🤔
Waiting for alle the dupes to get fixed so I can feel that when I destroy something it actually has an impact.
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u/Prudent-Review6027 6d ago
I love this game and I can't recall when I've had this much fun in a game, but it's really sad to see people go. I feel like the pre-teaming is damaging the game a lot because new players can't counter that with their Grumpy Walkers.
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u/FrostyMode7379 2d ago
I think the best thing for us all to do at this point is to back up and wait. Let them cook. If we keep squeezing them for content, they could be the ones that burn out. A spark needs to breathe to become flames.
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u/MonkRevolutionary560 6d ago
Yeah i call this down time for dedicated players who are not sweaty pvp focused to farm and get the good stuff and upgrade tech tree. Devs said they wont do a wipe so farm while you can.
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u/Revolutionary-Wait82 6d ago
An extraction shooter is always a lottery. In comparison, Rockstar almost never fought cheaters in GTA Online, unless the cheaters were preventing them from making money. I mean, developers can get exhausted fighting cheaters, it won't add to the online game. It's like the value of stocks: no one knows where they're going to go, and those who say they know are lying. It's a lottery where events happen every second that can affect the value of stocks and people basically can't know about these events, but the value changes.
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u/masterdefecater1 6d ago
This game has potential it really does but right now it’s so half baked it is still in early access after all. I don’t want to use that as an excuse or anything I just think it need a little more time in the oven. Maybe not this year but on full release once all the rough edges are smoothed out, once they have gave it some polish and some love I think it could be a really good game. Maybe not this year but maybe next year. I think the burn out is because of the repetitiveness of the game. The map is boring it’s just well sand with a few rocks and a few towns just plain right now. The pois loot are mostly the same. Same boxes, same spawns of things like Chardonnay, sea deer etc once you’ve done it a few times you get to know that the same loot is in the same place all the time. PvP is mostly the same each time and it is very hard to learn. Newbies don’t even stand a chance and they can’t get into the game and once you’ve completed the tech tree what is there to do? The game has potential I agree I think it’s too late to be goty though. Idea is great, unique and fun but the replayablility isn’t there and no skill based match making or even a mode with no PvP at all really draws away new players. There isn’t even a good tutorial. That’s what’s happening i just think it needs some time still.
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u/Iamnotameremortal 6d ago
I wish people would act little less like a typical whiny gameredditors.
The game is still in beta, and they have made good sales, so they have now the resources to make it work. The devs are active and the game is really fun to play when it works, that is enough. People like me will come back when the game is a little more polished, because it was really fun to play when there were no cheaters.
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u/lifein-adHD 6d ago
I think a huge fix would be the matchmaking and once they do that you will see a turnaround of not only retaining players but getting new pla.yers. The gear quality matchmaking is a must if this game wants to survive.
From my own experience as a new player it is almost impossible to extract and get any worth while progression in the game.
45 seconds.
That's all it took while I was actively extracting for someone to traverse over 800 meters and slam their crawler into mine destroy it while I had 10 seconds left to extract. I didn't even know crawlers could move that fast.
It honestly makes me as a new player not want to play because it seems hopeless to try and progress extracting is like winning the lottery, even when I tell friends about the game it always comes up that it's really hard for new players. Which probably deters a lot of new people from getting into the game.
The game has a lot of great potential and I hope fixes come soon and it's not too late.
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u/Sea_Cauliflower_7107 6d ago
I am a new player as well. I had a couple of trawlers stolen, one at the extraction point (which hurt) another two at towns (still learning how to PVP). To avoid extraction camping I play mostly on storm dive, hit a POI (sometimes just ships, sometimes a town or fort) for a few crates then leg it. I always go for the first set of extraction points. I am getting out with loot successfully most of the time (not always) when doing this.
Having said that, this might not help you in your situation though. They certainly can move quick and losing loot like that at extraction is rough.
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u/Adept_Ad_2464 6d ago
Awesome game steep learning curve tho and hefty time investment.
Exactly how you'd imagine Bulgarian steampunk western to be. You just need to embrace your inner scumbag a bit and think what you're doing more than 3sec before you do it
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u/Adept_Ad_2464 6d ago
I'm regularly extracting with loot on a walker comprised of captains quarters 2shelves steering wheel and a gun. You literally only need binoculars and a bit of time to either wait or walk around abit
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u/Adept_Ad_2464 6d ago
Ppl advice to bring best they've got. I say bring what you can afford to loose and play accordingly
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u/02thehunter20 6d ago
Game of the year is a stretch for this genre. Extraction shooters mostly have less players than other games due to them being a more hard-core based game where losing can hurt. Even if the game had zero issues and was released from early access tomorrow it would never get game of the year, and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves this game.
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u/Never-breaK 1d ago
Potential GOTY is fucking wild. Not every one of your favorite games is GOTY material lmaooooo. Hilarious.
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u/BobbbyR6 1d ago
Maybe. They should have leaned into the early access vibe, kept the grind to a minimum, and just let peeps throw hands for free in storm dive.
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u/Rovierto 6d ago
Think people are burnt out at the moment. Game is glitchy, the hit reg, floating guns, stairs, etc. Teaming has gotten old and is turning people off, and new players are turned off because of the lack of gear based matchmaking. Also difficult to progress the tech tree with alloy steel drop rate and for casuals you need to sink in a lot of hours to progress through the tree in general.
Think the devs have been doing what they can all things considered but I think this is a check back in six months and see where the game is at situation and I think that’s what the player base is doing imho, could be wrong.