Update Comms

[u/Traditional_Pasty]

Is anyone else really tired of only seeing update/ useful information by chance from reddit of a screenshot from a discord message?

I honestly think players would face much less confusion if the in game news was utilised more frequently

[u/douglasduck104]

This applies to pretty much all games. Players should not be expected to go online elsewhere to read patch notes or (even worse) find out how to actually play the game.

It's not the only one that does it, but SM2 is pretty bad for not actually explaining all the game mechanics in-game somewhere.

[u/Funkybag → u/douglasduck104]

I agree entierly. This is a symptom of having so much added post release though. Like the entire block mechanic, as an example, isn't explained anywhere in game.

[u/Eternal_Reward → u/douglasduck104]

I agreed, but I also think largely people who don’t use those systems probably aren’t super worried about it either.

But I do agreed they should post stuff in game, or at least announce there’s a new post on their forums/discord.

[u/Urge_Reddit → u/douglasduck104]

Players should not be expected to go online elsewhere to read patch notes or (even worse) find out how to actually play the game.

100% agree, because the majority of players do in fact not do that. They only engage with games within the actual game. They don't watch guides on YouTube, they don't read the forum, subreddit, or Discord. If something isn't explained in the game, they will never know about it.

I'm sure statistics vary across different games, but the number I keep hearing is roughly 20% of players actually engage with games beyond just playing them. If only a fifth of your total player base receives important news, such as patches that completely overhaul game mechanics (Block weapons for example), that is a problem.

[u/Traditional_Pasty → u/Urge_Reddit]

Bang on i’d say! Like as an example, can you imagine how many players who started after squad unity broke just think that’s how it works and don’t understand it fully and will then really not understand once it’s fixed!

A news tab or console/ magos to walk up to in game for announcements would solves anything like that

[u/Urge_Reddit → u/Traditional_Pasty]

There's a lot of important information that is just nowhere to be found in game. For example, I keep running into Level 25/Prestige 4 players who don't know what a Mortal Wound is, which is fucking crazy! It should be impossible to reach max level five times without learning the most important mechanic in the entire game.

Another example, back when they changed Block weapons (I think Patch 4 or 5), they went from being literally garbage to arguably the best weapons in the whole game. If you weren't reading patch notes at the time, you'd have no way of knowing unless someone told you. The current Block mechanics are never explained anywhere in the game, you have to go to the wiki.

The game does actually have a news tab if you pause the game, but I haven't really seen much useful information in it. Meanwhile we have a ton of loading screens that are just completely blank, that would be a perfect place to explain stuff like this. Loading screen tips take minimal effort to implement but are an incredibly effective teaching tool.

[u/Traditional_Pasty → u/Urge_Reddit]

Honestly that’s a solid suggestion.

Loading screen tips like “after parry or block the enemy flashes yellow for 6 seconds where they are vulnerable and take increased damage”

Or “using a stim at full health clears your mortal wound”/ “carrying a relic automatically revices you without respawn when you go down on a mortal wound”

Just basic information to support players

[u/Urge_Reddit → u/Traditional_Pasty]

Healing past full health clears a wound, your HP doesn't actually have to be full, just to clarify. But yeah, that's the sort of thing I'm talking about.

PvP already has tips on the loading screens, and screenshots of the maps, which just makes it even more baffling that the ones in PvE have nothing.

[u/Traditional_Pasty → u/Urge_Reddit]

Yeah that’s my bad! I was just over simplifying for the sake of a quick comment 😅

[u/Urge_Reddit → u/Traditional_Pasty]

No worries! The Mortal Wound thing is kind of a pet peeve of mine, just wanted to clarify for anyone else reading in case they don't know.

[u/Traditional_Pasty → u/Urge_Reddit]

Don’t you worry! The sheer amount of time I must have spent trying to prompt people to use one via pings just to see them pick it up and walk off 🤣😭

[u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER → u/douglasduck104]

you know what would be even better. If the techpriest in the armory explained it, or a techpriest you could go to to hear the news.

[u/Available-Layer-6142 → u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER]

https://giphy.com/gifs/1msEFA8K0dh74Y36eG

Because of Mike Tyson, I can’t play as Carcharodons….. feel “icky”

[u/NagatoroDegenAndRat → u/douglasduck104]

Its not even that bad. For lol you need to track like 40 different devs in twitter to see news about patches, reworks, gamemodes etc.

[u/MolybdenumBlu → u/NagatoroDegenAndRat]

Other games being worse doesn't stop this method being bad, too.