I played XO from the month of launch til mid 2019, got tired of the game’s shortcomings and this summer after 4 years of absence from the game gave it another try. The challenges that were in game were fun, and the nerf that followed not so much, but CC wasn’t so arduous in the beginning. RotM was a boon that kept my interest, but CC is no longer fun. There are too many meta builds (this problem has always plagued XO and likely will continue to do so as long as the dev don’t actively try to truly balance things, which it’s obvious they are making some attempts, it also seems they willfully ignore some glaring ones in the name of profit).
I sincerely hope this game keeps getting better and better, but it also appears that for every two steps forward made in this game, there’s a step and a half backwards.
The CC scoring needs to change. The paltry rating obtained from winning by capturing the base is absurd. You can score better without even winning or doing very well when losing. The effect time has on rating is also just not well thought out. As long as a player contributes a minimum baseline of contribution, the whole team should be rated. If one player strips 3/4ths of the enemy team and then dies, only for one player to come in and mop up all 4 kills against the enemy team, the player who got the killing blows shouldn’t get the lion’s share of the score, it’s a team effort, and the TEAM should be rated (again, allowing for a minimal level of contribution threshold). CC has become too arduous, and you can tell by the number of veterans who excel at it who have been leaving the game for the past few months. CC rating WAS fun the first few months, now it’s just a slog of a chore for many, and it’s also becoming a chore that’s more and more arduous each week for many of the playerbase.
Speaking of team scoring, raids also need to be scored and rewarded AS A TEAM. I use a tryhard dual retcher harpy build in raids, and I am capable of soloing most of the raids easily, and about 90-95% of the time my score vastly outstrips my teammates. Because of how raids are rewarded based on performance, my teammates have a legitimate reason to hinder MY performance, and I’ve had several teammates intentionally body block me, ram me, etc to try and either block my shots, or make me take damage from my own blast. It causes people to play extremely selfishly in raids, and just adds to the already fairly toxic nature of this game’s community. I recently got my girlfriend to give the game a try, and she’s enjoying it now, but when we do raids together, I have to hold myself back to keep from ruining her payout. We’ve done frontier defense where I’ve made over 38 plastic (with no bonus) and she got less than 20, and we both used the same exact 5k PS MG build i made for her. This is unideal. It’s a coop, team based event, why discourage teamplay?
I’ll not single any specific items out, but while the game has come a LONG way towards balancing the various aspects of the game, it still has a long way to go. Especially considering many of the superior items that don’t get much balancing are stuck behind pack purchases or other forms of coerced capitalism, which is why there are many complaints about this game coming off as blatantly P2W within the in-game chat, no matter how many staunch defenders of this game try to shout it down, it’s a perception that persists and keeps many people from trying it (NONE of my social circle outside of my girlfriend, all of whom are avid gamers, want to touch this game because they see it as awfully pay to win, and miss me with all of the “it’s not p2w, it’s pay to advance” nonsense, advancing the multiple years it would take to get a full build of perfectly fused relics to compete in clan wars or go stomping against newbies with chintzy noobhammer builds using porcs fly in the face of that argument).
The price controls on the market (creating minimums and maximums for item sales) need to be across the board and static, or dropped entirely. We’re talking about digital goods, they’re not real. Either have it set so that when too many of an item is at the minimum price, a gm can just come along and delete the surplus, that’d be less awful, IMO.
The bots need to have their omniscience curbed. It’s one thing that they know precisely where all enemies are at all times, regardless of radar, it’s a bit obnoxious that they know precisely where everyone is AIMING at all times, but it’s also blatantly obvious when using slow turning weapons/builds that they also know where you are attempting to aim, and that they know kb/m inputs. Their hyperawareness is immersion breaking and extraordinarily infuriating. Just because the server knows it, doesn’t mean the enemy team should. You can corral bots with your aiming reticle, and they are aware of reload times and exact chain of spread patterns of retchers and the like. It’s made cannons, and especially medians, practically useless against any of the bots in most modes unless you do flick shots or wait for them to wreck into something. It’d be one thing if they could only focus on one enemy that they’re close to, but to track all enemies at all times, especially ones they realistically can’t even see, and to KNOW their control inputs!?
The scaling of the bots’ damage and health in raids and especially in the adventure mode, is a bit much. I have started doing adventure mode with a 5k build because my higher PS builds don’t stand a chance, especially with the aforementioned ESP. The only advantage WHATSOEVER to bringing a higher PS build into raids/awakening is to pad the numbers for the challenges that require damage being done.
My last major complaint regarding this game is the “win X number of missions for X resource” challenges. With matchmaking being the absolute nightmare that it is, I ask that a set number of resources from missions be obtained. Instead of “win 5 rounds of get the batteries”, why not make it “gather 50 batteries from missions”?
Small final complaint: why have a filter for chat if you’re going to punish people for using filtered words? I understand punishing those who circumvent the filter, but the filter comes enabled when the game is installed, and as long it’s not “cleverly” circumvented, why is there a need to punish people who use those words? I applaud this game for not doing like many other games and outright banning people for using no-no words in public chat spaces, but why not just cease punishing it if the filter’s not bypassed?
P.S. Please, for the love of all the holy things, can you expand the blacklist? I don’t have time for smart alecks, trolls, spammers, or people who every 5 days decide to drop an N bomb trying to be edgy before enjoying another lengthy mute. Or the angries sending hate mail PMs after you defeat them in pvp.
Again, i really, really hope this game finds a path to real success, and I think it has the potential, but some of the leadership decisions regarding this game just don’t do it any favors.
PSS add mortars at special and epic tiers, possibly even rare
Agreed.