To 343: Regarding Patch Notes

Dear 343,

TL:DR
Two topics; include values of changes in patch notes i.e. instead of “HP significantly increased” have “HP increased from 150 to 170”. When producing further patches, try to change very little, small changes in RTS’s can make huge differences, i.e. in this patch you nerfed hunters/ cyclops and buffed scorps/wraiths, perhaps it would have been better to only nerf H/C and see how tanks roll out and change them next patch if they aren’t quite there in the first one.

I have two topics for this post;

First, I have played many RTS’s and typically when patches are released full notes on the percentage change or the values changed are given. This is because for me as a player, it is difficult to know what the difference is when you say “DPS slightly reduced” or “Health significantly increased”, is that 5, 10, 50,100 or 200% changes? This is important because it is difficult for a player to make a decision on how much stronger or weaker a unit is. I have a build I work with every game, and without solid numbers from the notes I have no how strong it is going to be and if I need to change it. A simple production of numbers in almost every change in the notes would help alleviate the pain that a player has in that regard, which can increase the level of play, which almost everyone wants.

Secondly, typically in RTS’s come out with new patches they change very little because small changes can make huge differences. I do understand that the game is still young and a lot of the changes coming are good solid changes that needed to be made and I believe the changes will help the game. With that said however it feels somewhat like a knee jerk reaction (I mean that in the nicest possible way) to some problems the game currently faces. Things like nerfing cyclops and hunters and then buffing scorpions and wraiths can be a huge change, in my own experience most other patches try to only change one thing at a time such as nerfing cyclops and hunters first, and then buffing tanks next patch if necessary (In the spirit of my first point, if numbers were provided in the notes perhaps some of the worry could be avoided). A second example is with the buffs to hellbringers and elite rangers in conjunction with the marine nerfs and economy changes. Perhaps only a buff to the anti infantry units was required, or only the economy changes, or even just the marine nerfs, it seems like only one of those changes could have been made to see how it all works out. (Again, if numbers were provided in the notes perhaps players would understand all the changes better). As I said previously, I do believe that many of the changes were warranted, but I think in the future it would be beneficial to change a lot less items.

To end, I don’t wish to tell you how to make and balance your game at all, these items I’ve mentioned are commonplace to me in all the other RTS’s I play and I would like it if they were implemented in my new favorite RTS :wink:

-Kero

I agree, I think there were a lot of changes this patch.

I think the most important thing is including values with the changes that happen. It’d be super useful so players can visualize the changes and if their strategies will still work. I.e. something like Scorpion HP increased from 150 to 170

I’m really hoping 343/CA will come forward with a full numbers blowout, that’d be awesome.

Right now our only way to tell is by the health bars, but because every unit deals damage in so many different ways it is very very difficult to find out just how much damage they deal.

For example marines have 4 assault rifles, but the rate of fire is not burst damage. Then there’s the Grunt Squad, 1 spiker and 3 plasma pistols. And their damage diminishes as units in the squad die.

Then there’s units like the locust or sentinel that deal sustained damage.

Not only that, we don’t know how many weapons/armor types there are and we’re left with just the basic R/P/S mechanic to make our minds about it.

So please 343/CA the fact that HW is simpler than most RTS doesn’t mean we’re not hungry for relevant information about the game!

They are taking a page out of Titanfall 2’s book. They did their patch notes the same way. The philosophy behind it was “people tend to overreact when seeing their favorite weapon being changed by numerical values.”

Total crap, I agree.

This! 500% this! One thing that League of Legends, Or Starcraft does is they give numbers, same with OverWatch. Seeing as though these games are this games major competitor if they ever consider Halo Wars 2 as an eSport, we need this type of information.

i would like numbers to be in patch notes

A nice, constructive, and relevant post. I agree. As it stands now, when one reads the patch notes they should realize that the meta is going to change immensely. Or at least it has the potential to do so. We simply don’t know how they define “significantly increased” or other similar terms.

I, too, have worried about how many of these changes are knee jerk reactions. But if they are telling us that sentinels were never meant to do that much damage to buildings I believe them. It’s just now I’m worried Anders is going to go from a tier 1 leader to completely irrelevant. We will see I guess.

It’s a massive patch and I agree with most if not all of the changes being made. But numbers would be much appreciated going forward from this.