Isn't about time Dog Days gets a FUN pass/rework?

[MobyTheDuck]

Another year, another Dog Days, same slog.

Anything that makes the mode slightly more interesting, rewarding or, dare I say, fun, gets patched with unreal speed. Meanwhile, several glitches I've experienced are still around like Demolysts completely glitching you.

Every time they fix an "exploit", seems they never put much thought on "why are players trying so hard so exploit this mode?" "Why are players just going AFK in a few spots instead of playing?" "Why are players trying to deal more damage?"

Might be the weapon, that completely blinds you while shooting, with an aim reticle that makes no sense, pathetic damage and constant need for upkeep so it shoots anything past a few centimeters away from you?

Might it be the enemies, that are almost literal damage sponges, get constantly lost on the map and have a variance of AI that ranges from "lethargically wobbles across the map" to "I am 3 parallel universes ahead of you"?

Might be the rewards, with gains so low and prices so high that at this point require you to literally play 100+ rounds to get all rewards, without duplicates?

Might be every other problem, like having teammates being detrimental because only the killer gets a pearl, even if he just hit the last shot, instead of the entire team getting one?

I have seen players talking about how unfun Dog Days is for like 5 years. Yet all that seems to happen is that any new find that speeds up and makes it slightly more fun gets slammed down immediately.

[Pakaku]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad minigame, it's a gimmick with a cool tileset. The problem is how they're expecting people to actively grind the mission thousands of time, as you do, when it's really nothing more than a small diversion in practice at best

I'd say stick it in the Ludoplex as a full-time minigame, since that IMO represents what it really is

[PollexMessier]

The teamates one is the absolute worst.
Like the mode's somewhat interesting when you have the chaos of 3 team mates and 12-16 enemies constantly dying and re spawning all over the place.

But because it's literally a detriment to have teammates cus kill stealing is a thing and 3 out of 4 times at best you get less pearls than you would solo, you're basically shooting yourself in the foot trying to play with others.

And solo is just, Kite, shoot, pump, kite, shoot, pump, kite, shoot, pump, refill, repeat.

God forbid people get assist pearls (or just full teamshare), or the game mode be actually interesting with warframe passives being allowed. or the pump be put on the damn reload button instead of alt fire which would make it way less frustrating to use.

The waterbaloons suck too, their splash range is abysmal, they do barely any damage to enemies at the level of the one mission you can farm pearls from, and you barely get enough of them to soak a single enemy with per pickup. It's not even worth the time it takes to swap to them. And gee wouldn't it make sense to, I dunno, put them on an ability key and treat them like a grenade instead of a secondary?

Edited September 5, 2023 by PollexMessier

[MaxTunnerX]

3 hours ago, MobyTheDuck said:

Another year, another Dog Days, same slog.

Anything that makes the mode slightly more interesting, rewarding or, dare I say, fun, gets patched with unreal speed. Meanwhile, several glitches I've experienced are still around like Demolysts completely glitching you.

Every time they fix an "exploit", seems they never put much thought on "why are players trying so hard so exploit this mode?" "Why are players just going AFK in a few spots instead of playing?" "Why are players trying to deal more damage?"

Might be the weapon, that completely blinds you while shooting, with an aim reticle that makes no sense, pathetic damage and constant need for upkeep so it shoots anything past a few centimeters away from you?

Might it be the enemies, that are almost literal damage sponges, get constantly lost on the map and have a variance of AI that ranges from "lethargically wobbles across the map" to "I am 3 parallel universes ahead of you"?

Might be the rewards, with gains so low and prices so high that at this point require you to literally play 100+ rounds to get all rewards, without duplicates?

Might be every other problem, like having teammates being detrimental because only the killer gets a pearl, even if he just hit the last shot, instead of the entire team getting one?

I have seen players talking about how unfun Dog Days is for like 5 years. Yet all that seems to happen is that any new find that speeds up and makes it slightly more fun gets slammed down immediately.

As much as I agree, let me just remind you that a few weeks ago this forum was spammed by people DEMANDING dog days to come, even though everyone knows what they are like.

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

Yeah, I feel like some adjustments could be nice. Not necessarily needed but I feel like even a few small and easy improvements could done and greatly increase the enjoyment factor. At least for myself. 

Like I think a lot of people give up on the mode, and look for AFK strategies, which can be annoying for people trying to play more sincerely, but since they are probably just trying to grind though something they find unbearable, well sort of makes sense they look for such strategies, but then also impacts those that may potentially feel similar but also play authentically/as intended. I don't think its the largest issues, but I think about 30% of my matches had one or two people with less than 4 kills. Not that they were bad, which incidentally I don't mind, but it also affected how the enemies behaved and moved. 

I also think they could introduce something like kill assists earning pearls. Maybe some additional ways to earn extra? I do my best to not kill steal (and think I succeed), but the Lob Grenades... well, when I see three/four enemies clumped up, I will instinctively go to hit them all, I've usually already softened up a few, but if one of them was worked on by someone else and they ran near them... Except its also fun to kill so many enemies at once. It can also be hard to track every ally and enemy and the directions they shoot and other behaviour so like... Something that can reward aggressive (to enemies) behaviour, and also team work and allies who are good at softening up and doing damage, but not necessarily getting the final death kill etc also being rewarded. 

I understand why they don't want Vigorous Swap being a thing, but I actually think they should just make that an innate interaction as a part of swapping between Soaktron and Lob Grenades, to encourage the use of both if different situations, and so swapping methodically. Adds more gameplay elements and tactics and thus rewards skill/timing. Solutions like that. Maybe introduce kill streak buffs (which would be bad for kill stealing but if that was addressed and fixed, would be fun inclusion). 

[Tsukinoki]

2 hours ago, MaxTunnerX said:

As much as I agree, let me just remind you that a few weeks ago this forum was spammed by people DEMANDING dog days to come, even though everyone knows what they are like.

And a lot of that was from new players going "How dare you old players gatekeep the event by telling us it's not a fun event!!!!!"

And now I've seen some of those same people complain about how bad the event is and how team-mates ruin it and everything we tried to bring up.....

5 hours ago, MobyTheDuck said:

Might be every other problem, like having teammates being detrimental because only the killer gets a pearl, even if he just hit the last shot, instead of the entire team getting one?

The only counterpoint to this is "But that just encourages leechers!!!!"
To which I say "So what?  Why should a few leeches ruin the event for everyone else?"

 

This is an ostensibly team focused event....except that teammates are at best leeches, and at worst actively detrimental....especially with the new water balloons.

It's like DE wants to make KSing even more prevalent and easy because now you just have to wait for the last 3rd of the enemy healthbar for a guaranteed steal of a kill and a pearl that your team mate just now won't get, but you can now do it to multiple enemies at the same time!

 

It's weird how DE tries to push team events, and then makes it actively harmful to your progress to have teammates.

Edited September 5, 2023 by Tsukinoki

[taiiat]

the Watergun blinding you is certainly terrible as ever. the Enemy practically may as well be invisible while you're firing.

 

but, the addition of the Grenade i think is the right way to go for most of the gripes about the Content. i.e. a wider selection of Weapons. it will inherently make the Content better in several ways, a more than two Birds with one Stone type of scenario.

though, there's the Killstealing aspect that should still be addressed in some way. so that Players are less competing against each other. or there is more to Event Points than getting Kills at the expense of your Allies. like uh, maybe taking a hint from Conclave Dailies.

[Voltage]

I lowkey enjoyed the vigorous swap thing, as it really made the mode something of skill to earn 50+ kills a game. It would be nice if certain mods worked in general so that things like Holster Amp and other niche mods would see some use.

[MaxTunnerX]

On 2023-09-05 at 2:46 PM, taiiat said:

the addition of the Grenade i think is the right way to go

I can cofnirm this. I played dog days today and used the grenade thing only. The game was so much more pleasant than using the soul sucking default gun. So yeah it was much better than when I played them last year.

Edited September 10, 2023 by MaxTunnerX

[MobyTheDuck]

One year later, the mode is still the same slog as it was last year.

The weapon still loses pressure on the first shot, even if you preemptively pump it.
The shots have too many particles, blocking your view.
Some enemies downright VANISH and never find you again, either getting lost between rocks or not knowing how to navigate the map.
Some enemies still snake around you at lightspeed, so if you get Garesh you might as well restart.
Items still cost too many pearls, 250 for a glyph, that is about 3 to 8 rounds depending of your kills. A new player to the event still has to play LITERALLY HUNDREDS of rounds.
Kill stealing still enforced. In a PVE game.

BUT THIS TIME, you get 2 pearls per kill! Woooo!.... BUT, they reduced the end of round reward from 50 to 30, so unless you get more than 19 kills, you are earning less than last year. (50 + 19 from 19 kills in 2023, 30 + 38 from 19 kills today)