The future of the game
Hello everyone, I want to talk here about how I and many other players feel about the current state of the game and where we are headed
To start off I will say that I have played the game since the first day of the alpha test and really loved it. Me and any other players only want for the game to succeed, be popular and more fun. But there are several problems.
In recent days we see drops of the steam playerbase, the peak player count is getting farther and farther from 1k players. The most direct effect is that builders keep getting almost no raiders, forcing them to refill their outpost only in hope that next day they will get more raiders. Unless this can be turned around it risks becoming a downwards spiral until there are no players left. While this is partly out of the developers’ control, there are things that can be done to increase the appeal of the game.
In no particular order, here are some of the areas that could be improved:
• Advertisement
• Bugs & Exploits
• Outpost Difficulty
• Communication
• Balance
• Ranking
Advertisement and Events
Advertisement is one of the most important aspects in new games. While there is some posts on Twitter, they are mostly with an already known info about traps&guards, instead of any promotion appeal type.
There should be more investment into advertising the game in other platforms to make it more known.
Another important aspect is having many events to keep the game fresh. Players doesn’t need to do unofficial contests, especially not in a new game, it needs to come from the devs side.
For example, having some building contest that in the end will reward them with trophy that they can put inside their outpost for like room/hall of fame or just shown on their profile (need to add it too) will help keep the game up.
Bugs & Exploits
There are certain bugs that have been present from Alpha that are still there, and while most of them are insignificant there are a few major ones. I don't think there is any reason to list all the bugs because they were reported already but I will note some of the major ones:
• Alt+f4 when raiding simply deletes any progress made, making the builder receive nothing and the raider lose nothing (more like get knowledge about the outpost for free).
• Second wave corrosive cubes let traps target the raider through them.
• Certain block combos prevent the raider from going in/out, making hrv afk at the start.
• Outpost difficulty sometimes changes on its own if it is right at the border between difficulties.
• HRV can be instantly killed by a piston before it has a chance to move.
• Reply system gets bugged to an unusable state
Fixing these bugs may not bring new players directly, but it increases the chance that streamers or content creators will become ambassadors that help promote it. It also makes people less likely to just stop playing, since some of these issues are really frustrating to deal with.
Outpost difficulty
While it is almost impossible to judge the actual difficulty of an outpost automatically, there probably needs to be a different scale to difficulty. Assuming most of the capacity is spent on traps and guards, a Brutal outpost made from 1500 capacity is not the same as one with 5000+. This means that in Brutal especially, difficulty can swing wildly.
On the other end of the spectrum, trying to create fun stuff with holocubes like simply big wall of them, can rank up the outpost to Brutal with almost no danger at all(so difficulty wise it should be normal). Holocubes themselves are completely harmless and should probably not add much difficulty unless combined with other traps or guards.
Communication
Ever since the closed Alpha, there has been pretty strong feedback that players are not seeing any communication with/from the Devs.
Just recently, I looked at the MYM Bug Reports forum and didn't see any responses from the devs on any reported bug. We also don’t get any kind of announcement about patching the bugs or even saying "we know and are working on it" .
As an Alpha player, I and many other players sent feedback about the game, only to find in the end that the Beta version hardly changed. Not only that, but the final release had only minor changes and quality of life updates compared to Alpha. We don't know if our feedback is even being read, which feels a bit demoralizing after spending a lot of time testing and hoping to help improve the game.
Balance
The most used resource in the game right now is Synthite. Synthite is used to unlock traps, guards and upgrades for both. The main use for it though is to buy and maintain Outposts.
Once an outpost has gone through an activation cycle it needs to either be refilled or prestiged, depending on how many Prestige points it accrued. Both these actions cost Synthite. By the time any outpost reaches high Prestige levels it will have cost the builder thousands of Synthite.
The main way of gathering Synthite is through raiding. The problem here is that if a player want to focus mainly on building, he is FORCED to raid and raid a lot.
Not counting the materials needed for buying traps guards and modes, simply the required amount of Synthetic is huge.
Short math about it
To level up the chimera and get the 250 synthetic bonus, the player needs to get 25k genmat in total. If the player raids only brutal maps he needs almost 6 brutal maps combined with champion outposts. In the process he get a bonus of 125 synthetic. So in total 375 for 6 brutal maps.
If taking into account that the player using boost to increase the gain of synthetic and destroy every trap and tombs in the map(which some players blocks to remove any access or make the materials drop into corrosive cube), he can get around 80 in average, making 6 brutal worth around 850
850 is around the average price of buying and prestige outpost so maintaining 5 of them requires raiding 30 brutal maps
In short, builders needs to basically raid more than raiders to have the basic option of maintaining an outpost. This calculation was done for brutal, the hardest difficulty in the game which is not for every player especially those that want to invest in building.
*about the materials gained from players dying in outpost, it requires to have players playing that said outpost. Current state of the game with playerbase drop, I hear about builders refilling their outpost multiple times to have enough prestige points, myself include.
Ranking
Rank in its current implementation is a detriment to the well-being of the game. I’m sure it was implemented with the best of intentions to create a competitive environment and keep the game interesting for a longer period of time, but what we have does not accomplish that.
The first issue is that it is always on. There is no different game mode for casual and rank, unless the map is on social, the player is forced to play with the least amount of deaths. So raiding an outpost for fun and doing many risky plays is just a lose for the player.
The second issue is that there is no separate ranking for building and raiding. Being skillful at building and raiding is simply not the same, and the amount of points builders get is almost of no value at all compare to one deathless brutal raid.
Third issue is that rank points direct the builders to simply build outposts that the goal is to get the most deaths possible. This lead for more repeated killbox setup and less artistic and fun outpost to raid.
One important point is that kill rate of an outpost doesn’t reward the raiders with better stuff at all.
Final words
Please understand that this comes from a place of love of the game you have created and what it has the potential to become. There are flaws, but it is not too late to remedy them. As a fan of the game, I would like nothing more than for Meet Your Maker to take off and become a huge hit.
I just hope you read this and consider it. Even if you don’t respond.
Comments
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Great job on summarising the most important issues the game has. It's really hard to add anything to this. Fixing even a single point from this list would be a huge improvement to the game. I really hope we will see any answer to this, although knowing BHVR reputation I doubt it.
Only thing I can add is that at this point I wouldn't really advertise the game xD Unless they would just made the game an Early Access title and fully admit that the game is still far from a complete product.
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A well written summarization of the state of the game.
I would like to offer counter points a couple of things.
Synthite from Chimera level:
What is the math for added genmat gain boost at 30% for speed to level up the Chimera?
What about genmat gain with bases in overdrive?
I do both of these and mainly run Dangerous small bases. I may have to run more, but the runs are faster and easier (often 0 deaths and under 5 minutes). The Chimera level ups have been enough, plus synthite from tomb/trap destruction to maintain 5 bases consistently.
Synthite shortage leveling up versus endgame:
I completely agree that when you are trying to up raider gear, buy and upgrade traps/guards, and maintain bases; sythite is in short supply.
I have yet to get there, however, once I have all my gear/traps/guards, if I keep my same pace in raiding, I see myself building a surplus fairly quickly.
On the note of forcing builders to raid:
I dunno why builders seem to have this idea they should be able to just build 5 bases and expect the game to play and maintain itself while they continue go buy lots and build bases with almost no raiding. If nobody raids, bases go unused. Expecting 'somebody else will do it' isn't going to help this game succeed. Forcing builders to raid promotes the value of building.
Builders should be raiding just as much as non builders.
Examples for comparison
-5 builders (that dont raid) and 5 raiders.
25 maps. The 5 raiders get 25 runs each and never run the same map twice. 125 total runs, builders get 5 runs each (with varying results) and now have to make new bases
-5 Builders who also raid and 5 other non building raiders
25 maps, all 5 builders get 20 runs (obviously can't run your own bases) and the 5 raiders get 25 runs each and nobody runs the same map twice. 225 total runs. Builders get 9 runs each base, with varying results. and now have to make new bases.
Obviously this is a small slice of how the build/raid ratio works, but it should illuminate the 'supply versus demand' of builder and raiders, the importance of raiding as a builder, and how 'being forced' to raid promote the overall health of the game.
If you build, you likely undersrand wanting people yo raid your base, so pay itvforward and get out there and raid like there is no tomorrow (when not building of course)
If nobody built anything, the devs could/would likey build maps that never 'retire' (Like the first map everyone runs) and occasionally drop new map content to keep the game on 'life support' until players builders decide to build again.
The game slogan is 'Build. Raid. Upgrade." Not just 'build' or 'build and upgrade'; all three. Thatvraiding bit is very important.
The last I will counterpoint is the third bit about ranking;
Fun is subjective. I dont enjoy running against killboxes and dying, but I sure feels good to beat them. Sometimes I give up and abandon the raid. The builder gets a singke kill when their goal was likely 3-5 (from a poll result on the very forum).
Tieing back to the build/raider counter point; If more builders raided more the might realize killboxes the absolutely stifle progress are not great as raiders, if raiders dont raid, builders get nothing. The goal should be to make a bases just challenging enough to give them hope of winning while killing them as much as possible in the process. Its a very delicate balance and the 'meta' for it spans into social psychology, probabilty, etc; all way beyond just placing a trap with map builder.
Most everything else I agree with in your article.
In conclusion, I too love this game. I wish I had been able to participate in the alpha and beta, but I will continue to 'Build. Raid. Upgrade." until the game dies (which hopefully isnt anytime soon).
Hoping to see everyone raid my bases, regardless of the kill count; and I look forward to trying everyone's bases, even if I cant beat them killboxes and end up abandoning the raid attempt.
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Well said, sir. I too, very much so, enjoy this game. Even though I am really bad at raiding/building. It's a unique game to me. Which is really awesome. There may be something out there that utilizes the same concept, but I just don't know it. I've only started playing recently. I really enjoy sharing my little normal small base kill footage with my kids. They like it as well. I would buy it for them both, but I'm unsure of the future of MYM. The lack of communication is a red flag I can't ignore.
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I like to call this game a "Doom meets Mario Maker" game! It's a great serotonin drip and I'd love to see mini-custodians! I'm hoping this game doesn't pull a deathgarden.
And it's okay I'm absolutely horrendous at building!
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