Letter to Dakota

Hello,

Myself and the majority of the Fatal Frontier community has not been satisfied with the changes to the Fatal Frontier Meta-game, primarily the unbalanced changes made to both Wisdom and Agility skills.

The changes have not only created a ridiculous unbalance in the PvP aspect of Fatal Frontier but has severely ruined the Exchange value of many characters that once were considered the most valuable.

Due to the fact that real money was required to obtain these characters through the events and the Exchange it seems like the development team has essentially taken away any perceived value from affected characters and thus making any money invested into obtaining them a waste.

When significant changes affect the product so severely that people are no longer getting what they have paid for then it only shows how little value your customers have to your company.

Regards,

A former paying customer

I can shorten that...

Dear Dakota,

Stop banning people for no apparent fucking reason, or every last one of us will stop playing and move elsewhere.

Have fun with making profit then.

I can shorten that...

Dear Dakota,

STOP. Just stop.

Love,

Everyone that hates you.

Dear Dakota,

Do whatever you have to do to keep the game up and running. I recently had to shut down a Facebook game because we didn't have enough sales to support the server costs. All of the free players were terribly upset. I'd rather have a game to play than not

Love,
A pragmatic developer

^^ here here

Spent two days roaming for a game to replace this one- it doesn't exist!

Keep FF up!

Same :/ let me know if you find one!

agree with legend, Do what is needed, this game is the best game their is. survive, grow, then regain some freedom to return to what made it great in the first place.

I agree, FF is the best game out there and the only way it survives for us to continue enjoying is if we support it. I dislike the recent events as much as anyone, but without us the game is history. Then where will we turn? Bb is too corrupt, GI Joe is too slow and laggy, and no other game comes close.

Can't agree with the sentiment legend brought up. This is coming from someone who first opened the thread that FF would needs heavy balancing in the form of stat inflation, new skills, or nerfs; I discredited the last option as it's simply unethical corporate practice and undermines the existing playerbase. The digital products Dakota gives out require either monetary payment or copious time investment. You can argue that the it's a freemium model and entertainment has been provided to players who lost out. I can argue back that FF has in-game advertisements, viral mechanics, and monetization siphons from paying to non-paying players.

Regardless, none of these are the crux of the issue. The crux is that once given your digital items (through money or time), of which we have no real ownership of, and while using a service in which Dakota has all authority over, they have the ability at any time to provide substantial grief to its consumers. This is the same dynamic in many relationships and is the form of an implied trust system. Their method for handing this situation griefed a large portion of players and simply said was a dick move. It's unfortunate that we enjoy the game and will likely continue to play, because more than anything, it shows how principles, empathy, and reflective pragmatism have shifted in today's society.

Legend, I didn't know you were a dev. I've been a part of several high-grossing games on Facebook and various social networks throughout the world but I'm still on the other side; I can't agree at all with this practice, as it wasn't the exclusive choice, even if it was to keep the game afloat.

mrpug, you make some good points. I can see both sides of the issue, but I also know that sometimes you have to choose the best of bad options. Also, I've been burned by merc packs and fug bugs enough that I won't spend any more cash on this game, so my opinion in this matter reflects the fact that I am essentially a 'free player.'

Then again, I feel that this managing this forum and the running the wiki brings more value to Dakota than buying a few merc packs ever could.

^ way more value! what you do is holding the community together! thanks!

Yeah I know that this forum and the wiki are most likely the best player retention tool dakota has haha.

and you have done a great job updating that mamoncrief

^ second that!!!

Ditto!

I deleted BB and GI Joe Months ago and FF would have gone with them if it weren't for this forum.

^ seconded

Now that Dakota has upset so many people in the name of 'balance' they have an obligation to see it through to the end. Hopefully a truly balanced game will be worth all heartache this has initially caused. The state of 'balance' thus far is nonexistent.

I read somewhere this wasn't intended to be "balancing" they just had too many complaints from players who "couldn't do better than players with those mercs" despite continued spending.....

This was done to clear out the top players plain and simple at the complaint of lower level players....

Communism at its worst...

What I don't understand is that if these paying players felt shut out by players holding fistas and the like then why didn't they just buy a fista or other mercs...

It doesn't add up

You mean except for the fact that all the people who payed 100 AC + for decent CXB-2000U & CXB-2000A's just have to move on without any compensation after losing at least 3/4th of that res ?!

Fresh, they did it for my sake so I could feel better for clearing out my POPE black bots post-raid for a measly 18 AC each because I figured they would be worthless like every other savage before them. Thank you Dakota!

What about fista tho I can understand the cxb's but they went too far and left the game way too inconsistent. It's just as, if not more, unbalanced than ever now

I am not sure how you can actually gauge how balanced a game like this is, but I will have a go.

In PVP there used to be a ridiculously large gap between the "best" team you could make and decent team. There were certain top teams that were virtually unbeatable even by other top teams. I don't see that as being balanced.

In raid it was really easy to make a team that was capable of getting an L and there were certain top teams that were tremendously overpowered. I don't see that as being balanced.

Now, I would guess that in PVP we probably won't have those "unbeatable" teams anymore and that there is a smaller gap between the "best" team you could make and a decent team. I would probably call that more balanced than before.

In raid, a team of savages will most probably be the "best" team and it will be much harder to make a team capable of getting an L. I would probably call that more balanced than before.

So at the end of the day I do think we are at a better place, however, the end definitely does not justify the means.

As far as the changes affecting me, in the end I think some of my mercs lost value and others rose in value. I have no idea if my modified PVP team is still capable of getting an L (we will find out soon enough though) and I am trying to build a raid team that will probably do less than half the damage of my old one that is worth significantly more.

You surely can't believe that players most affected received those mercs by random chance tho. Those who invested more time and or money and played smartly earned those superior squads, or am I incorrect in that assumption?


Since I've stopped playing I'm realizing how much free time I had made for it each day lol

I got a Hanzo v2 for helio V2 that would have been an impossible trade before the nerf.

I guess what I am getting at is if you look at the mercs right now, overall, you don't have the overpowered combinations anymore - which means the game should be a better experience for everyone. We will only know whether this is true or not after a few events have taken place to see what people come up with and how they work.

However, as I said in my post, the end doesn't justify the means. So although I think we might have ourselves more balanced game on a whole, I do not agree with the methods they used to get there because of all the reasons that have been previously stated by others.

I think Niobe will be one of those overpowered merc very soon haha.

Nope, she is rubbish. Definitely not worth making pope so she goes first. Also not worth using in PVP as an attack and def buff is just a bit silly really.

That is an opinion many people would disagree with dan. She might not work for you, but she has the highest buff in the game at the moment, and it hits atk and def. Better than a golem or a POPE primarch and it hits 2 stats. just saying.

I think every merc is overpowered, they should all have 10% modifiers and proc rates. Then PvP would be loads of fu.

Sorry sarcasm doesn't really come across well. I hoped the statement "a def and an attack buff is a bit silly really" would give it away....
 
Pretty much my PVP hopes now rest on the POPE Niobe which I am building as I can't seem to get a hold of a mordeo.

The buff mechanic of Niobe will be rather useful in raid. it had my Knuckle driver hitting 60k plus against tower boss atm lol the buff stack again event boss is defo the best of all buffers. I think Legend is gona show some crazy numbers next raid, have to wait and see...

So I'm wanting incin-primarch-incin-primarch-incin back row then leader-niobe-incin-niobe-in in on top. That's the raid team I think could do some crazy damage......yet I bet it still wouldn't touch a savage team.

^ great, extremely expensive team!