• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

BioWare Provides Update On Anthem Rework

Mista

Banned
anthem1.jpg


Hello Again!

I hope this finds you well and I appreciate everyone’s patience as we work through the right timing for new information. We’re excited to share with you our next blog, but we also want to be respectful of the larger conversations happening in the world.

Recently I started answering questions on Twitter and asked all of you to name some of the changes you would be most interested in hearing about – the response was pretty awesome. Lots of good topics and themes and an excitement to know more about where we are going. So, to kick this off we thought a good starting place would be to go over our high level goals and changes we are exploring with loot and equipment.

Before we get started though, we love that we are able to share the progress and give a peek behind the curtain. That said, the ideas, images and video clip below are works in progress and all subject to change. Remember how the sausage is made…

Satisfying Loot Experience

A good player experience depends on the loot system being extensible and robust, and a lot can go wrong. A lot did go wrong. We fell short here and we realized that building something new from the ground up was going to be required – starting with taking a long look and understanding the best in class of the many great games that inspire us. Based on this research, along with your thoughts and feedback, we planned some high-level goals and changes we wanted to try:

  • Respect Your Time
    • Increase the frequency of Loot Drops
    • Loot is viable more often; All items are better and more competitive, but there’s still a chance of getting something exceptional
    • All loot rarities have strategic value throughout progression
  • Embrace Choice
    • You can pursue specific loot without relying on randomness alone; Quests; Specialized Vendors; Unique Loot Tables
    • Modify your loot, including rerolling inscriptions and leveling up items
CMR-Store-1024x576.jpg


Create a Rewarding Loot Experience
  • Loot feels exciting and more noticeable when it drops, and is celebrated when collected
  • Rare enemies (aka “walking treasure chests”) create exciting moments to get a burst of loot all at once


Keep it Accessible and Immediate
  • Reveal and equip loot right away
  • Complete revamp of the equipment sheet – including a detailed stat sheet (not shown)
  • The equipment sheet can be accessed from anywhere, allows you to easily see what you have equipped in each slot
Anthem%E2%84%A2-7_21_2020-11_33_24-AM_NoBorder-1024x576.jpg


  • Reliability of Equipment and Rewards
    • Each item has an inscription “budget”, based on its Power and Rarity
    • No more useless items because they were missing must-have inscriptions (see “Increased weapon dmg by +225%”)
    • Exceptional items are about getting the exact types of bonuses you want, instead of maxing values on every bonus
  • Scale for the Future
    • Your power cap can be easily increased, and the loot system scales accordingly
    • Advanced telemetry data allows us to identify trends and make meaningful balance changes
Aligning around these goals has really helped us focus on the right priorities as we continue iterating and seeing the progress in our internal playtesting. It is early days though and we will continue to test and experiment over the coming months, hopefully with your feedback.

Other Areas of Exploration

In addition to loot and equipment, there are some really good improvements to the feel and types of items we are supporting. Gunplay is overall more responsive with enemies reacting to hits near instantly with improved client-side prediction, we are looking into the role of melee items and builds, and of course, being able to spend skill points to unlock new types of equipment and synergies. One of the things I am most excited about is seeing all the awesome new weaponry concepts based on our factions.

WeaponByFactionSmallBG-1024x576.jpg


Until Next Time

I hope this helped give some context to the changes we are testing around loot and equipment and what future blogs may dig into. Changes like these are exciting to us and hopefully to you as well, but I want to set expectations that there is a lot of work behind each of these and in some cases a rather large tech undertaking – this is not an “easy fix” and will take time.

Thank you again for your interest, curiosity and passion for Anthem. Please keep engaging online, asking questions and continuing to be part of making the game better.

Stay safe. Be kind to one another. Stronger together.

Christian

 
Last edited:

SinDelta

Member
Gee, people like loot in their loot ARPGs?

What an absolutely incredible discovery in the year 2020!

Having a actual plan for making Anthem would really have saved Bioware a lot of effort, trouble and further bad PR.

They had the screwups of Destiny, Destiny 2, Diablo 3, and The Division to learn from.

And it seems they did not learn a single thing.

Maybe this is one step towards correcting that. Maybe.
 
Last edited:

-Arcadia-

Banned
If the actions match the words, and the game is seeing improvements, I at least applaud that game developers sticking with things that have gone wrong and trying to meaningfully change them for the better, instead of cutting and running, is becoming the norm in this industry.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
What a colossal waste of time. Just move on. Nobody wants this shit.

My exact first thought, but everything tends to have it's fans. Plus, I'm sure that people that spent $60 on it, don't mind, and would love an NMS-style redemption, or at least a crack at it, versus the developer/publisher walking away with the $60 and shrugging.

The above is a good step to repairing soured consumer relations as well. It shows respect and the desire to do better.
 

Rikoi

Member
Too much futurustic and clunky, looks uninspired, they can't fix this for me
 
Last edited:

iorek21

Member
I seriously doubt the majority of players still care about this game. They may be tweaking it in order to damage control the shitstorm that hit them, but it is useless after all this time.

In a world that has Destiny 2, Warframe and The Division, this "revival" of Anthem is a waste of time
 
My exact first thought, but everything tends to have it's fans. Plus, I'm sure that people that spent $60 on it, don't mind, and would love an NMS-style redemption, or at least a crack at it, versus the developer/publisher walking away with the $60 and shrugging.

I think the first couple redemption stories were genuine but now it seems like a business model: Release a piece of shit game on unsuspecting consumers then haul in all the praise from the "redemption" a year down the line when they fix shit that shouldn't have been broken in the first place or add features that should have been in the game originally.

"Games as Service" in many cases is just a front to sell betas to consumers to pay for the completion of development. I'm sick of it. Bioware/EA can eat a bushel of dicks.
 

baphomet

Member
Such a huge waste of time.

I can pretty much guarantee no one is buying a copy of Anthem if it releases again on new consoles. Updated or not. They already ruined everything related to the "franchise" when they released it as they did.
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
I think the first couple redemption stories were genuine but now it seems like a business model: Release a piece of shit game on unsuspecting consumers then haul in all the praise from the "redemption" a year down the line when they fix shit that shouldn't have been broken in the first place or add features that should have been in the game originally.

"Games as Service" in many cases is just a front to sell betas to consumers to pay for the completion of development. I'm sick of it. Bioware/EA can eat a bushel of dicks.

I don't think anyone wants to end up in a situation like Bioware did. With the behind the scenes peeks, we've truly seen what a disaster it was, and certainly not a business model.

I do think we have to beware of entities throwing out games and 'fixing them in post', in general. I agree.
 

Night.Ninja

Banned
If no one wanted it they wouldn't be doing it, clearly people are still enjoying the game.

If needs a huge improvement to bring me back in.

I still think they should have waited for next gen for this game, the current consoles couldn't match the vision which in turn holds back the pc version
 

Fuz

Banned
  • Loot feels exciting and more noticeable when it drops, and is celebrated when collected
Dunno, I feel it translates more to "we'll add pretty lights and casino sounds" than anything else.

Keep it Accessible and Immediate
  • Reveal and equip loot right away
  • Complete revamp of the equipment sheet – including a detailed stat sheet (not shown)
  • The equipment sheet can be accessed from anywhere, allows you to easily see what you have equipped in each slot
Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.


They didn't have a character sheet?
 
Last edited:
If they want to relaunch anthem make it next gen console exclusive and provide an upgrade path to the people that bought it. The current gen just cannot handle ambitious ideas and concepts .
 
What's hilarious about this is that unless you are part of EA's Origin Access, they are still listing the game for $59.99 on PC. This title is not a seller for the Access service and is known far and wide as lackluster at best and a trainwreck at worst.

I'm all for the effort though FF XIV did it right and NMS since that, just not sure with the aforementioned examples there is enough of an audience to care if it's fixed. I would throw $5 or $10 bucks to see but not $60.
 

MrS

Banned
The current gen just cannot handle ambitious ideas and concepts .
That isn't why Anthem failed. Destiny 2 is equally ambitious and doesn't have half as many load screens and shit. The world isn't seamless and having to go to a 20 second load screen to get to another area is an absolute immersion-breaking joke. Anthem's failure is down to an inept dev team who got the basics wrong. The fact that they're still fumbling in the dark 18 months or whatever it is after launch shows you that. Kill this game and put the IP out of its misery.
 
Last edited:

DeaDPo0L84

Member
Some of those pictures looked like they ripped ideas straight from Destiny.

I'm happy for those who still play to hopefully get the game they initially paid for. But its hard not to feel its too little too late. First impressions for live service games are critical, and this had one of the worst yet.
 

wipeout364

Member
Terrible game, BioWare a should be embarrassed of the character design and writing in this game. To me that is the big issue, who actually gives a shit about this world and it’s characters ? And if you don’t care why would you reinvest yourself in such a mediocre loot game with repetitive quests and a relatively tiny world. Sadly, They need to just drop it and move on.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I respect them for trying to make it into something more substantial, but really, just chalk it up as a loss and walk away. This is going to be a waste of effort and resources.
 

splattered

Member
If they can go beyond fixing the loot and actually make the world more interesting and deliver on the original vision of what cataclysm storms were supposed to be in the trailers etc i would 100% be willing to give this a chance. If they are willing to throw time and money at this who am i to complain when i have an enormous backlog of other stuff i can play in the meantime.
 

BRZBlue

Member
Honestly, I really wish Anthem had been better. The designs and world seem so interesting, much more interesting and unique to me compared to some of their other IP's. Hopefully they can do right and fix the issues with the game, I had a lot of fun playing it when it released.


If they can go beyond fixing the loot and actually make the world more interesting and deliver on the original vision of what cataclysm storms were supposed to be in the trailers etc i would 100% be willing to give this a chance. If they are willing to throw time and money at this who am i to complain when i have an enormous backlog of other stuff i can play in the meantime.

Supposedly there was actually a bunch of additional maps and biomes that they had completed, but were canned when the game flopped. A few artists came forward that there's almost an entire other game's worth of environment assets that they did that never was used, or was planned for future content. Wouldn't surprise me if they intend on using a lot of that in the relaunch.
 
Last edited:
I'll definitely try out the relaunch. Should probably buy it at some point when it's on a $10 sale in case they stop the deep discounts with the relaunch. Just hope they put it on Steam.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
hmm maybe i picked a winner on my 2 euro purchase :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_clapping: :messenger_tears_of_joy:
come on fallout 76 you can do it too make that 1 euro sale worth it for me !
 
Last edited:

Liamario

Banned
The game just isn't going to happen. I understand there was a huge investment, but it's time to mitigate the loss and move on. There will be no rainbow 6 style turn around.
 

BlackM1st

Banned
Actual gameplay and art direction is amazing in Anthem.

Buuuut everything else is mediocre at best. AT BEST. Story and characters are hot garbage too.

Looks like they really want Anthem 2 to happen, but ppl will not buy it so they're stuck with Anthem 1 corpse and trying to create its own Frankenstein's monster.
 

Pejo

Member
Still waiting to see if Bioware pulls a turnaround out of their ass for this game. I liked the visual style but nearly everything I've read/seen has been bad. It's not like I have a burning need to play it though, so if it ever gets good, I'll give it a shot.
 

sobaka770

Banned
I kind of wish that this game does turn it around. Destiny in 3d person but with an actual good Bioware story should've been a slam-dunk.

However there are so many things to rework, it's better be worth it for EA.
 

Ichabod

Banned
I'm definitely interested in this reboot. I never played Anthem 1.0 because of all the bad reviews, but I still feel it has serious potential if done right. I'll be eagerly waiting to see what Anthem 2.0 looks like when the curtain opens.
 
Top Bottom