|OT| Ghost Recon Breakpoint - Online-only, sequel to Wildlands

Matimeo

MetaMember
Oct 21, 2018
67
193
33
Ubi just doesn't optimize until later. But they are light years ahead of most publishers when it comes to developing for PC.
Optimization isnt as prioritized as it should be because its a creative led company.
creatives tend to push for more things, not optimization which is why we lock creative out of builds as we get close to ship lol.

I always use them as an example when showing other leadership how UI needs to have a much larger focus for PC.

They also seem to have dedicated internal resources for their PC ports compared to most places who either share the responsibilities across their already stretched too thin development teams or who just outsource it completely with little thought because they dont want to be bothered.

As far as ghost recon, ubi likes to iterate on their formulas. So its not shocking this seems like a v2 of wildlands.
I think everyone has a harder time justifying an old school clancy game , with the new business models, and ever changing "gamer" demographic.
As what happens with every major push technology wise, the majority becomes the minority who wish for the past.

I met an older woman at a conference who told me she loved games, but games like frogger, galaga, pac man, as soon as games shifted from that model she was no longer the target demographic and thus doesnt play games like she did before. So I fully expect gaming to keep heading this way, since the data shows the majority seem to really love these type of service based games. Of course as you get older, you become the minority in many things, but especially in things tied to consumerism.


As far as MS and Ubi , pretty sure MS pays for marketing and advertisement for some of Ubi's games.
Gamers always dismiss this , but thats millions of dollars Ubi can keep, plus partnership with one of the biggest marketing forces in the industry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lashman

Aelphaeis Mangarae

MetaMember
Apr 21, 2019
396
718
93
Watch Dogs 1 was created during an extremely troubled period at Ubisoft. AC: Unity was released the same year and had the same teething problems. A mismatch of trying to develop bold new tech and not having enough time to craft a polished game around the tech. WD1 has some notable problems with its PC port, including negative mouse acceleration. Also it can stutter like crazy on some hardware. Watch Dogs 2, however, is a different story despite releasing a mere 2 years later. Extremely good options, very flexible controls, and PC exclusive graphics features that are rather nice. Ubisoft's approach to PC porting changed significantly after 2015-ish. You go back to some of the older Assassin's Creed games and the PC port is a clear afterthought. Even if they did sometimes have PC exclusive visual features (that kinda didn't work at times), they'd have mismatched UI design, PC-exclusive UI bugs. The original port of AC3 is terrible on PC. Game breaking bugs if you use the mouse in menus. Far Cry 3 is very delicate on PC. It works, sure... But it has mouse acceleration issues and stability issues and a bunch of other problems. Even FC4 is a bit precious. But by the time Primal came along in 2016, they had built-in benchmarking tools and all the usual bells and whistles you'd expect from quality PC ports.

Weirdly, though, Ubisoft went through a phase. 2002? You had quality PC ports like Splinter Cell. They reworked the UI and controls to take advantage of a mouse and keyboard. This continued until about 2005. Most of Ubisoft's ports were pretty good. But then in 2006, you had the next generation of consoles and suddenly everything changed. King Kong Gamer's Edition was a 360 > PC port and it is staggeringly bad. Games like Assassin's Creed in 2007 had diamond shaped UI layouts clearly meant for a gamepad. 2002-era Ubisoft would have reworked the UIs to fit better. To flow better. But there was a period between around 2006 and 2015 where their PC ports were incredibly hit and miss.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ISee and lashman
OP
prudis

prudis

anime occult member
Sep 19, 2018
10,229
26,760
113
The Kingdom of Beer and Porn
twitter.com
lol Ubi

MOST REQUESTED CHANGES/FIXES
We are committing to deliver information and content updates by early next year on the following most requested changes/fixes:

Bug Fixing and Technical Improvements

We know that certain players are still unable to enjoy the polished version of the game that we had hoped to release at launch. Bug fixing is, and will continue to be, the top priority for our team, each TU will contain more technical improvements.

Remove Gear Score & Tiered Loot

  • (IN-PROGRESS) Referenced in the Moving Forward letter, we are working on a more immersive and radical version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint for early next year.
Enemy AI improvements

  • (IN-PROGRESS) We have already begun making improvements to help the enemy AI react more intelligently against the player. In TU 1.0.3 we have made adjustments to the stealth detection/behaviors and fixed the issue that caused enemies not to throw grenades.
    Our team will be working on implementing on-going adjustments to improve this in future TUs.
Sell All Weapons and Gear

  • (IN-PROGRESS) Our team is working on an implementation for early next year.
AI Teammates

  • (IN-PROGRESS) Also as referenced in the Moving Forward letter, we are still hard at work on the AI teammates.
Due to its scope, the remaining top result will require more investigation. Please look forward for more information on this topic by early next year.
 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
3,220
8,306
113
Now I hope they also apply this to the next Assassin's Creed.
The Item level stuff is as bad there as in GR. At least you can upgrade the item level of gear you like for ingame money in AC.
But having to emphasize ingame money tells you another big problem. How about you give out some of the cool Items and mounts for quest lines Ubisoft., instead of charging extra? Because it can get a bit boring and unfulfilling to empty big camp number 55, let alone number 100.
 

Aelphaeis Mangarae

MetaMember
Apr 21, 2019
396
718
93
The proposed overhauls of Breakpoint are pretty striking, and if they implement them I firmly believe a LOT of people will be far more interested in the game. They need to think about ways they can reshape the game to appeal to the original Ghost Recon fanbase and also the Wildlands fanbase. Breakpoint was incredibly off the mark. The game that released didn't even align with its reveal marketing.

It's going to be an uphill battle to recover, but it sounds like they're gonna do a straight-up relaunch. Something far bolder than a demure "Hey, we fixed some stuff guys" patch notes.

I hate to say this, but why don't they do the same thing with the Far Cry games? Take Far Cry 5 and New Dawn and add a Survivor mode akin to Primal's, and really dial up the brutality. I thought New Dawn was pretty good, and I didn't mind its design experiments around progression, but imagine if guns ripped through flesh and your Eden's Gift powers had real punch to them. A design template I'd use would be Crysis. Players want to be tossing enemies through walls and shit like that. Ubisoft need to think long and hard about how their game series have bled together. How Far Cry ended up too much like Assassin's Creed circa Far Cry 3, for example. It's not that the ideas they adopted were BAD ideas, but they've ended up with a situation where they have game series that don't have a clear mechanical identity anymore. A strong mechanical identity doesn't mean you shouldn't try radically different stuff from time to time, but having an actual identity gives you something to use as a reference point. For example, Splinter Cell has a clear identity in the form of Chaos Theory, and devs making a new Splinter Cell can refer back to it if they're afraid they're losing their way.

The big one, though? Ubisoft need to pull the stick out of their butt and stop insidiously pushing always-online DRM. A big design mantra at Ubisoft is allowing people to play games the way they want. And that should include playing offline. Ubisoft's fetish for SOCIAL elements has been counterproductive because it turns out that quite a large percentage of players would like to play Ubisoft's games in isolation. I think this ties into Ubisoft's misguided ideas of immersion. If people are playing Far Cry 6 in 2021 or whatever, a lot of them want to play Far Cry 6 and get away from other people. They don't want constant interaction with others. They don't other players showing up in their camp. They don't want photos taken by other players on their map.

If Watch Dogs 3 is playable offline, that will be the proof that Ubisoft are truly listening to audience concerns about their direction as a company. Because I have absolutely no doubt that making it always online was the plan up until this point, and they're seriously re-evaluating it as they grapple with the fallout of Breakpoint.
 
  • Like
Reactions: unknownhero
OP
prudis

prudis

anime occult member
Sep 19, 2018
10,229
26,760
113
The Kingdom of Beer and Porn
twitter.com
lay Ghost Recon Breakpoint in the brand new Immersive Mode, or create the ultimate Ghost Experience by customizing all your settings. The Ghost Experience launches March 24.



OFFLINE MODE
Tom Clancyā€™s Ghost Recon Breakpoint was built from the ground up to be an online experience. We heavily investigated the possibility of adding the option of an offline mode, but we were not able to come up with a solution that did not create an unacceptable amount of technical risks.

 

ISee

Oh_no!
Mar 1, 2019
3,220
8,306
113




OFFLINE MODE
Tom Clancyā€™s Ghost Recon Breakpoint was built from the ground up to be an online experience. We heavily investigated the possibility of adding the option of an offline mode, but we were not able to come up with a solution that did not create an unacceptable amount of technical risks.

The technical risk of people using cheat engine to avoid having to pay for skins, xp and items is just too high. Please understand.

J/k