Fabricator nerf ; minor but highlights so many of TC’s failings

Gears 5
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I’ve posted a few comments before but thinking about it I realize why this relatively minor change bugs me.
The indestructible fabricator has been in place for , what … 6 years or so , since gears 4.
The maps it’s used on to ‘block ‘ are same maps in gears 4 . Wasn’t a problem for 6 years so why now decide to ‘fix’ it ?
Have TC no more pressing issues to sort out. ( chainsaw /reload ?)
Have TC not got the programming talent to allow bots to climb over the fab if they wanted to prevent it being used as a barrier.?
Do TC have such a high turnover of staff that decisions on what tweaks to make to the game are in essence based on the whims of an individual person .
TC not interacting fully with community- the odd ‘drop in ‘ notwithstanding.
… and …,
I wouldn’t be surprised if this ‘simple ‘ nerf turns into a major bug such as automatically destroying all fortifications at same time … or fab disappearing if turns ‘yellow ‘ and no one restores it within the wave.

TC “ if it ain’t broke don’t fix it . We break it … then break it again “.

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I don’t get the issue, if you are happy for bots to climb over or like Juvies sometimes teleport over why does it matter if they fix it properly? I didn’t play 4 but I didn’t know it had lasted that long. I’m glad it’s going, it’s a stupid exploit.

The chainsaw reload is in the next title update I think they said on the stream. It does sadly seem one person now does all the pve stuff but only on feedback from players who didn’t like the fab blocking, so they did interact with the community. They did say in the stream the only way they blew up the fab was when they intentionally let it happen, whether that was on Masters or not, no one asked.

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Just to clarify … I don’t use fab as barrier. Stopping it being used as a barrier is fine by me .

Issue is : if it WAS a problem for TC why did it take TC 6 years plus to fix it !
If it was a problem ‘fix’ it by allowing bots to climb over - once again 6 years plus to figure this out

Instead …

Lazy way taken - just make it destructible .causing secondary problems such as ;fab being placed in ‘safe ‘locations making engineer travel more to get and place fortifications ; buying barriers and sentry s to protect the fab ( which is what some players did in the early days of gears 4 not realizing it was indestructible; possibly introducing secondary bugs.

And people asking for it to be removed !!! This highlights TC listening ? It’s hardly been a major source of complaints compared to lots of other more prominently complained about issues… that they’ve ignored. Or will take 6 years to fix

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Oh no! The Matriarch destroyed the Fab, again! What do we do now!? :open_mouth:

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The only maps on master they ever get near my Fab is Forge and Vasgar. I have seen people use it on other maps for a short while setting up but the main two I mentioned normally blocks the whole game. I don’t see this as the lazy way, they have play tested it, it took time. If they wanted to go lazy they could have just made it easy to pass through.

The engineer usually does have further to travel and deposit/build but then that doesn’t bother anyone on Overload when you put it right at the back to block of spawning behind. I really don’t get why this is an issue. I am interested to see what the Matriarch does to it though.

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“6 years plus”… 4 years, not 6 years, sorry but I have noticed people adding years to the Gears release dates, as though to get a point across. I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with you, people misquoting dates just grinds my Gears, as you were :+1::ok_hand:

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It is a terrible decision in a fresh batch of upcoming terrible decisions.

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Next TU iirc

Or what Kait can do to her if she gets too close.

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The main issue I’m seeing here is if TC doesn’t fix the issue where a fortification somehow turns red and cannot be picked up by anyone which would ruin the game if it happened with the fabricator. It can also happen if something for some reason is inside a wall at 0 health and red so you can’t pick it up to place elsewhere so it rebuilds itself.

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Just a little note, although Michael was referred to as a “one man band” or something, at the end of the stream Dana also said something like “I just want to say a big thanks to you and your team” so I don’t think Michael is totally alone. I suspect what has happened is that large portions of the old PVE team has been reassigned to working with parts of the PVP team to work on these 5vs5 maps as obviously these maps need to work and be balanced for both PVP and PVE. Michael is probably the main PVE guy who does alot of the non-map work but gets some help occasionally from them but this is probably where the manpower has been reassigned.

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No one deposits anyway :wink: I did a no fortification masters run on Blood drive today with Cog gear, Kait, Fahz, keegan and myself as clayton. Not one single person deposited and so I didn’t either. They fab blocked the top room and I thought screw em, see how long til they die. We finished it even with matriarchs as that blocking tactic is just so good on that map.

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I’m actually okay with this change. On some maps it was a bit too easy to have the fabricator block one entrance. Like on Forge or Blood Drive. Just means we have to build more fences.

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I think I read in the release notes that this issue will be fixed in Op5.

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The fab is the only piece of mobile cover which allows us to customize shooting locations beyond what is hardcoded into the maps. If anything i would want to see MORE options foe this, not less…

I agree that using the fab to block off areas on forge, blood drive, eyc, was cheese, and i dont mind that is gone. But gives how a single boomshot blows up multiple weapon lockers which arent even whefe the boom was aimed, i expect the fab to now become something the team has to make an effort to hide and protect! Which is stupid AND will greatly restrict its placement location possibilities…
I have zero problems imaging this:

So.eone is running to fab, to revive a team mate, boomshot blows it up… We bring it back, 4k spent, then a sentinel peppers people near it with salvos, boom, gone again, need another 4k to bring it back…

These two aspexts are separate:

  1. Remove blocking of lanes: ok

  2. Make it cost money to repaid and bring back: Boooooooo!

And i strongly suspect it is this way because (2) was the easieat way to implement (1).

More lazy programming.

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Not at all forward to 1:21 it has “tonnes” of health

Stray boomshot is not going to blow it up.

I had the same worry too and stated that earlier in the pve thread. I’m glad he addressed my concern. I agree some build-able cover would be cool but it would have to have really low health or those areas of level designed so you can’t have 100% cover like the corners of reactor would be so easy to gimp.

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Its almost like 1 man did more for PvE in 1 year than what they did in 3 :thinking:

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Matriarch running through it?

And unlike other fortifications, you can’t put it “out of phase” to keep it safe (unless they changed that).

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Add the obnoxious Swarmak rockets that still turn 90 degree corners even when they’ve been made more bearable than in Gears 4 to that, they one shot every fortification(including the Silverback because according to TC code that is apparently also a fortification🙄).

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For all of the protestation how they play the game on “the highest level” (Ryan on stream, etc), I really don’t believe they do…

I think they have a few standard setups they run, they test things on probably something like Elite, they don’t actually try to do full games, with different bosses on the various boss waves, etc…

So really, what it comes down to, is they have a very narrow idea of how the game is/is supposed to be played, and they just cater to that…

And given how there are waaaaaaaaaaaay more of us, and we like to explore and experiment, and try different things, we find ourselves limited in that, because we have to stay within what they envisioned and/or planned for the game…

This destructible fab is a horrible idea… I mean, say all fathers. There is a standard spot where we put the fab. But we can’t have it there: you have to put it in the back, behind the wall, to protect it (even if it doesn’t get destroyed, it is constantly taking damage, which we have to PAY to fix, right?? I really wonder if Baird’s precision repair will work on it) - so that affect enemy spawns… that brings them closer to the base, because the fab is further back on the map…

ohhh, this is just so wrong in so many ways…

it feels like they are lost in the woods without a compass…

And all these 30% damage boosts, etc - those are fracking meaningless on anything above Elite…

fix those calculations… So when you give me a 50% damage boost, it’s 50% of EVERYTHING already equipped, not the base stupid 100/bullet damage

Anyhow, seriously off topic now, so I will stop…

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I don’t think the fabricator will get destroyed often. It just means you have to put it in a room where there’s no line of sight. On Forge I’ll just put it in the center room. Blood Drive it will go in the spawn room. I’m sure it will get destroyed once in awhile but I don’t think it will become something that you constantly have to repair, like some other things I can mention.
It really bugs me when the dmg dealers move my weapons lockers directly behind themselves so they don’t have to walk far. That ■■■■ costs money and if your not depositing, I’m not going to pay to keep it alive because you can’t be bothered to get your steps in.