Running a live service game like XDefiant means you have to be so, so careful about what you change. Anything you alter has the potential to either send your game crashing, or create a fan backlash of titanic proportions. In XDefiant one recent change threatened to disrupt the community with its unpopularity but in a move characteristic of the type of communication the developer has shown so far, the change has been ditched.
It’s hard to overstate just how refreshing it is to see the developer behind XDefiant respond so quickly, and comprehensively, to fan feelings about changes. The free FPS game hasn’t got everything right so far, but when it gets something wrong the developer has readily opened up lines of communication. We’ve seen individual developers talk directly to the community, explaining why changes have been made and we’ve even seen reversions – which this isn’t, not really, but it almost is.
The problem lay around an alteration to weapon mastery and the rate new gun skins were earned. The developer made it so that this feature unlocked later, meaning players had to earn a lot of experience before they could get a new look for their favorite weapon. As you can imagine, this did not go over well. Players who previously were able to get a weapon skin at a certain level, suddenly saw those skins disappear away out of reach.
That’s all changing with the next update. Announced on X, formerly Twitter, weapon XP will now be earned twice as fast and the XP required to go up a rank is being reduced, roughly cut in half. This means that weapon skins are still further away, but getting there will be faster, and for new players early levels will go quicker than ever before.
The community has in turn reacted warmly to this, noting the level of communication and ability to take on board criticism from the community. “I saw that someone ran the numbers. This will essentially return the levels to were they were previously, but make the early game twice as fast,” says reddit user r/Gundam-asaurus. “Which I think it’s what everyone originally wanted!!! I’ll be happy with this change.”
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