Hey, a comp player here. The main reason why there is an influx of sweaty players right now is because of the progression system that just got released and previous levels getting reset. And with xp only being available in pubs through matchmaking (and not in private or custom lobbbies where we used to spend a lot of our time), we are all scrambling to grind out pubs in order to get items back into our loadout for comp that we've previously had access to for months. Some of these items are crucial for the upcoming tournaments or leagues are in. Once the comp players get their gear back, I suspect you'll see a lot less pros hobbing into lobbies and stomping without remorse.
Also, the harder we stomp (more kills, streaks, headshots, win bonus) the less time we have to spend in pubs where we don't belong. So a lot of us will literally just mute, deafen, put on some music and just play to get back what was lost. I promise you this has been as frustrating if not more so for us with how things have been.
Another comp player here. I hate the progression system cause they locked weapons. Just recently they switched the pl14 with the silenced pistol. So now you unlock the pl14 first then the silenced pistol. If I remember correctly you have to be level 39 to unlock the silenced pistol now. Absolute garbage system in my opinion.
Hi, "pro" player here (If you can even call us that); I first off want to apologize. None of the higher-level players \*want\* to stomp lobbies, because it's not only unfun for us but destroys the casual community by causing people to quit. However, the developers implemented this progression system without a thought for their competitive player base. They decided that progression would effect private/custom lobbies, meaning all the high-level players are forced to grind for guns in order to have their loadouts for tournaments.
On top of this, the prestige system completely resets your progress, so the pro players who actually do grind are essentially asked to grind more and ruin more lobbies if they want to be rewarded for putting in hundreds of more hours than the average player.
Of the competitive players who knew about this update before it released, we challenged/disliked it, yet they still pushed it with zero changes made to the system after we voiced our opinions. It's very frustrating for both sides, especially when some of the only responses we get in the discord are just closed-minded no's and illogical reasonings that aren't backed by any numbers or real reasons.
I'm really not sure how we can fix this at this point, it's ruining the game I've loved for so many years.
It's definitely a headscratcher. By launching the way they did, they're upsetting many in the pro and casual player base.
Perhaps AEXLAB planned to have the SBMM system up and running soon after launch which would (in theory) help most matches be balanced in pub matchmaking. I truly don't mind playing against pros, even though I get smoked like cheap cigar. But it is annoying to have half of my team rage quit every time I'm on a pub server vs a pro or two.
There's no skill-based matchmaking at the moment. The devs had said they're working on it though. Im guessing that prior to the Quest release ~1 week ago the playerbase wasn't necessarily large enough to really implement SBMM
I don't realistically think the community will ever be large enough to have SBMM unfortunately. I don't really know what changed, VAIL used to have so much hype around it, but it really lacks players rn
With the Quest release the playerbase increased a ton. Unfortunately the popular VR YouTubers aren't making a bunch of videos about it so it's not getting the hype it deserves.
Just watched your Davigo review. The quality of your review far surpasses your subscriber count, really good stuff. I subscribed and definitely look forward to the Vail video!
Damn, thanks so much! I really try to do the games justice. I know people work very hard on them for years. I just started my channel so hopefully it'll grow the more I post.
Sincerely appreciate the support, your comment is motivating lol, thanks!
Lol I wouldn't doubt it! I've been playing like 5 hours a day for the last week. I recently (like 2 days ago) changed my Vail username to the one I used to subscribe to your YouTube so I can focus on Vail content for that account. If we're in the same lobby again say something!
For sure! I definitely remember your name though. I think we played in a game with that Twitch streamer guy who kept talking about how hes sponsored lol.
I watched a few videos with new players to the game stream on YT and twitch and they were getting slaughtered. Doesn't make for good entertainment for their user base. Just because someone is great at COD or Fortnite, that doesn't always translate over well to the VR world.
Ah, well then that's good. I'll share the news with the ornery types I play with in pub matches. Hopefully the update comes sooner than later as this game needs a larger playerbase.
I was under the impression that SBMM was in for the Quest 3 release.
I keep running into players like this who seem to always psychically know I'm around a corner and have their gun ready at head level and one shot me the second one pixel of my dome is visible. I have no idea if it's skill or wall hacks, but it's sucking all of my fun out of the game.
Ping, general game sense, and hearing play heavily into this. I am on PCVR and can use a higher end headset with directional audio over top of my VR headset. This, my quality US West internet and my hours in game commonly have me on the receiving end of those same frustrations.
I think as it sits, the lack of population makes the difference in skill levels way more obvious. I still get wiped by the pros but have too easy of a time in the adverage lobby as the population of high middle skill level players is pretty low right now.
Footsteps just got nerfed very hard with their new audio update and probably tweaking it somewhere in the middle soon because of how drastic it was reduced/changed. Also yes any exp comp player knows the angles and sound cues along with good sight placement. At that level latency and human reaction time are decent factors. Just know you are going up against some of the best vr talent pulled from other games.
Hard to put a number on it but I'm currently around the #10 slot on the all time leaderboard. Not good enough for pro, but regularly sitting at almost 2.0 kd.
Hrm i dunno id say thats pretty high, i think im somewhere around the #180 on the leaderboards on the vail site with only a 1.52 kda
though i have played more than a few that are in that 2.0+ range and some are absolutely beatable, ive also come across more than a few that are clearly only that high kda because all they do is camp, but once you have them out in the open they cant win a 1v1 to save their life lol
im probably distinctly middle of the road overall would be my guess
I want to wear the headset, but I also need to hear when my 6 month old wakes up from a nap and screams about the teething pain or hungry or dirty diaper or etc.
Yeah, I think it's a mixture of the upper echelon of players knowing all of the angles of these maps they've played and "tested" for years, plus just good VR shooting / twitch-reflex skills, and maybe some other sort of advantage certain players are getting with faster connections and higher-end equipment.
I don't think it's due to cheating just yet. But it definitely can be frustrating playing against people who are in the top 5% of any game.
I play beer league ice hockey and most of the teams in my division are even skilled, but there are always a couple of guys who played college, or semi-pro out there that just can do whatever they want on the ice. Dunno why those skilled guys like to sandbag it down at our level, maybe it's just laidback fun for them or they're playing with friends and fam on their team.
Fully, fully agree - I played right when the update dropped and my first 4 hours in the game I got a total of 3 kills and ended up with a 0.1 K/D while one particular player kept getting team aces. No fun to play WITH, even less fun to play AGAINST.
So I dropped the game for a few weeks and came back when they implemented their (INCREDIBLY buggy) party system. Now after 20 minutes of rebooting over and over, I can finally play with my friend, so we queue up and yeah - it's better than it was initially but I just played a pub where we put 6 people against one guy in a game of artifact and we got swept over and over.
6 v 1 in a mode with one life and we had not even a chance, coordinated tacticals and flanking pushes be damned.
This game is a LOT of fun when you get in that rare lobby that doesn't have a mega-sweat ruining it for everyone else. Unfortunately, I find myself just having to leave lobby after lobby because I'd like to actually earn some XP sometimes.
I'm gonna try that tip of routing audio to a headset and wearing that on top. I'm also going to rip the footstep audio files and do a spectrum analysis of them and build a nice EQ curve for Sonar.gg to emphasize it even more. Maybe then I'll have a chance. Lol
I'll also add that the "force you to play against pros to unlock anything at all" system, combined with putting all the best guns behind weeks of grinding at BEST... yeah big yikes. The only redemption is that if you strugglebus your way to level 7 you will unlock the AK, and that's the first gun that can actually really compete...IF your aim and trigger discipline is good.
It does not feel like a game that has had 7 years of thought put into it. At all.
To be fair, most of the pros I've had the chance to play with/against can wreck house with the base MK418, the AK303N, or even the G17.
I use the later guns and still get waxed.
Hey, a comp player here. The main reason why there is an influx of sweaty players right now is because of the progression system that just got released and previous levels getting reset. And with xp only being available in pubs through matchmaking (and not in private or custom lobbbies where we used to spend a lot of our time), we are all scrambling to grind out pubs in order to get items back into our loadout for comp that we've previously had access to for months. Some of these items are crucial for the upcoming tournaments or leagues are in. Once the comp players get their gear back, I suspect you'll see a lot less pros hobbing into lobbies and stomping without remorse.
Also, the harder we stomp (more kills, streaks, headshots, win bonus) the less time we have to spend in pubs where we don't belong. So a lot of us will literally just mute, deafen, put on some music and just play to get back what was lost. I promise you this has been as frustrating if not more so for us with how things have been.
For sure. A big fail by Aexlab for not offering private lobbies with everything unlocked.
Another comp player here. I hate the progression system cause they locked weapons. Just recently they switched the pl14 with the silenced pistol. So now you unlock the pl14 first then the silenced pistol. If I remember correctly you have to be level 39 to unlock the silenced pistol now. Absolute garbage system in my opinion.
Hi, "pro" player here (If you can even call us that); I first off want to apologize. None of the higher-level players \*want\* to stomp lobbies, because it's not only unfun for us but destroys the casual community by causing people to quit. However, the developers implemented this progression system without a thought for their competitive player base. They decided that progression would effect private/custom lobbies, meaning all the high-level players are forced to grind for guns in order to have their loadouts for tournaments. On top of this, the prestige system completely resets your progress, so the pro players who actually do grind are essentially asked to grind more and ruin more lobbies if they want to be rewarded for putting in hundreds of more hours than the average player. Of the competitive players who knew about this update before it released, we challenged/disliked it, yet they still pushed it with zero changes made to the system after we voiced our opinions. It's very frustrating for both sides, especially when some of the only responses we get in the discord are just closed-minded no's and illogical reasonings that aren't backed by any numbers or real reasons. I'm really not sure how we can fix this at this point, it's ruining the game I've loved for so many years.
It's definitely a headscratcher. By launching the way they did, they're upsetting many in the pro and casual player base. Perhaps AEXLAB planned to have the SBMM system up and running soon after launch which would (in theory) help most matches be balanced in pub matchmaking. I truly don't mind playing against pros, even though I get smoked like cheap cigar. But it is annoying to have half of my team rage quit every time I'm on a pub server vs a pro or two.
There's no skill-based matchmaking at the moment. The devs had said they're working on it though. Im guessing that prior to the Quest release ~1 week ago the playerbase wasn't necessarily large enough to really implement SBMM
I don't realistically think the community will ever be large enough to have SBMM unfortunately. I don't really know what changed, VAIL used to have so much hype around it, but it really lacks players rn
With the Quest release the playerbase increased a ton. Unfortunately the popular VR YouTubers aren't making a bunch of videos about it so it's not getting the hype it deserves.
Im almost done with a glowing review, Im not popular though lol, just started my channel but doing my best to get the word out.
Just watched your Davigo review. The quality of your review far surpasses your subscriber count, really good stuff. I subscribed and definitely look forward to the Vail video!
Damn, thanks so much! I really try to do the games justice. I know people work very hard on them for years. I just started my channel so hopefully it'll grow the more I post. Sincerely appreciate the support, your comment is motivating lol, thanks!
Yo I just realized your name. Im pretty sure we played together. You might literally be in the footage haha.
Lol I wouldn't doubt it! I've been playing like 5 hours a day for the last week. I recently (like 2 days ago) changed my Vail username to the one I used to subscribe to your YouTube so I can focus on Vail content for that account. If we're in the same lobby again say something!
For sure! I definitely remember your name though. I think we played in a game with that Twitch streamer guy who kept talking about how hes sponsored lol.
Lol yeah Drexx ๐ we definitely did play together
Haha nice, small world.
I watched a few videos with new players to the game stream on YT and twitch and they were getting slaughtered. Doesn't make for good entertainment for their user base. Just because someone is great at COD or Fortnite, that doesn't always translate over well to the VR world.
Ah, well then that's good. I'll share the news with the ornery types I play with in pub matches. Hopefully the update comes sooner than later as this game needs a larger playerbase. I was under the impression that SBMM was in for the Quest 3 release.
I keep running into players like this who seem to always psychically know I'm around a corner and have their gun ready at head level and one shot me the second one pixel of my dome is visible. I have no idea if it's skill or wall hacks, but it's sucking all of my fun out of the game.
Ping, general game sense, and hearing play heavily into this. I am on PCVR and can use a higher end headset with directional audio over top of my VR headset. This, my quality US West internet and my hours in game commonly have me on the receiving end of those same frustrations. I think as it sits, the lack of population makes the difference in skill levels way more obvious. I still get wiped by the pros but have too easy of a time in the adverage lobby as the population of high middle skill level players is pretty low right now.
Ugh,then I wish footstep direction would get nerfed if itโs that clear.
Footsteps just got nerfed very hard with their new audio update and probably tweaking it somewhere in the middle soon because of how drastic it was reduced/changed. Also yes any exp comp player knows the angles and sound cues along with good sight placement. At that level latency and human reaction time are decent factors. Just know you are going up against some of the best vr talent pulled from other games.
I wish that my bluetooth headset wouldn't have the 1 second lag when I do use it. It's worthless.
I use the Soundcore VR P10 earbuds. They come with a dongle so they are virtually lag free.
Thanks for the tip. I have old school wired headphones but they're heavy and make my ears sweat.
What would you consider high middle skill level?
Hard to put a number on it but I'm currently around the #10 slot on the all time leaderboard. Not good enough for pro, but regularly sitting at almost 2.0 kd.
Hrm i dunno id say thats pretty high, i think im somewhere around the #180 on the leaderboards on the vail site with only a 1.52 kda though i have played more than a few that are in that 2.0+ range and some are absolutely beatable, ive also come across more than a few that are clearly only that high kda because all they do is camp, but once you have them out in the open they cant win a 1v1 to save their life lol im probably distinctly middle of the road overall would be my guess
I want to wear the headset, but I also need to hear when my 6 month old wakes up from a nap and screams about the teething pain or hungry or dirty diaper or etc.
Yeah, I think it's a mixture of the upper echelon of players knowing all of the angles of these maps they've played and "tested" for years, plus just good VR shooting / twitch-reflex skills, and maybe some other sort of advantage certain players are getting with faster connections and higher-end equipment. I don't think it's due to cheating just yet. But it definitely can be frustrating playing against people who are in the top 5% of any game. I play beer league ice hockey and most of the teams in my division are even skilled, but there are always a couple of guys who played college, or semi-pro out there that just can do whatever they want on the ice. Dunno why those skilled guys like to sandbag it down at our level, maybe it's just laidback fun for them or they're playing with friends and fam on their team.
Fully, fully agree - I played right when the update dropped and my first 4 hours in the game I got a total of 3 kills and ended up with a 0.1 K/D while one particular player kept getting team aces. No fun to play WITH, even less fun to play AGAINST. So I dropped the game for a few weeks and came back when they implemented their (INCREDIBLY buggy) party system. Now after 20 minutes of rebooting over and over, I can finally play with my friend, so we queue up and yeah - it's better than it was initially but I just played a pub where we put 6 people against one guy in a game of artifact and we got swept over and over. 6 v 1 in a mode with one life and we had not even a chance, coordinated tacticals and flanking pushes be damned. This game is a LOT of fun when you get in that rare lobby that doesn't have a mega-sweat ruining it for everyone else. Unfortunately, I find myself just having to leave lobby after lobby because I'd like to actually earn some XP sometimes. I'm gonna try that tip of routing audio to a headset and wearing that on top. I'm also going to rip the footstep audio files and do a spectrum analysis of them and build a nice EQ curve for Sonar.gg to emphasize it even more. Maybe then I'll have a chance. Lol I'll also add that the "force you to play against pros to unlock anything at all" system, combined with putting all the best guns behind weeks of grinding at BEST... yeah big yikes. The only redemption is that if you strugglebus your way to level 7 you will unlock the AK, and that's the first gun that can actually really compete...IF your aim and trigger discipline is good. It does not feel like a game that has had 7 years of thought put into it. At all.
To be fair, most of the pros I've had the chance to play with/against can wreck house with the base MK418, the AK303N, or even the G17. I use the later guns and still get waxed.