Virus has been a fundamentally broken game type for a long time. In a social setting where players from all over the world come together to play games, this game is heavily dependent on latency. Past this the balancing is whack and the pace is fast. The zombies run quickly and jerk around the screen, they die just as fast, all the while hit registration on both sides (but especially for those playing zombies) is unreliable in spite of all of this modes reworks.
So when the game gives me 750-1500 xp per match on average its going to take roughly… 200 games to get the pistol? The experience isn’t enjoyable and virus simply hasn’t been enjoyable for a long time due to it’s fundamental design flaws, so it doesn’t make sense that on top of that, the xp grind is exceedingly slow.
It just means that if I want some of the rewards even at the lower tier, I am having to force myself to play this unenjoyable latency/luck based experience for an exceedingly long period. That’s not fun, it’s just tedious. So the XP rates should allow players to earn at least the lower tier rewards in a reasonable number of matches. 200 isn’t reasonable for a pistol unlock with no external functionality.
750-1500 XP per match does sound rather brutal. I think something more around double that would be more reasonable. I’d match it up with laser tag, though perhaps give it even more XP gain than laser tag as it requires more people and whatnot, not as easy to get a game going. Hope it gets improved in any way ^^
For comparison, most games of little crusaders give about 975 xp and more if you get the kill or are a higher rank, but those matches are over super fast whereas virus rounds tend to last a bit/be really painful to play. Plus, even if you are the starting zombie and infect everyone you get next to no xp for dealing with that, and the fact that starting zombie is selected at random means that every once in a while, your average match xp is going to be penalized for starting as the alpha zombie. All in all it’s just a very painfully slow experience.
I feel ball race exp should be buffed, if by yourself you get such a tiny amount. Even if changed to a 2x multiplier it should be increased more. Maybe the Units too. (since that affects EXP)
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From what I know Little Crusaders shells out
- 975 XP when knights win while you are a esquire (and goes up by ~150xp each rank)
- 300 XP when you fail to kill any knights and die as a dragon
- 600 XP when you die as a knight but your team wins
- 500 XP when you manage to kill 1 knight but still die as a dragon
- +500 XP for killing the dragon
And Virus shells out
- 1,500 XP for simply surviving (or infecting everyone as the first infected)
- 600 XP for being infected and not infecting anyone else
- 3,000 XP for being the top killer and surviving
- ~1,800 XP for not surviving but being top killer
Seems like Virus gives more of an advantage, it just tallies up to how good your surviving team is. In LC, as long as you don’t manage to get yourself killed 3000 times over, you are ok in XP rates. In Virus, you actually have to work to survive to get over 1k XP every time.
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Don’t forget that time spent per round is a factor. Consider the average time of an LC round versus that average time of a Virus round and realize that this means that you are going to be earning way more XP over time in LC even if the base figures are lower.
Due to my latency, getting to be the top killer is more or less impossible with Virus, so I’ll always be stuck with around 750-1500. Landing kills as a zombie or a player feels like luck unless you just hide behind tnt, and that’s just one kill. You don’t even get rewarded for kill assists so if you do work down a zombie, one person just slips in a bullet and they get all the credit.
I agree with some sort of buff for Virus Exp but I don’t know about an overall buff. The issue is the exp you earn can be hugely impacted by a number of factors.
You were damaging zombies the whole round but never got the last hit on one, and get infected in the last 5 seconds? Here’s 750 exp. Though, even getting infected almost EVERY round, I was still cranking out a consistent 1400+ exp by just getting a couple kills. A well placed TNT assures atleast one kill, and a double barrel or flack cannon can easily get you a few more.
I will say I grinded virus the first night of Achievements with constant packet drops, crashes and disconnects throughout the night, and I was still able to hit 200k that night. Its hugely dependent on your host and the skill level of your fellow survivors. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re not going to outlive a full lobby of infected consistently.
I do think the exp should be adjusted to be brought up to standard with other game modes. I’m just not sure how. While its soul crushing to lose all your exp by getting infected in the last two seconds, it feels pretty great getting over 3k experience by topping the chart and surviving.
As @Snazzah was kinda getting at, I feel like Virus has one of the more skill-rewarding exp rates that I’ve tried so far.
As for the latency issues, I feel like if I’m <50 ping I can totally play virus no issues. Not always the smoothest multiplayer FPS experience but definitely playable. I’m kind of biased though because I spent a ton of time on pre-weapon prediction virus too, which makes Virus as it stands now MUCH more appealing.
Eh, I’d say Virus gives more reward for risk while LC makes you sit back and watch the dragon get killed in less than 30 seconds. I’d argue that it’s LC that’s not balanced. Virus makes the risk worth while if you develop skill.
Yes, LC rounds are considerably quicker. The time limit for a round of LC is 2 minutes and games rarely last as long for the birb to spawn. They are quicker because of how the game operates. The round ends when a team is eliminated. Virus is more one sided, except the infected don’t have guns and can only use their bare hands, making it more of an onslaught lasting 90 seconds each round.
Latency is a problem that you will get in all games if your network is unfit to live up to the standard that game poses. Whether it is getting 1st place in Ball Race or getting clipped by the dragon in LC and being infected in Virus, latency is going to be a problem for you and it is not the game’s fault entirely.
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Balanced relative to what though? The fact is the virus xp gain feels too slow, and it’s more luck than skill, especially if you are like me and can only find games with 100+ ping. All games should have reasonable XP gain, and I don’t see why the most broken game should have a different philosophy.
Personally, I think the EXP gain in Virus is very fair. If you survive, that is. It’s a game that greatly rewards skill and taking risks.
The only complaint I agree with is that the Infected payout is way too low, which is probably why people that aren’t so good at Virus barely progress. It should be increased imo.
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That approach doesn’t factor in that every other game has semi-reasonable xp gain, and doesn’t punish you as much for having higher ping. Why should this game which for reasons aforementioned is unpleasant to play and largely luck based, especially if your ping is 50> be the one that is suddenly punishing if you aren’t “skilled”? I almost never see teams survive completely. As far as I can tell no other game is this punishing xp-wise if you for whatever reason can’t perform at a high level. All the milestones I’ve tried to attain elsewhere feel attainable.
Usually when I am infected it’s because someone who isn’t even clearly near me on my screen managed to touch me, but when I’m infected I can be physically on top of someone with zero results other than my death. Why is this game the “skill” based game? Who benefits from giving players low xp for failing consistently due to these factors?
The milestones are supposed to encourage replay-ability, and they largely succeed. But with this game I feel like if I want that pistol, (which I do) then I’m forced to do a couple of hundred matches in a buggy game that I don’t enjoy, because someone thinks it’s skillful? If I want to earn that reward, the only choice is to play something that feels broken over and over again against my will. It’s nothing more than a tedious grind right now, and because of the xp gain and time spent per match, the milestones are spread out at such a distance that they no longer feel like rewarding milestones.