Hello there everyone! I'm just another angry, upset, and sad Paladins player who's been watching one of their favorite games go tumbling down a dark and troublesome path. I recently got the "Witness to History" achievement, which made me even sadder, because it seems like Paladins itself will be history soon. Anyway, while I've always enjoyed all the funnies on the Paladins Reddit, there seems to be a lack of what was requested by DrYoshiyahu: not raging about OB 64, not mocking it, but genuinely offering comprehensive critique on what's wrong, and maybe offering solutions too. I know it's a hard time, but we all need to say more than "OB 64 Bad, remove it good!" .



This will be my clear laying out of the problems, and feel free to copy it and post it yourself , so that it can be seen by everyone and kept on the front-page, if it can get here. I'm sorry for using deviantart, but I found this place much easier to format and get together a large post like this. Also, try and summon the Hi-Rez people EVERY SINGLE TIME you repost this or you comment on this page on reddit.









OB 64 Problems



1. Pay-2-Win Elements & An Impossible Grind

Okay, I don't see why I said elements, when it should say it's pure pay-2-win. Pay-2-win is whenever real-life currency can give you any kind of advantage in the game. Hi-Rez seems committed to denying this, but using that simple definition and some basic logic, it's easy to see that's become the case.



Now beforehand, while you could buy the Radiant Chest with real money, giving you essence, cards, letting you get better ones faster, the field was balanced. Cards were directly purchasable, could have all the same power limit when unlocked, and the grind to get them was minimal, plus if the grind was too much you could just sell cards from Champions you don't use.



In OB64 these same cards have levels which can only be changed through random chest opening, levels that make them exponentially more powerful.



Every time I look at the madness of it, it just amazes me. Power is something that should never be determined by a random element thing, especially a random element thing you have to unlock. Hi-Rez says they're not implementing pure buying of it yet, but the grind is impossible for any player to get all the cards. I've seen the numbers and figures people have thrown around, and you have to open 1000s of chests to try and gain all the cards. That some people have been doing the math, and though it varies wildly, to even be guaranteed all cards through direct purchase you'd have spend thousands upon thousands of dollars. The grind is so incredibly massive even people who pay can't get it all, and which it makes it virtually impossible for any casual player. Upon other statistic I've heard, it'd take a casual player without spending any real money 20 years of playing to get all the cards.



Now, I know some of these figures might have been before they said all cards will be set to 3 instead of 1, but it doesn't make a difference. So it'll be 10 years you have to play instead of 20, or $2,500 instead of $5,000. Both ways are pure insanity.



The bottom line is, no game can call itself fair or free, when core game-play mechanics are hidden behind random item spewing chests. No game can be called ethical, where a player either has to spend 1,000s of dollar or years of their life to just acquire all of the core features to play the game.



This is made even more disturbing due to recent lawmaker trends in investigating loot-boxes and gambling in games, and the dangers to the youth, and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this if implemented could cause legal problems as well.









2. Incredible Unbalance in Casual

If it weren't bad enough that cards are severely unbalanced, and that people who pay will have the advantage, they're basically turning casual (I won't call it quick-play)--the mode were the majority play the game--into this chaotic death fest.



The perfectly fine 12-point system is replaced with unlimited points, meaning all those people with level 5 cards can have a 25-point load-out, while you're stuck with 15. You can play as the very same character, same skill, with the same cards, but one person could have an incredible advantage over you because of their cards. Their damage could be better, their life, their cooldowns, their effects, EVERYTHING CAN BE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN YOURS.



It's pure madness, and no game should ever have something that can let you so grossly have more power than other players. Maybe it wouldn't be as much madness if Hi-Rez had effective matchmaking, but they have some of the worst matchmaking I've ever seen. I could just post up a whole folder of screenshots I have of being put against these god-level teams who stomped me in casual, but we all know already their failure with this field.



Without limits, with cards more powerful than others, there is no longer any balance in casual, and it no longer becomes a place any casual player wants to play in.









3. Restriction and Lack of Diversity in Skill in Competitive

Then some people may think things would be better in competitive, where all cards are set to 3, but that's a failure as well. By locking cards at 3, it's incredibly unbalanced still, because some characters will severely suffer in their capabilities by losing access to their higher levels.



While some characters can survive, it becomes a handicap to certain characters and play styles, especially with the idiotic decision of putting legendaries into levels as well. Not only is this supposedly "balanced" way of things unbalanced, it also removes any creativity, any intelligence, any cleverness, that people had to put into their loadouts.





By trying to level the playing fields, they just make things more unfair, while simultaneously removing fun and creativity in the process.









4. Overly Powerful and Boring Legendaries:

In this patch all the champions got new legendaries. It sounds fun at first, until you realize they're just more uncreative and unbalanced cards that increase damage and make the game less fun to play.



Now some of these are good, but ones like Lex's are just absolute insanity. It rewards a zero skill move with incredible amounts of damage, and this kind of unbalance cannot be tolerated.



Again, this whole patch, which was touted as something to make things more balanced, has made everything more unfair and especially hostile towards new players who will suffer the most from all the many unbalanced systems.











5. VIP Tier System

This is a minor thing, and I don't have much to say except that I was a VIP and this is angering. Not only is this another unnecessarily confusing and convoluted move by Hi-Rez, but it also makes me feels disrespected as someone who bought the $15 VIP pack, but I will now not be able to buy certain things because I'm not the right tier. Just more confusion and more greed.









OB 64 SOLUTIONS

and the 12-point loadout system must be kept as well.





Level 5 cards are just too powerful, and legendary cards--the most powerful in the game--should not have a scaling and variable amount of power. Not when they can completely alter a character's game play and the sway of a battle. Both these things have to go.Casual will be kept as a game mode,"Quick-play" will be released as an entirely new game mode. This game mode plays like your choice of any of the other game modes (Siege, Payload, Onslaught), but within "Quick-play" any loadout you choose will have its cards all treated as level 4.If Hi-Rez truly wanted to make things balanced, this is what they'd do. It'll finally level the playing field for new players, make them not as overwhelmed or confused at everything, and will honestly make them stick around more. I've known people who didn't play the game because it seemed too daunting and confusing, especially with the grind, and this will create a peaceful and more welcoming place, somewhere new players will flock to.







4. Remove the cards all being set to 3 in competitive

It's not fun and it's not balanced, and that's all that really needs to be said on that matter.







5. Alter the Unfair New Legendaries

Cards like Lex's new one cannot be allowed to be in. Instead, they should implement something more creative and fun for the players rather than making an auto-aim move hurt too much. Still, even if they increase the damage with a legendary, it should always be in a creative way, like with Fernando's new dragon lance, which genuinely alters his play style and puts something new into the character. Every legendary should do just that: alter how you use a character, and make them more interesting.







6. Remove the VIP Tier System.

It's just another unnecessarily convoluted and confusing thing that'll only serve to frustrate newer players, and anger people who've already spent real money in the system.







7. Remove Essence

With all cards unlocked, this currency is no longer needed, and removes another layer of problems for new players, welcoming them more.









A Final Note to Hi-Rez





Hi-Rez, I know you're trying to make money, but this OB64 will not do that. You will lose so much that you might never be able to gain back. You don't make more money by losing all the players you have, or by creating a hostile game no one wants to join into. I know the solutions I've suggested might seem counter to money-making...removing essence, unlocking all cards, simplifying VIP, making things balanced...but in the long run it's better for you. You will keep the players you have from jumping ship, and you will also make the game more accessible to new players. More people will play, and more people will keep playing it because those more frustrating elements are gone. You don't need this. All this is, is you putting a noose around your own neck, the community telling you not to jump, but you still saying you are.



I'm someone who started playing this game because I couldn't afford Overwatch and because my computer was too weak for it. And you know what? Over time I bought the Legendary Founder's Pack back when it was a thing, I bought the Zhin Barbarian VIP pack, I've bought crystals when there was a skin I really wanted, and I bought crystals when Biz-King had his sale. I bought all these things because I love the game.



If you really want to make players spend any kind of money, you must fill them with wonder and magic like I was when I started playing over a year ago. Make them fall in love with the game, and that love will make them want to have that awesome skin for their favorite character.



But how things are right now, you're only making everyone hate your game and be disgusted with your practices. You're not going to get anything from anyone.



You have to be the Sun, not the Wind like you are, if you want people to be open to your game.



The North Wind & The Sun

From Aesop's Fables



The North Wind and the Sun had a quarrel about which of them was the stronger. While they were disputing with much heat and bluster, a Traveler passed along the road wrapped in a cloak.

"Let us agree," said the Sun, "that he is the stronger who can strip that Traveler of his cloak."

"Very well," growled the North Wind, and at once sent a cold, howling blast against the Traveler.

With the first gust of wind the ends of the cloak whipped about the Traveler's body. But he immediately wrapped it closely around him, and the harder the Wind blew, the tighter he held it to him. The North Wind tore angrily at the cloak, but all his efforts were in vain.

Then the Sun began to shine. At first his beams were gentle, and in the pleasant warmth after the bitter cold of the North Wind, the Traveler unfastened his cloak and let it hang loosely from his shoulders. The Sun's rays grew warmer and warmer. The man took off his cap and mopped his brow. At last he became so heated that he pulled off his cloak, and, to escape the blazing sunshine, threw himself down in the welcome shade of a tree by the roadside.



Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.









Brief Mentions of Continuous Problems Through the Patches

I've spent far too long writing this already, but here are some other problems plaguing the game that need to be solved. I'm sorry I don't have time to look at them in-depth or offer solutions, but it's good that they're at least mentioned as well.

1. Not Enough Focus on Bugs and Balancing

2. Uncreative Champion Design & Unbalanced Champions

3. Too Much Focus on Skins Instead of Important Game Play Problems



4. The Continual Implementation of Unnecessary and Confusing New Systems



5. Lowering of Movement to Characters, and Lowering of TTK (Time-to-kill)