Update from the FBC: Firebreak team
It’s been exciting (and nerve-wracking) to see our first multiplayer game out in the wild. Launching FBC: Firebreak is a significant milestone for us, not just because it’s our first online co-op game, but because we’ve self-published it as well. Several things have gone well. Clearly, not everything has.
We’ve been reading all the reviews, comments, and feedback from the community across social platforms, Discord, and our Steam forums, as well as the analytics we are getting. It’s clear there are features that need to improve. And they will improve. Thank you for the feedback. We hear you loudly and clearly. Please keep the feedback coming.
We are improving some features starting now. While we can improve some features today and in the near term, some others will take longer and require more thinking from us. We will keep you informed every step of the way.
But you’re not here for platitudes. You want to know how we will improve your player experience in FBC: Firebreak, so let’s get into it.
Here are some of the things we are looking to address, and some are already available in the patch coming out at the same time as this blog post. (For the full patch notes, you can go here:)
Improving the First Hour Experience
The game's first hours do not provide a great experience due to a combination of things.
Some of this is down to a lack of onboarding (more about that in a bit), explaining the game’s systems, how to take advantage of the tools at your disposal, and a lack of clarity as to what to do in the Jobs and how to do the work effectively.
In addition, the power fantasy isn’t great in the first hours of the game as starting (tier 1) weapons feel weak, and unlocking higher-tier weapons requires a bit too much grinding.
We can see from the data and are seeing feedback that players who stick around and unlock more powerful tier 3 weapons and Perks, playing on higher Threat levels and Full three zone Job runs, are having a better time.
It’s getting to that point, which is proving to be a struggle for many players. We are not naïve and think this is all there is to it, but getting you to the fun faster, giving you the nice toys quicker, is critical. We are making changes in today’s patch to improve the progression.
So, about all that…
Better Onboarding and User-interface Clarity
Right now, we throw you into the deep end with little explanation on a variety of things from the systems in the game to what you are doing in the Jobs to status effects.
We’re working on better communicating the synergies between Crisis Kits and giving players much better information on what to do in the Jobs and how to be more effective in doing the work that Firebreakers must do.
This includes better readability on things like harmful conditions, like being on fire, and the flashing blue effect, which indicates that you entered or exited the range of your crewmates to have Resonance and a shared shield. Objective markers are not clear enough or don’t give a good enough idea of what to do. Lost Assets is an example of a critical thing that is too easy to miss. The latter issue has been improved in today’s patch.
We are taking a look at all of this, and have ideas on how to improve, but will need a bit of time to properly plan and execute.
Making Jobs Easier to Access
Our current progression flow is that new players must play the first Zone of each Job, which was meant to gradually onboard you to the Job. This clearly isn’t working. It is neither tutorializing players, helping matchmaking, nor players' perception of the full extent of the Jobs. We can see that when players experience the entire Job, more fun is had.
So, we will give players much easier access to the full Jobs.
We are changing the following in today’s patch:
You are no longer required to play the first two Clearance Levels of each Job.
New players start their experience with a full three-zone Hot Fix Job run (Clearance Level 3).
Completing the full Job unlocks the next full Job, and so on.
Completing a full Job also unlocks the Corruption option for that Job.
Speeding Up Progression and Gear Unlocks
We hear you: the grind is too slow. You want to try different builds, equip stronger weapons, use Altered Augments and experiment with Perks. Right now, getting to that takes too long.
There are a few things at play here:
According to our data, a whopping 90% of our players have never picked up a single Lost Asset (the currency used to unlock items from Requisitions and Perks) during missions, because they’re too easy to miss (they can be found in Shelters and in random locations in the levels, and they are dropped when defeating a Powerful Enemy).
The upgrade economy was balanced with players finding a good amount of Lost Assets currency during Jobs, but as the currency (the folders on the ground) does not particularly stand out from the environments, players completely ignore them and are thus earning Lost Assets roughly 3x slower than hoped.
Then, players do not earn Lost Assets unless they finish a job. If you exit a job midway or disconnect, you'll get nothing. That’s frustrating. We are looking into what we could do about this, but there are no changes to announce yet.
All of that leads to players being unable to unlock new Perks or better gear from the Operational Requisitions at a pace that feels good and prepares you for higher Threat (difficulty) Levels.
We are addressing this in a few ways in today’s patch.
Lost Assets and Research Samples are now clearly visually highlighted, making it harder to miss them
Rebalancing the cost of all unlockables
We have split the Operational Requisitions into two:
All cosmetics (sprays, armor sets) are placed in a new Requisitions page called “Expressions”.
Operational Requisitions is renamed to “Essentials” and as the name implies, contains weapons, gear, and equipment.
Making essentials like Altered Augments, Improvised Devices, and powerful weapons easier to access.
The end result of these changes is that you can unlock and buy gear significantly faster than before. No more needing to unlock gloves just to get to a better revolver.
What’s next?
Today’s patch is just the beginning. These are some of the most immediate changes, but we are actively discussing and planning broader improvements to the game based on what we are hearing and seeing.
We’ll continue listening, improving, and evolving the game together with our community.
More updates soon.
The FBC: Firebreak Team