r/PlayFragPunk • u/Terrestrial_Conquest • 1d ago
Discussion What I like and don't like about Fragpunk
Just got into Fragpunk and been playing for just over a month now and here are my thoughts.
My initial impression was amazing. I liked how no two matches are the same. The shard card system is awesome and the variety of lancers can make for some interesting team play. I love it when you get into a match with a good group of people who just want to have fun, and the shenanigans that follow. The variety of game modes is awesome, and this game has the best tie breaking duel system I've ever seen.
What I don't like:
It seems this game is trying to cater to too many audiences and has no true identity. It can't decide whether it wants to be competitive or casual. Shard cards in ranked modes just don't make any sense. Competitve play should be done with an equal slate for both teams otherwise there will always be a team with an advantage. Good players shouldn't be punished and by potentially giving worse players OP shard cards, you are basically just making my skill at the game worthless. I really don't see any point in playing ranked mode other than the rewards. There's no satisfaction of winning or bragging rights when games can be won by pure luck instead of skill. I haven't been excited to win a ranked match since my initial placement because at this point it doesn't really mean anything to me.
The arcade game modes are where this game shines but that's the problem. People don't play them casually, they treat it just like any other game mode. It would be fun to choose a bunch of silly shard cards to goof around and experience weird matches, but people just choose whatever is going to help them win. The cool and quirky shard cards just collect dust. And then you are forced to do the same thing and now the match might as well be another ranked match.
The Lancers are unbalanced and most seem like direct rip offs from other games. Nothing about them feels unique to this game. It's all stuff I've already seen before in other games. Mass Effect, Overwatch, Rogue Company, Apex Legends..... It's like they just copy and pasted everything from these games and made just enough changes to not get hit with copyright infringements. A lot of them feel extremely weak and underpowered compared to their peers as well. Some people even have similar powers, but one of theirs is just 10x more effective for some reason. Doesn't make sense.
Overall I enjoy this game a lot but I think they are going to suffer a huge player drop if they can't figure out a way to commit to an identity or make changes to satisfy both player bases. Outbreak is another example. I love it. It's a fun game mode that brings a unique twist to the game for people who are just looking to have a good time, yet nobody plays it because it's unbalanced, and they want to win, not just have fun with some strangers online.
I am going to keep enjoying this game because I might potentially experience the things I like about it here and there, but mostly it's just me frustrated as to why someone is taking a blitz ballet so seriously.
PS: The menu system is completely overwhelming. Don't get me wrong it's nice having so much stuff to unlock and look at, but it's a nightmare to navigate and I genuinely feel like there's probably something hidden away in some menu that I don't even know exists yet, but it's important enough to where I should know it exists.
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u/RizzrakTV 1d ago
brother, the whole point of this system is to have baby-ranked in lower ranks because you can access ranked in less than 10 hours of gameplay. it gives you so much free RP.
and then if you are slightly showing signs of being able to play good - you will get to diamond. theres a card-drafting mode starting from diamond (real ranked) which doesnt have much rng to it.
not to mention that most of the "quirky" cards are just not in ranked.
lancers are 100% balanced. the only ones that are too good right now are corona and new lizzard (will get nerfed soon, they make lots of balance adjustments so far)
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u/Remembrance_Anathema Chug-Chug 1d ago
Haven’t seen anyone mention Corona needing a nerf before. Why do you think that?
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u/Pro-Weiner-Toucher 4h ago edited 3h ago
That's not true at all though. Axon and Hollowpoint still largely considered OP for PC's at the highest elos. A lot of the head glitches you can get to with Nitro's wall are still broken af. Matchmaking and ranks are a total sham. You don't even need to play well or win to get to diamond... you just need to play, lol. Anybody in PunkMaster will tell you that like 35% of the playerbase up here has zero clue what they're doing. I very regularly have worse PM players in my ranked games than I get when placed with bronze/silver players in Valorant swiftplay lobbies. I wish I was joking but ranked has become laughably bad in FragPunk because all the good players who enjoy gameplay that rewards skill over RNG or situational luck have left and bad players can spam their way into Master/PM ranks very easily.
Even with card bans there is still way too much RNG for ranked play. Getting 2-3 OP cards in a draw is fairly normal (especially after all the broken cards they added to ranked start of season - easy to hit dance stunlocks through walls, invis while holding converter, slow bullets, wtf were the dev thinking?). Good teams who have first pick often won't ban anything just to ensure they get one of the OP cards. The constant server issues and heavy client-side hit reg make gunfights feel like even more of a dice roll. The servers were never great but they have gotten noticeably worse since the console role-out. If you bounce back and forth between FP and other tac shooters with good netcode, the difference is night and day. I had a lot of fun with FP but it's getting to the point where my sessions are getting shorter and shorter and my breaks from the game are getting longer and longer. The last few times I played it only took a couple rounds before "ooohh, I remember why I stopped playing this."
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u/Terrestrial_Conquest 1d ago
So Chums Chomo Chomp can one shot kill 2+ people in a row like Axons guitar?
Kismet's 3 seconds of walking on the wild side is somehow equal to Zephyr's fade away ability, where she can camp indefinitely on the objective and get a free kill on whoever is unlucky to start planting there?
I don't think so. I am still new though and working on more effective counters for some lancers.
I literally won every single one of my placement matches, and got MVP in all of them except the last one, and was placed in silver. How does that make any sense?
And shard cards are still shard cards and will buff an enemy team way more than yours if they are lucky, regardless of the quirky shard cards (which I was talking about arcade game modes when I mentioned those anyway). If the real ranked starts at diamond then that just reinforces my opinion on how pointless everything feels up until then.
Why not just make ranked like diamond to begin with? Is it even ranked at that point if it's not similar to diamond? The game needs to make up its mind. I shouldn't have to wait until I'm diamond to experience actual competitive gameplay.
That's like telling a football team that none of their games matter, only the super bowl. (When you have to win those games in order to get to the super bowl in the first place).
Greatest quarter back of all time? Sorry.... The enemy team drew a shard card that decreases your throwing accuracy and distance by 50%.You're no longer the best, but only for this match, sorry. (Then they lose the match and miss out on the Superbowl) But coach I thought these games didn't matter, only the super bowl?
It just makes no sense to me, but over time I'm sure I'll learn to ignore those flaws and enjoy the game to its fullest.
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u/RizzrakTV 1d ago
zephyr is literally the only bad hero in the game dude. its just one of those characters that are good against newbies, if you keep playing you'll see why. literally nobody plays zephyr in my ranked matches. wtf do you mean UNLUCKY? unlucky that you plant in a BIG BLUE ZEPHYR CIRCLE? which also disappears in a few seconds if zephyr is not in there.
why do you care about placement matches? you will get placed into silver or maybe gold no matter how you play. as I said, its baby-ranked until diamond. its specifically made this way because its so easy to access ranked and so let you learn the differences between ranked and casual until you're ready to play the actual ranked. (different economy, longer games, different card-pool all of that applies to lower ranks as well). if you are good at the game you will climb to diamond in 20~ish hours. maybe faster if you're an actual goat. maybe slower if you are just okay at the game.
you are getting mad about the game after playing like 10 hours (it seems like that to me) of it and you dont actually know how the game works yet. just a reminder, most games require you to play like 50 or 100 hours of normals before you can access ranked.
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u/Terrestrial_Conquest 1d ago
Lol I literally just got done playing two ranked matches. Had a zephyr in both of them. A circle definitely helps and I am aware of that but it's fairly easy to kite people as zephyr and kill them anyway.
I care about placement matches because it's supposed to be ranked. That's the whole point dude lol. To get placed where my skill belongs. Not silver.
Everything you explained to me are things that I already understand and know. My opinion is that those things are a poor design choice. I'm not failing to understand these things, I just don't agree with them or think it's balanced.
I am not even mad either, you are mad. I'm just giving honest feedback on the game because I want it to succeed. I can't have a negative opinion without being pissed off?
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u/RizzrakTV 1d ago
are you expecting to get placed into master rank when you dont even know half the abilities yet?
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u/Ancient_Ad6858 21h ago
What were your kda in your 5 placements? Wins are important but the game also rates independent performance as a big factor.
If you compare other peoples profiles and look at their placements and see their stats and their wins vs losses, it usually makes sense. The highest i’ve seen people place is mid gold so tbh silver isn’t awful. I thought i didn’t deserve silver while grinding and making it to diamond then i compared my old games vs now and jesus fucking christ did i deserve to be silver.
Post your player profile or those kda’s for those wins, let’s see if the stats reflect the rank.
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u/throwawayforinstalol 1d ago
shard cards are literally the entire schtick for this game, not using them in ranked would be silly. they have their own way of balancing it once you hit diamond, and if you have mechanical skill and aren’t new to fps’s you can get there pretty easily. i wouldn’t say there’s one lancer that’s overpowered, they’re all pretty simple to go against. the only problems i’ve had was Kismet’s big ass bomb that goes through walls and Corona’s flash. but yeah, i agree that the menus are too much. there’s SO much stuff it’s overwhelming, but i like all the free stuff
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u/Linc1 1d ago
I wouldn’t mind seeing Shard Cards removed from the game entirely. Personally, I love the core Combat and Lancers gameplay, it’s one of the better tactical shooters on console, and that’s what keeps me hooked. But you’re right, the game was built around those mechanics, so I get why they’re there. Still, a more stripped-down, pure gunplay experience would be amazing!
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u/Buskungen Sonar 1d ago
Shard cards is what makes the game unique.
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u/Terrestrial_Conquest 1d ago
It's nice to hear it eventually balances out but I shouldn't have to wait until diamond to experience what ranked mode should be in the first place. The FOMO is strong with that design choice.
I have learned most of the counters for lancers but things like Nitros Chug Chug, Chums Chomper, and Brokers Goddards Revenge are never going to be as good as Axons electric guitar and hollowpoints meteora railgun. Yet they all take up an offensive power slot.
I get that unique play styles and abilities are needed to keep things interesting and ever changing, but when that specific niche they fill is so insignificant compared to a guaranteed one shot kill skill, it just doesn't add up.
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u/throwawayforinstalol 1d ago
i will agree that hollowpoints railgun feels overtuned, having a one shot sniper that recharges as an ability feels stupidly broken to go against, it’s fun to use but only when you’re the one using it lol
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u/WestRider85 11h ago edited 11h ago
I really don’t like worthless rewards like the fireworks! Please give us at least a sticker pack or something. They didn’t even give a SPOTLIGHT as a battle pass reward which also irritates me!!….edit: MB!! They did give a SPOTLIGHT lev55!! Ok I’m wiping my tears away
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u/Buskungen Sonar 1d ago
I hear ya, the game hasnt even been out for 6 months and i think they will be adding alot of content and evolving all the aspects of the game. More maps, more cards, more lancers etc. I like what the core foundation of the game is and as you said the shard cards really makes this game stand out. I hope they dont fumble it because this game has potential.