Hey, MGH Squad! 👻
Our second closed beta is now in the books and we’ve had a bit of time to digest and consider some learnings from the feedback we received and the in-game analytics. We appreciate all of you who took the time to play with us and gave us your thoughts!
Overall, we are very pleased with how the test went!
Before diving into some stats, let’s discuss first some of the main feedback that we received, and what we are currently doing about them.
We saw that many players reported worse frame rates and overall performance during this test compared to previous ones. This is something we are currently in the process of tracking down, but we think we’ve found and solved a number of things that could be contributing to this. We will continue to focus on improving performance going forward.
We also finally may have a solution to the elusive audio crackle/popping issue that many players experienced, though we’ll have to see with more testing if it occurs again.
Flamethrower balance, of course, was another hot🔥topic during this test.
“This is fine…”
We’ve tweaked damage and burn duration a number of times, but this test gave us the clarity that a bigger rework was needed. We’re currently experimenting with making the Flamethrower a heavier/slower weapon that is much less effective chasing Ghosts and much easier to get away from. Internally, this seems to feel much more balanced and gives the weapon a nice weight to it. We will continue to experiment and keep everyone posted, and let us know what you think!
Another big point of player frustration during the test were already killed players leaving the match, and having others join in their place alive again. This could mean you would need to kill much more than 4 Ghosts in a given match, creating unfair matches. We’ve already implemented a fix for this and will continue to strive to make matches as fair as possible!
Now let’s take a peek at some stats!
GHOSTS VS. HUNTERS
Balancing-wise, the most important stat is the overall win-rate between Ghosts and Hunters. During this beta test, the Ghosts had the edge all weekend long, winning around 54% of the matches. This result was quite surprising to us, because the feedback we gathered pointed towards this test feeling the most balanced to date. Did you feel the Ghosts were stronger than the Hunters? We’d love to hear from you on Discord or Twitter!
Win rate: Hunters vs. Ghosts
MAPS
Throughout the beta weekend, we saw a pretty balanced play rate for each map. We did get some feedback about some old hiding spots being eliminated, and we hear you, this is something we are looking at. We want to make sure that every map creates a unique, visually interesting environment and also offers a wide range of good hiding spots.
Map popularity
GHOST SHARD UNLOCKS
We’ve been working hard to create a meaningful progression system that gives players the choice of what they want to unlock, and when. So let’s take a peek at which weapons, gadgets, abilities, perks, and haunts you were itching to get your fingers on first! Let’s start with the Hunters.
Note that these do not take into account the default loadout since they are already unlocked. We’re just looking at what players thought fit to unlock.
Flamethrower and Frostbite were on the top of the list, with Frostbite having a slight edge over the Flamethrower. Balance-wise, we’ve noticed that there’s a bit of ground to cover for both of these choices. As mentioned before, for Flamethrower, we’ve made it a slower heavy weapon with a more niche use-case, and in our Internal Tests it has made a huge difference.
We’re still taking a look at how best to address Frostbite - we’d like to give it a bit of a boost, but we are not entirely sure how best to do so. Please do feel free to give us your thoughts while we think it over!
Shard unlocks: Hunter Weapons
Pathfinder was by far the most popular gadget during the January Beta test. In the past, some Pathfinder users reported feelings of motion sickness while using the gadget, but we didn’t hear many complaints on that front during this beta. Pathfinder did go through some tweaks between the first and the second beta, but please do let us know if you had issues using Pathfinder due to nausea and we’ll take a second look!
Trap came in at number two on our list of most used gadgets. We were happy to see people using the reworked Trap in-game, and we feel that it’s definitely moving in the right direction. If you have any thoughts on how to improve other gadgets, we’re always happy to hear them!
Shard unlocks: Hunter Gadgets
Healing Aura was a favorite in the Hunter Perks category with almost a quarter of you choosing to unlock it. Juggernaut and Quick Reload were also among the most popular perk unlocks, both having great qualities if you like to take a more aggressive approach even after midnight.
Shard unlocks: Hunter Perks
Let’s move on, and take a peek at what the stats looked like for the Ghosts.
There were far fewer clear favorite Ghost abilities when compared to Hunter weapons. Poltergeist and Doppelganger led the pack, though.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, Death Grip and Trickster were the least chosen. We’d love to get these more in line with other Ghost abilities, so we’re quite keen to get feedback from you all in the community to see what improvements you’d like to see made to improve their usage.
Shard unlocks: Ghost Abilities
Ghost haunts were also quite even - Shove Hunter and Push Object were the most often unlocked haunts. These haunts have a visible impact on the game, so that clarity of impact means they are quite fun to use (in addition to being useful) and thus chosen more frequently. Cold Spot came in as a close third, this one is my personal favorite, I must say!
Shard unlocks: Ghost Haunts
Ghost Perks had a pretty extreme variation when it came to unlocking amounts. Perception and Ectoslow were clear favorites, as both are extremely useful perks when staying away from nearby Hunters, or moving locations without being spotted.
Glutton, Untrappable, and Blast Resistant perks have a much more niche use-case, but people who use them a lot really seem to enjoy what they have to offer. Some players do enjoy a more niche style of play, and it’s great to keep this varied - both to support different playstyles and also to give those who play against these niche players the interesting experience of taking on off-meta tactics.
Shard unlocks: Ghost Perks
Whether you’ve tested with us multiple times over the years or this was your first test, feel free to leave your best tips on ability - haunt - perk combos on our Discord, we chat about MGH on the daily and it’s always fascinating to check out the strategies you’re testing!
Thanks again for joining us for our second beta and providing your thoughts and feedback as well as checking out our deep dive into the data! We’re looking forward to playing with you all again soon. Have a great weekend!
Tinny
Community Manager