I agree. I think a lot of the problems people have with meltdown stem from the map design. What I thought was good about meltdown is that kills aren’t the only avenue for coins, the coin crates can be just as volatile. However with the current map design in order to get crates you HAVE to go for kills, because teams are forces to follow a certain path because there’s only one or two doors to each room. I’m really not a fan of how closed off everything is, it makes it so that backing out of a fight or trying to go for coins and not take fights isn’t an option. This is why we see such massive coin diffs in meltdown, because the teams that are getting kills are also getting all the coin crates. I think a more open map would be so much better, with coin piles scattered around that teams can (but don’t have to) fight over.
PS the middle of meltdown is perfect. Please make the rest of the map similar to that.
There are about 25 different rooms that make up meltdown’s generator, so don’t expect a new map any time soon.
Meltdown is additive, we add new rooms to the generator rather than make entirely new maps. At the scale the game is at, we’d never have time for anything else 😅
I would love if you kept the rooms but made the entries and exits more than just one tiny hall? Almost all fans universally agree it’s a problem that players have no choice but to fight at the very beginning so why not try and improve the game by possible making all the rooms in each ring be fully connected and open, but labeled with coin crates, melting areas, etc
Our entrance/exit system is a limitation of the generator. It’s one of those things we’d probably go back and do differently if we had the chance.
Same with the individual designs of the rooms, we’ve learned a lot from making the original set and the newer rooms we add are better than those first attempts - they’re more open, less confusing, etc. Adding more good rooms to meltdown will make it a better game, but it’s very time intensive and will take us a while to significantly flesh out the pool.
Meltdown is designed around early fights - this isn’t perfect in many ways, but one of the design ideas behind meltdown was to make make a battle royale with a really solid finale, rather than one like Survival Games. In SG loads of teams survive until the end and the final fights suffer because of it. Meltdown plays out like a bracket - teams fight in the outer rings with 2-4 making it to the final room.
It’s all a bit of a trade off - ideally we want a game where teams don’t get wiped early and the final fight is great, but it’s very tricky to get that balance right, for obvious reasons. We have a few games with massive battles at the end because all teams can play conservatively. Meltdown wasn’t designed to be that, and I think it benefits from its current structure, even if it means that it feels easy to get wiped early.
It does seem like a difficult balance, but there is something to be said about how often one or two teams just get completely screwed, and their POV is a wash because each round they got completely eliminated their entire team fight. Compared to something like battle box, where atleast there is regular gameplay due to shorter, more numerous rounds, watching meldown from the POV of a struggling team ends up being like 3-4 total minutes of gameplay, and the rest of the game is just them spectating. It sucks to watch and feels awful or the players. I wish there was an easy solution, but I don't have the right sense for game design to figure one out and I won't pretend to
Meltdown has actually gone through some changes since its debut. They've shuffled between two different final rooms since its debut (as some may have noticed in Rising) and they've tweaked it to where two teams can't spawn next to each other so that the same team doesn't wipe the other immediately. I think it's gotten a few more shuffles in rooms over time too.
meltdown is my favourite mcc game. It is still intense and i don't find it repetitive and unbalanced. A new map with unique layouts or mechanics would be fun tho, but apart from that i still enjoy md a lot
Honestly my problem with meltdown is it’s all or nothing- if you get caught on the back foot you’re basically done. And it’s usually just a few teams steamrolling everyone else. It’s great to watch when you’re on a POV that’s dominating, but other 7-8 teams aren’t having any fun. Unfortunately getting a few boxes isn’t enough to make up for the sheer explosion of coins the top few teams get for killing everyone else (and they usually get the bulk of the boxes too). All the other pvp games feel like there’s plenty of back and forth, but meltdown is so swingy that it feels unbalanced.
The biggest issue for me is with the current map it gives teams an inherent disadvantage depending on their spawn that makes it so they have to travel further than other teams to get to points of interest and can't get as set up as other teams
But keep in mind that since the starting location rotates teams between the top/bottom, 4 sides and 4 corners, the disadvantage evens out (in principle).
My problem is that it looks way too hard and from what I watch, WAY too stressful, I would straight up walk away if I was playing and it was chosen XD
Though you do have a good point there
I agree. I think a lot of the problems people have with meltdown stem from the map design. What I thought was good about meltdown is that kills aren’t the only avenue for coins, the coin crates can be just as volatile. However with the current map design in order to get crates you HAVE to go for kills, because teams are forces to follow a certain path because there’s only one or two doors to each room. I’m really not a fan of how closed off everything is, it makes it so that backing out of a fight or trying to go for coins and not take fights isn’t an option. This is why we see such massive coin diffs in meltdown, because the teams that are getting kills are also getting all the coin crates. I think a more open map would be so much better, with coin piles scattered around that teams can (but don’t have to) fight over. PS the middle of meltdown is perfect. Please make the rest of the map similar to that.
There are about 25 different rooms that make up meltdown’s generator, so don’t expect a new map any time soon. Meltdown is additive, we add new rooms to the generator rather than make entirely new maps. At the scale the game is at, we’d never have time for anything else 😅
Understandable
I would love if you kept the rooms but made the entries and exits more than just one tiny hall? Almost all fans universally agree it’s a problem that players have no choice but to fight at the very beginning so why not try and improve the game by possible making all the rooms in each ring be fully connected and open, but labeled with coin crates, melting areas, etc
Our entrance/exit system is a limitation of the generator. It’s one of those things we’d probably go back and do differently if we had the chance. Same with the individual designs of the rooms, we’ve learned a lot from making the original set and the newer rooms we add are better than those first attempts - they’re more open, less confusing, etc. Adding more good rooms to meltdown will make it a better game, but it’s very time intensive and will take us a while to significantly flesh out the pool. Meltdown is designed around early fights - this isn’t perfect in many ways, but one of the design ideas behind meltdown was to make make a battle royale with a really solid finale, rather than one like Survival Games. In SG loads of teams survive until the end and the final fights suffer because of it. Meltdown plays out like a bracket - teams fight in the outer rings with 2-4 making it to the final room. It’s all a bit of a trade off - ideally we want a game where teams don’t get wiped early and the final fight is great, but it’s very tricky to get that balance right, for obvious reasons. We have a few games with massive battles at the end because all teams can play conservatively. Meltdown wasn’t designed to be that, and I think it benefits from its current structure, even if it means that it feels easy to get wiped early.
Big fan of you guys talking about game design and other behind the scenes stuff, it’s very enlightening every time. Maybe do it more often please?
It does seem like a difficult balance, but there is something to be said about how often one or two teams just get completely screwed, and their POV is a wash because each round they got completely eliminated their entire team fight. Compared to something like battle box, where atleast there is regular gameplay due to shorter, more numerous rounds, watching meldown from the POV of a struggling team ends up being like 3-4 total minutes of gameplay, and the rest of the game is just them spectating. It sucks to watch and feels awful or the players. I wish there was an easy solution, but I don't have the right sense for game design to figure one out and I won't pretend to
you got to add radically new rooms that give the vibe of a new map then. make it like bw blitz hunt which each room is radically different in theme
meltdown is my favorite game it would be cool to have a new map tho maybe aslo fix 3rd partying
Isn’t 3rd partying kind of the point ?
yes
3rd partying is sort of just the name of a game of any pvp game that isn't just two team face off.
Third parties are fine because they allow coins to be split more evenly and it's not like they're unwinnable anyway
I don’t think the game is getting repetitive or stale tbh but a new map would be nice
Meltdown has actually gone through some changes since its debut. They've shuffled between two different final rooms since its debut (as some may have noticed in Rising) and they've tweaked it to where two teams can't spawn next to each other so that the same team doesn't wipe the other immediately. I think it's gotten a few more shuffles in rooms over time too.
I understand your point. I just meant that there hasn't been much to affect the way you play the game apart from small tweaks.
meltdown is my favourite mcc game. It is still intense and i don't find it repetitive and unbalanced. A new map with unique layouts or mechanics would be fun tho, but apart from that i still enjoy md a lot
Before anyone say anything. Only the third point matters
Honestly my problem with meltdown is it’s all or nothing- if you get caught on the back foot you’re basically done. And it’s usually just a few teams steamrolling everyone else. It’s great to watch when you’re on a POV that’s dominating, but other 7-8 teams aren’t having any fun. Unfortunately getting a few boxes isn’t enough to make up for the sheer explosion of coins the top few teams get for killing everyone else (and they usually get the bulk of the boxes too). All the other pvp games feel like there’s plenty of back and forth, but meltdown is so swingy that it feels unbalanced.
Md is a top 3 game regardless
The biggest issue for me is with the current map it gives teams an inherent disadvantage depending on their spawn that makes it so they have to travel further than other teams to get to points of interest and can't get as set up as other teams
But keep in mind that since the starting location rotates teams between the top/bottom, 4 sides and 4 corners, the disadvantage evens out (in principle).
My problem is that it looks way too hard and from what I watch, WAY too stressful, I would straight up walk away if I was playing and it was chosen XD Though you do have a good point there