New Player review and comments - PS4

Hey All,

Gamer for 25+ years.  PVP Shooters since BF1942 on PC.

More currently still on the BF Series but now on PS4, and Destiny player since D1.

Newer to the Battle Royal, didn't get into PUBG and very little Fortnite experience BUT watch my kids play for hours on end.  Sometimes simply for the entertainment of it.  (I know enough watching what I see).  I'm a bit of  1st Person purist to not really enjoy 3rd person for shooters.  Makes the gunplay feel less authentic.

Overall I like the game and it has a ton of potential.

Some observations:

• Love the Ping system. Fornite has taught us that being in Mic with Randos is annoying AF. This in conjunction with the speech to text is going in the right direction.
• Re-deploy Baloons are a great idea. Nice innovation
• Jumpmaster, another good innovation.
  • Seen the thread on people purposely diving off the map.  I would suggest to make it impossible to jump off the 'island' boundaries.
• Matchmaking
  • Not sure the thougts behind this and how common it is in the Battle Royale world but was playing with my Son and a friend and we topped out with a level 12.  Getting matched in the Battle were level 24+ people.  What's the criteria for matchmaking and skill balance?  If any?
    • I unterstand that Level in this game isn't really a skill indicator.  So again trying to understand the MM.   My experience is getting matched with people so far above your skill level is not condusive to fun or learning.
• TTK too high
  • I know this is a hot topic and I've read through some of the posts on either side of it.  For those defending the current TTK understand that there have been games that have tried to 'encourage' team play and tactics by having longer TTK and it has not gone well. I get why people would want the higher TTK but it's just not popular.  For anyone familiar with D2 Y1 you'll know what I mean.
• Crawl speed way too high
  • I can't believe there isn't much talk on this.  When you knock someone down they shouldn't turn into a crab and scurry away and close door behind them.  Please slow this down and even remove the ability to open/close doors. just seems too easy to get away.  I'd like to hear anyone's perception of why it should remain this fast.
• Weapon RNG
  • Seems initial weapon spawn RNG could be better.  Too many times you drop in and search multiple locations (and crates) to get nothing but armor and weapons parts.
  • Not sure if this is to 'encourage' waiting for drops or using Lifeline's Ultimate but at time it can be lacking.
• Weapon viability
  • Seems ARs and Shotguns are already the meta.  ARs have too much range and make scouts and burst irrelevant most times.  Especially variable fire rate ARs that can compete with scouts.  I thinks a re-focus on weapons optimal range and proper counters is needed.
  • I'm not a 'nerf everything ' person but even though Peacekeeper is one of the stronger Shotguns the range it has makes in outclass SMG's within the SMG optimal range (it's closest rival in CQC, or should be).  Essentially a shotgun doesn't have to be the only counter to a shotgun.  Fortnite had it's own issues with that.
  • Heavy AR - They seem to outshine all other ARs even when on even tier or lower.  Just trying to understand the balance here.
  • Full Auto Pistols - Seem useless.  Buff to stability?
• Melee
  • Improve Melee targeting.  IT's pretty terrible
  • Improve Melee damage against Shielded enemies.  Seems to be 3 or 4 shots now.  Should be 2 IMHO. 3 Tops.
  • Add other Melee weapons. No 1HK ones though.  An equipped melee weapon can be a 2HK shielded, 1HK un-shielded.
• No Fall Damage
  • It's an interesting concept.  Wondering the thoughts on that.
• Ultimates
  • Don't have a lot to comment on ultimates. They all have their purpose and utility.
• Bunny-hopping
  • Thank you for not making bunny-hopping a primary defensive tool.

That's about it for now.  Ton of potential here and it's fun despite some of the frustrations I had with some of my observations.