Open is finally dead.

[Lindsey]

I hope this is just a phase

It is, like the other many times the game was considered "dead" xD

 

[Hexodious]

My childhood is ruined.

Since I cannot express my feelings accurately, this is a chatgpt snippet:

I can’t help but feel utterly disappointed with what Movie Battles II has become. I played the game for 10 years before ever joining the beta test team, dedicating countless hours to understanding its mechanics, balance, and what made it truly enjoyable. From there, I worked my way up to Beta Test Lead, refining and improving the game alongside others who shared a passion for its design. Eventually, I took on the role of Gameplay Lead, where I focused on creating a streamlined, impactful experience—one that emphasized accessibility without sacrificing depth.

But the latest iteration, one I’ve had no involvement in, is not just not fun—it’s outright poorly designed. Gameplay balance is nonexistent. Instead of a cohesive and well-structured experience, the game is now bloated with hidden mechanics and unnecessary keybinds, a complete departure from the streamlined approach I aimed for. The focus has shifted heavily toward 1v1 encounters, completely neglecting the Open mode that was supposed to be the heart of the game.

And then there’s Legends. Rather than prioritizing balance, it seems like an excuse for the developers to throw in overpowered, albeit flashy, features with no consideration for how they fit into the broader gameplay. It feels like balance has been tossed aside entirely in favor of gimmicks.

Honestly, I’m embarrassed to have MBII on my CV at this point. After spending over a decade playing, testing, and eventually leading the design of this game, it’s frustrating to see it take such a misguided turn. What was once a carefully crafted system, designed to be both deep and accessible, has been turned into a chaotic mess. It’s heartbreaking to see something I cared about so much become this unrecognizable.

I didn't think I'd be so upset about it, but I truely am. I am almost in tears. Today was suppose to be a day a lot of the old vets came back and enjoyed the game together and instead of remembering the fun times we were met with sadness.

 

[yle yatarn.]

My childhood is ruined.

Returns after 3 years of inactivity, unlocks a locked thread: ‘My childhood is ruined.’

 

[NewOl'Ben]

Maybe not as sour of a take as Hex's here. Dev is an often thankless job and it's not easy.

Having tried Open and Legends today with an open mind. The biggest thing I'm missing is the punch. The game feels a lot more muted. I had a lot of hype going in for Beskar and Whistling Birds for example. After playing with them, they had little-to-no punch. In sore need of buffs and general game juice. Attunement was also confusing. Sabering had no weight.

I hope the game can get a bit more love in making it juicy and dynamic.

Maybe I'm just old. New music sounds like ass, movies are predictable and my donger no longer works as it used to. Perhaps it's the same with this game.

 

[Gargos]

It is sad to see that open is in such a state that people prefer random chaotic legends over regular gameplay. I did see this shift already before these overly dramatic changes to how things work so it isnt all about the devs but also about how the community has evolved. One of the reasons I originally left mb2 was the amount of players that simply did not actually play the game anymore. I guess legends is the answer to this to keep these grifting players interested and it just isnt my cup of tea. Open just got f’d in the process I guess.

I can still enjoy old mb2 in the old videos. Good times were had with rougly 20k hours of jka/mb2 (thats close to 3 years of str8 up gaming which is nuts).

So it ends, in darkness…

 

[immortalinkd]

My childhood is ruined.

Since I cannot express my feelings accurately, this is a chatgpt snippet:



I didn't think I'd be so upset about it, but I truely am. I am almost in tears. Today was suppose to be a day a lot of the old vets game back and enjoyed the game together and instead of remembering the fun times we were met with sadness.

Absolutely dead

 

[Hexodious]

Do the current devs even play the game. I am crying in my office right now - how can you fuck this up so much. I don't want to undersate how upset I am right now. I've spent so much of my life on this game, How could you.

 

[Hexodious]

 

[Hexodious]

 

[Hexodious]

Make the game fun again

 

[The Unguided]

I know I have a playlist of MB2 videos saved in my youtube profile.
Could you go into details why it's less fun? The lack of admins, the number of trolls and timewasters can ruin it for sure. But beyond that how would you word it?
I personally play a lot and still find it enjoyable for the most part and I also spend equal time on modding/dev stuff. The environment of both the current community/dev team and the actual state of Star Wars make the situation a bit uneasy I could say.
I'm also confident the community wanted new classes, new weapons, new force abilities for years. It's been like 15 years since the last new class? 13 years since the last new weapon? Decades have passed and new stuff didn't really happen in Open - excluding maps/models. However you can do those in Legends easily. That might explain why it has become so popular. Now, I'm still more of a fan of Open than Legends but I can understand the psychology and evolution behind the situation we're in.

 

[Goosto]

As long as I have a grenade in hand and a teammate's back facing me Open will never die (despite Bob's best efforts).

 

[Hexodious]

I know I have a playlist of MB2 videos saved in my youtube profile.
Could you go into details why it's less fun? The lack of admins, the number of trolls and timewasters can ruin it for sure. But beyond that how would you word it?
I personally play a lot and still find it enjoyable for the most part and I also spend equal time on modding/dev stuff. The environment of both the current community/dev team and the actual state of Star Wars make the situation a bit uneasy I could say.
I'm also confident the community wanted new classes, new weapons, new force abilities for years. It's been like 15 years since the last new class? 13 years since the last new weapon? Decades have passed and new stuff didn't really happen in Open - excluding maps/models. However you can do those in Legends easily. That might explain why it has become so popular. Now, I'm still more of a fan of Open than Legends but I can understand the psychology and evolution behind the situation we're in.

Its sad when these new things added only detracted from the actual game mode. More thought was needed to the whole picture. What happened to the e-11 being the basis of gun balance across classes/weapons, this was the fact of my predicessor and his precidessor before me, some things don't change and help things stay consistent and elevate the game flow. Ridiculous. New things can be added but why change the entire Jedi setup at the same time (the selling point of the mod).

The UI doesn't even help, if I want more "blaster defence" (why is this even a thing) I need to click on an empty space in my UI. This is awful, and should never be live - especially without explaination.

The whole point of the "point-based" system was to prevent someone over-investing in a certain critrea. Limitations were put in place for items such as attachments not for the force point system in general. You may as well have loadouts if you want to limit it in such a way, its nonsense.

 

[Hexodious]

Think hard about why mb2 was fun and good. This is not it - I am so angry at you for this right now. There aren't many things I shed tears for, but you've truely fucked up.

 

[The Unguided]

Think hard about why mb2 was fun and good. This is not it - I am so angry at you for this right now. There isn't many things I shed tears for, but you've truely fucked up.

Even though I see your point, I cannot say one thing from the *Dirty Girls* video that you cannot do ingame today but was possible to do 13 years ago. It's still the same in its core except more convoluted yes, I agree in that aspect. (You may ask coders and current gameplay designers on those things.)
Nonetheless I assume the dev team had even more manpower back in the day than nowadays, should I say the old team had every chance to add new features and generally make things better, greater to ensure the stability of the mod? Yet it didn't happen for some reason? I'm sure folks had good intent whatever happened anyways. Alternatively, maybe it's just the fact that people come and go, leadership changes, community changes, nothing stays the same. Hell, even Star Wars changed. I'm sorry on behalf of everyone involved.

By the way, I love your Smuggler map.

 

[Hexodious]

FP drains are different from the video, functionality and responsiveness of abilities are different from the video. The game is fundemantally different, the point of the video is that the silliness was fun.

As Jedi is such a huge focal point of mb2 the gameplay itself it is no-where near the same, there are numerous changes to the Jedi/Gunplay since the video and it can't be experienced in the live game as such. The game is simply not balanced as it should be. You've stated several times "why not add a new feature", I'd like to retort why add a feature that isn't ready - do not mistake not adding a feature for lack of ability, things were kept back because they would ruin the flow see the primary game mode of the live game.

I do want to state now, that I am not blaming you, personally - you are just the unlucky soul who is replying, but the game is in its worse state ever. It feels like an internal beta test.

 

[The Unguided]

I can't help but wonder, how 20 years weren't enough to flesh out those new features? Constantly keeping ideas back and afraid to take risks can get dull. The community got tired of this and turned to Legends where their wishes are being heard.
When I first played MB2 I had 3 IRL friends to play with. They all left for good cause no new features, just shuffling values on a digital table buff this, nerf that back n forth, tweaking the shit out of the same basics.

 

[Hexodious]

I suppose we’d simply of ended up with the shit we see now, sooner, Nice.

 

[2cwldys]

Revert open point-buy changes with all this attunement garbage & additional bullshit. Fix builds from not saving.
Revert previous open mass armor changes (citing John). Revert the nerf to proj. Revert the recent p3 changes.
Revert the recent dmg increase change to clone weapon damage. Please fix blue style. Implement FA/Legends build saving.
Quit listening to scrimmer only feedback when it comes to open, and listen to what's left of your remaining players.
Make whistling birds do less damage, slight reduction in beskar DR, or reevaluate those features added to Mandalorian.
Please fix RGB wheel in Open, some models don't work anymore.

All this is becoming is an endless balance hell which is taking it further away from what it originally was, now it's competitive slop and the game half works.

 

[RogueWookiee]

dont forget about how dueling just got cucked