u/WhiteSpikePT

After two days of playing PvP with Sandstorm setting (which was introduced from a previous brawl "Squad Battle") to which, according to the developers, under "Game modes" section and "Classic missions" subsection:

>We aim to add variety to the usual flow of battles in missions. The sandstorm will become an environmental factor that must be taken into account during battles, and it will also add an element of surprise, since it can start at any moment or might not start at all.

which adds the following aspects:

• "The sandstorm can only start under certain weather conditions at a location. You’ll understand everything when you find yourself in such a battle."
• "Pay attention and be careful: the storm deals damage to all armoured cars that enter its area of effect."
• "Use the sudden change to your advantage and don’t let the enemy do the same!"
• "Once this small experiment is complete, we will launch a special in-game survey. Please take part in it and share your feedback with us."

I think I'm in a position to give an opinion about it that I don't really think a survey is gonna catch it completely.

Many people (including me) found out the hard way that this was gonna be a thing during 2nd July to 8th (inclusive). Well, maybe without the part that it was gonna temporary and thought it was a permanent thing. Regardless, this detail shouldn't really be another entry in a battle pass update but rather its own announcement (like the "Dangerous Cargo" in PvP with legs) but I digress.

So here's my opinion about this sandstorm setting:

• The circular form of the storm is more fair than the straight line one.
  • If you are on the unlucky part of the map where the line immediately starts (due to either being a long range build or forced by the enemy team), you will have a horrible time trying to bring the situation back to your side without consequence of avoiding the storm (either too late to avoid it and take some damage or getting shot by the enemy waiting for you to come to their lovely arms).
  • With the circular, while you can still have the same situation as before, both teams have to move to the center if they do not want to take damage from the storm, allowing both to shoot each other while trying to get to safety.
• The minimum time required in a match to start a sandstorm is too short.
  • The lowest time I remember from my matches was 30 seconds in which is usually when the fights start.
  • This makes it difficult to read the situation and where to go if you are immediately pressured to go deal with the enemy this early on.
• There is no clear indicator for when you are about to or taking damage when you are about to enter the storm area or you are in it.
  • Yes, the minimap highlights the zone in which the storm is occupying. This however can't be only source of information (outside of looking at it, in which what are you doing facing away from the enemies) telling you that the storm is coming towards you.
  • A simple notification telling you that the storm is getting closer or you are in the storm taking damage on the top of the screen (so much empty space below the timer...) could have been more than enough to resolve this particular issue.
• The shrinking rate of the playable map is too quick.
  • This causes long range play to be obsolete as this type of builds have no breathing room in staying away from close range builds and staying away from the storm to not take unnecessary damage.
  • A slower rate allows these builds to still take advantage of being away from enemies and their respective perks while also being forced to get closer to their enemies.
• The sandstorm occuring does not work very well in the team and domination bases mode.
  • Base capture is one of two ways to complete a battle, the other one obviously being to kill the enemy team. Some do it since this game was originally a team-objective-based game and others do it because it's more of hassle to deal with the enemy (long range builds while you are close range, tankier slower builds while you are faster and glasscannon-like, etc.).
  • When a storm happens, it removes the base capture objective entirely (if you do not have enough time to capture it before it kills you), forcing you to deal with the reasons to why you were capturing in the first place. Sure, the enemy also has to go there but what hope do you have against a 2k health build when you have less than 500?
  • This is not much of a problem in the middle point base as the storm usually restricts the zone to be in the same place as the base.
• Due to previous points mentioned, the storm occuring during your match is more likely to make a worser situation rather than a better one because it is essentialy a base capture (restricted to a playable zone) disguised as a suprise "Woops, new objective parameters" but with damage penalties if you decide to ignore it, giving you less of a chance to win.

With all these points, does this mean the Sandstorm setting is bad fundamentally?

Not necessarily as the purpose described by the developers is to add deviation from the usual flow of battles/matches. We can see this intent when it happens, however due to how it is implemented, it looks too much like a too high speed up to slaughter of the teams and base capture becoming immediately irrelevant.

However there is room for improvement for this setting to become enjoyable rather than annoying. If the issues I have mentioned before can get some resolve, we won't have a feature which eviscerates a whole range of weapons/build ideas whenever it decides to appear in a match.

Even though we are at the lowest of faiths that the developers take our feedback seriously and are only interested in the profits, let's hope like usual that this gets to someone's eyes and make the game more enjoyable.

This opinion is from a person who plays the game more casually than competitive as I enjoy more when playing with friends to mess around with silly builds so take this take about the sandstorm setting with a grain of salt.

This post is essentialy more detailed version of a comment I have made earlier in a post.