In a new Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer update, Rocksteady says it's "top priority" is fixing persistent login and server problems that continue to plague the game. But it's not an easy fix, because it's not just one problem.
Suicide Squad launched two weeks ago, on February 2, but some owners are still having problems logging into the servers, or maintaining their connections. That's obviously a problem for a game built around online play. A patch went live on February 14 but it was focused primarily on bugs and balancing, not server issues.
"[We] know that some of our players are running into issues which are not addressed in this patch," Rocksteady said in that patch announcement. "These include but are not limited to matchmaking issues, login issues, performance issues & progression issues, among others. While we were not able to get those fixes implemented in this patch, know that we are aware of the frustration these may cause and are working on making further improvements in upcoming patches."
The response to that announcement was not widely positive. Some fans said they're enjoying the game and expressed appreciation for Rocksteady's efforts, but quite a few others expressed, shall we say, different kinds of sentiments. That may have helped prompt Rocksteady to reassure everyone that it's on the case in this latest update.
"For our upcoming patches we are looking to address login issues and server issues," game director Axel Rydby wrote. "And while we might not be able to fix all of those issues right away, I want to assure everyone: This is the top priority for us. We hear and feel your frustration and we can only agree, it’s unacceptable for the players who are affected by this. We need to do better, and we’re working hard to fix these issues.
"It is, however, not an easy nut to crack because it’s not one single issue, it’s several smaller issues that are affecting some players in different ways. We can only ask that you remain patient and keep giving more information through Customer Support to help us address the issues."
The studio also addressed its reasoning for rolling out a bugs-and-balance ahead of fixing the server problems, saying that designers can fix balance problems without needing too much help from coders, but connectivity issues are a whole different ballgame.
"We don’t want to delay changes that can be implemented quickly and will improve parts of the game, so while we understand that you might wonder and be frustrated around priorities, keep in mind that we have different teams working on different issues in parallel," Rocksteady wrote.
The update also lays out Rocksteady's plans for future gameplay and balance tweaks, including changes to the Promethium game loop to encouragement more "engagement" with the open world, balance changes to Boom! and Affliction Immunity that will make them less restrictive, and a re-examination of lower-tier Legendary items to make them more useful in builds.