DUST Search - Project Nova: Review by Aeon Amadi

Operative 1174 Uuali wrote:

Well, there's my reasons for not playing this new game. Sounds like the same FOTM nullifying features of commando, cloaked shotgun scout and rail rifle imbalance.

The commando presently has no drawbacks. I don't care what anybody says, IT DOES NOT! It cancels out the assault completely. CCP previously said they were going to can this role.

Cloak shotgun scout is virtually uncounterable 9 out of 10 times in a game that depends on close quarters combat.

The rail rifle, great at ANY EFFING RANGE. Really? Is it still THAT good? Why use anything else? The AR? Lol, why use that any more? No change to that meta.

Under the circumstances of game play these elements absolutely possess a natural advantage. either they need to be arbitrarily limited or game play has to be expanded both in map size and flow of battle as it relates to win mechanics or goals to promote effective adoption of other weapons, suits and support roles.

There is a reason everybody save the few players who have an ounce of self respect use the above features. The rest of us are playing at a disadvantage for not adopting these features.

Looks like the new game isn't trying to better balance these things within the context of game play. The same migration to the few overly effective elements is inevitable. I'd hoped we'd see an end to lopsided gameplay.


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Aeon Amadi 13831	Posted - 2016.04.24 02:44:00 - [1] - Quote Gameplay: Solid as **. A few minor issues that were superficial, such as nanohives being deployed all at once if you clicked the mouse too quickly, just as an example. Stuff that could be easily rectified and had little to no impact what-so-ever on the moment to moment gameplay. Movement and mobility were DRASTICALLY better, with even heavy suits able to jump over railings and the like. The double-jump, while minor, made for a lot more varied play that could utilize a few "skill jumps" that seemed purposefully set up in the map. Overall, it was bloody great with 60+ fps. Graphics: You were in a Chimera class carrier. What can be said besides 'holy , I'm in a carrer'? I have a video I'm going to upload once i'm back in the states that shows the loading bay where the fighters are entering/exiting. There's even a window you can find where you can look out into space and see the rest of the fleet as well as a Naga battleship moving by. The immersion was amazing and there were -PLENTY- of identifiers in the map to show where you where and where you were going. I'm confident that, given enough time, players could easily just tell their team where they need to be "Auxiliary Reactor Room" and they would immediately know where they need to go. VFX really highlights what's going on and once you get used to what everything means, you pretty much never have to look at your HP bar to understand what the state of your suit is. Classes (or, "Fits" as I call them): Presets that highlighted well-rounded aspects of each playstyle. Each had it's strengths and weaknesses with the most obvious ones becoming apparent after just a few plays of each setup. Despite being an Assault player in Dust 514, I found myself playing the Sentinel in Nova the most. HMG is god damn deadly when you learn how to get used to the new aiming mechanics. Sound: Sounds were -completely- overhauled and are much more indicative and responsive. The Thunderbolt Precision Rifle is -god damn terrifying- and sounds more like a mortar than a rifle. The HMG now has an escalating "whirring" sound as the heat builds up and after playing with it a few rounds I instantly knew when I was about to overheat without needing to look at the bar (conveniently placed around the reticle). SMG sounds more akin to a rifle, which is good considering that it now has splash damage. Funny notes: Killed myself with the SMG splash damage trying to kill CCP Frame. Was ***** hilarious and I told the gang that they should include splash damage on all the minmatar weaponry because it was just awesome. I fell off the map more times than I care to admit trying to explore off-limits areas. There are a few really cool easter eggs hidden around the map if you know where to look. You can melee while cloaked, but I'm pretty sure that was a bug. Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"
Aeon Amadi 13832	Posted - 2016.04.24 02:54:00 - [2] - Quote Sharpshooter: Minmatar Scout with a 'Thunderbolt' Precision Rifle, Bolt SMG, cloaking device, and nanohives. All scouts have double-jump, so this was a really nice feature in tandem with the cloak to get to a really good perch and unleash hell. The Precision Rifle is -insanely- rewarding and terrifying to hear and deal with. Can't quick scope on account of the accuracy mechanic which requires that you stay zoomed in (no sway) until the rifle 'calibrates' for the range and then you can fire. Headshots were instant kills and felt amazing when you pulled them off. One shot magazine and a long reload made missing really punishing. Vanguard: Amarr Commando reminiscent. Two Assault Rail Rifles, one of which had a scope (note that this was not a rail rifle). Double jump and nanohives made for a really great shock trooper that served as a fantastic cover buster that could also rely on the scoped ARR when things got into long range. Lot of survivability and durability allowed me to take on three other players and still win (albeit, hurting really bad). Sentinel: Caldari Sentinel. Had an HMG, Bolt SMG, and nanohives. Hard to get used to, but absolutely terrifying to deal with when in the right hands. I wound up favoring this thing just because of how insane the HMG was, using the old 'crouch and aim' tactic to land reliable kills upwards of 40m. Brute, overall. Assault: Caldari Assault with an ARR, Bolt SMG, Nanohive, Dropuplink, and Grenades. The grenades were especially bouncy and you could really screw someone over by planning where the bounce was going to be. Drop uplinks became especially useful, as always, and made for a really good, reliable experience. Infiltrator: Amarr Scout with a Shotgun, Bolt SMG, Cloaking Device, and Nanohive. Double jump came in handy for pushing the enemy hard and the scout itself was -hell- to deal with when trying to aim at their strafe dance. I don't care what sort of rumors you heard about mouse + keyboard precision, it doesn't mean ** with the high TTK in Dust and the lack of aim assist made the Scout especially powerful in the right hands. Shotgun was completely revamped and crazy cool with a massive green bloom of plasma when fired. I actually saw someone die with the green bloom through the doorway without ever seeing the scout itself and instantly turned around and ran. Support: Minmatar Medium with a Tactical Rail Rifle, bolt SMG, and nanohives. The Tac Rail Rifle was -*** deadly- and was my preferred weapon. Four round magazine, semi-automatic, excellent range. Could two shot heavies with headshots. But good luck landing them because the weapon does ** all unless you're aiming down the scope. Missing was punishing and was a good balancing factor for what was otherwise the most powerful, imo, weapons in the game. Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"
Aeon Amadi 13836	Posted - 2016.04.24 03:00:00 - [3] - Quote Players: The people who played were -amazing- and you could really start to see who was a tried and true FPS player right off the bat. These guys stood out and really torture-tested the different classes, made you seriously have to consider your options when dealing with them. It was this sort of experience and skill that really defined each class and highlighted where the rock/paper/scissors elements came into play. One guy was an amazing sniper but as soon as you got in close his entire playstyle fell apart. Despite going 12/4, this guy was getting seriously antsy whenever he started to feel the pressure of people adapting to his kill streak. The overwhelming positive feedback received mostly hinged on negativity aspects about things that the gameplay demo had nothing to do with, highlighting the lack of core game designs that could, should, and likely will come later. Everything else, regarding the shooting gameplay, was amazing, with references to other well known shooters as the ultimate comparison point. Developers: Nothing is more inspiring than seeing developers of Eve Online playing Nova and -learning- from the experience. Even notable developers such as CCP Rise and CCP Torfifrans were there to play Nova and they said that it was an amazing experience overall. A few devs even took some of the things they saw in the gameplay to heart and may actually adopt some of those experiences for their own project. Can't get into specifics with that, but yeah. You guys: Don't be so damn hasty to bash a proof of concept that is only highlighting one aspect of the greater vision x3 Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"
Aeon Amadi 13836	Posted - 2016.04.24 03:05:00 - [4] - Quote Llast 326 wrote: Nice to see your impressions Aeon. Sounds like you got some serious hands on time. Seems like the learning curve should be pretty intuitive. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about that. Do you get the impression that the actual game will have more room for learning nuances and tactically dynamic? I would not like to see Nova fall into the trap of one tactic to rule them all. Yeah, no. The TTK was high enough that you could get into a bad situation and still disengage/have time to react. There were a few times where I actively chose to run away only to come back and get the upper hand when things were more tactically advantageous for me. You can really see the rock/paper/scissors elements take off now as certain playstyles have extreme difficulty dealing with their designed weaknesses. Heavies are -super- susceptible to sniper and CQC scouts, which balanced out their sheer durability (they're ******* hard to kill) and ferocity in the corridors where the HMG flourishes. The drop uplinks were useful just because there were -SO MANY- access points to where you needed to go. There were chokepoints, absolutely, but they didn't feel so damning as to be like that one underground area of the Caldari Production Facility that everyone hated because it was impossible to get anyone out of there. There are plenty of access points you can exploit, given a little time, and they were well designed enough that -ALL- playstyles could exploit them in their own unique ways. The nuances are certainly there and I knew a lot just from Dust experience, but there were also a lot of other things that you're going to have to pick up by playing. The double-jump mechanic opened up for a lot of opportunities to circumvent traditional barriers and created opportunities for exploitation of the map resources to gain the advantage. Stuff like that takes some time to learn, but once you do it's invaluable. Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"
Aeon Amadi 13877	Posted - 2016.04.24 09:45:00 - [5] - Quote Strafe game is really only a thing for scouts now. Heavies that are aiming might as well be holding still when strafing. Assaults' strafe speed has been significantly hampered so that while it is still viable with hipfiring, aiming down the sights isn't a pain to deal with. The only instances I had trouble shooting someone was the Infiltrator class that was the Amarr Scout with the shotgun - because it isn't really aiming down the sight and able to move at full strafe speed, it's a lot different than anything else you're going to shoot at. Something I -REALLY- enjoyed because it really brought out the skill of the player who rightly deserved to kill me. TTK is perfect, imo. A lot of players that came through said it needed to be higher/shorter based on where they game from - players with a CS:GO/CoD/Battlefield background said it needed to be lower, Halo and other titles said it needed to be higher. IMO, coming from Dust 514, I never once felt like I got gypped or cheated when I died. I even avoided a number of deaths by having enough time to make the decision to turn and run, which is a GREAT feeling. The only time you melt faster than you have time to react is when there are a bunch of people shooting you at once. And for the one person that asked, the Devs played frequently and were especially good at their playstyles. Archduke was a pretty fierce heavy. Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"
Aeon Amadi 13883	Posted - 2016.04.24 16:06:00 - [6] - Quote Kinky Fat Bastard wrote: Of course it is, CCP didn't build it, they just shoved some Assets into the UE4 Tech Demo DeathwindRising wrote: excellent review. heres a question for you and the CPM. has there been talk about whether or not the CPM will continue going forward? what is your role now, and will there be new elections or will you all remain in place for the time being? Speak to CCP Frame! Operative 1174 Uuali wrote: Well, there's my reasons for not playing this new game. Sounds like the same FOTM nullifying features of commando, cloaked shotgun scout and rail rifle imbalance. The commando presently has no drawbacks. I don't care what anybody says, IT DOES NOT! It cancels out the assault completely. CCP previously said they were going to can this role. Cloak shotgun scout is virtually uncounterable 9 out of 10 times in a game that depends on close quarters combat. The rail rifle, great at ANY EFFING RANGE. Really? Is it still THAT good? Why use anything else? The AR? Lol, why use that any more? No change to that meta. Under the circumstances of game play these elements absolutely possess a natural advantage. either they need to be arbitrarily limited or game play has to be expanded both in map size and flow of battle as it relates to win mechanics or goals to promote effective adoption of other weapons, suits and support roles. There is a reason everybody save the few players who have an ounce of self respect use the above features. The rest of us are playing at a disadvantage for not adopting these features. Looks like the new game isn't trying to better balance these things within the context of game play. The same migration to the few overly effective elements is inevitable. I'd hoped we'd see an end to lopsided gameplay. 5/7 **-post Adan Montano Pietsch wrote: I second this, ccp NEEDS to focus on making this a good fps before ANYTHING. Balance the guns, balance the classes, balance the equipment and mods, and most importantly fix the strafe, jump, and shooting mechanics. Balance always comes after feel and control. This playtest was about feel and control with stats modeled after current Dust balance and is likely to change anyway. No point in trying to balance something when it could all change. Shley Ashes wrote:** Great review +1 Would meet the CPM again Great conversations, lots of possibility talks which I hope make it into a greenlit game My only sad face point is that more people didn't get to try it Dis guy knows whats up :D Side note: Isn't it interesting how everyone that played it loves it and everyone who didn't is all bitter? Skype: Nomistrav "Bastard at Heart"