Cobalt Monkey
Crux Special Tasks Group
Gallente Federation
140
   |
Posted - 2012.06.29 03:42:00 -
[1] - Quote
Spawns
These need a lot of work. To start with, having to reselect your suit each time is annoying. I should be spawning in the same suit I died in unless I say otherwise. This eliminates a pointless step if you don't want it while still giving you the chance to change when you need it.
Ten seconds is far too long to be staring at the map between spawns (in addition to time spent picking your suit). By the time you select a spawn the conditions around it are very, very likely to have changed. It was safe ten seconds ago, but now there's a dropship load of people sitting on it. Cut it down to no more than 5 seconds, preferably less.
Spawns in Ambush were infuriating. Every match started off with Russian Roulette it seemed like. "Am I going to spawn with friends, or surrounded by enemies?" Too often it was the latter.
In Skirmish, would it be possible to have the capture points at least send out a scanning pulse, perhaps only while contested, that displays all ally and enemy locations in a radius around it for just a moment every few seconds until it's secured either way? For both sides, I mean. (Say that the hacking interferes with the MacGuffin and causes the suit's Plebotinem to go haywire for a bit.  )That would keep people from popping into what looks like a light attack that maybe they could handle instead of two invisible rifle users and a heavy all pointed at your spawn.
Skills
Skill levels should never impart fake difficulty, or impose a handicap on the actual player's skills. I'm no FPS prodigy, but I know darn well how to point my rifle at someone and pull the trigger. My bullets should go where I point them, not where the Random Number Generator decided to throw them. Saying it's the character's low skills is no excuse. Improvement of your performance is solely up to the player. Now, if you want to use skills as a way to unlock new guns and gadgets to use, or as ways of adding auxiliary functions to them, that's fine. Let's say only someone very skilled with an Assault Rifle knows how to reload while running, or have skill level effect the speed at which you can switch to your secondary weapon. Stuff like that I'm okay with. But in a skill based game, you should never, ever artificially restrict your players' ability to use their actual skills.
Likewise, damage should not be skill dependent. Two people with equal real skill and the same gun should not have their fight decided by an SP dump offscreen.
What's with the multipliers? I assume they're determined by what you pick during character creation. That said, some of them seem just insane. God help me if I want to learn to use anything but a basic dropsuit. With costs this high I don't feel in any way encouraged to explore my options.
Diminishing Returns on SP
Needs to go. Fair pay for fair work.
If I do alright in a match and make 100K SP, why on earth (New Eden?) can I do better an hour later and make 50K SP or less? This penalizes good play, and rewards not playing, of all things. Even it out. A fair, flat rate.
And to be clear, when I say "I do better" I'm in no way talking pure K/D. I mean in terms of team contribution, capturing/defending points, driving/piloting well enough for the gunners to do their job, etc. Stuff that actually matters.
The explanation I've heard for this is that it's to keep the so called "Hardcore" gamers from outpacing the casual ones. But isn't the argument for microtransactions that those with the time can expend that, while those without can easily catch up with money? If I choose to spend 5 hours today playing on my day off, then I darned well earned what I played for.
Ditch the bonus points for not playing, and the penalty for playing your idea of "too much."
Besides which, it's worse if you've paid for a booster that just gets less effective the more you use it. As it stands it's like chewing gun. Great for five minutes, but loses its flavor after that. |
Cobalt Monkey
Crux Special Tasks Group
Gallente Federation
140
|
Posted - 2012.06.29 03:43:00 -
[2] - Quote
Melee
Needs work. It's too slow and clunky. Weak too.
I'm not asking for a full on always OHKO melee. Always hated that since it inevitably turned a close quarters shootout into whoever could press a single button once more quickly.
It's just very unwieldy in its current form. Can't hit for jack since people most often strafe faster than I can lunge.
Personally, I think the knife should be relegated to low speed encounters, such as when you sneak up on someone. If you can get behind a moderately stationary target and hit them square between the shoulder blades, then I think you deserve the kill. Stealth is a skill too, and in that situation you've used yours better than they've used their skill at being aware of their surroundings. Plus, in these dropsuits, how hard would it be to snap someone's neck if you got that close? Maybe impart a stamina drain depending on the type of suit you had to punch through. Small chunk for scouts, larger one for heavys.
Controls
Too slow in some ways, beautiful in others. Above all, allow custom bindings though.
Going between a primary and secondary weapon is so slow as to be pointless when you need it most. Really need to be able to do this faster.
Vehicle Controls
Don't like them.
Rule 1: I decide where I'm looking. Stop throwing my view back to the front when I want to look left. Have a 'reset to forward view' button (like R3), but if I think I can handle looking a direction while going forward, then let me.
Would much, much prefer that the acceleration and reverse be on a button other than steering. X go forward, Square go backward. That sort of thing.
Don't get me started on the dropship. Very counter intuitive for me, and I generally like flying in games. I have seen others do just fine with it though, so perhaps this is one where I need to adjust.
Also, too much drift in all of them.
In Depth Tutorials
Very badly needed.
I'll revisit this and add more later. Dissenting opinions are welcome. |