Mirun Hirute
Algintal Core
Gallente Federation
111
   |
Posted - 2012.07.01 21:36:00 -
[1] - Quote
May decide to update this as time goes on, but want to provide this information before I become too accustomed to the game as it is.
Ambush:
When first joining this game mode and being given the spawn location option, currently the map is focused on an unrelated region (i.e. in the red outlying area of the battle) to the battlefield area. This is highly disorienting, and doesn't give you any idea where you're going to spawn, until you realize you can pan around the map via the right analog stick and locate the real battlefield area.
Clone reserve depletion is also unclear. What's this based on, exactly? Is it from killing other players, as it would seem, or something else? I'm still not quite sure after a few matches if it's entirely connected to which side has killed more of the opposing team or not. That's kind of a problem, since this is supposed to be the jump in and play immediately game mode.
Skirmish:
Not much to note here, as I've had little experience with it. From what I could tell it seemed more solid than Ambush right now. Spawn points are clearer, and I don't recall the issue of the map being unfocused from the main battlefield area.
General:
Narrator/announcer audio volume needs to be upped. When guns and tanks are being fired off, you can't exactly understand what the voice is trying to tell you at all, making it a good idea but poorly implemented. If it's supposed to guide you in some way, as it definitely is at certain points, this certainly needs work.
A brief tutorial accessible via the Neocom on the map icons. I quickly figured out most of them, but it couldn't hurt.
Square/brackets around enemy vehicles with indicators of remaining shield and chassis endurance levels. Basically, take what you do with the players, and expand it to fit the vehicles. It's very frustrating to try and determine whether a gun is doing any damage or not to a vehicle, as there are minimal indicators until it's at critically low levels in chassis endurance that it's been doing anything.
Edit: It appears that this does happen, at least with terrestrial vehicles. Could use improvement on aerial vehicles, though, it seems.
Working the starmaps is a bit...Sensitive, I think, at the moment. When trying to rotate star clusters it seems to go a bit too quickly. May be tilting the analog stick too far, but could possibly use some looking at? I know on the PC it's easier to do this as the mouse provides more control, yet with the analog stick you have to remember you lose a lot of that control.
Reviewed this again for a moment to make sure. I think some button indicators like are present (X to select, O to go back) should be there for zooming in and out as well (L2 to zoom out, R2 to zoom in). You can make one of the buttons not used for the Neocom (L1) or chat (select) that doesn't affect anything when interacting with the starmap be used to hide those, if players complain. (R1 currently does nothing with the maps, so that's an option, and feels comfortable with the preexisting shoulder button associations with the map.)
The Merc Quarters seems kind of uninteresting at the moment. There's really no point in walking around it and interacting with anything there, since we have the Neocom easily accessible at the press of a button. I'm hoping there are plans for some additions behind the currently locked doors, like some kind of holographic conference room where you chat with EVE players to work out deals between yourself and their corporation, and maybe an observatory-esque room with a holographic map of New Eden showing where you are and your EVE/Dust corporation allies influence is.
Also, I'm suspecting eventually the main monitor will host some kind of news regarding updates and Aurum-related offers, so that will help to make it a little more interesting.
If possible, increase line of sight (unless it's tied to an augmentation or improved skill), as currently, trying to snipe across a map is ridiculously difficult when you have only the red icon above an enemy to work off of to try and take them out.
All of that aside, I'm very much enjoying the game, even in its current state. I think you guys at CCP Games have a real prize on your hands here, even more so given your experience with maintaining servers. Console developers, unless backed by big name publishers, don't seem to have the same sort of know-how, or something, as a couple of other PSN titles I've tried the multiplayer of have been highly unstable and made the experience rather disappointing. (coughkillzone2,killzone3cough) |