The Black Jackal
The Southern Legion
RISE of LEGION
443
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Posted - 2013.05.08 12:40:00 -
[1] - Quote
All related summaries are my personal impressions of this build, and my connection is currently at Dial-Up Speed due to being net capped PRIOR to downloading the new Build.
After Download.
Saw the nice new start-up Interface. Much better graphically, and streams a lot better. Far faster to get into the game now, though an option or 'first run' cinematic could be applied showing the DUST 514 / Beginnings could be added just to show off the game to newer players.
New Character selection Screen is very nice, but despite my characters having the same portraits, they've been split into full body images on their individual races. A little more customisation here would be beneficial (though noted I haven't biomassed one to experience the new Character Creator yet, will update with that later).
Got into my Merc Quarters and felt, saw, experienced sharper resolution and graphics. Better specular lights. But still lacked a) the ability to move quickly around the Merc Quarters, and b) the ability to turn the camera around my character to see him entirely. Disappointed me quite a bit.
The new 'racial' choice Free Suits are a great idea. Giving your initial foray a Racial Flavour, similar to EVE Online when your race starts you in your own racial rookie frigate. They could, however, use a little diversity in weapons. An Amarrian Assault Suit would be more likely to be using a Laser Rifle or Scrambler Rifle, not an Assault Rifle.
Now to experience the full graphical update before I chose suit specialities etc, I jumped into a game, and found the experience, different, but overall improved to some extent. (I'll go more in depth later). The deployment screen is much better laid out, though the slight remap to the keyboard had me scratching my head for a few seconds on how to change my suit fitting. Much smoother and easier to get into combat. And a fair bit quicker.
My boots hit the ground, and I saw GRASS! Scrubby bushes, terrain textures. I've seen these in other FPS games, but it felt good to see them here. The maps felt better, more rounded, and in many cases, larger. I then headed to an objective that was INSIDE a large hangar / refinery like structure. I looked up and saw walkways, internal structure, and wow. It felt good to be INSIDE.
Looking out over the maps, they felt more like your were connected... in the distance, the cityscapes, no 'bowl of war' as it were. Much more improved than it used to be, and even though still held inside the red borders, felt much less unrestricted.
But enough landscape admiration. As it was time to kill something.
I whipped out my Militia AR and fired at an enemy 60m away... Nothing... I could see him perfectly well, and he me, but we couldn't hit each other, despite it seems, the bullets (plasma projectiles) being dead on. Suddenly all the open space felt, long winded. I knew then, even as a 'medium-range' combatant I'd be running far more than shooting, and I wasn't proved wrong as that match progressed.
I was impressed with the sights, they felt more organic, the dispersion took a bit of getting used to, but once I reset myself to short-burst fired over sustained fire, I started making hits and kills soon after. Then I ran across a Heavy... I thought, here it is, I'm doomed... He was in an Advanced Heavy Frame... I was in Militia Medium Frame, with 2 Damage Mods I later learned, and I started firing short bursts, while strafing as fast as I could to cover.
To my surprise... as I ducked into cover, he died... I checked my shield and armor... I'd survived with barely a scratch... I'd lost half my minimal Shielding, but no armor.. yet I could have sworn those bullets were buzzing around me. Now I'd agreed tha Heavies needed a nerf. THen being able to mow doen an AR User at the AR Users Optimal Range was stupid, over-powered, and beyond. But this... I actually felt sorry for the heavy, as later on in the same game, I took him down again. This time after he'd got the jump on me.
The battle ended soon after that, and now I went to skills, reading, browsing, and eventually settling on Caldari Frames, Assault Rifle, etc. That I'd primarily Built on last build. With nearly 10 million SP, I got all my Core Fitting Skills maxed, or close to, Medium Frames up to V, and Assault and Logi in Caldari to 1 (testing and future expansion) I immediately set about fitting a Level V Medium Frame with 4 extenders, Advanced AR, and regulators etc... with 700+ HP, I stood toe-to-toe with a Heavy HMG in the next round INSIDE his optimal, and won... barely, but I won.
Gone are the days of a Single Heavy standing toe-to-toe with 4 people and winning, but now, they can't stand toe-to-toe with one person. The do need a rebuff to their range.
The next even that gave me a tickle was an encounter with a Militia Shotgun. Now the Militia Shotgun needed a nerf from last build, but I got shot point blank in the back with one and lost only half of my shield... I turned, shot the guy, and returned to hacking the point. The next shotgun encounter was more akin to a truck hitting me, and felt more satisfying to the enemy I'm sure... but the Militia Shotgun was over-nerfed to the point of oblivion.
Overall, there are a lot of rebalancing issue to work out, especially when it comes to weapon stats, but graphics, interface, and even the SP sinks are an improvement in my opinion.
A quick list of suggestions:
- Weapons - Apply the Optimal Range + 2x Falloff rule of EVE to all weapons. Assault Rifle does Full damage out to 50m, half damage the next 25 m, and 1.4 damage the last 25. Then the plasma is dissipated. The same would be applied to all the weapons. Giving them range to suppress, scared, or cause fear, but not enough to simply Outrange everything you see.
- Blasters are Short Optimal, Short Fall-off, High DPS
- Projectiles are Short Optimal, Longer Fall-off.
- Rails guns are Long Optimal, Short Fall-off, High Single Shot Damage.
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