By the Power of Netvars - Brink Gets Balance Tweaks

(morguen87) #41

I couldn’t give two ****s about the animation. If changing it makes gameplay better, do it.

(Shadowcat) #42

Seems like you could just speed it up. Might look kinda silly having a guy push 5 buttons in a half second, but it should be passable.

(dazman76) #43

It’s a fair comment :slight_smile: Maybe the animation should have been done as multiple sequences with not-so-seamless transitions between - so the time of each sequence could be modified as required. The animation wouldn’t be as nice - but I completely agree, affect on gameplay is more important than shiny-shiny. Sorry Exedore, I know that’s probably an infuriating comment for a designer :slight_smile: hehe

(morguen87) #44

I wouldn’t even care if they got rid of the entire thing and you just stared at the wall and had the circle meter fill up. I can’t say for sure if planting faster would improve gameplay or not, but it certainly seems like it would and I hope they test it instead of just not bothering because “it has a nice animation.”

(Shadowcat) #45

As lead game designer, i imagine he would agree with you more than anything, since his job is more concerned with mechanics and concepts than anything else.

(Om3ga) #46

Patch = Nice. But why consoles get all sweet stuff first? :frowning:

(Shadowcat) #47

Much larger community. Last i had heard, Xbox had like five times the sales that PC did.

(.Chris.) #48

The problem with the hacking objectives just isn’t purely the time taken to complete them or the time taken to dehack them, it’s a big factor sure but another equally large factor is the map layout.

On resort and Terminal the hack objectives are within quite small contained rooms, once you’ve lost that room while a hack was in progress and an enemy engineer get’s in there you have no chance to take him out unless you are in that room, i.e. you can’t take him out from a distance, no long range nade launcher knock down, no long range rifle shot, nothing that you as a player can do to slow him down when you have been pushed back.

Considering the attack spawn so far away in comparison with the defense it creates quite an advantage to the dehackers, it’s too easy for them to be in a position to dehack, providing you have a couple guys watching your back the success rate of dehacking would be quite high I’d imagine.

The adjustment in times will help for sure but a change in map layout would help yet again and create a more fairer playing experience in my opinion, I’ll draw up some an example later this weekend.

(wolfnemesis75) #49

I often wonder if Brink would benefit from a Smoke Grenade. No stun, just explodes and provides cover to push or flank.

(BMXer) #50

Increased the hack time? Really? Come on SD!!!

And was the whole “netvar” thing a total lie or what? Or are netvars only for the consoles?

IS THIS JUST MORE PROOF THAT SD LIED AND SAID BRINK WASN’T A CONSOLE PORT? Sure seems that way from every angle I look from.

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:frowning:

(St NickelStew) #51

[QUOTE=BMXer;332390]
IS THIS JUST MORE PROOF THAT SD LIED AND SAID BRINK WASN’T A CONSOLE PORT? Sure seems that way from every angle I look from.

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:([/QUOTE]

And what angle is that?

Dedicated servers. Observer mode. And lots of other stuff. Only for PC. If the 360/console community is indeed much larger than the PC community, they are just supporting the most customers, first. Simples, really.

(DrpPlates) #52

[QUOTE=BMXer;332390]IS THIS JUST MORE PROOF THAT SD LIED AND SAID BRINK WASN’T A CONSOLE PORT? Sure seems that way from every angle I look from.

:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:([/QUOTE]

come on BMXer you, already know the answer to that, you played ETQW!

Brink is not a PC game, plain and simple… SD Sold its Soul to Console…
what are you going to do? :frowning:

(Shadowcat) #53

not to mention that the Xbox version looks like hell compared to the PC version.

(St NickelStew) #54

[QUOTE=DrpPlates;332398]come on BMXer you, already know the answer to that, you played ETQW!

Brink is not a PC game, plain and simple… SD Sold its Soul to Console…
what are you going to do? :([/QUOTE]

Once again, huh??

How, exactly, is it not a “PC Game”. Watch any Brink.TV lately?

(dazman76) #55

[QUOTE=St NickelStew;332400]Once again, huh??

How, exactly, is it not a “PC Game”. Watch any Brink.TV lately?[/QUOTE]

  1. Multiple distinct abilities mapped to one key
  2. Limited options for UI customisation
  3. Poor implementation of ingame chat UI
  4. No end-of-round chat
  5. No toggle option for sprint/SMART
  6. Lack of control for built-in VoIP system
  7. Slightly dodgy server browser (awesome in ET:QW)

This isn’t a full list :frowning:

(Shadowcat) #56

Servicing the larger community a few days before the minority is proof?

Radial menus are another one that gets said often, but radial menus were around before analog sticks. They are a lot more efficient than grid menus. There is no upper limit on how fast you can get with a radial menu, the more you use it the better you get. Grid menus do have an upper limit though.

[QUOTE=dazman76;332402]1) Multiple distinct abilities mapped to one key
2) Limited options for UI customisation
3) Poor implementation of ingame chat UI
4) No end-of-round chat
5) No toggle option for sprint/SMART
6) Lack of control for built-in VoIP system
7) Slightly dodgy server browser (awesome in ET:QW)

This isn’t a full list :([/QUOTE]

Designing the game to be more friendly to less experienced players does not mean its a console port. So i fail to see 1 or 5 as any evidence.

3, 4, and 6 all relate to the fact that SD wanted to allow players to avoid newer players getting insulted every game. They were too draconian about it, but those are issues on the console as well. VoiP is no longer a PC exclusive feature anyway.

2 and 7 extend to all platforms. Lack of creating unique features for the platform you like is not evidence of porting. To make a comparison, it would be like calling a person racist because they didn’t open the door for you when the more obvious answer is that they don’t open the door for anyone.

(solidpillow) #57

Adrenaline boost only lasted 5 seconds! Too long? Really? You guys lost me. Why don’t you focus on making this game MORE fun?

(St NickelStew) #58

#5 has nothing to do with consoles, which can easily accommodate this feature. This is just a design choice that SD made, giving players total control of what they are doing.

(dazman76) #59

Nobody used the words “console port” - I’m talking about design decisions :slight_smile: Having two distinct abilities mapped to a single key, and offering no way to split them out - is evidence enough of a console-first design attitude in my opinion. It’s horrible, and very faulty when playing as a medic. Not only that, but there’s really no need - for PC players new to an FPS - to place these abilities together, and not allow it to be changed. Customising controls has always been a major part of PC games - whatever the genre. Sure, default it to combined if you like - but provide an option for those who have no problem with separate keys for buff and revive. I still can’t believe the problems caused by this decision weren’t evident in QA :frowning:

Apologies - that should have read volume controls :slight_smile: End of the day at work… So yeah - Brink has CVARS that control it’s built-in VoIP system, which overrides Steam’s voice when enabled. They’re set to incorrect default values - and there are no controls ingame to change them. If a game is implementing a VoIP system, it should have these controls. I assume both the 360 and PS3 versions use the native VoIP system - therefore would rely on external volume controls. Thus my inclusion of this point :slight_smile:

I didn’t make number 7 clear enough, slightly vague there - ET:QW was very much a PC game that was also released on console. The PC server browser was (and still is) excellent. The decision to downgrade that browser to what we have in Brink - again in my opinion - was influenced by the “all 3 platforms at launch” requirement. One version for all - driven by the lowest denominator, because nobody wants to navigate a full server browser like ET:QW’s, on a controller. That’s a fair point, but the problem is that this then transfers to the PC version, where there are generally no such issues with UI navigation.

Total control? :smiley: You can set crouch and zoom/iron sights to either toggle, or hold - why not SMART? I’ll admit that’s probably my worst point if I’m trying to prove the console design point - but it’s hardly giving total control over anything, is it? :slight_smile:

(Breo) #60

I like how the objects work in QW, because you can pick a place on the object to plant and you can move freely :cool:

Why can’t we grab the phone without going to the hackbox I thought it was wireless :mad::tongue: