SD: 2 simple changes that would greatly improve gameplay [PC]

(dazman76) #41

This is absolutely the top of my list for PC “fixes” right now, so +1, signed, President = Apoc etc. :slight_smile:

Playing as medic, this choice of one-key-for-all is so painful it’s ridiculous. The more I play, the more it interferes with my game - I’ve had all of the bad results Apoc mentioned, and just the wrong times. Failed revives, buggy buffs/chases, being dragged into crossfire because buffing took too long/didn’t trigger, and my personal favourite - while attempting to revive, accidentally interacting with a CP and selecting a random class because I was moving the mouse, then having to do it again under fire to get back to medic - and then being killed before getting the revive because the player wasn’t immediately targetd. It’d be funny, if it wasn’t infuriating enough to stop me playing. It’s a huge mess for medics.

I never thought Dirt3 would steal my Brink time, but it has - completely. I hope this problem is being addressed, and sooner rather than later - so there are still some people left to play with when I fire Brink up again. This has been reported and described many times now both in dedicated threads (which it certainly deserves), and extensively in the PC feedback thread, and it needs to be fixed.

As Apoc stated, this could be 100% optional. No need to force this onto people who are comfortable with the combined key binding - I guess medic is the worst affected, although I’m assuming Engineer is pretty annoying too. This also caters for controller users (even though they aren’t officially supported), who might not have another button free for binding anyway, and therefore don’t have much option.

(light_sh4v0r) #42

+1 +chars +more chars

(Smoochy) #43

surely they could do a basic hierarchy:

objective
revive
buff
command post

so, if you are near an objective it does that 1st, if there is someone who needs reviving and someone who is low health always do the revive first. etc etc.

surely this is just a basic bit of the design. it seems so many obvious things have been overlooked?!?!

(tokamak) #44

I basically hoped for an ETQW with more complexity on a smaller scale. Why they had to throw the tried and tested mechanics out of the window (regarding damage, movement and spread) is a mystery.

(dazman76) #45

I’m not faulting your suggestion here, because it makes sense - but if this is implemented, it really needs to be as an aside to optional split bindings. I absolutely do not want multiple abilities on the same key, regardless of any systems or logic being done in the background - and regardless of how clever those systems are. They just aren’t needed for experienced players, and I imagine (based on feedback here) that most experienced players don’t want them, either.

My perfect scenario is this - the “default” setup is how it is now, or maybe with better prioritisation as you suggested. For those of us who just want to press the keys we choose, buff/revive/use should be seperate binds. Make the prioritisation clever if you like, but PLEASE also give the option to bind separate keys for these separate abilities/situations.

I’m in exactly the same boat, with only one oar it seems.

(r3fleX) #46

Yep same, they tried to be too ‘revolutionary’ instead of just introducing the SMART mechanic, they had to re-design the perfect systems that people are used to aswell as prefer with these crappy console mechanics and at the same time remove the smooth feel of strafing/shooting.

This system of reviving is aweful for PC Gamers to be honest - For console i can imagine it works well as they have a very limited number of buttons on a controller. But when you are developing a system it has to be different on the PC from the Console, look at the hardware we have available to us in comparison!

The revive system is…

  • Too slow - can’t pre-select tool to quickly run up to the body and instant revive
  • Not efficient - easily messed up with healing
  • Doesn’t properly work, players should be available to revive from any and all angles!
  • Doesn’t allow medic’s to be as effective in teamwork as they should be (In a teamwork game).

Edit: I remember when i first heard about the whole “special” toss a syringe to revive someone in the build up pre-release… the first thing that came into my mind was “Awesome, this will be a new dynamic skill for medic’s to learn and could be very effective if mastered”… now it has pretty much done the complete opposite, removed all skill required for reviving, shoved into 1 key and autopilot’s you into crossfire…Goodjob!

(Apoc) #47

Indeed, it seems that the system as it is, is counter productive. It encourages rambo medics. If you are a medic and there is an inacpacitated teammate in front of you, and an enemy, players have learnt to always shoot the enemy first, as its pretty likely you wont be able to get the revive prompt in time and the animation takes too long meaning you will die 9 times out of 10. As opposed to in say quake wars where you could run in a room of 3 people, revive 2 teamates in half the time it takes to revive in brink, then get on with shooting, with a fair chance (now your teammates are up).

(vbl) #48

These are fine minor improvements that come nowhere close to addressing the larger gameplay issues.

(dazman76) #49

Agreed - but I do feel it would hold some current players in place, while more serious problems are addressed. I’m probably selfish because I’m a medic - and this problem absolutely kills any fun for medics, and indeed engineers (to a lesser degree), if they’re doing their support jobs properly. Since I almost always play medic unless we’re short on <whatever>, this is stopping me playing altogether. Not only that, but if I did play, I’d be far less effective than I should be. I can enjoy the game playing other classes - but medics are needed for a balanced team.

(tokamak) #50

It’s mostly just parameters that need adjustment. I’m sure it will be a bitch to re-balance everything but you don’t need to re-invent the game in order to do that.

If so many people share the consensus on where to take the game, it would be fun that, should an SDK be released, start a group and start tweaking the (‘net’)vars until we have the old ET vibe again.

(MoonOnAStick) #51

[QUOTE=r3fleX;334099]The revive system is…

  • Too slow - can’t pre-select tool to quickly run up to the body and instant revive
  • Not efficient - easily messed up with healing
  • Doesn’t properly work, players should be available to revive from any and all angles!
  • Doesn’t allow medic’s to be as effective in teamwork as they should be (In a teamwork game)[/QUOTE]

Brink has taken too much autonomy from the player. You press a key, then wait for the game to determine the action you intended.
The behaviour is present throughout Brink, though, to be fair the SMART system does work for the most part (with the usual caveats about movement speed, weapon spread). The medic reviving/buffing problem is probably the worst example.

In ETQW you could whip out your defibrillators and shock a tree, shock a quad bike or shock an enemy Strogg’s head. There was an assumption that the player had sufficient sense to use his/her defibs usefully. In Brink every revive attempt has to first be checked and then approved by the game.

If I want to throw syringes all over the place, like I’m on a Bristol sink estate, I think I should be able to. The loss of pips is enough of a disincentive to prevent me dropping all my drugs into the sea.

If ETQW had syringes you would probably be able to throw them at the walls and have a quick game of darts during the warm-up. The wonderful freedom of that game seems completely lost :frowning:

(Smoochy) #52

[QUOTE=dazman76;334090]I’m not faulting your suggestion here, because it makes sense - but if this is implemented, it really needs to be as an aside to optional split bindings. I absolutely do not want multiple abilities on the same key, regardless of any systems or logic being done in the background - and regardless of how clever those systems are. They just aren’t needed for experienced players, and I imagine (based on feedback here) that most experienced players don’t want them, either.

My perfect scenario is this - the “default” setup is how it is now, or maybe with better prioritisation as you suggested. For those of us who just want to press the keys we choose, buff/revive/use should be seperate binds. Make the prioritisation clever if you like, but PLEASE also give the option to bind separate keys for these separate abilities/situations.

I’m in exactly the same boat, with only one oar it seems.[/QUOTE]

agreed. i was just saying as a quick fix. i would prefer a button for each but most of the time it works ok. just annoying when you want to do an objective you turn around and buff someone.

what about: mouse wheel up = change weapon (only 2 so why do we need up and down?) and MW down cycles buff/revive etc? im not sure mwup/mwdown can be individually bound can they?

(Smoochy) #53

[QUOTE=MoonOnAStick;334285]Brink has taken too much autonomy from the player. You press a key, then wait for the game to determine the action you intended.
The behaviour is present throughout Brink, though, to be fair the SMART system does work for the most part (with the usual caveats about movement speed, weapon spread). The medic reviving/buffing problem is probably the worst example.

In ETQW you could whip out your defibrillators and shock a tree, shock a quad bike or shock an enemy Strogg’s head. There was an assumption that the player had sufficient sense to use his/her defibs usefully. In Brink every revive attempt has to first be checked and then approved by the game.

If I want to throw syringes all over the place, like I’m on a Bristol sink estate, I think I should be able to. The loss of pips is enough of a disincentive to prevent me dropping all my drugs into the sea.

If ETQW had syringes you would probably be able to throw them at the walls and have a quick game of darts during the warm-up. The wonderful freedom of that game seems completely lost :([/QUOTE]

agreed. i feel gaming is becoming too dumbed down in tryint to equalise console and pc. both are different. i have no issues games being multiplatform but all versions need to play well and suit their platform. i dont mind the syringe thing as you get XP for giving them and its up to the rivivee if he uses it or needs to respawn as another class.

(Apoc) #54

The former patch has helped stop the camera dragging which is extreamly appreciated and has made the game have many less annoying moments in general gameplay.

Hopefully the DLC will adress the revive prompt problem as i feel this really needs to be adressed as it slows down gameplay considerably.

I would love to see a planned changelog for DLC’s before they get released so customers can comment and agree/disagree, its not like SD would have to take any notice, its just nice to know whats comming, this whole secret dlc date with secret changes isnt the way to do it imo. I understand the “when its done, its done” aproach but it feels rather unproffesional to not keep customers updated on its progress and to just spring it on people randomly with a days notice in the near future.

(coolstory) #55

Good suggestions!

(BiigDaddyDellta) #56

I agree with the OP the pulling is extremely annoying, just shorten the buff radius and let me toss it or not toss it. And definitley get rid of the crazy camera acrobatics. As far as different button configs i’d love to see a way on console for this as well, really they’re all multi functioning keys to begin with so I see no reason why jump or crouch couldn’t be used as revive or command post keys.