Firstly let me say, that this is a great game. Not great in the fact that its flawless, but rather in the fact that it is Bold. It is better to be Bold and fall short, than to be another Lost in the Sauce FPS. It reminds me of Monday Night Combat, Team Fortress, Tribes etc. Games that strives not to break the mold, but to form them selves from an entirely different mold. I like that, and I purchased this game despite the bad reviews, I did so out of support, and hope.
Now that my Lips are properly attached to the butt-cheeks of the Fans, let me address the issues I think need fixing.
This is not a list of things I dislike, or things I find cheesy. This is a list of things that I feel need to be patched, in order for this game to find a solid following.
1) The medium Weight Shotgun: The DMG is so low, that I almost feel like this is a bug. Even looking at the stat bar for damage, you can see, that it does less than most pistols. We need a solid pointblank weapon, that can out class the SMG’s and Rifles, when positioned properly. Nothing worse than skillfully closing the gap, through a series of amazing parkour moves and slides, only to find that it takes 3 pumps to off a medium class. I know its only one weapon, but its more than that. The shotgun is not just a weapon, its a play style. And having a Nerfed Shotgun, means you have an entire play-style and subsequently and entire group of people how prefer that play-style, falling short.
SOLUTION: Increase the range slightly and the DMG greatly.
2) Give us a reason to use Pistols: Other than the fact that they appeal to us (those that like pistols), there is really no reason to take one over an SMG. I find this sad.
SOLUTION: Buffing the Pistol DMG wise, would lead to balance problems, instead I propose this: Decrease Max Ammo Count on all weapons, when carried in the secondary slot. So if you choose an SMG it would have 150 rounds as a primary, but only 75 rounds as a Secondary. Pistols would have the same amount of ammo as an SMG when carried in the Secondary. So now its more of a choice between play-styles, and less of a no brainer.
3) Assault Rifles VS SMG’s: Currenly SMGS with the right attachments are simply better than AR’s in most scenarios.
SOLUTION: This is already fixed, by applying the solution from number 2. Forcing players who prefer the SMG, to take it as a primary weapon, or to fall victim to a lowered ammo count.
4) Battle Field Awareness: Theres a lot going on in this game, and things tend to blend. I like what they did with the AMMO Count over friendly players heads, for soldiers, but we need better indicators for all class’s. Communication is key, however visual cues go a long way.
SOLUTION:
A) Add indicators that show up based on your class. If you are an engineer, you will see icons for ammunition buffs and Kevlar buffs, above friendly heads. These will let you know that that player is already buffed. No need to run up and try and buff to find out. Do this for all class’s. However the icons above friendly heads, will only be visible to the class’s that provide those buffs. For instance a medic will see buffed health but not see the buffed ammo icon.
B) Add the ability to call for a MEDIC revive, or to call for a SOLIDER ammo resupply. Similar to the TF2 Medic call. However limit this to only be usable if you are downed, or completely out of ammunition in any one weapon.
C) Highlight downed players (revivable) when playing medic, and highlight players who are out of ammo in either of their weapons, when playing as a soldier. This would be hugely useful.
d) Assign a color to each class, and use GOLD for all classes. Now on the objective wheel, you need to color code objectives based on which class can complete them, using gold for objectives that can be completed by any class. This will help to clear up confusion (IE: DEFEND THE DOOR showing up when you should be told to change to soldier and blow up the door)
5) Turrets: Turrets currently are lacking in their Field of View, i’m not saying make them 360, but they need a buff.
SOLUTION: Either increase their field of view, or allow them to be used as Ammuntion Resupply points, with a cooldown on resupplies. In short, either make them more dangerous to the enemy, or more supportive to the team.
6) NetCode: Not gonna harp on this, its well known.
SOLUTION: Change some things to be client side (its pretty heavy on server side) and clean up the lag. This is taking away from the game in a HUGE way. Also the frame-rate is lacking and texture popping occurs on PC… who is that even possible?
7) Multip-Player The match making system, needs a slight improvement.
SOLUTION: Firstly add the ability to join a server as group with friends. Especially on PC, where this is pretty common, STEAM-FRIENDS for instance.
8) Multiple Weapon Loadouts: We need to be able to pre-save loadouts.
SOLUTION: Give us the ability to save a few loadouts. If you want, tie the amount of loadouts we can save to level or something, but giving us the ability to save loadouts for quicker changes at terminals would be great. Also the ability to assign a loadout to each class. So that when I go medic for instance, it will have different weapons.
9) Scoreboard: Like it, hate it, doesn’t matter. The end of game stats are important. We need an in depth board with KD ratio, objectives capture, buffs given etc. This is important for bolstering the community and helping us find new friends (we WANT to play with). Most of my steam friends are people I played with, and friended based on how well they played, not just in KD but in team objectives as well.
10) Attack Vs Defense: Right now both map design and objective mechanics, make attacking simply too difficult. I’m not saying it can’t be done (ive done it a few times) I’m saying its not balanced and needs addressing. Map design is hard to over come, but there are other solutions. Also the AI for the bots is FAR too aggressive, for the challenges, but thats not a huge problem, as this game is primarily multi-player.
SOLUTION: Short of a map overhaul, theres not a lot you can do. The mechanics are set, you can’t change the way things interact. The only real option at this point, is to give the defending team, longer respawn timers. This has been proven to provide balance in other games. Its my only suggestion for this at this time. However it IS an issue.
Hope no one takes this as a beat down on the game, its not. I love this game and I want to see it succeed. This is only my 2 cents, or err rather 10 cents I suppose.
Hope I 'm not the only one who feels this way.
