So, having had a few hours to play I have come up with a few feedback points…
First off, let’s talk about Dome…
I have never tried to hide that I really disliked the map before this update. So there is no point in hiding how much I more I dislike it after this update. The constructable doors are a real frustration as they take 55 seconds to blow but only 10 seconds to construct. The drop off point seems to wildly contradict other changes made in this patch due to its vulnerability to AoE spam. Overall, I find the map to big with too many overlooking angles onto the objective. Whilst I assume that the map would play much better in a competitive environment, public play simply does not work due to the wide spread of attackers and lack of communication. The later objectives are not much better. The increased cover also doubles as increased potential ambush points. This has moved the battle for the final objective into midfield with a long sprint to plant after winning a fight. The long distant spawn for the Attackers also means that the fight is too likely to fall back to midfield after a failed plant. This objective is still relatively easy to attack on, its just no where near as fun in my opinion. Dome really seems to suffer from some major contradictions with the overall game design. The second objective is still a strange one… Double primary attacker objectives seem very much out of place. It is not fun to defend in that situation and the attack almost seems to come down to luck in a public environment. Simply odd… I don’t like Dome at all…
Now the general “buffs” that most the Mercs received.
This is quite a strange one really… Yes, I have been getting way more kills with my abilities and weapons at the right ranges. So on the surface it seems that the (keeping balance to one side) changes have worked in the way they were intended. Under closer inspection however, that is not exactly what I believe is happening. Due to the lower TTK and lack of counter play, each Merc now feels like a one trick pony. I would have much preferred to have seen more depth added to the abilities rather than a simple buff. Now, I do understand that this would require a lot more work but I do feel it is required in order to really define that skill curve and Merc identity. A simple example of this would be having Auras healing station be able to toggle between healing and doing damage by tapping Q. If you want to place a new station simply hold Q for 2 seconds. Having a enemies healing station at your feet and seeing the animation but not healing just feels odd and can be frustrating as its not instantly recognisable to what teams healing station it actually is. Adding this kind of functionality gives Aura much more depth, increases skill potential and adds counter play. Actually, I feel that the biggest down side of the latest patch is the lack of/reduction of counter play. No longer having the ability to quickly pounce off a mine, escape a close range Nader martyrdom or heal using an enemies healing station has removed so much skill and depth from the game.
The Weapons…
So far I have managed to get my hands on the Bolt Action Sniper and Battle Rifle. Instantly you notice that they are almost direct clones from other weapons. The biggest problem with weapons that are nearly identical is that one will always be better and if by chance I am wrong and one is not better you will almost always fall into the trap of irrelevancy. The Battle Rifle feels basically the same as the Aug and the Bolt Action Rifle is almost identical to the normal Sniper Rifle. The Sniper Rifle vs the Bolt Action Rifle is more concerning due to being able to use them both on the same Merc. Having just come from a week of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare I am noticing a distinct lack of weapon variation. Here are just some of the weapon types available in the latest CoD.
[ul]
[li]Semi Auto[/li][li]Auto[/li][li]2 Shot Burst[/li][li]3 Shot Burst[/li][li]4 Shot Burst[/li][li]5 Shot Burst[/li][li]Pump Shotgun[/li][li]Semi Auto Shotgun[/li][li]Laser[/li][li]Bolt Action[/li][li]Spooling[/li][li]Beam[/li][li]Akimbo[/li][li]Slower RoF moving to higher RoF after first # bullets[/li][li]Higher RoF moving to slower RoF after first # bullets[/li][li]Projectile (crossbow)[/li][li]Rockets[/li][li]Nades[/li][li]Shield[/li][/ul]
I still believe that the best way to build Merc identity is to have 1 weapon locked to each Merc that no other Merc can use and then a selection of weapons via loadout cards that can be shared between all Mercs. Obviously the down side to this is that you will need to produce skins, attachments and weapon for each Merc that is added to the game. However, I do feel having a weapon that people like on a certain Merc is a great way to get people into the “Gotta Catch Em All” mentality. Seeing Skyhammers rifle on a Thunder or Proxys shotgun on a Rhino just feels odd to me.
When it comes to the cards…
I look forward to seeing where you go with the customisation. I still wish you would go down the route of merging cards and building up rarities rather than simply getting parts for a card. With some of the new cards added to the game I have to say I am quite disappointed… Some of the perks just seem to be useless on certain Mercs. The new animation to get cards is better even though it does not seem to work correctly on 1440p and also seems to only run at 30fps making it look really jerky. Seems like a step in the right direction I just really hope you manage to build some interesting systems around the card creation and not simply scrap and buy.
Some other small changes…
I like that the EV now speeds up even more with more people following it. I like that normal weapons seem to be much more effective vs the EV now. I like that you have further defined the difference between the Mercs and Weapons when it comes to player speed and health. I like that you slow down less after doing a long jump and that after a long jump + 2 wall bounces there is no slow down at all. I dislike that it takes so long to transmit an objective, I dislike the extended time it takes to switch weapons and swing a melee weapon. I dislike that you can no longer shoot though glass but you still get the hit sounds. I like that you toned down/removed the horrible radio effect on the voices. I dislike that the respawn times are still mirrored on Stopwatch mode. I dislike that the spawn waves are now 30 seconds on Stopwatch. I like the shotgun buff at close range.
In conclusion…
Making Mercs stronger via abilities seems to add to the problem of multiple of the same Merc on a given team. For that reason alone, I still wish we had a Draft mode by default. fighting vs multiple Skyhammers, Auras and Naders is simply not fun to me. Also, having 6 Sawbones in a match just really reduces the Merc identity as its no longer a stand out in a match. It also becomes harder to know who you are righting against and thus removes some of the instant rush I get when facing someone I recognise. I know that most people seem to disagree with that but hey, just my opinion.
So yea… I could go on but I am too tired >.<
