Non-bug Feedback Request

[cool breeze]

wow, thanks!

[yurch]

The attack and defend orders are odd. Bots will sometimes change one to the other on thier own.

Problem is, they don't really seem to follow defend orders - bots'll sometimes just sit around doing nothing if the defend order is far enough away. Not good.

[RiflemanIII]

I don't know how common this is, but in a recent game, an EMP mission landed in the middle of a close-range fight, disabling my vee and a bunch of the bots.

However, a lot of the bots took this as being disabled permanently, and they decided to all kill themselves.

[Kurtz]

One thing that's a little bit annoying is that you can't take control of another vehicle while you're dropping.

This makes sense in normal situations, but if you are using the Command track and want to do something in a bot vehicle and at the same time are dropping jammers, you cant switch vehicle until the jammer drop is finished.

[dan/california]

My pre order is in, don't know how to give a bigger thumbs up than that.

[Taras]

As Dan said, wallet speaks louder than words.

Having said that, a few thoughts:

- I'm not very comfortable with the elicense system. From what I'm reading, it sounds like if I have a hard drive die where the game is installed, I'll lose one of my two installs, so either I'd lose LAN play, or I'd need to send an email asking for a relicense (which, reading between the lines, the FAQ implies that such relicensing would be granted only in extreme circumstances).

My other downloaded games, rFactor and LiveForSpeed - appear to be much more forgiving in their licensing systems in this regard, and indeed I did need to use that recently. It sounds to me like it wouldn't take much to get locked out of my own game - that would be very upsetting, to put it mildly.

In the public test demo (just finishing the download/install of the full version):

- I have to say the 120mm seems cartoonishly underpowered. I've had a point-blank duel with an Apollo's AP ammo vs a Paladin. I hit the Paladin three times, once directly into the underside when it was up on two wheels General-Lee style, and still got raked to death by that 20mm.

The idea that everything should be pretty survivable to make combat a bit more of a duel than an ambush is an interesting concept, but it's *not* a concept that easily balances with a non-hitpoints damage system.

That said, I *love* the fact that you're using a damage system that appears to be similar in concept to World War 2 Online. Funny weapons balance aside, the damage system was a big selling point for me.

Please don't dumb down GEV piloting. It's very good as is. Something about yawing the GEVs seems a bit "indexed" though, as if it's rotating through discrete angles. I'm not sure what's the problem is, perhaps more angular momentum would help.

Edit: Yes, that's it - angular velocity drops to 0 too suddenly when you release the turn button on a GEV, kind of makes it feel like a tracked vehicle that way. It should carry the momentum a bit more, perhaps in relation to its mass.

Really need more GEV tanks and IFV's - the gap between the Tempest and Hurricane is an empty chasm.

Ion towers seem to be ridiculously hard to kill and provide silly-effective defense. I've never been able to knock one out yet. Now that I have the full version, I'll look in the manual for some better hints.

Finally (for now), I love that you guys are pointedly avoiding the "rock, paper, scissors" approach. While strengths and weaknesses are important and realistic, some games have put so much energy into following an evenly balanced R-P-S approach that we might as well be driving rocks, papers, and scissors across the battlefield. Talk about bland - glad you're not doing it.

[ June 05, 2006, 08:07 AM: Message edited by: Taras ]

[moku9]

I would like to see a 'remove commander' option for those strange people who beg to com when in fact they don't know how. Yes, we can vote to kick but that seems excessive.

I would like to see player names color coded by team in the in-game text messaging: "Juda killed mutard with yadda yadda".

[Hub]

[ October 21, 2006, 08:01 AM: Message edited by: Hub ]

[moku9]

Hub, change your name to 'captain obvious' and stop thread jacking.

and now back to the topic assigned...

I'd like to see (or should I say hear?) feedback from the bots:

- Task Completed

- Can't do that

- Roger

stuff like that....

Also, it seems anyone can tell the bots what to do (maybe only when there is no com?) How about making it so players are granted command over a bot or two so others can't cancel the bot orders. Maybe this could be earned via kills or team points?

[Grimly Fiendish]

I hate to be a downer, but I find so many things about DropTeam to so silly, so outright laughably dumb or poorly executed, that I don't even know where to start. But I'll try.

(1) My GEVs are often literally uncontrollable, and I don't mean just hard to drive. Turning them left or right causes them to only turn right. Doing anything with them causes them to wiggle like a bee doing a pollen dance.

(2) Constant crashes preceded by intermittent video.

(3) The auto-updater causes the game to crash cleanly to desktop.

(4) I have had bots literally drive in circles rather than move to the next waypoint.

(5) I have had bots from both sides approach one another head on, firing constantly, literally nose to nose. In my heavy tank, I approached from the side and killed the enemy bots while they totally ignored me. Basically, the AI seems incapable of any kind of intelligent maneuver or any intelligence.

(6) The whole idea of allowing vehicle pilots to kill themselves is silly. Humans would be your most precious resource if you were running a nomadic starfaring tribe. IMHO.

(7) Finally, I once lost a tank because my camera didn't follow me underwater. (I was chasing an enemy tank that had gotten stuck because it was too stupid to maneuver around some underwater rocks.) Not being able to see, I flipped over. Only when I flipped over did the camera snap to underwater view.

(8) The game engine clearly does not include any consideration of mass. A heavy tank should never flip over or even lift much when firing sideways on an Earth-grav-planet. Nothing in this game is truly heavy at all.

(9) The mouse control of targeting, when combined with switching views, results in turrets swinging wildly around in the middle of a firefight. Realistic this is not.

(10) Ogre doesn't work.

All these issues have not only prevented me from learning how to do anything in the game, but stopped me from playing altogether. I'm just waiting for news of an upgrade that I can actually install . . . .

[CattyNebulart]

Well this game is definitly on my christams wish list, and if I don't get it I'll have to buy it myself. But as I have only played the demo I don't know if these have been fixed in the full game but:

1) the ability to assing bots to deploy turrets.

2) the ability to set order for the attacking bots during the deployment phase.

3) I like the hud in non-gunner mode, but the hud in gunner mode could stand some improvements.

4) a button assinment to toggle gunner and movement to on off instead of holding down a button.

5) the ability to lock a range on a target so that if you move of target to lead the shot the range won't change.

6) the abilty to assing the mouse wheel to things, such as manual ranging, zoom or even to set the throtle on a vehicle so there are more options besides full speed and coasting, this might help with 7.

7) some vehicles are a little to top heavy and fall over too easily.

[poesel]

1) the ability to assing bots to deploy turrets.

Heaven forbid they ever learn that! That would also be a bit hard for the AI if you wouldn't use preconfigured places.

2) the ability to set order for the attacking bots during the deployment phase.

Yes, that can be done. Its currently a bit awkward however.

3) I like the hud in non-gunner mode, but the hud in gunner mode could stand some improvements.

You are right.

4) a button assinment to toggle gunner and movement to on off instead of holding down a button.

An old (and common) wish which has not been fulfilled (yet).

5) the ability to lock a range on a target so that if you move of target to lead the shot the range won't change.

RMB to lock, MMB to reset to auto. Take a look at Controls.

6) the abilty to assing the mouse wheel to things, such as manual ranging, zoom or even to set the throtle on a vehicle so there are more options besides full speed and coasting, this might help with 7.

You cannot do that through the GUI but in theory you could by changing the config file. Dunno if that works, never tried.

7) some vehicles are a little to top heavy and fall over too easily.

Again, you are right. This has however been remedied partly by the new suspension system.

[DrWoood]

Originally posted by Grimly Fiendish:

(2) Constant crashes preceded by intermittent video.

I used to have some problems with crashes which were sometimes preceded by strange video effects. I then updated the drivers to my video card, and all these problems disappeared.