Some Comments

[weasello]

Well I've been playing the game pretty nonstop since release (12 hours logged yesterday alone!), and I feel I can safely make some comments and thoughts about the game.

First: WOW. FUN. AMAZING. I'm a huge fan of gameplay, and I'm a huge fan of realism, and you've really hit the nail on the head combining the two. It isn't to "arcadey" and it isn't so realistic it's boring. BRAVO!

I have so much praise for so many different aspects of the game, don't feel I don't like them if I leave them out.

#1: While I think it's the most fun to drive, the Hurricane is too powerful! It must be nerfed! I don't know if there are some ways you guys can check the server stats, but I usually have a minimum of 15 kills, more like 20-30 per game. I'm very good at moving while firing, which makes me invincible to most shells and other artillery. Foes can usually land two laser hits on me before I lob a ground-digging blast back at them. The only two challengers to my greatness are the Shrike, who doesn't have enough time to lock on to me (if I nuke him before his missle hits, I live), and the Main Battle Tanks. Damn they have a lot of armor! 5 hits to kill some guy named Lexx today. He gave up climbing out of the pit and just sat there after a while. With careful rearming and extracting, I usually have 2 Hurricanes left in stock by the end of the round! My favorite vehicle by far.

EDIT: It appears others are saying the hurri isn't too strong at all; it is perhaps possible that I am not incredibly 1337, but that my foes are incredibly newbz0r. But I have yet to meet my match in game.

#2: I love the EWV truck. It has decent armor, and though I wish the speed was a bit higher it's fairly balanced. If that beast can get near the hindquarters of any tank, say goodbye! Triple armor piercing rounds PLUS no chance for immediate respawn. I love that auto gun on the back. For a round yesterday I escorted Redcon5 and Toxic, keeping them off the enemy radar. Whenever I took damage I extracted and dropped back in; made for an excellent flag run. This is my second favorite vehicle

#3: Lasers are an excellent idea, and I definately see their use in the game, but I really don't like the implementation. It simply takes much too many hits to take out anything. You can't up the damage, because they would become incredibly imbalanced - but I don't they can exist as-is. Perhaps in a very well coordinated, large attack force they have a place... But in these multi games where your max team size seems to be about 3 people (if that)... (I'm referring to actual team players, not people that happen to be the same color). I also dislike that the targeting view looks right down the laser barrel. Too hard to see if you actually hit/where you hit. Can we increase/decrease the viewpoint altitude by a foot or so?

#4: Transport ships! I officially got a kill yesterday, snagging an enemy Main Battle Tank and immediately hitting "X" to hover. Since I had a pretty fast forward clip, the AI pitched me WAY back to stop me, flinging the MBT up almost horizontal with me. When he had a good deal of momentum, I released the teather and WWWOOOOoooooo..... BLAM! Exploded on contact. Great fun. But the damned transports are too wussy! Can we give them Anti-Aircraft auto guns like the resupply vehicles have? All transport operations (at least on these small maps) are usually impeded by a Shrike on the opposite end of the terrain. And one hit usually takes me down, so I don't even have time to drop off my cargo. I also found a bug - I had a friendly dangling below me, and I died before I could release him - the tether went stiff and the tank I was towing couldn't free himself from my tether. Imagine a matchbox car with a foot-long toothpick sticking out the top, and an orange stuck to the top of it. Then push the orange over. The car flips up onto its side! Same thing happened in game. Except instead of an orange it was my flaming wreckage.

#5: Jammer/Sensor ranges are too short. For both, maybe create a line-of-sight and a limited-radius version?

#6: While using the command vehicle, we should be able to drop turrets/sensors/etc... When dropping these items it's very nice to know current enemy positions, which you can't see unless you have the command boat up and running! Catch 22 there.

#7: AI should have a Follow command as well as a formation command. One where the AI stays within, say, 300 meters and maintains LOS to the lead, but otherwise acts smartly on it's own.

#8: AI doesn't seem to know how to drive the hurricane. I always seem to see them drifting aimlessly, and as a commander they don't respond to "move" commands. They're damageless too.

#9: I think it would be smart if the game didn't let you land a dropship within an AA radius. I was being a bastard and I plastered a Capture-the-base map with AA guns a few rounds in a row so there was only a few splotches of dry land left (which were conveniently enough, very visible mountains), and I'm sure the opposing team wasted all of their good vehicles spamming the map with burning dropships. Many people don't realize that the map will show you where is safe and where isn't. The AA turrets work perfectly and are an amazing gameplay mechanic, but those anti-armor turrets... They need some lead computation computers or something. Or!!! Change them so they have homing plasmas balls that lose their track if the turret is destroyed. That would make a well balanced defensive system.

#10: Suicides!! A lot of computer opponents commit suicide after I blow off their turret (or somesuch) and I don't get credited with the kill (AFAIK). :/ Since there's no detriment to doing so, why not have the ai request an extract first? Then maybe implement a 30 second delay after hitting "suicide" until it actually happens. Put this in place for humans as well.

That's about all I have to say for now, I'll go respond to some other threads

[ March 20, 2006, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: weasello ]

[Mace]

Originally posted by weasello:

While I think it's the most fun to drive, the Hurricane is too powerful! It must be nerfed!

I disagree, and I'm not a Hurricane newbie either.

The Hurricane does have some disadvantages that I think balances out in the game - the terrain it can travel easily over is limited; unlike wheeled or track vehicles damage to the propulsion system can be extremely detrimental to it's manoeuvrability; the number available is limited compared to other types of vehicles; and a good enemy player can still sneak up on one and ruin it's day.

So personally I would prefer to leave the Hurricane as is.

[Los]

Rather than muck with suicides just give the kill to whoever scored the most damage on the vehicle ala air warrior or warbirds..

Los

[ClaytoniousRex]

While using the command vehicle, we should be able to drop turrets/sensors/etc...

You can already do this. Hit CTRL-D while in a command track to drop deployables.

Otherwise, great comments, weasel. I'm really glad you managed to fling an enemy tank with the Viper. It's a darned satisfying thing, isn't it?

[Battlefront.com]

I agree with Mace. In some scenarios the Hurricane is utterly useless. It also is like bringing a tactical nuke to a knife fight sometimes. Sounds like a great idea until you realize that nukes don't distinguish between friend, foe, or who fired it Having said that, the icefield map is where hovering vehicles ROCK! Personally, I like the Tempest the best for that one.

Steve

[Netherby]

Remember you also only get 6 Hurricanes, they ARE powerful and thats why you don't get many of them..

But they certainly aren't unstoppable.. They can get up quite a speed but they are slow to change directions and can't really go up hills. The plasma mortar is not all that effective for indirect fire unless the terrain is very flat (like the ice map) and travels quite slowly, so at longer ranges you should be able to dodge it quite easily..

At close range it's damn scary, but the reload time between shots is long, so if it doesn't manage to kill you, there is plenty of time to land multiple AP rounds into it!

I'v survived a direct hit from the Hurricane (though it set my turret on fire) in the Thor, so it's not always an instant kill and was then able to rain AP rounds into it (before the ammo exploded and killed my gunner). And I'm happy in thinking thats one less Hurricane for them!

[Netherby]

I take back what I said I about Hurricanes, they are instant death to almost any vehicle except the MBT (and often even to the MBT).. Lucky ATGMs can beat them, but even they generally die to the Hurricane.. Range is no problem for it either, if it has LoS it can kill you..

It is especially nasty against the wheeled vehicles because even if it totally misses the shot, your wheels still blow out and leave you a sitting duck..

It seems the only way to defeat them is with 2 or 3 vehicles attacking the single Hurricane to make the most of the long reload time..

This all of course assumes they are being controlled by someone who is good with it.. Not your average newbie..

[Redcon-5]

I like point #5 LOS for Jammers and senors!! It follows RF physics, (Just ask any cell phone Tech )

[weasello]

Now that I know about CTRL-D commanding is quite fun! *slaps forehead* I shouldn't have skimmed that section of the manual... Makes me wonder what else I'm missing out on.

After some thought, LOS jammers might not be a very good idea... I was thinking "LOS means they'll be out in the open so they'll be more suceptible to enemy fire," but that's not the case. An attacking force could be within LOS of a jammer and the defending force could not see it at all.

Plus, since Jammers allow dropships to land within the confines of enemy bases (like the Ice Fortress in Raid), a few strategically placed jammers would allow the attacking force to land right next to the base... And removing the jammer would be very difficult for the defenders.

I still stand on the LOS for sensors though! Since an LOS sensor would work on detecting *enemy* units, it would always have an LOS to the enemy unit in question, who could then easily blow it up.

Hurricane Update: As my opponents get better and better (damned newbs! ) my dominating days seem to be coming to an end. I'm still very good with it, but I'm finding I do better selecting "the right vehicle for the job" instead of always taking the Hurri no matter what.