Originally Posted by
Mykinius
Hey all! I've reached level 8 with Assault and level 4 with Recon, and I've got some stuff I'd like to share.
Assault
- The shield ability can be very frustrating to use. It takes long to set up, and just as important to me, it takes a while to exit (so it can be hard to shoot those you knocked over before getting shot yourself). Furthermore, those two things combined with the fact that the shield only protects part of your front can make you very vulnerable, and dying makes you have to wait 2.5 minutes for the ability to recharge even if you were not even running with the shield yet. In my opinion, this ability should have a shorter cooldown when the player dies during the first, say, half of the blitz. Alternatively, the ability could use an energy system like the Recon's cloak and stop using energy when the blitz is ended (by the player or otherwise). If this energy system were used, the blitz should only be available with a full bar.
I agree with this so far.
- Heat seems useless. As [GM]ZeusJones informed me, it's a teamwork-oriented suppression ability. It has far too many downsides to make it useful, however. It has a long setup time, and you move slowly during the ability's duration. This lack of mobility combined with the fact that you can't shoot makes you a walking target. To top it off, the damage over time is pitiful: in my experience, it was roughly 6 damage per tick, which is absurd given there is an early achievement (required for later achievements) for killing 3 people with it. It is entirely possible that I was too far away or something, but even then, there's no way for me to get close to enemies without dying since starting the ability stuns me for a few seconds (and even after that, I can only leisurely walk forward). To make matters worse, it suffers from the same long cooldown problem as the shield ability: if you get shot while even starting Heat, you have to wait the entire 2.5 minutes to attempt to use it again, which is frustrating and absurd.
I also agree with this. I have yet to see Heat used well, or be at all effective.
- At first I didn't like the assault rifle, but then I got a scope, which helped a lot. No opinion on the shotguns yet.
A scope may help with your LMG issues mentioned later.
Recon
- Recons. Everywhere. Seeing a team of 7 recons plus an assault is commonplace in the closed beta. As [GM]ZeusJones informed me, this is due to the class's low-level effectiveness and overall cool factor, but the scale of the overpopulation of the class still worries me, especially given how often it results in stalemates from sniping wars.
Yep...
- I like stealth. I wish I could use it more often, but it doesn't seem underpowered (since all the other special abilities also have long cooldowns). It's nice that you can just barely make out stealthed players if you look for them, rather than completely invisible players.
I really disfavor that it is a toggle whereas the other classes have single use abilities.
- Sniping is frustrating to deal with. It's so hard to fight back (since they usually have excellent cover, and relatively inaccurate, automatic weapons like the assault rifle, LMG, and SMG cannot hit the tiny exposed parts (like their out-of-cover head for a split second).
My only solution to this is that everybody should not be a recon. Yeah recons do hold up well, but the lack of other classes makes it far too difficult to push.
Specialist
- So few specialists! I'd say there is an average of 2 per match. I don't really know why, since they can be devastating with the shield bubble.
- The LMG is annoyingly inaccurate. It's much more difficult to use than the AR or SMG. Furthermore, it seems to have a slight lag before firing the first shot, which is also frustrating.
Consider a scope as you did with the assault rifles.
- EMP is very hard to play against. That's not a bad thing, but I wish Heat were this useful.
I have yet to see EMP to be effective as well. I will agree that it is more useful than heat, but I really feel that it lacks range to Blackout other special abilities or initiate pushes.
General
- The maps are too linear. Often, it's impossible to flank because there are so few side passages. I really like the middle point of [the map with the bridge as the middle point] since there are three ways to the other side: the bridge, the steps up to the other side of the bridge, and the side passage. Other maps, however, like the mall, are impossible to push or flank on because it's just 2 easily defended long hallways.
I believe that the devs said they will address the subway station issues. But the lack of flanking is due to the powerful pushing abilities that the Assault and Specialist have (Aegis and the Shield).
- Health regeneration is too slow. I understand that it's not supposed to be fast, like "wait a few seconds and magically get better," but as it is now, regenerating to full health after a single shot takes minutes. HP regen should be doubled/tripled, or there should be some alternate way of getting health back. Perhaps killed enemies could (50% of the time) drop health items that make HP regenerate faster for a time when picked up instead of ammo. Or perhaps the healing rate should accelerate based on how long you've been regenerating.
I like this idea.
- Ammo is in short supply. It's annoying how a single ammo pack from a killed player isn't even one clip's worth. also annoying is how there seems to be a delay of 5 seconds (?) before ammo appears over corpses. Ammo should appear instantly or after up to 1 second.
Specialists have a Team Ability to regenerate ammo over time at level 9. While slow (1 bullet/second), that option exists currently.
- Toggle sprinting is hard to deal with because it's hard to know when it's on and when it's off. As it is, it is inconsistent (it may be on, and when you press shift while standing or strafing, it will stay on). There should at least be an indicator on the HUD (which is awesome, btw) for whether sprinting is toggled on or not.
My method of dealing with this; switch from toggle to manual. Yes, you'll have to hold down Shift or whatever key you assigned it to, but it makes entering combat much more fluid.
- The tactical map is awesome, but I have two main issues with it. First of all, all markers (players, points, etc.) on it appear lower than they should on the 3D map.It looks like everyone is walking around under the level, so the map is only really accurate when viewed top-down. Also, I wish the HUD's map would stay maximized between lives instead of resetting to default (minimized) every life. Heck, make it stay the same size between games, too (i.e. it stays forever maximized if the player presses m, and forever minimized if m is pressed again).
I'll just say something about the minimap. It's way too transparent with the map. It's hard to see stuff on the minimap especially against white walls and floors.
- Warm-up rounds are waaay too long. They should be a minute, max.
Yep.
- I like how capturing a point rewards many points to the capturing players.
They should implement a better system for assists.
- The respawn times seem long given the long hikes to get to the point again. Just my opinion (in TF2, I preferred 5 second respawn times). Maybe the waves should be every 10 seconds instead of 15.
No, it is difficult as is to make pushes. The long respawn timer rewards the winning team.
- Going prone is too good in my opinion. You become extremely difficult to hit (especially on the linear maps like that subway) and become more accurate... there needs to be some downside besides moving slower, like increased difficulty in quickly turning, slower reload, etc.
I think you're on the right track for this suggestion; something needs to be done about this.
Mykinius
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