My experience so far | Forums

[TheItis03]

Hello all.

Was going to post something like this earlier but I thought it was best to play the full "getting to know the game" week before collecting my thoughts on GRO. I know there is a feedback section but that's in the American area and I'm in the UK. If this is in the wrong place please move it!

I've reached level 9 as a Specialist, level 3 as a Recon and level 2 as an Assault, with Specialist being my character of choice (not sure of total combined playtime). Assault I've played the least as I feel I can do just as well as a Specialist, with the added bonus of using AEGIS and eventually looking to the device recharge ability. With that in mind here are my thoughts:


Specialist

By far my favourite choice in GRO. I like to play more of a support role in games so this suits me the best. AEGIS is a brilliant squad shield with quite fair, although numerous, downsides - Assault's Heat will stop you from advancing pretty rapidly, Blitz will completely ignore it and leave you hoping you'll survive after being knocked down and Specialist's EMP will leave you exposed. In addition to a well placed grenade or a flanking enemy stepping inside the shield, there's more than enough options to deal with it.

The EMP however, I don't think it's good enough. Sure, it counters all abilities but I think its range is lacking a little. I know it's best to be used when an enemy is using their ability and moving toward you but considering the range of Heat or Oracle it seems the only true use for it is to stop an opponents AEGIS due to its short range. I'm not asking for it to match Oracle's range as that would be ridiculous but I think it stops just a little too short of where it should.

I've used the default LMG and shotgun so far and had a lot of fun with both. I quickly realised in this game cover is everything when using an LMG, recoil is just too random to predict in a 1v1 fight while walking from point to point. Saying that, I guess that's what the Assault is for! The shotgun is a lot more forgiving when on the move though, effective up close and pointless at range, as it should be.


Assault

'Meh'. Just not enticing enough for me to choose it, haven't used it much so I don't really have anything to say about it.


Recon

So basically 2 classes in 1? A sniper picking people off from a distance or an aggressive recon helping push the action. When I play as a recon I use the SMG with Oracle approach and honestly, I see no drawbacks to this setup. So your health is low and the armour is weak but the default MP5 is pretty effective at dealing with enemies and that's before automatically getting the jump on everyone by using Oracle, which in itself leads to a match lobby looking like this:



We actually got into a squad with 6 recons. UncleViper and I (no, he isn't my uncle) only switched to recon for the comedy value of this pic but seeing a squad with 4 of 8 players being recons happens very frequently. In that match nearly every recon was a "sit at the back" sniper... The rounds didn't last very long

To me, Oracle is a problem. A full 'pulse' has such a massive range in all directions that it seemingly has no counter apart from the amount of time it takes to recharge. And even then with the ability to toggle it on/off, the initial energy tank can last for quite some time before finally running out. Only then will you get a break from "Detected by Oracle" coming up many times within the first few mins of a match. I thought it might be best if Oracle only highlighted you if you were moving but because of the reliance of the cover system maybe that isn't such a good idea, but I feel it needs tweaking in some way.


Other things

When trying to find a game with Viper in a 2-man fireteam, about 60% of the time only one of us will make it into a lobby and the fireteam will disband, kicking the other. That then creates the problem of whoever made it into the lobby having to log out and log back in to regroup as there is seemingly no way to leave a lobby. Unless there is and I'm just being silly.

Critical hits: Shouldn't critical hits be limited to the stomach/chest/neck/head? Just seems weird to be killed because someone got a critical hit on my left shin or toenail.

I've been killed by one melee attack from the front yet the damage chart says I was hit 6 times?

Fall damage noise and indicator is exactly the same as being shot.

I've seen people unaffected by Heat and Blitz will sometimes go straight through people.

I was in a good lobby and had a great game with full teams, why do we all have to come out of that lobby and try to find a new one?

More points given for the time spent on an objective? It's very annoying to get on a base and fill the meter from 0% to 95% only to die with no hope of getting back in time to complete the capture, while someone who only turns up for the last 5% gets credit for the capture and I only get an assist.
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I have more to add but its gone 2am and this post is long enough already. Really liking the game so far!

[Big_Ghost_Daddy]

Hello fellow soldier,

First of all: Specialist for the win!

Second, I haven't played the current session yet (but I will in few hours) but the Blackout (EMP) range was not that bad.

For the assault, blitzing is a funny animation and you can bash people with your shield. It's pretty funny and effective if teammates can finish them off so you don't have to deactivate your shield. As for heat, it's a very supportive ability if others react to it. You can suppress people while your team advances of you can, as you already mentioned, prevent an aegis shield from advancing to quickly.

Oracle might be a bit overpowered, but in the end the enemy team has it as well. I like your idea though. I suggest you add it to this thread.

The only people unaffected by blitz I had last session, where specialists with aegis shield active.
Heat always worked. It is/was however possible to come out of cover and kill the eat user within the first second(s), before heat started affecting you. Also a good technique against heat users is melee killing them (if the distance is not too big).

Why going back to the lobby every time? My guess would be for testing (which is the purpose of betas). As developer you want to test your game in as many situations as possible. To achieve this, you need to put as many different players together as possible. However I do not know if they will change the current system on release.

BigGhostDaddy

[TheItis03]

Hello fellow soldier,

First of all: Specialist for the win!

Second, I haven't played the current session yet (but I will in few hours) but the Blackout (EMP) range was not that bad.

Hello! Maybe my problem with the EMP is that I don't feel it's worthy enough to use over AEGIS. The EMP is very situational defensively whereas AEGIS can bring teammates out of hiding to move further in a burst, pushing the action. I guess it's more of a clash with how I'd like to play the game rather than it being a game problem. The way I imagined the EMP to work was the way grenades work - strongest at the center and weakest at distance, with the people closest to you having their energy drained (75%?) and the furthest away just slightly inconvenienced.

The only people unaffected by blitz I had last session, where specialists with aegis shield active.

I've been smacked down twice by Blitz while using AEGIS

Also a good technique against heat users is melee killing them (if the distance is not too big).

My friend had someone affected by heat walk right up to him and melee him to death. I would have thought the heat ability would stop you attacking altogether!

Why going back to the lobby every time? My guess would be for testing (which is the purpose of betas). As developer you want to test your game in as many situations as possible. To achieve this, you need to put as many different players together as possible. However I do not know if they will change the current system on release.

That's a fair point. It's just that after having a good game its annoying when my fireteam get split in the new lobby as we either have to log out or restart the game to join up again. It could be 2/3/4 tries before we both get in a lobby again.

[Big_Ghost_Daddy]

Melee kills can always be done (also when blacked out), except when using heat yourself.

I have not yet encountered the "fireteam disbanded" problem.

[Klaue_]

Melee kills can always be done (also when blacked out), except when using heat yourself.

I have not yet encountered the "fireteam disbanded" problem.

If faced this problem with and older realease version sometimes. Sadly we where not able to reproduce the error to make sure whats triggering this thing. Most of the time it happened after a match was completed while your fireteam returned to the lobby.