Jump to content

Observations of the Current Build (Some Suggestions As Well)


Raker57

Recommended Posts

Hello again guys,

It's been a little while since I've posted here. I've been watching videos from the beta the past few days and my excitement for the game is overwhelming. You guys have done an amazing job. :)

A few observations (I'm sure you already know about most of these):

- When climbing ladders in-game, the climbing animation continues after you've reached the top of the building, until your feet leave the ladder. Looks awkward.

- The automated doors on buildings seem to open a little, freeze, then open the rest of the way. Is this a work in progress?

- In one of TheGunRun's streams, he tries to place a nuke beacon on the edge of the map twice, but he doesn't realize he's in the map kill zone. Apparently there's an alarm but he can't hear it because his volume is turned down. Any way we could get a "RETURN TO BATTLEFIELD" message that shows up on screen?

- The ability to swim is awesome, but the animations look like they could use a little work. When you have your pistol drawn, it looks like it just hovers in front of you. Are there plans to improve this?

- I noticed when a passenger jumps into someone's mammoth tank, They seem to take over control of the turret, but the pilot still seems to have control of the missiles. This looks really strange, as the missiles seems to come out of the side or the back of the turret a lot of the time. I think it would be better if either A.) The passenger had control of both the cannons and missiles. Or B.) The pilot had control of both and the passenger was just along for the ride.

- Vehicle explosions look good on some vehicles, and kinda wonky on others. Aircraft don't seem to have any wreckage at all, but maybe I just haven't seen enough aircraft blow up yet. I could be wrong.

- The Apache rotor seems kind of glitchy. When it works properly, the blades seem to spin REALLY slow for a helicopter. I understand this may be intended to look like the optical illusion helicopter blades give off in real life, but I think in real life it looks sort of like a see-through disc along with slowly moving blades. When it doesn't work properly, the blades don't seem to moves at all, or they stick every few seconds.

- Super Weapon animations are EPIC! At the end of the game though, when a Super Weapon destroys the last building, the score board comes up and the game just ends before the animation even completes. I propose a better way: How about making a fixed end-game camera angle that is zoomed really far out and shows the entire enemy base. That way at the end of a game, AS SOON as the Super Weapon animation begins, the score board still comes up but the camera cuts out to the end-game camera so everyone can watch the last building be destroyed by Ion Cannon or Nuke. Some black smoke rising from all the buildings would be a nice touch as well. Nothing gives you a better sense of victory than seeing the enemy base in smoking ruins. This game really does look like an RTS when zoomed out and I think it would add an extra bit of nostalgia for C&C RTS players.

- I saw sam sites on some of the levels. That is a very welcome addition in my opinion. I think they would be even more awesome if they came up out of the ground, Tiberium Dawn style. Weren't there some in Black Dawn that did that, or am I on crack?

- Lastly, I noticed the Harvester and Refinery have new animations that weren't there the last time I saw the game. This is something I suggested in a previous thread years ago but it sounded like you guys had more important things to focus on at the time. I'm glad to see it finally got put in the game! Good work! Related to this, I love what you guys have done with the vehicle selection screen, the way it shows what's going on beneath GDI's Weapons Factory. The only way I think it could be better is if: after you purchase a vehicle, as the screen is fading out, it would be cool to see the vehicle pad start to rise up like an elevator. Then, as you stepped outside to retrieve your vehicle, the Weapons Factory doors would open up, the floor would slide away, and you'd see your vehicle come up out of the ground on the elevator. I understand this is a lot of animation work, but would look so awesome. I imagine Nod's vehicle selection screen would stay pretty much as is. The C-130 dropoff animation already looks amazing.

By the way, I heard in one of the streams that you guys were planning on putting player controlled harvesters in the game. I think this would be REALLY cool. It would add a whole new mechanic to the game without losing the Renegade flavor. I could harvest for the team AND donate all my cash to team mates!

Looking forward to playing with all of you on Feb 26th. Can't wait to see what's planned for the future of the game. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some very good and keen observations there. I have to say I'm genuinely impressed with what you've noticed. Keep in mind that the February 26th release is an open beta release, and even that will be changing periodically :)

-Climbing animations are already redone for the next build.

-The doors are a bit strange, but it's not really a glitchy strange so much as a "different strange." I'm not sure if these are final or not.

-The "Return to the battlefield" message (along with a 10 second countdown) is in the skirmish mode as is. I'm assuming it just has not yet been coded for the multiplayer version. It will eventually if it has not yet.

-The "upwards" swimming animation being awkward looking has been mentioned. I'm unsure if it has been edited or not yet for the next build. Animations are sort of a weak priority compared to other gameplay changing glitches, currently.

-Passenger's in vehicles is constantly being edited, as it was working strangely in the past few builds (it used to disable the hud). That is a work in progress.

-Vehicle wreckages were working strangely in the current build. They were sometimes working and sometimes not, because of the netcode priority system. It has since been edited for the next build.

-Not sure on the apache. Haven't seen that much for myself to be honest.

-The super weapon animation for an end-game would be cool. Animations are still a weak priority atm, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well if we're going to nitpick, here we go!

- The automated doors on buildings seem to open a little, freeze, then open the rest of the way. Is this a work in progress?

That actually bothered me. I think you can get through the door immediately when they open a bit too? I actually forgot. Either way is kind of weird, though. I'd prefer if it was a totally smooth animation from closed to opened. Otherwise you either can clip through the door, or the door blocks you for more time than it should.

- In one of TheGunRun's streams, he tries to place a nuke beacon on the edge of the map twice, but he doesn't realize he's in the map kill zone. Apparently there's an alarm but he can't hear it because his volume is turned down. Any way we could get a "RETURN TO BATTLEFIELD" message that shows up on screen?

I think they said they would make it more obvious where the map "ends". Again on a totally personal note, I wish you just could -not- go somewhere at all if its going to randomly kill you. Getting killed by the game because you're not where you're supposed to be is a silly mechanic, unfortunately.

- Vehicle explosions look good on some vehicles, and kinda wonky on others. Aircraft don't seem to have any wreckage at all, but maybe I just haven't seen enough aircraft blow up yet. I could be wrong.

Sometimes wreckage don't spawn. This was brought up in another topic and is being (or was) fixed.

I support the suggestion of seeing the base being blown to bits at the end by the super weapon, if that is what ends the game.

It would be a nice touch if the weapons factory showed the vehicle come up. I'm guessing it just spawns right now, like it used to?

As for a player controlled harvester, that is an incredibly debatable aspect here. You can't just make the main harvester controllable, its too easy for anyone to grief and take control of it and screw the game over. And if they can just build their own, isn't that a bit overkill of a money advantage for having control of the field? Though it would have a cool factor to it, certainly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are still some out of boungs zones. But the issue with them not showing the "Return to battlefield" message for multiplayer has been fixed a while ago. The older the video you find on the web is, the more likely the issues you see in them have already been fixed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...