Some comments and suggestions

[Agent Smith]

First off, big thanks to Totem Arts for working on Renegade X - it's something we've been looking forward to for years. For an open beta, this is quite an impressive accomplishment, so major props to you guys.

Now for a few miscellaneous topics:

1. I feel that new players would benefit if some kind of list of textual/verbal abbreviations was added (arty, mammy, sbh, etc). This would ease the communication gap between the vets and people for whom this is their first experience with Renegade.

2. Airstrikes. Clearly, this is a pretty hot topic atm, so if something about the airstrikes is to be changed, hopefully it can be soon so players don't start leaving.

Player Awareness - Perhaps a loud EVA warning of "Airstrike trajectory calculated. Please evacuate target area." could be broadcast, and then the section of ground that is going to be hit could have some kind of big flashing indicator reminiscent of C&C Generals/Zero Hour General's Powers that would show up and start flashing about 5 seconds before impact. I think it's kind of hard to not notice when your tank starts flashing colors. Therefore, there is time to evacuate if you're paying attention, while still keeping an opportunity to destroy the enemy if they don't react quickly enough.

Beacon Covering - I think that the idea that someone posted in another thread about pilots not being able to cover beacons for their own safety is a pretty decent idea.

Spamming - I think a personal cool down is fairly reasonable. Maybe you could even have the equivalent of a vehicle cap for airstrikes? Perhaps a team can only have X amount (not too low, not too high) of players in possession of an airstrike binocular at a time, and this combined with the personal cooldown (however many minutes it might be) means that you can't really spam them. It's not a perfect solution, obviously, but it could have some merit.

Price could also be upped, while the points gained for landing a successful airstrike could be decreased.

I haven't been ingame today yet, so for those who have, are people still spamming airstrikes, or has it lessened at all?

3. Finally, are there any servers up with associated Teamspeak servers to facilitate teamwork? It seems that teamwork is severely reduced in public servers, and while I suppose that's to be expected, I would much rather play Renegade X as part of a unified, cohesive team.

If any clans are recruiting, that would be cool, too.

[Ninja955]

Spamming - I think a personal cool down is fairly reasonable. Maybe you could even have the equivalent of a vehicle cap for airstrikes? Perhaps a team can only have X amount (not too low, not too high) of players in possession of an airstrike binocular at a time, and this combined with the personal cooldown (however many minutes it might be) means that you can't really spam them. It's not a perfect solution, obviously, but it could have some merit.

I totally agree with you on this one. It seems very logical to have cool-down timer for the airstrikes since all of the RTS Command and Conquer games had cool-down timers on their special powers. I find the airstrike very useful but it seems that it's too easy to acquire it(since it costs only $700) and to initiate it. Something has to be done to make it hard to obtain and hard to use.

[Agent Smith]

Does no one else have a comment?

[Noodlesocks]

Well I've said before that at most, airstrikes could maybe do with a slightly more visible laser.

The thing is, the game is only a couple of days old and most peoples views on the airstrikes have been shaped by a very short play time and a large number of them basing this entirely on one map. What I would hate to see is major balance changes done to anything given how inexperienced most players are when all they really need to do is pay better attention.

What we risk happening here is making something that is already fairly easy to avoid, even less effective so when players do learn the game a bit better and learns the signs, we will end up with something that is fairly useless.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not opposed to changes to the airstrikes but some of the suggestions people are calling for are going to extreme lengths for something that is largely their own fault for being caught in.

EDIT: I mean already I am seeing players noticing the airstrikes and avoiding them. Already I'm seeing less and less of them and on maps that aren't field, they are pretty few and far between because the chances of having a large cluster of tanks sitting in one area for a long period of time are fairly minimal.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Guest

[Agent Smith]

True. I suppose we can wait for a week or two and see if things are still like they are now, then see if changes are still needed.

I still think the EVA announcement is far too quiet to be heard in the din of battle, though, especially given the new voice. Maybe a louder voice combined with a more visible laser might do the trick.