Hello community and devs! Some feedback on the game...

[Megakoresh]

First off: If THIS is what free games are these days, why the hell are we still paying for games?! Amazing job.

Let me introduce myself:

I am a Tribes veteran, played shooters since I was a little kid. I always liked shooters which combined large-scale strategy with small-scale shooting fun. Tribes Ascend was the last game to really drag me into the PvP MP in a big way. I study game development and plan to become a game designer once I graduate, with combat design being my area of focus, as I find that the most interesting. I did not release games yet, though working on one, but as someone who has studied them professionally for a very long time (almost 5 years no, since I went to high school), I can see how remarkable and achievement this game is. I enjoyed what I have played of it so far more than I ever enjoyed the recent BF games or gods forbid: CoD.

I am currently (and forever) inside a pretty unique clan called Tex, which started in Firefall, but that game has been suffering a slow and painful death by grind for longer than a year now. It's time for us to start focusing on a better game. We are considering migrating a full clan to this game. There is a possibility for it to become very popular indeed.

There are couple of things I noticed right off the bat while evaluating the game for the clan, that might help you make the game better:

• Destroying the refinery makes the matches dull. All of them. I have so far been in 2 matches with very good teams on both sides, and yet as soon as refineries went down for one and then for another, it became boring and grindy.
  
• I am all for meaningful actions, and after some analysis, permadeath of other buildings seems like a good design choice: but not the refinery. I would really consider either upping passive credit gain and making refinery responsible for other actions (like some of the vehicles, for example Flamers on NOD and the Mammoths on GDI seem too easy to get IMO) or making it just invulnerable and only harvesters destructible/capturable (so they can respawn).
  
• As it stands though, refinery just limits the team's options and the combat becomes less varied. Considering how damn long the match can stretch out for after that, killable refinery is not really expanding the game's depth, more than it is hurting it.
  
• Visibility is a problem. Players/Vehicles and all that blend it with the environment. I think the armour needs more glowing bits, because actually I found that stuff in camouflage is easier to see than the standard units (I play on Ultra).
  
• Engineers seem to me like pure gods. There is NOTHING that other classes can do towards the objective. All they are good for is carrying a C4 or planting a beacon and of course killing, which engineers can do from inside a vehcile, they can then repair.
  
• Healing/Repairing Vehicles/Fixing buildings/Capturing tech points, all that is a task of Engineers.
  
• I think this is unbalanced. I think all classes should be able to cap tech points, and I think some other class should be given player medication rights.

So there you go. Those things really pop right into my mind very quickly after I started playing. Hopefully that can be helpful to you as feedback. I think the refinery bit should at least be a server setup option. If it was me, I'd probably make all buildings able to recover, but only after a cooldown and at a cost for players.

And I'd combine that with the refinery thing, as I don't see that as any enhancement to the game (since it still drags out for a very long time even if they are destroyed).

As for the rest of the game it seems like a very good multiplayer experience. The vehicles are especially amazing. I frigging love them. So much C&C vibe!

Edited March 5, 2014 by Guest

[N3tRunn3r]

Hi, I was a Tribes Ascend Closed Alpha/Beta tester and have played a lot of Global Agenda, still doing so.

I have played the C&C Universe since it has begun. Excuse me, but your suggestions here has nothing to do with C&C, more like Battlefield. Renegade-X should be like Renegade, a Command & Conquer game.

This game is still within Beta, some things are unbalanced, yes, but those will be fixed - differently.

[Megakoresh]

Hi, I was a Tribes Ascend Closed Alpha/Beta tester and have played a lot of Global Agenda, still doing so.

I have played the C&C Universe since it has begun. Excuse me, but your suggestions here has nothing to do with C&C, more like Battlefield. Renegade-X should be like Renegade, a Command & Conquer game.

This game is still within Beta, some things are unbalanced, yes, but those will be fixed - differently.

Which suggestion? About the refinery? You do not agree that as soon as it gets destroyed the games become more dull, but still drag on for ages? Or is there some different way you can see it being fixed?

I only played C&C 2 and 3 before, which are strategies, so I am not sure which of my suggestion goes against the C&C universe or rules. In a strategy I can always replace a lost building as soon as I get resources for it. I am obviously not very adept when it comes to the C&C universe, but I am pretty sure refineries can be rebuilt

[dirtycopgangsta]

The point about Hotties/Techs is spot on. Only Gunner, Sbh, snipers, Pic/Rav and maybe Moebious/Mendoza/Chain laser were useful in the original. And these were secondary to engis and Hotties/Techs.

In a game where repairing things is paramount, you can see why being able to repair things is a necessity.

[N3tRunn3r]

I highly guess, mods will be created. Within todays C&C Renegade (from 2002), there are mods (crates) which rebuild destroyed buildings, if you are collecting them (MPF). Those will be existent on some community servers for Renagde-X too, but later.

So, each community can modify their servers as they like and wish. The UDK Software is very strong about it, but the core game should be vanilla, just as like Renegade itself is. I really like RenX as it is within its beta phase, especially the sidearms, capturing buildings and everything else.

I don't want to argue with you, I will just mention that your feedback/wishes/possible suggestions are not C&C/Renegade-related.

Edited March 5, 2014 by Guest

[iovandrake]

In the original basic repair guns could be obtained by other classes because weapons dropped. Not sure why that was removed (balance?) but I think the repair gun should be purchasable in that case. Perhaps for 175-200 credits?

[N3tRunn3r]

Yeah, I think the RenX Devs will add this feature soon. Dropping primary weapons so each class can collect em.

Or maybe not? That is why we can buy secondary weapons? Game modifications could do this later, hehe.

Personally, I like it as it is atm.

[Megakoresh]

I don't want to argue with you, I will just mention that your feedback/wishes/possible suggestions are not C&C/Renegade-related.

Yes they are not. I don't want people to think they are, I am definitely not suggesting this "To make the game more C&C". They are purely for improving gameplay experience. And honestly I outline the problems and provide suggestions the best I can, but if the problems can be fixed in a different way, it doesn't matter. So long as they are fixed. Right now, as I said, every match becomes a ton more boring after Refinery is gone.

I wanna point out BTW how impressive it is that all of the problems I have seen so far are on purely data entry level. I have no seen any inherit design issues that would require removal/replacement of content in the game. This is extremely rare these days even in high-budget commercial titles.

These kind of games should be promoted more.

Some more feedback:

• Classes do not have a "autoselect" option
  
• Would benefit a lot for convenience if i could respawn as the last class I died with and select with which class to spawn next. Especially important for free classes.
  
• Would also be important for convenience to have a buy menu available at any time during gameplay, so I can set what things to buy on my next death.
  
• Can we please have an option to rebind keys in the middle of a match?
  
• Is camo intended not to hide people from defence towers?
  
• Supply drops? Just a small feature suggestion, being able to request a drop of a purchase terminal and buy weapons/classes/refill from it. Destructible of course.
  
• I can't seem to remap the ctrl/alt keys required to access the voice command list. I would have like to rebind them to my thumb mouse buttons instead of having to hold ctrl/alt+v+number; which is simply impossible for me to do with one hand.

Also I noticed something: the game has boats, are there plans for drivable boats in the future? Or are those just decorations?

[sLaYer]

^ Boats are just for decoration, as in the original renegade.

I agree with your refinery point, it does make the game dull. I don't think the refineries should be made invincible or anything, I just think there should be a very slow, compared to a non-existent, constant income after the refinery is destroyed. Not getting to destroy the refinery takes a lot away from the game so I won't go as far as suggesting that.

[Megakoresh]

^ Boats are just for decoration, as in the original renegade.

I agree with your refinery point, it does make the game dull. I don't think the refineries should be made invincible or anything, I just think there should be a very slow, compared to a non-existent, constant income after the refinery is destroyed. Not getting to destroy the refinery takes a lot away from the game so I won't go as far as suggesting that.

I also suggested changing it's role. In strategy games you'd need extra resource types to build advanced units. I think Refinery would do best if it was not responsible for the passive income (rather keep passive income always the same), but for resources to access advanced vehicles like Mammoths and Flame tanks as well as some of the more powerful infantry like Patch or that NOD equivalent (I don't remember the name, one with slow firing plasma weapon that kills everything really quickly).

Making it invincible would probably be among the options for admins anyway.

[sLaYer]

I also suggested changing it's role. In strategy games you'd need extra resource types to build advanced units. I think Refinery would do best if it was not responsible for the passive income (rather keep passive income always the same), but for resources to access advanced vehicles like Mammoths and Flame tanks as well as some of the more powerful infantry like Patch or that NOD equivalent (I don't remember the name, one with slow firing plasma weapon that kills everything really quickly).

Right now, it's just the classic game mode "Command and Conquer" and I believe the devs are gonna make it hold true to the original.

We will be seeing new game modes. I don't know of what type, but I wouldn't mind seeing what you suggested in them. It seems like a nice idea. But it just doesn't fit with the classic =)