Analysis of Multiplayer and maybe a tiny rant somewhere.
Apr 12, 2017 2:54:02 GMT
SalMasRac, MPApr2012, and 17 more like this
Post by TaliWhacker on Apr 12, 2017 2:54:02 GMT
EDIT: why the fuck do people find it necessary to say my post was too long and that they didn't read it?
"Table for 1 right this way, what will you be having this evening sir?"
"Oh nothing. I'm just here for attention. Hey everybody look how dumb I am! I'm here for no reason other than to be a waste. Thanks for letting me shit all over anyone that is here for an actual reason."
I believe that the multiplayer, much like the single player, is better than the consensus. Are there issues? Yes. Does it need work? Yes. Is it a disaster? Other than the servers, no. We should also not ignore what is right with the game. It seems important to lead with a positive foot into such negative territory. If we can't talk about what is right with the game, then we will never have the proper perspective to tell wether or not we are asking for Bio to treat the symptoms, or the disease.
Movement is fun, enemy encounters are for the most part challenging. Some enemy types are a pain in the ass, and then you play a different character. Except those damn dogs, I no longer judge Michael Vick. The levels tend to be well designed with some having an amazing sense of verticality. It's not perfect. The biggest adjustment that needs to happen, console side, is more "look" settings. The dead zones must be set to 20 and aim acceleration must be 100. Scoping in with a sniper and transitioning from target to target, scoped or un-scoped, is a chore. I feel like I'm in control of docking an ocean liner. Almost there, almost there... crap I went past his head. I can snipe in Halo so I know this is not on me. Give us the Inner and outer dead zone settings, aim acceleration, and different sensitivities for hip and ADS. Please. Reload cancel being absent kills the Widow. If sprinting and/or dodging didn't reset the reload it would be ok. Not great, but ok. I have spent a full minute repeatedly attempting to reload a Widow before. Awful times. Maybe it can just pause the reload? It would be nice if a downed teammate was treated like auto-cover. Not in the sense that you received any protection just as in a take a knee as a more organic cue that makes you a smaller target and to prioritize the ease of revive and the initial attempt of. It is ridiculous how many people sprint melee over a corpse. It is like they are trying to line up a sniper headshot.
Powers and combos are feeling a lot of heat right now and this is one of the topics where I believe people are jumping to conclusions a little too hard. There is a diverse selection of kits leading to a huge array of interesting and viable builds with gross amounts of interchangeable party compositions. Support builds are in the limelight. ME3, gloryhole that it was, never gave much thought to support. It was all about DPS, which I enjoyed. A lot, but I like that they have tried to grow those aspects more. Most games don't include much support. I think people not understanding that having a good support character is the leading cause for the opinion of "weak guns and powers." Alone this opinion is not wrong, but there is more to the game mechanics than just that. Human Engineer, Human Sentinel, Salarian Operator, Angarran Insurgent, Asari Sentinel, Krogan Mercenary, Asari Adept, and Krogan Warlord all have huge support potential. I know everyone wants to be the "best" so they chase the highest DPS/Cheese possible. This hurts your team on Gold. One Human Engineer and 3 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's are more effective than 4 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's. The Human Engineer might end up well below the other 3, but make no mistake, he made that gold easy mode. Not that 4 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's would have any trouble. Other classes like the Asari Adept actually get points rewarded for the constant prepping and the shield returning they provide.
Certain powers, like Overload, certainly do need work. I like that its initial stun animation is a momentary prep but it needs to decide wether is is a shield stripper or a detonator. That decision should be in its tree. Rank 6 flat out needs to be either 100% extra shield damage or Add a chain and chains now detonate. As it is now, it won't strip more than half an observers shields on gold with a Human Engineer speccing all the way for shield damage, even on the passive trees. This is unacceptable considering its trash health or armor damage. That observers shields should be gone if you spec for shield damage throughout the whole ability about shield damage and then twice more in passives on an engineer. Assault Turret might as well be a donut you throw on the ground to momentarily stop a berserker so he can eat it. Lance does shit tier damage, even critical damage. It can't bring combo damage or CC like Throw, which is fine, but it needs to be a Widow X round. I would love to see another ability with Tech Combo prep and a little more stay on freeze. A "Caster" with 100% CD needs to have higher damage output. So yes specific powers need some love, but as a whole, powers are in a glorious place right now. Try an Angaran Insurgent and tell me how often one of your non-rando teammates goes down, or how about a Human Engineer and see how long an Atlas lives with focus fire while being Cryo Beamed. Tell me how much damage you are taking with A Debuff Krogan Mercenary melting things. As it is now, Gold is very easy to do on gold with a competent team, so I am finding it hard to believe that everything is so awful right now. Biotic detonations now longer reign from up high and thats okay. A shield fueled lance Asari Adept has plenty of fun with biotic detonations after all.
Combo Damage and Radius is something I think needs small incremental buffs. Yes they do a lot less damage than in ME3 but with the increased frequency a 5% increase could destroy gold mobs. In ME3 you had 4 people with 4 cool-downs. Now you have 4 people with 12 cool-downs. Yes the cool-downs are increased but not by 400%. Add on that some powers like Cryo can freeze up to four enemies with one blast and then can be cryo combo'd to explode and prep more enemies. These are factors that I don't think people are considering. I tried to explain how three powers with individual cool-downs was far more potent than an infinite amount of powers with a global cool-down before the game released, and with math, but a lot of people were not willing to listen so I won't. I'll just tell you that I can destroy half the health of an Architect leg on Hardcore with only one cool-down period and only using tech powers. I would rather have them start low and increase, then nerf my glorious build in multi. So long sweet Piranha wielding Geth Infiltrator of of my namesake.
Speaking of starting low and nerfs, guns, or more specifically how the vast majority are not in a good state but there is no reason to overreact... yet. Once again I would rather Bio builds this into a great game as opposed to taking away my favorite toys. Why doesn't my Piranha clear Platinum spawns anymore? Add to that how wonderfully they nerfixed the Vanquisher. It is no longer in it's own tier, just the Top tier rubbing shoulders with the Piranha, Equalizer, Talon, and Hurricane. There are other weapons like the Dhan, Black Widow, Valiant, Revenant, Sweeper, and Thokin that could use a little lovin. All this being said, far too many weapons are crap and the Berf to the Mattock is perplexing. Were they afraid of people with turbo controllers? Games have used systems to detect that level of cheating before, maybe don't half ass a buff and screw over the majority of players. AR's in general should have higher accuracy, especially when moving. I would really like them to not be affected by movement at all. Make them really good for mobile mid range fighters, something in short supply right now. A lot of AR's, single shot pistols, and shotguns need buffs. I don't think they need 50% buffs like every post says the day a different non sniper weapon gets the daily bonus. Except the Halbred. That needs a 100% buff. UR need something special. Maybe make the Inferno naturally have incendiary ammo. Give the Black Widow back its native cover penetration and armor damage. Give the Crusader a reload speed bonus after a headshot kill. Also maybe give it some accuracy. It is not that ridiculous. 343 made a bunch of crazy, cool, and unique weapons in Halo 5 that were pretty well balanced for the most part. In fact not only was variety, and balance better, but also quantity.
Halo 5 should also be a reference point for how to handle micro-transaction based random card packs. When you maxed out a tier you got the next highest level available in that pack. Having commons through rares maxed should guarantee an UR from the premium pack and to balance that out only be available from the premium pack. The chance of this changing is nil, and this is where Bio/EA are a bunch of assholes. If you want to have micro-transactions in an full price AAA title than you need to have the content to support that. If there is a worry about people not having enough of the expensive stuff to buy then you must create content worthy of the price, not artificially inflate the value just so you can take someones wallet and dick punch them with it. 5 maps? Not that anyone uses more than one because you haven't implemented a random/random bonus, but still, get the fuck out of here. The same recycled multi from ME3? If it ain't broke don't fix it, but if you want to have micro-transactions you better add a different game mode. Shit servers that drop people and a broken matchmaking system? Fuck off. If you won't spend the money on the multi you have no right to ask the consumer. It's not 2011 anymore, you can't get away with this just because no one had introduced micro-transactions or multiplayer in a AAA single player RPG yet. I haven't spent a dollar on your multiplayer because as of yet you haven't earned it Bioware. I'm willing to wait and an update much like the last one every two weeks will certainly steer this game in the general direction it needs to go.
The multiplayer is something that I enjoy and will continue to play, even if they don't fix it. If they don't fix it then eventually a "wave 10 glitch" will come out and I will farm that for the first hour of every play session so that I can buy a bunch of Premium Disappointment Packs and spend the rest of my play session without having the game economy ruin my time even though eventually I will have unlocked and maxed everything but the Awakened Collector and bought another 30 Premium Character packs only to still not get it and never play again. Having people take advantage of poor programming and servers in a micro-transaction full priced AAA to circumvent said economy is the very definition of karma. Take the money people have spent and use it to fix the game and grow it. 343 not only managed to deliver the highest amount of free content and updates in a year that I have seen but also add millions of extra dollars to prize pools based off their in-game micro-transactions. They have a smaller available player base so Bioware has no excuse. If this multiplayer fails it will be solely because Bio didn't support it with a high quantity of enough quality content.
"Table for 1 right this way, what will you be having this evening sir?"
"Oh nothing. I'm just here for attention. Hey everybody look how dumb I am! I'm here for no reason other than to be a waste. Thanks for letting me shit all over anyone that is here for an actual reason."
I believe that the multiplayer, much like the single player, is better than the consensus. Are there issues? Yes. Does it need work? Yes. Is it a disaster? Other than the servers, no. We should also not ignore what is right with the game. It seems important to lead with a positive foot into such negative territory. If we can't talk about what is right with the game, then we will never have the proper perspective to tell wether or not we are asking for Bio to treat the symptoms, or the disease.
Movement is fun, enemy encounters are for the most part challenging. Some enemy types are a pain in the ass, and then you play a different character. Except those damn dogs, I no longer judge Michael Vick. The levels tend to be well designed with some having an amazing sense of verticality. It's not perfect. The biggest adjustment that needs to happen, console side, is more "look" settings. The dead zones must be set to 20 and aim acceleration must be 100. Scoping in with a sniper and transitioning from target to target, scoped or un-scoped, is a chore. I feel like I'm in control of docking an ocean liner. Almost there, almost there... crap I went past his head. I can snipe in Halo so I know this is not on me. Give us the Inner and outer dead zone settings, aim acceleration, and different sensitivities for hip and ADS. Please. Reload cancel being absent kills the Widow. If sprinting and/or dodging didn't reset the reload it would be ok. Not great, but ok. I have spent a full minute repeatedly attempting to reload a Widow before. Awful times. Maybe it can just pause the reload? It would be nice if a downed teammate was treated like auto-cover. Not in the sense that you received any protection just as in a take a knee as a more organic cue that makes you a smaller target and to prioritize the ease of revive and the initial attempt of. It is ridiculous how many people sprint melee over a corpse. It is like they are trying to line up a sniper headshot.
Powers and combos are feeling a lot of heat right now and this is one of the topics where I believe people are jumping to conclusions a little too hard. There is a diverse selection of kits leading to a huge array of interesting and viable builds with gross amounts of interchangeable party compositions. Support builds are in the limelight. ME3, gloryhole that it was, never gave much thought to support. It was all about DPS, which I enjoyed. A lot, but I like that they have tried to grow those aspects more. Most games don't include much support. I think people not understanding that having a good support character is the leading cause for the opinion of "weak guns and powers." Alone this opinion is not wrong, but there is more to the game mechanics than just that. Human Engineer, Human Sentinel, Salarian Operator, Angarran Insurgent, Asari Sentinel, Krogan Mercenary, Asari Adept, and Krogan Warlord all have huge support potential. I know everyone wants to be the "best" so they chase the highest DPS/Cheese possible. This hurts your team on Gold. One Human Engineer and 3 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's are more effective than 4 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's. The Human Engineer might end up well below the other 3, but make no mistake, he made that gold easy mode. Not that 4 Turian Soldiers with Vanquisher X's would have any trouble. Other classes like the Asari Adept actually get points rewarded for the constant prepping and the shield returning they provide.
Certain powers, like Overload, certainly do need work. I like that its initial stun animation is a momentary prep but it needs to decide wether is is a shield stripper or a detonator. That decision should be in its tree. Rank 6 flat out needs to be either 100% extra shield damage or Add a chain and chains now detonate. As it is now, it won't strip more than half an observers shields on gold with a Human Engineer speccing all the way for shield damage, even on the passive trees. This is unacceptable considering its trash health or armor damage. That observers shields should be gone if you spec for shield damage throughout the whole ability about shield damage and then twice more in passives on an engineer. Assault Turret might as well be a donut you throw on the ground to momentarily stop a berserker so he can eat it. Lance does shit tier damage, even critical damage. It can't bring combo damage or CC like Throw, which is fine, but it needs to be a Widow X round. I would love to see another ability with Tech Combo prep and a little more stay on freeze. A "Caster" with 100% CD needs to have higher damage output. So yes specific powers need some love, but as a whole, powers are in a glorious place right now. Try an Angaran Insurgent and tell me how often one of your non-rando teammates goes down, or how about a Human Engineer and see how long an Atlas lives with focus fire while being Cryo Beamed. Tell me how much damage you are taking with A Debuff Krogan Mercenary melting things. As it is now, Gold is very easy to do on gold with a competent team, so I am finding it hard to believe that everything is so awful right now. Biotic detonations now longer reign from up high and thats okay. A shield fueled lance Asari Adept has plenty of fun with biotic detonations after all.
Combo Damage and Radius is something I think needs small incremental buffs. Yes they do a lot less damage than in ME3 but with the increased frequency a 5% increase could destroy gold mobs. In ME3 you had 4 people with 4 cool-downs. Now you have 4 people with 12 cool-downs. Yes the cool-downs are increased but not by 400%. Add on that some powers like Cryo can freeze up to four enemies with one blast and then can be cryo combo'd to explode and prep more enemies. These are factors that I don't think people are considering. I tried to explain how three powers with individual cool-downs was far more potent than an infinite amount of powers with a global cool-down before the game released, and with math, but a lot of people were not willing to listen so I won't. I'll just tell you that I can destroy half the health of an Architect leg on Hardcore with only one cool-down period and only using tech powers. I would rather have them start low and increase, then nerf my glorious build in multi. So long sweet Piranha wielding Geth Infiltrator of of my namesake.
Speaking of starting low and nerfs, guns, or more specifically how the vast majority are not in a good state but there is no reason to overreact... yet. Once again I would rather Bio builds this into a great game as opposed to taking away my favorite toys. Why doesn't my Piranha clear Platinum spawns anymore? Add to that how wonderfully they nerfixed the Vanquisher. It is no longer in it's own tier, just the Top tier rubbing shoulders with the Piranha, Equalizer, Talon, and Hurricane. There are other weapons like the Dhan, Black Widow, Valiant, Revenant, Sweeper, and Thokin that could use a little lovin. All this being said, far too many weapons are crap and the Berf to the Mattock is perplexing. Were they afraid of people with turbo controllers? Games have used systems to detect that level of cheating before, maybe don't half ass a buff and screw over the majority of players. AR's in general should have higher accuracy, especially when moving. I would really like them to not be affected by movement at all. Make them really good for mobile mid range fighters, something in short supply right now. A lot of AR's, single shot pistols, and shotguns need buffs. I don't think they need 50% buffs like every post says the day a different non sniper weapon gets the daily bonus. Except the Halbred. That needs a 100% buff. UR need something special. Maybe make the Inferno naturally have incendiary ammo. Give the Black Widow back its native cover penetration and armor damage. Give the Crusader a reload speed bonus after a headshot kill. Also maybe give it some accuracy. It is not that ridiculous. 343 made a bunch of crazy, cool, and unique weapons in Halo 5 that were pretty well balanced for the most part. In fact not only was variety, and balance better, but also quantity.
Halo 5 should also be a reference point for how to handle micro-transaction based random card packs. When you maxed out a tier you got the next highest level available in that pack. Having commons through rares maxed should guarantee an UR from the premium pack and to balance that out only be available from the premium pack. The chance of this changing is nil, and this is where Bio/EA are a bunch of assholes. If you want to have micro-transactions in an full price AAA title than you need to have the content to support that. If there is a worry about people not having enough of the expensive stuff to buy then you must create content worthy of the price, not artificially inflate the value just so you can take someones wallet and dick punch them with it. 5 maps? Not that anyone uses more than one because you haven't implemented a random/random bonus, but still, get the fuck out of here. The same recycled multi from ME3? If it ain't broke don't fix it, but if you want to have micro-transactions you better add a different game mode. Shit servers that drop people and a broken matchmaking system? Fuck off. If you won't spend the money on the multi you have no right to ask the consumer. It's not 2011 anymore, you can't get away with this just because no one had introduced micro-transactions or multiplayer in a AAA single player RPG yet. I haven't spent a dollar on your multiplayer because as of yet you haven't earned it Bioware. I'm willing to wait and an update much like the last one every two weeks will certainly steer this game in the general direction it needs to go.
The multiplayer is something that I enjoy and will continue to play, even if they don't fix it. If they don't fix it then eventually a "wave 10 glitch" will come out and I will farm that for the first hour of every play session so that I can buy a bunch of Premium Disappointment Packs and spend the rest of my play session without having the game economy ruin my time even though eventually I will have unlocked and maxed everything but the Awakened Collector and bought another 30 Premium Character packs only to still not get it and never play again. Having people take advantage of poor programming and servers in a micro-transaction full priced AAA to circumvent said economy is the very definition of karma. Take the money people have spent and use it to fix the game and grow it. 343 not only managed to deliver the highest amount of free content and updates in a year that I have seen but also add millions of extra dollars to prize pools based off their in-game micro-transactions. They have a smaller available player base so Bioware has no excuse. If this multiplayer fails it will be solely because Bio didn't support it with a high quantity of enough quality content.
