"No Thank-you...Just Looking"

[BZ FeebleEffort]

As many of you know I was one of the early group who got into 1.3 "closed beta " testing...For awhile it was interesting to see how Ken And Nathan approached things, but after a time it became clear there were gonna be "camps" of testers and *I* was not gonna be one of the "Good testers".

Eventually it degraded into some pretty heated debates and basically poisioned my passion for the game, yet I hung in out of "hope" that eventually 1.3 would turn better(and to some degree I guess it has) and eventually we'd get past the "bug hunts" and theoretical discussions of the game and eventually start playing some real live 3v3 and 4v4 MP strats.

Those(larger MP) games virtually never occured(during my time "in") and as a result, I felt extrememly frustrated by the lack of attention the part of a game I am most concerned with, and that was and is Balance of a game/patch.

I suppose I can give someone the "benifit of the doubt" and accept that the plan "all along" was to get the Beta as playable as possible in the "closed beta" and then let "Balance issues" be tackled in the "open Beta"...Well it isn't exactly how I would have approached it and I'll leave it at that.(The WHOLE 1.3 story would certianly be a interesting story to tell..but I don't have THAT much time on my hands.)


Well...eventually my frustrations with the "approach" to patch building boiled over and good ole Nathan Booted me out...Well..as the saying goes..."So what".....By that stage I was burnt(and still remained singed around the edges) and felt no great loss by my Bootage.

Even now I look upon 1.3 as a "maybe" sorta thing....LOOOOONG ago I felt quite different, but today..well..who knows...its got alotta stuff that makes it potentially interesting, but its got a few things that.... well  you know.......


So..the whole physcis debate(I say "physics", because the problems/questions are so much more than JUST Hover) most of us knew would come...But the thing I've posted about before is really...the things that are most worrisome to me are not JUST the physics..but all those balance things that were tweaked around(some knowingly changed..others changed by reasons unknown).

I'll give you just a small list that I'm curious about...:

the Bomber?

The Walkers

The Assault tanks

THE SCION?! Gas Mortar?

GTs and Turrets..at one point in the beta they were insanely too strong..now what are they?

Service Truck's....THEY were certianly a colorful discussion way back in mid beta..eventually they got "fixed" and were fine for a few months..Now  what are they doing?..Damned if I know...


I've seen a few of these things come up in posts..and I'd personally like to know what this whole reconfigured AI "new Physics" New ofensive/defensive Ballet has amounted too.

I'll certianlly try to play some of it, but so far I played a couple games with stock scouts etc, and the warp was extrememly difficult, and the physics too frustrating to "aclimate" too..so I'll concentrate on the playing with Aegis Strats and watch the whole thing play out . I hope the units and physics issues get sorted out..It makes for a interesting show.

(Edit, Yes..I realize it now in reading this over ...I use entirely too many "'s in my posts...I'll try to "edit" that down next time....)

[Red Devil]

I think that many people are still stuck in the mindset of 1.2, which is perfectly understandable.

Where you used to get just *one* Recycler/Matriarch which makes just *one* type of Constructor/Builder, which makes just *one* type of Factory which makes just *one* set of ships, or it makes *one* type of Armory which makes just *one* set of weapons, or it makes one type of Gun Tower, you now are able to buiild and choose *many*.

With the new ability to make and choose new Recyclers/Matriarchs/Whatever, *there is no debate necessary* on which one to use.  Just make a new one if you don't like the current ones and add it to the Recyler list.  *And* you can choose to have one of *26 different races* on top of it.

You're free and you don't realize it!


And who do you have to thank for it?  The one whom you spat in his face when he gave it to you, that's who.
.

[BZ FeebleEffort]

RD, Sometimes your posts are just laughable in their short-sightedness....You read that whole post... and you still didn't get the point?


Why don't you read it again and maybe the second time through you'll get a clue.

[Scout]

what the fk is a camp?

doo i look like a "good beta tester"

well i knew were my repects were at least, it was a huge luagh when u got the mualer set back in the build tree.. and every time we were on the battlefield in 1.3beta ud scream what ever means i destroyed you with.. was UNBLANCED With the races being unique you need to do what that race is best at and not bleed them both down to some sort of worthless weapon watersoaker fight.

rofl.

people havent even conjured up a plan as to what scion vs isdf should be like and how were gona get there.. any time any1 thinks of changing or reverting something its always "uh when i goto play bz2 and im isdf vs isdf this is going to hugely unblananced." ...

id blame so called "Vets" for the freezing any game mechanic change.

[AcneVulgaris]

I've played about 6 MP's, and they have played out pretty much like 1.2 in terms of who gets where in the tech tree.  Trucks have been left dumb, and occasionally heavy units come out.  But we'ere starting to learn how it works.

The heavy units WORK!  They are no longer a scrap gift to the enemy.  In groups, with adeqate wings, I think they will be an unstoppable force...plowing right into and through service trucks...smart or dumb.

Play it Feeb!  It's different, and it IS better than 1.2.  MUCH better.  Physics keep things a bit more on the horizontal, but not much.   You can rainbow turrets pretty easily, and stay up if you really feel the need to put the effort into it.

I like it.  I like it a lot.   It's tough finding games, but I don't want to play 1.2 anymore after playing this.  It is that much better.  It acts like I expected it to act after I wrenched it out of the box and stuffed it in my PPRO 200 back in 2000.

Turrets work!  You can send them into the field and expect them to  take care of themselves for a little while.  From what I have seen, all the other AI's are a feckova lot more competant than they were, too.

It's added more chess into the game, which is GOOD!  Turrets can take and hold ground...so you NEED bikes in the early game, or you're gonna lose.  But you also NEED to win the human dogfights, or your turrets will get roasted as they putter out to their posts.

The arms race is extended....it's no longer a race to the almighty chainscout.  The really cool thing is, they didn't pussify the chain scout in doing this...they just made everything else more badass!  They poured at least 3 gallons of high test badass into the other units....and gave them a bit more brain to go with the badass.  They actually attack things with the appropriate weapon!  Its AMAZING!

The game retains the visceral thrill of piloting...toned down a tetch[/], no doubt...but still extremely fun.  I am absolutely astounded that people turn up their nose at all this goodness  because it has been made more difficult to hover.  The kicker is, people didnt hover much ANYWAY, because most of us agree it makes the game LESS FUN!

I have had NO crashes.  NO slideshows.  Lag looks different, but it looks BETTER!  I've never seen tardy packets look so purdy!

Aside from minor ODF tweaks, I think Ken and Nathan are done.  Excellent work.  

Play it Feeb!  Then play it again!   Play it until your eyballs dry up and your wife is yelling at you to go take a goddam bath!

[technoid]

Usually a public beta gives fresh eyes to the test box.  New eyes questioned the TBolt's manueverability (besides hover) once pb1.3 was released.  GH, Comm and Aeg followed up.  I've never questioned the TBolt, but then again, I've only been in private beta for less than 3 months, plus my work schedule has kept me much out of multiplayer, i.e. joined w/other players.  Well, the mulitplayer variant options (thanks to gsh) made tweaking conveniently possible and so here we are... making progress.  And just as AV has experienced, there is greater stability in the game, i.e. less "accidental" and "forced" crashes. And this is all for free I may add.  

[GJC]

To me, after the first 1.3 impressions it looks like 95% of the testing during two years was made on MPI games playing ISDF.

The central problem of this patch is that it isnt meant to fix bugs in the first place but to mod the game. I think that most players out there will see it that way, as just another mod. And I really like this "1.3" mod and play nothing else atm.

But still we could use a patch that is meant to fix bugs in the first place. Certainly many bugs of 1.2 got fixed but - as could be foreseen - the many well-meant but not really necessary modifications brought new issues, let alone severe balancing problems.

[eon5]

1.3 IS better than 1.2. MUCH better.


/OT

With the new ability to make and choose new Recyclers/Matriarchs/Whatever...

HOW i will do it ?    

[PhoeniX-FlamE]

extra options

just dont fix the "hovering" for good - leave it and dont do other changes to prevent some recies and it'll be fine