Yup, quite the feedback, nice
Here goes...
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- movement feels good. a bit more aircontrol maybe?
That's something that can be tweaked during a play session. I think I'd be okay with a bit more air control, but only a tiny bit.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- weapons - underwhelming - it seemed to me that weapons with effects suggesting AoE were ineffective - particularly on the 2nd class. 4th Class seems really strong and the biggest damage dealer by far.
I'd also be okay with slightly increasing the weapon damage. But keep in mind that TOL 0.1.0 does not yet implement the "you take more damage the less energy you have" rule, once that's in, weapons will generally be more effective.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- combat in general felt a bit horizontal at times. also a bit spammy. partly to do with the underwhelming weapons.
I'll try to incorporate more height differences into new maps, but generally the gameplay is meant to be flat (compared to tribes at least), with usage of the jump boosters being a strategic decision.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- terrain collision is perhaps a bit too punishing?
Way too forgiving right now, IMO. Pushing enemies into obstacles should be an effective way to severely damage/destroy them.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- effects in general underwhelming - impact/hit effects hard to see.
Yup, everything except the basic game premise needs to be improved.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- sounds too harsh and annoying. i understand these are more than likely placeholders; same with the effects?
Yup, all placeholders. Which sounds specifically did you find annoying? And where there sounds you really liked?
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- would be cool to see when someone has a 'lock' on you.
Once the effects have improved, you will be able to tell what hits will have given someone a lock. Although a lock-indicator would not be hard to implement, just the question of whether it will actually be useful in the end.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- discs spinning around a bit too long after intercept etc?
Hmm... maybe
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- gun position is a bit awkward. also a bit unoriginal - would be cool to see more creativity with regard to the viewmodels - perhaps look to integrate them into the CAT models - eg, the 4 CAT could have two guns on its shoulder, and have two view models in the top right and left position, slight recessed. the 3 CAT could have some energy thing in its chest and you see it at the bottom with some glow or whatever to indicate charge status.
Yup, stuff like that is on my mind quite often. Problem is that the shoulders are already used for disc and grenade launcher and the other weapons should be universally usable by anything with human-like arms. The chest idea is something that could work, not yet sure how to incorporate that in a way that makes sense.
As far as classic gun position is concerned I'm looking for ideas, quite often I find myself zoomed in so that I don't see the viewmodel at all or only a tiny bit of it. So I'm open to rethinking the whole "viewmodel at the bottom left/middle/right" trope to come up with something totally new/unique.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- hard to visually differentiate different CAT types.
Yup, until they use different models (which should only happen after the properties of the classes are set in stone) you can tell using the minimap or by their weapons and how they hold them.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- the target designation box could perhaps show a bit more information - not when at long range, but perhaps when close and when you've had time to 'scan' the 'contact' - could flash up displaying class, hp, range etc.
- when you are engaging a target, or your crosshair is close to one, perhaps the white outline could be alpha'd to reduce the impression of shooting at squares and to make the CAT and the visuals more visible.
- integrating the targeting/disc visuals with the HUD and viewmodels into a pseudorealistic style (but obviously still in the theme and tone of the game) would give a bit more presence to the game - feels a bit detached and floaty atm - sort of like you are moving in a map editor.
Yup, those are all issues that I plan to address.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- the recoil feels and looks a bit random. perhaps make it more related to your movement vector, and have it reflected in the weaponviewmodel and headbob allowing you to compensate for it.
Agreed.
now it gets freaky...
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- at the risk of making things a bit too vertical, the jump could give a bit more of an upwards boost - though terrain does give big air this might not be needed, but the flat and open design.
You know you can "jump" while in the air as long as you have enough energy? Just wondering if you already considered that and still want more boost to a jump.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- the risk of this is that you end up with a mess of players in the air too much and few ways to engage them... perhaps a spherical shield around the player that increases their hitbox size - but takes damage proportional to how much of a deflection would be required to make a shot 'ricochet' off tangentially to its impact point on the shield. perhaps this shield could engage when a player is no longer 'anchored' (I saw this in a Revenge of the CATS video, but didnt actually see it ingame, is it still in?) and provide a lock if someone looks at you up there long enough? you could potentially even activate it on the ground in place of that momentary barrier you seem to be able to put up - though I wasn't able to fully try that ability out in the limited playtime I had.
Adding the "take more damage the less energy you have" mecahnic and upping falling/impact damage to ROTC levels will take care of that to a large degree. There are already enough weird mechanics in the game so that I generally don't want to add any more unless the problem can't be solved in a simpler way.
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- the map ETH1 I think feels a bit flat and empty; which is kind of the point I presume, but it lacks content. a way to remedy that would be to allow players to expend energy to deform the terrain or build fortifications.
Nah it's not really the point, that map needs to be downsized and get some more structures on it.
Deforming the terrain and/or the ability to build fortifications has been on the TODO list for a long time, but I want to get the basics right and polished before adding a TOL/Ace Of Spades hybrid mode
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- there arent any identifiably important strategic points/structures. no fight feels particularly important, no push feels like it has a goal to it, other than to defend/cap the next cell.
There are no good maps yet, sorry ^^
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:- i found it really hard to tell whether we were winning or losing.
Future versions will provide:
- a ROTC-style "health balance" indicator letting you know which team has more health
- the ability to see how each team is doing in terms of their "class health" (for example: be able to see that team 2 can't manifest a single sniper unit at the moment)
- dynamic music like in ROTC that let's you know how your team is doing
thelawenforcer {l Wrote}:i will definitely be following this game closely now!
Awesome, and thanks again for the feedback