Despite Chakra's request that no commentary be made on the game's newly added features for a good week or so, I think he well knew that there would be posts the first day. And I'm glad to say that I am the poster of said premature post. But do not fret, for I have fewer complaints and more praises. This is just my perception of the game thus far.
After trying every single weapon by myself on a random map, and reading up on the changes that have been made, I've found that weapon balance has gotten better by far.
Deagles have finally been dumbed down a little, which is something I've thought about for a long time now. It's always been, in my opinion one of the most powerful weapons in Soldat for its clip-size, quick reload, and fast fire-rate, all of which have made it a ridiculously powerful short to mid-ranged weapon. They've never had the long arm of the ruger, but for rushing this has always been a king. It's still good, great in fact, but it takes a little more skill and timing now.
Self bink has to be the greatest thing that was ever added to Soldat. To all the angry machine-gunners out there, keep in mind that I use the Aug on a semi-regular basis, and I wouldn't want anything to hurt it. However, it has always annoyed me how unrealistic the machine guns in Soldat are. An AK firing 40 rounds straight? Can you say "fused barrel"? While I think something like overheating or lock-up would've been more appropriate, I think this is enough for now. People will learn to skirt around the new feature (*hinthint*: dont hold, tap) but at least they won't have the benefit of machine gun cruise control anymore.
I'm a little sad to see the shotgun's power go down, but I like it's improved range enough that I'll get over it. It's still enough for a close-range two-hit kill, and that's what's important.
The M79 has a new feel that I like, but I won't linger on it, because I hate the M79 anyway =P.
Didn't feel much different with the Barret. But that's just me. Moving on....
Then of course we have the Minigun, which seems to be virtually the same as ever, though Chakra claims it is "unsurfable". I was able to use it for acceleration still, but then again, I don't know the difference between surfing and using it to accelerate =P. It'll still hold up one's weight, I know that much, but all in all, I didn't feel much change here either.
The only secondary weapon I feel the need to comment on is the LAW, which I think has another brilliant feature that I'm glad has shown up in the new version. The short delay to fire is an excellent way to stop people from "geurilla LAWing" and overusing this powerful weapon. It gives a much better chance to opposing players to dodge the shot, and requires more skill from the users.
Perhaps there are people who will want to complain about these new features, but I think that they should consider what their opponent's are like now rather than what their weapons are like. Maybe that sprayer won't cut you down every time you get close enough to blow him away with the M79, and maybe running into more than one pair of deagles at a time won't be a death sentence anymore. I guess you'll find out within a week or so.
Now my server play has been limited, mostly because I'm primarily a CTF player (I haven't even tried Hold the Flag yet), and there don't seem to be many good servers up yet, but I have noticed a few things that have changed outside of the weapons. For one, the ally tags on the border of the screen are an interesting new feature that I'm still getting used to. While I don't necessarily see a reason to dislike it, I am still trying to reach a point where I like it, and that might be a week or so.
I do, however, like the new vote-kick-reason feature. I'm constantly seeing names pop up and asking, "Why kick?". With this feature it should be easier to determine if I really feel that the person should be kicked or not, and perhaps it will prevent people from being banned for stupid reasons like being "too good" or for "overusing" a weapon.
The one thing I don't like very much at all right now has got to be the weapon stats feature on the weapon select screen. It's simply too much text to read in a short amount of time, and it's distracting when you're trying to move quickly. I seem to understand that this can display the alterations made to weapon stats on a given server*, but I neither like the alterations nor the display that shows them. I would rather be able to check for alterations with an F# key or be able to toggle the display on or off, but as is, it has a muddy feel to me.
*I had trouble with this earlier on a server where the weapon speed was doubled (giving them a ridiculous range) and the modifications were displayed for each weapon as I moved over it. The problem was that the spawntime was nigh instantaneous, and spawners were knifing the team as they appeared, not even giving the chance to select a weapon (which was hard with the displays popping up) so that the weapon select could be toggled off.
Well that's all I have for now, and I'll be sure to add more if I think of anything. Let me know your observations and perceptions, and tell me what you think of mine. That's about it....
Sincerely yours,
TheRelinquished
Post Scriptum:
I would also like to thank Chakra for outlining the new weapon features if I haven't already, and I recommend you read his thread to make sure you get everything that I didn't mention:
[URL]
After trying every single weapon by myself on a random map, and reading up on the changes that have been made, I've found that weapon balance has gotten better by far.
Deagles have finally been dumbed down a little, which is something I've thought about for a long time now. It's always been, in my opinion one of the most powerful weapons in Soldat for its clip-size, quick reload, and fast fire-rate, all of which have made it a ridiculously powerful short to mid-ranged weapon. They've never had the long arm of the ruger, but for rushing this has always been a king. It's still good, great in fact, but it takes a little more skill and timing now.
Self bink has to be the greatest thing that was ever added to Soldat. To all the angry machine-gunners out there, keep in mind that I use the Aug on a semi-regular basis, and I wouldn't want anything to hurt it. However, it has always annoyed me how unrealistic the machine guns in Soldat are. An AK firing 40 rounds straight? Can you say "fused barrel"? While I think something like overheating or lock-up would've been more appropriate, I think this is enough for now. People will learn to skirt around the new feature (*hinthint*: dont hold, tap) but at least they won't have the benefit of machine gun cruise control anymore.
I'm a little sad to see the shotgun's power go down, but I like it's improved range enough that I'll get over it. It's still enough for a close-range two-hit kill, and that's what's important.
The M79 has a new feel that I like, but I won't linger on it, because I hate the M79 anyway =P.
Didn't feel much different with the Barret. But that's just me. Moving on....
Then of course we have the Minigun, which seems to be virtually the same as ever, though Chakra claims it is "unsurfable". I was able to use it for acceleration still, but then again, I don't know the difference between surfing and using it to accelerate =P. It'll still hold up one's weight, I know that much, but all in all, I didn't feel much change here either.
The only secondary weapon I feel the need to comment on is the LAW, which I think has another brilliant feature that I'm glad has shown up in the new version. The short delay to fire is an excellent way to stop people from "geurilla LAWing" and overusing this powerful weapon. It gives a much better chance to opposing players to dodge the shot, and requires more skill from the users.
Perhaps there are people who will want to complain about these new features, but I think that they should consider what their opponent's are like now rather than what their weapons are like. Maybe that sprayer won't cut you down every time you get close enough to blow him away with the M79, and maybe running into more than one pair of deagles at a time won't be a death sentence anymore. I guess you'll find out within a week or so.
Now my server play has been limited, mostly because I'm primarily a CTF player (I haven't even tried Hold the Flag yet), and there don't seem to be many good servers up yet, but I have noticed a few things that have changed outside of the weapons. For one, the ally tags on the border of the screen are an interesting new feature that I'm still getting used to. While I don't necessarily see a reason to dislike it, I am still trying to reach a point where I like it, and that might be a week or so.
I do, however, like the new vote-kick-reason feature. I'm constantly seeing names pop up and asking, "Why kick?". With this feature it should be easier to determine if I really feel that the person should be kicked or not, and perhaps it will prevent people from being banned for stupid reasons like being "too good" or for "overusing" a weapon.
The one thing I don't like very much at all right now has got to be the weapon stats feature on the weapon select screen. It's simply too much text to read in a short amount of time, and it's distracting when you're trying to move quickly. I seem to understand that this can display the alterations made to weapon stats on a given server*, but I neither like the alterations nor the display that shows them. I would rather be able to check for alterations with an F# key or be able to toggle the display on or off, but as is, it has a muddy feel to me.
*I had trouble with this earlier on a server where the weapon speed was doubled (giving them a ridiculous range) and the modifications were displayed for each weapon as I moved over it. The problem was that the spawntime was nigh instantaneous, and spawners were knifing the team as they appeared, not even giving the chance to select a weapon (which was hard with the displays popping up) so that the weapon select could be toggled off.
Well that's all I have for now, and I'll be sure to add more if I think of anything. Let me know your observations and perceptions, and tell me what you think of mine. That's about it....
Sincerely yours,
TheRelinquished
Post Scriptum:
I would also like to thank Chakra for outlining the new weapon features if I haven't already, and I recommend you read his thread to make sure you get everything that I didn't mention:
[URL]