AGN: What are your most or least favorite changes that SOE has made over the last year?

Deringer · 2013-12-08, 08:42 PM

This week's question is ...

"What are your most or least favorite changes that SOE has made over the last year?"

As always, respond here or e-mail us at [email protected] or call us at (415)787-3224!

MerlO · 2013-12-08, 09:24 PM

Least: Harasser, in particular ES-H weapons

Most: OMFG, better late than never

GreyFrog · 2013-12-08, 09:32 PM

ES MAX abilities.

Chewy · 2013-12-08, 10:35 PM

Agree with MerlO. Giving a NS vehicle ES weapons is one of the worst ideas SOE has had so far. Should have been the same as the Sunderer and limited to NS weapons.

Only way to fix it now is to make all of the weapons useable for all factions. I don't see how you can get the Modified to be anywhere as good as the Marauder without buffing AND nerfing the hell out of both. It's a NS vehicle, make it neutral and go from there.

BlaxicanX · 2013-12-08, 10:37 PM

Harassers and Vanu MAX's.

Don't mind harassers as a concept- they're just too durable and too powerful for how fast they are. A single AP round from a Prowler or Vanguard should one-shot them even at full-health.

Vanu MAX's are just not fun to fight against. You either one-shot them with a missile launcher or you die horribly. There is no challenge nor entertainment in fighting them.

Ghoest9 · 2013-12-08, 10:51 PM

Nerfing the ability to blow gens behind lines.

They ruined the way that 1 or 2 guys who knew what they were doing could get a head of the zerg and really shift the course of a a map conquest.

They also ruined a lot of fun small fights between a few defenders and special ops attackers in these bases.

DirtyBird · 2013-12-08, 11:58 PM

Least Favorite: Falcon nerfed to oblivion and they aint finished yet afaik.

Most Favorite: Learnt along time ago not to sing the praises of anything for fear of it becoming the least favorite.

Whiteagle · 2013-12-09, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

Nerfing the ability to blow gens behind lines.

They ruined the way that 1 or 2 guys who knew what they were doing could get a head of the zerg and really shift the course of a a map conquest.

They also ruined a lot of fun small fights between a few defenders and special ops attackers in these bases.

Ghoest, you just did that to farm certs...
And it wasn't "fun" it was a pain in the ass to have to double check EVERY goddamn base to make sure it wasn't compromised, let alone hunting down one cloaker hoping about in an ESF.

Originally Posted by Timithos

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.

Wow, you're REALLY new aren't you?

Alright, in the beginning Spawn rooms were little more then standard buildings with a Faction shield on the doors...
ONE fucking exit, NO pain field to force people out when it changed factions, no windows so you couldn't actually see what was going on.

You'd end up having enemy Engineers sitting in front of the tubes with Turrets out to mow down any idiot who'd spawn in.

Bases now are LEAGUES better than "Bases" back then, the ONLY hold overs from that era are the Facilities and they are FINALLY overhauling those.
Seriously, you never had to defend five fucking shacks in the middle of the dessert with a point out in the damn OPEN…

Honestly, the only changes that get me hot under the collar are those favoring ESFs in Air/Anti-Air balance...
Lock-ons get their tracking nerfed, the Skyguard still is rather worthless, and Bursters got nerfed hard to make the Skyguard look better.
Meanwhile, Rocket Pods are getting beefed back up to primary farm weapon, and Airchav's STILL complain if anything can actually touch them.

Harrassers in my opinion set the bar for what all ground vehicles SHOULD be.
Now that they are putting cover in to keep the tanks OUT of the Point fight, I wouldn't mind tanks being a wee bit more tanker...
Of course, it would also be nice if they finally decoupled Main Gun Control from the Driver, so MBTs would actually have a reason to take on a Gunner.

Timithos · 2013-12-10, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

Ghoest, you just did that to farm certs...
And it wasn't "fun" it was a pain in the ass to have to double check EVERY goddamn base to make sure it wasn't compromised, let alone hunting down one cloaker hoping about in an ESF.

They fixed that. The xp for destroying turrets and generators was greatly reduced, and repetition detection caused the xp to shut off. And it's also a shame that defending engineers were subject to the same level of repair repetition detection as attackers were. It should be relaxed. So I agree with ghosts' fun being ruined.

Originally Posted by Whiteagle

Wow, you're REALLY new aren't you?

Alright, in the beginning Spawn rooms were little more then standard buildings with a Faction shield on the doors...
ONE fucking exit, NO pain field to force people out when it changed factions, no windows so you couldn't actually see what was going on.

You'd end up having enemy Engineers sitting in front of the tubes with Turrets out to mow down any idiot who'd spawn in.

Bases now are LEAGUES better than "Bases" back then, the ONLY hold overs from that era are the Facilities and they are FINALLY overhauling those.
Seriously, you never had to defend five fucking shacks in the middle of the dessert with a point out in the damn OPEN…

Honestly, the only changes that get me hot under the collar are those favoring ESFs in Air/Anti-Air balance...
Lock-ons get their tracking nerfed, the Skyguard still is rather worthless, and Bursters got nerfed hard to make the Skyguard look better.
Meanwhile, Rocket Pods are getting beefed back up to primary farm weapon, and Airchav's STILL complain if anything can actually touch them.

Harrassers in my opinion set the bar for what all ground vehicles SHOULD be.
Now that they are putting cover in to keep the tanks OUT of the Point fight, I wouldn't mind tanks being a wee bit more tanker...
Of course, it would also be nice if they finally decoupled Main Gun Control from the Driver, so MBTs would actually have a reason to take on a Gunner.

I've been playing since Alpha. And the spawn rooms are still so horrible in the game now, that all those changes don't matter. I'm certainly envious you have the memory to remember all of that though. Lack of a pain field was a pretty big deal now that I remember.

If Freyr Amp Station C spawn room gets implemented in all small outposts on all continents, then we will actually be able to use phrases like "Leagues better".

Timithos · 2013-12-09, 12:06 AM

Worst: Their decisions to keep maintaining deplorable, non-defensible base design. This is the absolute worst thing for me in this game. They think that facilities should be balanced fights between attackers and defenders, versus giving the defenders the advantage to repel an overwhelming force. This was Malorn's recent opinion on the matter. And also that a base that was too defensible would cause too much frustration and harm the "fun" factor. However, empirical evidence suggests that defensible bases are extremely fun as the most popular fighting ever has been Bio Labs (currently our most defensible base only due to two unimaginative choke points), and the old Crown. If people were really not having fun, they wouldn't fight at defensible bases at all, versus the reality of players making them the most popular spots in the game.

Best: Optimization

Best: They moved from being absolutely horrible at bug squashing to being adequate since April.

Best: Despite the community's over zealous weapon balance nerf & buff cries, they understand that balance is precarious thing that needs tweaking and not extreme changes. They seem concerned and put a lot of focus on balance. They may not always get it right, but for the most part their balance fixes get closer to target, not further. Their balance changes may not be popular, but for the most part they were the right thing to do. However, introducing OP weapons to boost sales and then nerf them later is not a very scrupulous practice. Let's hope that practice is over with.

Worst: Their lack of imagination on how to make a base defensible. Walls & choke points seem to be the only tools in their tool box. I could rattle off almost two dozen tools in my base design tool box.

Worst: Instead of enhancing the hex system which the community provided all of the solutions for them, they went with lattice. What is to blame for getting lattice? 1/3 of the blame is on esports, 1/3 was poor optimization that lead to player population drops so they thought the solution was to funnel fights down lanes instead of optimization, and 1/3 of the blame goes to PS1 vets crying out for some sort of lattice system so the dev team barfed something up for them.

Worst: eSports became a poison that is still affecting our poorly defensible base design and capture mechanics to this very day. (Latest example: Test server Freyr Amp Station) We're given facilities that are like fighting in an FPS arena game where bases are nothing but obstacles equal to both sides of the fight as if we're in an airsoft/paintball arena; where bringing 55% forces to the fight is just like pressing the automatic win button.

typhaon · 2013-12-09, 12:50 AM

Worst: ES MAX abilities are poorly implemented. And it's not a change, but just SOE's general inability to react to balance issues in a timely... reasonable... even lazy manner. They simply haven't done anything, at all.

Best: Spawn room changes.

Timithos · 2013-12-09, 02:41 AM

Originally Posted by typhaon

Best: Spawn room changes.

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.

camycamera · 2013-12-09, 06:17 AM

worst? well, i don't know, i mean, i like the new base designs for Esamir and stuff, but i HATE how they didn't change up the spawn rooms! they put walls everywhere to stop tank spamming the spawn room, good, and it made it that bases were for infantry only in most cases (like in PS1), BUT in the end, especially if you're in a zerg steamrolling bases, it ends in just farming! i was expecting PS1-esque spawn rooms, but i'm guessing we wont see that for all bases any time soon.

another minor gripe would be the changes to projectiles, if i'm not mistaken they changed them in GU10(?) from real bullets to straight baby lines.

oh! i also forgot about this one. the changes they made to my god damn striker. yes, i'll admit it was OP, but now it is UP as fuck, and as soon as something goes in front of the target, or the target goes 500m out EVEN IF the missiles are right behind them, they fly straight up the air. it is INFURIATING, they need to fix this. my outfit does not sit on top of mountains w/ strikers raining down hell as much anymore

my favourite change(s) would be lattice, the Esamir bases (yup, contradicted myself there), the almighty Harasser (yes, the ES weapons and the vehicle itself is OP. but it is still as fun as hell damnit!), the AV turret (still OP but still awesome),anchor for my prowler and the SMG's.

edit:

Originally Posted by Timithos

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.

i like the change, but it needs more tunnels, and underground bits. and the gens need to be shifted around, like in PS1.

ringring · 2013-12-09, 08:20 AM

Best: Alerts, flawed though they are.

Worst: Going live 1 year ago with so many broken or missing mechanisms.

typhaon · 2013-12-09, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by Timithos

What.. spawn.. room.. changes? Are you talking about that one spawn room on the test server that's sunken, with 5 tunnels in it and roof exit? If so, I hope it makes into the game elsewhere, instead of the under-utilized location it is in now.

Spawn rooms used to have fewer doors, smaller doors, no tunnels, no teleporters, and generally were more exposed.