Reading the thread about the new tutorial, I had a bit of a rant about how there are a lot of strange/obscure/inconsistent design choices in PS2 that make it harder for people to learn the game.
At Shogun's suggestion I'm reposting my list here (rather than hijacking the tutorial thread any more!):
- Every class has a special ability on F. Except LA who has it on space. And Engineer, who doesn't have one.
- Every class has a special class-defining 'tool' in slot 3. Except for LA, who doesn't.
- Engineer has ammo drop in a particular slot, but can replace this with other options - like health kits. Except they can still drop ammo even if it's been replaced by something else, by using their turret after pressing b. Intuitive stuff!
- Glowing shields can be shot through from the inside, but not in from the outside. And they block grenades, but not rockets. Most of the time. Except sometimes they can't be shot through at all, and sometimes they can be shot through both ways. Except not by vehicles.
- Every default weapon is solid and useful, the other weapons you can unlock are sidegrades. Except for ESF fuel tanks, which aren't weapons at all - and can be upgraded to kill-everything rocket pods.
- Drivers also get the vehicle's main gun, because they paid the resources to acquire it and the certs or SC to unlock its weapons. Except for in Liberators, Galaxies, Sunderers and Harassers, which all require a team-mate to fire the main gun(s).
- MAXes can't drive or gun vehicles, or man turrets. Except for Sunderer turrets, which are ok.
- To heal someone, you equip your healing tool and press fire. To repair something, you equip your repair tool and press fire. To hack something, you press E on it. There is no hacking tool.
- Scopes are perfectly steady and don't sway. Unless you go over a certain magnification. But then there's a special button to make them stop swaying for a bit.
- To blow up vehicles, you shoot them. To blow up turrets, you shoot them. To blow up generators, you go up to them and hold E, and then wait for the timer to run down.
- When a vehicle or turret explodes it will hurt you a bit if you're next to it, but probably won't kill you. When a generator explodes it will go up violently enough to kill everyone nearby.
- Grenades are marked by a special bright-red warning icon. C4 and mines are not - although they can still be deployed in the middle of a fight.
- Putting down an ammo pack takes a second or two, appears right at your feet and is blocked by anyone moving through the area. Mines and C4 can be thrown some distance and appear instantly.
I'm sure there's a lot more that I'm missing, but you get the idea. Many of these are things that I've seen players not know about, even after playing the game for months (or since launch in some cases) - others are just missed opportunities to make the game feel more consistent, logical or balanced.
Agree? Disagree? What strange design choices really get your goat, and what can be done to fix them?