Playtest Feedback

[Rai]

I still have no clue what is meant with a bonus weapon.

[Vino]

Fair enough I'll take them down to zero for the final release.

[Penguininnabox]

The new release feels wonderful, the removal of style bonuses brings the scoreboard much closer. For a while there me and Rai were no less then 10 points apart from each other! So far most of the bugs I had seen in past versions have been squashed, excepting the neverending ceiling clip bugs. Overall though, great work on this release guys! Its been a blast to play!

[Rai]

The new release feels wonderful, the removal of style bonuses brings the scoreboard much closer. For a while there me and Rai were no less then 10 points apart from each other! So far most of the bugs I had seen in past versions have been squashed, excepting the neverending ceiling clip bugs. Overall though, great work on this release guys! Its been a blast to play!

Goddang, you always come out on top.

[Dementei]

Here's a temporary (or permanent) solution for getting stuck indoors. Simply make it so the player needs a certain amount of height to even do a wallfip such as 160 units, that would help a lot I'm sure. The only bad thing is that sometimes you need to do a wallflip from indoors to outdoors and there isn't always clearance for that. So perhaps on top of the forced wallflip clearance, make it so if u stunt on a wall without the clearance, the player just wall-dives in the opposite direction, but maybe not as powerful as a normal dive? That would keep things horizontal for the most part, dives have a normal arch so it will add just enough height to be useful to get out of places.

[Scout]

Yoink!

Stealing your sig, D.

[Penguininnabox]

Played some more this night. Grenades are still a big problem unfortunately, players throw them at the drop of a hat, theres no alternative and no penalty for bringing one with you, so every single player has one. Even I do. Why wouldnt I? THERES NO DOWNSIDE! Theres no reason NOT to bring a nade. I was amazed at how good the game felt eariler this morning, well guess what? No one was using fucking nades. I still feel they can work given enough time, but it seems that they arnt a high priority. Until you are ready to dedicate the time to giving nades some downsides to bringing them, rather than rolling out endless radius and damage nerfs, then we can have balance. I'm sorry for the big ass rant, but this shit dates back FAR into DA development. I can still remember the times when nades ignored walls and went halfway across maps. Then we needed radius nerfs. Now we need usability nerfs.

[Trop]

Penguin and I were playing in the same game and for only 8 players there was still an awful lot of nade spam. It's a lot better since the update but still far too many nades flying about to properly enjoy the game. Even the AI drop them at their feet when they see someone and when some people start with 3 and die every 10 seconds that's a lot of them flying around or available to be picked up.

They just feel far too abundant and players are relying on them more than they should.

[Vino]

Alright I'll have to do something else. Let me think about it. The great thing about steam is I could have a patch up tomorrow if I like so we can iterate on this issue much faster now.

[Penguininnabox]

(Just kinda throwing ideas out at this point, so if any of this is impossible/stupid, I apologize in advance)

The thing with grenades at this point for me is, what is the role they are supposed to play? Most of the other guns fill a type of playstyle, with the skill boosts to modify them for further customization. But grenades seem to be left out as they are a multi-purpose weapon in pretty much any game that has them. You can flush out camping players, bounce them around corners to get a player thats too dangerous for you to go fight yourself, perhaps due to low HP from the last fight you had. However, in DA camping is almost non-existent, the scoring fights against it at every turn, and at all other times, being killed by nades feels like a cheap shot or just plain luck on the part of the thrower. So I tried to brainstorm some ideas to further bring some downsides to grenades without bringing them back to uselessness as they have been in past update.

1. Reward double/triple kills- I've mentioned this in the past, so to summarize, rewarding players for multikills would give more incentive to hold on to a nade, rather that throw it right away.

2. Make the throw a "vulnerable" moment- At first this was going to be "Remove the 1-button throw", but I really dont want to see that go, as I admit, the HL2 default mode is clunky as fuck. However, as it is now, just as there is no reason to not bring a nade, there is also no reason not to throw it at any given time. Perhaps pressing G could switch to the nade weapon and run +fire for the player, keeping the 1 button, but still giving any players around an opening to get them.

3. Reduce the force grenades are thrown with- This would keep players from chucking the damn things across the map, however, there is worry in my mind that this might make nades too hard to use in general

4. Put a weapon weight on nades- I know this is planned, but what weight are they going to be at? My gut says 15, but I feel like thats overkill. But the next sensible step down would be to 10, allowing you to pack a nade along with any gun you choose, so not much would change.

5. Remove Nitro skill and give nades buffes according to the other skills - This one is WAY out there, but I like the concept, and I wanted to see if anyone else had good ideas for buffs for nades, So far I got: Reflexes- See the timer on own nades, Bouncer- Throw nades further(like bring it back up to current), Marksman- Nades do more damage, but have a MUCH smaller radius, Athletic- No idea on this one.

[Rai]

I'd like to add to be able to pick em up and throw em away.
Might not be possible in normal speed. But slowmo definitely.

[Scout]

But what incentive would there be to throwing them away if they don't take up equip slots?

[Rai]

Sorry, should have clarified. Throw them away after they've been thrown at you to explode near you.

[Black_Stormy]

Throw them away after they've been thrown at you

I like this, but it would probably require yet another button, right?

what if we just make it take longer to throw a grenade? Right now they're pretty instantaneous. Or maybe add cooking as an option, and the player can't shoot while cooking.

[Rai]

Why require another button? Pick up just like you would if it hasn't been activated. Just press E and throw it away instantly, no need to press mousebutton, instant pickup and throw.
Up to you to aim it as fast as you can.