As long as it is added to the continents and not replacing one. I am still worried they might be melting Esamir into Oshur.
LOL, hopefully they learned a lesson. I would actually like them to practice a bit on Hossin. Including the non-construction one, there are 9 ... NINE!!! of the construction bases on Hossin. Pick one and screw it up for practice I say.
Honestly I am all for this as long as the "underwater" aspect isn't just a visual change. If it is just a visual change and everything controls the same, it would kill all hope I have for this current dev team and their ambitions. All that I am saying is that its one thing for it to *look* like it is underwater, but it's much more important for it to actually *FEEL* like it is underwater. I love the concept, I love the idea, the concept art gets me hyped, and I was extremely impressed with how the new tutorial and new player experience was delivered. I just want the hype of the new player experience to be carried onward onto this update because a new continent is an extremely monumental goal, much moreso than previous updates in the last few years(not all of which have exactly hit their mark per se, please, the carrots of esamir, I still have nightmares...). A new continent update has the potential to revive, at least partially, this once popular game that has been plagued with stagnant growth, or, if underachieved, kill what is left of the outside, infrequent playerbase that rejoins when they hear about the game again. I know that water has always been a challenge for this game engine and it has never quite been figured out, but it is imparative that it actually performs like it is water because this updates selling point is "underwater gameplay". To me, the only time it should ever feel like you are moving as fast as if you were on land while you are infantry is if you are a light assault and you've got a jetpack booshing you forward(treaded vehicles should probably feel similar to above water otherwise they'd be so slow that it would likely be better to just take air all the time and build vehicles on land through anvils and cortium bases, ignoring this unique mechanic entirely). I'm sorry for the rant, I am just really fond of this game and don't want to see another update flop yet again. I know that there are bound to be bugs, but as long as those are fixed in a timely manner its alright, my main concern is this mechanic actually being unique, and gameplay being different than that of the surface. Additional questions/points of interest: - How would wheeled vehicles behave on the surface water? Should it be similar to on land or would they kind of drift around more like a magrider(hovercraft)? - Would ESF's move slower while underwater? Since most weaponry gets waterlogged while under the surface, do missiles still work? If not then an interesting suggestion might be to add a weapon for the missile slot similar to a torpedo that could be used against vehicles on the surface of the water and below it. - For infantry will there be a set amount of time that they can be outside of a vehicle underwater before they drown? - And what of light assaults? If most equipment get waterlogged and are unusable I would think Jetpacks wouldn't be an exception, will there be an implant, suit slot, or new jetpack to address that? - Do players sink if they get out of a vehicle that is on the surface of the water(such as a magrider)? If so, would there be an implant/equipment slot that helps them not sink due to their equipment weight? I would love to see reply's from anyone on this and anyone's thoughts in general, not aimed just towards the developers. Thanks for reading a concerned players essay
They quite literally touch on every concern I've had about adding new continents. The effort and time it takes at the cost of gameplay improvements, how it suffers from the same flaws as the other continents without gameplay improvements, how such a continent will likely be focusses on a broken part of the game (construction in this case)... I am not happy, this was a bad decision. Sure people will cheer about the good old days of PS1 with all the continents it had, but that will just add fuel to the fire. "Hey you added another one, do a third and fourth now!". Continents are too time consuming to build to pay off. They would have been better off with new versions of existing continents where the only changes are the warpgate starting locations and frontlines so players fight at bases you dont see very often. For the same price of Oshur (or Hossin) they could have 3 versions of each continent and some gameplay improvements to boot. And focussing a continent on construction... oh boy thats not good. Most bases you would construct would be a waste of time because the fight will never reach you, and if the fight does reach you the longer respawn times and lack of knowledge about the construction base's condition reduce the amount of players willing to spawn there, turning it into a zerg vs few defenders scenario. We already see how construction sites on the current continents see very little use for that exact reason. Bad, bad idea. Go enjoy your hype while it lasts.
With the focus on construction it sounds like they are trying to recreate the big battles in the SWG area in the early days after the change. I really enjoyed those, would be cool if this works out, but much and more can go wrong there.
I'd like to see some performance bug fixes, optimizations, gameplay improvement instead of Oshur: - resolution and aspect ratio fixes: e.g. fix zoomed-in vehicle and air UI in non-native resolutions - multicore CPU load optimization. E.g. fix low cpu & low gpu load with low fps in large fights - ESF UI improvements: 3d radar, altimeter in 3rd person view - ESF controls improvements: yaw on mouse and so on (I don't care about it but others do) - fix MAX footsteps sound playing even when MAX is dead - improve squad/team command interface: allow a leaders to point a target, draw a tactic overlay for squad members and so on - rework directive weapons and make them better than just a bad version of defaults (ok, Betelgeuse isn't worse than the Orion ) Maybe add an option to add an attachments to a directive weapon - one per 10000 certs and 1160 kills for example. And so on. - rework ASP system - rework Esamir and Hossin. Make them good - fix construction systems, make bases useful - rework implants: symbiote is useless now, berserker should be reworked - rework Nanoweave armor. Many say it is useless now. - read and get a feedback to a community concerns and suggestions written on official forums.
I'm actually 'NoSure' about Oshur, looking at the track record. Esamir was absolutely ruined by their 'redesign', Wrel has proven to be a horrendous map maker. The 'super cool new facilities' (containment sites) are also horrible to fight at, long rez runs and uncappable without a huge zerg. The only decent parts left of 'Less-amir' are the parts Wrel didn't 'redesign'. And now he is trying a whole continent of wrel, complete with even more terrible *ahem* 'super cool' new facility types (because containment sites worked sooo well.../s) And now we see even more news of oshur, Largely construction bases (because we know how much everyone loves construction bases... just look at north east esamir.../s) 'Transportation made important' (just makes me think 'no spawn points' like north east esamir bases...) And icing on the cake, Magriders pretty much the only ground vehicle (javelin too) that can simply ignore the water and fly right over it. (because VS obviously need even more advantages.../s) All-in-all from the little we know, I'm expecting Oshur to be the worst and most annoying map.
We can all get so jaded. But guys assuming the worst: It's not a good continent. There is some bad thing about the battle flow or the zerg reigns or some other thing... It WILL bring players back. I dare say this news is probably gonna bring me back. And those players will find that lots of broke stuff in the game that made them leave to begin with is still there. But a lot of it isn't! Fixes have taken place. The game is better. Some portion will stay after the surge and it will add life to the gam.e But know this: Even if it's fresh bull ****, it's better than the same old bull ****. There will be new content. Fun WILL be had.
Yep the pop always jumps up when a big update lands, but is it worth the cost to the gameplay? 'Escalation' bought the biggest population increase that the game has had, And what did it contain? Bastions, pocket orbitals, citadel shields and ruined esamir. Every addition from that update was detrimental to the gameplay. And sure when oshur hits the pop will jump again, but is it worth it if the map is (as I fully expect) absolutely awful? Currently when hossin and a good map are open, we can play on the good map, What about when it is only hossin and another c**p continent? Many players will just log off. If i could go back in time and stop the escalation update I would, and I'm almost certain 'future me' will say the same thing about No-shur I know I know, we should 'give it a chance', but at this point, after all we've seen, Is anyone really gonna give Wrel the benefit of the doubt? Fk up after Fk up, why would this one be any different?
Any attention to the construction system is most welcome, with it having more focus on Oshur they said they'd give it a tune up. Now I'm not expecting as much as a overhaul but they can really revamp it just by adjusting the numbers a bit like respawn timers, damage resistances, and harvesting speed without spending much time on it. At most I'd expect maybe a couple more structures or what I'd like to see them going over existing ones and trim down the hitboxes so they can be placed closer together and on hills a little easier.
So we get a whole new enviroment to - Get out-noobed by cloakers - Get wrecked by air jockeys - Get to run around wih NERF™ guns - Get to be HESH shelled to oblivion and much more of the usual reasons to avoid the game? Hard pass, especially after Wrel laid his hands on Esamir.
