I love the new trees, the overall feel, the new Interlink Facility (damn) and the fog. My constructive criticism: Mountains: the hills and mountains felt very similar to Amerish in that they had extremely steep slopes (nearly vertical). So an infantryman can only run through the narrow valleys, or take to the peaks. I much prefer the varying slopes that Indar has acquired over time. It opened up more available gamespace to non-Light Assault players. Trees: I was really disappointed in the low density of the large trees. Hossin was my favorite continent from PS1 because of the amazing infantry fights among the trees. The tree density protected you from a lot of aircraft, and a tanker had to be really good to get in there and fight. I would like to see the density increased to well-beyond triple what it is now. More of this: or if this was seen from the eyes of a soldier standing next to a tree, this: Less of this: Sound: I don't know if it's a bug, not in-place yet, or unplanned, but I was disappointed that my soldier's boots sounded identical whether I was running through water or on rock. This one's a longshot, but: rain, storms, and increased or variable ground fog. As of now, this continent feels like a revamped Amerish plus fog. I would love to see more differentiation in the terrain and not just facility differentiation.
I think i like the current dosage of open swamp / jungle, but maybe you're right and we could use more trees, but still maybe it would impact even more on performance? and for Sounds and effect the current Hossin build is far from finished, i don't think we'll have an epic splash animation, yet the splash footstep sound is for sure! cannot wait!
Yeah a few more trees would be nice but I'm only getting 35 fps in an empty baseless area when I get 45 - 50 on any other continent so it would have to be a balancing act. Another thing that bugged me was the lack of pot holes, ruts, and random stones in the road. They seriously look paved and out of place.
I'd prefer to see areas with very dense trees, and other areas with fewer trees for some variety. Sort of like how parts of SW Indar are almost a forest while others are rolling plains. Except with more of those very large trees on Hossin.
If they develop like most other games, first you lay in the major features (roads, hills, major rocks, major buildings). You don't do a "clutter" pass (small rocks, shrubs, crates) until late in the cycle once the level is near finalized.
looks pretty good to me as is TBH... though yah, the SFX for running through water needs changing... they haven't even finished the whole continent yet though so I'm sure it's just a WIP issue. Dynamic weather will be awesome when they finally do get around to adding it... but don't expect it for at least another year.
I like it a lot, but only it's too mountainous. This was supposed to be an infantry-friendly continent, but the center Amerish-like mountain is not working for me. I spent the first 5+ minutes of the game trying to get around a ridge on foot. They need to add a half dozen or more infantry goat paths in the middle. Granted we didn't get to use the whole map, and there are flatter areas on the edges, but there are still some unassailable cliffs and mountains out there too. This whole Amerish-mountain-swamp thing is not settling with me too well.
By the way, if you wander near the TR warpgate on foot, near the excluded zone, there's a sound easter egg like the Esamir monster.
