1. Ti Alloys I was hyped when I saw the rock bridge on the minimap, only to realize it's not there... It's return is still the best change by a long shot, but I'm disappointed by the lack of improvements. There were entire threads both on Reddit and the forums on how to improve Ti, including the return of the rock bridge, more viable attack angles from Ceres, elevating the point building and adding a little more to the Allatum side, but it hasn't been implemented. It could've been the best map update ever, but it's still fun. 2. The new tutorial It's a lot more interesting and fun compared to the old one, but it has some serious bugs. The 10< FPS character creation has been complained about, but the fact that it's possible to kill terminals, or completely break the tutorial using Light Assault right at the start of the game really sucks, especially since these bugs can't be solved by redeploying or by other methods, you need to restart with a new character to play it again. Having the tutorial break as part of the NPE is a really bad first impression, and should've been fixed before launch. Some of the bugs aren't as bad, like some of the rendering, vehicle interaction being wonky in some areas like Magriders being stuck, Amp Station textures being completely glitched and other comparatively minor bugs are annoying, but passable. Really needed some polish, it's really confusing that there are things that are really well thought out like the engineers spawning in and dropping you ammo if you're low, but some of the game-breaking stuff is still in the tutorial. Overall, mostly positive but it's half-baked. Really would've appreciated some harder enemies other than guys periodically shooting and crouching, a few extra missions and a mini vehicle and flying tutorial for all ground/air vehicles. I'm interested how practical would it be to group multiple people in the tutorial, basically making it a co-op mission and then recommending them to join mentor squads and outfits with basic training. Shooting targets that almost always miss is okay, but it really doesn't prepare the players for fighting experienced players or MLG sweats, which is unfortunately what they'll be fighting most of the time. 3. Infantry balance T1 Snipers being the default unlock, and GD-22S finally being the standard NC LMG is long overdue, but welcome. But uh, why do VS get the V10, a T2 sniper instead of the XM98? Oversight, I guess? I'm really scratching my head on most of the suit/implant balance changes, some are nice, some are mind boggling. Cold Heart went from being useless on 3 factions to being useless on 4 factions, great upgrade DBG. In the words of a random redditor : "Well coldheart is still useless, doesn't work on pain spires and clashes with cloak whilst making it look like someone covered you in ***." Experimental Stims got nerfed... totally needed it guys! Symbiote got nerfed into the ground, good riddance IMO, but it has only made Nanoweave more desirable. Ocular shield got buffed, but it also got a pretty big nerf in that it no longer reduces the base effect of tacticals, but now only reduces the duration. You'll still eat the full M+K disable from Concussions, full shield damage from EMPs and the full CoF penalty from flashbangs, but the real game-changer is the inability to affect yourself with your own grenades, which is a bit much. It's a pretty big buff alongside a pretty big nerf, we'll see. I haven't seen any meta warriors with 4 Concussion grenades, but time will tell. My prediction is that it will be a really good QoL implant, but not very meta. You'll still die if you fight someone while conc'd or flashed. Assasin/Avoidance/Paratrooper/Heavyweight/Nanomesh/Sidewinder changes : Nice, definitely appreciate the small upgrades and bugfixes, I really like using Sidewinder now, and others are a touch more practical than they used to be. Still not meta implants, but an improvement nonetheless. Here's the thing : with the exception of Symbiote getting nerfed, the implant meta is the same. I just don't understand how we live in a timeline where Experimental Stims got nerfed instead of Assimilate and Survivalist, the two top tier implants that absolutely deserve it. Battle hardended should've been implemented into the base game IMO, or just reduce screen shake to a somewhat normal level. I shouldn't have to equip an implant just so I can counter an overtuned crap game mechanic. Now the other infantry bits... Ammo belt benefit is nice. Nanoweave nerf was a non-nerf, as expected. It has only made infantry zerging more annoying, and it has barely any impact in fights, but is annoying to trudge around in, and it's still top tier. It doesn't affect HA HP shields like NMG and Adren which is great, but IMO NMG could've been left un-nerfed, if anything NMG and resist could use slight buffs, the only nerf-worthy shield is Adrenaline. If you want vets to abuse the movement meta less, tone down the instant acceleration and jank animations so people don't breakdance with medkits mid-fight. Lag compensation would be really welcome as well. G2A lock-ons are unlocked by default, YES! Great change, really like this. Flash grenades got nerfed, quick dets went from 4.5sec -> 4sec, and standard grenades went from 8.5sec -> 6.5 sec, and the white-out effect decays faster. They'll still be very useful for breaching in, but I can't tell just how weaker they got. Python AP gravity nerfed, don't know why this was necessary. Sad to see the best AA in the game getting nerfed. 4. Bug fixes and minor bits Neat. Less things are annoying, which is good. Overall, could've been better, could've been worse. Some interesting changes, needs more tuning to be great. Tutorial in particular needs bugfixes and further expansion, then Ti Alloys needs a proper restoration, then rebalance the still crap and meta implants. Communication with the community could be A LOT better, really gotta appreciate finding out about big changes and getting explanations via stealth updates and YouTube comments made by Wrel.
Edit : Just started a new VS toon to check the default sniper change, you get the right rifle (XM98), the patch notes are wrong.
There are things I do like about NPE, the high level rendering of the models at opening screen, fixes to lighting and shadows (long overdue), even night time visual improvement, the waypoint upgrade, even shields showing with healthbar, fixes and improvement are always a welcome thing to the community, graphical and audio improvements direly needed when they switched to DX11. Here is the elephant in the room, they should have never removed TI Alloys in the first place. If they want to do that, might as well produce a new map. Without sounding repetitive, it’s the spawn rooms that need help, getting spawn camped, I am sorry, it blows, but it sucks because these spawn rooms are cramped with horrible line of sight and when camped in mass, your screwed. I just leave or sit behind what shield I can find before a friendly get’s in my way and I accidentally kill them, then it’s really time to redeploy. They won’t address the cloaked sniperfest in many ways they keep making it worst with instant one hit kill headshots. All they did with implants is rob Peter to pay Paul with no real solutions. Vehicles are still ever dominant and the anti vehicle capabilities by both weaponry, turrets and base defense needs a massive overhaul. Instead they need to bring forward viable content instead of constantly kicking the can down the road. Great example is the NSO work still looks unfinished and unrefined on many levels. Nuff said
