Some mistakes to avoid perhaps
Rebeli
Join Date: 2003-06-09 Member: 17158Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-06-09 Member: 17158Members, Constellation
Hello everyone, its good to be back! I played ns for years competetively and enjoyed it immensely. Lately I've been playing TF2 and this post relates to that in many ways. I wanted to give some pointers what to keep in mind since Valve made some, hmm odd decisions in the development of TF2. Those things bothered me and many others, but I dont want be on a high horse here, and I apologize if this offends someone. There
is probably stuff here that the developers already know, I just need to point these things out in the open :)
<u><b>CVARS and general settings:</b></u>
TF2 lagged many crucial CVARS for clan games. It had no "tournament mode" and missing were many server settings for setting up games.
Drawviemodel was forced on, default FOV was very small (75), crosshairs were awful, etc etc. As the "public gamers" and "claners" fought over what was basically idiotic fight over different viewpoints, Valve finally after a long long wait made some good changes where drawviewmodel, crosshairs etc were no longer forced on you but instead could be adjusted to certain extend.
Hopefully you'll make sure the game is playable for clan games right out of the bat and not after like a year of many patches and upgrades.
Give people the option to choose their settings and options like in Quake, so everyone can play with the settings they like.
<u><b>Network settings, ticrate and netcode:</b></u>
For some reason TF2 runs on 66 ticrate servers, although CS:S plays nicely on 100 ticrate. This is probably the cause of bad hitreg in TF2, especially
with shotguns and sniper rifle as they are "hitscan" weapons. Reason for this decision is unknown to me. But it is probably way too hard to improve the ticrate behaviour as the game was released back in 2007; what is done is done... The default network settings are also very odd to me. Update- and cmdrates are 20/30 and with those dial-up settings there are many players out there who seem to warp a bit or are "jerky" altough their ping is just fine. Unfortunately many public gamers dont know what the settings do or why bother changing them.
Please make the servers run with 100 ticrate. At least ns1 needed good ticrates/updaterates for smooth gaming, as it was very very fast paced fps game. Make the default rates more viable so even people that dont know what they do, can enjoy a smooth experience network wise.
<u><b>Performance</b></u>
Performance is crucial in online games. If the game doesnt run smoothly, it diminishes the gaming experience in a major way. TF2 used to run with pretty good fps back in 2007 even though its very CPU limited game. With all the updates etc the performance has rapidly degreased however. Many in the Steam forums have reported poor/unplayable fps with their computers that used to run the game just fine. Servers also require really good CPUs in order to run the game smoothly. Another problem are the "megaservers". Valve made the game for 24 player servers, and for some reason people enjoy the big 32 player servers a lot. This is a problem, since performance is very poor at these larger servers, server and client side. I tested the game with 4.2Ghz Intel dual core (the game doesnt really support multiple cores) and the fps was horrid compared to 24 player servers. Some other games like the new Alien vs Predator just feel God awful. The mouse is sluggish and feels like you are dragging it trough mud. The "feel" of the game is very important, and ns1 felt so good and smooth to play.
Keep controlling the performance issues troughout the game development, dont add "insert nice graphigal thingie here" if it makes the game run bad. Also it would be nice to have settings that would really really lower the graphic quality in order to get better performance in mediocre gaming computers. Smooth gameplay is way more important than any graphical gimmick out there :)
<u><b>Abuses etc</b>
</u>
There are some odd settings still in use at TF2. One of them are the shadows which go through walls and give away your position. This is very detrimental to gameplay since you can't really hide in certain spots at all. Its also very easy to do heatshots with sniper if you increase your interp setting a lot. Dont know why, but it really is odd how it behaves.
If something doesnt work, just dont use it. Its better to not have a feature, than having feature that its detrimental to general gameplay.
is probably stuff here that the developers already know, I just need to point these things out in the open :)
<u><b>CVARS and general settings:</b></u>
TF2 lagged many crucial CVARS for clan games. It had no "tournament mode" and missing were many server settings for setting up games.
Drawviemodel was forced on, default FOV was very small (75), crosshairs were awful, etc etc. As the "public gamers" and "claners" fought over what was basically idiotic fight over different viewpoints, Valve finally after a long long wait made some good changes where drawviewmodel, crosshairs etc were no longer forced on you but instead could be adjusted to certain extend.
Hopefully you'll make sure the game is playable for clan games right out of the bat and not after like a year of many patches and upgrades.
Give people the option to choose their settings and options like in Quake, so everyone can play with the settings they like.
<u><b>Network settings, ticrate and netcode:</b></u>
For some reason TF2 runs on 66 ticrate servers, although CS:S plays nicely on 100 ticrate. This is probably the cause of bad hitreg in TF2, especially
with shotguns and sniper rifle as they are "hitscan" weapons. Reason for this decision is unknown to me. But it is probably way too hard to improve the ticrate behaviour as the game was released back in 2007; what is done is done... The default network settings are also very odd to me. Update- and cmdrates are 20/30 and with those dial-up settings there are many players out there who seem to warp a bit or are "jerky" altough their ping is just fine. Unfortunately many public gamers dont know what the settings do or why bother changing them.
Please make the servers run with 100 ticrate. At least ns1 needed good ticrates/updaterates for smooth gaming, as it was very very fast paced fps game. Make the default rates more viable so even people that dont know what they do, can enjoy a smooth experience network wise.
<u><b>Performance</b></u>
Performance is crucial in online games. If the game doesnt run smoothly, it diminishes the gaming experience in a major way. TF2 used to run with pretty good fps back in 2007 even though its very CPU limited game. With all the updates etc the performance has rapidly degreased however. Many in the Steam forums have reported poor/unplayable fps with their computers that used to run the game just fine. Servers also require really good CPUs in order to run the game smoothly. Another problem are the "megaservers". Valve made the game for 24 player servers, and for some reason people enjoy the big 32 player servers a lot. This is a problem, since performance is very poor at these larger servers, server and client side. I tested the game with 4.2Ghz Intel dual core (the game doesnt really support multiple cores) and the fps was horrid compared to 24 player servers. Some other games like the new Alien vs Predator just feel God awful. The mouse is sluggish and feels like you are dragging it trough mud. The "feel" of the game is very important, and ns1 felt so good and smooth to play.
Keep controlling the performance issues troughout the game development, dont add "insert nice graphigal thingie here" if it makes the game run bad. Also it would be nice to have settings that would really really lower the graphic quality in order to get better performance in mediocre gaming computers. Smooth gameplay is way more important than any graphical gimmick out there :)
<u><b>Abuses etc</b>
</u>
There are some odd settings still in use at TF2. One of them are the shadows which go through walls and give away your position. This is very detrimental to gameplay since you can't really hide in certain spots at all. Its also very easy to do heatshots with sniper if you increase your interp setting a lot. Dont know why, but it really is odd how it behaves.
If something doesnt work, just dont use it. Its better to not have a feature, than having feature that its detrimental to general gameplay.