new player, liking it so far, but minor bugs and issues
fallprince
Join Date: 2013-07-22 Member: 186279Members
Join Date: 2013-07-22 Member: 186279Members
Hi,
So far I'm liking the game a lot but there's a few things I thought I'd post about.
A minor comment about the rookie status, 4 hours is too short. I have 19 hours and I still feel like a rookie. As a poor comparison, people in Left 4 Dead 2, which is an easier game, will consider you a "newb" if you have under 100 hours. So maybe 10 or 20 or something might be better. Additionally, "rookie-friendly" doesn't mean rookie-only, and I think new players might see green servers as "rookie servers" rather than servers where some of the players will be helpful. But this means one rookie server might be people messing around and learning the game, and another might be a completely punishing experience for a new player, even if experienced players are willing to give advice.
Anyway, these are a list of things I had trouble with as a new player, and also a couple bugs.
Minor bugs and UI issues:
The armory doesn't have descriptions of the weapons.
A couple times after evolving to fade, maybe because I had the map open, the progress bar got stuck at 99%. Also the map arrow indicator changed, and even though its more visible, stopped updating as I walked around. I think possibly something in the UI just got stuck, as this screenshot shows, health doesn't go down, etc..
You can't see the alien commander resources without checking the scores, unlike for the marines where its on the left side?
I don't understand why the aliens can see blueprints if no marine has started to build there yet.
Infantry portals will sometimes draw two players on top of each other when there's several people waiting to spawn. Same thing happens with ctrl-group moving several whips together, they all overlap.
Marine body outlines are yellow (I think), instead of blue. So when a marine dies, it might look like a skulk body.
I would really like a third person view option when spectating while waiting to spawn, or the overhead map view.
Commander issues:
The drifter description says its cloaked.
I think it would be easier if there was just one hive upgrade biomass button, that changed icons after the first upgrade, rather than two, with the second one grayed out.
The alien structures, as well as the upgrade icons blend in too well with the infestation, since they're all yellow. Not a huge problem but, for a new player it makes them slightly hard to find. As well as to remember which upgrade is where since one sometimes ends up accidentally researching something when trying to click on a structure.
The marine drop weapons shotgun icon should have a triangle or something or a different outline even, that clearly marks it as having a submenu.
Requests for ammo and health packs from the commander sometimes disappear. Space bar doesn't focus on them, and the icons aren't always on the players, or are hard to find. You can also accidentally drop ammo and health packs in inaccessible places, easily, but that's less of a problem.
The bonewall and the map have the same hotkey by default for the alien commander. This is confusing for a new player, would be nice if maybe there was a separate commander map hotkey than for player map hot key. I think I read on another forum post that people had wanted customizable hotkeys or other hotkey sets.
If you try to build a harvester on a resource spot where there's a marine harvester, that might be hard to see if there's infestation around, it says "out of range" which is confusing.
Thanks. The only somewhat major bug is the fade UI getting stuck and the weapons descriptions.
So far I'm liking the game a lot but there's a few things I thought I'd post about.
A minor comment about the rookie status, 4 hours is too short. I have 19 hours and I still feel like a rookie. As a poor comparison, people in Left 4 Dead 2, which is an easier game, will consider you a "newb" if you have under 100 hours. So maybe 10 or 20 or something might be better. Additionally, "rookie-friendly" doesn't mean rookie-only, and I think new players might see green servers as "rookie servers" rather than servers where some of the players will be helpful. But this means one rookie server might be people messing around and learning the game, and another might be a completely punishing experience for a new player, even if experienced players are willing to give advice.
Anyway, these are a list of things I had trouble with as a new player, and also a couple bugs.
Minor bugs and UI issues:
The armory doesn't have descriptions of the weapons.
A couple times after evolving to fade, maybe because I had the map open, the progress bar got stuck at 99%. Also the map arrow indicator changed, and even though its more visible, stopped updating as I walked around. I think possibly something in the UI just got stuck, as this screenshot shows, health doesn't go down, etc..
You can't see the alien commander resources without checking the scores, unlike for the marines where its on the left side?
I don't understand why the aliens can see blueprints if no marine has started to build there yet.
Infantry portals will sometimes draw two players on top of each other when there's several people waiting to spawn. Same thing happens with ctrl-group moving several whips together, they all overlap.
Marine body outlines are yellow (I think), instead of blue. So when a marine dies, it might look like a skulk body.
I would really like a third person view option when spectating while waiting to spawn, or the overhead map view.
Commander issues:
The drifter description says its cloaked.
I think it would be easier if there was just one hive upgrade biomass button, that changed icons after the first upgrade, rather than two, with the second one grayed out.
The alien structures, as well as the upgrade icons blend in too well with the infestation, since they're all yellow. Not a huge problem but, for a new player it makes them slightly hard to find. As well as to remember which upgrade is where since one sometimes ends up accidentally researching something when trying to click on a structure.
The marine drop weapons shotgun icon should have a triangle or something or a different outline even, that clearly marks it as having a submenu.
Requests for ammo and health packs from the commander sometimes disappear. Space bar doesn't focus on them, and the icons aren't always on the players, or are hard to find. You can also accidentally drop ammo and health packs in inaccessible places, easily, but that's less of a problem.
The bonewall and the map have the same hotkey by default for the alien commander. This is confusing for a new player, would be nice if maybe there was a separate commander map hotkey than for player map hot key. I think I read on another forum post that people had wanted customizable hotkeys or other hotkey sets.
If you try to build a harvester on a resource spot where there's a marine harvester, that might be hard to see if there's infestation around, it says "out of range" which is confusing.
Thanks. The only somewhat major bug is the fade UI getting stuck and the weapons descriptions.
Comments
You have to keep in mind that with build 250 alot of things changed that is why the ui is messed up at some point. Hope this will get fixed with the next version. And blueprints are for a tactical reason. So you know that marines are coming to your room.
Generall don't try commanding without the advice of an advanced player. E.g for dropping ammo use your keyboard.
Spectating: press space to change the cam mode.
Binding Stuff: Try out this mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=160590541 Really adds alot of options to the bindings option
Also, I didn't get the fade UI problem before, and I haven't seen the hints for a while, but I tried turning hints off anyway and I'll see if that fixes it.
The problem with dropping ammo is more that one can look for a player who requested ammo but the icon won't necessarily be there and space doesn't work to center on them, so I end up just dropping ammo and hoping it was the right person.
What about a third person mode while waiting to respawn?
I also still don't understand the blueprints thing, why the aliens would know where marines are expanding to.
For the blueprints, think about AOE or Starcraft, where the foundations are placed before anything starts getting built. It helps marines too.
edit: Also, if aliens couldn't see the drops, how can they fly though the unbuilt Phase Gate in time :P
That's weird about the performance drops, because it does it while waiting to spawn at the infantry portal, but anyway...it sure would be nice as an option.
The blueprints make sense for the marines, I just don't get why the aliens would see them, heh... yeah.
Also, here's a screenshot of what I meant about the outlines of dead marines being yellow instead of blue.
That's weird about the performance drops, because it does it while waiting to spawn at the infantry portal, but anyway...it sure would be nice as an option.
The blueprints make sense for the marines, I just don't get why the aliens would see them, heh... yeah.
Also, here's a screenshot of what I meant about the outlines of dead marines being yellow instead of blue.