Duke's Tactical Mod 0.2 Playtest - Impressions

[munchkin]

Maps played so far: Gulf of Oman 32 player
Mashtuur City 32 player
Mashtuur City 16 player
Dalian Plant 16 player
Gulf of Oman 16 player
General Impressions:
We started the evening with relatively few players (about 20), and we soon discovered that without a commander, it was relatively easy for sides to get annihilated on the 32 player maps, due to the fact that the other side could just jump around them.

However, once we reached about 32 players on the 16 player maps, the game was awesome. I strongly believe that because of the nature of this mod, it is better to play on maps one notch down from the number of players you have.
For example:
64 players play on 32 player map
32 player play on 16 player map
16 players..uh..play on 16 player map

Impressions as a squad member:
This mod is amazing in forcing you to use all of the terrain. The game does not just become about capturing flags, but it is about holding objectives. For example, when moving up to the City flag on Oman 16, my squad was pinned at a wall, and had to defend it. The same occured with the gas station, leading to an incredibly intense and dynamic experience.

Impressions as a squad leader:
I didn't get a chance to squad lead, but I wish I had. The tactical depth now available is great. You can now flank a flag successfully without endless hordes spawning in immediately. Taking unusual and original routes is emphasised, and is very rewarding.

Impressions as a pilot:
Strafing is king. Gun kills are extremely easy to get, and the need to go back and reload for missiles and bombs really does reduce air superiority. However, this created an added bias towards the US side on Oman, as they have the F-35, with VTOL capacity, while the MEC have to make do with regular landings. Waiting for a plane is a bit irritating, so I pulled out a book and started to read while waiting.

Impressions as an Assault player:
Smoke nades cane. 3x smoke grenades thrown one after the other creates an almost impenetrable smoke screen. You can't see through it, and I saw this being used a lot tonight.

Double thumbs up! I want to see this mod on every day, or at least on Saturday again!

[asch]

Excellent feedback. Keep it coming.

[Santa]

I liked it too. I said something about this in the mods forum, but the use of counter attacks is something to consider when a squad leader due to the fact that the enemy has a long spawn time.

Id have to agree with the 3x smoke grenades, very cool idea. When B was in my squad he tossed a smoke out and when he realised he had 3 he sounded like a lil boy during christmas

The one thing that i would have to critisize is the use of snipers. Theyre incredibly deadly now, and i think a way to possibly balance this is a limit of 2 snipers per team. They would then be used effectivly as recon, but they wouldnt be SO deadly. I dont know if limiting snipers to 2 per team is even possible, but its worth looking into.

[DrunkenSoul]

It made things much harder esp. when defending. Need to check it out on more maps. One thing I really dont like is how flags neutralize right away. I remember a few times where a buggy/humvee would just go flag to flag neutralize it and the other team cant spawn. Maybe some kind of AAS thing to make sure that we have people actually getting flags instead of just neutralize them. (But have more than one flag connected to each flag)

[DuckCommander]

I had a ball playing tonight. This mod makes teamplay and tactics all the more important in winning the game. One thing I'd like though is an arming delay on the grenade launchers, so they can be used properly as a medium-long range weapon, and not a CQB powerhouse.

[asch]

Don't get too caught up with the instant neutralize. We didn't make many changes from the first to the second test because we wanted to make sure the client side mod worked first. We do have some feedback and changes we plan to make and we'll be looking at things like the instant neutralize.

[DrunkenSoul]

Is there a way somehow to make it so that when you go prone that it takes a second before you can shoot? Maybe even longer if you jump then go prone.

[munchkin]

Check this out.

That became our base for a little while, a sort of staging area for movement to the next flag. Defending things like that becomes incredibly important, and that's what I love about this mod.

[Iamthefallen]

Maps played:
Mashtuur City 16 player
Gulf of Oman 16 player


Impressions as a squad member:
These are all "soft" observations as I didn't have a chance to test a lot of the changes to weapons, vehicles and aircraft, but anyway:
I played about 30% sniper and 70% medic on tonights test over 4 maps (2x each). The game obviously plays different. For instance, it was very cool to be a sniper on a rooftop on Oman and see the enemy manuver their way up the beach. Squads were tighter, movements was more deliberate and more effort was made to move from cover to cover. Medics played a crucial part of the squads and did an excellent job of keeping their teammates alive.

We had an extended firefight on Oman where a full squad was taking cover behind the pumps while several more fired from positions behind them. Suppressive fire followed by one squad moving up was an awesome BF2 moment, it somehow really defined what the game should have been like.

No technical issues at all (Apart from the EA message suddenly popping up in French...) and no glitches to report.

Other random thoughts:
A squad popping smoke will make them completely invisible, 2-3 assaults continously tossing smoke nades as they're advancing means anyone outside CQB range is blind. I love it. (Psst, how about some smoke nades for the m203? )

Is there anyway to increase the efficiency of medics paddles? I'm not sure it's a good idea to increase the reach, but perhaps it'd be possible to make it less directional so it doesn't take a half dozen attempts when someone is on a gentle slope.

Disabling any flag capture from inside a vehicle might be worth investigating.

Make Santas head bigger, despite his claims it took me far too many tries before I hit him.

Overall, I think it's an improvement to BF2 and provides the means for a more tactical gameplay. It'll be very interesting to see where it goes, thanks for the great job so far.

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by DrunkenSoul

One thing I really dont like is how flags neutralize right away. I remember a few times where a buggy/humvee would just go flag to flag neutralize it and the other team cant spawn.

I agree. This was a compromise for stopping people from spawning around a flag that is being captured when we were trying to do all this server-side. Now that we've moved to a client-side mod we have many more options available to us. The ultimate goal is to simply not allow players to spawn at a flag that is being captured (red dot). This is near the top of the list for a future version.

[Santa]

Originally Posted by Iamthefallen

Make Santas head bigger, despite his claims it took me far too many tries before I hit him.

You kept shooting my giant white beard. I have way too many holes in it after tonight, im really pissed off.

For the instant capture, i think its still a good idea. Is it possible, however, to have the flag go back up to normal status if the enemy gets off the flag radius?

[DrunkenSoul]

Originally Posted by SgtDuke

I agree. This was a compromise for stopping people from spawning around a flag that is being captured when we were trying to do all this server-side. Now that we've moved to a client-side mod we have many more options available to us. The ultimate goal is to simply not allow players to spawn at a flag that is being captured (red dot). This is near the top of the list for a future version.

yea that makes more sense, so at least ur able to spawn on ur SL

what about the whole prone thing i suggested (making it more real).

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by DuckCommander

One thing I'd like though is an arming delay on the grenade launchers, so they can be used properly as a medium-long range weapon, and not a CQB powerhouse.

This is on our list and I'm fairly confident it's possible (I've tested something similar with missiles). Chances are that you'll see it in the next version. I'm thinking that the grenade should have to fly about 10m through the air before it will explode on contact. Does that sound about right?

[SgtDuke]

Originally Posted by DrunkenSoul

Is there a way somehow to make it so that when you go prone that it takes a second before you can shoot? Maybe even longer if you jump then go prone.

I don't know if this is possible right now. I haven't had a chance to learn much about the player models and their movements yet. But I'll keep this in mind and try to get a better idea of what's possible next time I'm rooting around the player files.

[Santa]

Originally Posted by SgtDuke

This is on our list and I'm fairly confident it's possible (I've tested something similar with missiles). Chances are that you'll see it in the next version. I'm thinking that the grenade should have to fly about 10m through the air before it will explode on contact. Does that sound about right?

In real life, the "minimum safe range" of the m203 is 31 meters. That seems a bit too far for the game, so maybe half of that would be ok?