General Feedback on the Current Patch

[Jeeves]

Hello,


I last played pre steam I think, so there were quite a lot of changes to look at this time around.

This time around I did half a play on 2 v2, half a play on 5 v 5 then a full play on 2 v 2. A total of 305 hours or so.  (These are not official servers and have X2 LP and X2 Farming for reference, and PVP).

The current base  game play loop remains much the same as the previous version I played, go chop trees/mine rocks profit. Last time around I played through solo this time I had a buddy.
For obessive level players like myself, the time gating is quite frustrating, but also adds some new dynamics to the early days of the server which adds additional depth to at least the pvp side of things. The events that spawn as well, I think they happened in the older patch, but without a global notice, this is both kinda cool and kinda uncool. It was cool to come across the random stuff without any warning, like the first time I came across a space drop back then I was like WHAT IS THIS?! very magical moment. I understand the global notice is to drive PVP and alert people to the resources / opportunities available and some of them sort of achieve this.


A few things before we look at specific items/recipes/balance, in regards to PVP servers, The first 2 v 2 we started, we were a little behind in the tech, I wasnt bothered by this, but my buddy didnt like it, so we restarted on 5 v 5. This was a curious experience, and it seemed like we had a lot of groups who were VERY skilled at pvp, and using a few client side mods to compound on that aspect. More than this though, one group of these serious veterans decided they wanted to just murder the entire server. 'We shit on all these kids' - Quote. While I can understand the fun of it, it was kind of a toxic approach and I think after tech 4 gate unlocked there were a couple of days of them 5 man raiding, and the server was just dead from the point onwards, this coincided with 2 v 2 reset so a bunch of players migrated there to find a more even playing field. Why am I mentioning this? How is it relevant, isnt that the point of the game? I mean probably, but is that the idea, that servers are just dead every 4 weeks for ever?  Like my last play through, each wipe more or less meant a new patch and new content, balance changes etc, so it made sense to wipe on that cycle.

Game grind in the late game, it sort of feels like despite the massive advances in technology, it actually takes MORE effort to maintain stable situation. Lets talk about Gas first, NOW I get it, you think its free power or something, but it is not, first you gotta get that oil berries/fuel for oil extractor, then you gotta process it, then its actual bang for back is laughable, much easier to simply hit trees and or coal which gives a lovely amount of LP for your troubles too. I suggest rethinking that element of the late game, people should be out gathering prag, killing prag queen, doing pvp, not just filling generators constantly (coal or gas). Like at that point your like 150 hours into the game, when do you get to relax and play the game? Solar Panels are great, a little expensive in general mats early but fine.




2 v 2 is very good for small teams and individuals by the way, and 5 v 5 was fine to play with 2 players as well, just very high levels of toxicity in the mind set of some groups. I havent tried the global pvp 10 players one but after my experience on 5 v 5, I'm not sure I would want to.

Enough waaaaaaah crying though.

Achievements : 19 Achievements, none of them were particularly difficult, but overall a good start, I'd add one for visiting every radtown (might need an extra var) and also for being in a party that kills the Queen could be decent. Then your 10-50-100 of each animal killed, 1000/5000/10000 of ore/trees chopped down. 20 Stimpacks used, Kill another player, Dont die AT ALL while under full duration of Noob protection. Mechwarrior Online - First time you get into a mech. I'm sure you dont need many ideas for this category.

Specific Items : Laser Saber, this is a great end game prestige item, still feel like melee could be more of a factor in PVP, I built each type, didnt have a problem getting gems (x2 gathering).
                        Plasma Gun : What did you do to my baby? You know it uses Optics and Prag to make this bad boy? Ass tier compared to the super buffed laser, couldnt find a use for it, made me
                        sad, please omega buff.
                        Gold - Please half the requirements for 1 bar, even on X2 gold was obnoxious to farm and smelt, easier just to hit high tech boxes for High tech component drop chance. 
                        Strength boosts - So these are to increase my farming speed, but not the total I farm, but I have to farm all the parts of it to even use it... reduce recipe cost
                        Penis Flowers to Poison- Please drop this one tier level.
                        CrossBow - I was happy to see this addition, please add a tier 3 one using steel and plastic, with more power/damage and silent. For other weapons silencer mods/red dot laser sight
                                         could be fun things.

Vehicles : Hoverboard MK1 : This item is asstier, but I think its because of the position in the tech tree/ maybe swapping skipper with Hoverboard mk 2 is an easy fix, that makes both the
               SKipper and MK1 more useful.  On this point Piloting Skill for hoverboards/mechs would be nice to reduce the fuel consumption. Also i noticed the big guns on the mechs use Heavy
               weapons skill, dunno if this was a conscious decision, but my understanding is, that the M249 will do more damage than the heavy autocannon as one uses conventional weapons
                which comes with a damage amp, while heavy weapons do not, suggest splitting heavy weapons into Heavy weapons and explosivies.

Pragmatium - Man, there is Waaaaay to much Prag in the desert, but it was X2 so maybe not an issue, its a cool dynamic between the volcanos and the desert, desert you hope to get lucky and find a spire, costs some ammo etc but mostly time, with a higher randomness, Volcano is always consistent, but requires additional preparation, and feels a little difficult prior to t3, while desert you can get lucky any time, we even had like 150 at tier 1 using super secret mining technique. A lot more to do with Prag this time around.


PVP Events : Space Drops - by far the most highly contested pvp activity up until T4 tier unlocks, a lot of people would simply go naked because its win win. I do wonder about Military crates and what sort of loot they drop early, as thats sort of a way to jump the tier list early. As for the drops from these, seems fine, maybe cut down on stim packs and have a very low % to drop the higher tier guns but not ammo in the same one, you cant make more of this ammo so are reliant on pk other drops to rearm it (shouldnt make it to op).

Prag Queen spawn (Its in here because people can/will contest you on here, but it was spawning at t2 I think? save this one for t3 + (with skipper moved to vehicles 1)

Meterorites (Already pretty strongk, but maybe a slight chance to drop gems/prag ? )

Weird mind flayer guys : These guys dont make much sense, bullet sponges, semi useful loot. Once you have Apart suit + laser you can blitz through them very quickly, but why? X3 the rubber drops on these and or add small prag 1/2 per thing. I know they give high lp, but if I am maxed on all techs, doesnt do much for me


New Items : Tier 4 Desalination plant (gotta be with 10 blocks of sea) - generates salt and water.

Base defence overhaul - With the thoughts on client side mods, and the idea  of stealth implementation, using server to control what you can see, this could be a great time to overhaul how bases in general work, Ideally it would be that you cant see beyond walls, so its darkness, at the moment, you can look at any base, see the optimal point of attack and focus your bombs there. With the new idea, you cant see the internal structure so might end up blowing through a wall in the dumbest place. This totally changes the way bases are built, as I feel at the moment, they are very similar in builds when building for maximum defence, Fog could radically change that.

[ai_enabled]

Hello!

Thank you for the epic feedback! :-) We read it thoroughly and will consider the necessary changes. Please note that A27 Update will bring massive improvements and rebalancing to seriously reduce the grind, rework the tech tree (Tier 5!), and provide more variety to the gameplay. We're really excited about all the changes and hope to deliver this update later this month.

Alas, it's not possible for us to provide a detailed response as we're focused on the development of the next update.

Regarding the oil balanceΓÇöin PvP if you build oil pumps on your base (aka "low-yield extractor", without an actual resource deposit object under it) they will not provide you a positive loopΓÇöif you burn gasoline to extract oil you will spend more fuel than you actually extract and refine. If there was a positive loop, getting mineral oil will be really easy and players will have an unlimited amount of power (just move the canisters back and forth). In PvE the oil extraction has positive generation loop as it's not a problem there. In PvP there is a positive loop only if you capture a resource deposit (aka "rich deposit extractor"; the extraction there goes x4 faster while consuming the same amount of fuel when compared to a "low yield extractor"). Otherwise, the oil/Li deposits will lose any value and nobody would go to capture them (BTW, we've just buffed them by increasing the number of input and output slots for rich deposit extractors!).

Regarding the spacedrop and ruins/radtowns loot and time-gatingΓÇöwe've already made the necessary changes. Here is some clarification that I've posted in Discord:

ΓÇó it's not possible to obtain weapon that is not available yet due to a time gate
ΓÇó it's possible to obtain armor and medical items that is one tier higher than currently available, except stimpack, peredozin, hazmat, super heavy armor and A.P.A.R.T. (they require reaching their time gate). So if T3 armor is not yet available due to a time gate you can get it sometimes in spacedrop but you will never find T4 then.

Spacedrop event should be pretty popular at least before T4 weapons time-gate reached as you can get sometimes a decent armor that is one tier higher than what you can craft. But no weapons or stimpacks could be acquired this way and there will be definitely no cases with players wearing super heavy armor while the T4 time gate for that armor is not reached yet.

Regards!