I've been an NS player since very early NS1. I pre-ordered NS2 as soon as I heard it was coming out. I've been playing NS2 constantly since it's release. When I play in a server, 90% of the time I will be on top of the leader board, in both K/D ratio and score, whichever side I play on. I'm not saying score and K/D ratio matters in a team game, but I will be using it as a reference point for this post.
One day, I login to have a nice game of NS. I join a server to find that things look very different. "That's strange" I say to myself, I didn't see any news about an update. I start to play and I realize that I am lagging horribly, as well as everyone else. Warping around corners in reverse. Fun! I also notice that I can't aim anymore, my mouse feels 'off' but I don't quite know why. I turn on alien vision; OMFG MY EYES. I go to chomp on a marine. HE FLIES AWAY FROM ME? What just happened?! I join the marine side and realized you have a lot more mobility. Then a skulk ambushes me. I jump my heart away, but since I can no longer aim because my mouse feel has been changed in some way, I land up emptying a few clips into the wall. Fast forward what feels like 5 min into the skirmish, I'm still hopping away not hitting much and then I finally kill the skulk. He got a total of one bite on me the whole time. I take a look and the name of whom I've killed; it's a player that I've played with many times and he is more than decent. The more I play, the more it feels like someone accidentally dropped an alpha patch on me. Alright, no more confusion, I'm going to read the patch notes. I log off NS and find there are no patch notes. What the hell? Read the forums, find out they dropped a pretty much unplayable beta patch on us so they can test it for the free weekend. Good news is that the final version will be coming soon. Well, I'm not in the mood to be a beta tester, I just wanted to have fun. The state that the game is in now is not fun at all.
The final release is out! Joy! I read through the patch notes quickly and hop onto to my favorite server. I'm glad to see that I'm no longer warping backwards through the map. I still cannot aim because of how my mouse feels. I start on marine and I'm at the bottom of the score board by the end of the game. What the hell. Hop on aliens, turn on alien vision; *shudder*. I sneak up on a marine and *poof* he's gone after the first bite. This 'uglier than a diarrhea sandwich' alien vision is not helping any either. After about 20 min, I rage quit. First time I've ever rage quit. I check the forums for a fix for my mouse and there is one. I try to apply said fix and it feels a lot better, but still not the same. I landed up spending about an hour playing with all the mouse settings, but it was all in vain. I find some settings that feel ok and try to get a feel for all these changes. After a few hours, the best I can do score wise is the bottom quarter of the board, but more importantly, I am not having fun at all. Quite the opposite of fun, actually. I then rage quit for the second time ever. The next day of play is pretty much the same story. After that, I stopped playing for about a week. I just went on today, and after 10-15 minutes of play, I rage quit again, with a total of 0 kills and 15 deaths on the alien side.
The last time I checked, I did not have an an aneurysm which caused me to lose my motor skills or brain function. When you make changes so drastic that one of the players that was previously at the top of the score board is now on the bottom, you've done something very wrong.
Let's get one thing straight; the skulk is supposed to be a powerful melee and ambush class. This is the way it's been since NS1 and if you ask me, that's the way it should be. What marines have as their advantage is range, and that is a huge advantage by itself. The way things are now, ambushing means that you'll have one bite over the marine, but all they need to do is strafe jump and shoot you in the face. Skulk is no longer the class that it's supposed to be. Alien vision is now ugly as hell, and it hurts my eyes, but one of the other functions of alien vision was to further cement skulks and fades as being powerful melee classes. As of now, alien vision is in such a way that it becomes harder to track marines in the heat of battle, and that is further made worse by the fact that every time you bite, you're blind for a split second. Pair that with marines new vanishing trick, and skulks are pretty much good for catching bullets. I found it very easy to dodge skulks before, but now it's just ridiculous. If my memory serves me: in NS1, marines didn't have anywhere near the mobility that they do now. If you let a skulk get near you, you were fucked, and it worked. There were none of these hopping fests that you get with encounters now.
I get the need for balance changes, but the changes of late have been too severe. You're changing the core of the game. When you make balance changes, they need to be more subtle. For example: marines are weak versus skulks? Why not try to increase bullet damage versus skulks. Simple and effective. The important part is, you're not changing the way that class feels to play. I've spent a large amount of time playing this game, and I've worked my way to become a good player. It seems like every update, all my time put into the game is worth nothing because there are so many mechanics I need to re-learn every time. This is extremely frustrating as a player.
Some of you may argue with me that this change is good for this reason, etc, etc. I don't really care about that. I am here to state my dissatisfaction about how things have been going, and why. The players are what make the game; and I'm here, as a player, to tell you: I no longer enjoy playing the game. When I get home, I no longer have the urge to jump into an NS game right away, or at all. Today was the first time I've played since Saturday and I usually play daily. I don't think I'll be playing anytime soon either. Do I think that you devs tried to make me hate the game? No. I think you guys have the best of intentions. I know you guys are an extremely talented team and I think great things will come of you, but I implore you: please change the way you've been doing things as of late. Drop an unplayable beta patch with no notice? That doesn't fly with me. I saw in the post that you didn't have enough beta testers. That was news to me, I never saw anything that said you guys were in serious need of beta testers. I often beta test games when the option is there, because it allows me to get a feel for what's to come. I didn't even know there was beta version available for me to play! It's also not the first time that a patch has changed the way my mouse feels. A few patches ago my mouse sensitivity reverted back to default for no apparent reason. It took me quite awhile to adjust it back to what I was used to. It's really frustrating when something like that changes for the simple reason of muscle memory. My brain knows (from repetition) that I need to move my hand X distance to get to X location on the screen. When you change that, that brain needs to re-learn it. Whatever was changed with the mouse has made the game unplayable for me, and I know I'm not the only one. In a first person shooter, if you make a change that affects the mouse feel in any way, *STOP*. Revert those changes and try again.
Let's step back and look at 2 of the most successful game developers, Blizzard and Valve. They never bend for any deadlines and their release dates are almost always pushed back (episode 3 anyone?). Take a look at the results of that, all they make is gold. This patch you threw at us was rushed, and it's shows. Take your time to do it right. I really like the idea of Reinforced. It's something new, and I honestly hope it works for you. Sadly, I will not be one of the contributors, not with the way I feel about the game currently. Show me you can bring the fun back into the game, and I will vote and support you with my wallet, that is a promise. Take all the time you need, I will be patient.
Much love,
A Gay Possum
P.S FIX MY GODDANG MOUSE!!!![:)]( ":)")
One day, I login to have a nice game of NS. I join a server to find that things look very different. "That's strange" I say to myself, I didn't see any news about an update. I start to play and I realize that I am lagging horribly, as well as everyone else. Warping around corners in reverse. Fun! I also notice that I can't aim anymore, my mouse feels 'off' but I don't quite know why. I turn on alien vision; OMFG MY EYES. I go to chomp on a marine. HE FLIES AWAY FROM ME? What just happened?! I join the marine side and realized you have a lot more mobility. Then a skulk ambushes me. I jump my heart away, but since I can no longer aim because my mouse feel has been changed in some way, I land up emptying a few clips into the wall. Fast forward what feels like 5 min into the skirmish, I'm still hopping away not hitting much and then I finally kill the skulk. He got a total of one bite on me the whole time. I take a look and the name of whom I've killed; it's a player that I've played with many times and he is more than decent. The more I play, the more it feels like someone accidentally dropped an alpha patch on me. Alright, no more confusion, I'm going to read the patch notes. I log off NS and find there are no patch notes. What the hell? Read the forums, find out they dropped a pretty much unplayable beta patch on us so they can test it for the free weekend. Good news is that the final version will be coming soon. Well, I'm not in the mood to be a beta tester, I just wanted to have fun. The state that the game is in now is not fun at all.
The final release is out! Joy! I read through the patch notes quickly and hop onto to my favorite server. I'm glad to see that I'm no longer warping backwards through the map. I still cannot aim because of how my mouse feels. I start on marine and I'm at the bottom of the score board by the end of the game. What the hell. Hop on aliens, turn on alien vision; *shudder*. I sneak up on a marine and *poof* he's gone after the first bite. This 'uglier than a diarrhea sandwich' alien vision is not helping any either. After about 20 min, I rage quit. First time I've ever rage quit. I check the forums for a fix for my mouse and there is one. I try to apply said fix and it feels a lot better, but still not the same. I landed up spending about an hour playing with all the mouse settings, but it was all in vain. I find some settings that feel ok and try to get a feel for all these changes. After a few hours, the best I can do score wise is the bottom quarter of the board, but more importantly, I am not having fun at all. Quite the opposite of fun, actually. I then rage quit for the second time ever. The next day of play is pretty much the same story. After that, I stopped playing for about a week. I just went on today, and after 10-15 minutes of play, I rage quit again, with a total of 0 kills and 15 deaths on the alien side.
The last time I checked, I did not have an an aneurysm which caused me to lose my motor skills or brain function. When you make changes so drastic that one of the players that was previously at the top of the score board is now on the bottom, you've done something very wrong.
Let's get one thing straight; the skulk is supposed to be a powerful melee and ambush class. This is the way it's been since NS1 and if you ask me, that's the way it should be. What marines have as their advantage is range, and that is a huge advantage by itself. The way things are now, ambushing means that you'll have one bite over the marine, but all they need to do is strafe jump and shoot you in the face. Skulk is no longer the class that it's supposed to be. Alien vision is now ugly as hell, and it hurts my eyes, but one of the other functions of alien vision was to further cement skulks and fades as being powerful melee classes. As of now, alien vision is in such a way that it becomes harder to track marines in the heat of battle, and that is further made worse by the fact that every time you bite, you're blind for a split second. Pair that with marines new vanishing trick, and skulks are pretty much good for catching bullets. I found it very easy to dodge skulks before, but now it's just ridiculous. If my memory serves me: in NS1, marines didn't have anywhere near the mobility that they do now. If you let a skulk get near you, you were fucked, and it worked. There were none of these hopping fests that you get with encounters now.
I get the need for balance changes, but the changes of late have been too severe. You're changing the core of the game. When you make balance changes, they need to be more subtle. For example: marines are weak versus skulks? Why not try to increase bullet damage versus skulks. Simple and effective. The important part is, you're not changing the way that class feels to play. I've spent a large amount of time playing this game, and I've worked my way to become a good player. It seems like every update, all my time put into the game is worth nothing because there are so many mechanics I need to re-learn every time. This is extremely frustrating as a player.
Some of you may argue with me that this change is good for this reason, etc, etc. I don't really care about that. I am here to state my dissatisfaction about how things have been going, and why. The players are what make the game; and I'm here, as a player, to tell you: I no longer enjoy playing the game. When I get home, I no longer have the urge to jump into an NS game right away, or at all. Today was the first time I've played since Saturday and I usually play daily. I don't think I'll be playing anytime soon either. Do I think that you devs tried to make me hate the game? No. I think you guys have the best of intentions. I know you guys are an extremely talented team and I think great things will come of you, but I implore you: please change the way you've been doing things as of late. Drop an unplayable beta patch with no notice? That doesn't fly with me. I saw in the post that you didn't have enough beta testers. That was news to me, I never saw anything that said you guys were in serious need of beta testers. I often beta test games when the option is there, because it allows me to get a feel for what's to come. I didn't even know there was beta version available for me to play! It's also not the first time that a patch has changed the way my mouse feels. A few patches ago my mouse sensitivity reverted back to default for no apparent reason. It took me quite awhile to adjust it back to what I was used to. It's really frustrating when something like that changes for the simple reason of muscle memory. My brain knows (from repetition) that I need to move my hand X distance to get to X location on the screen. When you change that, that brain needs to re-learn it. Whatever was changed with the mouse has made the game unplayable for me, and I know I'm not the only one. In a first person shooter, if you make a change that affects the mouse feel in any way, *STOP*. Revert those changes and try again.
Let's step back and look at 2 of the most successful game developers, Blizzard and Valve. They never bend for any deadlines and their release dates are almost always pushed back (episode 3 anyone?). Take a look at the results of that, all they make is gold. This patch you threw at us was rushed, and it's shows. Take your time to do it right. I really like the idea of Reinforced. It's something new, and I honestly hope it works for you. Sadly, I will not be one of the contributors, not with the way I feel about the game currently. Show me you can bring the fun back into the game, and I will vote and support you with my wallet, that is a promise. Take all the time you need, I will be patient.
Much love,
A Gay Possum
P.S FIX MY GODDANG MOUSE!!!
