Level 3
I don't usually start a new threads, but there are some issues that need longer text to explain. Some of these are well known or may be made on purpose (or beta limitations), but I think they need to be mentioned. This thread is for V1.30 issues only.
For background information regarding my comments on sounds balance issues. I use Sony MDR-F1 headphones while playing (STR-DE 445 5.1 sound system connected with optical cable to PS3)so the mix sounds different than on cheap Headsets.
Bugs
- Total freezes .. Happens on couple times a day. Sometimes kills entire squad, sometimes just a few players. As the way I have seen it, game gfx updates just stops suddenly, sounds keep on looping, PS3 does not react anything to controller (even PS button). Remedy is to power cycle PS3 and reload MAG.
- Community screen works better than on older beta but it's still buggy. Especially Clan side don't seem to be right. Group inviting is a lot better than previous betas (from friend list) but it's still a bit patchy.
- Sometimes (couple times a day) deployment don't finish .. Usually people get stuck at " Loading >>>>" screen.. And thus left behind while others get into game.
- Vehicles seem to stuck together and sometimes get inside one-another causing quite hilarious looking scenes.
- Occasionally battle sound stuck on and keep on playing. This happens a lot less than on previous beta, but sometimes at 1.30 .
Annoying issues
- Game Fx sounds overwhelm all communication while on bunker turret/APC. I'm sure those are indeed noisy, but equipment like noise-cancellation headsets are everyday items in real life. Surely high technology company like Raven should have them in nearby future? (SVER may well not have them)
- Most In-game music do respect the volume setting and can be tuned down, but the menus have that one particular short loop (was on previous beta also) that keeps on blasting at the full volume.
- Sometimes while waiting soldier to bleed dry, the game shows views inside various items or under the map. Not a biggie, but visually looks quite cheap.
- Couple time the character has jumped out of plane without a chute. Kind neat, but not my style.
- Seen some twitching figures on game, stuck at some odd position. May be net issue?
- There should be some kind of net quality indicator/test inside the MAG (to debug lag and spawn issues?)
Enchantments and questions of game balance
- Is it intention that people can jump from a top of highest buildings without getting any damage? Or bounce around like rabbits all the time?
- Small map gets covered by various messages and friend login announcements.. Could you allow map to be moved on upper *Left* corner?
- Controller mapping needs some consideration. Perhaps multiple layouts or user configurable mapping?
- Using RPG's (bazookas) ain't really rewarding.. More often than not the 3 rockets don't blow up the target, and you'll got no XP. Only the final blow on awards the XP. At the same time these weapons are important towards the defense, but it happens at the cost of personal leveling.
Feedback
- Overall the game has made a lot progress between Beta levels. Most of those bugs at previous beta have been fixed or at least considerably reduced, especially GFX glitches are almost all gone.. Healing works a lot better and game balance tweaks have their good/bad points.
Level 3
An update ..
- As expected the System freezing bugs that were introdued in 1.3 are still there.. I do hope they'll be fixed for next update. I will not be part of it, good luck Zipper with the game.
Some issues that I hoped were gone by the 1.3 update are still there... But a lot less happening.
- Sounds that were active during end-of-battle still keep on playing while at menu, and sometimes continue to play even on the next battle+ onward (needing reload of Mag). Either this has been partially fixed on 1.30 or the crashes (causing reload) somewhat mask the issue since I get this feeling it happens less than earlier beta.
- It's possible to drop trough map near spawn while attacking Valor.. Report given with Mag-internal system.
- Some gfx glitches(flickering shadows and other cosmetic stuff) are still there.
Some notes:
- A lot's of people are playing this like some other shooter, working for thei K/D ratio by holding back, trying to snipe few kills. It's not good for teamwork. Nor is individual Ramboing.. But what could be done to motivate people to play together, especially when total strangers are put together?
- I have seen alarming number of PSN related reliability issues (Shop not available, Login failed alltogether, Home Lagging) lately. Is the entire EE_region PSN overloaded and does it cause problems to MAG?
- That O-button shoudl definitely have requester confirmation while dropping out of main screen back to Character selection. It happens accidently way too often.
- Plenty of active people have given up, waiting to hear major issues being fixed before trying again.
- SCEE should make more Announcements (on Blog at least?) to keep people informed of the game server uptimes.
Level 3
The Devs also should look into the grouping aspect of allowing all players from a clan to be put together into the same game rather then having groups try and deploy at the same time. I'm not sure if this has already been addressed and its just a restriction of the beta or if it is something that requires looking into.
Since this new update I have crashed out of the game a lot more then before, I have also found that when MAG takes me back out to the choose character screen that I have also been signed out of which ever chat room I am in at the time in the xmb.
Reference the point to do with been stuck on the loading I have had this happen a few times but not as many times as other people have told me they have. Might this have something to do with internet type and speed? I'm using a virgin fiber 20mb service, so this may be why I have less problems entering the game when loading into the game server as its a very reliable and fast connection. Or I could just be talking rubbish LOL.
I have experienced some problems when spawning on the second furthest bunker right bunker (as Raven on AQC) on what I think is the left side (the side without that big gutter or whatever its called) where as I continually had to force spawn and would find myself spawning on top of the bunker stuck in the turret. Not manning the turret but as in part of the turret with it sticking out of what I could only assume is/was my chest.
Regarding the dead bodies mentioned that have been stuck standing up or in other unnatural positions I have also encounter sound problems such as say if that wrong body was firing when killed I will here firing when I pass through or round the body.
But all in all I can't wait for the full game!
Level 3
I am in two minds about allowing clan join as platoons as this would give a massive, almost unfair advantage unless they happened to come up against another clan who joined as a platoon.
On the other hand it is handy to know you have (or hopefully have) competent players on your side.
Because of this, and to keep the game fun, I think clan joins larger than a squad wouls only be allowed on arranged servers which I think they said they might look into in the future.
For now though I don't think it would be too fun if you came up against a clan when you were in a group of randoms. It'd be like a pro football team playing a bunch of random people from the street.
As for bugs in 1.3, I think there are generally less, but they tend to be game breaking when they do occur. Definitely needs looking into.
Level 3
Kreisash Mensageiro:I am in two minds about allowing clan join as platoons as this would give a massive, almost unfair advantage unless they happened to come up against another clan who joined as a platoon.
On the other hand it is handy to know you have (or hopefully have) competent players on your side.
Because of this, and to keep the game fun, I think clan joins larger than a squad wouls only be allowed on arranged servers which I think they said they might look into in the future.
For now though I don't think it would be too fun if you came up against a clan when you were in a group of randoms. It'd be like a pro football team playing a bunch of random people from the street.
As for bugs in 1.3, I think there are generally less, but they tend to be game breaking when they do occur. Definitely needs looking into.
You're confusing "clan" with "pros/elite".. Just because you're in a clan, it doesn't mean you're *that* good at it. Most often, it's the teamwork that flows more easily within a clan that powers all those higher scores. You have their back, they have yours. There's a dynamic that sets in after a while and people hardly need to coordinate actions because they pretty much know what everybody else is going to do.
This has been my experience with my MAG "clan", which is really more of a large group of people who've befriended each other (mostly through MAG itself) and like "wearing" the tag that acknowledges that. It's what made this game thoroughly enjoyable to me, and helped fight the boredom that would inevitably set in after playing the same 3 maps on Acquisition for sooooo long.
I get what you are saying, but MAG's supposed to be about teamwork. We are all, as someone else wrote, already part of one of 3 mega-clans, our chosen PMC. That teamwork will always flow a lot easier between players who know each other, than between players who've never met.
It's also a lot more awkward to communicate with people you don't know -- and I won't even mention all those out there that have a serious attitude problem, and there's scores of them!
If you find that MAG will be the kind of game you'll only pick up every once in a while, then let me tell you right now, it's not the game for you. You don't have to be a rabid fan to enjoy it, but you'll need to play regularly -- and for most people that'll mean making acquaintances and far more often than not, getting groups going. Why on earth should Zipper stop that? Why would they cap said groups at 8 people?
I would like the option to have a platoon full of people I know, anytime we get the required numbers.. Not just from my "clan", but from other clans too -- we're not competing amongst each other, after all, we're all doing it for our collective PMC (the mega-clan).
Will it suck for "randomers" as you put it? Well, yes, but name an online game that hinges on teamwork where this isn't true.. Particularly a "Massive Action Game". This game was made for this. This is not the game for solo action, and even with a platoon full of people who have headsets and can thus communicate, real teamwork will always be a lot harder if they've never played with their teammates.
The way I see it, this game was intended to bring people together and encourage them to find, form and embrace grouping and the comradery that comes with it -- for the fun it is to play with mates as well as for the better gameplay/gameflow/teamwork it makes possible.
The only possible problem I can foresee is having the occasional "randomer" being "abused" in a squad otherwise full of clan members. But again, this is something almost impossible to prevent, unless they get rid of clans and grouping altogether -- which I think nobody's suggesting.
From my (and my clan's experience), we often get PMs and friend requests right after finishing a match, because said "randomers" really enjoy the way we play. Again, not because we're that good, but simply because we play as an actual team -- not just towards each other, too. This is what most people will be looking for in MAG, especially after the novelty wears off, and doing anything to prevent or somehow hamper this would be a really bad move on Zipper's part.
Level 3
Ok.. I think I'm cooled down enough from last matches of MAG (for a while at least) so that I can keep on writing more or less intelligent way. These comments are based on now closed 1.30, but they should mostly apply towards all versions of MAG.
Bugs and glitches
- Sometimes the sound environment adjustment (filtering/echo/reverb?) sticks on while you move from one soundscape to another. Happened for surely only once for me (leaving the bunker turret didn't kill the **** echo) but it's sometimes hard to tell in middle of battle.
- Some C4's at gates of the maps can still be defused on the backside. I have no exact data (nearly impossible to collect in heat of the battle) but at least one Valor defense gate has this glitch.
- Adding more that 8 people into group works (?), but it's really hard to determine who are on the group since the list only shows first 8. I have no idea how many people can be in group, but it looks like it would be possible to build/launch 2 full squads with it.
- Even when you have managed to build a group, there's no guarantee game will launch players on the same squads nor even at the same platoon. This may well be due launch time issues and filling the empty spots, but it's highly annoying and hinders the Teamwork a lot.
Game balance
It's kind interesting to notice that even though the latest update did prefer attacking a lot, it's still possible to defend (most) sites successfully. It's not easy nor guaranteed, but possible with a hard (team)work. Especially defending needs a lot more personal sacrifice now, willing to go where one is needed. Go to help nearby Squads, and sometimes even nearby Platoons.
I don't have any multi-PMC numbers, but we did at EFR notice that we were winning most of our ACQ attacks and losing a lot more of the defends.
I know that making defence equipment too strong you'll risk stagnating the battle, but if the attacks is highly succesfull over 50% of times, isn't there there some off-balance?
Teamwork:
One make/break aspect of MAG I have not mentioned on this thread is Teamwork. I have some other comments around these threads but this needs at least something here.
Gaming in MAG builds heavily on lot's of people on single (huge) playfield. And the most important point of the overall game is the PMC-level victories/losses. But most gamers are selfish by nature and thus are not willing to sacrifice their personal gain (XP and fragfest gaming) to archive anything bigger. This attitude goes trough all levels of MAG players, being individual high K/D Snipers to XP/Frago hogging (and backstabbing) Squad leaders. But it's not only the roles that are affected, it's also the equipment and skills selected. Selecting the less popular feats would benefit the Squad/Platoon/PMC more, but the XP loss (or personal fighting preferences) are way too important to most players.
One part of the MAG teamwork problems is the heavy dependency on Spoken commands.. Not all (most?) players will be coming from natively English speaking areas and even though many of us do have quite decent written English the speaking it in front of others (especially arrogant **** whose origins not to be mentioned here) can be either impossible (not understood) or totally awkward (not willing). This communication barrier is something games like MAG need to fight against, since loud English yelling (and insulting the non natives) don't make good impression.
I really wish there were a way to give share complex and dedicated tactical info between command levels without relying to spoken language. Like making attack formations, allocating manpower/apc to designated targets while the game itself is loading and then adjusting those while the attack/defense unfolds and area/key structures are won/lost. I know that being fast paced FPS it's hard work for leadership just to know what's going on, but the tactical map should be more helpfull and have wider range of tools for leadership.
Dedication
This is the part of teamwork, but I think it needs a chapter of it's own.. Especially on later times of Beta a lot of players have not been there as much as they could have been and I do understand this on personal and IRL level. But while in the *game* people should not give up the matches so easily. I can't tell if this is happening on Raven or Sver (I definitely think so) but on Raven there are players who are so fed up with Defending (desperately) they Exit the game either at the beginning or at the middle of the game if the results are not victorious. Losing one or two Grunts would not be so bad, but empty Squads do harm the rest of the team way too much.
Also on the same issue are those highly selfish Squad and Platoon leaders who (at the sight of the loss) exit the battle or otherwise abandon their leadership role. I do understand that this may indeed look better on you statistics, but it's **** unfair to those 63 other players at the same Acq match trying their best. (I hope this don't downgrade to name calling). IMHO I'm willing to go so far on this I'd suggest strong penalties to those people who apply to leadership roles and give them up (or abort the game) on repeated basis.
Summary
The programming bugs and gfx/map/sound glitches are relatively easy to fix, since those are anomalies that need to be spotted, but the bigger deeper issues on teamworking and dedication are the ones that need thought at the concept level. I do admit that I have not see the final product, so it may well be that people do indeed learn to play to game properly while on lover levels (training camp and then sabotage), to learn how to operate as a team, how to make the whole bigger than an individual.
As of this moment. I wish Zipper people a good luck and hope that this game is the success it deserves to be. I do admit it would be nice (even though openly egoistic) to get some kind of confirmation that you people indeed do read these forums and that our effort with your game has not been wasted. There have been some bad times and plenty of frustration, but also a lot of good times. I do believe I have found some new friends during these months and I do hope I'll keep in touch with them even after this Mag beta is now ended. Who knows, it may well be we'll be back when MAG is officially released.
