I just wanted an up-to-date thread with some of the issues with some gameplay mechanics in the current state of the game and some suggestions on how to improve them. It's not for bugs or anything of the like either. If you have those, go here and start a new ticket to help improve the game. Here are my top 3 issues with some suggestions. Feel free to add your own. Just be sure to add suggestions on how to improve it. I'd like to avoid the "X sucks, pls fix now!" Spawn Locations Spoiler Spawns have long been a sore spot for this game. Since the very beginnings of closed alpha nobody has really known what to do about them it seems. Currently, defenders are able to spawn directly on objectives in certain cases, making attacking the maps a living nightmare. Maggon point A is probably the worst offender in this case (or maybe it's just because it's my least favorite map ). Unfortunately, there is no easy way out of this. The spawn system needs a complete overhaul in order to remedy the problem. Suggestion: Short of actually making spawns a variable location within a certain radius of the objective, select 3 locations at a reasonable distance from each of the points on every map and spawn players there, distributing them randomly. A good example is that balcony room overlooking A on Maggon. Spawn some defenders in there, across the bridge towards B and possibly behind some rocks on the ground level. Melee Combat Spoiler My current feeling is that melee is low-risk and high reward. The TTK is incredibly short (as it should be), but the defensive options for non-melee classes and the lack of friendly fire make it too easy for melee specialists to dominate. Combine this with the life steal mods on some weapons and you have some very scary, long-lasting loadouts. I'll break it down further: Parrying Blow (formerly Defensive Bash): This is still a delay tactic and is what I feel to be the single thing holding the melee back. While it's at the most consistent level it has been since its inception, the PB still falls short, especially now that it requires weapon durability. The weapon durability requirement is so punishing that it essentially leads to pema-stuns in certain situations. Combined with the inability to disengage melee opponents--especially Banshees and JPA--it's a button designed for slowing the opponent down until your friends respawn on top of them. Suggestion: Replace the weapon durability requirement with stamina (1/5 of the bar should be a good starting point) so non-melee specialists can actually clang and try to outplay players using high tier weapons. The real solution is to completely rework the PB so clanging off it damages the swinging player and is thus a real punishment. As it is, I find it hard to land the kick against anyone remotely competent. Friendly Fire: I've long seen that teams with more melee characters tend to win more often. I don't have access to the data to prove this, unfortunately, but it is something I've noticed since about early December 2015 (just before the Mark of Nurgle was introduced). What melee does devolve into then is a mash fest with no way out. It's certainly chaotic and worthy of the term "melee", but I think it detracts from the experience, both for melee players and for ranged players. This is something I thought about for a long time, but I feel it's necessary. It's simply too easy to get into melee with little regard for your teammates. Suggestion: Should melee attacks damage their friends, it would actually require melee combatants to be aware of their teammates the same way plasma cannon, rokkit launchas, and tempest launcher users must be. It would add another dynamic to combat and make melee players think more than they have to right now. I think it would also relegate the healers to healing a bit more rather than jumping into the fight to overwhelm an opponent because clangs and the PB can't handle more than one person at a time. There should be some leniency for melee friendly fire (half-damage could be a good start), but there needs to be some deterrent for 5 melee users ganging up on one guy constantly. I actually expect to get a lot of flak for this suggestion. It's also well past time for a new melee combat thread. @BrentEllison @Maspalio Quadguns Spoiler These weapon placements add little value to most of the maps they are on. They do relatively, albeit consistent, damage to vehicles, but are mainly used to destroy infantry. On small maps like Pegasus, they only add frustration. On other maps like Maggon and Zedek, they are used as a bandaid to help players assault A. Spoiler Alert: Zedek and Maggon point A are nearly identical, meaning something should be done with the layout rather than adding quadguns. Suggestion: Remove them from all maps except the fortress maps. Fortresses should have that extra bit of challenge associated with them, and with the limited number of lives defenders get, it simply makes more sense to have them destroy players/vehicles there.
