Rorschach
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Posts posted by Rorschach
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Okay I'll try to come across less bullet pointy but wanted to let you know that there's a co-op vs. infinite bot waves mode being previewed this week. It's crazy fun and a good way to get into the game without getting stomped by veterans.
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I don't have any real DOTA or LOL experience so for me the gameplay is closer to Sacrifice, The Outfit, or Brutal Legend where you participate directly within a strategy game from a behind the shoulder view. But instead of more general RTS mechanics beyond the "3rd person action" it's push the lanes, beware the jungle, etc. mechanics of a LOMA.
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Also, I don't really have any qualms with games being "pitched" to me, but when you sound like a press release or back-of-box bullet point list, it makes me want to throw old ladies holding adorable puppies into the sun.
Sorry I thought a FAQ format explaining the game would be short and to the point to let the discussion go on from there.
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There's no auto-aim that I know of. It's a PC only game.
Matchmaking is split into newbies under agent level 20 and experienced people. The queues are split into solo, 2-3 person groups, and full 5 man teams so there's no chance your soloing will get stomped by a coordinated team. They continue to tweak the algorithms to match player skill. I'm at 164 wins and 145 losses and don't have any big complaints about matchmaking.
Oh and games last for 15-20 minutes so even if you're in a bad game it's not as long as other Lords Management games.
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I figured this forum deserved a SMNC thread considering the interest in the Lords Management genre.
What it is?
It's a third person shooter that has Lords Management style gameplay. The setting is post-apocalyptic gameshow. It's also free-to-play with the base similarity of League of Legends with rotating free characters each week. Also a bit of a TF2 vibe with memorable character classes. Updates (balancing, new features, new classes etc.) occur every week. The Rules have Changed!
Lords Management?
The primary gametype is Super Crossfire. Two lanes of bots fight each other and static turrets to get to the opposing team's moneyball. The turrets and moneyball start with shields that can only be damaged by bots, so you're staying with the bots instead of destroying the backfield in MNC. There is a "jungle" in each map (currently 4).
Characters?
SMNC has five character classes. Each week six new characters are available for free. Unlocked characters are always available. Only one character allowed on the field per side.
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Commando: Low health, high mobility class for debuffing and ambushing (Assassin, Wascot, Captain Spark)
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Striker: Medium health, generalist class mixing mobility with burst damage (Assault, Karl, Megabeth)
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Enforcer: High health, slow moving class maximizing short range damage (Cheston, Gunner, Tank, Veteran)
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Defender: Medium health, healer class for buffing teammates and area control (Combat Girl, Engineer)
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Sharpshooter: Low health, ranged damage class for highly skilled aim (Gunslinger, Sniper, Artemis)
Free to Play?
You can buy characters, and non-gameplay customization (skins, animations, etc.) directly through Steam Wallet. Characters range from $1.99 to $7.49.
There's a second currency called combat credits which you can't buy, only gain through playing. Well, you can buy a boost the increases your rate of combat credits. CCs are used to buy endorsements and products which give your character various small abilities and buffs. You can buy character unlocks with CCs but it's a grind.
After roughly 90 minbutes worth of play you'll get a free drop. This could be an endorsement, product, skin or taunt.
So most everything can be unlocked through play (but a lot of play), and you can't buy your way to an overpowered status.
Persistence?
Like a Lords Management game your character levels up during a match. Your persona is an Agent which also levels up over multiple matches unlocking additional endorsement and product slots.
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Commando: Low health, high mobility class for debuffing and ambushing (Assassin, Wascot, Captain Spark)
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In space games I prefer names like Laser 1, Laser 2, etc..., instead of Ultra High Intensity Laser, Plasma Carbide Laser, etc... With the latter, which is better? SciFi games frequently have names that just make things confusing.
I agree if the only difference between the technologies or weapons is a simple improvement in numerical stats. SotS 1 and 2 spectrum coded their incremental laser upgrades (Red, Green, UV, X-Ray) and explosion types for warheads (Fission, Fusion, Anti-Matter) which I thought was better than a simple 1 vs. 2 but was colorful enough.
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I might be remembering this completely incorrectly, but what were the unique goals? Just because the objective statement is "go diffuse this" "go repair that" "capture this point" "unlock this door" or what have you, doesn't make them unique. It's a presentation of the object, but the way the character executes these objectives, despite the class, is nearly entirely the same; that's only an illusion of unique goals and not actual unique design.
Well of course the team as a whole was responsible for an objective. It'd be silly to have five classes going after five primary objectives. Showing the player and giving out explicit rewards for support actions instead of "capping the flag" is what I'm talking about. All team based shooters have support actions but Brink was explicit in showing you those actions instead of relying on players to infer it.
Do you mean hopping over cover and increased movement speed? The "parkour" system was neat, but there have been a million multiplayer shooters that predate cover based gameplay that allow you to get around the map quickly; the difference may be the animation support in those other games wasn't as detailed as Brinks. Once again, this is window dressing on top of something that had already been established in the genre, but points to Brink for articulating it so well and possibly taking that aspect of a shooter to a higher level. Though I'd argue that after seeing some Tribes 1 players back in 2001 that had pin point accuracy at incredible speeds while traversing giant maps that I am less impressed by Brinks actual game implementation but still impressed by the fidelity of the animation system.
The fluid movement over obstacles is what I'm talking about. Not getting stuck on waist high crates and the ability to mantle up walls. I'd love to hear about a CQB game that does it throughout the map instead of particular defined points. Tribes has a whole different mechanic, scale, weapons, physics. I can't really compare the two other than it and Brink has unique movement.
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Ditto, aside from art it was completely mediocre.
I've got to disagree. There's a lot of innovation in Brink I'd like to see in other team based games:
- Unique goals in the map and XP per character class driving everyone to help the team
- In field revival enabled by the medic, but controlled by the downed player
- A setting and style not based on modern warfare or marines in space
- Terrain traversal opens up the map instead of locking it behind cover points
- Unique goals in the map and XP per character class driving everyone to help the team
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Brink is one of my favorite team-based FPSs. The crappy console launch combined with the lack of catering to the e-sports folks had this game die a rapid death but I really liked the style, gameplay, and feel of the game.
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EoFS was a great 4x for what it did and I loved the setting and the Pen and Paper RPG.
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I thought this was a frustrating episode to listen to for a number of reasons. Perhaps the fundamental reason is I felt the whole idea of world building was never clearly defined. It was distinguished from back story, it was decided that flavor text had something to do with it, but it was never really established what was at issue here.
I understand that 3MA has delved too far into the minutia of defining terms (especially when Bruce is on the panel) but I agree with sclps that we could have used a little more level-setting here. Troy's revelation 3/4ths of the way through the podcast that world-building =/= backstory was brilliant but should have had more discussion at the early stages of the 'cast.
Great discussion overall. Really enjoying the podcast.
Planetary Annihilation
in Video Gaming
Posted
I wonder how much of these kickstarters are pre-orders and how much are a gauge of interest.
Either way this is right in my wheelhouse and I'm a big fan of what Uber has done with Monday Night Combat and Super MNC. I think kickstarter is about backing the team versus the final product and this team have shown they can deliver even without a publisher so I'm in for a C-bill.