Badfinger

SID MEIER'S AMERICAN MCGEE'S PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS

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On 5/5/2017 at 0:22 AM, Nappi said:

This is one of those games that I think I couldn't actually play (at least alone) because I would find it too stressful, but love watching other people play it. The Giant Bomb Battlegrounds streams, for example, have been really fun so far. The setting creates really interesting tense moments ("The doors in that building are already open." or "Oh shit, did you hear that car?"), and fortunately the game doesn't dwell on the gross Battle Royale setting.

I also expected that of myself initially, but it really depends on what you want in a given play session. I've had games that were tense from the start because my group jumped out where a bunch of others did, but you can always just go to an isolated area and scavenge peacefully, collecting until the circle tightens. I even had a game where me and a friend spent about 5 minutes getting kitted out near a beach, and then took boats deep into the ocean where we could just wait as the others killed themselves.

 

With how me and my groups usually play, there's only real PVP-based tension for about a minute each game (except for the one person who survives longer).

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It's kind of awesome how much the dynamic changes when going from solo -> a group.

 

I spent ~5 hours with a random guy on my friends list on Saturday and had a super awesome time, I am a bad duo player though. I am way more brash when I know I have a partner but when I am playing solo I rarely fire my gun unless I know it will be a kill and I'll be able to escape. Hell, in the solo game I won I only killed 3 people. I think I've only killed ~12 people over 6 or so hours because i rarely fire my gun, I'd rather be sneaky and work on my positioning so if it comes to a gun fight I'll have an upper hand.  

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I got so close to the mythical 1.0 KDR, and then I literally did not get a single kill last night. I was so tired and playing so poorly and turned bad luck into poor decisions and set that goal back hours.

 

 

This game has derailed my video game year like Zelda did for people that buy Nintendo products. Whenever I have video game time I want to either be playing this, or I'm playing a game of Rocket League to cleanse after a tense round before jumping back in.

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This is a fascinating game; it looks like crap, plays like crap (movement, feel, shooting), yet is one of the more fun and digestible (I can play a couple matches at noon) game I've played in awhile.

 

My same issue with Day z and other similar games is that there seems to be no importance put on to making a really good feeling shooter. Maybe that's intentional (though I don't know why) but it's fine to play a janky feeling game for awhile, but after about 8 hours, I'd love to feel like I'm getting better, but I just don't see it happening with something this weird/stiff.

 

 

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On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 10:11 AM, SL128 said:

I also expected that of myself initially, but it really depends on what you want in a given play session. I've had games that were tense from the start because my group jumped out where a bunch of others did, but you can always just go to an isolated area and scavenge peacefully, collecting until the circle tightens. I even had a game where me and a friend spent about 5 minutes getting kitted out near a beach, and then took boats deep into the ocean where we could just wait as the others killed themselves.

 

With how me and my groups usually play, there's only real PVP-based tension for about a minute each game (except for the one person who survives longer).

 

I've found playing in doubles with a friend has been a lot less stressful than single, because you've got someone to chat with, someone to spot that one guy you missed, and, if it all goes to pot, it doesn't feel like you've wasted your time as much either.

 

Single player is nerve-racking though.

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On 5/16/2017 at 4:50 PM, Murdoc said:

This is a fascinating game; it looks like crap, plays like crap (movement, feel, shooting), yet is one of the more fun and digestible (I can play a couple matches at noon) game I've played in awhile.

 

My same issue with Day z and other similar games is that there seems to be no importance put on to making a really good feeling shooter. Maybe that's intentional (though I don't know why) but it's fine to play a janky feeling game for awhile, but after about 8 hours, I'd love to feel like I'm getting better, but I just don't see it happening with something this weird/stiff.

 

 

 

Curious what you mean about the shooting. The shooting feels good and correct to me. The movement is an acknowledged problem (they're working on mantling rather than the weird/bad jump over small obstacles for example).

 

The servers need to improve, that's for sure. It's hard to separate what's the actual game feel vs the crummy servers. Next week's patch is client fixes, next Monthly patch in June is server.

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Just had the best match.

 

Coming down a hill, I hear gunfire to my right. I investigate. Crest a ridge, and there's a jeep coming right at me up the hill. I pull out my S12K and put a round in the driver's side. Not dead, the dude swerves around me and goes down another part of the hill. Slows, stops. I run up, about to blast him as he comes out of the driver's side, but I guess he realized what I was doing because he speeds off again.

 

Then, there are shots peppering the dirt around my feet, coming from roughly behind me. I hoof it over to a tree and take a look. There's another guy who I guess was chasing the jeep guy, except this guy's got a dune buggy that he's hiding behind, shooting at me. I return fire with a SCAR-L, hit a couple of times, the buggy starts rolling down the hill. He runs to another tree, and I'm not letting up.

 

He pops from the left, I shoot left. He goes right, I shoot right. Goes on for a little while. My heart, pounding, is in my throat. I'm half worrying that jeep guy is going to come back and run me over while I'm dealing with this long range firefight. Then, calm as anything, buggy guy steps out and puts one bullet between my eyes.

 

I jumped out of my seat. I wanted to high-five him. I spent a clip and a half playing whack-a-mole with this guy and he goes and pulls a Deer Hunter?

 

Ugh. This game is good. How am I going to sleep now?

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I finally picked this up after watching a dozen hours of Polygon's excellent Awful Squad streams, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaDrN74SfdT5xZKh7TsCL4ydk7TOduLeu. I've only played a few hours so far but the streams have given me a headstart on understanding the game. I made #3 in a match earlier today!

 

This game is amazing. The thing it most reminds me of is the original Ghost Recon, in that you're tiny and the world is huge and full of concealed enemies that can kill you very quickly, but you have complete freedom of approach. It's one of the only multiplayer games I've played where sniping actually works, because 95% of the time you're not engaging enemies so it's always a surprise. In most action games the scale is so tiny you can see the "sniper" at the end of the next corridor, and anyway the only thing anyone is thinking or doing is "fire gun at enemy". In this you're looting buildings, planning next moves, healing, hiding, or just waiting, all downtime that makes being stealthy and picking your shots actually worthwhile.

 

In one memorable match I was crawling through a cornfield when a jeep raced past within metres. It skidded to a stop about 50m away and the driver jumped out to grab an airdrop, only for another player to materialise out of the cornfield and kill them. I got a few rounds into the second player but didn't get the kill, and we had a tense standoff (lay-off?) at the edge of the cornfield for about 2 minutes. Eventually the electric wall of death was approaching and the next circle was far enough away that it was clear the still-empty jeep was the only hope of survival. I crawled towards it, jumped in and drove like crazy. I still have no idea what happened to the other player.

 

My raving has convinced a few friends to buy it, so I'm looking forward to squad mode. Solo is fun but very tense, and dying instantly is less dramatic than getting downed to be heroically revived by a squadmate.

 

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Just had a match where I was getting shot at while driving a boat. Made a too-sharp turn and beached it. Hid behind the boat for cover, and my antagonist comes racing at me unloading a shotgun. I also had a shotgun, so we strafed and shot and hid around the boat for a while. Eventually, I got the idea to throw a grenade. It landed too far behind him, but he didn't know that. He came around the right side, hoping to take cover from the shrapnel, and I blasted him with my S12K. Felt pretty clever about that.

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My favourite boat moment is when I was just swimming across a river, and heard a boat driving up. I had almost reached the shore, but then the person in the boat started shooting at me. I dove underwater to hide, and try get away but they chased. I managed to outmaneuver and hide behind a rock by the shore. Treading water on the spot, I heard them stop the boat and climb on top of the rock, but we couldn't see each other. 

 

I don't know how long they looked for me, but at some point that person was just setting up to snipe at the shore, and I had to carefully swim around then climb onto shore to pop a head shot from behind. With them never getting a chance to see me.

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I find duos and squads to me remarkably more enjoyable and rewarding than solo in this game. While solo is still reasonably fun due to the overall tension of PUBG, adding a friend or two really makes this game shine. I think there are a few key reasons for this:

First and foremost, when your group is communicating and coordinating really well it just feels great to be a part of. You’re responsible for watching your team’s back, just as they watch yours. Pulling off a coordinated ambush where you all peak and open fire at the exact same time to down an entire squad with no losses is just *so* satisfying and exhilarating.

Playing with more than one person also mitigates some “RNG” aspects of PUBG that can be really frustrating. For instance, the chance of you *all* finding zero loot when you land is pretty low; you’ve almost always got a friend who found a gun you can flee towards if you yourself strike out and are being chased by an armed enemy.

Later in the game having a buddy or two also helps with mitigating circle RNG, where your squad can leapfrog forward towards the circle taking turns covering each other. Compare that to solo games, where I often find myself forced from cover by the circle and simply left hoping for the best as I sprint across an open field. Even the downed vs killed mechanic helps here, as it gives you a chance to get back in the game instead of just having one long-range headshot you never saw coming end things.

Lastly, the sense of shared victory after winning is huge. You get this great sense of accomplishment that you can share with your friends, and they actually get it and understand it because they were directly part of it.

TLDR: Play duos and squads to make the good parts of this game even better, and take some of the sting out of the shitty parts. Give it a try!

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i really like this game but i have the "melting buildings" issue at the start of every game, so it takes me between 2-5 minutes to be able to loot anything. hoping that will be worked on during EA so I do not have to upgrade to a better computer soon to really enjoy the game. 

 

Squads make it more fun for me, because my friends loot everything and protect me while I am on look-out duty, but it does dampen the whole experience quite a bit. Especially cause even in squads, dropping into a hot zone with good loot or near another squad/person is not viable.

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Anyone want to squad/duo up today?

 

I'm a reasonably competent player with 5 dinners to my name who likes to emphasize communication and teamwork. I tend to like getting into it and fighting instead of camping for the most part, though of course a bit of mid-game camping can still be a good idea in many matches.

 

Very few of my friends play this game, and I find solo a bit boring compared to squads/duos. Any like-minded players out there looking for a duo partner or squad mate?

 

I'm playing right now, and my steam handle is the same as here.

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The best place to find matches is the thumbs slack or about 150 discord channels.

 

A bunch of us play basically every day and many people here squad up, but we're generally forming teams in one of the discord channels (The waypoint discord has a very active battlegrounds community).

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On 7/20/2017 at 9:48 AM, Badfinger said:

The best place to find matches is the thumbs slack or about 150 discord channels.

 

A bunch of us play basically every day and many people here squad up, but we're generally forming teams in one of the discord channels (The waypoint discord has a very active battlegrounds community).

 

Cool, thanks for the info - I've added the Waypoint discord server. Do you have the info for any other good meetup channels you'd suggest?

I've found a few random "LFG" discords for PUBG that certainly let you group up quickly, but half the time that leads to your squad being literally 10-12 years old & flaming each other before even leaving the plane... not exactly what I'm looking for!

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On 5/19/2017 at 8:20 AM, Badfinger said:

 

Curious what you mean about the shooting. The shooting feels good and correct to me. The movement is an acknowledged problem (they're working on mantling rather than the weird/bad jump over small obstacles for example).

 

The servers need to improve, that's for sure. It's hard to separate what's the actual game feel vs the crummy servers. Next week's patch is client fixes, next Monthly patch in June is server.

Apologies for the late reply:

 

I guess "feels bad" is a pretty subjective thing, so I'll try to explain why I don't particularly gel with it. I believe my core issue is that is intended to feel like Day Z, which felt like Arma, which I really don't like. Aside from my belief that I don't think they need to break out a new hotkey for every action in the game, the player movement and aiming has a very rigged feel to it, the aiming and targeting feels like it is on a pivot somewhere around the mid torso and just has a particular feel to it. This may work pretty well for 3rd person, but just is garbage in 1st person.

 

With that said, after spending more time with the game, I have adjusted to the feel of the shooting and you're right, it isn't bad. I also accepted that just because you can go 1st person, doesn't mean the game was intended to be 1st person. I thought it was crazy to play a shooter where people were third when you could go 1st, but in the end, that was a misunderstanding of the benefits of 3rd on my part.

 

The movement for me is still an issue; part of that is the player collision and step over/jump over heights, other bits of it could just be network lag, but it feels like I am playing a cylinder with it's pivot at the center and not a moving person. There's just something about moving sideways, forward, backward and the various degrees in between that is off and I can't quite place my finger on it.

 

Okay, enough "complaining" from me, the game is rad as hell, but I really can't wait for the copycats to make something more aestheticaly interesting and better feeling. Rockstar could flip a few switches in GTA online and eat this things lunch within a month.

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5 hours ago, thainatos said:

From today's patch notes: "You may now honk a car horn when sitting in the driver's seat with Left Mouse Click."

 

GOTY

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After playing with Badfinger & others for a bit, I can confirm the Waypoint Discord is pretty great for getting a good group. Tons of good people on there who are mature & communicative, and generally just fun to play with. The server itself is well organized with lots of good alert options etc.

Highly recommended! 

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I certainly trust folks in the Thumbs community, but the Waypoint mods would encourage anyone who isn't particularly interested in the discord outside of Battlegrounds to seek other spots.

 

Not like they're hard to find, what with the biggest game in the universe being full of people playing, but it's definitely a good community.

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My experience with the one other PUBG meetup discord I've used has been very hit-and-miss. Lots of very young and/or very aggressive (read: toxic) players, so half the time you get a decent match but the other half you get called no end of slurs by your own squad before you even drop from the plane. 

Waypoint has had a much, much higher average maturity level - if that is something you value & want to contribute to, it's a great place to meet like-minded people. 

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Oh god damn. Just had a game where I got a silenced M416 + silenced SKS with ACOG basically right off the bat (killed 2 guys early, each of them had one of those). 

 

Went on to get the dinner, and killed literally half of the final 10 myself. Such a bloody, intense top 10. It was on the hills overlooking the military base. 


Super fun. No game makes me shake with adrenaline the way PUBG does.

Unrelated to that match, anyone watch the Gamescome event? Spectator features look promising - with some better camera work it could be a pretty watchable game. 

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The final day (squad matches) was the only day where I thought the camera work was any good. The previous days were really shockingly bad in terms of camera; they kept missing engagements and even when they finally watched one, they kept cutting away from the fight before it ended.

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