Things that aren't fun in Empires.

Nobody seems to discuss the fact that taller barracks means more polygons, which means more texture memory needed to cover those additional faces, which means more performance issues, and more complaining.

 

one and two are good---although sometimes you want buildings to be included in multi orders (maybe a new commander menu for choosing what buildings will be targeted when using multi attack orders)

3. i think that would be too distracting especially if your trying to concentrate on something and this diamond starts blinking at you

i like 2

 

Replace the blinking with a simple fade.

 

How about several of these markers for larger maps? If they'd be the only mass-targeting tool the Commander has, it wouldn't actually be overpowered on the smaller maps, because if one ninja would get through he could place a barracks next to your base without you noticing (quickly enough). You could use up a beacon (or even two) to defend your main base, but that will cause an intel shortage for your ground troops on other locations.

Another idea might be that, while the Commander has several of these "beacons" available, it takes some time for it to start working; attack diamonds are very translucent / appear for only a short time when a target enters the area.

This gives the team with a marker a defensive advantage (but not so much an offensive advantage, as it takes time to work so you can't just quickly tag all enemy units), but not in such an unbalancing way as it is now.

Any thoughts?

 

I like the idea of making BE barracks larget. It's important on many maps (especially cyclopean and SoF, but isle too).

I don't know if anyone mentioned it as "not fun", but NF tanks are much harder to operate than BE tanks. Good players handle NF tanks well.
The problem is that on public servers, some players are noobs and it hurts NF more than BE.

 

I think the whole beacon idea is a bit odd in some ways.

They feel a bit arbitrary, now if you tied them to something like the radar, so each radar, in addition to having vehicle detection, could focus on an area of the map and provide combined radar/camera coverage within a small area but with a low update rate, and perhaps not working on hidden scouts or radar stealthed vehicles, that would make more sense to me, it would also allow you to decide whether you want to buy another radar to have another beacon.

You could change the mechanics of the detection a bit, although I advise against making it too different from exisiting detection for sake of continuity and intuitiveness, but I'd really like it kept as part of the radar, as arbitrary 'comm beacons' just seem strange to me.

 

I'm not really following you with the beacons being "arbitrary". The beacons would replace the mass-targeting ability of the comm (see the original thread), to get rid of any miscommunication we might have

 

Here's something else:
Really really fast games.

The sting of defeat is just too cold. When you basically have to white-knuckle your way to a good cannon/engine/armor/chassis before you can sit back and battle around in the game without seriously chancing defeat, most players end up going for the early rush and win (especially the skilled players who can all-too-often accomplish it with ease). Sadly, this often ends the game before researched tanks can ever enter the fray, and even when they do, it's usually only for one team.

I'm guilty of this myself, especially as commander. Once the entire team is relying on you not to **** the game up, winning becomes something of your only goal, fun and frolick be damned. Sure, you could force the team back and give the other team some room and let them research some tanks, but if you give them an inch...

It's also rare that I get to use medium tanks extensively. Heavy tanks, sure, there's always those turtle heavy maps on high-resource servers. Just not medium tanks.

 

What i don't like in empires:

- One shot kills
- Sticking your vehicle cannon through a wall to shoot through it
- Huge difference in efficiency of squad powers:
imo mass revive, mass hide and artillery strike are already effective, recon time or range should be increased. Also things like damage and other bonuses should be a lot more effective so people can see a difference and get persuaded to actually use it. Looking at stuff like mass revive that always is effective, bonuses of 50 to 100 % extra wouldn't be too much. Either that, or something that's very visible, like mass defusal.
- Squad aura range increased for people in vehicles (wait, do they even affect vehicles?)
- Stun stickies aren't really used: smoke + concussion nades are easier to use compared to the small ranged stun stickies. Also scouts usually avoid vehicles, so they don't even get an opportunity to try to use them. To convince players to chose stun stickies above concussion nades they have to be a lot more effective in some way.

That's about it i think

Main conclusion: some stuff isn't fun or good enough to use, also (but not only) because of others that ARE fun and effective

 

I dont like that im not able to carry more then one type of grenades...

I would like to see the be baracks bigger and make the top of both baracks
into a fort :D

 

I know what you're suggesting, I just think that having them be some random power is a bit silly.

They feel like something that should be an ability which comes from a building.

 

It's not fun when 1 or 2 engineers can keep an army of tanks at bay with a few unbuilt walls (emp_money.) Unbuilt walls should be alot more vulnerable to tanks.

 

Already fixed. Try to drive a tank next to a wall. Try to shoot. Nothing happens. It is fixed. ;P

 

I hate it when no matter how many NF heavys u thow at BE the Duel Rail always wins

 

It's not fixed, the bone from where shells are fired will stick through the wall and you will be able to shoot through the wall, you can't do it with all tank and in all positions, but it is still possible and unless turrets get collision models I doubt it will be fixed soon. Collision was removed from the tanks during alpha, Letuce uploaded a funny little movie of when they still had it, he named it tank jousting XD

 

Couldn't the spawn point for the shells just be moved farther back, say, into the turret itself?

 

That would put it at risk of hitting the collision model of the turret itself, or even the player in the open hatch.

 

A line trace from the cannon model's origin to the firing point.
If it's blocked by solid BSP (nothing else), disable the cannon.

 

I like the idea of adding a watchtower at the top of the NF barracks.

Right now the tall roof doesn't really add anything.. good

 

That might be a problem for some maps in terms of optimisation, but I wouldn't object to it, it's not like you can use the barracks as a sniper tower because it's bloody huge.