Patch: Jan 15th, skins, new maps, balance, ball improvements, bug fixes

[lamster]

This is a fairly big patch, please play it a couple hours before commenting on balance and ball changes. The community points system is ready, check it out under Hangar Deck -> Community Points. There will be a few more ways to earn points that aren't listed there yet (for example, creating a map that becomes official, etc) but let's discuss that in another thread.

==============================================
Jan 15th, 2010

Improved UPnP compatibility

Added Shark and Zebra skins for all planes, check them out under Hangar Deck -> Community Points

Added 10 new 1dm maps (thanks Maimer)
Updated 1dm_clocktower (thanks pig_bomb)

Additional display options available Options -> Gameplay:
* Show Plane Skins
* Show Ping/FPS in bottom left
* Show Exp Log (Killed A for 10 xp, Assist on B for 4xp, etc) in bottom middle
* Show Kill Popups in bottom right
* Change chat opacity (for better visibility of left side of screen, hit enter to view chat at full opacity)

Ace Instincts: now reduces XP required to gain a bar from 10 to 8 in addition to increasing per bar bonuses to speed/turn/regen/damage by 50%

Miranda's Reverse and Time Anchor abilities now temporarily disable Repair Drone just like afterburning

Miranda's Time Anchor cooldown is increased by 35% when carrying the Big Bomb or Ball

Miranda Charge Shot:
can no longer hit the same plane twice with a single shot
each bounce now reduces the total damage by 25% (up from 20%)

Miranda Laser:
increased total damage by 4% (260 -> 270)
increased length by 1% (273 -> 276)
increased duration by 1% (.8045 -> .812)

Explodet (all forms):
increased rocket acceleration by 10%

Explodet Remote Mine:
no longer collides with planes, complete control of detonation just like rockets
increased cooldown (0.35 -> 0.66)
increased minimum release->detonation time (0.15 -> 0.30)
reduced blast radius by 4%

Adjustments have been made to plane ball to encourage diversity in strategies, roles, and planes, and to improve passing and other high skill maneuvers (long passes and shots, deliberately bouncing the ball off terrain, etc):

Decreased drag on ball (less speed lost while ball sails through open air)
Increased elasticity of ball collisions (less speed lost when bouncing off surfaces)

Miranda must now wait 0.7 seconds after releasing the ball before warping (Realism note: warp core jury-rigged to provide blast for ball ejection, takes a moment to reconfigure)

Larger planes now shoot the ball significantly faster (previously, all planes ejected with velocity = 13.5)
Bomber: 18.5
Explodet: 18.5
Biplane: 16.5
Miranda: 16
Loopy: 14.5

Larger planes now retain more speed while carrying ball, smaller planes significantly slowed by extra weight (all planes still lose 50% afterburner effectivness while carrying ball)
Explodet: 94% (up from 87%)
Bomber: 94% (up from 87%)
Biplane: 86% (up from 85%)
Miranda: 86% (unchanged)
Loopy: 77% (down from 82%)

Large red respawn banner now minimizes when F is pressed to confirm respawn, TAB is pressed to show scores, Enter is pressed to chat, or automatically after 10 seconds
Slightly increased XP per damage dealt to buildings for intuitive display in popup, XP indicator, and award screen: now receive exactly 1 XP for every 1-percent-of-base-health damage dealt to buildings, 'demolition expert' award now shows damage in percent-base-health units
Added "Team Eliminated" messages to 1-life game modes
Training mission turrets are easier to kill on low difficulties (easy=4x, medium=2x)

Bot kills and deaths no longer affect lifetime stats (Hangar Deck -> Stats)
Experience per minute from bot kills is now capped to discourage bot farming

Fixed bug that allowed plane balls fired point blank into goal walls to teleport through

Fixed a few non-gameplay bugs:
* server list now retains current selection while updating
* server list no longer shows "maxPlayers <= 2" in UI when "All" is selected
* UI display bugs when testPlaneScale has been set
* options.xml now saved even on failed startup for easier debugging
* server launcher now restarts to update if there is insufficient memory to update while running

[Massi]

I will post a more constructive thing later.
Okay so I bought the Explodet Zebra skin in the main menu Hanger Deck>Community points>buy I did that then went in game to try to equip it and it still showed I hadn't bought it and when I clicked to try and buy it, it said I already had but still said I had 101 points but wouldn't let me buy it, because I had already.
I am just going to add as things come.
So on remote the only thing I don't like is reduced blast radius. Now it makes it harder to blast out of stalls because the blast barely if any at all even touches you. Other than that I like the remote patch it will just take a while to get used to.

[Pieface]

I just purchased my brand new zebra miranda skin, but when I go to the plane config it still says it isn't unlocked. When I click on the skin in the config, it brings me to the hangar deck where it is clearly unlocked. Just thought you should be aware. Edit: I now have zero Community Points.

Double Edit: Restarting it fixed the problem, thanks Black.

[Massi]

Pie restart Alti. I fixed by restarting Alti. So never mind.
You're welcome Pie. =D

[poofighter24]

Thanks for making the Miranda completely unusable in ball. No, really, it's much simpler to just nerf a plane that is perceived as overpowered when in reality it's just that people can't EMP to save their lives. I'm glad you chose the easy way out.

[Sarah Palin]

Long list of changes to ball, including a lot that people had already suggested. Playing it now, interested to see how it all adds up.

[Massi]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

Thanks for making the Miranda completely unusable in ball. No, really, it's much simpler to just nerf a plane that is perceived as overpowered when in reality it's just that people can't EMP to save their lives. I'm glad you chose the easy way out.

Cummon really don't hate. They just spent days setting up all this new stuff and all you have to say is "you ruined miranda in ball" when you could at least say thank you for setting up all this amazing stuff. Community Points, Miranda laser fix, ball fix and all you can say is that they choose the easy way out. I mean, Really?

[HArrier]

Yes i want to ask if there will be a way to purchase these points through paypal or something.

I have 108 points yet i do want more skins and my friends dont click much on my links.

Also why is it that steamplayers can get 100 more points than those who purchased the game while it was $20 and not on steam.

[poofighter24]

Originally Posted by Massi

Cummon really don't hate. They just spent days setting up all this new stuff and all you have to say is "you ruined miranda in ball" when you could at least say thank you for setting up all this amazing stuff. Community Points, Miranda laser fix, ball fix and all you can say is that they choose the easy way out. I mean, Really?

If the staff needs affirmation that badly, I will gladly dispense buttpats to all of them. I paid my :tenbux: for the game, I should be able to freely have my own opinion over any changes made.

If I get infracted or banned or whatever for disagreeing with a change, that's on the mods. I'm voicing my opinion, and I'm not going to sugarcoat.

[Massi]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

If the staff needs affirmation that badly, I will gladly dispense buttpats to all of them. I paid my :tenbux: for the game, I should be able to freely have my own opinion over any changes made.

If I get infracted or banned or whatever for disagreeing with a change, that's on the mods. I'm voicing my opinion, and I'm not going to sugarcoat.

I'm saying its bad, you should tell what you think is wrong and need fixing. But is it really that hard to say thank you for everything they've done? Also its not hard either to say it some way other than "you ruined miranda in ball" maybe "I'm not a fan of the new miranda nerf in ball I think it would be better to keep it the same". Thats all I'm saying I don't want this to turn into a flame war.
~Black

[Snowsickle]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

If the staff needs affirmation that badly, I will gladly dispense buttpats to all of them. I paid my :tenbux: for the game, I should be able to freely have my own opinion over any changes made.

If I get infracted or banned or whatever for disagreeing with a change, that's on the mods. I'm voicing my opinion, and I'm not going to sugarcoat.

You're more than welcome to disagree, but do so in a constructive manner. Insulting the developers' intelligence and devotion to the game because you aren't getting your way is not the way to do it. Your opinion should include reasons why a change was bad, not something that amounts to complete personal bias.

Understand that the developers are catering to a playerbase that includes thousands of players at this point; this game isn't going to be balanced around your personal playstyle. Voice your opinion and move on, but avoid getting emotional over it.

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

Thanks for making the Miranda completely unusable in ball. No, really, it's much simpler to just nerf a plane that is perceived as overpowered when in reality it's just that people can't EMP to save their lives. I'm glad you chose the easy way out.

So you were okay with only 1 plane, and more specially, a plane with a certain perk setup being the only way to stop a miranda in ball? What if the team doesn't have a loopy, then they really can't EMP to save their lives because they don't even have it as a choice!

I think you will see in this patch that even though self pass (aka moving with the ball without reducing your speed) was removed, that overall the game will be more balanced and that miranda will find its role in the ball mode outside of the whole breakaway guaranteed goal.

[lamster]

Miranda's self-pass was nerfed, but with faster passes across the board and much faster loose balls (there's less aerodynamic drag on the ball and less energy lost on bounces) I expect the striker / retriever role to be more important than ever. Miranda's unique maneuverability and instant-teleport should make him ideal for grabbing and redirecting loose balls. Please give the new patch a fair shot, see how Miranda feels after adapting to the role changes, and as always balance will be adjusted once it's clear how everything shakes out.

[DryBone]

Ah......skins. cool

[NastyManatee]

While I think that what poofighter said was harsh, I do agree with his intent. Miranda was only ever truly overpowered in games smaller than 5v5, which is an infinitesimal fraction of actual games, and the entire point of the Miranda's warp was that you get quick warps at the high cost of energy. Warps aren't some hack providing infinite speed for as long as you want, they are and were balanced to begin with.

I talk more about this false perception of overpoweredness in my Miranda ball guide, which is now completely obsolete I might add...

Speaking of which, feel free to delete that post, it's worthless now.

The point is this: If Miranda's were so overpowered in ball, why did only a few people use them? Forcing the few people who didn't play loopy into a loopy doesn't encourage strategy, it does just the opposite.

On the whole, I greatly like this patch, but I think some serious thought needs to be given as to whether Miranda's were overpowered, or if the largely noob ranks of ball players perceived it as overpowered when a few skilled and veteran players used it properly. I hope the decision is reevaluated.

If anything, I can see making it so Miranda's have a shortened warp after passing for a little while, preventing long and sloppy self-passing, but I honestly never saw a problem to begin with.

[tgleaf]

This is definitely exciting. Thank you for all the hard work I'm sure went into this patch. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I look forward to the changes to ball. Like them or not, it will be fun to get used to new strategies and to feel a little like a noob again... that rush, the challenge, etc.

And I agree, let's give these some time before we start commenting (yes, that's coming from someone who debated them _before_ they went live... lol).

[NastyManatee]

And I completely intend to give the patch a shot and share my thoughts, I just wanted to give an initial perception from someone who has put some thought into the matter before right now.

Lam, my guide also talks a bit more about my perception of the self-pass. If you could browse over it I'd appreciate it, it might give a different perspective on the issue.

Thanks.

[AtomikPi]

Originally Posted by lamster

Explodet Remote Mine:
no longer collides with planes, complete control of detonation just like rockets
increased cooldown (0.35 -> 0.66)
increased minimum release->detonation time (0.15 -> 0.30)
reduced blast radius by 4%

Well someone's going to have to start the explodet revolt, so I guess I'll go ahead and do it.

While I don't think anyone will complain about the first and fourth nerfs - the first because the proxy detonation encourages spam and the last because I don't think it's even noticeable - the second and third are pretty substantial nerfs. Playing a bit with the new explo, it does not feel "right" at all - the entire play-style of remote is changed now to be closer to the other red perks. I suppose if you really need to implement one, the second would be less annoying, but it would be preferrable if major balance tweaks like this could start off a bit more gradually instead of immediately pounding us with four substantial nerfs.

[poofighter24]

Originally Posted by nesnl

So you were okay with only 1 plane, and more specially, a plane with a certain perk setup being the only way to stop a miranda in ball? What if the team doesn't have a loopy, then they really can't EMP to save their lives because they don't even have it as a choice!

I think you will see in this patch that even though self pass (aka moving with the ball without reducing your speed) was removed, that overall the game will be more balanced and that miranda will find its role in the ball mode outside of the whole breakaway guaranteed goal.

If your team doesn't have a loopy and you're playing against a miranda, that is your team's problem. Get someone that knows how to EMP to play loopy to counterbalance the miranda. One decent loopy can shut down a miranda extremely easily.

Let me get this straight - you really believe what you're typing with the second part of your post? You really mean to tell me that a miranda that can no longer kill as effectively (weapon nerfed) or survive as long (repair drone nerfed) and can effectively only retrieve balls that aren't under control and throw them up so a teammate can catch them and hopefully score is a "balanced" plane?

Nerfing self-pass on its own.. maybe I would have taken it. But making a plane literally 100% useless in ball? Screw that.

[Herodadotus]

I enjoyed the skins. They were a bit weird to look at for a little bit, but I quickly got used to it. I love the new changes to Laser Miranda. Overall, not being a very avid Miranda or Explodet player, I can't really complain about anything. Very good job!

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by AtomikPi

Well someone's going to have to start the explodet revolt, so I guess I'll go ahead and do it.

While I don't think anyone will complain about the first and fourth nerfs - the first because the proxy detonation encourages spam and the last because I don't think it's even noticeable - the second and third are pretty substantial nerfs. Playing a bit with the new explo, it does not feel "right" at all - the entire play-style of remote is changed now to be closer to the other red perks. I suppose if you really need to implement one, the second would be less annoying, but it would be preferrable if major balance tweaks like this could start off a bit more gradually instead of immediately pounding us with four substantial nerfs.

I played with it and I did not have this reaction, so I am surprised when you say this. I think that one of the most important things that the 2nd and 3rd adjustments (fine, nerfs) did was that they removed explodet mine jumping. I don't know if you have been playing games with me in the past few weeks, but I basically bomb bases from 2 full screen lengths away on some maps.

Also, you mentioned that the new playstyle has been changed so that it is closer to the other red perks, but I think it is the exact opposite. The new cooldown times require you to play it as a remote mine, meaning you place the mine remotely and then detonate it. The playstyle prior to this change was basically a rapid fire explosion out of the backside of the plane. To me, the new changes will force remote mine players to play more skillfully, requiring actual thought in placing mines at specific locations rather than just mashing D and hoping the planes around the explodet die.

[poofighter24]

And for the record, if I even continue playing this game at all, it will be in a loopy. Congrats, you took one of the few people in the game that doesn't play a double-missile loopy and forced him into one. Buttpats all around.

[Herodadotus]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

If your team doesn't have a loopy and you're playing against a miranda, that is your team's problem. Get someone that knows how to EMP to play loopy to counterbalance the miranda. One decent loopy can shut down a miranda extremely easily.

Let me get this straight - you really believe what you're typing with the second part of your post? You really mean to tell me that a miranda that can no longer kill as effectively (weapon nerfed) or survive as long (repair drone nerfed) and can effectively only retrieve balls that aren't under control and throw them up so a teammate can catch them and hopefully score is a "balanced" plane?

Nerfing self-pass on its own.. maybe I would have taken it. But making a plane literally 100% useless in ball? Screw that.

Since I'm not a Miranda player at heart, I'm not going to argue any of the points made here. But I think you probably need to calm down a bit. Once you get rid of the indignant tone, maybe people won't be responding in this way.

EDIT: Please chill out. Seriously, play TBD or something if you don't want to play DP loopy. That's what I do when I'm not in the mood to play Acid Loopy.

[tyr]

Ok so we played a few rounds of ball. I only used loopy, as usual, but I watched the other planes carefully.

- Loopy's role doesnt seem to have changed a lot. It's still fast, still has good dps, and still has 0 health. It can still recover the ball quickly but doesn't survive very long in the middle of the action while being able to deal quite a lot of damage if nobody's shooting at you.
I like this.

- Biplane seems to be much better. It used to be almost good, but after watching GGQ do some amazing stuff with biplane, it now seems perfect.

- Bomber seemed okay. As it ever is. For me it kinda always felt that bomber isn't really the right plane for ball. Its special attack pattern combined to his fatitude and slowness made it relatively useless in my eyes. I think it's a bit better now. It can serve as a solid ball carrier and passer. Needs more testing before I can be 100% sure but at a first glance it seemed good.

- Explodet ... Hmmm. Many people were using explodet in the dozen or so rounds we played. There were like .. 35% explodets, 25% loopies, and the rest for the 3 other planes pretty equal.
Surprisingly, it didn't make the game much slower than it used to be, and that's very very good stuff. This means that explodets are now definitely good planes for ball, who can do their goalkeeper job very well (they're still as fat and slow as they used to be, attacking with an explodet isn't very wise, but they're obviously good passers). So yeah, good changes here, imo.

- Miranda .. aaaah, miranda.
Seemed perfect to me ! PERFECT.
Mikesol was still extremely scary with his time anchor but not as unstoppable as before. It definitely isn't useless as some people might say, but it is no longer OP. As lamster just said, randa users will just have to rediscover their role in ball, and not just limit it to pass+warp until you score a goal.
Welcome to the real world.

Ok so I think you see that I really like the changes that have been made to planeball so far. I guess it'll need more testing but after those games, it seemed very good.

What I like a bit less though is the perpetual spamming of "unlock the skin !" on the main menu. Seriously, I get it, please disappear now. And it still comes back.
Please make it so it doesnt appear so often ... It really is annoying.

[HArrier]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

And for the record, if I even continue playing this game at all, it will be in a loopy. Congrats, you took one of the few people in the game that doesn't play a double-missile loopy and forced him into one. Buttpats all around.

You are obviously not a good person. You need to appriciate more what you get.

Ps thnks for the skins and for the boost on the comunitypoints of the game. Lam i need to know how i will get my 300 pints since i introduced a friend of mine into the game. He asked me to buy him the game but how will i get the ppoints for that?

[Massi]

Originally Posted by poofighter24

And for the record, if I even continue playing this game at all, it will be in a loopy. Congrats, you took one of the few people in the game that doesn't play a double-missile loopy and forced him into one. Buttpats all around.

I said that was the last time i would talk the last time (lol). First no one forced you to play loopy, play explodet, miranda, biplane, bomber, and yes miranda even play acid. Just try to play TBD maybe and play other planes. They are all equally balanced but you apparently don't like to go "out-of-the-box" and try new things. Practice and you will get better at other planes. Just because you aren't good at other planes without tracking doesn't mean you need to take it out on the devs.

[eth]

I'll just start off by saying thanks a lot, this is probably the biggest patch I've seen to date.. really impressive!

Anyway, my thoughts:

- Remote may have been nerfed a bit too hard. The overlapping cooldowns leaves you extremely vulnerable for long periods of time, so if you don't get your enemy(ies) thrown off course with your first mine, you're most likely screwed. But I'll have to play some more before I can like say "yes, it is terrible". Just my opinion right now after trying it for some 15 mins.

- The trickster nerf is nice as it reduces a luck aspect in the game, and I think most players are not big fans of getting killed by luck. I never really had any complaints against trickster in the first place(except maybe that), so yeah. Nice one.

- Laser buff - meh. Again I didn't really feel anything about laser before the patch.. I had great success with it before. But either way this buff seems extremely minor, so no complaints here either!

- All of the Ball stuff seems amazing so far, it really does. Faster passing is definitely a better thing, as you can do a lot of cool stuff with it(especially so in 5-6-7v7). However - and this is probably my biggest gripe so far, which became more prominent after the patch - ball(and TBD for that matter) scales terribly with the amount of players in a game. The more players you have, the more dominant heavy planes become(as they offer insane map control compared to light planes), and then you end up with 4 bombers and 6 explodets just spamming/mining up the entire map, because that is simply the easiest and best way to win. That also kinda negates the new changes, because ball passing speed doesn't really matter all that much when you have these clumps of mines and planes and spam everywhere - there's just not much room for cool maneuvering and passes. I have absolutely no idea how to fix this though(except play 5v5/6v6, where the balance between heavy/light planes is much better), so.. anyway. Please give that some consideration, as matches with pure heavy planes fighting aren't very fun.

- The miranda self-pass nerf is obviously very good, as 99% players agree with(referring to the flamer above), and it is still amazing in ball(except now you need to make some good passes).

Lastly, skins are absolutely ****ing awesome, don't really have much more to say on it than that! ^^ Thanks again!

[ryebone]

Steering clear from the flamebait several posts above, it must be mentioned that while the background for clocktower is pretty, it's extremely difficult to see where the collidable edges are, as well as peoples names above planes..

[Triped]

Really nice patch, guys. The new ball changes are going to make the upcoming tourney a lot more interesting.

[r87]

Originally Posted by eth

- All of the Ball stuff seems amazing so far, it really does. Faster passing is definitely a better thing, as you can do a lot of cool stuff with it(especially so in 5-6-7v7). However - and this is probably my biggest gripe so far, which became more prominent after the patch - ball(and TBD for that matter) scales terribly with the amount of players in a game. The more players you have, the more dominant heavy planes become(as they offer insane map control compared to light planes), and then you end up with 4 bombers and 6 explodets just spamming/mining up the entire map, because that is simply the easiest and best way to win. That also kinda negates the new changes, because ball passing speed doesn't really matter all that much when you have these clumps of mines and planes and spam everywhere - there's just not much room for cool maneuvering and passes. I have absolutely no idea how to fix this though(except play 5v5/6v6, where the balance between heavy/light planes is much better), so.. anyway. Please give that some consideration, as matches with pure heavy planes fighting aren't very fun.

This, emphatically.

It is expected on a 10v10 public server that you will take some hits (which slow you down) on a scoring run. Now, you have zero chance of finishing that run because of how much slower your plane is.

Also, getting emp'd when you have the ball = wow.

edit 1: Ball_woods is the first map I have encountered that shows how infuriating the ball carry speed changes are. A map where you are already going slow with the ball because of how often you have to go up up up is now absolutely ridiculous.

[mikesol]

Ok so I've played for awhile - did 2 scrims against IL and a bunch of ball matches (although it hasn't been a huge time since the patch).

My impressions:

1) Miranda self pass - while saddening that it's gone - is not such a big deal to me. It makes it so passing is much more part of the game and I'm excited about that. As much fun as it was to be able to dodge entire enemy teams and fly across maps - I think it's nice that I have a purpose of passing the ball.

2) The Miranda 35% longer while holding annoys me. However, it's not a game breaker. It doesn't make the plane unplayable - although it is definitely a decent nerf to my plane.

3) The repair + time anchor thing I think is overkill. Ok take away self-pass, take away bounce shot, take away my ability to anchor quicker but seriously? The time anchor's secondary ability is all about anchoring. It's ridiculous that repair is stopped because of this. It's basically like I can either play the plane without doing any movement at all or I can anchor and lose the whole point of repair. While it is touching people felt like the miranda is so op that ALL of this was needed I just feel like this is the wrong way to go about it. It reminds me of how laser was nerfed so badly after Maimer pwned so many people with it that it was underpowered for a long time. If you want to make it so I can't repair and anchor give us SOMETHING in return (more hp, faster movement, etc). The Miranda really doesn't need all of these nerfs. Really this is the biggest upset of mine in this patch.

4) Skins annoy me (Although I am glad that you can shut them off). My issue is that I can't tell what color team people are on when they have them on (at least the ones I've seen). In other words, for us color-blind people skins are frustrating and not usable in their current state.

5) The community points thing really bugs me. I have shared this game with all of my friends back in the day. I have posted it on facebook. I have bought the game when it was $20. I've made a significant guide and contributed a lot through suggestions and posts here. I've won a screenshot contest. Yet, despite all of that, I have 1 community point. 1. It just seems unfair / ridiculous to me that I have to go out and spam stuff and that pretty much my only option is figuring out how to abuse the system because I've already done all of the community stuff way back in the day. Yes, I get you want to spread the game. Yes, I get that people need motivation for spreading it. However, there should more things to gain community points. I'm not trying to be stuck up or anything but I feel that I have contributed more than "1 point" to the community.

[nesnl]

Originally Posted by ryebone

Steering clear from the flamebait above, it must be mentioned that while the background for clocktower is pretty, it's extremely difficult to see where the collidable edges are, as well as peoples names above planes..

I thought that issue with clocktower got fixed... I will talk to pig and see if I can get him to make an updated version.

[poofighter24]

Originally Posted by Massi

I said that was the last time i would talk the last time (lol). First no one forced you to play loopy, play explodet, miranda, biplane, bomber, and yes miranda even play acid. Just try to play TBD maybe and play other planes. They are all equally balanced but you apparently don't like to go "out-of-the-box" and try new things. Practice and you will get better at other planes. Just because you aren't good at other planes without tracking doesn't mean you need to take it out on the devs.

If I wanted to play TBD, I would play TBD. I don't see the relevancy in the self-passing nerf on TBD, since you can't, you know, self-pass.

If the point was to nerf mirandas in general, then the nerfs other than the nerf to self-passing would have been sufficient. Instead, they took the miranda in ball, bent it over, and screwed its brains out.

I heard Sarah Palin say in game (not calling you out, just sayin') that Mikesol didn't think the nerf was bad, so it obviously wasn't bad. Apparently, Mikesol represents every single miranda player that has ever played the game and I should be ejaculating just at the mention of his name. However, his opinion is not the opinion that matters in this case. He's purportedly the best miranda player in altitude right now - are you suggesting that in order to be able to use the miranda at all, you have to be as good as mikesol? Really?

[Vi*]

Love love love love love patch.

Explodet does not feel nerfed to me. I love the faster rockets, and the mine cooldown is incredibly reasonable. It really only keeps you from boosting yourself around, and I love that it doesn't insta-splode on enemies who are behind me. At least in my play style, remote mine just got substantially buffed. And it really feels good to play now.

[poofighter24]

After reading mikesol's post, I actually agree with most of what he's saying (hopefully that counteracts some of the digs I posted earlier >_>)

Although I agree that the miranda probably deserved a nerf, I disagree that it should have been nerfed to the point to where it's absolutely useless in ball unless you have a ridiculous skill level with the plane. If you just took away either the plane's time anchor and repair drone functionality and left selfpass, I would be okay with it. If you took out selfpass but left time anchor and repair drone alone, I would be okay with it. Take out both, and you have a plane that can't maneuver even as well as a biplane, is easily killed, and can't avoid damage.

wat?

[Herodadotus]

If I wanted to play TBD, I would play TBD. I don't see the relevancy in the self-passing nerf on TBD, since you can't, you know, self-pass.

If the point was to nerf mirandas in general, then the nerfs other than the nerf to self-passing would have been sufficient. Instead, they took the miranda in ball, bent it over, and screwed its brains out.

I heard Sarah Palin say in game (not calling you out, just sayin') that Mikesol didn't think the nerf was bad, so it obviously wasn't bad. Apparently, Mikesol represents every single miranda player that has ever played the game and I should be ejaculating just at the mention of his name. However, his opinion is not the opinion that matters in this case. He's purportedly the best miranda player in altitude right now - are you suggesting that in order to be able to use the miranda at all, you have to be as good as mikesol? Really?

That's faulty logic. Even though I respect Mikesol and his opinions, just because he thought that self-pass wasn't op doesn't make it a fact. For almost every other player that didn't play miranda, self-passing takes no skill at all, and just irritates everyone. Your logic is like stating "If a Penguin is a bird, and an Eagle is a bird, and Eagles can fly for long distances, then Penguins can too." I think that the repair drone nerf is unfair, but the self-pass is one of the updates that is better for the Altitude community as a whole, imo.

EDIT: People are posting really fast. Two posts shot by when I was posting. And that last post of yours was well thought out. As stated earlier, I believe that the repair drone/time anchor update was unnecessary.

[r87]

Been playing for a bit now...

Aside from the obvious annoyance of being slowed down by the ball, shot speed makes previously difficult shots incredibly easy.

[Nikon]

this update is great!! I think that you should make more skins if you didn't think of that yet, and that you should be able to unlock skins by getting kills and stuff. Also you should make the levels be able to go up to like 200 that would be cool. Thanks for the update!! and Altitude ROCKS!!!!


Nikon..

[Slevin]

Originally Posted by lamster

Explodet (all forms):
increased rocket acceleration by 10%

Explodet Remote Mine:
-no longer collides with planes, complete control of detonation just like
rockets
-increased cooldown (0.35 -> 0.66)
-increased minimum release->detonation time (0.15 -> 0.30)
-reduced blast radius by 4%

This is to much, why explodet suffer the most? i can accept the rest, but please make the cooldown and the minimum release back o normal, i beg u please! PLEASE! Nerf loops! their emp blast radius! is still annoying, and ppl still abuse the tracker, nerf that instead killing the "whale" with all of this.

Love the rest of the update especially the fps/ping indicator, love them. Maybe u can add them on console command so its easier to turn it on/off? The new planes skin look awesome! Great job, except on explodet! Hate it! Change the cooldown and the minimum release back to normal please, its already too much for us Explodet player, Please i beg you please.. SAVE THE WHALE!!!

[GGQ]

I highly approve of this patch all around.

I know some people are a little miffed at how many community points they need to unlock all the skins, but I think the developers intend for most people to only unlock a couple for their favourite planes, so you actually have to make a choice about which skin to unlock. I know I will only be taking stripes/shark for my biplane and then largely ignoring the rest; not worth the effort to farm the points for me.

i love the nerfs to time anchor with the ball/bomb, but nerfing repair might be overboard. Miranda will still have a role in ball without the self-pass. Sorry, nastymanatee, but self-pass was just silly.

Biplane can finally be used legitimately in Ball; the difference between playing a loopy or biplane in Ball now feels much like the difference between playing them in TBD. There's a trade-off no matter which you pick, rather than loopy being the only choice. I still wouldn't mind seeing a very slight nerf to double-fire either in dps or in its auto-aim in the future.

The nerfs to remote felt good as a recoilless biplane, but I haven't tried remote with the changes yet. Anyways, yay for patch.