First Impressions Thread

[Esoteric]

If anyone wants to just toss out their initial impressions of the game, this is probably a good place to do it.


Graphics are nice. Dug the style, looked professional and smooth without giving much in the way of clarity.

Engine boost will take a lot of getting used to.
The power-up you're holding isn't as noticeable to me on screen as the original, possibly just what I'm used to, but maybe bottom right isn't as good as top left? Seems like most FPS and RPG games have health and such in the top left corner of the screen. Might just take a little getting used to.

-Plane impressions-
Biplane: Seems about the same, solid plane of days past.

Explodet: Mines are better but rockets seem to lack to power that they used to have both in damage and in knockback. Furthermore, with the new engine boost it seems easier to get out of stall. Might just be placing them wrong. Also, the 'det is a much fatter target now. Unfortunate.

Bomber: Seems mostly the same, possibly the bombs were a little stronger/easier to hit with. Or people aren't good at dodging them yet. Good times. Lots of kamikazes with point blank bombs though.

Loopy: Didn't play him much, but seemed solid and mostly the same. EMP is downgrade of Woodstock, but serves a similar purpose.

Miranda: Past two versions of Miranda are now stapled together. Seemed very good, lots of "front-ended" damage and never able to be chased. Weak in point-blank dogfights, as it is likely meant to be. Couldn't get the hang of the engine boost blinking the Miranda forward nor the reverse in combat situations, but that's probably to be expected.

Power-ups being dropped off planes is interesting, but it seems like there's just too many of them. Health being dropped in small packets was very welcome.


Was definitely fun, I'll give it another go tomorrow.

[JamesTechno]

First off I'd like to say that I'm Protoman, going under another title. I'm happy to once again be part of the altitude community.

My first impression of the game was simply put: "Holy crap!". It looks, plays, feels, and sounds so much better. It could be a real game now! I love the afterburner. I love the fixes on each plane. I love the new style. It's all so great.

I look foward to seeing this finished.

[KRYPTYK]

I like the look and feel of the game. It reminds me of Worms with its style.
I noticed that the sky is too low for more dogfight action.

[Vi*]

After I revived from my swooning fit, managed to stop screaming, and actually downloaded the game, and before it crashed on me, my impressions:

Noisy and chaotic! New and nostalgic! Just like an overcrowded grasslands but in THE FUTURE.

Looks very bubbly. I'll admit I miss the sleeker cleaner simpler (crappier) old graphics. It looks plenty more professional now, but my biplanes, she has changed! Not sure how much of it is me being resistant to change and how much of it is not liking the graphics.

Planes feel mostly the same. Not sure I like the boost... it changes the dynamic of wanting to face downwards to get out of a stall into a dynamic of wanting to face up and boost out. Kinda kills all the fun of stalling, doesn't it? Will take getting used to.

Oh miranda's fire1 is lovely! All the fun of a lazer combined with the expectant waiting of the not-new-anymore one. Haven't found good use for the other two abilities yet, but I imagine they'll come in handy.

Too many players to get in a good dogfight, and always tons of interference, so I make no judgments yet. I'll agree that there's too many powerups floating around, though. Maybe it'd be different in a less crowded game. Also, I miss landing at the base!

I can't wait for a nice old fashioned FFA. I'm looking forwards to watching little ol' biplanes grow up...

[Ajplagge]

I hear you on the thrust killing the old stall and fall routine : ( but out with the old and in with the new

This is probably just me not used to it yet but I feel thrust might be better off with its own button, I end up thrusting a lot when I just want to go to full throttle.

Also I was playing around and I noticed sometimes I can fly straight up seemingly forever without stalling or thrusting, in fact I was only at about half throttle. It only happened occasionally, usually shortly after starting, this was with the biplane. With the low ceiling though hard to tell if it was really a bug.

Also you can occasionally, actually quite rarely, boost through obstacles with miranda. Don't know if thats by design.

-Bob-

[Blank]

Originally Posted by Ajplagge

I end up thrusting a lot when I just want to go to full throttle.

I have this same problem... in bed.

[King!]

Originally Posted by Blank

I have this same problem... in bed.

Funny, I always thought you were a catcher.

[Blank]

okay so serious thoughts. Most of these are small nitpicks though:

Graphics are cool, I like the new look. Turrets are the only thing that look kinda meh but whatever.

Planes: Miranda's laser is OP :[ The damage is just silly, especially when stacked/in larger games. It's just far too easy to use for the damage it deals, you just rub this giant beam up against me and destroy me -_- Especially sucks for "clumped" battles. Other planes seem okay... bomber still sucks but thrust does help. I think explodet mines will need a tweak of some sort, the duration/chase can be pretty ridiculous. Loopy seems to be kinda nerfed, the slow turning isn't nearly as chaotic as woodstock's knockaround/radius.

End game stat screen: needs to stick around longer. Granted, half of it doesn't seem to work yet... it'd be nice if it lasted longer with a "ready" button or something, so that if everyone hit it you'd go right into the next game or if not, it would just countdown.

Map specific: Needs to be larger/more open space. It's pretty cramped when you have more than 2on2 going on.

Powerups: Too many and randomly selected = blah. A wall in a larger game tends to be much less useful than a rocket... and having every single dude drop something is over-the-top. I personally prefered the old method of randomly spawned areas, it also helped spread out the combat (well not so much on Grasslands, but cave, etc) which helps in larger games.

Arrows: I actually like the game without arrows. Thought I would of liked them in there but meh... better without. Might suck for small games on large maps though.

Roar!

Blank

[Vi*]

After a bit more playing, I'd have to say that Miranda is pretty sick. A bit too sick, perhaps. The whole game is still a bit crowded and confusing and chaotic to me, though. I'd really really like to see some different maps.

Big problem to me: the throttle changes too slowly. When I press down, I want it to go DOWN. It takes way too long to be useful in battle. It is much slower than it used to be, isn't it?

[Karl]

Originally Posted by Blank

Turrets are the only thing that look kinda meh but whatever.

turret is nothing more than a piece of concept are w/ a color layer blended over it o_O... aka it's not done.

http://www.nimblygames.com/art/concepts_turret01.png

[King!]

Ok, finally got to play without lag today on jawas server(nice map btw).
I know that generally packets going to/from other universities are not delayed so thats probably the reason. (Though hes off campus, geneseo is a small campus so they might use the same isp?)

Anyway things weren't too much different from high ping play, the most noticeable differences being items picked up faster and to a lesser extent deaths kicked in sooner.

Thoughts:
-Graphics are awesome, whoever made them rocks, please have him make the classic levels( cave, glands and i guess city(w/o that gay top part?))
-I liked arrows, and would like them back, at least for teammates
-I also liked power-ups at specific locations, though dropping them on death is a cool too. (maybe only drop if you have one?)
-I like boost and I like classic(maybe good for a server option)
-Emp is not nearly as entertaining as woody(what will we do without all the people crying about the "****ing bird" etc.)
-I like old(bounce/warp) miranda style better. Reverse is a cool idea though.

and the obvious:
-Bots need to leave once more than 1 player has joined
-console/commands would be nice
-dedicated server? (this seems to be in, but it seems you need two different accounts to play at the same time(it closed server when i booted up altitude), and I had to edit an xml file(ooo scary))
-time limit for maps with no bases

[Snowsickle]

Played for a few days now, so far:

Biplane: Feels about the same, if not a tiny bit weaker - afterburners make closing on people a bit harder due to more maneuverability. Still does an insane amount of damage, so weapons are fine. Still potent in good hands so I dunno that it really needs a change, although slightly quicker turning might help a bit.

Loopy: Haven't really played with it much, seems fine. Emp is neat and frustrating as hell to get hit by, but not quite as powerful as woodstock.

Explodet: I love it. Extremely potent, but still requires decent missile/mine placement to be effective. Missiles are great as they are, but I agree that mines could possibly use a tweak. (A slight nerf in aggro range or a decrease in overall size or something?)

Miranda: Been said already, new laser feels way too strong. Reverse is neat but doesn't seem all that practical most of the time.

Bomber: Still basically a max height + bomb spam plane, not sure what to change here. It can do alright but I never feel like the kills are really planned, they just sort of happen.

--

Overall, one of the things I kind of miss about the original altitude is the plane sizes. In the new version planes/projectiles are quite a bit bigger and things end up feeling quite cluttered, especially when you start getting 6+ people in a game. I feel like resizing stuff a bit (75% of current or so?) would be helpful and would also provide the tweak necessary to explodet mines.

Not a fan of the new powerup system either. Having missiles so common makes for a lot of one-two shotting. I prefer fixed locations personally.

Oh and I love afterburners. It makes dogfighting a hell of a lot more interesting. Originally I was kind of opposed to it using energy but I've grown to like it. It's a decent decision to have to make during a fight.

Arrows coming back would be nice, as would landing/stars/etc, but I think all of that is on the to-do list anyway. Team deathmatch/FFA deathmatch gametype would be pretty fun - with "play to 50/100/150" settings or something like that. Simple "kill people forever for the hell of it" gametype like oldschool cave would be nice as well.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by King!

-dedicated server? (this seems to be in, but it seems you need two different accounts to play at the same time(it closed server when i booted up altitude), and I had to edit an xml file(ooo scary))

so create a new account?...

only playing the game requires a key. server accounts do not.

[ZellSF]

Let's see:

1: Graphics look really nice, hope more maps looking like the default comes out
2: All the planes feel pretty great, loopy's secondary might need some improvement though
3: All the features that are unimplemented yet are all things that are needed (ffa, landing, stars, more powerups)
4: Afterburners are a nice idea, but even if you fly straight upwards it takes way too long for you to stall even without afterburners
5: There is no grasslands remake with clouds I can hide in yet
6: No way to see kills/deaths ratio?
7: Friends system is very nice, hope there'll someday be enough players for it to be useful
8: Higher resolutions would be awesome
9: health powerups being dropped from planes is sort of annoying, I like just dealing damage to enemies and leave the rest to my teamplayers, now if I do that they'll just recover instantly.

Looks pretty awesome though, as long as it won't be abandoned again soon

[Christian]

just having played for only about 15 minutes an I'm amazed
This version of altitude is really great
It looks plays and sounds so much better.

Nice work

Greetz