Patch: June 22nd, biplane buff, miscellaneous improvements

[andy]

Thanks for listening to the community so much, i hope the TA nerf is enough to balance it, and thanks for giving back a bit of repair to the other randas, i think its right to have 50% repair rate. The biplane buff could work.
Only thing i dislike is asteroids please bring the old version back, we dont like cheeseroids, its too dark.

[Kuja900]

Originally Posted by andy

Thanks for listening to the community so much, i hope the TA nerf is enough to balance it, and thanks for giving back a bit of repair to the other randas, i think its right to have 50% repair rate. The biplane buff could work.
Only thing i dislike is asteroids please bring the old version back, we dont like cheeseroids, its too dark.

It really just looks comical now and it loses the cool feel the old map had aesthetically, please bring old roids back .

[matrin]

Originally Posted by nobodyhome

tbd_asteroids: looks ugly imho, but i'll probably get used to it pretty fast. the bigger problem is that hitting the ceiling = megahurtz! no good.

it looks ugly imho also,lol but seriously it does

[mikesol]

My thoughts on the patch

1) My biggest complaint is asteroids. The background is horrific - especially to a color blind person. While I inherently know what paths are there and what aren't I sometimes find myself stumbling when it looks like I'm approaching an asteroid that's not really there. The asteroids themselves look pretty bad as well. I greatly preferred the old roids no offense.

2) Biplane's spam and damage is very noticeable. They are definitely amazing killers which makes lag that much worse as I can't avoid the attack at all. However, I still don't see them serving that much of a purpose in competitive play. As eth already said, there are plenty of other planes that are good for killing that would serve more points over the bip. Note that I've only played a few games, though.

3) Miranda time anchor repair is annoying in a few very select scenarios but overall seems reasonable.

[Wok3N^]

<3 <3 <3 Yes!!!

[nesnl]

I checked out the new asteroids and I have to say that the greyed out asteroids are a bad choice. They look collidable and if I hadn't played asteroids 100000 times then I would probably fly around them. I think if you are going to include asteroids in the background then you should have them parallax, but in my opinion you should just remove those ones.

[Stormich]

EDIT: I'm stupid lol

Thanks for the miranda repair fix though, and also please get asteroids back the way it was

[Demuyt]

thanks a lot for this!

[silent skies]

Need old 'roids back.

Liking the biplane buffs, but... yeah, what they said. Perhaps it would be appropriate to toy around w/ 'support plane' ideas on the biplane. eth's smokescreen idea is good.

Originally Posted by eth

and buff the short range gun significantly.

Give it a piercing shotgun. :O

[Fartface]

Originally Posted by lamster

Miranda's Reverse no longer temporarily disables Repair Drone
Miranda's Reverse and Time Anchor now reduce Repair Drone's recharge rate by 50% (time between repairs is doubled for the 1.35 seconds following Reverse/TimeAnchor activation)

This update is amazing except, in my opinion, for this part. Now that you have reversed that update, players can once again reverse with trickster or laser over and over again in 1DM until they heal, which is pretty much cheap.

Otherwise, this update is amazing. thanks a lot

[B0T 2]

there is a bug in the new asteroids map. whenever u touch the sky (the top of the map) u die instantly.

[Evan20000]

Originally Posted by B0T 2

there is a bug in the new asteroids map. whenever u touch the sky (the top of the map) u die instantly.

A little late to the party.

[KiAnXineki]

REAL GOOD Comunity!!
posible solvent --->http://altitudegame.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3873 ???

Impresionant!!!!

[DiogenesDog]

On Asteroids -

- Agree that the background asteroids are confusing.

- Feel like the foreground art is improved. The old version was so frickin ugly, god. Worst looking map ever.

- More importantly, quit dicking around with map art and fix the horrible, amateurish icons in the server list. They're so bad. SO BAD. And it's a bad impression that EVERYONE gets pretty much every time they open the game, plus the work to improve them is negligible. I'm really starting to think that Karlam secretly has a grudge against me and isn't fixing them just to thwart me.


EDIT: In a weird reversal from how things normally are, it was very distracting while testing but not at all while playing in ladder. Still though, apparently enough ppl find it problematic to ditch the background.

[elxir]

Originally Posted by nesnl

I checked out the new asteroids and I have to say that the greyed out asteroids are a bad choice. They look collidable and if I hadn't played asteroids 100000 times then I would probably fly around them. I think if you are going to include asteroids in the background then you should have them parallax, but in my opinion you should just remove those ones.

http://i46.tinypic.com/b54sa0.jpg

[Flight 666]

roof, fix it pls.

[Fartface]

Originally Posted by Kuja900

The biplane used to have a niche in competitive play as a bomb runner before the community metagamed out of it, I think thats a niche it could fill again. Perhaps some kind of unique feature like an advantage against emp (turning or thrust) or something else mobility related to help it regain this role would help its viability.

That's a good idea. I don't think biplane has much of a chance in becoming extremely useful in any aspect of TBD except for bomb running, so changing it in this manner would encourage biplane runners.

Also, it would hopefully draw players away from playing loopies with their spam.

[Sarah Palin]

The new biplane buff is very nice. Bip is definitely viable in ball now (with good players, just like any other plane).

Please change the asteroids background back (but keep the foreground, it's more cartoony lookin which fits with the other maps).

[A Nipple]

Originally Posted by silent skies

Need old 'roids back.

Liking the biplane buffs, but... yeah, what they said. Perhaps it would be appropriate to toy around w/ 'support plane' ideas on the biplane. eth's smokescreen idea is good.



Give it a piercing shotgun. :O

smoke screen sounds pretty cool, duno how it would work =S it coyuld be like gunpowder ash as a result of close combat fire which has radius smaller than loop acid like half to 3 quarters (just a random estimate) and causes damage! it would make sense a little to with the biplane being an old war plane!

[A Nipple]

Originally Posted by Fartface

This update is amazing except, in my opinion, for this part. Now that you have reversed that update, players can once again reverse with trickster or laser over and over again in 1DM until they heal, which is pretty much cheap.

Otherwise, this update is amazing. thanks a lot

thats true, but to be fair a strong majority of community play tbd/ball/coop etc!

nip a la nip

[pig_bomb]

It is still by far the best bomb runner and completely viable in 5v5 on any team bomb map.

I completely support the new asteroids. Nice work though making the background roids paralax is a good call. Would really like to see you guys make a new map some time.

[Herodadotus]

Very nice patch overall, thank you guys!

[Vania]

The new asteroids looks great.

I appreciate the buffs to biplane, but that wont make it viable for league TBD, except for HC.
(Dogfighter/Recoiless are completely different from HC, I dont understand why you keep treating them as the same)


The piercing damage for secondary is quite useless, the enemy planes would have to be stacked right on top of each other for that to be useful.

Buffing the afterburner is definitely the way to go, although just 5% isnt noticeable. I would get rid of all the other buffs and just make the afterburner a lot better.

[EspadaV8]

Since this patch I've been getting loads of lag spikes when the ping will go up to 999, as where before and normally the ping to the server is <100 and usually <50. I've asked in some of the games I've been playing and it seems that other people have been getting this too.

Any idea if it's related to the patch or if there's anything else to check what's going on (I've got no downloads or other computers using the network).

Thanks

[tyr]

Originally Posted by Vania

The piercing damage for secondary is quite useless, the enemy planes would have to be stacked right on top of each other for that to be useful.

I have to disagree, I find the piercing quite useful in some situations, even in 5v5 tbd. You just have to find the perfect positioning to use it to the maximum. Biplane is even more about positioning than it used to be, but it definitely isnt useless.

[mlopes]

Originally Posted by tyr

I have to disagree, I find the piercing quite useful in some situations, even in 5v5 tbd. You just have to find the perfect positioning to use it to the maximum. Biplane is even more about positioning than it used to be, but it definitely isnt useless.

Plus with piercing biplane is more of a kille, more kills = more health packs = increased map range.

We now don't need to go back to base so often, and not only have the advantage of beeing "deadlier" (do this word even exists?) but we also pick more health, so we survive longer. This buff has several implications outside of the pure weapon power on 1 vs 1 fights.

[Ctrl Alt Destroy]

Originally Posted by lamster

This patch contains some significant buffs for the biplane.

Awesome!!!! Thank. You. Lamster. i love the biplane, and this should help.

Originally Posted by lamster

Biplane (Heavy Cannon) primary weapon increased piercing second hit damage from 50% to 67%

I'm a HC/rev trust biplane user, and i originally thought this would do little to help, but I've got several double kills from HC hitting the next plane! Yay! xD

[protest boy]

Ahh, neat someone with artistic talent finally replaced the graphics. The foreground looks great, and so does the background for that matter...but just like others have said, the background is too distracting and needs to be adjusted somehow.

Love the biplane buffs. Personally I don't think it was necessary but I'm all for having my favorite plane pumped into a more effective killing machine.

I suggested a long time ago some sort of a "sky writing" perk for biplane. The biplane would release a trail of clouds behind it that would hang in the air and dissipate after a period of time. Enemy planes cannot see what is under the cloud. You could hide yourself, your teammates, or nothing! Enemies would not know whether to fire or when to fire into the cloud (use it as cover for a bomb push for example). I think it would be neat also if the cloud spreads wide enough to slightly overlap foreground objects.

I see a perk like this being very useful in all game modes.

[hurripilot]

I'd be down to replace Dogfighter's secondary with Protest's idea, sounds like an interesting game dynamic.

[nobodyhome]

Protest, the problem with such a effects-driven perk is that the biplane has always been the protoss of altitude: it is the plane for real men. Something so fancy schmancy does not fit in with the pure manliness that is the biplane, who's primary weapon's only purpose is to deal damage and the secondary weapon's only purpose is to deal even more damage.

[protest boy]

Originally Posted by nobodyhome

Protest, the problem with such a effects-driven perk is that the biplane has always been the protoss of altitude: it is the plane for real men. Something so fancy schmancy does not fit in with the pure manliness that is the biplane, who's primary weapon's only purpose is to deal damage and the secondary weapon's only purpose is to deal even more damage.

Oh, I agree. And I would add that the manliness of the biplane is also enhanced due to the simplicity of the weaponry (i.e. no homing, splash, bouncing, etc.). Either you aim well and survive, or you miss and get punished!

I am totally fine with the biplane the way it is now. I personally believe it has utility in TBD as not only the best bomb runner but also for its damage/agility combination.

However, there are some nancy boys who are incapable of taking a grenade to the face, dodging several explodet mines, and then still manage to take out the bomb runner and diffuse the bomb. It's for these, less battle hardened flyers, that a smoke screen may be of some utility.

[Vania]

I'd be down to replace Dogfighter's secondary with Protest's idea, sounds like an interesting game dynamic.

Hurri, you mean replace Dogfighter's primary.

The long range gun is the primary. (F)
The short range machinegun is the secondary. (D)


Also, Tyr, I guess I would have to see you play. The secondary "kill-zone" is so short and narrow that I have no idea how it could hit multiple planes, unless they're stacked like mutas.

[hurripilot]

No I meant secondary, but w/e. For the record, I agree with both Protest and Nobo. Bipe is the man plane, but the little sally-boys want to QQ about it because they lack the mental and testicular fortitude to use it appropriately.

[A Nipple]

Originally Posted by nobodyhome

Protest, the problem with such a effects-driven perk is that the biplane has always been the protoss of altitude: it is the plane for real men. Something so fancy schmancy does not fit in with the pure manliness that is the biplane, who's primary weapon's only purpose is to deal damage and the secondary weapon's only purpose is to deal even more damage.

I'd have to disagree, the plane is just on the cover of pictures. For noobs and potential people who might buy the game they're not going to know anything about history etc etc and i think they wouldn't be all to bothered either. Whatever makes the game more competitive and exciting is what I am for!

[hurripilot]

Biplane is a great playstyle to have in this game because every other playstyle is gimmick driven. Explo pushes planes around in ridiculous ways and heaves floating mines out it's ass, Loopy shoots little balls of electricity that magically cripple any plane, etc. Biplane is just a straight-forward, no-nonsense way to play the game, that's what it's appeal is. Honestly, if Biplane wasn't in the game or it's playstyle was changed to something gimmicky, I would stop playing. For some of us, Biplane's simplicity IS fun, nip

[Greekjr14]

Originally Posted by hurripilot

Biplane is a great playstyle to have in this game because every other playstyle is gimmick driven. Explo pushes planes around in ridiculous ways and heaves floating mines out it's ass, Loopy shoots little balls of electricity that magically cripple any plane, etc. Biplane is just a straight-forward, no-nonsense way to play the game, that's what it's appeal is. Honestly, if Biplane wasn't in the game or it's playstyle was changed to something gimmicky, I would stop playing. For some of us, Biplane's simplicity IS fun, nip

I feel the same way %100

[Vania]

Biplane is a great playstyle to have in this game because every other playstyle is gimmick driven. Explo pushes planes around in ridiculous ways and heaves floating mines out it's ass, Loopy shoots little balls of electricity that magically cripple any plane, etc. Biplane is just a straight-forward, no-nonsense way to play the game, that's what it's appeal is. Honestly, if Biplane wasn't in the game or it's playstyle was changed to something gimmicky, I would stop playing. For some of us, Biplane's simplicity IS fun, nip

I know, if there was no biplane altitude would be sooo bad.


BTW, I was playing dogfighter today and the damage increase is noticeable.

But I would still prefer an afterburner buff, to make non-HC biplane viable in open areas. I mean, what you see in WW2 movies are planes chasing other planes, and thats exactly what biplane cant do (non HC), it cannot chase, It has to rely on ambushing lone planes.

[CCN]

but you got an afterburner buff by reduced energy consumption >_>

[tyr]

Originally Posted by Vania

BTW, I was playing dogfighter today and the damage increase is noticeable.

Yeah it now is +2 damage than recoilless, which can be pretty significant considering dogfighter uses less energy so you may in some circumstances get one more shot as well.
Yeah, Dogfighter does some pretty serious damage.

[A Nipple]

Originally Posted by hurripilot

Biplane is a great playstyle to have in this game because every other playstyle is gimmick driven. Explo pushes planes around in ridiculous ways and heaves floating mines out it's ass, Loopy shoots little balls of electricity that magically cripple any plane, etc. Biplane is just a straight-forward, no-nonsense way to play the game, that's what it's appeal is. Honestly, if Biplane wasn't in the game or it's playstyle was changed to something gimmicky, I would stop playing. For some of us, Biplane's simplicity IS fun, nip

8O u directed this at me 8O what if the smoke clouds were optional?!
nipalip