the vehicles

[4days]

assuming that the beta's some indication of what the release might be like, what do folks think about the vehicles?

< £0.02
only played a little bit so far - but with the exception of the strogg icarus, they're all damp squibs

there were those videos where the wheels had independent traction on GDF vehicles - but driving them feels like you're turning from the centre of the mass and it's all a bit too flighty/insubstantial. cod:uo did a great job with the jeeps, so surely something similar's doable in the next engine up?

haven't looked at the flying vehicles much yet, need to find the option to invert the mouse.

[obsidian]

Yeah, handling is a bit off, but they are fun.

The speed of the vehicles don't dominate too much due to spawn distances and strafe jumping. Balance with regards to damage dealt and taken is pretty good, I think. Ground troops can still take out vehicles.

Tactically, it takes some skill to use vehicles effectively for both offensive and defensive.

I find that turrets are the things that I usually have problems with playing GDF on offense. They seem to require a lot of firepower to take out on foot.

[4days]

Balance with regards to damage dealt and taken is pretty good, I think.

aye. seems fine for that so far - it's more the handling, appearance and suspension of disbelief that was getting to me. when you're on foot then there's that trademark id game feeling of solidity/immersion - the sound is weird, but that doesn't detract too much. getting into a vehicle sort of puts you back behind your computer playing a game.

[o'dium]

The word on the street is the vehicles... Are poop

They are working on it though, so relax.

[obsidian]

Most of the word on the street comes from Battlefield players, so I wouldn't put much faith in them.

The handling doesn't feel realistic, but it gets the job done, so in the grand scheme of things I don't really mind. I tend to spend most of my time on foot anyway since that's the only way you can complete critical objectives.

[o'dium]

Well, no, because I've never played BF online in my life, but the handling of them is awful You hit a small rock and your TANK goes flying? They have no weight, they turn really badly, the handling is crazy etc etc

[hemostick]

seems like somebody can just camp infront of a spawnpoint and take enemies out with no problem at all.

When that happens, I like to respawn as soldier and feed it rockets, then go back to whatever I was doing. ymmv

[d3mol!t!on]

That flying thing that looks like a those ones from Quake 4 hasn't got a huge amount of health, as when I fire one round from the GDF rocket launcher it seems to damage it enough to start flying about crazy. The Cyclops, on the other hand, takes something like 4 or 5 I think. Not been on Strogg enough to class the damage the other way round, but having been in the turret of the GDF tank it seems to take quite a pounding from troops and vehicles alike.
As for the Icarus packs, they sure are fun and those bombs aren't super-easy-spray friendly, but they piss me off when they get close because they move too fast to lock rockets on very well :P

[R00k]

Well, no, because I've never played BF online in my life, but the handling of them is awful You hit a small rock and your TANK goes flying? They have no weight, they turn really badly, the handling is crazy etc etc

err.... you've never played QuakeWars either, have you?

Tanks don't go flying at all.


Either way, I do agree that the handling leaves a lot of room for improvement.

4days, I pretty well agree with what you say about them steering from the center. They feel a lot like slot cars, with the peg in the center of the vehicle. The Cyclops is especially bad in handling, IMHO, but the Strogg flying vehicle is awesome fun once you get the hang of it.

Honestly I think the vehicles need more work than any other part of the game.

[o'dium]

Of course I have. And if its not there, why are the devs fixing it

[R00k]

The word on the street is the vehicles... Are poop

from this it sounded like you were relying on other people's assessments for the vehicle handling.

maybe i just haven't experienced the "flying tank" thing -- i've only driven them a couple dozen times.

[o'dium]

No, pretty much everybody agrees the problem with the game is the vehicles really do suck. The other problem is the weapon sounds, or just the sound in general.

Of course I've played it, I wouldn't make a comment like that and be so sure else. Its stupid because a quad bike can knock a massive tank off its axis?

[R00k]

I haven't seen that happen either. But I'm not trying to deny it does - I just haven't played the vehicles enough.

The sounds do need improvement too.

Another thing that really need to be changed (and somebody has mentioned this here before) is a better indicator of where fire is coming from when you're being hit. Sometimes it has the little blood-red semicircle to give you the direction, but sometimes I don't notice it at all.

That seems pretty important to improve to me as well.

[4days]

had a decent go on the tormentor (strogg air vehicle) last night and it's not that bad.

it feels like your weaponmodel's been swapped, rather than actually being inside a vehicle - but the controls and flight mechanism are nice in that you could imagine pretty much anyone being able to fly it the second time they tried; and being off the ground takes away a lot of the immediate believabilty problems that the ground vehicles have.

[Grudge]

The vehicles need more weight, agreed.

And no, the cyclops isn't overpowered at all, not with all those GDF Soldier rocket launchers. The cyclops make a pretty easy target.

And yes, agreed on the lack of clear feedback when taking damage. The damage sounds need to be more distinct too.