Titanfall, thoughts after my first few hours.
I got home from work last night and decided to play Titanfall for a few hours (around 3.5 in total). I got to level 17 in that time, although I don't know if that is a good or bad performance??
My thoughts so far.......
TEAM BALANCING, TEAM BALANCING, TEAM BALANCING!!!!!
I really hope that Respawn patch the game to auto balance teams and also allow a team shuffling vote. I was in a server last night and for probably 9 rounds in a row I was on the losing team. Some games were closer than others, but there were a couple of prestige players on opposing team, and generally their team were more experienced. I hope this is fixed. On the plus side, though, I did find that in the main the team I was in stuck together quite well with titans supporting each other and pilots using them for cover. there seemed a lot more team play than in beta.
Console - I want one. Anyone know how to turn it on? I want to enable FPS monitoring, if possible (?).
Chat - I don't like that the in game chat log disappears once you go back to the lobby. I don't see why it cant carry over into the lobby once a round has ended. I would like to see that patched.
Running - Is it me or do pilots run slower now since the beta? Basic running movement definitely feels slower, but it may just be me imagining things!
Smart Pistol - Yes, yes I know its an old story but I seriously think it needs removing or nerfing a lot. There was a level 25 player last night using assassin with smart pistol and he was destroying the server with it (he had enhanced targeting, whatever that is - presumably an unlock which reduces targeting time or something?). But pretty much you had to see him coming or you were dead. At least with normal weapons you have a chance to react and get some shots off. That one you just suddenly die. Really frustrating, and I think at the very least they need a 'lock on' warning for the pilot being targeted. That weapon is too easy to rack up kills with for a player who sneaks about picking people off. This guy was also doing some serious minion farming with it too, and killing whole groups at a time ( is it me or are there far more minions since beta?). Usually he was coming away in the region of 40+ minion kills per round, the majority of which were smart pistol multi frags - I know this as I was watching him (these also gives attrition bonuses for multi kills). IMO, it needs serious nerf or removing entirely.
Maps - quite a few, which is nice (I think about 14-15 in all?). As I have been playing I have really loved the attention to detail in the maps. Seems like the design team have put a lot of effort into their overall look, but also the actual map layouts. They are really complex for the most part, with little rooms, corridors and places to retreat to quickly if you come face to face with a titan!
Really have enjoyed the maps, and love the look of them. They all seem fairly balanced as well, but on some occasions it has felt like the action was too localised, and large parts of certain maps just didn't get used. But in the rotation of maps I noticed this phenomenon shifted from one place to another. So all the little elements of design came into play somewhere else on the map. I was concerned the maps would be too small and uninteresting based on the Beta, but they really have done a good job. I hope they deliver more of the same with future updates. I don't know if the maps are all the same, irrelevant of game mode though as I have only played attrition. I am guessing due to their size and complexity they use the same maps and just alter server rules.
Lag - I was connected on the North European server last night, and definitely had more lag than the beta. I was pinging 50-60 for the most part, but when I checked the West Europe server status, I was pinging the same to that one as well. In the beta I was getting a nice 30. It was a little bit of a hindrance because the game didn't feel as smooth and the hit detection slightly lagged, but it was by no means unplayable. I am hoping it will just be teething problems as the game only officially went live yesterday. I also noticed some serious server slow down on a few occasions too, normally when there was a shed load of explosions going on and generally a lot happening. At one point where were something like 5 titan kills in one spot, most of which were nuclear, and the game all but stopped for a second or so. Again, hopefully teething problems, but if this is a feature of the server design I think they may need to up the bandwidth to cope with mass slaughter of nuclear titans
Crashes - I played the training mission + 3.5hrs of attrition and did not have any crashes, or any disconnects. Stability wise I was really pleased, and actually pleasantly surprised seeing as it was release day and the servers were getting pounded. I also had no issues with graphics (rig in sig). I dont know what FPS I was getting, but it felt smooth enough to me. I would like to enable the console if there is one so I can use a draw FPS command like you can BF4 to see how my rig performs and so I can optimise my settings to allow for better FPS.
Overall gameplay - was a little bit laggy, as mentioned, but overall pretty good. I don't really like the fact I have to play campaign to unlock the different titan chassis! I bought Titanfall to play multiplayer, not grind through a SP player campaign with an arena MP design
Kick melee - ridiculously OP and still needs nerfing IMO.
Overall, I had fun. There are glaring balancing issues in my opinion, but they are not game breaking if you have the patience and you don't mind being on the losing team. My main gripes are no team shuffling/balancing, and the smart pistol (I know I need to change the record, right?
). Oh and I still think they need to give a detailed breakdown on how to earn points and XP and how cores are generated. It still feels like players are over-rewarded for minion kills. Last night I had many instances where I had matching titan and pilot kills, but the other guy had 15-20 more minion kills than me and this seemed to equate to nearly double my attrition points! I really don't think the game should be giving huge rewards for killing dumb AI - a lot of which is done with smart pistol.
Anyhoo - I have work to do now, but will be online later.
If anyone wants to add me, my origin name is BuffetSlay3r
