Maniaplanet Forum

Some context: I've been playing Elite for about a month now. When Open Beta was released, a couple of my good buddies signed up. They're really enjoying the game, playing on their off time when I'm not on, and are pretty entry-level FPS players. The following feedback is a combination of all of our feedback, their feedback being articulated by someone who's played the game for a while.

The good

Respawning when dying before pole is captured

• - Promotes aggression and entertainly chaotic skirmishes on the pole
  - Allows entry level players to have an opportunity to play more (i.e. unlike new players in a game like CS)

Variety of maps

• - Map rotations keep long gameplay sessions fresh
  - Great diversity in outskirts, especially at focal points when tornado comes in (finale on a hill, in a cage, surrounded by a Colosseum, etc)
  - Exposure to every weapon, panels, rope nodes, and turbo slides

Speed of Tornado

• - Rests quickly to smallest choke point -- doesn't draw out rounds for too long
  - Many players may be camping, but they're forced to fight at some point
  - Actual velocity of tornado collapsing is hella fast. "OH SHIT THE TORNADO!!"

The bad

Differentiation in armor

• - Learn the game with 3 armor, playing a few rounds, and the game punishes you for it
  - Anti-fun by having a finale skirmish on the pole, and player successfully hits opponent twice for no kill (player has 2 armor)

Not enough movement options on most Royal maps

• - Most Elite players value movement as much as aim
  --> Little to no obstacles to actually learn "movement mechanics" such as rewarding walljumping
  --> Royal should be "pubby", and should provide the necessary tools to succeed in Elite (which is the center of development)
  - Very hard to learn movement against established players due to skill gap in Elite; should be in Royal

Unintuitive spectator manipulation & scoreboard UI cues

• - When you hear "what does Hit/Sv stand for" every game, there are not enough cues
  - "How come I got over 5 hits but the scoreboard says I have none?"
  - "Is there a way to spectate a player in the first person?"
  --> "Is there a way to rotate which player I am spectating instead of choosing between 3 randomized ones?"

Points per hit are not standardized

• - In most games, a kill is rewarded with a kill. New players should be rewarded by assimilating to experienced players, not the game artificially determining when to shackle or remove shackles off of players. A hit varies between 0-3 points (almost exclusively 0-1 if you play a lot, which is completely terrible feedback to the player).
  - Maybe the idea came from MOBAs -- if you're bad, you get less gold for killing them. This allows the disadvantageous players an opportunity to come back if they play well. This philosophy is trash in a 16 player free-for-all, where spawn proximity alone can determine the difference between 2 kills for 18 points or 6 kills for 3 points.

The ugly

Littered with AFK players

• - As sad as it sounds, an afk player often is in the top 7 of the server at the end of the game
  - Encourages camping; common strategies now include hiding in spawn (using invincibility) and exiting after pole is captured to retain more armor for when eliminations count
  - Create strict votekick quotas (75%+)

Survival Points are too weighted; Pole cap needs to be buffed

• - Most players are uninterested in capturing pole, as it only gives 10-15 points
  - SV points are so strong that AFKs are outscoring players who are actually playing
  - Metagame reinforces running away instead of reinforcing combat
  - Only a select few players in the server actually go for pole cap when it should be the focal point

Beginners are anti-fun

• - Further encourages running away, as any skirmish with a beginner is high risk, zero reward
  - Phenomena of re-rolling for beginner status is becoming more common (sadly)
  - People should be playing on an equal playing field regardless of whether or not the mode was intended to be casual

Honorable mentions (misc.)

No character limit

• - Played a game with a guy named something like xXBatmanKushMLG420BicepScallopSexDarkRider...Xx
  - Aim at player and see giant rectangle across your screen
  - Laughed our asses off

Pathing in settings to profile customization is not intuitive

• - "How do I change color? It's not in settings"
  - It feels like there are so many different "options" menus -- some requiring you to leave the game, others not -- that I have to probe many different tabs before finding what I'm looking for.

In conclusion

There is way too much negative reinforcement in Royal. Capped the pole, but died after in the hail of fire? Enjoy your 11-15 points while an AFK in spawn gets over 10 by default. Land 8 hits on a few beginners, but score less than a beginner who hits you twice.

The game is fun, feels incredibly polished mechanically (even to players who are incredibly snobby about movement crispness), the sound is fantastic and satisfying, visuals are impressive, and skirmishes are exciting. I thoroughly enjoy Elite because of these factors. I can't say the same for Royal though, which is definitely going to be a driving force in the player base when the game is released. Elite obviously gets the most support by competitive players and developers, but you can argue that it is pretty niche. Having a "deathmatch-esque" and polished "casual" mode is imperative if the game is to be successful for the long term. I'd like nothing more than to get this game more coverage, so feedback is my way of contributing.

This is a really nice and well explained report, thank you for the reading =)
(because this part of the game is not my part, si I ... read :p)
I wish all reports are like yours.

Glad you could handle the wall of text!

The reason for my posting was because of the launch on Steam. I think this is a very great decision for increasing the player base before launch. I also think it could be a bad idea... first impressions stick with a lot of gamers.

Wow thanks for takign the time to post the feedback! But now I have to chop it up and edit with a stretched editor xD

Meat wrote:Some context: I've been playing Elite for about a month now. When Open Beta was released, a couple of my good buddies signed up. They're really enjoying the game, playing on their off time when I'm not on, and are pretty entry-level FPS players. The following feedback is a combination of all of our feedback, their feedback being articulated by someone who's played the game for a while.

The good

Respawning when dying before pole is captured

• - Promotes aggression and entertainly chaotic skirmishes on the pole
  - Allows entry level players to have an opportunity to play more (i.e. unlike new players in a game like CS)

Variety of maps

• - Map rotations keep long gameplay sessions fresh
  - Great diversity in outskirts, especially at focal points when tornado comes in (finale on a hill, in a cage, surrounded by a Colosseum, etc)
  - Exposure to every weapon, panels, rope nodes, and turbo slides

Speed of Tornado

• - Rests quickly to smallest choke point -- doesn't draw out rounds for too long
  - Many players may be camping, but they're forced to fight at some point
  - Actual velocity of tornado collapsing is hella fast. "OH SHIT THE TORNADO!!"

I agree 100% there are a lot of good aspects and imo this is a very unique creation. Love the tornado, gives a bit of an adrenaline rush when your stuck by a ump pad and see it creeping up xD

Meat wrote: The bad

Differentiation in armor

• - Learn the game with 3 armor, playing a few rounds, and the game punishes you for it
  - Anti-fun by having a finale skirmish on the pole, and player successfully hits opponent twice for no kill (player has 2 armor)

Not enough movement options on most Royal maps

• - Most Elite players value movement as much as aim
  --> Little to no obstacles to actually learn "movement mechanics" such as rewarding walljumping
  --> Royal should be "pubby", and should provide the necessary tools to succeed in Elite (which is the center of development)
  - Very hard to learn movement against established players due to skill gap in Elite; should be in Royal

Unintuitive spectator manipulation & scoreboard UI cues

• - When you hear "what does Hit/Sv stand for" every game, there are not enough cues
  - "How come I got over 5 hits but the scoreboard says I have none?"
  - "Is there a way to spectate a player in the first person?"
  --> "Is there a way to rotate which player I am spectating instead of choosing between 3 randomized ones?"

Points per hit are not standardized

• - In most games, a kill is rewarded with a kill. New players should be rewarded by assimilating to experienced players, not the game artificially determining when to shackle or remove shackles off of players. A hit varies between 0-3 points (almost exclusively 0-1 if you play a lot, which is completely terrible feedback to the player).
  - Maybe the idea came from MOBAs -- if you're bad, you get less gold for killing them. This allows the disadvantageous players an opportunity to come back if they play well. This philosophy is trash in a 16 player free-for-all, where spawn proximity alone can determine the difference between 2 kills for 18 points or 6 kills for 3 points.

I think that new people should be restricted to the welcome to server for beginners. Keep them together until they are good enough to move up. I understand the armor but the no points thing gets out of hand when you are the only non-beginner in the server.

I found a lot of cool obstacles like running platforms and weapon sheds however they are limited to certain maps..

*I am a web developer and a hosting specialist and it took me 2 days to figure out how to change my name and 4+ to figure out how to switch weapons. Imo the weapon switch needs to be more obvious or easier to do. I am actually still a bit stale on the weapon play.

Meat wrote: The ugly

Littered with AFK players

• - As sad as it sounds, an afk player often is in the top 7 of the server at the end of the game
  - Encourages camping; common strategies now include hiding in spawn (using invincibility) and exiting after pole is captured to retain more armor for when eliminations count
  - Create strict votekick quotas (75%+)

Survival Points are too weighted; Pole cap needs to be buffed

• - Most players are uninterested in capturing pole, as it only gives 10-15 points
  - SV points are so strong that AFKs are outscoring players who are actually playing
  - Metagame reinforces running away instead of reinforcing combat
  - Only a select few players in the server actually go for pole cap when it should be the focal point

Beginners are anti-fun

• - Further encourages running away, as any skirmish with a beginner is high risk, zero reward
  - Phenomena of re-rolling for beginner status is becoming more common (sadly)
  - People should be playing on an equal playing field regardless of whether or not the mode was intended to be casual

I try to cap the pole a lot, for taking the time to cap it while dodging and shooting I do think it should be given more points (not too many or it will be a spam fest).

*As far as voting I like games that have an intuitive voting system that allows for server votes against a player or map.

ALSO a big issue I am seeing is inconsistant menus. I have trouble navigating due to the fact that my menus arent alwyas the same. For example when I was browsing a server the one day I saw a server location view that allowed me to select locations, until this day I have not bee able to find it again. It may have been a specific series of links that got me there but to me all I know is I clicked storm and got it then i clicked storm and didnt get it.

A Lot of improvements to be done, however I will say that I did pre-order and feel this game is going to be awesome out of beta. And Royal is my upmost favorite so far.

*Also on the topic of confusion I dont understand why there is a menu for royal and elite when you can access elite and royal servers through the storm menu. I think its clutter and a big turn off for people like me.

Thanks for your time!

whats not to understand about weapons?
1 : laser
2 : rockets
3 : nucleus

Tunnels = nucleus
lasers = on railpad ( and on FFA lasermelee/instagib servers )
rockets = everywhere else.
you cant use your weapons whilst grappling.
I dont understand that this took you 4days to figure out. You seem like a smart man.

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The menus are a joke. But im confident they will improve. And dont forget that the gameplay is the most important.

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Storm = everything
Elite = only elite servers
Royal = only royal servers

I think its like this. I agree that its confusing.

Nadeo has awesome ideas and good games but sometimes I feel like they make mistakes when it comes to simple things as usability/readability .

123, as in those are the binds? I dont understand as the maps dont really say "hey here is where you get this weapon". All I know is all of a sudden im shooting different sprites.

Perhaps there should be a in game tutorial for starts to get the basics. Not a lot of people get off on reading huge text tutorials or watching various videos on youtube.

I personally grasped that very quickly. Basically, in modes like Melee or Royal you have only rockets by default. If you enter tunnels/bunkers, you are given nucleus. And there are special rail pads (and platforms by windows in bunkers) where you get railgun (laser). But as soon as you leave the designated area/block, you are back to rockets only.

nunphix wrote:123, as in those are the binds? I dont understand as the maps dont really say "hey here is where you get this weapon". All I know is all of a sudden im shooting different sprites.

No binds You have 3 weapons. Thats what I meant. Ill repeat one more time:

Rockets anywhere. In all gamemodes.
Lasers/rail in all gamemodes only on the metal railplatorm ( laserplatorm )
Nucleus in all gamemodes only in tunnels & bunkers.

Some modes as LASERMELEE & LASER INSTAGIB have the laser only. This is to train the laser.duh
In Elite the attacker has a rail/laser vs 3 defenders with rockets.

Its not that hard to understand. Hope you get it know.

Got it now