Zipper is issuing a rather large patch to their online shooter MAG, here are some highlights:
- Improved speed of weapon and gear swapping by approximately 500 milliseconds.
I'm hoping this will be huzzah. I've been killed many times while juggling gear, annoyingly and especially switching to grenades.
- Changed resuscitated player’s camera orientation to match the last camera direction used while incapacitated instead of the pre-harm camera.
Nice. I've noticed this more recently, where I get revived and am facing an unexpected direction. Bad when the enemy is baring down on you.
- Players no longer lose XP if a teammate is killed by an objective explosion caused by a charge they planted.
Big, big freaking yay! Here. I doubt anyone was ever trying to grief that random guy running past a charge. I'm hoping (and have asked Zipper) this includes if you were a turret gunner, and someone gets killed when the turret explodes.
- Respec Point requirements in Barracks have been changed from 3K, 5K, 10K, 17K, 26K, and 26K-Repeat to 1K, 2K, 3K, and 3K-Repeat.
I'm not sure what they are now,but that almost sounds like a larger gap for respecs. If so: Boo. If not:- but it looks like cheaper respecs so ... yay! I still vote for a free respec off that bat, and the ability to more frequent respecs in general.
Now the really interesting stuff. They're rebalancing weapons. Check the link at the bottom for specifics - but short version is that you shouldn't be able to snipe with non-sniper rifles any more (remember when I said the LMG could do anything plus the tango, apparently not so much now), shotties and SMG are more fixed to medium range, from the hip recoil increased and the battle rifles and rockets launchers are made more effective.
Or short short version: weapons are going to behave more like one might originally expect. From the description, I give the whole range of updates a thumbs up ... and congrats to Zipper for doing it. But I wish them well in not having a subset of players who get really annoyed with the fact that they can't do everything with their LMG builds anymore. I kept a solid LMG build in hand myself, just because it is so versatile. Maybe the assault rifle will become the better middle ground now?
Full details over at the MAG Blog, and the patch is due out this Thursday.
Update: It's out, and it is good. Very solid balancing without feeling like nerfing. Weapons feel more "proper" now, the other tweaks make for a more solid experience. Thumbs up, Zipper.
Posts
2 comments:
Not sure what I think about changing the weapons. I mean is it goofy that I can run around and take out snipers with my LMG from long distances? Absolutely. However, it's been that way since release and I've learned to accomodate this eccentricity. Now I'm going to have to screw around with load outs again to figure out what's the best way to go again.
On the bright side with the reduction in the cost of respecs, I should be able to do this without too much trouble. If they'd kept the same expensive respec costs this would have been a tremendous pain in the butt.
A couple changes I love:
1) Added a “solid tone” sound effect near the end of a charge’s beeping detonation timer - I cannot tell you how many times I've run up to a target to defuse with no idea how long before it would blow. Should make bunkers last better because people can get clear and repair rather than running blindly into the blast and respawning
2) Mines that haven’t been triggered are no longer removed from the map when the dead player that deploys them respawns unless that player changes their Loadout - I can't tell you how annoying it is to be facing down APC's and having to be uber cautious or risk having my mines go away. Mines are by far the best way to clobber APC's.
So overall I think it's a good patch. Seems to address a lot of the core issues the game has.
OK, so respecs ARE cheaper, good.
Agree on the weapon balance, though if they're going to do it I'm glad they're doing it while the game is still somewhat fresh. I'll call fail if they continually tweak the balance over and over again. It's a little disappointing that this wasn't apparent during the beta and fixed already.
Course I *just* respec'd, so I might be in for more of a wait. I know it would be challenging, but it would almost be nice to have a free respec after a patch like this one.
Post a Comment