01-21-2017, 12:23 PM
As you might have noticed vanilla isn't exactly popular. Most players flock to mods that look like vanilla (jeff, nexuiz akimbo) but play completely differently. Judging by experience from public servers it's because vanilla is stacked in favor of "pros" - people who know every trick in the game and use it to become invincible gods who win DM 30/0. When I tried jeff's mod and akimbo it still had people stronger than others but they weren't impossible to kill.
Current vanilla is too heavily based on item control and I simply think it's not what most people expect from this game when they try it for the first time. Therefore I suggest to shift the focus from the metagame to the actual fighting on casual servers.
What I am not suggesting:
Changing what is played in pickup games and tourneys. Balance-xmp (DM/duel) and balance-xonotic (ctf) stay as they are.
What I am suggesting:
A new separate config for public newbie/casual servers heavily based on vanilla and less focus on "pro" features.
Item jitter
Prevents timing items. Xonotic should be more about fighting and less about collecting stuff. I suggest +- 10s for megas, +- 5s for 50a/h.
XPM-like H/A limits
To prevent getting to 200 health just using 25h. As I understand, the point of allowing all pickups until 200 is to prevent confusing players and to teach them to get health more. I'd say it's not working at all. I rarely see casual players ever pick up anything, they usually attack right after spawning (which is presumably what works in other games). It's counter-intuitive that you don't spawn with full health - because right now 200 is full.
Other arena games I've seen have limits for non-mega pickups, I don't see why it should be confusing in Xonotic. You use normal 25/50 when you're hurt, you can get above 100 with "special" items - shards and megas.
Randomize weapon pickups
This should prevent pros from going straight for the strongest guns while allowing new people to try out all weapons more easily.
Dead players drop more/all weapons
This gives a larger reward for killing a strong player and makes weapons more accessible.
Don't pickup weapons the player already has
Results in more weapons being available on the map, reduces ammo available to players who survive longer.
Random/different starting weapon
I am sure this one is gonna get a lot of hate in the comments
Shotgun tweaks
SG is not weak, it's deadly when used right but you need to get close, which requires movement skill and even then melee takes a lot of practice to time correctly. A lot of new people try to use it at any range (because they can't get any better gun and are too slow to get closer) only to end up doing -4 damage per shot. It's laughable. The starting weapon shouldn't need the most skill to use.
Replace quad/shield with buffs
Powerups only help the strongest player get his 30 kills in half the time he'd need otherwise. Buffs will provide more randomness and variety to the gameplay without being OP.
Current vanilla is too heavily based on item control and I simply think it's not what most people expect from this game when they try it for the first time. Therefore I suggest to shift the focus from the metagame to the actual fighting on casual servers.
What I am not suggesting:
Changing what is played in pickup games and tourneys. Balance-xmp (DM/duel) and balance-xonotic (ctf) stay as they are.
What I am suggesting:
A new separate config for public newbie/casual servers heavily based on vanilla and less focus on "pro" features.
Item jitter
Prevents timing items. Xonotic should be more about fighting and less about collecting stuff. I suggest +- 10s for megas, +- 5s for 50a/h.
XPM-like H/A limits
To prevent getting to 200 health just using 25h. As I understand, the point of allowing all pickups until 200 is to prevent confusing players and to teach them to get health more. I'd say it's not working at all. I rarely see casual players ever pick up anything, they usually attack right after spawning (which is presumably what works in other games). It's counter-intuitive that you don't spawn with full health - because right now 200 is full.
Other arena games I've seen have limits for non-mega pickups, I don't see why it should be confusing in Xonotic. You use normal 25/50 when you're hurt, you can get above 100 with "special" items - shards and megas.
Randomize weapon pickups
This should prevent pros from going straight for the strongest guns while allowing new people to try out all weapons more easily.
Dead players drop more/all weapons
This gives a larger reward for killing a strong player and makes weapons more accessible.
Don't pickup weapons the player already has
Results in more weapons being available on the map, reduces ammo available to players who survive longer.
Random/different starting weapon
I am sure this one is gonna get a lot of hate in the comments
- Either give a random starting weapon - perhaps with lower chances of getting the stronger ones like vortex and RL
- Or give the players progressively stronger weapons the lower they are in the scoreboard.
Shotgun tweaks
SG is not weak, it's deadly when used right but you need to get close, which requires movement skill and even then melee takes a lot of practice to time correctly. A lot of new people try to use it at any range (because they can't get any better gun and are too slow to get closer) only to end up doing -4 damage per shot. It's laughable. The starting weapon shouldn't need the most skill to use.
- Give primary less spread (and slightly less dmg to compensate) so it's usable from further away.
- Make secondary faster with less dmg.
Replace quad/shield with buffs
Powerups only help the strongest player get his 30 kills in half the time he'd need otherwise. Buffs will provide more randomness and variety to the gameplay without being OP.