Bionic Dues Private Alpha Begins Now

[mrhanman]

can we get a help button on the equipment screen that explains what stats do?

[x4000]

Just one more note: for everyone getting smashed to pieces, or with other griefs about this or that, thanks for bearing with us on it.  As I noted in the OP, it's extremely hard for developers in a vacuum to gauge how difficult something is.  Honestly I had been worried that it was a bit too straightforward until really recently.  Now at an advanced level of play it feels satisfyingly right to me in terms of the combat, but clearly at a new player level we are well off the mark.

But that's what the alpha is for, and you guys are great in terms of the feedback there.  I have like a jillion things on my list to help with this and other issues, and every comment that has been made here has been read and noted.  Things should be much better for you in an upcoming build.

[mrhanman]

misery talks about range being so important. he should try out the sniper! that's generally all i use until ammo runs out.  i can't say it's OP exactly, but some more enemies with long range weapons might even things up a bit.

[x4000]

The problem with enemies with a long range is that they tend to just ruin the player bots beyond that.  I think that the sniper is in for a nerf of some sort, but honestly I would like to keep him as unique as possible.  So some sort of counterbalance to his range, rather than just reducing his range, is something I'd like.

[mrhanman]

maybe addons are half as effective? so much energy is spent extending his range that not as much is left for other systems, causing them to be less effective. or something if that sort.

[madcow]

I've not played with him. But massive ammo reductions perhaps? Or (and this might be uncodable) using up two actions to fire?

[x4000]

Well, enemies do act every time you do, and we have ways of giving them two actions each time you take an action (this actually already happens in a number of cases).  I wonder if that might not be annoying, though?

[madcow]

A weapon cooldown is also possible maybe? Like I said, I've not used him yet, just trying to think of ways to keep him unique as intended. I'll be starting over to try out the new exos. As it is, I can use the assault Exo as a kind of sniper, though I typically dislike sniper focused playstyles.

[Histidine]

Some possibilities for sniper:

• Remove the double-fire mechanic on the graser. The "sneak attack" idea is nice, but what the current implementation actually does is let you mow down enemies like so many weeds. Even in close quarters. Especially in close-quarters!
  Actually, you could even make it require two turns to fire as madcow suggested, so snipers have to rely on the laser for close-in work.
• Reduce the graser ammo, so you want to use it on targets that actually warrant the firepower instead of just blowing away everything that moves. A bit like the railgun, in that regard.
• Replace the laser with a pistol

[x4000]

Okay, I've made some changes to him, we'll see how that is next version.

[Tridus]

Just one more note: for everyone getting smashed to pieces, or with other griefs about this or that, thanks for bearing with us on it.  As I noted in the OP, it's extremely hard for developers in a vacuum to gauge how difficult something is.  Honestly I had been worried that it was a bit too straightforward until really recently.  Now at an advanced level of play it feels satisfyingly right to me in terms of the combat, but clearly at a new player level we are well off the mark.

But that's what the alpha is for, and you guys are great in terms of the feedback there.  I have like a jillion things on my list to help with this and other issues, and every comment that has been made here has been read and noted.  Things should be much better for you in an upcoming build.

Don't worry too much, I expected something like this might happen in an alpha build. They're usually either too easy or too hard, it's something that is really hard to get right without more eyes on it.

The good news is that whenever I take a break, I can sit back down and want to play again. That's a good sign.

[x4000]

Ooh good!

[Coppermantis]

Good to see changes for the sniper. I was hesitant to call it OP, but it was basically the only bot I'd use except for certain specific situations.

[x4000]

*********************** Version 0.902 now out ***********************


I'm going to be off for a few hours, and may not get much more done today.  Do keep the feedback coming, as this week I'll have more or less nothing to do except deal with the results of all the feedback (which is, um, enormously plenty to keep me busy for a while).  But it's the weekend and I'm pretty beat.  Had about three nearly-90-hour weeks in a row to get this ready for now.

Not that there's a huge rush, because we have more than a month until 1.0 already, but I wanted there to NOT be a rush.  And there were some other reasons, but that is private to another member of the staff.  Anyway, that reason for rush ceased to be a rush yesterday, not coincidentally, so that's happy.

[madcow]

Laser rifles definitely needed a bit of a nerf. It might have been a little too much though, it also does somewhat feel like they could use more differentiation from the miniguns now.

My suggestion would be a slight increase to range (maybe halfway between the old and the new to 8?) - I would also say swap the damage on it and the miniguns maybe. That would make rifles for ranged plinking, miniguns for midrange damage.

Edit: Probably getting to the land of infeasibility here   but I would find it pretty cool if the miniguns had a "burst" option on them - do increased damage but use up 3 ammo instead of just 1 (it would not necessarily have to do 3x damage)