Hi there - I am Link from The DGL and I've been hardcore nerdin' on INS Source for 5 years now. Yeah I compete, nbd.
Anyways, I thought I'd get some good dialogue going here.
First off for the optimization stuff - I am getting around 80-160 FPS with the following specs:
- GTX 980
- i7 8700k
- Borderless
- All low settings
- 1980x1020
- 16 GB DDR4 2666
- 860 EVO SSD
Key Things I think need to be worked on
A lot of people will say optmization - which is entirely true. I think there was a huge performance increase from Beta #1 to Beta #2. I had the same specs in both betas and my FPS increased an average of 40 FPS which is huge. They did that in 3 weeks.
I want to focus on some more things relevant to the game mechanics itself.
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Reduce sway by 50%. Currently if you run around for a little bit and then try to aim down sight, the game has inherent sway that is very hard to control. It's a game within a game and is very frustrating.
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Make it take twice as long to stop and change direction (right now it's like 0 seconds). I think like 0.5s or 1s added time to being able to run full speed then changing direction immediately. This could also be done by changing the rate of acceleration which I bring up below. Example of the issue I am talking about - https://clips.twitch.tv/DifferentExcitedGoatWOOP
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Improved servers - the hit registration is an issue even in coop.
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Reduce the ttk by maybe 15-20% (make all guns more powerful?).
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Reduce horizontal recoil
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Increase the vertical recoil
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In source if you get shot while running, it cuts your speed down to almost nothing, this should be added into sandstorm. I would say, if I was being conservative, make people slow down by 50% if they are hit. This will help with the TTK being higher than source and make it more realistic/fun.
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Decrease the rate of acceleration. I don't mind the top speed, but the acceleration is a bit too fast. You can reach top speed almost instantly which makes room fighting insanely fast and a bit random.
Summary
Currently the issue of this game is speed. The movement is too fast. I'm not a slow player by any means but the speed can be abused.
I'm a competitive player, I play the game to it's limits. If something can be abused, I will abuse it. I play to win. I don't play to play fair.
Right now, it is much more advantageous to just start sprinting as soon as you get shot at if you don't know where you are being shot at from (obviously if you're behind cover that doesn't mean sprint out), I am speaking more of in a 1v1 situation or where you are trying to cap an objective and get swarmed. You can nearly dodge bullets. Also, because people don't get slowed down if they are running and hit, it's very hard to kill people rushing.
I find myself spraying and praying more than just aiming. In Source, the best feeling was one tapping kids across the map. When you got in close range combat, you didn't see people just zipping around corners almost impossible to hit. In sandstorm, it's completely viable to full sprint into rooms now and then change directions because it's hard to hit. Also AD-strafe dancing is a thing because of the fast movement.
I find this game is a lot more spray and pray now than aiming, especially in comp 5v5. I don't want to risk missing a shot so I just spray when I see a guy. And most comp players are AD-strafing while fighting so that makes it even more beneficial to spray to hit them in the head.
Conclusion
I think this game has huge potential. I think it has good competitive potential as well (I know firefight is foreign to a lot of people but it's an awesome thinking game). A few numbers tweaks and all the great mechanics of INS Source would be back again.
I know I am biased because I am close to the devs but I think it's close. It needs work, but it's close. I know a lot more than most and I think NWI is doing a great job considering everything. Is it as good as it could have been? No. But I think we've all had our fair share of not doing our best, myself included, haha - and it's for sure not the worst they could have done!
What do you guys think?