I listened to the Sept 24th Q&A and Alex acknowledged that movement speed is a hot topic so Mikee talked about it a little. Alex and Mikee confirmed that the community wants different things since if the devs slow things downs a group complains and if they speed things up another group complains.
Mikee said they’ll work on balancing speed and movement pre-launch and post launch until it “feels right”. Mikee also believes that Sandstorm is slower then the original Insurgency in some cases. He believe the light soldiers in Insurgency to be faster then in Sandstorm.
Mikee says Sandstorm is meant to be a medium-fast paced FPS.
Possible Conclusion:
There’s a significant split in the community.
No matter what the devs do, they’ll disappoint and alienate one side and risk possible sales. Impossible to make both happy.
Possible Solution to unite both player styles under one game:
***Test a “HARDCORE” mode for CO-OP
Advantages:
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Small time investment with possible enormous dividends, possible much larger player base and more games sold to a wider audience.
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Won’t have to try pleasing two opposite playstyles.
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No balancing headaches for pvp.
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See how things go, see how the community reacts and add it to PvP later if there’s a demand for it. Possible ‘’Hardcore’’ pro-league.
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Co-op is already very promising and unique, with a Hardcore mode it would add longevity to a co-op player base that enjoys a more challenging and technical playstyle.
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Hardcore doesn’t mean less action or being boring in Sandstorm. A Hardcore mode will actually bring Sandstorm to it’s full potential because it will only intensify the already intense co-op environment and atmosphere. The current fast arcade/sim style makes the effects less noticeable and less enjoyable.
What would HARDCORE be?
We probably all have our varying opinions about ‘’Hardcore’’ but I’ll start off with what I’d like tested:
- More suppression effects to make it harder to hit targets while supressed
- Have a weight system affect movement, stamina, sway.
- Overall lower acceleration and running top speed: Maybe that just means adding weight to everyone…?
- Overall slower speeds going up and down stairs, make going up a little slower then down.
- Running up and down stairs and going up hills reduces stamina more then simply running on flat ground.
- Stamina
- More sway after maxing out stamina
- A little longer to focus then currently, add a few seconds.
- Have, walk, run, sprint, each with different stamina.
- No slidding or barely
- More AI, more random AI paths and spawn points.
Heavy Soldier (Full Armor, all points spent on weapons) Movement:
- Add weight so jumping off at one story heights kills heavies.
- Slower acceleration to top run speed and a little less top running speed.
- A lot less stamina for running.
- Slower up and down stairs, reduces stamina even more.
- A little faster walk speed while aiming in sights
- Crouch has decent walk speed currently
Light Soldier (No Armor, minimal loadout) Movement:
- Add weight so jumping off at one story heights takes 85% of health and add a lot of suppression effect after jump and lowered gun animation for at least 2 seconds.
- Much slower top run speed, a little faster then the current full heavy soldier speeds.
- Make the light soldiers run much slower up and down stairs and hills, a little faster then the current full heavy soldier speeds.
- Less acceleration to full run speed.
- Less stamina but would be about 50%-70% more stamina then heavy
Medium Soldier:
- Won’t say much, just put things in-between the Heavy and Light
Recoil:
I’m unsure about recoil for many weapons, seems decent but need more testing…
- Increase recoil for LMGs when crouched, too easy to use as rifle in current state.
TTK:
TTK seems decent for me but one shot kill with AP snipers no matter what armor.
To finish this insanely long post, all that I’m proposing would obviously need to be tested and refined, I just wanted to put something out there to start.
Many are passionate about this game, tempers always flaring, shows we love it and want it to be the best game we think it can be. Obviously, what ‘’best game’’ means to each of us differs, and solutions to making it the best game differs also. I can respect a different opinion if it’s proper constructive feedback.
I did my best to come up with a solution to the current player base split, I have limited information of what it takes to develop a game and add a ‘’Hardcore’’ mode to Sandstorm. I might be wrong on the time it would take to add weight and make a ‘’Hardcore’’ mode.
It’s possibly more complicated then I think but until a dev says it would require a massive time investment, I will keep thinking it worthwhile, especially in the Beta phase.
Please feel free to add what a ‘’Hardcore’’ mode would be for you and if you’d like to see it added to co-op.