Biodome first impressions
sotanaht
Join Date: 2013-01-12 Member: 179215Members
Join Date: 2013-01-12 Member: 179215Members
It's summit. 4 techs surrounding a center tech point in a strict wagon-wheel or hub-and-spoke design. You have an outer circle connecting all of the res nodes so you either travel on that outer line or through the center, no going around. Here's what I mean:
My biggest complaints ATM are too much glass, and the names of the important rooms take too long to say. Usually you want to bring it down to one syllable, like "flight" "pipe" "comp" "cross" or "sub". That's not always the case but it's definitely preferable. Many of the names in Biodome can't be broken down that simply. The glass issue just comes down to being able to reliably tell whether or not you have a clear line of fire, the simple fix is to discontinue use of windex and dirty up the glass a bit.
My biggest complaints ATM are too much glass, and the names of the important rooms take too long to say. Usually you want to bring it down to one syllable, like "flight" "pipe" "comp" "cross" or "sub". That's not always the case but it's definitely preferable. Many of the names in Biodome can't be broken down that simply. The glass issue just comes down to being able to reliably tell whether or not you have a clear line of fire, the simple fix is to discontinue use of windex and dirty up the glass a bit.
Comments
What comes next, a glass maze?
I'm more referring to overall routing. In many cases on the map, if you want to get from A to B you must pass through a particular hallway or base. If one team holds hub then the only way for the other team to get to their backline RTs is to go straight through their bases. The result is a concentrated front line wherever two bases meet at an RT. Most of the other maps don't pan out that way, usually because you can go around the RT without having to pass through an enemy base.
It's not really a bad design, even if I don't particularly like it, it's just that I think (remember, first impressions here) it will result in similar overall gameplay flow to a map we've had for ages.
Might be all the foliage.(or grenade spam in end game is starting to screw me over)
DAMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Makes me feel like I'm actually a part of humanity's struggle for survival against a hostile alien species!
When I walked into that room I could picture TSF transporting the produce to other colonies, using the seedlings to try and cultivate new planets and things like that. Great job.
Haven't even played the patch yet, or the map but just wow!
Actually it's not, I'll get a picture up shortly but you can go around hydro on both the left and right sides.
This is green, descent was blue, summit is grey. It's completely different.
"Oh god, triad. Lets vote for summit"
Cant count how often i saw this.
Gameplay wise? No idea, lets play it for 2-3 months then I will have an opinion on it.
Also.. nothing wrong with summit. Summit has the best map layout of all the maps
The picture I promised:
On the left you see the routes that do NOT exist in summit/biodome. Those allow you to reach bases and RTs in the back without passing directly through Hydro if it is controlled by the enemy. The fact that hydro also allows two separate routes to Energy Flow is also important.
Nothing wrong with liking summit. I don't, but that's just my opinion and it's largely because I enjoy backdooring in larger pubs.
so many invisible walls
bullets hitting windows instead of skulks
game design > artwork, aesthetics, random framerate loss from weird effects
hope UWE realizes this one day
Marine-only random start
Noticed a small issue in which water kept spewing through the glass in a couple of areas.
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577873087983719467/50634B093E0392317CE6417965449EAE2A8947AF/
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577873087983732476/511B098392F3B7C7BC2023E3ECE3DE0F7F410CD6/
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/577873087983743410/39260289362311507AA92935CAE1DDAF95CEB954/
What you see there is nanites. Also, superfluid.
And my response will include this text so it is not called as image spam.
Regarding the flow and balance, lets play it a bit first, but it already felt like it flowed a little bit differently than Summit. It felt a lot more multi leveled and more of the tight passages into grander rooms rather than Summit's wider passages into slightly less epic spaces.
As for the glass... we were pretty late getting the reflections into the game, so yes, this is definitely a weak spot. We'll be dirtying up the glass as soon as I possibly can. Some glass may also have to be removed to improve performance (among other optimisations).
The assets are already there. Hunting marines in between of bamboo or something like this. (Maybe for the next map
Yeah vents, i think aliens need some more on this map. A example of a great vent system is veil so many vents where aliens can go in. In the north there could be 1-2 more vents.
Btw. had a bug 2min ago where some textures of biodome where black (seems that they weren´t loaded)
All in one great patch. Really like vortex for the fade.
i can see the windows quite good, i play it maxed out and i never had trouble with shooting windows.
Culling issue in condensators that should be a quick fix:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=173941171
Otherwise, amazing looking map. Excited to get to play it.
edit: removed one as a restart fixed it.
With all settings maxed...
Wich noone is gonna be able to play with...
Actually there are rooms where I go down to 70 fps with all settings on low. On an empty testserver, with nothing built and no fights going on.
Before 252 I got like 150-200 fps in most rooms on empty servers, going down to a minimum of 70 fps in the endgame.
How will I be able to fight in Biodome???