Monday Night Combat - we've just announced

[talsworthy]

I'm in if I hear from you guys it's definitely working now.

I've grabbed this one as well - looking forward to seeing what all the xbox fuss was about :)

[TurinTur]

Will there be a demo for the pc version?

[lordkosc]

Guess I will pick it up also , like I NEED another team based FPS... :|

[ThornFalconeye]

Hmm huge patch today? or did I accidentally redownload the client?

eta 1.5 hrs to an answer

[Pogo]

Guess I will pick it up also , like I NEED another team based FPS... :|

It's not a FPS.

It is, however, a great little fusion between tower defense and team v team shooter.

[Anti-Bunny]

Monday Night Combat Beta Update 1 Release Notes

Fixes

* Fixed sensitivity sliders so that the minimum value is no longer 0.
* Fixed the actions in the death scene to be rebindable.
* Fixed several crashes at the end of Blitz rounds.
* Fixed wrong Challenge Names showing up when browsing for a Blitz game.
* Fixed the Server Browser map filter and set the default to “All”.
* Fixed getting ‘cash on hand’ back after purchasing a custom class.
* Fixed a crash on dedicated servers.
* Fixed Chat and Team Chat



Adjustments

* Refactored the code that displays player counts in the Server Browser.
* Changed some UI text size for higher resolutions.
* Changed the Server Browser tabs to be more legible.
* Changed the Server Browser to default to ‘Internet’.



Balance Changes

* Increased the amount of bots spawn for some pros that purchase
bots at a bot spawner.
* Reduced the amount of juice Lazer Blazer turrets give to
deployed Tanks and taunting Pros.
* Increased clip size of Tank’s Rail Gun.
12345

[Anti-Bunny]

Also, according to the forums, it seems to have made things worse. :(

[Adree]

Any of you jaded X360 pros have advice for playing as an assassin? I mean, aside from "Stay the fuck away from tanks"?


Don't until you know the game better. If you insist take out bots since that is something they are best at.

[Pogo]

I went 139 rounds solo in Sudden Death Blitz (the Insane difficulty, not the Ludicrous) as a Support, just buying/upgrading/hacking turrets. It started getting utterly ridiculous somewhere around round 100, where the bots are just so fast that rounds come very quickly. At 139, Jackbots were coming in pretty much every 3 rounds and I just couldn't overcharge the turret shields fast enough.

It'll be interesting to play my custom Support in multiplayer Blitz, with Gold Rate of Fire (it works on the heal gun), Silver Skill Regeneration, and Bronze Speed (to move around and build turrets).

[Anti-Bunny]

I guess there was another patch. I am afraid to try it. :(

[Anti-Bunny]

I guess there was another patch. I am afraid to try it. :(
OMG it works! Pogo, Maxle, Thorn and I were all playing. And on the same server!

[bakka bakka bakka]

i haven't had any trouble getting into servers. i came home tonight and there were more servers than ever before including empty servers. so if you're on the fence but worried about performance i'd say jump in.

on top of that the game is a whole lot of fun. i've been playing strictly as assault and loving every minute of it. it feels like every class is strong enough to move around the map as they please but fragile enough that they've really got to watch their surroundings. skills have a nice balance. i want to fly as much as possible so assassins can't grab me but i don't want to get molested by snipers or have no energy when i get thrown off the edges of the map. and i want to charge grapple everyone for the quick kills but i don't want to be killed during my animation and i really like the mobility the charge affords.

i just hope this game catches on when it releases. you, yes you, should definitely pre-order it.

[Adree]

i haven't had any trouble getting into servers. i came home tonight and there were more servers than ever before including empty servers. so if you're on the fence but worried about performance i'd say jump in.

on top of that the game is a whole lot of fun. i've been playing strictly as assault and loving every minute of it. it feels like every class is strong enough to move around the map as they please but fragile enough that they've really got to watch their surroundings. skills have a nice balance. i want to fly as much as possible so assassins can't grab me but i don't want to get molested by snipers or have no energy when i get thrown off the edges of the map. and i want to charge grapple everyone for the quick kills but i don't want to be killed during my animation and i really like the mobility the charge affords.

i just hope this game catches on when it releases. you, yes you, should definitely pre-order it.


Once you start experimenting with different loadouts you'll be surprised how many variations of each individual class you can create.

[Kurina]

Definitely happy tonight with the second patch. I went from being unable to play anything yesterday, to a couple very long play sessions tonight and having a great deal of fun. I am in love with the assassin class now that I have a firmer grip on the tactics, and a better understanding of the role.

Only downside this evening is I seemed to have run into a few cheaters who were blatantly obvious, and not even trying to hide it, killing the servers pretty quickly of people. Bleh. Wish VAC were instant or something sometimes.


i just hope this game catches on when it releases. you, yes you, should definitely pre-order it.

Same here. The game is a great deal of fun, but all my friends have blown it off as a "TF2 wannabe," despite the game being completely different with the dota aspect and other features. This seems to be the biggest hurdle of getting people I know to try it, so I hope somehow they are able to clarify upon release that this is something totally different and awesome so it brings in more people.

[Pogo]

I'm happy that Crossfire seems much more stable, and the server list for it at least works more than half the time, but it seems Blitz is still unplayable online.


Same here. The game is a great deal of fun, but all my friends have blown it off as a "TF2 wannabe," despite the game being completely different with the dota aspect and other features. This seems to be the biggest hurdle of getting people I know to try it, so I hope somehow they are able to clarify upon release that this is something totally different and awesome so it brings in more people.

Yeah, and it has that same sort of dynamic where if you push your bots into their base, they may take out more turrets or do some damage to people, but you lose out on making money due to having to be in a much more hostile zone.


I did pretty well as support. It's somewhat tough to make cash while trying to update your own turrets, though.

[chequers]

I like the game, but calling the game "completely different" from TF2 is being a little disingenuous, no? The class list is basically a compressed five-person version of the nine-person TF2 lineup.

[Anti-Bunny]

I like the game, but calling the game "completely different" from TF2 is being a little disingenuous, no? The class list is basically a compressed five-person version of the nine-person TF2 lineup.
It's a completely different class-based team shooter.

[Squee]

It doesn't have hats, for one thing.

[bakka bakka bakka]

i think the tf2 comparisons are fair, to a point. if you've played tf2 you'll be very familiar with the roles and weapons of the classes. past that i think the comparisons to tf2's gameplay are tenuous at best. the other comparisons to tf2 are comparisons more games should strive for. battlefield heroes was better for it's art style and distinct bodies for it's classes and the same holds true here.

[Pogo]

There's no reason not to take what TF2 does right (the medic, the heavy) and not take what TF2 does wrong (the spy).

[Caryn Law]

I'm so glad to hear you guys are having a better experience since the patch. Our engineers worked 'round the clock this weekend to fix some of these issues. As someone in another forum said, "this isn't a fake beta like Starcraft 2, this is actually a real beta." Heh.

Someone asked about a PC demo -- I asked about that and it looks like we're going to do some things on Steam like guest passes and possibly free weekends, that sort of thing.

We've got more updates planned before Christmas that should hopefully improve it some more so that people get a better playing experience over the holiday break.

[Falcon554]

I'm so glad to hear you guys are having a better experience since the patch. Our engineers worked 'round the clock this weekend to fix some of these issues. As someone in another forum said, "this isn't a fake beta like Starcraft 2, this is actually a real beta." Heh.

Someone asked about a PC demo -- I asked about that and it looks like we're going to do some things on Steam like guest passes and possibly free weekends, that sort of thing.

We've got more updates planned before Christmas that should hopefully improve it some more so that people get a better playing experience over the holiday break.

Played some this weekend, alot of disconnects but game when it did not was alot of fun :)

[Anti-Bunny]

Changeteam seems to be a console command, but it's probably better as a bind-able action in options. The server should also probably have some sort of automatic team balancing if two players leave, creating a 6v4 game.

More steam integration would be nice, too.. like being able to use the steam server browser, join a friend's server from the friendslist or see the steam playerlist for my current server (so I can mute someone). Being able to use XBL features like those is a given for any xbox game, but when a steam game doesn't use them it kinda sticks out.

[Pogo]

We've got more updates planned before Christmas that should hopefully improve it some more so that people get a better playing experience over the holiday break.

Wow. I had figured not seeing an update until after New Year's. I'm going to cross my fingers that whatever you guys did to make Crossfire finally playable online is done to Blitz before I leave for the holidays!

Aside from Blitz, as far as I can tell the game is very polished already. There was an issue of online multiplayer grinding to a halt with a disconnection followed by a crash, but from what I'm hearing that's part of what's been nailed down with the recent patch.

There was some weird bug where a person who disconnected/crashed from the game stayed on the playing field and was continuing their last few actions. It was an assassin that was in our base, chucking shurikens against a wall, reloading, and chucking more shurikens repeatedly. Was very weird, and hilarious, and deadly since the shurikens still hit us!

[chequers]

Way to disable menu music would be good!

[Tom Chick]

Also please please please let us start Crossfire games with fewer than six players, even if it's just for LAN games! I'd love for us to be able to play this as a 2v2 game.

-Tom

[Caryn Law]

Pogo: we're actually testing the next update internally this morning that I think is a fix for Blitz. I think -- don't hold me to that.

chequers: noted.

Tom: I'll ask about that.

[Caryn Law]

Tom: dedicated servers let you play with any minimum number of players, so you should be able to play a 2v2 game on a dedicated server.

[Pogo]

I'm holding you to that!

[Matt Perkins]

And the coop!

[lordkosc]

And myself and 4 friends just got this, downloading now... 2GB.

[maxle]

I am in love with the assassin class now that I have a firmer grip on the tactics, and a better understanding of the role.

If you wouldn't mind, please elaborate. I want so badly to be Shaco in the bushes, but I'm awful at it, so I stick with gunner and tank.

[Kurina]

If you wouldn't mind, please elaborate. I want so badly to be Shaco in the bushes, but I'm awful at it, so I stick with gunner and tank.

Sure! The following is a brief primer of what I have discovered so far and had the most success with.

When I first started, I was getting a lot of kills, but I was matching that in deaths as well. I didn't realize at the time that player kills are pretty low on the priority list. Instead, I should be focusing on clearing bots, keeping turrets down, and watching the annihilator button in the center of the map. Additionally, I keep an eye on jackbots and snipers too from time to time.

Lunging at bots almost instantly destroys them, with only the bigger ones needing an extra hit, so you can clear a lane extremely fast. When juiced, this is an excellent time to dash in and destroy turrets around the money ball. Without interference, you can wipe out an entire base before juice runs out. However, lately people seem to be better at countering that, but you should still be able to knock out turrets on one side at least. For firebase turrets, they are like paper against shurikens.

When it comes to player kills, the trick is to lunge (reload key w/ sword) at them first which will do an initial slice, and then grapple them from behind immediately after. For additional damage, upgrade cloak to level 3, and your first hit coming out of it will be a guaranteed critical strike. This is enough to kill most classes except the tank and gunner who have invested in armor endorsements. Shurikens rip them apart in two clips though, especially when they are deployed.

Still though, player kills are low on the list unless it is a guaranteed safe kill. Otherwise, you'll get an entertaining show of watching yourself die too. I have been recording footage of me playing, and goodness I have some terrible deaths on there. Hoping to combine them for an entertaining video at some point.

For endorsements, I chose armor (gold, +100 hp, can survive most grapples), rate of fire (silver, +14%), and skill recovery (bronze, -20%). The bronze skills I keep changing around and testing, but I am loving recovery for the moment. I almost never worry about cloak drain at level 3 due to the fast regeneration rate. Supposedly, it also increases grapple recharge time. I know a lot of assassins go speed, but with the dash skill and lunge, I feel I am mobile enough.

Finally, these three things helped me more than anything on my first day after getting wrecked a little.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFF8nzuDnLU
http://mondaynightcombat.wikia.com/wiki/Assassin
http://mondaynightcombat.wikia.com/wiki/Endorsements

Assuming the values are the same, definitely study endorsements.

[Pogo]

If you wouldn't mind, please elaborate. I want so badly to be Shaco in the bushes, but I'm awful at it, so I stick with gunner and tank.

Allow me. I do this at the risk of having fellow QT3ers learn the secrets to my awesomesauciness, but I suppose it's all "fun and games" for some of you, so I will divulge.

First I suggest reading the the MNC wiki (http://mondaynightcombat.wikia.com/wiki/Monday_Night_Combat_Wiki).

Second, and I recommend this to everybody, play the class solo in Blitz mode on Exhibition or Season (10 or 20 rounds, respectively). Knowing how to kill bots effectively and how much damage they do is very important for Crossfire, so that you don't get owned doing something stupid like running into a Bouncer or standing in front of a line of Black Jacks. If an Assault spawns a group of Buzzers in Crossfire mode and you get smacked in the face by five of them, you're going to feel stupid for not recognizing their lethality or their warning sounds (they buzz).

Not only that, but you learn how much money it costs to build turrets and how effective they are at killing bots. Since the purpose of Crossfire is to facilitate the destruction of the enemy base, bots are the critical part of the game. They are the metric by which you decide which team is winning (not that backdooring is impossible, per se, but I'll get to that in a moment).

Next I suggest you buy a custom class and select your own Gold/Silver/Bronze endorsements to help out as you learn. Perhaps pick Gold Armor, Silver Speed, and Bronze Health Recovery (reduces the time it takes before your health starts regenerating, does not effect the rate of that regeneration). Also, since you can customize your custom class before any game, you don't need to buy a new slot unless you have the money (or you want to save up for some awesome pro title, like "Hax," which I just bought, because it's awesome).

So now that you've played Blitz and at least understand what your skills do and what they give you at each powerup level (very important), you can jump into a game. I start off with Assassin (4) to level 2, and Cloak to level 2, though Dash/Cloak to level 2 is also very useful. I choose Assassin 2 because more shurikens = more spray'n'pray on some asshole Support's little turret. That turret changes the flow of a map dramatically, and taking it out wastes his time (my favorite class is Support, of course).

Off the start with any class you really want to be out there killing bots and making money. As an Assassin you can quickly run in with Dash/Cloak (you have to hit Dash after every time you stop running, by the way, it's not a toggle, but you learned that in Blitz, didn't you :), get behind the bots and slash away doing extra damage to their backs. Quickly cloak and dash away before an enemy player does too much damage to you.

Pick up Assassin 3 as soon as possible so that you get the sword, which ups your damage considerably and possibly even the range of your attacks. After that, work on Dash/Cloak in sequence. Dash is almost more important than Cloak, really, since a dashing Assassin is so god damned fast that targetting one is hard enough as it is.

Your Smoke Bomb skill is awesome, even though it's an advanced skill that requires some training and intuition to use. With it you can stun turrets as well as enemies. Now think about how this is useful... is there a longshot cannon in the enemy base that's pissing off the Support on your team that is constantly repairing your base's turrets? Cloak/Dash to their base, drop a smoke bomb (takes you out of cloak), and slash away at a turret. You can easily kill a Level 1 turret, somewhat easily kill a level 2 turret, but a level 3 turret (especially a rocket launcher) is impossibly without either recloaking to regenerate health, OR having juice. In the late game, if you or others haven't done any turret harassment, juice would be essential in taking out their level 3 turrets. Use your current targeted turret as a shield against any other turrets nearby that may be shooting at you. Move from left to right or jump up/down if you have to. If you've been spotted by someone and they're coming to attack, make a decision... either die taking down the turret, or Cloak/Dash away (a very hard maneuver since bullets make you a very obvious target if you're hit when cloaked).

So what if you see Copet standing at a sideline headshotting all of your teammates one by one? Cloak and Dash and make a beeline to him, but don't be obvious. Dashing assassins cause a dust trail even when cloaked (something lots of players may not notice). Now you have two choices... get behind the player and right-click with your sword to grapple them for an instant kill, or press R to do the dagger/sword lunge. The lunge travels a good 30 feet or so (practice with it, it's essential to kill bots quickly or in other situations to start a fight). Why lunge if you can just do a back-grapple? Because some players keep moving and turning. A sniper might be facing one direction at all times, or you may jump down on someone to find them running predictably, but other times you'll be at the mercy of a possible front-grapple, which is NOT an instakill. Therefore, I like lunging to start the fight and it does a little damage, then grapple. This is extremely hard and I'm not great at it just yet. You *can* front-grapple, but in my experience the person that was just grappled gets the upper hand with the next action, which is kinda the beauty of the grapple system. It seems cheap, but what they do next could very well kill you, so you better follow-up with something like a lunge or jump away and switch to shurikens to finish the kill.

BTW, Smoke Bomb gives you dramatically increased jumping height for a split second. And I mean jumping height like... 2x the height of the strongest jump pad in the game. You can cloak in mid-air and look down and STILL have time to pick a target. I have done this over many a wall with the enemy not knowing any better.

Finally... Jackbot XL. If you are cloaked run up behind one and grapple to take away about 80% of its health. The animation is long, so you're open to being attacked, but worth it, and you'll probably get the kill if it's already being attacked by teammates, which means lots of money (75 gold is a lot for a single kill). If you are not cloaked, it will do a ground slam when you get close. Simply jump before it slams the ground and you'll take no damage, THEN you can grapple. You can grapple a Jackbot from the front or behind. The Assassin is the most important element of killing a Jackbot, and is pretty much why they are required for the game.

Good luck.

[Pogo]

Holy Jesus I talked too much. Kurina said what I said with some tweaks, before I said it!

[McKnight]

You need an option to change the Screen refresh rate, and I mean need.

-edit- Because right now the game is flickering on all 3 refresh rates for me (changing it on my end).

[maxle]

How exactly are you supposed to defend against a juiced assassin wrecking your entire base?

Kurina, Pogo, thanks much.

[Pogo]

Yeah mx I gotta agree there.

I'm thinking there is a slight balance issue here, and it has to do with how quickly one can rotate the view to aim with a mouse. Combine that with the insane sword damage when juiced, and I single-handedly annihilated 3 level 3 turrets, the Support, and his hacked Firebase. It may have been much harder had a gunner or tank been there to back up the support, but those classes rarely stay in base. To also be fair to the Assassin, this level (the big donut ring) has spread out turret points. A juiced tank with a railgun could probably deploy and take out several of those turrets that are closer to the base, and at range, I suppose. Except he's much less mobile and would probably require a Support.

There is the caveat, of course, that juice is expensive until the end of the game, which is when it starts ramping up. I also accept it as the role of the Assassin and it's a character that should be defended against, like any other. A sniper noticing a turret-bombing assassin could place freeze traps at likely attack points.

[Kurina]

How exactly are you supposed to defend against a juiced assassin wrecking your entire base?

Kurina, Pogo, thanks much.
The best way is simply to try and grapple them if you see they aren't paying attention. This won't kill the assassin, but it delays them long enough to make the juice almost useless and want to get out of there before it wears off.

The assault grapple or gunner slam move is an exception though, as it can cause a ring out if you are near the edge. Those two are very frustrating, and not to mention a little embarrassing flying away while still glowing! The tank and their jet engine also still deal massive damage, and is something to watch out for.

Definitely having to learn to time my base attacks better now.


Holy Jesus I talked too much. Kurina said what I said with some tweaks, before I said it!
Hehe, covered stuff I forgot to mention though! I keep forgetting about the smoke bomb and jump combination, but mostly because I completely fail at it. For some reason, my brain is stuck on hitting lunge instead of jump. I don't know why.

[Pogo]

Speaking of lunge, I lunged toward someone and then turned 180° to do a back grapple, while the lunge was still executing. You can turn it on a dime.

[Kurina]

New patch (http://uberent.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5156) out for PC



Monday Night Combat Product Update 2
12/21/10

Fixes
Fixed scrollbars on all scrollable UIs.
Fixed a display issue in the Playbook.
Fixed game crash on non English languages
Fixed sound for 7.1 audio devices
Fixed not seeing Blitz servers in the server browser.


Adjustments
Improved the chat and console font.
Colorized team chat to match your team’s color.
Increased the time to start a Blitz match in order to give more time for players to get on the server. Game can still by started earlier by toggling ready.
Improved server lists and crashing associated with multiplayer.
Reduced the overall number of bots in Crossfire.


Balance Changes
Decreased the amount of damage a Firebase takes while it’s deploying.
Decreased the recovery time of level 2 and 3 Airstrike.

[Pogo]

Ohhh a Support buff!

Interesting change in Crossfire bots though. I found it chaotic and awesome. Gonna be a bit tougher to get money now but it should encourage more skillfull play. Gonna have to see how much tougher it will be to do base assaults when the turrets aren't focused on all the bots.

[Tom Chick]

Tom: dedicated servers let you play with any minimum number of players, so you should be able to play a 2v2 game on a dedicated server.

Ah, so you can! Good to know that. Although it's a bit odd to have to set up a dedicated server for that. Now what I'd really like is a way to change teams so we can set up who's on what team!

And also, let me second, third, fourth, and fifth the request for an option to turn off the menu music. Good lord.

And I'm soooo glad this is on the PC. It's so well suited for a LAN game!

-Tom

[Calistas]

Tempted to pick this one up. Would I be competitive on a ping of 200? LOL is fine like that, and I enjoy playing with Qt3ers, but I know there is no point trying, say, TF2 with these guys on that ping.

[DarthMasta]

In my experience, when you can actually play multiplayer (loads of desyncs, true Beta), it's a fairly forgiving game ping-wise.

[Kurina]

Tempted to pick this one up. Would I be competitive on a ping of 200? LOL is fine like that, and I enjoy playing with Qt3ers, but I know there is no point trying, say, TF2 with these guys on that ping.

The game is actually a lot more friendly than I imagined it would be. I hardly get to play online shooter games with my friends overseas due to the obvious issues of distance and latency, but the game has been plenty playable at around 200 ping. You will get occasional moments where things seem a little off, but nothing overly terrible or frustrating. 250ish ping and up though is questionable.

[Matt Perkins]

I've been playing a lot of MNC from the boonies (somewhat crappy slow connection) and it plays better than TF2 (which is pretty good) so far. Really impressed with it's network performance at the moment.

[Caryn Law]

Ohhh a Support buff!

Yeah, I play Support here and during our playtests this week I just got CREAMED by Gunners and Tanks. Now, I know I can't stand toe-to-toe with them as a Support but I at least used to be an annoying force to be reckoned with. But as other classes appeared to get stronger on the PC the Support didn't seem to gain any advantage. So our lead designer made some changes and my experience was much more enjoyable during yesterday's playtests. I felt far less fragile.

[Pogo]

Yeah I think the changes should be good. They'll also go quite a way to helping the support gain the cash he needs, since he's so terrible at killing bots with his shotgun or healgun. I found my turrets dying very quickly to various attacks on the front lines. Obviously strategic placements of turrets is needed, but without a chance to put it up before a couple bullets take it down while it's still building, it was really tough.

I can't wait to piss people off with more airstrikes that they didn't expect.

[copet]

I've been playing with 230 or more ping at times (I'm in Japan) and it has been fun, and I have done well with the sniper. I think you would like it :)

[Calistas]

Thanks, Copet, getting it. Make sure you hit me up for friends action!

[Pogo]

Strange bug on this one map that's sort of shaped like an 'S', Buzzers get caught on the walls:

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/9476/dd043.jpg

I haven't noticed the decrease in bots too much.

Still no Blitz servers, but I'm guessing people aren't putting them up since Crossfire is the more competitive mode.

[Anti-Bunny]

Still crashes when I try to host Blitz. :(

[maxle]

Strange bug on this one map that's sort of shaped like an 'S', Buzzers get caught on the walls:
The AI is pretty terrible at understanding line of sight. I've seen jackbots and long shots fire straight into walls over and over again. There's one map where you absolutely cannot build long shots at certain nubs because, well, they'll shoot the wall, and only the wall.

I sort of assumed it's the same way on the 360 and therefore not going to be fixed, but I may have been mistaken.

[lordkosc]

Fun game when its working, my friends are unable to join my Blitz game, and when they host I can't join theirs. Crossfire was fun for the 2-3 hours I played tonight :)

[McKnight]

Yeah, I play Support here and during our playtests this week I just got CREAMED by Gunners and Tanks. Now, I know I can't stand toe-to-toe with them as a Support but I at least used to be an annoying force to be reckoned with. But as other classes appeared to get stronger on the PC the Support didn't seem to gain any advantage. So our lead designer made some changes and my experience was much more enjoyable during yesterday's playtests. I felt far less fragile.

Just quoting you in the hopes you read this Caryn :)

Can you please try and get your guys to include a refresh rate option, or at the very least let us all know what your game is running at (If this info is out their my apologies, but for some damn reason, I cannot stop the screen refresh flicker).

[chequers]

Isn't there a vsync option already?

[Pogo]

Isn't there a vsync option already?

Yeah, and it works, but I think if someone's monitor is like 75hz then vsync isn't going to do anything when the game is telling your video card to vsync at 60hz. Actually think it'd make it worse.

[chequers]

Yeah, and it works, but I think if someone's monitor is like 75hz then vsync isn't going to do anything when the game is telling your video card to vsync at 60hz. Actually think it'd make it worse.vsync doesn't work like that.

[McKnight]

My game flickers with or without Vsync, but I've been told it's a Directx problem which makes alot more sense :)

[Strato]

I like the look of this game. I like the videos I've seen. Thing is, is there much mileage from a single player perspective, much like Section 8? I know about the blitz mode, I'm just wondering if there is much replayability to it?

I know this is a dumb question, but with the game going so cheap over steam, it is quite tempting.

[Pogo]

I like the look of this game. I like the videos I've seen. Thing is, is there much mileage from a single player perspective, much like Section 8? I know about the blitz mode, I'm just wondering if there is much replayability to it?

Single player is there for you to figure out what your abilities do. I've only ever seen one map so... not much going on there.

[Strato]

Thanks Pogo. Bit of a shame, but to be expected.

[Pogo]

Actually that might be a PC beta thing. XBLA has two Blitz arenas. If there's a selection in Blitz, I'm not seeing it, or I'm retarded.

But yeah, this is NOT a solo game any more than TF2 is a solo game.

[Strato]

According to the Steam forums for the game, there will be two blitz maps.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1671378 (Post number 8). But maybe because the game is still in beta, it isn't available yet?

[lordkosc]

Had another 1+ GB patch this morning :)

Wonder whats updated?

[Wade42]

According to the Steam forums for the game, there will be two blitz maps.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1671378 (Post number 8). But maybe because the game is still in beta, it isn't available yet?
On the XBLA version at least, you have to pick the last challenge (super insane?) to see the other map.

[Caryn Law]

Refresh rate question: I'll note it and bring it up here.

Regarding fixing things on 360 versus PC: we have a MUCH improved ability to quickly fix things on the PC version than we do on the 360 version, so no need to assume that just because something is in the 360 version it won't get fixed in the PC version. I'm not sure what the designer's plans are there but I'll make a note and pass on any information I can.

Blitz challenge: yes, the other map should be in the Super Sudden Death Blitz challenge.

[Tman]

I'm liking support, but I noticed a guy last night who had pin-point placement for his airstrikes. He seemed to be able to place them at will, some quite a ways away. When I try to do it however, it's just an underhand throw that just goes a little bit. What is the secret to being more accurate? (this guy could put them on top of your head where it would stick).

[Caryn Law]

Tman: I'm somewhat good at sticking air strikes and my technique usually involves leading my opponent a little bit. It really just takes a lot of practice.

[Pogo]

Aim up at about a 50° angle, do a little hop, get on higher ground first, etc etc.

They go quite a distance and sticking is usually just luck with a bit of skill. Practice with it. I usually throw where I think my enemy will be, either because I see them taking a particular path or because they're chasing me.

Throwing it under a bridge when the enemy is standing on the bridge works well too.


I'll have to try Super Sudden Death Blitz later. I realized the highest I went was the Insane infinite Blitz (for 139 rounds).

[Caryn Law]

For those wondering what's in today's update, here's the link to our forum post with all the info: http://www.uberent.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5331

It's mainly dedicated server command line information and admin options for server admins.

[lordkosc]

ah thanks, yeah I like to see whats in the patches steam downloads :)

[Caryn Law]

By the way, we're trying to remedy the fact that the patch download is so large. After the holidays we may have that sorted out.

[Shellfishguy]

Picked this up yesterday, looking forward to giving it a go with all the qt3 folks.

[lordkosc]

do the Qt3ers who play have a server they frequent, I only saw around 12 servers listed, lol.

[Pogo]

Steam integration works (join on friends). When it asks for a password for the server, just input anything and press connect (it's a bug).

[Anti-Bunny]

It's mainly dedicated server command line information and admin options for server admins.
Okay, cool.. Now we need a standalone server, so I can run it on a separate PC without having to buy two copies. :P

[Caryn Law]

Our engineers definitely want to do that, Anti-Bunny.

[lordkosc]

Steam integration works (join on friends). When it asks for a password for the server, just input anything and press connect (it's a bug).

ah ok , I saw that yesterday, and I kept asking my friends the PW and I had no clue :|

[maxle]

In all the games I played last night, victory was entirely dependent on having more/better assassins than the other team. I dunno what the state of the metagame is on the 360, but right now it sure seems like no one has a clue how to shut down assassins. I'm hopeful this is something the community will figure out, because I'm not exactly fond of the assassin being the carry. Or even there being a carry, really.

[lordkosc]

Is there a way to call for support to heal you?

I hate being near death and the support guy decided to over heal someone else :(

[Pogo]

I went 24/20/11 today as Assassin and each team had a very tough time pushing. Why? Because Juice-buying was off. Without being able to buy Juice in the late parts of the game, it was much tougher to get into that base and take down a billion turrets in a row. Without this incentive, it was much tougher to build Juice since Assassins very frequently die in mid-grapple and get focus fired in any situation where they are farming bots.

Want to know how to stop an Assassin? Assaults and Tanks do a great job of one-hit killing with their charge attacks. The Tank's flamethrower spin also helps, but I just jump over it because it's predictable. Snipers pick a good "choke" point where they can only be approached by one or two directions and they place a Freeze Trap on either side of them. But that's not even the best way. An Assassin that keeps destroying your front line is thwarted by a Support that has a level 3 turret+hack. That turret will rip any Assassin down to about 10% health during a grapple. They can't kill both the turret and the Support before one or the other takes them out. Two good Supports on a two-lane arena will decimate the opposing team, until a Juiced Assassin bombs their long shots in the base of course.


I had two great moments today as an Assassin where I wish I had FRAPS:

1) Cloaked and waiting on an ejector button, I see an uncloaked enemy Assassin on the edge of the ejector killing my team's bots. I hit the ejector and the Assassin flies direct toward me, stopping against the wall behind me on the two-level single-lane S-shaped arena. I immediately did a lunge/grapple for the kill.

2) Two assaults pushing against our bots on the ring map with the jump pads and central platform. I got on a bridge and dropped to their side, did a Lunge attack immediately killing one that was at 50% health, and the grapple I had intended to use on him actually hooked onto his buddy next to him for an autokill back grapple. So sweet.

[maxle]

Want to know how to stop an Assassin?
The issue isn't that they're unkillable--although the good ones had a very high kdr and were pretty slippery--it's that you don't know they're in your base until, well, they're in your base. And they're juiced. And you're out of position, and even if you were in position it'd be damn hard to save your turrets. I've seen assassins demolish bases when there are multiple enemies around them. I've done it myself.

I didn't realize juice could be disabled, though. Maybe we'll be able to persuade bunny to do that WHEN HE STOPS BEING LAZY AND PUTS UP A SERVEROMGNOOBWHAT'STAKINGSOLONG.

[Pogo]

I think a Juiced Gunner with a Support back can demolish an enemy base and at range, so in general I think turrets are much to susceptible to Juice. Turning off Juice buying helps a lot, since then it becomes a factor of legitimate skill and collecting Juice drops (or having Bullseye all to yourself) in order to become super powerful.

[maxle]

So is there some sort of trick where people with the same clan tag always get put on the same team? Because I went three rounds with some pubstomping motherfuckers from Bonk and after the initial autobalance in the lobby it would immediately autobalance again such that they were together. Server pretty much died at that point, since no one wanted to be on the receiving end of the stomp.

Seriously, fuck those guys.

Oh, I see. You can use the console to switch teams. Yeah, fuck those guys so much.

[Tman]

Here's quite a few thoughts completely thrown out there at random, but I wanted to get them down. A lot of this might feel like bitching, and it is to a certain extent, but it's also feedback. This game is fun & has a lot of potential. So don't take below as the game sucks - quite the opposite actually. I just want it to be better.

So much of this game feels like "fuck if I know what the fuck just happened".

I've played a lot of gunner, but I had a few gunners today that would just shred me at distance in 2 seconds, when it take 1/2 a clip from my gun to take down an assault.

SLAM is weak, even at level 3. Slam at level 3 should take down a bot crowd, or do some major damage. As it is, level 3 Slam barely puts a dent into them, and can't even kill an assassin (I use slam a lot to thwart grapples). At a minimum, it should put the little birdies flying around and slow them down.

WTF with the blinding grenades. Not only do they blind, but you can't shoot at all while the effect is going on?? Seriously?

As heavy, I lit into an assassin - and I know how fragile they are, but they just leap away. It's like if you're in the air, you take no damage.

Support needs love. There is just too few opportunities to earn cash. I hack every turret and upgrade when I can, I'm overcharging my team mates and getting squat. One time I saw that I was credited for a kill while supporting my team-mate. ONE TIME. Seriously, throw support a bone (I mean cash) more often.

Also - what is up with the heal/hurt gun when trying to hurt? No offense, but it takes FOREVER and it's range is so short, it's really pathetic.

I really don't think any one class is dominating. I hate the fucking snipers, but I've always hated the fucking snipers in every game I've ever played. They really don't sway the game that much. Oh, and that reminds me, I can't tell what is glass & what is not because I was standing behind what I thought was glass, but a sniper shot straight through it. I think you need to make glass more noticeable.

We need more time to chat between rounds. You might as well not have any chat available as short as it is. I mean, I spend more time loading the map than I do chatting. And for the love of god, please mix up the images while loading.

Final thought: When is a blitz server going to actually show up in the server browser? Your company should throw up a few of them since either no one can get them running, or no one is deciding to run them. Based on Anti-Bunny's note above, I don't think he could get it running.

[Pogo]

Shredding gunner means they're deployed and/or have upgraded to dual miniguns and/or use crit shot as a gold endorsement.

Sort of agree with the Support. If you take some time to push with a teammate and set out your turret to kill bots at the front line, you make good cash. Sometimes your hacked turrets just aren't generating any income, so you have to go out and get it yourself. It's worth noting that the heal/hurt gun is the best weapon there is against Bullseye. Hurt gun is somewhat useless except against aggressive assassins, and even then you likely want a shotgun. Unfortunately you also depend on your team to build/upgrade some turrets, and some people just don't do that when they're saving up for juice. Healing also generates juice, by the way. Place your turret in a position by a wall where the enemy has to be close to it to attack it, then hack it and you're good to go.

And when you slam an assassin... trust me, they don't enjoy that one bit, especially if it's off the map. It's not a bot damaging skill as much as it is a skill that disorients or punts players into positions they don't want to be in.


I've no doubt Blitz will be done by the time I get back from vacation. Super Sudden Death looks like it'll take a very good amount of teamwork from all classes to hit the 100+ rounds mark.

[lordkosc]

Is there a way to call for support to heal you?

??? Anyone

[Pogo]

So that while I'm taking care of turrets in the base I can be reminded 10 times in a row that some asshole keeps running through the front lines and getting his ass handed to him because he expects me to be there healing him? No thanks.

[DarthMasta]

I think he means a "Doctor!" key, like TF2 has. Don't think there's one.

[Pogo]

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

[lordkosc]

Well the game needs to do something better to show I need health when I am near a support guy, right now I jump up and down in-front of them , as they decided if they want to heal me or not.

[Pogo]

Probably a newbie who doesn't understand that he should overcharge everything he sees because it gives him Juice. Hell if I'm running anywhere and there's a bot/ally/turret in range I heal while running, even if it's for a split second.

[lordkosc]

What are the benefits of a Juiced Support ? I was juiced yesterday, but when I used it I wasn't sure what to actually DO.

As an Assassin or Gunner, I can easily see why being Juiced helps, but for support?

[Pogo]

You can do the same thing you would do with any class... destroy enemies, except with the benefit of not even having to aim. The shotgun shreds through players when Juiced. Your heal is also much faster, so you can pretty much overcharge every turret in your base.

Usually though, I'll save it for Bullseye. Juicing against Bullseye nets you lots of cash, which you might find more useful if you're still not maxed in skills or need to upgrade some turrets. I think your air strike also turns into something that can nearly take out an enemy turret in one strike.

[lordkosc]

Good idea about Bullseye , gotta try that!

[woober]

Went from hating to loving this one after playing a couple balanced games. It's a great game with a little teamwork and friendliness. Unfortunately I've had game after game overloaded with assassins treating it like team deathmatch and hacking snipers (shouldn't VAC block this easily?)...but it's all good when everything comes together.

Would be awesome to have some games on a private server. If anyone wants to play, I'm Woober on steam.

E:
Actually, since there is a dev in this thread...can you go ahead and permaban that Rock(AA) guy? Seems like he's always on, emptying out servers with his autoaim. Guess there are others too, but this guy has been on literally every time I've played. Making one cheater waste $15 might give pause to the others.

[Kurina]

E:
Actually, since there is a dev in this thread...can you go ahead and permaban that Rock(AA) guy? Seems like he's always on, emptying out servers with his autoaim. Guess there are others too, but this guy has been on literally every time I've played. Making one cheater waste $15 might give pause to the others.

I run into him a few times a night it seems, and I generally just leave and find another server. At first it wasn't so bad, as he played a sniper and I could still sneak up on him as an assassin. Now he is going all out assault though, and ripping people to shreds. The team could hardly get out of base anymore.

No idea if VAC is fully enabled or not during beta, but if anything, wish it would kick in sooner and get rid of these people.

[Alstein]

needs to be some sort of voteban on servers, that usually works better then VAC.

This game is looking very good, I just think it needs something to be great, but I can't put my finger on it- might be expansions/more content tough.

[Tman]

I'd love to see the stats for which team wins the most. I'd venture it's the hotshots by a wide margin. I can't get over how many times the hotshots are loaded up with far more experienced players. I feel real bad when I see every player on hotshot at level 20 or above and the iceman have one player above 20 with the rest in single digits. There is a lot of raging going on before the round even starts. The good news is you don't have to wait 20 minutes for the next game. It's typically over in 2-3 minutes.

I've tried the console command changeteam but it's not working. The only way seems to be to leave the server & come back and you will be put on the team with the fewest players.

I love how many times I've seen a comeback. Epic comebacks. It just takes buckling down, building up juice and then making BIG push.

[Pogo]

I still don't like a single player juicing and taking down 2 or 3 level 3 turrets while getting shot at by several people (and the turrets) and coming out with enough juice to keep going at the moneyball. Sure, they should be grappled to waste their juice, but that's not easy when all it takes is bunny hopping to prevent a grapple. I'd love to see level 3 turrets have significantly more health, or juicing do slightly less damage.

I saw a sniper buy Juice and fire his machine pistol at the moneyball, run back to buy juice, come back and do it again... 3 times. This was on the ring level that has the structure in the middle with the roof that assaults/gunners/tanks love to jump on. It's much too easy to hop right onto the upper platform around the moneyball after buying juice.

And yeah the team balancer algorithm right now is strange, putting lots of high levels in the 1st team (Hotshots), which means Hotshots seem to have a higher percentage of wins.

[Kurina]

Regarding the changeteam command, I just want to add that it is unusuable until a game actually starts. It took me a few tries to realize this. I kept trying to change team during the class select screen to join a friend and low rated team. It seems the command doesn't work until the game is actually started and in play, then you can change.

Then again, if it still isn't working after that, then ignore this :(

[Pogo]

It's working.

Also, I have this strange feeling that most people who play this game don't understand that the Moneyball's shields can only be taken down by bots.

[bakka bakka bakka]

i've never lost playing on the hotshots, i thought that was my lucky team. i guess not. more importantly, when did people get good? my awesome 14 kill runs are a thing of the past now.

[Tman]

I still don't like a single player juicing and taking down 2 or 3 level 3 turrets while getting shot at by several people (and the turrets) and coming out with enough juice to keep going at the moneyball. Sure, they should be grappled to waste their juice, but that's not easy when all it takes is bunny hopping to prevent a grapple. I'd love to see level 3 turrets have significantly more health, or juicing do slightly less damage.

I saw a sniper buy Juice and fire his machine pistol at the moneyball, run back to buy juice, come back and do it again... 3 times. This was on the ring level that has the structure in the middle with the roof that assaults/gunners/tanks love to jump on. It's much too easy to hop right onto the upper platform around the moneyball after buying juice.

And yeah the team balancer algorithm right now is strange, putting lots of high levels in the 1st team (Hotshots), which means Hotshots seem to have a higher percentage of wins.

I somewhat agree, but from my limited experience, the only two classes that can take down more than one turret while juiced and live to tell about it are the gunner and the assassin. I'll admit I haven't tried every gun and ability, but I was very disappointed in the tanks ability to barely take down one turret while juiced. Engy sucks on juice as does sniper.

But for the two that can take down turrets, it's game over. Both the assassin and gunner are one-shotting all the turrets. I agree with you there that they should be toned down a bit.

[Pogo]

That's a decent point, though a juiced tank with either deployed rail gun OR flamethrower will take down 2 towers just fine.

By the way... "live to tell about it" is kind of irrelevant for many of the maps.

[Tom Chick]

So what is the console command to switch teams? This would be immensely helpful to know.

-Tom

[Pogo]

changeteam hotshots or icemen

It will fill the "changeteam" in automatically.

[Phydeaux]

Just picked this up. Wow... busy game.

[Matt Perkins]

Just picked this up. Wow... busy game.
Busy as in a lot going on? If so, I kind of felt the same way at first, but if you've played Demigod and TF2, you've played MNC. I'm not taking anything away from MNC there, just saying that if you're familair with those games, this one is a great combination of the two with few of it's own addons (Juice, etc).

As Pogo posts over and over, the bots are the key. Key to money, key to success (destroying the shields) and the key to overwhelming the otherside with a good push.

[Marcus]

The 360 version is 600 points today as part of their countdown to New Years sale.

[Phydeaux]

Yeah. Once you understand that "It's the bots, stupid!" a lot about this game seems to fall into place. Anyone have any endorsement recommendations for a gunner? I tried going RoF/Accuracy/Reload (G/S/B) but so far I can barely even notice a difference. I'm thinking of switching to Crits/Accuracy/Skill Recharge.

[DarthMasta]

Crits/Clip Size/ Whatever you prefer (survivitol in my case)

[peacedog]

I have unlocked two custom classes. I'm unsure of how to endorse them; I'll probably make them assault and gunner.

Crits/x/x seems like the way to go for Gunner. I had a fun match yesterday (as Gunner) where Thorn and Lazy betrayed me but then paid the ultimate price. My team spent half the game with 3 snipers (sigh), but one was really good and they kept spawning long shots. But we had a terrific support guy and he and I did quite a bit of pushing in the right lane, in spite of Thorn's treachery.

No idea what to use with Assault.

[copet]

Sniper only needs to upgrade 1 penetration and then use the rest of his money for turrets. No point getting grapple or anything else.

[Anti-Bunny]

Sniper only needs to upgrade 1 penetration and then use the rest of his money for turrets. No point getting grapple or anything else.
Wrong, you need grapple for ringouts, which are hilarious.

[lordkosc]

Anyone else play Gunner? I've determined reload speed doesnt matter at all, as your guns use a lot of ammo quick, it better to get the 3x ammo capacity perk as your gold endorsement. I use the armor silver endorsement, and the bronze juice endorsement.

[Wade42]

I play Gunner quite a bit on XBLA. I like the Gold Fire Rate endorsement and the Silver Clip Size endorsement. Mostly I do it for the Mortar; I like tearing apart turrets from far away, especially with the L3 passive upgrade. I don't remember Bronze; I think it's Accuracy or Crits.

[Phydeaux]

Wow. Huge difference. Crit/Accuracy/Power Regen and suddenly I'm at the top of the board.

[Rock8man]

I'm thinking of picking this up in the sale. Do people just play this game online against other people? So it's played primarily like a multiplayer game? If so I might have trouble convincing my friends to switch from Halo Reach/Black Ops when we play together. Is it an okay game to play and learn with/against complete strangers online?

[unclean]

It has single player, but it's really nothing to dwell on. More of a glorified practice mode, really.

It's not hard to learn, though. The atmosphere is pretty casual like TF2, not at all like DOTA games where you'll get yelled at for extremely minor fuck ups.

[Wade42]

@Rock8Man: Blitz mode (single player/co-op) is alright, but Crossfire is where it's at. I generally play random pubs and have fun with it. My only complaint is that sometimes you'll get stuck on the wrong end of a pub stomping (i.e., a really coordinated party vs a team of uncommunicative random players), but that comes with the territory.

If you end up getting it, feel free to send a party invite; I'm always up for some MNC.

[Rock8man]

@Rock8Man: Blitz mode (single player/co-op) is alright, but Crossfire is where it's at. I generally play random pubs and have fun with it. My only complaint is that sometimes you'll get stuck on the wrong end of a pub stomping (i.e., a really coordinated party vs a team of uncommunicative random players), but that comes with the territory.

If you end up getting it, feel free to send a party invite; I'm always up for some MNC.

Awww. I just read your post. Unfortunately, the sale is over, otherwise I'd have bought it right now. I'll probably wait until the next sale now.

[Matt Perkins]

Gunner is my favorite class right now. For the Custom I have Crit, RoF, Speed. I love Crit and RoF, but I'm missing Juice and Ammo...not sure.

I do wish when you saw another person with a custom class, it would list most powerful left to right, not right to left like it does now. At least, I think that's what it's doing... The first one I pick is the Gold, most powerful, correct? It gets marked with Gold and 3. Then Silver and 2, etc. So when I see a person that killed me, it then lists their customizations in 1 2 3 order, which is actually backwards from the most powerful...correct?


Started playing Support a bit too...very interesting class. My biggest question is...what do I do with Juice when I'm Support? My shotgun doesn't really cut it....

[Pogo]

You may be right about the displayed endorsements when someone kills you.

As for Support, I use Juice when I have 3 rocket drops to throw, Juice up and go kill some turrets in their base. Throw one rocket on each turret then shotgun it down while bunny hopping, kill enemies if they get close enough.

It's either that, or I use it to make a big push into the base by healing every bot and player around you. You heal very quickly when Juiced. If there's a Jackbot, that also works really well since they do so much damage to a base, though that's not worth it unless you've already been healing the Jackbot and it's getting close to their turrets.

[unclean]

Started playing Support a bit too...very interesting class. My biggest question is...what do I do with Juice when I'm Support? My shotgun doesn't really cut it....

I run a Gold RoF, Silver Skill, and Bronze Armor Support, and the alt fire on the heal gun completely tears things up when juiced. It's not quite as damaging as the tank flame gun, but since it's fire and forget and heals as well it makes up for it.

Only decent time to break out the juiced shotty is on a nearly dead moneyball, from my experience.

[lordkosc]

wait... SUPPORT gold endorsement ROF will increase healing? :O

[Phydeaux]

Caryn,

Would it be possible for us to get some guest passes? I have friends who are on the fence due to the 'Team Fortress 2' comparison, and I'd like to infect them with this game.

[Tom Chick]

changeteam hotshots or icemen

It will fill the "changeteam" in automatically.

Well, unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work. I had a dedicated LAN server set up and typing the command into the console did bupkis. I tried several variations and no dice.

It really sucks having to play LAN games with teams randomly determined. Can we please get the basic functionality to change teams in this game? How is this not a feature yet?

-Tom

[Pogo]

Well, unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work. I had a dedicated LAN server set up and typing the command into the console did bupkis. I tried several variations and no dice.

It really sucks having to play LAN games with teams randomly determined. Can we please get the basic functionality to change teams in this game? How is this not a feature yet?

-Tom

Which console? I don't know if there's an actual "console" in this game or not. I press Y to bring up the chat bar, then delete the "Say" command that gets put in there and put in the changeteam hotshots or changeteam icemen command.


wait... SUPPORT gold endorsement ROF will increase healing? :O

Yes. Someone did a test a while ago on the XBLA version and showed that overcharging a certain turret to full shield went from 7 seconds without endorsement to 5 seconds with gold endorsement. This is why I take ROF gold on Support. IMO Support/Assassin/Sniper are just too weak to take any armor endorsements.

[lordkosc]

IMO Support/Assassin/Sniper are just too weak to take any armor endorsements.

I agree...

[maxle]

Which console?

The one that comes up when you hit tilde. And yeah, the change team command doesn't appear to work when both teams have an even number of players, but it works when that's not true.

[Lazy Shiftless Bastard]

Which console? I don't know if there's an actual "console" in this game or not. I press Y to bring up the chat bar, then delete the "Say" command that gets put in there and put in the changeteam hotshots or changeteam icemen command.



Yes. Someone did a test a while ago on the XBLA version and showed that overcharging a certain turret to full shield went from 7 seconds without endorsement to 5 seconds with gold endorsement. This is why I take ROF gold on Support. IMO Support/Assassin/Sniper are just too weak to take any armor endorsements.

I push ~ to bring up the console to switch teams. This only works after the game has started and if there is an empty spot on the other team, though.

Taking silver armor on an assassin is just enough to let you live through getting front-grappled by another assassin. Sometimes you still get killed but sometimes you get to go and grapple them back. Occasionally getting to give someone the finger is worth it to me.

[Caryn Law]

Matt: the endorsement order in the death scene -- I'll check that when I get in the office next week.

Tom: the stuff that people want regarding changing teams is totally on our radar. We're trying to get to everything everyone wants but with the holidays it's not possible to get it all done at once, since our engineers were also max'd out getting critical other fixes in. We're a small team. We're working on it. :)

Someone else mentioned the product bomb stopping you from shooting -- if that's happening it's gotta be a bug. I'll look into it.

[Alstein]

I'm noticing that the 6 vs 6's I'm playiing occasionally, there's 2-3 supports at least in a side. Is there a hard counter to supports?

[Anti-Bunny]

I'm noticing that the 6 vs 6's I'm playiing occasionally, there's 2-3 supports at least in a side. Is there a hard counter to supports?
A single juiced assassin.

[Alstein]

A single juiced assassin.

Can you juice at all before getting full juice? I seem to have a hard time getting juiced.

[lordkosc]

Can you juice at all before getting full juice? I seem to have a hard time getting juiced.

maps have a juice dispenser , $500 .

i am not sure if all maps do, I know spunky cola arena does.

[peacedog]

A single juiced assassin.

Alternately, 2-3 supports might be in response (inadequate though it may be) to the threat of a competent assassin who buys his juice.

Juice buying sucks.

[Pogo]

I'm noticing that the 6 vs 6's I'm playiing occasionally, there's 2-3 supports at least in a side. Is there a hard counter to supports?

Kill Supports first?

Assassins will finish them with a single backstab, but good supports can quickly shotgun an assassin when they hear the shield humming sound. Which is why good assassins lunge first from 20 yards away and then grapple.

If the support is dropping his turret at the front line and making it hard to kill him, then another support might need to do a rocket drop on that turret, especially if it's a level 3 turret which takes longer to kill than can be stunned by the assassin's smoke bomb.

[Wade42]

i am not sure if all maps do, I know spunky cola arena does.
All maps have them, they're near the Annihilator switch.


If the support is dropping his turret at the front line and making it hard to kill him, then another support might need to do a rocket drop on that turret
It was a happy day when I noticed that a Support firebase is always killed by a single airstrike.

[Pogo]

It was a happy day when I noticed that a Support firebase is always killed by a single airstrike.

Yeah an on-target airstrike will do it. Good supports may place the turret under a ledge, in which case you drop 2 rockets as close as you can with blast radius.

[Matt Perkins]

Played more of this over the long weekend...still loving it. Gunner is a dream, Support and Assassin are both fun, but still trying to figure out the optimal way to play them. As Support, I kill a lot of bots, but hardly any people. Just can't get them to stand in my rocket blast... As an Assassin, I'm still getting handled by the up front fighting classes...

[Caryn Law]

Hey TMan: you said that the Product Bomb grenade was stomping all your input, right? I'm not able to verify that here. When I get hit with a Product Bomb I'm still able to move, and I appear to be shooting as well. Can you tell me if you're still seeing the input issue or not and more specifics on what's happening?

[Tman]

Hey TMan: you said that the Product Bomb grenade was stomping all your input, right? I'm not able to verify that here. When I get hit with a Product Bomb I'm still able to move, and I appear to be shooting as well. Can you tell me if you're still seeing the input issue or not and more specifics on what's happening?

It may be a lack of sounds. When product bomb goes off, I get the screen washed out with adverts, and sound from the product bomb, but then for 3-4 seconds, everything is quiet. Yes, I can move, but when pulling the trigger, no sound occurs. The reason I didn't believe I was shooting anymore was because of a few instances where I was shooting at a turret, and it was down to almost nothing (I'm gunner, lobbing grenades), I get product bombed, and I keep holding the trigger down, not moving, and when product bomb is gone and my screen restored, the turret was as it was. I deduced that I wasn't shooting because I didn't hear any sound of me firing and the turret was still up when vision was restored.

Let me do some more experimenting tonight...I'll try jumping and slamming to see if they occur while being product bombed (which will all depend on how many tanks are playing).

[Caryn Law]

That gives me at least some more info, although I'm still not sure what's going on. Thanks, TMan, I'll keep investigating.

[peacedog]

Weird, I was under the impression you couldn't shoot when product bombed for the same reasons TMan states.

[Teiman]

I have played the beta yesterday.

Is a very fun game, and the graphics very good. Using GFWL on top of Steam may add some unstability,... 3 servers of the 4 I played, died wen there was a infrastructure problem (Steam problems, not GFWL). But other than that, everything was mostly smooth (for a beta).

Fun sky-rocket to a 300% when I switched to the ninja class. Is a really fun class, ...the speed, agility, being anywhere and doing anything.

[Pogo]

GFWL? I don't see that in this game?

And everyone thinks Assassins are awesome when they play them, until they have 5 kills to their 20 deaths because they don't know what they're doing.


Played more of this over the long weekend...still loving it. Gunner is a dream, Support and Assassin are both fun, but still trying to figure out the optimal way to play them. As Support, I kill a lot of bots, but hardly any people. Just can't get them to stand in my rocket blast... As an Assassin, I'm still getting handled by the up front fighting classes...

The rockets are more of a predictive weapon, throw it when being chased or when you know someone is moving through a lane, or when you can catch them unawares by throwing it under their feet as they stand on a bridge or a ledge.

Anyways, killing bots is your job, you need that money to decide to upgrade some turrets that you can hack. Let your sentry turret and the other players focus on getting kills, unless of course an Assassin comes in close and you need to switch to shotgun. Don't ever leave your turret to be useless, keep it moving with the front line to kill bots and players and heal allies.

[Teiman]

And everyone thinks Assassins are awesome when they play them, until they have 5 kills to their 20 deaths because they don't know what they're doing.


This is a good point. But not now. Now is time to have a incredible happy face, and run everywhere like a konoha ninja, and do extraordinary feats, and doing all the awesome things you want to do wen you want to do it.

[Anti-Bunny]

People use GFWL (without being forced to)?

[Alstein]

I have played the beta yesterday.

Is a very fun game, and the graphics very good. Using GFWL on top of Steam may add some unstability,... 3 servers of the 4 I played, died wen there was a infrastructure problem (Steam problems, not GFWL). But other than that, everything was mostly smooth (for a beta).

Fun sky-rocket to a 300% when I switched to the ninja class. Is a really fun class, ...the speed, agility, being anywhere and doing anything.

I love assassins as a tank player, let them backstab me, then run over them and one-shot kill them. Most assasins expect the kill, so it's usually a shock to them.

There really needs to be some stronger anti slippery slope mechanics , especially if numbers aren't even though, steamroll games are very unfun right now. This seems to be a design flaw right now, though it's endemic to DOTA-type games.

[Matt Perkins]

I don't know about steamroll games. I've seen a couple, but most of the games have been back and forth. I've been on teams getting slaughtered only to come back and take it.


side note: When you buy bots, per the $100 bot button...is it a specific type of bot per class? Or is it random what it spawns? I've only ever spawned the Bouncers, but I see others spawn other things.

[Teiman]

side note: When you buy bots, per the $100 bot button...is it a specific type of bot per class? Or is it random what it spawns? I've only ever spawned the Bouncers, but I see others spawn other things.

I don't know either. As a assassin, seems to spawn that invisible robot monkeys, ... on a poor enemy team really create havoc.
Maybe is class based? or map based?

[McKnight]

It's class based afaik.

[Wade42]

Yes, class based.
Assassin: Gremlin (Cloaked)
Assault: Buzzer (Little Flyers)
Gunner/Tank: Bouncer (Grapple attack)
Sniper: Scrambler (Drains Skills)
Support: Gapshot (Artillery)

[Pogo]

Yes, class based.
Assassin: Gremlin (Cloaked)
Assault: Buzzer (Little Flyers)
Gunner/Tank: Bouncer (Grapple attack)
Sniper: Scrambler (Drains Skills)
Support: Gapshot (Artillery)

To touch on this, Gremlins are damn useless. I get annoyed at Assassins spamming Gremlins when we could have Bouncers or Gapshots (though Gapshots need to be protected by an engineer to wreak havoc, and need an open-type map). Buzzers are also generally useless on most levels since they get stuck in geometry.

Never see Scramblers come out that often. In theory it should be good to spawn them on the smaller maps.

[Matt Perkins]

Heh, that's funny. Because while I see Bouncers are hard to kill, they are more often just a minor annoyance. Gremlins, on the other hand, kill deployed dudes pretty quick if they aren't taken care of. I've had to run away from those little bastards a couple of times if I didn't have Slam charged or was already fighting someone...

[Pogo]

Yeah just grapple a bouncer and it's 90% dead no problem, but they do a serious amount of damage if they grapple you first.

[ThornFalconeye]

I think buzzers are useless- most of them get stuck on the walls, and the few that dont will usually just kill regular creep. Waste of my cash.

[Pogo]

Monday Night Combat Product Update 4
01/09/11

Fixes
Fixed a crash occurring when clicking on player buttons in the Blitz lobby
Create Class:
-fixed classes not saving
-fixed page not updating with new class info
-fixed incorrect endorsements displayed if you didn’t make any endorsement changes
-fixed selection reverting to Assault if you only chose new endorsements
Skill/Turret purchase: fixed display issue in 1280 x 1024
fixed Moneyball Crash end of Blitz and Crossfire
fixed first player join server freeze
fixed game password functionality
Fixed missing HUD wheny dying during a taunt
fixed performance issues on listen and dedicated servers
fixed crash on selecting player in Blitz Pre-Game Lobby

Adjustments
added cooldown on Jump Jets for Gunner and Tank

New Features
added Team Selection to Pre-Game Lobby
Auto-balance in Pre-Game Lobby based on Level

decoupled Dedicated Server from Steam client, command-line updated

Recommend Command Line
server HostileLobby?game=HostileGame.HGameInfo_PreGameLob by?bAllowJuicePurch=True?bAllowBotPurch=True?bAllo wHazards=True?bAllowMascot=True?bAllowCustomClass= True?bAllowChangeClass=True?bForceRndClass=False?b IsLanMatch=False?bIsDedicated=True?MatchDuration=2 ?OTDuration=2?ClassLimitAssault=6?ClassLimitTank=6 ?ClassLimitSupport=6?ClassLimitAssassin=6?ClassLim itGunner=6?ClassLimitSniper=6?ServerDescription="Server Name With Spaces" -log=DedicatedServer.log -STEAM_DEDSERVER

Full Command Line
server HostileLobby?game=HostileGame.HGameInfo_PreGameLob by?bAllowJuicePurch=True?bAllowBotPurch=True?bAllo wHazards=True?bAllowMascot=True?bAllowCustomClass= True?bAllowChangeClass=True?bForceRndClass=False?b CustomGame=True?NumPublicConnections=12?NumPrivate Connections=0?NumOpenPublicConnections=0?NumOpenPr ivateConnections=0?bUsePeerNetwork=True?bCreateHos t=True?bShouldAdvertise=True?bIsLanMatch=False?bUs esStats=True?bAllowJoinInProgress=True?bAllowInvit es=False?bUsesPresence=False?bAllowJoinViaPresence =False?bAllowJoinViaPresenceFriendsOnly=False?bUse sArbitration=False?bAntiCheatProtected=False?bIsDe dicated=True?OwningPlayerName=?PingInMs=0?MatchQua lity=0.000000?GameState=OGS_NoSession?MapName=0?Ma tchDuration=2?OTDuration=2?ClassLimitAssault=6?Cla ssLimitTank=6?ClassLimitSupport=6?ClassLimitAssass in=6?ClassLimitGunner=6?ClassLimitSniper=6?ServerD escription="Server Name With Spaces"?GamePassword=passwordwithnospaces -log=DedicatedServer.log -STEAM_DEDSERVER

Gotta try it out.

[Tom Chick]

added Team Selection to Pre-Game Lobby

Now I can truly love this game as much as it deserves to be loved!

-Tom

[Tman]

Well, when someone figures out how to select which team, can you clue in me? The lack of a toggle ready is confusing, we've had a few games where the countdown timer got to 0 and nothing happened.

The lack of a countdown timer in Blitz is a gross mistake, please put it back in. No one wants to wait for 3 minutes for the game to start.

EDIT: Figured it out. They went from buttons to a large image of the teams.

On Blitz, you hit the question (?) mark to toggle ready.

Boy, maybe put that in the release notes??

[Pogo]

I think the time spent in lobby is too short to really make use of it.

[Alstein]

Now I can truly love this game as much as it deserves to be loved!

-Tom

The downside is now teamstacking will become a problem.

[Caryn Law]

TMan: yeah, the Change Team stuff went in a wee bit before I was ready for it to go prime time as I hadn't yet handled the Blitz case of toggle ready. On my list of things to improve.

Alstein: There'll be a server admin option to disallow team selection and to force even teams. Probably in the next update.

[Rorschach]

I actually witnessed an Iceman win last night!

[Teiman]

The ~ key don't exist on my keyboard wen I log the computer on windows, seems a regional key, I could write it with ALT+126, soo... only Englishmen will be able to change teams.

[Matt Perkins]

I actually witnessed an Iceman win last night!
Does it really get that one sided in games you play? I'm seeing both sides win pretty equally...

[Pogo]

The ~ key don't exist on my keyboard wen I log the computer on windows, seems a regional key, I could write it with ALT+126, soo... only Englishmen will be able to change teams.

I don't know how many times I have to say this, but simply pressing the Chat or Team Chat button brings up the console.

[Rorschach]

Does it really get that one sided in games you play? I'm seeing both sides win pretty equally...

I don't have a large sample size since I'm only level 6 on the PC. I'd say out of 12 or so games I've seen one Icemen win.

[Matt Perkins]

Huh...

I imagine the MNC guys can look at data on this pretty easily... From personal experience, especially after reading the comments here and watching for it, haven't seen such results. Maybe I'm just outside of the statistical norm...

[Pogo]

Not sure how the team makeup algorithm works, but I will get a game once in a while that throws all the same high level players into Hotshots for several games in a row.

[Wade42]

I see that on XBLA where the other guys are apparently partied up. How does that work on the PC? Is there 'party' functionality to keep a group together, or do you just work out team selection at the start of each map?

[Alstein]

There needs to be a mute or votekick option. Found that out the hard way just now.

[Matt Perkins]

With the ability to choose your side has come the expected team stacking. Happens a LOT more now. If we could get auto team balancing in that'd be much appreciated.

[Tman]

I'm done for a while. The latest beta drops have made things worse (trying to back out of any game gets a big MNC icon on my screen but nothing else, can't join any blitz games) and gunner is still gimped.

Next time you do a reset, offer us the ability to skip the tutorial. Kthxbye

[Tom Chick]

Next time you do a reset, offer us the ability to skip the tutorial. Kthxbye

Hitting the escape button and selecting main menu is the ability to skip the tutorial. Kurwelcomebye

-Tom

[Pogo]

I always found that to be an odd complaint, since I figured that out like the first beta update.

[Tman]

It must be my keyboard then because I can't skip a number of things that people say you can skip. For example, a number of games I can't skip the end credits. People say you can skip them, but no amount of key pressing on my side does anything. Although cntrl-alt-del to bring up task manager works marvelously.

[Rorschach]

Since I'm still learning the game and focusing on Support I'm excited about the Ninja vs. Turrets nerf.

I didn't quite understand the whole cash thing and went on a tag buying spree before realizing the custom class requires $$ to unlock. :(

We should set up a MNC night for Qt3, I know there's more of you out there than my two current Steam friends that play.

[Phydeaux]

I'd be down for that.

[Matt Perkins]

Played this again last night... there was a turret change, right? They seem more useful when upgraded now.

Still digging it, like the auto balance setup a lot, thanks for adding it.

[Pogo]

Balance Changes
Reduced damage of Assassin’s Dagger and Sword versus Turrets
Reduced damage of Tank’s Jet Gun versus Turrets
Increased health of Shave Ice Turrets
Decreased juice gain from damage done by Assassin’s Dagger and Sword
Increased damage done by Gunner’s Grapple at level 3

From scathis on the forums:
"Most of the balance changes in this patch were aimed at making bases more defensible.
Tanks and Assassins when juiced could take down 3-4 turrets per juice, no matter what the turrets were.

With the reduction of damage to turrets from these two main weapons and the improvements to the Shave Ice turrets, bases can be made to more defensible to a single Pro rampaging a base. The goal is to require more team work to break open a base instead of a single Tank or Assassin.

That said, the reduction in the Jet Gun is very small. Sword/Dagger a little more."


Awesome. That was the #1 way games would just be steamrolled during mid-game. Some Assassin or Tank would just juice and destroy a whole base. I'm interested to see how the changes affect their ability to do that.

And of course, cheeseball assassins and tanks on their forums are complaining that their EZmode winning tactic has been nerfed.

[Jab]

I would be for some qt3 games. I played a few rounds with Tman and Pyrhic before the last balance patch.

[Shellfishguy]

Should we start a QT3-MNC group or just decide to use one of the existing ones?

[Pogo]

Several of us have tried to bug Anti-Bunny into setting up a server for us. He doesn't seem to want to play the game at all, though, so that might not happen.

[maxle]

I thought he said dedicated servers hadn't been implemented yet? So he'd have to use his own copy to host so he couldn't, well, play himself? Or use steam at all?

Dunno.

[chequers]

New steam group would be ace. I like the idea of specific qt3 groups for each game.

Does anyone have a link to the hardware requirements for hosting a server?

[Rorschach]

I'd be okay with just sending an event to the parent Qt3 group. I don't really want to manage multiple groups for games that will come and go.

[chequers]

That's the point, you can join and leave groups as you please. This way you have a list of people you know are interested in playing the game. With a single monolithic qt3 group you can't tell the MNC owners from the chaff.

[Rorschach]

Don't really care, just send me an invite to a game or a group and I'll play.

[Jab]

I would be up for trying a qt3 game tonight, the pub games are getting annoying. Every game starts out even and then we lose two members and we get steamrolled.

[Matt Perkins]

Here's a question.

What am I supposed to do with my Melee attack as a Gunner? Why would I ever use it, other than to get rid of Bouncers? Slam has an area effect and stuns people. Meaning I don't have to get as close and I can then cut them down while they are stunned. Plus, in case no one has noticed, the Gunner doesn't move very fast. It's very rare I would even get an opportunity to melee someone...

[ThornFalconeye]

I agree- ill host an event near regular L4D time in chat.

[Pogo]

There is no reason to melee pretty much ever. I didn't even know there was a melee button until I saw it. Every pro has some kind of grab.


Should be easy enough for all of us to join an empty server.

[Phydeaux]

Melee is good for dealing with robots and as a backup 'anti-assassin' device when slam is recharging.

[Pogo]

Qt3 group for MNC is up! Public for the next week or two as people come in. Like the L4D group it will go private invite-only at a certain point.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Qt3MNC

And yeah, I know my custom group avatars kick ass. No need to remind me.

[Tman]

Qt3 group for MNC is up! Public for the next week or two as people come in. Like the L4D group it will go private invite-only at a certain point.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Qt3MNC

And yeah, I know my custom group avatars kick ass. No need to remind me.

Strange, I search on QT3 and no group comes up

I search for "Quartertothree" in groups and it comes up.

Thx for setting it up Pogo!

[Pogo]

Yeah I don't get the point of the abbreviations if they don't show up on searches. Kinda dumb.

QuarterToThree has been the name of every qt3 group so far I believe, so I'm not gonna go against the grain on that.

[Teiman]

yea, the searcher work in a very weird way.

[Matt Perkins]

After playing a lot more this weekend, I'd like to see another format or a modification to the current.

Give us rounds. Best two out of three, three out of five, etc. Let it be server configurable. Here's the biggest difference. Don't switch up teams or reload the level. Just when one team wins, count to 30 to let people switch or whatever, and start a new match.

For a couple of reasons. If you don't with someone at least a couple of rounds, you don't really get to know their play style or learn to work together well. Also, it might help people play together better and/or more.


Just a thought. I just get tired of switching teams and loading so much...

[Caryn Law]

People said earlier there's no reason to melee, but that's not true. First of all, the melee for the sniper and assault will throw someone across the map, so you can frequently throw someone right into the abyss. Secondly, if you manage to melee someone with juice it helps eat up their juice. And thirdly, I've thrown an air strike right at a team mate who was melee'ing someone, and it meant the victim couldn't get out of my airstrike.

[Pogo]

I'm not sure what others were referring to, but there's actually a "melee" button, I think it's default mapped to 'c' or something, and I don't know what it does. What you seem to be referring to are the grapples, such as the alt fire on some weapons or the specials on some champs, which are of course essential for various reasons you stated.

[Caryn Law]

Oh, yeah, I guess I was conflating the two.

[Wade42]

There's a bit in today's news post at Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/1/24/) where John Comes (of Uber Ent.) talks about the challenges of balancing the Console/PC port... Interesting stuff.

[Matt Perkins]

The sniper is the most obvious example: a one shot, one kill class that is very powerful if their time to aim can be nearly zero. The first thing I did was drop the clip size of the sniper rifle by 60% (from 10 to 4). Why? Because now I’m forcing the sniper to be more accurate. On console I allowed for a little ‘slop’ and gave some extra ammo. But on PC the shots have to count or the player will find themselves vulnerable again while reloading. This may even get lower, since there is no kickback on our sniper rifle there’s even been talk of making it a bolt-action rifle.
Very good read, very informative and interesting. Not many companies share such detail.


/me commences whining

I'd like to make a complaint about the sniper though. Snipers have had an interesting place in multiplayer gaming for a long time. They shoot people from far away. That's their gig and many of them are damn good at it. Not team players, for the most part, and don't need to be. They are lone killers and like it that way. In MNC though, they can not only shoot from afar and one shot one kill most classes, and any class they can get headshots on, they can also set freeze traps AND throw bombs AND melee to knock a player across or off a map AND use their UZI pretty well.

Now, to be fair, all classes in MNC have a lot of options. I LOVE this about MNC. But, snipers are pretty high powered at this point. No other class is as dominating in play right now. One good sniper will completely change a map. You can see much/most of the map from a good vantage point. So they get all of those powers mentioned above AND you have less places to hide from them.

Suggestions I'd offer (some or one of these, definitely not all):
- bolt action sniper rifle.
- a little bit less power to their uzi
- always blinded

Whatever works. :)

Honestly, I don't like playing the sniper class much. I appreciate that some people do and more power to them. Gives me something to hunt down for fun. But, I do feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle a LOT as an Assault or Gunner. Anything but an Assassin really.


/whining


TL;DR - Sniper r supermen!

[Pogo]

I'm guessing snipers are sort of balanced by the fact that their ability to suppress bot waves is pretty low. To do so, they have to unload bullet after precious bullet into the wave, which is time taken that they're not making headshots across the map.

They are also the worst pro at getting money from Bullseye.

[Matt Perkins]

I'm guessing snipers are sort of balanced by the fact that their ability to suppress bot waves is pretty low. To do so, they have to unload bullet after precious bullet into the wave, which is time taken that they're not making headshots across the map.

They are also the worst pro at getting money from Bullseye.
But that's just it. They won't do most of that stuff anyway. They are going to find a good spot, move between it and another spot, and just kill bitches all day long. Sure, they won't be able to upgrade their skills as fast...but they still kill from across the map right out of the box.

Snipers, in general, aren't really team players. They don't have to be...

[Rorschach]

Snipers are annoying, especially with maps with long lines of sight, but a good assassin should be able to hunt them down and as Pogo mentions they aren't very good at bot suppression.

[Jargoneer]

I skimmed to see if this has been asked and didn't find any mention of it:

On PC does this have local co-op?

[Pogo]

Tom asked that question and I think the support for that is coming, though I'm not sure it works without multiple copies.

The multiplayer browser does have a LAN tab.

[Soldats]

Do we have enough to do a 4-pack for this?


EDIT: Sorry guys, ended up going with Squee's 4-pack.

[Jab]

Is anyone else having trouble joining games? I keep getting an error saying that the host has downloadable content that I don't. But I have both MNC and TF2 fully updated.

edit: Just looked at the steam forums and it seems to be an issue with the servers still running the beta code.

[Tman]

Is anyone else having trouble joining games? I keep getting an error saying that the host has downloadable content that I don't. But I have both MNC and TF2 fully updated.

edit: Just looked at the steam forums and it seems to be an issue with the servers still running the beta code.

Looks like they just went live today (recent update) with a new version. Could be that while you have the latest, the servers you are attempting to join do not.

[Morberis]

Do we have enough to do a 4-pack for this?


I'd be in.

Edit: Sorry, too late

[Ghich]

I'd be in on a 4-pack as well.

[Nathan Phoenix]

I'd be in a 4-pack

[Squee]

Just bought a 4 pack on Steam. I'll send a PM to you guys if you'd like to get in.

[Jargoneer]

Tom asked that question and I think the support for that is coming, though I'm not sure it works without multiple copies.

The multiplayer browser does have a LAN tab.

I see, thank-yah sir.

[Ghich]

Oh crud, I can't send a PM until I hit 20 posts.

[Tman]

Can't join blitz games, keep getting disconnected from host.

Joined crossfire, got killed 5 seconds out of the gate by a sniper wearing a TF2 hat.

Ugggh, you've got to be kidding me?? I exit out. Take a honest to goodness unique take on a game and get in bed with valve and bring the TF2 crap? There's a reason I don't play TF2 anymore.

When will blitz work?

[Squee]

Tried the tutorial, liked the feel of it, was shocked to find no 1920X1080 resolution in the list. Especially a pain in the ass since my monitor is 1920X1080 native. Looked on the Steam forum and found mention of other people not getting that resolution as an option while others are. Anyone got any ideas? Haven't found a solution thus far.

Edit: Found where to manually change the resolution in an .ini via the first post on this Steam thread http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1655087&highlight=1920X1080&page=2 and that worked. That'll keep me set.

[Kurdel]

I played a few games last night, and I absolutely loved it. Can't wait to log in more hours and learn the finer points of the strategy.


So far I keep spending all my money on calling robots, is that a waste?

[Morberis]

They need more voice overs for victory, badly.

Also every once in awhile explosions don't display properly, instead appearing all black. Latest ATI driver 5850.


Edit: The custom class screen is also very wonky for me, when I select something instead of selecting the class I'm currently highlighting it selects the last class I highlighted, no matter what it was.

[Pogo]

So far I keep spending all my money on calling robots, is that a waste?

Unless you're repeatedly spawning bouncers, yeah sorta. Better spent on turrets.

[Matt Perkins]

Unless you're repeatedly spawning bouncers, yeah sorta. Better spent on turrets.
Yeah, the bot Support spawns and Bouncers are the only really useful bots I've found...

[Matt Perkins]

Fixed issue with gunner level 3 deploy not preventing headshots
Missed that the other night. Happy days!

[maxle]

Ah. I'd wondered why my helmet didn't keep me from dying instantly to snipers.

[Teiman]

Is like Xmax all again, Magicka, Dead Space 2, DC Online, MNC all release within few weeks.
:*)

[Alstein]

The more I play, nearly everytime I see someone with a ridiculous K/D, it's a sniper.

At least I haven't seen any ridiculous 3-4 snipers a side yet like I have supports though.

[Rorschach]

So... when's the next MNC event for the Steam sub-group?

[Rorschach]

Well that may be it for me on pub servers and maybe for the game. Just ran into my first sniper aimbot. He was headshotting multiple times in a row and taking out stealthed assassins. Ended the match with a K/D ratio of 112/8. Sure they lost the match but it was pretty much the definition of not fun. Was using the name of "Foshizzlemynizzle" if that is any help.

I'm going to step away from MNC for a while now.

[Pogo]

Aimbots are rare and will probably be patched out and/or auto-banned by servers.

[Evan Lahti]

I done reviewed it.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/01/27/bacon-robots-and-violence-on-pc-our-monday-night-combat-review/

[Nathan Phoenix]

So I got in on this with a four-pack deal...and... I hate it. Am I the only one? It's just so spastic and twitchy. Most encounters I seem to die in one shot to any player I run into regardless of what class I am or they am. Maybe the problem is that I just suck, I dunno. I'm trying to give it more time to see if it will grow on me, but I've got some buyers remorse so far. :(

[Therlun]

So I got in on this with a four-pack deal...and... I hate it. Am I the only one? It's just so spastic and twitchy. Most encounters I seem to die in one shot to any player I run into regardless of what class I am or they am. Maybe the problem is that I just suck, I dunno. I'm trying to give it more time to see if it will grow on me, but I've got some buyers remorse so far. :(

I thuink that's a deliberate design decision.
You die fast, you respawn fast, maps are small and health regenerates fast.

[Alstein]

play a Tank, get dash and tank levelled up and not much one-shots you.

Even assassin back grapple only takes 2/3rds, then you plow into them and do the damage back.

[Jab]

I would be up for a qt3 match tonight if we can get enough interested people. Haven't been playing it much since the beta.

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how best to set up the custom classes.

[Pogo]

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how best to set up the custom classes.

You can see the endorsements of the player that kills you for a brief moment. If somebody has a K/A/D of like 20/15/5, maybe copy what they have.

[Soldats]

I'd be up for it, Jab.

[Matt Perkins]

My current favorites.

(gold, silver, bronze)
Gunner: Ammo | RoF | Speed
Support: RoF | Skill Recharge | Reload or Speed
Assault: Default

[Pogo]

I redid endorsements sometimes to play Blitz as well. Like I would prioritize skill recharge in Blitz (for Support) to get Hack up as soon as possible to keep all the turrets firing. For Crossfire, definitely RoF.

[Tman]

I redid endorsements sometimes to play Blitz as well. Like I would prioritize skill recharge in Blitz (for Support) to get Hack up as soon as possible to keep all the turrets firing. For Crossfire, definitely RoF.

How much faster do you shoot with the shotgun with RoF? I take it this also increases RoF on your firebase?

[Pogo]

I don't think it increases RoF on firebase, that wouldn't make much sense to apply endorsements to it.

But it does work on the healer, and I think the healer gun was nerfed a while back to balance it out a little. It's nice on the shotgun since it's that split second faster at 2-shotting pros.

[Tman]

Well, following some tips I read about on the uberrent forums, I got to round 714 on sudden death blitz (solo). It was a several hour marathon, but I was never bored.

It's so random, how well you score will be how well you can handle the waves. About round 300 or so, I found out I always need to have juice, so after that episode (where I lost 1/2 my moneyball health), I always buy juice straight away after using it.

Getting 4 jackbots rounds in a row was pretty damn hard, but I survived. That was around level 600 or so. The pesky gremlins were the death of me. I think I died more from them than anything else. When you get 2-3 waves right in a row with them, i had so many around, I couldn't move.

Anyway, it was quite the thrill. I've tried pub style sudden death and I always get frustrated when they build laser turrets. Arrrghhh.

[Nathan Phoenix]

I've spent more time with this and I have started to like it. I'm still terrible with a lot of the classes, but I feel I'm actually pretty good with Tank now, and getting reasonable with assault, support, and gunner. Assassin can be fun at times, but throws in the game can be really buggy (maybe lag dependent?). There are times I am chasing someone and am literally physically touching them on my screen, and trying to throw does nothing. So I mostly stick to hanging with bots, pushing them, and avoiding those bitchass snipers who are so good at finding my face with their bullets.

[lordkosc]

Tank seems to be the best class in game, I am still trying to find a good gunner build.

[Alstein]

Tanks are decent, Sniper to me is hands-down best with being able to do repeated sniper rounds. Tanks I'd probably say are as good as everyone else, with Assassins bringing up the rear.