Monday Night Combat - we've just announced

[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.

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 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 :)