Some criticism on Tau Ceti

[ZeusCannon]

1. Planets are severely overcrowded.
It is miserable how you cannot run anywhere, since anything that is not an E-field is going to have some sort of enemy you will have to fight. The health pool of these units is too high to make fighting worth it, let alone when you are chased by a handful of them. The worst offender is Earth (in unrest).

This summons another problem: the need for outside cover in Story Missions. If one player wants to advance with the game you technically have to organise 2 full squads, one for the mission itself, other one for OC. How about spawning medium amount of NPC's onto the planet and spawning more in story missions? This way you can fine tune the difficulty of missions without having to OC every single mission and consuming someone's free time.

2. Environmental Orbital Strikes.
They were a pretty bad idea to implement in this form. Do you want to log out on the planet surface? Hah, take an OS in your face that spawned behind the camera. Or better: Do you want to log in? Start the game in pod . These problems could be easily fixed with some leniency towards players who don't move, or move slowly, like in an energy field. Sky OS is one of the things making Earth (in unrest) unfun in my opinion despite having used humpback most of the time. I can't imagine how frustrating experience this planet gives players who didn't choose a ship with damage inverter. Calon feels so much more fun without Sky OS, but it's still overcrowded.

3. Certain units being too strong in one way, shape or form.
- Ancient Defender, Ancient Khons, Raider Corruptor, Ancient Sejmet noticing you from like 1500 units away. These units have no reason to notice you from afar unlike units such as Ancient Blinker or Raider Sniper.
- Ancient Sobek following you literally for like 5000 units. This unit also has insane armor, Corruption Cloud, Lighting Chain, Aggrobomb. Yeah.
- Raider Corruptor as a field-unit isn't fair. Corruption Cloud is too strong for multiple units on a field to be given. Same with Ancient Baiter - Magnet Trap. Imagine a field of units with Stun Charge. Now you know what the problem is.

4. Increasing abundance of non-interactive items.
Stun Charge, Stun Dome, and Magnet Trap. Honestly it is not fun to not be able to do anything while you are burnt to ashes by 10 units who caught you with one of those items. It is important to give players the ability to use their skills at all times, but items like Magnet Trap or Stuns instantly robs you of any interactivity. Stuns have been a problem for the longest time also in PvP. The only thing you can do while stunned is to pop a graviton. IMO stun is bad for the game. 15 seconds of complete inability to do anything has no place in a game so competitive such as Pirate Galaxy. Scope Shifter also looks dangerous to interactivity.

5. Miscellaneous (not necessarily TC stuff).
- You should be able to materialize instantly on PvE planets. The 10 second delay is so unnecessary.
- Cooldowns should reset upon materialization. It's not much fun sitting in pod waiting for your RD to come back should the game be so kind to nuke your health when RD was on.
- Some TC missions (Unit: response) will fail if you pod, but there is no reason to.
- The new membership- energy cap system is a mess, but this deserves its own thread in the future.

----

Before you comment something along the lines of: Well these things are there to make Tau Ceti more challenging than Vega-Draconis systems. Keep in mind that the problem is not the difficulty with these things listed but the kind of experience they give us. I believe you can make the game both challenging and fun, but the points I mentioned seriously violate the "fun" aspect of the game.

Otherwise, Tau Ceti is a great sequel to the game, I just wanted to get some points across going forward. I will probably make a thread focusing on what I particularily enjoyed about TC so far and would definitely like to see it in the future. I love the game and I want it to become even better. <3

 

[Vesperion]

1. Planets are severely overcrowded.
It is miserable how you cannot run anywhere, since anything that is not an E-field is going to have some sort of enemy you will have to fight. The health pool of these units is too high to make fighting worth it, let alone when you are chased by a handful of them. The worst offender is Earth (in unrest).

To be fair this is a common thing since Hive that basicly has most of the time the same mechanic. There are some exceptions next to the E-Fields at Hive like the Labyrinth, the middle and the spots where a Storymission takes place.

Hive was basicly the "learning" stage for that kind of change cus if the are is not an E-Field it mostly isn´t save either due of a bunch of units beeing placed there

This summons another problem: the need for outside cover in Story Missions. If one player wants to advance with the game you technically have to organise 2 full squads, one for the mission itself, other one for OC. How about spawning medium amount of NPC's onto the planet and spawning more in story missions? This way you can fine tune the difficulty of missions without having to OC every single mission and consuming someone's free time.

Issue with NPC Units is simply put "They are (excuse me for the word here) stupid and don´t really act like a player would". Either they follow you no matter what is in front of them and therefore draging every piece of crap with them or they use their items at totaly pointless times (like using AB while waiting on a position or using RD while at full HP, etc.)

It already is enough if the NPCs we have to protect/guide need to be defended most of the time so i see no real point in spawning some at the start of the mission as "assistance" and some at the target area then as well when reached.

I don´t really have an issue with helping others considering the TC Story cus in the end for me it´s a nice change to the typical Cryo farming that i do everyday anyways

2. Environmental Orbital Strikes.
They were a pretty bad idea to implement in this form. Do you want to log out on the planet surface? Hah, take an OS in your face that spawned behind the camera. Or better: Do you want to log in? Start the game in pod . These problems could be easily fixed with some leniency towards players who don't move, or move slowly, like in an energy field. Sky OS is one of the things making Earth (in unrest) unfun in my opinion despite having used humpback most of the time. I can't imagine how frustrating experience this planet gives players who didn't choose a ship with damage inverter. Calon feels so much more fun without Sky OS, but it's still overcrowded.

Imo a simple way would have been to make the E-Fields into something like an "EOS-Free Zone" shielded by an Bubble (similar to the villages at Prosperus) that can withstand the EOS at all (Normal OS from Players and Units still work of course).

In terms of "unfair" Situations another Issue of the OS is that has the hitbox of a cylinder so that even if you are above/below the OS it will hit you anyways. Last time i visted EiU i was on the top of the mountain and an OS decided to spawn on the ledge below my position impact and pod me despite the fact that there was a hightdifference of at least 1000 Units and even with physical laws the wave would not have hit so hard to pod me lol.

Aside from that an indicator like a red circle of the impact from this EOS would be a nice warning so that you can at least try to leave it before it strikes you from the blind spot.

3. Certain units being too strong in one way, shape or form.
- Ancient Defender, Ancient Khons, Raider Corruptor, Ancient Sejmet noticing you from like 1500 units away. These units have no reason to notice you from afar unlike units such as Ancient Blinker or Raider Sniper.
- Ancient Sobek following you literally for like 5000 units. This unit also has insane armor, Corruption Cloud, Lighting Chain, Aggrobomb. Yeah.
- Raider Corruptor as a field-unit isn't fair. Corruption Cloud is too strong for multiple units on a field to be given. Same with Ancient Baiter - Magnet Trap. Imagine a field of units with Stun Charge. Now you know what the problem is.

Interesting on this is that only Blinkers, Baiters, Sejmets, Sobeks and Defenders seem to have that insanly high detection range while other units seem to be nearly "blind" before they start to notice you

In terms of armor i think most units are okish + there is difference between EiU Units vs Calon Units. EiU Units have way more HP then Calon Units that in return are "Glass Cannons" with less armor but more firepower. If you can kill those units before they even can throw everything against you they are doable

4. Increasing abundance of non-interactive items.
Stun Charge, Stun Dome, and Magnet Trap. Honestly it is not fun to not be able to do anything while you are burnt to ashes by 10 units who caught you with one of those items. It is important to give players the ability to use their skills at all times, but items like Magnet Trap or Stuns instantly robs you of any interactivity. Stuns have been a problem for the longest time also in PvP. The only thing you can do while stunned is to pop a graviton. IMO stun is bad for the game. 15 seconds of complete inability to do anything has no place in a game so competitive such as Pirate Galaxy. Scope Shifter also looks dangerous to interactivity.

Thing with all those Items is that they work most efficently when caught off guard or an item is preped or already running. What i noticed mostly at Stun Charge and Dome is that when you wait for the stun and afterwards use any item it will still activate slower but at a faster rate then beeing stunned during it. So in theory you still can AB away if you wait for the stun and then start your AB chances are slim but they are there.

Same counts for the MT. If you run into an MT while your AB is running it will totaly break you. If you start the AB while in an MT you move much faster.

5. Miscellaneous (not necessarily TC stuff).
- You should be able to materialize instantly on PvE planets. The 10 second delay is so unnecessary.
- Cooldowns should reset upon materialization. It's not much fun sitting in pod waiting for your RD to come back should the game be so kind to nuke your health when RD was on.
- Some TC missions (Unit: response) will fail if you pod, but there is no reason to.
- The new membership- energy cap system is a mess, but this deserves its own thread in the future.

I think 1 reason for the timer is that the attacked units leave combat mode so that they restore their HP before the Player can attack them again.
In terms of the CD of items if we compare it to rezed NPC units they have that mechanic so that you can notice that they can use their abilities right after they have been rezed.
Artifical Difficulty by adding "useless insta fail conditions". Another Mission with that trait is Triang Fun (during 1st part with the 3 spots), and the same Missions while beeing played in sq and 1 Sq member pods while the rest still is fighting

 

[hektor.barbossa]

Everything is fine, not too hard, not too easy, just right, no changes needed.

If it's too hard for someone, a sign that they're not ready for TC !

 

[ZeusCannon]

Everything is fine, not too hard, not too easy, just right, no changes needed.

If it's too hard for someone, a sign that they're not ready for TC !

Before you comment something along the lines of: Well these things are there to make Tau Ceti more challenging than Vega-Draconis systems. Keep in mind that the problem is not the difficulty with these things listed but the kind of experience they give us. I believe you can make the game both challenging and fun, but the points I mentioned seriously violate the "fun" aspect of the game.

Please read the full post next time.

 

[hektor.barbossa]

Please read the full post next time.

Nop ^^

"Some criticism" say enof ^^

Stop tc haters !! !! !! ^^

 

[Tketh]

1. We know that maybe some planets like earth in unrest are a bit crowded but there is a reason for that.
The map is the same as original earth and that limited the space were more npc had to be placed.

2. OS on earth in unrest has a lore/history reason for it. You need to be aware of your sorroundings and you should be capable of avoiding it.

3 It's been like that since day one and some enemys are stronger than others... it's like that in any game... you need to adapt and learn the skills of each enemy

4. About Magnet trap and stuns there are ways to avoid or leave it's effect.

5. Resurrection it's been always with a timer if you die to much in a short time frame
If CD was reset upon resurrection players will exploid that for his own interests
You can find quests that fail or you need to start over upon been poded on any sistem, that's not new at all on TC

So please before getting on the forum to complain about the game, learn to play and adapt to the game mechanics

 

[ZeusCannon]

So please before getting on the forum to complain about the game, learn to play and adapt to the game mechanics

Holy bananas. I have never thought I would hear such things from a LGM for sharing my opinions. I request a lock on this thread. Shame.

 

[ClockWire]

Holy bananas. I have never thought I would hear such things from a LGM for sharing my opinions. I request a lock on this thread. Shame.

You shared your opinion and others gave theirs. then you didn't like what they have said. they was only giving their opinion to your opinion, is this not allowed?

 

[ZeusCannon]

You shared your opinion and others gave theirs. then you didn't like what they have said. they was only giving their opinion to your opinion, is this not allowed?

The word "complaining" was inappropriate, that's it. I think I was as polite as possible. I'm still requesting a lock.

 

[ClockWire]

The word "complaining" was inappropriate, that's it. I think I was as polite as possible. I'm still requesting a lock.

So you want this post locked? i will put a request in to have it checked for you

 

[ZeusCannon]

So you want this post locked? i will put a request in to have it checked for you

Yes, I want this thread locked.

 

[Vesperion]

Despite that this thread should be locked i still want to leave my 2cents here.

You shared your opinion and others gave theirs. then you didn't like what they have said. they was only giving their opinion to your opinion, is this not allowed?

Opinions from Players is one thing BUT i must agree with Zeus here that the response from Tkeht is basicly "You are to bad right now go and learn something 1st" doesn´t fit considering that i always thought GMs should stay neutral until they have to act. For me the response from Tketh sounds more like the opinion a Player might have rather then the response of a GM.

4. About Magnet trap and stuns there are ways to avoid or leave it's effect.

As i said already:
Stuns can be "timed" to wait for the to happen before using any item. Only counter against Stun and Dome is more or less Prot.

MTs only counter i´m really aware of is QL from Panth or Slate all other ships have to wait that the MT is placed and use the AB afterwards but not run into it again or get caught by another MT or run into another cus otherwise your AB is basicly not changing anything to escape an MT.

If CD was reset upon resurrection players will exploid that for his own interests

That may have been a case during the June Energy Update where split even tried to increase the rez time to 5 mins... what basicly backfired to them lol. In terms of the current situation i see no way to exploid it when not having either bought Energy to have more then you need for 1 self mat or by having to Supernova MS to have at least 2 more self rez available.