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Novice issues
http://runningwithrifles.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1575		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  robertbak [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 9:19 am ]
Post subject:  Novice issues
Map:
- it's hard to find yourself on the map, it would be nice if my character was somehow different from all the other ones
- a minimap would be awesome

Chat:
- ESC should close a chat message without sending it (there's a ton of messages like "tttttww")
- if there's a lot of chat messages they can take up half the screen, really annoying when charging NW, maybe the white background on text should be transparent or semi-transparent?
- if you're not seeing yourself on the screen (eg. sniping) you can't see what you're typing

Game:
- an option to show user names on the map and under the person would be nice
- reloading the MG feels a bit glitchy, I understand it takes a while, but it's hard to get it done sometimes (maybe a progress bar above the head for reloads would help to know what's going on?)
- scoreboard could have something like kills/min. - it's hard to say who's doing good when joining a server (people who started first have a ton of kills, and snipers etc. have a high kills/death ratio, even if not doing much)
- some kind of "enemy spotted" signal would be nice (eg. to mark snipers on the map, etc.)
- I might be wrong, but I see no effect of "suppressing fire" on aim, this would allow a wider range of tactics

Best indie game I've ever played, good job!
Author:  JackMayol [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
Hi robert and welcome running around!

robertbak wrote:
Map:
- it's hard to find yourself on the map, it would be nice if my character was somehow different from all the other ones


we are aware of this and yes you are right, it's very hard. your own playermarker should be blinking or something. Before we barely had such big games online going on, but it looks like it will be a common thing for the near future at least.

Quote:
- a minimap would be awesome


won't happen. Takes too much space on screen and as we try to have a realistic feeling to what you can do ingame, a minimap doesn't match, even though I exists in most
game, I know.


Quote:
- ESC should close a chat message without sending it (there's a ton of messages like "tttttww")


yes I agree with that

Quote:
- if there's a lot of chat messages they can take up half the screen, really annoying when charging NW, maybe the white background on text should be transparent or semi-transparent?


It can indeed be annoying, especially when you have 40 people on the server so that yo have a chat showing all the time

Quote:
- if you're not seeing yourself on the screen (eg. sniping) you can't see what you're typing


This is a minor thing imo.Chat messages display are attached to the player position only and I doubt there will be a workaround.


Quote:
- an option to show user names on the map and under the person would be nice


you can when you point the mouse at a playermarker but I suppose you mean to show them all. Maybe it should be so that once you point at a soldier playermarker, it would make reveal them all. Having them shown on the map at anytime your crowd the mapview too much.

Quote:
reloading the MG feels a bit glitchy, I understand it takes a while, but it's hard to get it done sometimes (maybe a progress bar above the head for reloads would help to know what's going on?)


NO! Brrr :)

Quote:
- scoreboard could have something like kills/min. - it's hard to say who's doing good when joining a server (people who started first have a ton of kills, and snipers etc. have a high kills/death ratio, even if not doing much)


yupp I agree, the scoreboard might need some overhaul. Also a skill formula that shows how good you are doing overall might be good to be done at some point, like implying capturing/killing/destroying/looting all in one "number"

Quote:
- some kind of "enemy spotted" signal would be nice (eg. to mark snipers on the map, etc.)


I can feel the spam going on :)
Author:  pasik [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:14 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
JackMayol wrote:
robertbak wrote:
Map:
- it's hard to find yourself on the map, it would be nice if my character was somehow different from all the other ones


we are aware of this and yes you are right, it's very hard. your own playermarker should be blinking or something. Before we barely had such big games online going on, but it looks like it will be a common thing for the near future at least.

This is certainly an issue. I'm not sure even blinking player marker would be enough as the map can become really busy given enough players, vehicles and scattering.

One alternative, also suggested earlier, would be that when you open the map, it always centers on you. If you are located at an edge of the map or are too zoomed out in the view, it's of course not even possible so it would work inconsistently and thus wouldn't help as much as intended.

There could be e.g. map wide and high lines crossing at the self marker, and some indication if the self position is outside the current screen. However, I guess the mouse cursor will turn into that in a later version. I can hardly see the current cursor in the map view myself at times.

Adding a key to centerize and take the mouse cursor at where you are, that might work, but people will have difficulties finding that key.

How about adding a big visible "You are here"-type marker, possibly accompanied with the text, when you open the map? It would either stick there for a given time or until you hover over it. It would also need to work properly with the position being outside the screen, so that it would stick to the edge.

Talking about the edges, the field view edge markers for other players are still visible while you're in the map view which is confusing. Those should be removed.

Quote:
- if there's a lot of chat messages they can take up half the screen, really annoying when charging NW, maybe the white background on text should be transparent or semi-transparent?

Some options will be added for chat visualization when the chat log is revamped. You'll have the options to control whether AI commander messages and global/faction chat are shown when playing. If you turn them off, you'll have to peek in the log view if you care about the chat.

The bubbles could also fade out to an extent if the crosshair is somewhere near them, that might be a good compromise.
Author:  dwi [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
What about some kind of indication when opening map? Like some kind of stylized crosshair/arrows/circle (like circles on water after drop fall, but in reverse) that in first few seconds flashes on map indicating player position. I know exactly what I mean, you can see this "decreasing" animation in various games or apps, but I can't freaking find one on google :p


Wild sketch ahead
Image
Author:  pasik [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
dwi wrote:
What about some kind of indication when opening map? Like some kind of stylized crosshair/arrows/circle (like circles on water after drop fall, but in reverse) that in first few seconds flashes on map indicating player position.


It would have to be simple / indicative enough so that it works with the case of having the player marker off screen.

The case happens when you're heavily zoomed in and have panned somewhere off your surroundings. Happens to me when I'm spawning far to our territory to go fetch a vehicle to be driven to the battle area. Those times I want to look at the battle area in the map every now and then while I'm driving, not really caring where I am. That works nicely currently, as the map remembers the last zoom & pan state.
Author:  Modest [ Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
And how about making it possible to simply make every players' indicator dissapear from map, apart of Your own by pushing a button? Could that work?
Author:  Vilusia [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
How about just making your player on the map a star that goes over all the other player markers? This way you can always see it quickly and it won't need any "You are here" text or anything.
Author:  DoomMetal [ Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
+1 to making the player marker a different marker, as opposed to some kinda animated highlighting.
Arrows on the edge pointing to the player marker when it is off screen also sounds like a good idea.
Author:  Zed [ Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
Hi guys, i recently bought the game on Steam. Its really cool, AI is very well done, i even enjoyed playing singleplayer for a bit, before going to play online coop (which was even better). Atmosphere reminds me of a real war where you can die from a single bullet.

I posted here to add some stuff to the topic of novice issues:

* Very hard to identify yourself, as posted already (in MP). I like unique marker for your soldier idea. Or this solution: unique color for your soldier circle or allow switching colors Warcraft3 style (eg: between style1: green-you, red-enemy, teal-allies and style2: current system).

* Kind of hard to understand how to aim radio commands (i thought you need to select a command and then select target on the ground - classic MOBA\RTS style).

* Sometimes its really hard to understand that your soldier cant shoot where you want him to. Maybe allow customization of crosshair (the small one, which shows where your soldier can shoot). I'd like to make it red, so i can see it more clearly, but not everyone will like this idea probably. So customization would be nice. Uneven terrain is very hard to notice sometimes because of that.

edit: actually i just noticed that there already a system like this - red\yellow dot in the center of your crosshair.

* A little bit hard to notice a moment when you start and finish reloading (especially when there are several people doing so). Maybe make an option to hide\show reload bar somewhere on the screen? Alien Swarm (similar in some aspects game) has a little reload bar appearing near hp bar and makes a loud clicking noise when you finish reloading.
Author:  bwc153 [ Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Novice issues
How about instead of a soldier with his weapon at the ready, have a soldier with his rifle being aimed.
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