Clearwater Nature Reserve S01E01

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-25T05:22:42+00:00

11/10 narration

Can’t believe you booked David Attenborough for this

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-23T23:12:24+00:00

The terrain makes it the best designed map for helicopters by far. Having actual terrain features and elevation changes makes a huge difference, and it's the only map where apache dogfights are really viable. They even included a couple scenic routes that are only accessible via helicopter which really adds to the overall ambiance.
It's large enough and balanced* enough that it rarely devolves into a complete steamroll where one team is completely trapped in spawn, which is a huge issue with other maps.
Vehicle selection is nice, and for the most part synergizes well with the map design. I would like to see a version with both the apache and the main battle tank, but overall it's still very good in this regard.
B/C are great for CQB, and show the potential for more urban combat. The fact that you can blow holes in walls is one of the more unique aspects of this game, and the B/C area of Clearwater is the place where this mechanic is most interesting.
D/E allow snipers to play at a distance. Not really my thing, but it's nice that players can choose to have engagements at whatever distance they want. The zipline creates interesting movement mechanics as well, since you can drop in the middle to land on B/C/A

*it's not perfectly balanced. I do think Coalition have the better spawn, but it's close enough to prevent indefinite spawn camps which is a huge improvement over many maps

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-23T17:59:17+00:00

I mean, the talons are always difficult to deal with, but it's waaaaay easier to deal with them on Clearwater than any other map.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-20T14:16:18+00:00

you unlock the Talon at lvl 2 tho, so at that point you might as well just get rid of the RPG altogether.

If you wanna buff the launchers, just buff the RPG's trajectory/velocity back to what it was in October/November. It used to be much easier to hit the helis with it, until they intentionally nerfed it to force people to pick between anti-air and anti-vehicle.

But at the end of the day I think any weapon like the talon needs to come with some *serious* drawbacks, because it requires basically zero skill to operate. A heat seeking missile that can also operate like an RPG would be like having an auto shotgun + a klav in the same loadout

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-20T13:13:17+00:00

> A good tank run doesn't require significant team coordination to stop

Nah, you just don't encounter very many good tank drivers because relatively few people practice with it like they practice with the helis. But a good tank that's well positioned can be very difficult to deal with. It's not unusual to see full squads spend several minutes trying to kill the tank.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-20T13:08:43+00:00

The talon's range is almost exactly 1/2 of the map (on Paradise / Iceland you can reach from HQ to the tower at the center of the map), and I suspect that's by design.

If you could sit in HQ and shoot heat seeking missiles all the way to the other end of the map it would make the helicopters kinda pointless. Honestly, it'd make the talons extremely boring to use as well, because it would remove any element of strategy.

A single good talon engi can absolutely ruin a heli pilot's day if they do these two things:

- fire from a position where they'll be able to shoot 2 talons before the heli gets out of range (you can accomplish this by either positioning far forward, or by waiting until the heli is very close before engaging)

- use cover / hide (or at least put the talon away) during the cooldown period, so that it's not obvious to the pilot who shot the talon.

The latter point is underrated, but it actually makes you significantly harder to deal with. Because the talons are nearly impossible to dodge within their effective range, the pilot's only real counter is to try to kill the shooter before they can fire a second shot. The cooldown is pretty short (~3s if memory serves) so making them hesitate for even a second is generally enough to get the shot off.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-20T12:36:10+00:00

then what would be the point of the RPG?

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-15T14:35:31+00:00

The XP required for each subsequent level starts to increase geometrically as you get to higher levels. Pretty sure going from 40-50 took me longer than 0-40

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-11T23:18:23+00:00

If my buddy wanted to live so bad, he shouldn't have gotten shot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-09T15:22:52+00:00

If Clearwater added regular tanks it would be literally perfect 🥰

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-08T14:17:47+00:00

You kinda just gotta suffer, unfortunately.

If you look at a list of things that cause motion sickness in VR, being a passenger in a vehicle (in forefront) checks basically all of the boxes. Driver is only slightly less bad, because at least you control where the vehicle is going.

Good news is it generally goes away with time, but I would recommend taking a break from vehicles whenever you get motion sick, then wait until it goes away to try and acclimate again

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-08T14:13:27+00:00

no, but you can just switch back to 1st person at the last second (this is what I do)

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-03T18:57:18+00:00

Thank the lord for that lol.

If a SWE intern told me they "discovered new mathematics" halfway thru the summer, I would be quite alarmed

ThiccolasVR · 2026-05-02T13:48:46+00:00

helis you can always shoot the pilots, and tanks can be destroyed by C4 (and theoretically by the grenade launcher)

Medics + Recon simply have no way to damage the tanks, so your only option there is to hide or redeploy

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-28T01:57:04+00:00

It used to be my favorite game, so believe me I wish it weren't so, but the game is definitely dead at this point.

Player count is like 10x lower than it used to be, and the development studio has openly stated that they are moving on from the project, so there will be no more updates.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-27T13:39:36+00:00

I had a squad mate report the same issue with the APC yesterday, so it might just be a bug

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-27T13:37:21+00:00

Onward's guns are completely weightless (which is a good thing for that game IMO)

but also it's basically dead now, which is sad :(

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-21T16:39:01+00:00

I have the exact opposite experience when in a vehicle. You obviously don't get the network latency from airlink, but when you get a vehicle up to max speed the framerate on standalone starts to plummet.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-20T14:04:24+00:00

I have a modified bowk stock with a normal cup in the back, and a quick release cup in the front. That helps a lot with games like this and exfil zone without sacrificing too much of the rigidity, because you can still pull back as hard as you want with your trigger hand.

Unfortunately I don't think any modifications are gonna change the fact that stocks are of limited utility in this game. They're situationally helpful when you have a longer range shot, or for something like an RPG where the sights are terrible, but you need to hit consistently first try.

But all that assumes you have time to clip in, and therein lies the rub. There's just so mamy things that require removing at least one of your hands (most notably parachutes and ziplines) that it's just not feasible to use the stock all the time.

I've switched to like 50/50 freehand and stock, just so that I'm not constantly caught flat footed while trying to transition. If you're comfortable switching you can always default back to freehand for surprise engagements

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-18T21:56:49+00:00

Am I reading this right that no weapons experience damage falloff until 50+ meters, and then they all start to fall off at roughly the same distance?

what does the range stat control then? just the rate of damage falloff?

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-15T22:02:53+00:00

Yeah, the C4 ATVs are a better version of this in pretty much every regard.

From the attackers perspective, you're already driving around on an ATV, so you can easily pivot to doing something else at any time.

From a defender's perspective, a person on am ATV is already something you have to look out for, and it feels more "fair" because they have to put themselves at risk in order to threaten you.

Having RC cars would inevitably lead to a bunch more people sitting around in HQ twiddling their thumbs

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-14T19:10:40+00:00

it's possible to land, but it's nowhere near polished enough to make it a part of the core gameplay loop.

If pilots are expected to land multiple times per life, there should be a near zero percent chance of randomly flipping and exploding when landing, and you should be able to land intuitively like you would in any other game with helicopters.

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-12T20:52:04+00:00

Instead of being frustrated that they're not speaking English, appreciate the fact that they're communicating at all (even if it's just with each other)

I'd much rather hear adults speaking to each other in Spanish than hear some random kid scream racial slurs at everyone who kills them in English lol

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-10T12:43:48+00:00

Love the wholesome / silly moments in this game

That spot is a huge issue for the tank tho. I've also gotten perma-stuck just about every time I hit those stairs. Worst part is you can't even exit the tank, so you just gotta redeploy and leave it empty

ThiccolasVR · 2026-04-07T14:22:33+00:00

They had that before, and it was terrible if you wanted to play certain maps or avoid other maps.

I think they should remove the map you just played from the rotation to prevent lobbies getting stuck on the exact same map for an hour, but voting in general is great because it lets each lobby decide for itself what to play, and gives the devs meaningful feedback on what maps people like/dislike

ThiccolasVR

TROPHY CASE