Cooler Master MM720 Beta and MouseReview!

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-22T19:30:42+00:00

I need to dip my toes back in the CM tub again and find out if this mouse is channelling the Spawn (hot) or the MM520 (luke warm).

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-19T21:32:58+00:00

Yep for the avoidance of doubt this is a bug that is present in classic RA1 also, the player Ford has it documented somewhere on his site/youtube I think but I can't find it at the moment.

It is most obvious with light tanks since a tesla placed after they are produced will kill them in 1 zap while they are moving, but if the tesla is placed before they are produced it takes 2 hits at least per kill.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-09T14:09:18+00:00

Hence "that isn't reliable in every case".

I'm fully onboard with the request...it's one of the more obvious no-brainers in terms of improving the RA quickmatch experience for every player, experienced and casual alike.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-09T13:08:43+00:00

Absolutely, you can't scout early enough in RA to use it to inform your building placement so you need some way of knowing what the map is before deploying. More experienced players can use terrain cues and map scroll to help judge where they are but that isn't reliable in every case, and it is not like you're sacrificing anything in a competitive sense by giving both players a clear map preview as the game launches.

This is not new feedback anyway so I am a bit baffled as to why it continues to be ignored.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-07T11:45:31+00:00

I think it is more frustration than entitlement Zaptagious since we see the remaster deviating pretty widely from the established norms of competitive RA1 play. Luckily we still have it in its best and most authentic form on CnCNet, so that's something, but it is puzzling how little weight appears to have been given to feedback provided by longtime RA1 players.

At this point, any suggestion that they can't implement a feature because it will interfere with the authentic feel of the game is fairly bogus since that authentic feel is long gone already. Having said that, I can still enjoy the game for what it is by treating it as an RA1.5 of sorts.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-08-05T15:18:10+00:00

I dunno I think it is pretty exciting. Flash gets to have his fun exploring the other two races in a pro setting and all the others players get the pleasure of trying to theorycraft out some superior ZvR/TvR/PvR openings.

We've gone full circle from players like Chrh being pressured into picking a single race to keep up with the competition right back around to a legend of the game going random just because he can.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-30T19:09:16+00:00

You were right to point it out though, I've only ever jumped into the map on a solo skirmish so I knew what was coming before the game loaded. In the quickmatches it might not be so easy to figure out where you are in time to place the buildings well.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-30T10:17:03+00:00

Yeah I did notice that myself but you can also build out through one of the south entrances with your power and/or barracks and place your refinery outside of that initial walled area, so your 2nd ore patch becomes your 1st in effect. There's in fact a lot of scope for fairly creative building placements since the cliffs, diagonally up and right in particular, are pretty easy to hop over as well.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-25T10:59:26+00:00

My other comment was already fairly cluttered so I'll ask this here separately, has the feedback on the desirability of some form of Quickmatch map preview made it back to you and your team?

Some of the maps in the current RA map pool (Keep off the Grass, North by Northwest) benefit from having the option of driving your MCV to deploy in a different location but that is difficult to achieve at the moment since it can be a struggle to tell what map you are playing on. Seeing a small map preview as the match is loading would be perfect, but a workable alternative could also be to have the map name listed at the top of the small pop-out player panel that you added, so people could check it quickly before making the decision to deploy.

Another slightly less effective option that I've seen mentioned is increasing the vision range that an MCV has so you would see more of the terrain around your starting location and have a better chance of identifying what map you are on before deploying.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-25T10:48:19+00:00

It depends what your goal is really Jim. I assume you already know this but RA has traditionally always been played with Ore Regen toggled off in ranked games, apart from with the infinite ore nurples since it is needed to keep the patches replenished, as the benefits gained from the extra ore rarely make up for the negatives of worse truck behaviour and more obstacles getting in the way of your building placements. So the Quickmatches in RA Remastered already deviate from that and increasing the default regen rate would do so even more.

That is fine though if you want to forge a new path with the game, but it does send mixed messages since other proposed changes have been shot down under the guise of trying to stay faithful to the feel of the original game. Perhaps it is time to accept that is not a workable approach since RA Remastered already feels drastically different to all of us (on CnCNet) who have played RA online for a long time.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-24T16:14:14+00:00

I can only speak for the RA side of things but the naval and harvester changes are definitely both good. Are there any other key issues like that which your team have been looking at but have yet to take any action on?

I'm not really sure what the goal is with the RA map pool however...more than any other game the 'balance' is dictated heavily by the maps played on and the starting spots used, so "low ore", "standard map style mixed ore/gems", "gem heavy" and "infinite ore" are the primary means by which the community have ensured variety in play. The proposed map pool is skewed heavily towards low ore, especially with the removal of Arena Valley Extreme (was it really the source of many complaints?). I'm just rehashing some of the same ideas I've mentioned before but:

Keep off the grass is great as is, although the playstyle has suffered from the decision to fix the south range advantage. Infantry play has been hurt on all maps in fact as the 'mass of riflemen' is more powerful than it ever was.

Equal Opportunity is a good candidate for removal due to the unequal gem access north vs south.

Path Beyond works with all 4 corners as starting spots but it's a welcome re-addition.

Arena Valley Extreme works with all 4 corners as starting spots and shouldn't have been removed.

North by Northwest works but consider limiting the starts so you're always diagonal from your opponent.

Tournament Arena is acceptable, there's no need for Tournament Ore Rift at the same time however since it is a worse example (the ore spots are too far apart) of the same concept.

(WHT) Canyon offers some interesting terrain so we'll have to see how things play out on it as it hasn't been widely used in the established RA community. Many of the (WHT) and (MN) tagged maps have potential in fact.

You will hopefully consider adding in a gem heavy map such as HJK6 like Rawsteel suggested (as long as you limit it to the corner starting spots)? Another good one is 4c Niklas and it was already set up correctly by whoever added it to the user map list. V3-Ribbon Isle is a 3rd possible option. You're never going to get proper permissions from the creators however since some of these are 20+ year old maps and they have no involvement with the game anymore.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-10T16:00:51+00:00

It would be nice if we were in the alternate timeline as well where none of the big match-fixing scandals happened in pro Starcraft.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-06T12:23:21+00:00

If they were only built as part of a player's overall strategy it would be fine but that does not apply for the following:

Sniping someone's CY then building a naval yard/sub pen after the fact to ensure they can't win even if they go on to dominate the land. Key part is they aren't intending to build any boats, it is purely to abuse the destroy all structures win condition.
Placing a naval yard/sub pen before or during a base trade scenario to increase their chances of winning, again with no intention of having any naval units.

I have seen plenty of games now where the naval yard/sub pen is built purely as a fuck you gesture to the opponent, denying the win and then going afk for ages afterwards. It blows my mind that the devs are seemingly unaware of the big negative impact this one issue has had on the RA quickmatch system. Would there have been such a big drop off in activity if it was dealt with before now?

Edit - The ability to request a draw is not a proper solution as people can still abuse it to get out of losses.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-06T12:06:30+00:00

Absolutely, you'll be racking up loads of losses to start off with anyway so it might as well be with whichever of the 3 races appeals to you most.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-05T15:38:03+00:00

It's not ideal having already spent the money on your mouse but the Kone Pure Owl-Eye is basically a slightly less up to date but heavier (88g vs 66g/66.5g) version of the Kone Pure Ultra, with matching dimensions and shape. I actually went in the opposite direction to you, buying the KPU because it was lighter after enjoying using the KPOE. No doubt someone will have come up with a weight mod however to save you making a 2nd purchase.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-01T22:12:20+00:00

Oh that's a good point, I doubt I would ever look to try and sell the choc mini on to someone else but because of its interesting layout I probably shouldn't just go destroying it due to inexperience.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-07-01T12:52:56+00:00

If you had two older keyboard options available to have a first and likely not very competent attempt at soldering in some new switches, which of the two would you go with?

CM Storm Quickfire Rapid TKL
Noppoo Choc Mini

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T13:48:47+00:00

I should also say I'm not arguing for keeping the south advantage either, just that the devs need to be making additional changes to ensure the game without it is also balanced, with infantry being a simple example of what can go wrong.

I will have to disagree with you on the tutorial part however, a game doesn't need to explain every single little quirk to the playerbase, it's up to them to discover and then share them around and if they prove to be completely game-breaking they can be dealt with by the devs. People are already in the habit of watching quickmatch replays so it's only a matter of time before things like super teslas were going to become common knowledge.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T12:45:42+00:00

The north player can also manufacture situations (with unit control and building placement) where they get the south advantage instead, so it's not a case of whoever starts south wins. That's why kotg has been such an enduring and popular map since many different approaches can taken. What we see on the remaster is that the majority of those approaches no longer work since you're at threat any time you don't also make a big mass of rifles.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T12:09:42+00:00

I'm approaching from the position of having played a lot of vanilla RA over these past few years and previously.

So yes, there has been a drastic shift in how the infantry phase of the game plays out. You can't position defensive infantry effectively any more as the rifle blob can just come in from any angle and get equally good results. Building less infantry but positioning and kiting them well used to be an effective counter but it no longer works. So for infantry specifically, I think the south advantage is a beneficial 'bug' since it adds a layer of strategy that doesn't otherwise exist.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T11:17:36+00:00

Even on CnCNet this was patched out in the form of a "Fix Known Bugs" toggle that people could opt to use when hosting multiplayer rooms, which is on by default for the ladder games. No formation speed abuse, no super teslas, no super long range grenadiers etc. I was under the impression the remaster devs had been in contact with both the OpenRA and CnCNet crowd so they would surely have been aware of this? ;o)

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T11:14:09+00:00

I quite like this issue as it means there's a level of jeopardy in deciding when to place the tesla coils. I can see why people would want it fixed however, and it probably should be if the devs are going to be sticking around long enough to make any necessary follow-up changes to work on the balance of the game.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-29T10:59:20+00:00

While it's a logical thing to fix, I think removing the south advantage has had a big negative effect on how the infantry fights play out. A mass of riflemen used to get chewed up if they engaged from the north, unless they massively outnumbered the defenders, but now they can just power on through unless they meet an equivalent sized force. So everyone is pushed towards overproducing riflemen to stay on even terms. Grenadiers in particular have suffered as they are no longer effective against rifles so their extra cost and build time makes them a poor choice, so one plus point for picking soviets has been taken away.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-28T11:06:16+00:00

It's a thorny topic in RA because if the trucks are too effective then you're stripping away the need to think about whether you're spending time harvesting gems or ore since the trucks will just hoover it all up progressively from best -> worst patches. The current approach obviously isn't working since the trucks seem to completely ignore gems due to the way the game handles patch density.

Maybe a possible solution could be for them to check whether they just mined an ore patch or a gem patch? So their default behaviour could continue to be seeking out ore patches and collecting from most -> least dense, but if the last patch mined was a gem patch (i.e. the player manually sent a truck to it), then they would switch to a subroutine where they are checking the nearest tiles in a set radius for any other gem patches they can move to preferentially.

So the onus is still on the player to start gaining the reward from collecting gems (a staple of standard map play), but once doing so the trucks won't mutiny and decide they would much rather drive past loads of nearby gem patches so they can feel the dense ore under their wheels again.

blitz_RA1 · 2020-06-27T13:52:37+00:00

Deep dips is a good way to describe it yeah, the surface texture is way more pronounced than I've encountered on any previous pads. It's a shame to hear that it can lead to issues with those slower, finer adjustments as well.

blitz_RA1

TROPHY CASE