Q&A 3 - P.R., the Spy, and other wonderful things

[Ihmhi]

Welcome to this week's Q&A, where the devs answer your questions! If you would like to ask the devs a question, just register for the forums and go to this thread:

http://www.fortress-forever.com/foru...ad.php?t=16481

The best questions will be picked out by a certain dev and submitted to the devs for their responses.



Question 1 (Rutabeggar):
A lot of the people I know have written off FF since they played it way back in 1.0, is the dev team is planning to reach out to the players that was so unjustly isolated by the majority of the first team and new players in general, we all talk about "PR" but what kind of "PR" is being planned, if any?

Answer 1 (Implode):
We have recently created an active "PR" department that has already begun working on several things...just a few of these include: Getting FF listed on the 3rd Party mod in the Steam Store, an update notification on Steam list, and also advertising on national gaming and CPU sites. And of course, answering questions for people, just like yours.



Question 2 (Rocketrunner):
I don't know if this has been asked before, but, in 2.1, will the Nailgun and Super Nailgun have individual pros and cons so that, nobody keeps using medic ALL the time?

Answer 2 (squeek.):
No changes to the nailgun or super nailgun are being made in 2.1.



Question 3 (reaper1:
Will there be more notification of players who accomplish goals?
For example, who captured the flag, or who secured Command Point X?

Answer 3 (squeek.):
We have talked about this a bit, but it will likely not be implemented in 2.1.



Question 4 (reaper18 / im2cool4uroflolz):
Also, are the tranq effects going to eventually resemble TFC more so than they do? Like giving hallucinations of bullet impacts, grenades, gunshots, and explosions? What changes have been made to the spy cloak and are there any more planned features/optimizations? What sort of changes will be made to the Spy in 2.1?

Answer 4 (squeek.):
These questions are very similar, so they've been grouped together as one. When reaper18 says "tranq effects", I believe he is referring to the hallucination effects of the TFC Spy's gas grenades. There will likely not be any changes to the effects of the Spy's gas grenades this patch.

The Spy's cloak and disguise dynamics have changed a bit regarding Sentry Guns in 2.1. When you are disguised as the enemy and cloaked, enemy Sentry Guns will not see you. Being cloaked and disguised as the wrong team or just being cloaked will still result in the Sentry shooting you.

*EDIT* Actually, now a cloaked spy disguised as an enemy will be detected by enemy sentries, but only within a shorter range than the regular lock on distance. *END EDIT*

The spy is 100% invisible when cloaked and standing still. No shadow, no talk icon, nothing.



Question 5 (Hammock):
Would it be at all possible to display the Time Remaining of the current map when selecting the option "View Server". It displays the players, their scores and how long they've been in the server.

But there's been many times I don't want to join a server playing a map I don't care for. It'd be nice to know how much longer the map has without actually joining the server, or maybe you can't join cause it's full and know the best time to join is during a map change, also good to know when that map change will occur.

Answer 5 (dt):
"It might be possible to show the time and other game info in the server browser, but that's something we really haven't messed with yet. Our coding staff is working hard on things with a higher priority and this is something we might get into a future patch if it can be coded."

[im2cool4uroflolz]

<3

Amazing how much info a single sentence can get.

So, no more talk Icon for cloaked spy? This makes Killroy very happy.

Also the cloaked bit; this makes Crossover so much easier.

[BoltR]

Yep, the 100% cloaking on the spy when not moving makes it a whole lot less tedious to play. I know that i've personally frustrated more than my fair share of players by having good eyes and blue piping them when they have frozen after they think I may have spotted them. (Which I thought I might have, but wasn't sure. Though on a second look I could easily see that I had)


I have a question and a comment of my own which are spawned from this weeks questions:

Rocketrunner, I don't even what would you could change to distinguish between the nailgun and super nailgun beyond damage output. Did you have anything in mind?

reaper1, I suspect that will be added shortly, however the devs are starting to put their foot down for new features that are going into 2.1. It's already been longer than target date, and more new content was put into the patch that was first planned. It's been a never ending stream of "Hey guys, let's add this...". 2.2 was/is going to be the patch with a lot more new features.

[Gwarsbane]

I'm still not sure I like the changes to the spy, I think that might make him way too powerful if he can't be picked up by the SG while disguise and cloaked.

I personally don't have too many problems getting up close to sgs, and as some people here know, I have been able to do it while cloaked on certain maps.

I do like that he will be 100% invisible while still. Will this include stuff like turning around looking up and down or will the person have to remain 100% still?

Yep, the 100% cloaking on the spy when not moving makes it a whole lot less tedious to play.

Not really. A good spy can remain in place without moving for a while, for as long as they have to. I've done it many times while people are running all around me. Its actually quite funny to start tranqing people after they run past.

[pF]

^Then you've had the luck of not playing with people with specific gfx settings. The cloak can be very visible with some settings. Now, it's just not drawn. Win!

[theqwert125]

Can a spy sabotage sentries while cloaked?

[Ostrich_Eggs]

with the hardcap in place in 2.1 is the medic the dominant class on offense? I just don't see the scout doing much without the obscene speed from skimming.

[squeek.]

Originally Posted by Ostrich_Eggs

with the hardcap in place in 2.1 is the medic the dominant class on offense? I just don't see the scout doing much without the obscene speed from skimming.

Depends on both the skill of the medic and the scout. You can't be a lazy scout anymore though, and you better get used to timing concs well and using conc combos.

[chilledsanity]

Chilled, you sound paranoid, and that's what a spy should do, cause paranoia.

Well I'm suspicious. I was also suspicious that lowering the health of the sg's was a bad idea (without having played it) and it looks like that idea was axed. I also made several posts in the pre 2.0 thread expressing concerns about how the new changes were going to break AvD balance, which I think proved to be the case. I'm hardly Nostradamus here, but it would be nice to hear a solid reason why this won't unbalance things for pubbing.

However, you can always learn to compensate. Which means getting better at the game.

I'm sure I'll be able to defend myself against spies adequately, (or ghosts as the case may be), I'm thinking more of new pub members who just want to jump in and have fun, not realizing they have to be on paranoid mode not to fuck over their team from getting sabotaged more easily than ever now.

[Ostrich_Eggs]

Originally Posted by squeek.

and using conc combos.

OH GAWD

[Hammock]

As I mentioned to Ihmhi the other day. This whole spy not being caught cloaked by sg's anymore seems a bit over powered.

Everyone talks about how with certain gfx cards and settings the cloak is easy to see through for some players. But for myself it's completely opposite. With my settings completely maxed out it is near impossible for me to see cloaked spys. Infact I could be in the middle of DMing them and when they cloak I loose complete sight of them about 80% of the time. The only reason I can still get the kill is because I know where they are and how far they can move while cloaked. Otherwise I almost never see cloaked spys.

The SG was the only protection against this, atleast it provided a little comfort to know that no cloaked spy is going to get behind me when an sg is around.

It's one thing to be paranoid in an arbitrary position in your base, but being paranoid 100% of the time everywhere in your base will just suck.

Sometimes it's hard enough to stop a spy from pushing the flag forward while he's disguised as it is, but with cloak not stopping them anymore, you get situations like in SD2 for example where the spy can now without hinderance climb up one of the two ladders silently without an sg locking on to him and toss the flag out.

Atleast in a normal situation the sg would help a defender know if a spy is inc because he wouldn't be able to climb the ladder cloaked so he could be spotted.

And what about bigger maps with lower numbers? It's impossible to defend every entrance into the base in situations like that since there aren't enough people to cover every area. So once the spy gets in he has free reign of the base? AND can go completely invisible when an enemy is near by?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that atleast before there were counter measures to defending against a cloaked spy, now there isn't any (and a pyro running around shooting every wall and corner is completely fucked up, that's not skill or a strategy, that's a waste of time). There used to be scouts radar and the sg, now there's nothing.

There's got to be something to counter this, something you can say to your team, okay we got cloaked spys running around we need <this> to stop it.

For example, people hate spy defense, but it's done all the time, I'm not sure why people hate going up against spy defense it can be effective. So if a spy can cloak, you could logically say spy's can see through cloak. Then the spy would have a valid purpose on both offense and defense.

"Okay guys we got cloaked spys running around we need a spy on D to help find them". The defensive team would need to dedicate an entire guy to defense of this, too many spys on defense would be counterproductive since it would weaken the D lineup.

But there's got to be a balance, you can't have someone completely capable of entering and running around the enemy base without some other person being able to defend against it. SG's were our defense, now there's nothing.

Being paranoid 100% of the time isn't fun, I know I would get frustrated pretty quickly if I can't counter something in some manner, and would either dedicate more time to league style matches where the spy isn't as much of a problem, or go play another game.

*Edit*

I also think the arguement of the spy having to be disguised for him to get past the cloak is a weak one to boot, since it's insanely fast to disguise now.

If the cloaked spy is no longer spotted by sgs and no counter measures put in to fight against it, then other changes would have to be made to the disguise/cloak functionality.

Like the timer for recloaking should start once the spy looses his cloak, not from the time he starts his cloak. So the spy can't just cloak sit there for a few seconds, shoot his tranq off then immediately recloak. The recloak timer should start after he looses, not once he starts.

And disguising WHILE cloaked should take 2-3 times longer than when he's not cloaked.

[reaper18]

I have to completely agree with hammock, on every point.
Cloaked spys not being seen while disguised is overpowered.

[elwood]

All valid points hammock, but if a spy wants to just cloak around the enemy base all day and take forever than so be it. If that's the case, if i were playing defense, i would rather see a spy just sit around cloaked and do nothing as effective as another strong medic/scout. I am not saying these new changes will not make the spy over-powered, but it will definitely make it easier for other people who don't primarily play the class. With that being said, i can see clan matches being more exciting because it wouldn't be that tough for some random person that plays smart on the offense squad to man-up and switch from med/scout to something that could* work against a defense. Because currently even though in 2.1 they are changing the armor/health on sg's to take them down easier... i still think the tracking will be the same? Not 100% sure on that, but if it is then sg's will still be very effective against med/scouts/offense that's surrounded by a smart team oriented defense. You keep the sentry gun up, then you will definitely keep the offensive caps down to a minimum because of the tracking. Meanwhile, what's wrong with some paranoia? It's team fortress-based game and it's supposed to be exciting


There are so many ways to be effective with spy already. I'd like to think i am a pretty effective spy with or without other smart scout/meds that will contribute to moving flags, however i typically don't cloak around the enemy base because it takes too long. Rarely do i feel the need to cloak to get from place to place. Like i said before it takes longer, plus you're not guaranteeing your safety as a spy. Currently it's a risk to be cloaked and slow because people can spot you moving around fairly easily for the most part. I come from TFC and played basically as medic and very rarely changed to scout because i was a DMer, but movement was huge and that's how i play spy in FF. I play the FF-spy like i play medic. Movement is huge, especially with grenade jumping due to decreased damage from that an fall damage.

I am not a beta tester so i am just speculating by guesstimation. Without a doubt i bet pubbing will be drastically chaotic with spys due to the fact of lack of organization. Match-play however, i don't see too much of a difference because coordination will be around on all fronts.