I bought this game yesterday, and so far I'm having a ton of fun. The theme is comical but brutally dark at the same time, the gameplay is unique and authentic, and that damn menu music is so catchy it's been stuck in my head since the first time I launched the game. But all positivity aside, a few things have been bothering me:

1. You can only move in 8 directions, relative to the world, as if the game is tile-based. It's not. Let us move in all directions by adding an option to use movement relative to our character, just like in FPS games. So when you press Up your character goes forward in whichever direction you're aiming, Left and Right strafe, and Down goes backwards. That way, we'd have much more precise control over our movement, and moving at an odd angle wouldn't be so awkward anymore. Oh, and then set this as the default because it makes much more sense, hehe.

2. The UI isn't nearly readable enough (ammo is a tiny number in the bottom left, there are too many unnecessary helmets around the edge of my screen to quickly see which one is my squadmate's, etc.) and is often clumsy to use (having to hold down the inventory key while using it, gah!). Come to think of it, on a related note, the overall UX is pretty terrible. The weird movement controls are part of that, but also the unintuitive and completely invisible damage/health mechanics, for example. You really shouldn't have to spend 5 seconds looking around your screen to find the objective marker only to find nothing when you get there, and you definitely shouldn't have to go to a wiki to figure out why people aren't dying when you hit them, but you die instantly when they hit you.

3. The unintuitive and completely invisible damage/health mechanics. This isn't necessarily a complaint, I just don't understand. There's nothing fun about hitting someone, or being hit, and then having a random number generator that is completely out of your control decide whether it's going to be a kill or not, potentially negating any sort of tactical advantage you might've had. Why not just go for a simple 1-2 hit kill health system instead?

4. Destruction. I know it's not going to happen because of engine restrictions, but it has to be said. Even just craters would be awesome.

I'm trying hard to find more things to complain about here but I can't really think of any. The movement controls are by far my biggest bother with the game, which I guess is a good thing. I really hope you guys keep polishing this game for a while longer, and don't just ditch it after a couple months.

If you start running out of money, remember you can always add hats!

1. Serious?

Yeah, why?

Being able to move in 8 directions is rather...unimportant. The AI moves in all directions perfectly fine. I don't really see a reason why we'd need this.

Yea, the UI could use some improvement. Although most of the objectives are displayed in the map, which can be accessed via Tab and you can instantly see where the objective is and where your character is (because of the two thick, blank lines going north-south and east-west along the map to mark your location).

The system itself is based on a set kill probability for a weapon. Most weapons don't have a 1.0 kill chance (sniper rifles excluded). In a game where you die in one shot, it's important that some RNG be put into the game - otherwise it just turn into a min-max type of thing. And having munchkins all over the map makes nothing fun.

Destruction? Yea, it would be nice, but it's limited by the engine. You can get a certain amount of destruction via making map objects vehicles - nearly all of the vehicles on the map are actually destructable and movable. Makes for some nice scenery.

Just to be clear, what I meant is I'd like to be able to move in any direction as opposed to just 8, because that's currently very clumsy and awkward. Think of trying to move while hugging a wall that's at a slightly odd angle, or trying to stay hidden behind cover while moving toward it.

And I had no idea those black lines were there. I'd always spend ages trying to find my little character icon instead, so thanks for the heads up.

1. This would completely change the way the game is played. Alien Swarm comes to my mind. This is a design decision and regardless of what we think of it a change of this magnitude is very, very unlikely to happen at this point. This is not a change You make in a game that's already released.

2. UI is actually pretty good, for the most part, it just needs a little getting used to. Also, adding a squad tag changes the helmet icons to a helmet with a little insignia and changes the shape of that little halo under the soldiers themselves - if You want to keep track of a small squad of friends this makes it much easier. On inventory screen, part of me agrees with You, it can be annoying holding F to access it, especially when You need to be quick. That being said it has the advantage of closing quickly if You need to react to danger etc. There are also various tricks for picking stuff up when You're in a hurry - for example holding Squad Command Mod. button and pressing F puts the item directly in Your backpack instead of active slot, this helps if You don't want to trade what You have for what You're picking up and saves You time on hold F-drag-and-drop routine. This is particularly useful when picking up rares in hot situations. Another one to learn fast is right clicking stuff. When Your inventory is open clicking RMB on an item that's on the ground puts it in Your backpack. If the item You RMB is in Your backpack it will get dropped on the ground, and if it's in Your active slot it'll get transferred to the backpack. Also holding CTRL allows You to move one item from a stack, when You take stuff from the stash for example and You only want one F2000, not 24 of them. You get used to it once You start using the shortcuts, trust me.
Objective marker is sort of irrelevant, it's a suggestion of where we should attack and an indication of where the bots will push next. Nothing says You actually have to go there, You can take a squad of few friends and attack a different sector in order to secure the flank or take enemy base that contains a tank spawn or is of other strategic value (radar tower denial, having both stash and armory in it and so on). And like Soldier said, use the map more.

3. Well, RNG by definition is random. That being said, i disagree on this negating tactics, why would it ? Because You can't wound people for someone else to finish off ? Most guns kill very quickly here anyway as long as You hit and aren't hilariously far away. This one also stops being a bother after You spend more time with the game.

4. I agree. Most of us agree, in fact - it would be awesome to have something like Bad Company 2 levels of destruction, but oh well. We can dream, engine is what it is.

I don't think what You did here was complaining as such, because these things are not flaws per se, they're design choices which You might agree or disagree with.

This your moving suggestion does not sound so good. If you shoot enemy and want to move at the same time, you need to repeately tap moving buttons to keep your moving angle because you want to keep your aim in enemys head and cant use it to choose moving angle.

Also if you shoot someone and fall back at the same time, you need to move mouse to your falling direction and switch finger from S to W when you run out of bullets. As you cant run backwards as fast as forward.

Was that unclear enough?

Its good to have moving and aiming separate. Controls are great now! Thats one reason why I love this game so much.

I think you guys are misunderstanding the movement thing. Right now, you move up, down, left, and right in the world no matter where your character is facing. In other words, your movement is relative to the world. I'd like to have an option to make it relative to my character, so "up" becomes "forward" towards wherever I'm aiming, left goes to the left of my character, and so on. Movement and aiming would still be separate.

The idea being that it would let you move at odd angles (of which there are many in this game since it's not grid or tile-based) without having to awkwardly zig-zag, and give you more precise control over your movements in general. It wouldn't really change anything significant about the gameplay, since it wouldn't let you do anything that isn't already possible. It would just make it more user-friendly.

And just to make it really clear how awkward the current system is: imagine playing an FPS like that, where moving forward instead moved you "up" along the map.


You might get a perfect flank off on someone, hit him with pinpoint accuracy, and still fail to kill him due to absolutely no fault of your own. That's how it can negate good tactics.

The only arguably good thing the RNG damage does is add some chaos and unpredictability to the mix, but it's a very cheap and poor way of doing that.

If You flank someone, have a perfect hit and still don't kill them than i have to say sorry, but You're doing it VERY wrong. Chance to kill in most weapons is way too high for this sort of thing to ruin a 'good tactic'.

The movement change i already discussed so i won't repeat myself. But just to adress what You just said : it would not be more user friendly at all. It would be better for You and perhaps a percentage of other people. A lot of us, on the other hand, like it just as it is now. It's simple, clear and never fails in the hottest of moments.

No, you're doing everything right in that case. You just got a bad roll. That's the point


Sure. That's why I'd like it as an option. I know I would definitely prefer it, and that I wouldn't be the only one, but if you prefer the current system that's fine. It's your choice.