Monday Night Combat Title Update, DLC, and PAX Discussion

Nice to see that you guys have already started fixing the glitches and exploits in the game.

As for the assassin re-cloak while grappling stuff, these are the questions to ask yourselves this: Can she recloak during any other attacks? Is the grapple her only attack? Is it fair for the assassin to be penalizes for successfully taking out another pro?

My answers are yes and no respectively. I think the re-cloaking is a glitch and should be fixed. However, the real problem is that it takes too long for the assassination animation to complete or that damage during an assassination should be scaled back.

BTW, is there any chance for a SouthPaw control scheme to be added this time?

To Uber Entertainment: What exactly does "retuning" mean? Will it end up being good or bad for the Assassin?

To everyone else: Keep in mind that the Assassin has one HUGE, MAJOR, and otherwise VERY, VERY IMPORTANT role: Pushing bots forward.

Here is a list of everything preventing bots from moving forward:

Turrets
Other bots
Support

Now here's a list of what the Assassin can do against these three things:

Turrets - Slowly (perhaps too slowly) destroy them from afar, or up close with Juice.

Other bots - Mow through them.

Support - Nothing.

Preventing the Assassin from cloaking while Grappling literally disables her ability to kill a Support, since the Firebase will kill her before she can deal the final blow. And no, a simple "Hey, team. I need you all over here at once so I can take out this Support and his Firebase in order to move my bots forward" will not do.

Take note that in order for the Assassin to fulfill her role in moving bots, she needs to make sure there are no bots, turrets, or Supports in her way. Also take note that all three of those need to be neutralized, not just two. See where I'm going? I'm saying that disabling her ability to kill Supports makes it impossible for her to do her job. In case someone who reads this hasn't noticed, "Stop killing people and do your job" is the only argument supporting this change. As I have shown, it is also a paradox, since her job involves killing people, specifically the Support.

TL;DR - In order to do her job, this change shouldn't go through.

It means: Now that the game play has changed the balance has changed to match.

This just made my week and it's only Monday.

To everyone at Uber thanks for being so awesome. I knew a fix was coming but I had no clue it would be such a list. Everything is covered and I can't wait for it to roll out.

You guys also hinted at DLC but I had no idea three were, I guess you can say, planned and in the works. Also showing that you really are all about the community by having your first DLC for free. I am sure it will be so great that everyone will want more thus having them gladly pay for the other 2. Heck, I'd pay for all three of them if was that way.

Keep up the amazing work and dedication for the community. I know you guys will anyways.

Not going to be at PAX but hopefully I get a few games with you guys later tonight during the Live Broadcast.

You guys are doing an awesome job with MNC. Hope that title update comes soon! One question about the t-shirts and statues though. How much are they going to be?

I hate doing this so soon after my earlier post, but, I'm troubled by the fact that any comments on the Assassin's cloaking patch have been avoided.....

It's in testing, right? Then test it, and please report your findings. I will miss it, but I wont mind if I knew it was a game breaker, or a grossly unfair advantage.

Everything looks great on here, but I'll echo some concerns from others on here in that the assassins really don't have any attack other than the grapple that they can use. Personally I think it's great they're being nerfed, but it seems like it's their only mode of attack that works.

Also, removing the support's ability to hack enemy turrets just seems frivolous. It's hard enough to hack them effectively anyway and this will just make the process even tougher and less viable.

The one thing that I would recommend looking at which is popping up more and more frequently is snipers juicing on the smaller levels. The SMG does insane amounts of damage when their juiced and it seems that lately more and more people are taking advantage of it.

Anyhow, great job, and keep the updates and refinements coming! It's greatly appreciated!

i don't have anything original to say, but i wanted to add another voice to the mix.

first, great job uber. these fixes are what the community was looking for and you seem to have been listening.

second, i want to add my disappointment to the assassin grapple+cloak "fix" discussion. eliminating the ability to hide from the non-pros during a grapple will SEVERELY change the assassin's gameplay and tactics.

which brings me to my last $.02, where is the dev feedback on the above issue? it's obviously the most controversial fix in the update, so i am eagerly awaiting some feedback from you guys.

actually, regarding the support hacks, I like that it's harder as it's the main reason I never upgraded the interior rocket turrets in the game. At level 1 they can contribute but still be easily taken down if a support hacks them, while at level 3 they're freaking monsters and if a juiced support under the cover of bots hacks it you're in deep trouble

Is there a difference in the time it takes to hack an enemy turret based off of it's level? I've never checked but if there isn't, then in many ways I'd prefer an exaggeration of that then an overall turret hack time extension... that way upgrading is more worthwhile :3

To be honest, with the combination of lag, people fidgetting and some hopping around like a flea on crack (my usual response to other assassins, and oddly effective) having them so grapple dependant is a little troublesome, this goes triple for flying assaults which are ungrabbable. The shurikens are great against structures and the two slow classes which is nice but I generally struggle to take out a support without a lunge-grapple. It often feels like they're regenerating faster than I can hurt them, and that's without even having a firebase around

Perhaps a useful change would to be making the sword/kunai swing have more reach or a forward motion component. I tend towards the lunge because of the reach and damage but if the sword swing had a bit more to it I'd maybe use it more :3

Feel free to correct me here, I'm just thinking aloud

Basically my feelings. The reason I'm directly asking them about it is because it's easily the most, if not, the only, controversial, which means it's the only one that I feel the Devs actually need to comment on. As far as I could tell, all other questions, even ones that weren't directed to them, were answered post haste.

However, I'm getting the feeling, and I hope I'm wrong, that BECAUSE it's controversial, it will be determinedly avoided by them. Happens all too often nowadays...

I'll start by saying that the huge list is awesome. I love seeing the word "Fixed" everywhere.

I probably shouldn't complain, but I'm going to anyway!


I'm not happy about the change to cloaking while grappling, but I don't think it's as much of an end-of-the-world thing as some other people. It just means the gold armor endorsement will be even more of an absolute requirement than it already is.
I saw some people saying "learn to use the smoke bomb". :lol: :lol: :lol: . Do you have any idea how long you stand there doing nothing while using that skill? The radius is tiny at Lv1, and small at Lv3. The duration of the blind on players is shorter than the time the assassin is standing still to use the skill. It's just BARELY worth using against turrets. 90% of its utility is to high jump, which seems to fail 20% of the time.

I know that the retuning of the lunge damage means that dagger lunge damage will go down. I really hope it also means that sword lunge damage will go up (swap the two!).

That brings me to my other complaint.. all these fixes and no mention of fixing the non-host lunge behavior? There has GOT to be something you can do client-side to make the lunge work a little better when not hosting. The way it rubs past everything makes it nearly impossible to link to a grab (when not hosting), often makes you lose track of your target because you go past them (when not hosting), and sometimes even gets you killed because you keep going off the edge. Killing bots with it is slower because you often have to turn around after lunging, instead of when you host and can link straight into some sword slashes. Even when the lag is MINIMAL, low enough that EVERYTHING ELSE (except for a mildly annoying shuriken glitch) works just fine, the lunge just loses its damn mind. It really bothers me enough that when I feel like playing assassin, I'll spend 20 minutes joining, leaving, joining, leaving, etc. until I end up as host.

Update = Awesome.


Assassins won't be so good now! Woot woot.

....

I honestly can't tell if you're trolling...

So I wont bother explaining why that's so wrong.

Lmao, there are actually people who think you should stay invisible while anally raping people. Seriously, you people are hilarious. Stop grappling people out in the open in front of other people. Assassin's have a stealth cloak for a reason; to get BEHIND the other team. Not behind the person on the front lines. You're supposed to be a disruptor, not a frontline tank.

Anyway...

Awesome fix list Uber, better than a lot of Title Update fix lists I've seen from retail game developers. The fact that the first DLC is going to be free is flat out awesome too.

Also, if they are going to "FIX" cloaking mid grapple, are y'all going to do anything about, oh idk say supports switching to their shotgun while being grappled? it's annoying as hell when you go to assassinate a support using a heal gun, then try to lunge to finish them off, then lo and behold! face full of buckshot. >_>

At the same time, you should also be able to kill people without getting murdered in the process. The new update won't let Assassins do that.

Ok so we have all different opinions about this, remember that the changes are 100% finalized yet so a change can be made.

Personally I dont see a problem with it except for firebases, if you have level 3 armor, you can quickly get away.

Behind the other team means.. where their turrets are, which is what this is all about. You don't cloak while grappling to hide from PLAYERS. They know damn well where you are. You do it to hide from TURRETS, so that you can do something about that support or sniper who's turtling in the base or the support sitting behind a bridge healing his firebase, or the assault spamming grenades base-to-base on steel peel. This change actually has more of a detrimental effect on the role that you think the assassin should have, and less on the one you're arguing against. So in reality, even though you yourself don't realize it, you're against this change!

I'm conflicted....

I like what the argument's about...

But I don't like actual arguments on these types of threads....

That will seriously underpower the support, already a fragile character.