I was so excited when I saw the "hotfix" thinking that there might just be an improvement made to the interface where you choose your team and class, but alas, it still sucks donkey balls.
I think there are a number of improvements that will make this part of the game much more enjoyable and much less frustrating:
TLDR:
* Let us use the keyboard to do team selection, and weapon selection, and skip the ">>" screen.
* Show me how many players are on each team on the team select screen, so I can get into the game faster.
* Only prevent me from changing teams if doing so would unbalance the teams. Always let me see the team select screen (for information on how many players there are on each team, or to see who is playing Sniper class)
* Show both squads on one screen. That is, show 16 slots on the Class select screen, instead of the current 8.
* Make weapon selection an immediate change, instead of forcing me to be dead before I can reliably change my weapon.
Detailed explanation follows:
- Once the map has finished loading, I am required to CLICK the >> button to go to the team select screen. I should be able to simply hit Enter to move forward.
- The Team select screen does not give me any information, like the number of players on either team, or which team I am able to join. So I click on Marines, then I choose Marksman, and nothing happens. Then I have to go back to team select, and try to join Insurgents. But by this time someone has joined Insurgents, so I can't join them and I have the same problem again. How about Dimming the team that I cannot choose? How about just putting a number next to the Marine or Insurgent so that I know which team has fewer players.
- "You Cannot Change Your Team At This Time" - this is MEGA frustrating. The round ends, one team is way undermanned, or underskilled, so I want to switch to their team to help them out. CAN'T. Why not? Because "You cannot change your team at this time." Damnit. I have to wait until I respawn. Then I can change teams. But then I miss the rush. FRUSTRATING! Is there actually any logical reason why this message should EVER come up? The only reason I can think of is if I am on the team with fewer players. Then I should not be able to switch. But what if I want to spectate. Can't do that, either.
- Weapon selection. Ok, nobody that I have played with really seems to care what squad they are on. Nobody I have seen ever actually plays as if they are part of a squad. People DO care about what weapon they have and what team they are on. So, weapon selection needs to be improved. There shouldn't be two different screens for the two different classes of weapons per team. In other words, show all the weapons available to one team, on one screen. Also, why not make weapon selection like Day of Defeat? 4 sergeant positions. 6 assault positions, 2 machine gunners, 2 marksmen slots. I can open the Weapon selection screen and instantly know if the position I want to play is available. Currently, I cannot do that. If I want to play sergeant, I must check two screens. I have to check for Marine Team 1 or Marine Team 2.
Why not just get rid of the character customization screen, or make that a whole screen by itself, and put both Marine Team 1 and Marine Team 2 on the same screen side by side? - More weapon selection. I open Marine Team 2, and see that Marksman is open. I click it, and the UI disappears and I respawn.... as Machine Gunner! W.T.F.? Somebody else had already picked Marksman, the slot was occupied the UI just didn't reflect that. So I have a totally Opposite class of what I was trying to be. Had I known Marksman was taken I might have picked the open Sergeant class (Was it really open, though?) But now since I've spawned as MG, Sergeant is taken too. Damnit. Solution: When a player takes a position, make it effective immediately, even if they are alive. This is how Day of Defeat works. If you choose to be sniper, the number of occupied sniper slots is incremented by one. You don't become sniper until you respawn. This does create a situation where the slot may be taken but there may not be any active sniper in play but this is way more intuitive than the way INS implements it.
- More weapon selection. When I am alive, and notice the Marskman slot has just opened up, I choose to play as Marksman. The console says "You will spawn as a Marksman in the Specialized Squad" or something like that. Sweet. I'm marksman now. So I go off on my merry way, blasting several insurgents and going down in a blaze of glory. Then i respanw, and I have a puny M16. W.T.F? This is mind bogglingly irritating. Then if want to rechange my class to what I was before, guess what? I have to blow myself up or Kill in console because if I don't, then my old player class will get taken before I respawn naturally.
Please tell me that some of these suggestions are being considered. The Team/Weapon select interface in this game is horrible and does not work in any way that any person expects it to. It breaks the conventions set by many many other games before it and it isn't for the better.
Please, INS devs, go play Day of Defeat, if only to see how Team / Weapon selection is implemented. Notice how simple and intuitive it is. Then make INS as simple and intuitive as that. Please.
Please.
Class/Team selection
Nov 12 2009, 08:16 AM
