I know there will be some people who disagree with some of my points, that’s fine. These are just my thoughts. I’ll try to keep this shorter than my normal novels.
I should preface this with, I know I used to be extremely critical, I then became much more positive with Operation 4. I did find myself becoming more bored and frustrated throughout Operation 4 and made that quite apparent, just to be clear though this isn’t TC’s fault this time around, it’s more the players.
I’ll cover the first topic as it’s not so much a tuning concern but it’s 100% a problem that I feel is going to get worse. That being the quit penalty. TO BE CLEAR I do not like quitters at all from Ranked and I fully understand why people want them to be “punished”. The problem though is in that a LOT of “quitters” didn’t quit by choice. Ever since Gears 4, players have been kicked from matches, disconnected for no reason, froze, not loaded in… all sorts… all things that aren’t the player’s fault (disconnections often happen when the player is NOT having an issue on their end). Please think back only a few weeks to a Dev Stream whereby Dana himself was kicked from their own private match about 5 or 6 times, just because the game felt like it. If that was ranked, he’d be punished as a “quitter”. How is that fair in any sense? It’s not. For that reason I maintain that whilst I hate actual quitters, there should be NO punishment to players until the game is stable enough to keep all players in the match for the duration. VERY BAD IDEA TO ADD THIS!
Gamemodes / GP adjustments - Not too much to say, I like this. I am happy to see KOTH 4v4 for the reasons explained on the Dev stream, I am happy to see the GP adjustments as it’ll be fairer, though I do feel like the rank requirements may need to be bumped up as I feel like this will make it easier for some players to reach Diamond / Masters. It’s a shame to see Gridiron go, I like single life modes but it’s evident that the community has changed too much to support any form of classic Gears feel like that now.
Dev Playlist - This is where most of my concerns will be, I know I need to try it first but I feel like I already know how this is going to play out. I also feel like a lot of these changes match things I have suggested which is nice to see.
- Weight - I have been saying for a very long time that Gears 5 felt like you were floating, that the older Gears felt like there was some weight to it. I’m happy to see that feel trying to make a comeback.
I’m not sure about slowing the Roadie Run down by 20uu but I’ll certainly need to try it first, if anything I would have like to have seen regular strafing slightly sped up (I know that doesn’t make it feel heavier).
Acceleration has been reduced and Speed Boost from cover actions has been removed. This is a very grey area but personally I see no issue whatsoever with the RXN shot. But despite that, I am fine with them making these 2 changes to Acceleration and Speed Boost, I don’t like the change but I understand it. That will likely render the RXN shot pretty much pointless and ineffective. With that my concern comes from the fact delays are being added on top of this.
- Delays - I want to start by adding some Screenshots to refer back to as example.
Cover - Defence
Cover - Aiming
Wall Sniffing - Defence
Wall Sniffing - Peaking
I have had this discussion with so many people. The first 2 screenshots ARE IN COVER. The 2nd 2 screenshots ARE NOT IN COVER.
This was my main reason for not wanting to see wall canceling removed, but that’s another topic entirely.
So, RXN shots will be broken with this change. It will also break the Back A. Again, this is something I understand why people feel like it’s too fast but consider this for a moment. The playerbase has changed, they don’t play in the same way people used to on older games. Pretty much every match has at least 1 person who camps corners “wall sniffing” (as seen in the 2nd 2 screenshots). These people will never push and will wait and wait for you to push, if you don’t then expect a stalemate. Therefore the extra 0.1s delay added to shooting after aiming from cover will make no difference to those people, they merely need to take 1 step to the side and can freely pull the trigger. This can’t be tuned out, it’s just another example of how the players have ruined the game. As the attacker against somebody who is wall sniffing, you have to make up the distance on the map and then somehow still be faster than the player wall sniffing. It’s already hard enough, now Back A’s will be too slow and RXN shots won’t work. This is going to drastically slow down the pace of the game because people will no longer be able to push, whilst once again the noobier tactic goes unpunished. I doubt Developers do that during internal testing so this probably gets overlooked. For the most part the game is tuned fine now, the problem is the players who play it. The Back A and RXN shot were pretty much the only way to push these people (hence why they complained about it and wanted it “fixing”), now it’s just going to be too slow, there’s no chance of pushing it. (Expect lots more stalemates on 2v2 Mid for sure!)
Not only this, the delay to shooting after Wall Cancelling is going to be awful. I already feel like my Gnasher locks up for no reason during Gnasher battles (others have also said the same). I understand this change has been made to try and combat Back A’s, but this is going to RUIN Gnasher Wall Bounce fights. I don’t like delays of any kind, you can slow the game down without hindering people. I feel like the slower Acceleration and removal of the Speed Boost would have been more than enough to help the players who feel like some techniques are too fast. If a player is too slow to see somebody moving towards them at a reduced rate of speed then if they can’t react fast enough then that’s their own fault, they don’t need to be helped again by preventing the attacker from shooting. (Yes, this has irritated me a bit).
These delays are going to make it far too easy to play defensive, and near impossible to play aggressive. (I imagine you play respectfully during internal testing, people in public play like the win allows them to keep their real life).
Last concern, and I didn’t expect to ever say this. DO NOT nerf the Lancer anymore by reducing Damage, it’s in a perfect spot at 50dmg. I do still see the issue, I believe that to be with the rate of fire, it’s too easy for people to land enough shots on you due to it. Reduce the rate of fire slightly and try that… only slightly. Nerfing it’s damage further will make it too weak.
There’s a lot of changes in this that I like, but this post is just some of my concerns of what we’re going to experience if ever this tuning makes it into the full game.
