First off, I'd like to say I love the game. I recently came back after seeing the free weekend for Rising Storm and I've been having a lot of fun with the full servers again. I'd like to discuss some of the interface elements, but I'm not quite sure if this belongs in the "Ideas and Suggestions" subforum.
One thing which has stuck with me since the beginning is that a couple small interface improvements could drastically improve the experience, without altering gameplay.
Firstly, I'd try much harder to get my friends into the game if it had slightly better steam friends integration. What I mean is that ingame, players on your steam friends list should get the name above their character's head highlighted in a special color, and also have a special color for their map icon. When initially selecting teams, the interface should have a special area which shows your friends in the same match and what squad they have selected; especially if one of them is a squad leader.
Secondly, the spawn system can be improved. The buttons are unnecessary. It would be amazing to have a somewhat larger map with the spawn locations clickable (and of course one highlighted in a different color which moves around the map with your squad leader). This would allow newer players to get a feel for the maps much more quickly, since they're not spawning at some generic "spawn 1", but they actually must pay attention to the map in order to select a spawn point.
Speaking of the map, the colors and large icons sometimes make it hard to read. Some of the icons could stand to be smaller, and having a sharper contrast for friendly locations markers would make it a little easier to read at a glance.
Take this map for example:
Poor background contrast makes it really hard to see clear outlines of the buildings (and thus battle flow); and the icons for the 2 cap points and ammo areas feel awkward and larger than necessary.
Getting back to spawning, if the clickable spawn locations isn't going to happen, it would be extremely convenient for the "auto-select" button to tell you what it's actually auto-selecting. Something like "Auto-select: squad leader". This way I know if I need to override it or not (I know it focuses the camera on what is being selected, but new players may not realize this, and I still get paranoid that it's not actually going to spawn me on my SL). Similarly, if the squad leader is not alive at the point I click "auto-select" but spawns before I do (no idea why, but this has happened), auto-select should update itself so that I spawn on him and not back in a static location.
It is very frustrating to die, and miss the spawn wave by 1 second because you couldn't move the mouse over to click the spawn button, and have to wait 20 seconds. You should automatically be in the queue to spawn on your squad leader, with the remaining spawn time to change the location if you really want to. If your squad leader is dead, it should automatically put you in the queue to spawn at the location closest to your death. The important part here is "automatically," because players want to get back into the action as quickly as possible.
As a SL, it would be very helpful to know when people are going to spawn on you. Of course you should play conservatively the entire game, but knowing that reinforcements are spawning on you in 2 seconds would give you the information you need to wait a few more seconds before poking your head out of cover. I can understand if this is a gameplay decision Tripwaire has made, though.
Some of the in-match interface itself feels clunky, and I'm not totally sure why. I think the mouse sensitivity is too low; but I don't want to adjust it due to it also affecting aim. Also, I got selected for battlefield commission once while in a bunker, about to shoot at some incoming enemies. I was SL; the popup window got me killed and also confused about what it wanted. I missed a full spawn cycle trying to figure out what happened; this set my team back since they couldn't spawn on me. These messages should only pop up when a player dies!
It would be extremely helpful to new players to be able to see where enemy spawn locations are on tactical view. Especially with the new RS maps that I haven't played, I'm finding myself extremely confused as to where I should be expecting attacks from. Having this into in tactical view would be infinitely helpful.
Finally, it would also be so so helpful for the game to mark areas which are restricted. Currently, I'll be executing what I think is a perfect flank, only to move into a restricted zone and get frustrated. A red line on the ground or some other indicator when one gets close to one of these would also be extremely helpful (I know RO wants the game world to be as clutter-free and non-artificial as possible; but there really should be some notification).
Now, I know many of these points are alleviated by experience playing the game - but that shouldn't be! There should be no learning curve for interface elements - just gameplay! When my friend and I play, more than half of our grumblings are about the interface rather than dying randomly. I hope this post didn't come off as too critical - but I really do think these changes would improve usability and player experience dramatically.
One thing which has stuck with me since the beginning is that a couple small interface improvements could drastically improve the experience, without altering gameplay.
Firstly, I'd try much harder to get my friends into the game if it had slightly better steam friends integration. What I mean is that ingame, players on your steam friends list should get the name above their character's head highlighted in a special color, and also have a special color for their map icon. When initially selecting teams, the interface should have a special area which shows your friends in the same match and what squad they have selected; especially if one of them is a squad leader.
Secondly, the spawn system can be improved. The buttons are unnecessary. It would be amazing to have a somewhat larger map with the spawn locations clickable (and of course one highlighted in a different color which moves around the map with your squad leader). This would allow newer players to get a feel for the maps much more quickly, since they're not spawning at some generic "spawn 1", but they actually must pay attention to the map in order to select a spawn point.
Speaking of the map, the colors and large icons sometimes make it hard to read. Some of the icons could stand to be smaller, and having a sharper contrast for friendly locations markers would make it a little easier to read at a glance.
Take this map for example:
Poor background contrast makes it really hard to see clear outlines of the buildings (and thus battle flow); and the icons for the 2 cap points and ammo areas feel awkward and larger than necessary.
Getting back to spawning, if the clickable spawn locations isn't going to happen, it would be extremely convenient for the "auto-select" button to tell you what it's actually auto-selecting. Something like "Auto-select: squad leader". This way I know if I need to override it or not (I know it focuses the camera on what is being selected, but new players may not realize this, and I still get paranoid that it's not actually going to spawn me on my SL). Similarly, if the squad leader is not alive at the point I click "auto-select" but spawns before I do (no idea why, but this has happened), auto-select should update itself so that I spawn on him and not back in a static location.
It is very frustrating to die, and miss the spawn wave by 1 second because you couldn't move the mouse over to click the spawn button, and have to wait 20 seconds. You should automatically be in the queue to spawn on your squad leader, with the remaining spawn time to change the location if you really want to. If your squad leader is dead, it should automatically put you in the queue to spawn at the location closest to your death. The important part here is "automatically," because players want to get back into the action as quickly as possible.
As a SL, it would be very helpful to know when people are going to spawn on you. Of course you should play conservatively the entire game, but knowing that reinforcements are spawning on you in 2 seconds would give you the information you need to wait a few more seconds before poking your head out of cover. I can understand if this is a gameplay decision Tripwaire has made, though.
Some of the in-match interface itself feels clunky, and I'm not totally sure why. I think the mouse sensitivity is too low; but I don't want to adjust it due to it also affecting aim. Also, I got selected for battlefield commission once while in a bunker, about to shoot at some incoming enemies. I was SL; the popup window got me killed and also confused about what it wanted. I missed a full spawn cycle trying to figure out what happened; this set my team back since they couldn't spawn on me. These messages should only pop up when a player dies!
It would be extremely helpful to new players to be able to see where enemy spawn locations are on tactical view. Especially with the new RS maps that I haven't played, I'm finding myself extremely confused as to where I should be expecting attacks from. Having this into in tactical view would be infinitely helpful.
Finally, it would also be so so helpful for the game to mark areas which are restricted. Currently, I'll be executing what I think is a perfect flank, only to move into a restricted zone and get frustrated. A red line on the ground or some other indicator when one gets close to one of these would also be extremely helpful (I know RO wants the game world to be as clutter-free and non-artificial as possible; but there really should be some notification).
Now, I know many of these points are alleviated by experience playing the game - but that shouldn't be! There should be no learning curve for interface elements - just gameplay! When my friend and I play, more than half of our grumblings are about the interface rather than dying randomly. I hope this post didn't come off as too critical - but I really do think these changes would improve usability and player experience dramatically.
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