Summer BETA: First Impressions, and the Hunger for Dosh.....

[Servalion]

Welp, Day 1 of the Beta. Plenty of new changes, greeted with both warm welcome and dismay. It's all a bit too much to touch up on here, so for now I'll just stick to the upgrade system.

Now we know that this is just the first release version of it and that it's a WIP. It's only the first day, with all the time in the world to make necessary changes, and that's good. Because as things are, upgrades are more costly than I envisioned, and it may be a bit too much.

The upgrade system seems universal across the board in cost. Here are the rates -

Upgrade to Tier 1 (9mm only): 200
Upgrade to Tier 2: 500
Upgrade to Tier 3: 600
Upgrade to Tier 4: 700
Upgrade to Tier 5: 1500

Damn, man! Wasn't expecting T5 to more than double in cost of T4. But putting that aside for a moment, I can see how people are complaining about this being a nerf overall. I was one of those earlier scoffing off the naysayers complaining about all the weapon "nerfs", because I knew it was mostly T4 weapons being reverted to T3. But then I logged into the Beta and quickly saw that the nerf was possibly a monetary one - everything people are going for as it currently stands costs more than before.

This isn't the case early on. A T1 weapon (presuming its the one they start with) will only take 500 to take it to T2. Depending on the weapon, that may be more appealing than holding out for a T2 that costs 750. Some may even opt to take it to T3, but that will cost another 600. if its the T1 you started with, that's a combined cost of 1100. Balanced.......for what T3 used to cost. But upgrading a $750 T2 to T3 will make that a $1350 investment. More expensive than just buying any T3 outright by a clear margin, so it'd have to be a T2 that I really like to take it further.

The most obvious example is taking a former T4 weapon and upgrading it back from T3 to its former status. First, remember that several existing T2 and T3 weapons got more expensive today. Many $650 became $750, and lots of $1100 T3s now demand $1200. So you wanna take that T3 back to T4? Get back to where you were? That'll be $1200 + 700. $1900 for T4? Uhhhhhh......unless dosh is now pouring in like mad wherever we go, this change is gonna more than ruffle some feathers. You're liable to pluck the whole damn chicken. And while T5 is now reality, it brings a huge question: is it worth the the $3400 entrance fee?

The first iteration of the upgrade system has already had visible changes on teamplay and players. Obviously, players are much more reluctant to give much more than a little dosh to anyone who asks now, but that's no surprise to anyone. No, it's the sudden greed displayed by several players. Weapon theft has suddenly risen across the board. You better hope you don't die and drop your weapon. And if you do, you better keep your spectator eye on it at all times, because its value just may find its way into the pocket of some silent prick who otherwise won't speak a word (and might not anyways).

Someone died and dropped an upgraded Doomstick on a map I was playing. The wave was almost over, and it was real far from trader, so I told them I'd get it. I was a Commando, and the Doomstick weighs anywhere from 11-13 (What the hell? This update has made carry weight feel woefully inadequate), so I told him I'd get it. Dropped my AR-15 and L85 by trader, taxi'd his Doomstick over to him, then went back to trader......and my guns were nowhere to be seen. Had to spend an entire wave watching the rear with nothing but a shiny knife. Server admin was even ready to get ban-happy with a name, but no one (who spoke up, anyways) saw the culprit, so I just had to deal with it.

Over the next few maps, I saw more than a couple instances of people dying and not being able to find their weapons afterwards, resulting in at least a couple of instant ragequits. Given how crazy heavy the latest guns can get, this is doubly shocking - not only are gun thieves alive and well, they're surprisingly quick and carry-capable in the chaos. I suspect that this may become more obvious in the days to come. We'll just have to stay extra vigilant on the dropped goods.

 

[liamtranzig]

I prestiged my Gunslinger before trying the new content because I thought I could use him for the Normal & Hard runs on the new maps.
Presitiging grants almost 4 Vault crates. I was a bit shocked that you can apparently get multiple Prestige ranks in a single class. The first prestige icon upgrade is pretty basic & the reward knife skin looks like a precious vault skin downgraded. But now I'm curious to see how high the ranks go... & how the loot & icons improve.
Regarding the side-grade system... I couldn't find it. I dunno if it doesn't affect the Gunslinger's arsenal yet or if I just missed the right tab in the pod menu but I couldn't upgrade anything. It may also be some file complication from my side though... I've got some screwed up Cosmetic bug from cooking my level in the SDK.

 

[RawrUK]

I'm always happy for new content and updates with KF2 because it's free and clearly a lot of hard work goes into it. This time, however, I think they've done too much too soon and it all feels a little overwhelming. I realise it's beta and things are subject to change but at the moment, I have the following little list of irksome things:

1) Parry: At first I thought it was just a bug but no, being able to interrupt your attack with a parry was important for a Berserker and a key part of what made it so effective on the front line. It's not too bad with the Katana but now my favoured Bonecrusher has gone from being fun to being a liability. I personally feel that the adjustment now needed for my Berserker's play style is just a little too much for me.

2) Upgrades: Well, Tier 5 1858s are fun and being able to upgrade the Katana to replace the Bonecrusher is useful at the moment but I'm not sure about the prices and the weight penalty. I also fear that a system designed to introduce more variety in load outs may inadvertently have the opposite effect as people become heavily invested in a single primary weapon and use backup weapons very much as an afterthought. I've certainly been doing that myself. T5 Doomstick can do it all, T5 1858s are hilariously powerful, T5 Katana; awesome. This is just a first impression and I probably still haven't got my head around the maths involved.

3) Prestige: I spent a while watching the activity on my server last night. It appears to have turned into an XP-whoring fest to the detriment of survival. The server was set to short HoE and the vast majority of players were all level 0. I spectated on other servers and saw the same thing; just masses of players all going for the XP-whore with a middle finger to the team. Perhaps more a symptom of a shortage of beta servers but I suspect it's more of an issue revolving around selfishness, sadly.

4) Weapon Theft: Reiteration of what Servalion said above. Jesus Christ, it's rampant!

5) EDAR: I like them! They're a bit of a novelty and add a bit of variety to proceeding when they appear, especially if you're 'lucky' enough to get all three at the same time.

6) Doomstick: A bit of a disappointing noise but it's really fun! I've encountered it not firing all 4 barrels with alt-fire sometimes but apart from that it's great.

7) Static Shockers: Would be so much better if Parry wasn't nerfed. That's all I have to say about them.

8) M99: Welcome back, baby! Just wish it had the same recoil and sound effect it had in KF1. I want people everywhere on the map to KNOW I've fired it.

In summary, I guess I don't really have much of an issue with the new weapons, the prestige system, the upgrades or the nerfs but I feel that introducing them all at the same time is going to leave the KF2 universe in chaos for quite some time afterwards and sadly I feel that a lot of that will be due to player selfishness.

YMMV.

 

[poultrygeist]

That's what I've been afraid of, introducing prestige. Of course we will have to see how many levels of it there are,and its only day 1 of the beta. But team play on pubs servers has gone out the window...well more so than it used to be anyway. At least that's my observation trying the beta for a few hours.

The upgrade system makes no sense to me. I mean its nice to be able to have a T5 center fire for example. But it a comes at the cost of you having to spend more to get the old T4 back to where they were. Not really my cuppa tea tbh. But we'll see how this plays out at release of this update.

The new shotty is intense fun to use, but the sound effect just doesn't match its power. It sounds like you have played around with the medic shotgun sound and slapped it on the doomstick. I think it deserves a more powerful bang.

 

[RawrUK]

The new shotty is intense fun to use, but the sound effect just doesn't match its power. It sounds like you have played around with the medic shotgun sound and slapped it on the doomstick. I think it deserves a more powerful bang.

It should have that loud cracking bang of the Hunting Shotgun in KF1

 

[imnrk]

I personally really enjoy the weapon upgrade system - it does need some tweaking, but by and large it seems a lot better than I expected when people were suggesting it in years past. I don't really have a problem with the cost to get a T5 weapon, personally. I can see it encouraging toxic behavior, but what doesn't? I don't play a lot of multiplayerthough, so I don't know how this impacts teamplay. he one point I want to bring up with weapon upgrades is that if they don't already, weapons which rely on a DoT effect (hemogoblin, flamethrower) should get that DoT damgae to scale with the upgrade. Those weapons don't benefit much from a base damage increase. Not sure if this is already implemented or not though.

I'm happy about all of the balance changes. Nerfing weapons across the board was necessary in not letting the weapon upgrade system become OP (and I would argue it still is little OP), and the weapons that got buffed all needed it. I especially like what has been done to the 9mm pistol. The parries feel very clunky now though, I feel that change was unnecessary. Reload canceling should have been removed a long time ago, glad to see it gone!

I really like all the new weapons, for the most part. What I do not like about the Doomstick is the standard reload animation - it just looks cheap. I understnad it's probably too late to change that though. The tactical reload is amazing though and it reminds me of Jakobs shotguns in Borderlands 2. The weapon is scary good too. The sniper rifle is fun to use, but I don't see it as being anything other than a better and cooler raigun. I would say, with some hesitation, to remove the damge reducton from the lockon again and see how that changes the balance between the two weapons. The Strikers are great fun, but something as "up-cose and personal" as those really make the parry nerf noticeable. I feel like they kind of rely on parrying. Love bashing DARs with them though.

Haven't tried prestige yet, but I love the concept.

The new maps are both really cool and unique. I was a little dissapointed with the soundtrack on the Airship map - it's far from bad, but the songs all kind of sound the same. I was also hoping for something that fits the Steampunk theme more, like more of an industrial style. It's not a major issue though, and I still enjoy the soundtrack for what it is. I's mostly a matter of taste. As for the Lockdown map, I love the ambiet noises - so much that I found myself turning off the music when I played! It has a very spooky atmosphere. Gamepllay is solid on both maps. I largely prefer this style of objective over the KF1 style - I just found KFO in that game to be tedious, but these more subtle objectives are fun and shake up the waves a good amount. Love Lockhart, seriously.

The new event Rioter model is just scary, nice job with that. The DAR enemies are all interesting to fight, but it's too early to really say much about them. I did feel like that trapper should have less health or less stumble resistance or something, and I still have yet to consistently kill the DARs, since it's hard to tell where their weak spots are. That ccould just be because of the event skins though.

 

[Dr. Lethal]

The Static Shockers make me feel like a fleshpound. Aside from the constant punching, the fact the heavy attack also delivers a shock similar to the EMP grenade makes it quite interesting to deal with big zeds. Although you can't parry as quickly now is just a slight setback, but it doesn't make the weapon any less enjoyable.

The doomstick is quite hilarious to use, and fully upgraded it might as well be a giant F U to whatever said is in your way. Scrakes stand no chance against it, with fleshpounds more of less in the same boat. It feels worth the weight even though it does limit your weapon choices, especially if you try using it off perk. However, i did use the medic shotgun as support and it seemed to fire slower than before. Not sure if upgrading it improves this, but I'll have to double check.

As for the upgrade system itself....it really does drain your dosh. Some people are still willing to give you a few hundred, but if you need a lot for a new weapon, you're just gonna have to upgrade the one you have currently as few or no one can afford to share. That's the plus side of it at least. You can take a T2 weapon and make it a T4 (though that's somewhat difficult since some popular weapons had their prices raised.

 

[MikeHoncho]

The parry nerf has almost ruined zerk for me. You can't let us play like that and then just remove it. The whole playstyle has changed now for the much worse. Clunky af again and you just have to stand there waiting to parry because you won't be able to attack and parry in time. We're getting shredded by multiple large zeds and bosses now and it's garbage. I used to be able to bob and weave and stay on the offensive while still using parries to hold everything back. It felt awesome. The parry nerf completely neutered this.

For example, I used to be able to hit FPs and QPs with 3 heavy attacks from the Zwei before they raged and attacked, then I would instantly parry and repeat. Now, I have to hit them twice and stand there for a full second waiting to parry because I can't parry instantly after the 3rd attack. This is a huge damage loss and feels terrible.

Another example is I used to be able to hit raged FPs and QPs while they were charging me and still parry in time. Say bye bye to that. Now I just get to stand there and tank it.

Static Shockers are inferior to the Zweihander in every possible way. Slower, less range, harder to hit multiple targets, they take up way too much of the screen which makes them much harder to aim and see what's going on around you, and the recovery time before you can parry is awful.

Combine this with the weight increases so I can't even carry a freaking medic pistol anymore if I use two weapons, and you've now forced me to run a Zweihander with a medic AR. Except now I'm at 15/15 blocks and move slower, with not even a fully upgraded medic AR. Before the patch that would have been 13/15 blocks. Half the time I just ran the Zwei because weapons are ridiculously expensive now. I really love having to pay 1300 for the Zwei and then dump another 2200 dosh into it.

I am really not happy about the update. The only positive for me is the Lockdown map.

 

[Bluntman420]

I really don't care much for prestige. Yet, as long as it remains solely for cosmetics and vault dosh I am ok with it.

The weapon upgrade system is quite a jolt. I am not a fan of the nerfs, especially to the centerfire but I understand that was needed for balance. As said above, however, I do not like having to spend an extra 2000 dosh on a weapon that I already spent 1300 on. Additionally, the issue of people stealing weapons is concerning to me.

The E-DARS are really neat. I do think they spawn a little too many of them. Likewise, they are way too silent. I should be able to clearly hear missiles being shot at me for example. Other than that, I think they are very cool and add some nuance to perk roles within a game.

Parry is something that makes me sad. I don't see why there was a need to change it. I believe others have said enough about that so I will leave that there lol.

New maps are cool! The objective mode was done well.

I LOVE THE DOOMSTICK! MOST SATISFYING FEELING EVER SHOOTING AN E-DAR WITH A QUAD BLAST TO THE FACE MUAHAHAHAHA....ahem sorry. I like it a lot . M99 is also a solid weapon! Static Shockers are a neat twist. I have not yet tried the goreshiv.

Endless mode is much less boring on HoE!

This is all so far my observations and opinions so far on the beta update.