False, since the GC was introduced. It's the opposite now actually. Solo is significantly more difficult than team play. The reason is that, as is well known, GC continually spawns/repositions zeds anyplace the player(s) isn't currently viewing. Well, think about it. With 6 players in the same general area, they are viewing most, probably all, of the area around them. With one player, it is unavoidable to not be viewing the 270 degree arc directly behind you. So in solo play now, mobs of zeds absolutely continuously spawn within melee striking distance behind the player's back. And if you turn to fire at them, then more mobs spawn in the new space which is now behind you on the other side, meaning you are now surrounded. Anyone who hasn't actually tried non-zerk solo play on HoE with the latest game conductor will be in for a surprise. It's really quite insane now.
GC - Solo much easier if you keep health below 50
- Thread starter peterigz
- Start date
False, since the GC was introduced. It's the opposite now actually. Solo is significantly more difficult than team play. The reason is that, as is well known, GC continually spawns/repositions zeds anyplace the player(s) isn't currently viewing. Well, think about it. With 6 players in the same general area, they are viewing most, probably all, of the area around them. With one player, it is unavoidable to not be viewing the 270 degree arc directly behind you. So in solo play now, mobs of zeds absolutely continuously spawn within melee striking distance behind the player's back. And if you turn to fire at them, then more mobs spawn in the new space which is now behind you on the other side, meaning you are now surrounded. Anyone who hasn't actually tried non-zerk solo play on HoE with the latest game conductor will be in for a surprise. It's really quite insane now.
As someone who was trying to train up by playing solo before playing in multi so that I wouldn't be a huge liability (I wish more people would do that, at least only once or twice to get acclimated to the controls and stuff), I can confirm that once I got fed up with solo's recent BS and jumped into multiplayer despite not hitting 15 with every perk my winrate skyrocketed, even on Suicidal (which is the highest I'm willing to go in pubs), even with the huge increase in zed number and non-trash zed health.
And it wasn't because I was being carried, either, because I'm often firmly in the middle to top of the scoreboard (unless I'm playing Berzerker because then 20-50% of the enemies get shot before I can go fight them, depending on the map) and often get the Giant Slayer accolade (especially if I'm playing Support which I personally find hilarious as it's a huge spit in the face of everyone saying Support is crap, some of which are probably even the same people who were in the room when it happened) which should be an indicator of being a credit to the team. And yet, if I play solo (as anyone but Medic or Berzerker), my winrate has plummeted due to the GC goin' nuts. I even lose on Hard sometimes, which I had worked up to an 80%+ winrate pre-GC before graduating to Suicidal training, because I go to shoot at a Scrake and I'm suddenly deluged in Crawlers, or I find myself suddenly facing two Flesh Pounds and I can't get any distance at all between myself and them because GC increased their movespeed, or I'm trying to gain some distance while reloading and I'm getting nipped at by Crawlers and Gorefasts because they can keep up with max loadout non-movespeed perks even on Hard. It's pretty absurd. Whatever TW had thought the GC would be and whatever TW had hoped the GC would do, it probably wasn't this.
You know, now that I know about the kind of absurd out-of-sight movement speed multipliers zeds get when they can't see you, I'm starting to wonder if it's actually not spawns or teleports that are getting them stupidly close to us, but if, instead, it's extra movespeed stacking multiplicatively with out-of-sight movespeed making the zeds essentially flash step right next to you. Pretty much identical to teleporting, but not the actual teleport mechanic's fault. That might be why no one has found the problem yet, maybe we're looking in the wrong place.
I think they have made some changes recently in that the zed speed is better now, hell on earth solo seems about right for the most part, it's certainly challenging but doable with enough practice.
The only issue I have at the moment is the teleporting sirens as for me it really breaks the immersion. Because the siren is an uncommon zed, it just seems out of place that a siren or sirens behind you that you know are the only ones on the map suddenly come round the corner in front of you it feels a bit disappointing, and I feel a bit cheated. The other more common zeds doing it is fine, there's so many of them it doesn't break the immersion if they block your path ahead and it adds to the excitement. For rarer zeds to do it though it only adds to the frustration, and I do play this to have fun after all
The only issue I have at the moment is the teleporting sirens as for me it really breaks the immersion. Because the siren is an uncommon zed, it just seems out of place that a siren or sirens behind you that you know are the only ones on the map suddenly come round the corner in front of you it feels a bit disappointing, and I feel a bit cheated. The other more common zeds doing it is fine, there's so many of them it doesn't break the immersion if they block your path ahead and it adds to the excitement. For rarer zeds to do it though it only adds to the frustration, and I do play this to have fun after all
i think it could be made less 'holy **** what the hell is going on' if it was more gradual.
such as, having 10 steps with average Health over a time period rather than just two or three. same deal with all stats. if you make it much more gradual, then you can make the small adjustments that'll help out someone just that little bit without changing the overall experience much.
i do agree in general however - we have Difficulty settings, so i still don't get what the Game Conductor is for. both basically do the same thing to some (granted different in some ways) degree, soooo.....
I imagine the idea is that difficulty levels are a very coarse knob to turn, with only 4 options. You choose roughly what type of difficulty you want to play, and the GC will fine tune the difficulty within the broader range of the difficulty setting depending on skill level. Whether or not the GC does that effectively is another question.