Well when you put it that way I'm inclined to agree, still, I haven't seen any of this "hostility" you talked (typed?) about.
It was a while ago, and quite possibly before you even joined (yeah, people have been arguing about this stuff for a very, very long time on this forum, a lot of us did not like the sound of this system from the very start and argued that it would be bad for the game.. the irony is, as much as we were called alarmists, our worst predictions were tame compared to the reality that HoS has become).
TBH I immensely enjoy the game, even with the stuff I don't like, because the stuff I do like far outweighs that.
Lucky you, sadly i can't say the same.
It has potential, and with the right tweaks, maps and all the ranking BS taken out, i think it could become a really good game. But considdering the product TWI made, i have my doubts that TWI are interested in taking the game in the direction it would need to go for an old RO player like me to like it.
the only this I find is "missing" from the game is that tactical teamwork style gameplay, but that relies on the players not the game, take a horse to water and all that.
Not entirely true, the game's mechanics play a major role in forming team play, and especially in pub servers, it is very important that the game encourages and rewards team play, and that it makes it easy to do, that it makes sense to do on a purely practical level (and yeah we're talking low-level team play here, like sticking togeather, covering your team mates backs, working twords winning the map, pub teamplay. As for high level team play, with elaborate and coordianted tactics and such, that only works for clans, regardless of the game).
Some games are just better at encouraging teamplay than others, it's not only about the players (granted, there are players out there who refuse to play as a team, and you really can't force them to, but most pubbers are not like that, most will try their best if you give them a good reason to).
Ro:Ost was also a game that did a really good job of it, and i have to say it was because in Ost, you were not going to last very long as a lone gunman, you felt vulnerable, and you coulden't just rely on fast twitch shooting skills to stand on your own, the shooting mechanics were not made for easy run and gun lone-wolf gameplay.
That's not to say such play was impossible or unheard of, some people spend god knows how many houers polishing their hip-shooting skillz to a mirror shine just so they could do it, but for most pubbers it made more sense to try and be helpfull to their team (atleast once they figured out how the game and maps worked), it was low-level team play, but it was encouraged and usually worked in a rather natural way, and the slower pace of the game really helped aswell.
In HoS though, you can easilly pick an automatic weapon and go it on your own, the shooting mechanics are very forgiving, so if you are any good at FPS games, you really shoulden't have any problems relying on twitch skills and speed to give you a positive K/D Ratio, encouraging a lot of players to play it just for that. Sure you die faster and from unseen enemies more often in HoS than in other run and gun shooters, but that quickly becomes just a quirk of the game, and is not in itself a good enough reason to seek out teamplay if you can still keep a positive K/D Ratio, thing is, you don't feel vulnerable, the game may have quick deaths, but you don't feel like a small cog in a big machine like you did in Ost, you allways feel like you could shoot your way out of any problem, encouraging you to hone your lone-wolf skills rather than seek out team play.
The speed of the game doesen't help either, be it the very basics of the avatar movement speed, reload speeds, aiming speed, the amount of stamina you get and beeing tired having little effect on you, instant bandages that can give you a second wind, the sheer amount of auto weapons you get, and more, it all serves to make you more capable as a lone-wolf player, and can easilly be used twords thouse ends. But it's also the speed of the gametypes themselves, you not only move faster and fight easier, but you spawn so clouse to objectives in rather small maps, and you've got lockdown to enforce that you hustle and get in there fast, which leaves pubbers with very little time to get a feel for their team or what's going on, it's just rush rush rush, get in there and start shooting at stuff NOW!
HoS is not doing a good job at encouraging team play, it does it more than something like CoD, yes, because it doesen't take much to kill you, but ultimately, it does not drive home the need for teamplay, it doesen't leave pubbers enough breathing room to try and establish it, and it's fundamental mechanics make it far to easy to opt out of it, and just find your own enjoyment in more selfish goals like obtaining a good K/D Ratio, which is much easier to do than try to win the map with a team effort.
But when you do get that ooh is it great
. I don't think there's anything fundamentally "wrong" with the game, sure there's things I don't like-the progression system, or atleast the way it turned out being one-but I easily look past and forget that when I'm having fun. As with any game for me; as long as it's fun I really don't mind, maybe even don't care about any flaws or things I don't like.
Honestly, the only reason you get the teamplay at all, is because stubborn players who desperately want teamplay, are doing whatever they can to create it, despite the game. It sure as hell doesen't happen organicly in Ro2 like it usually did in Ost.
People keep saying and hoping that larger maps will set it all right, that people just don't understand how to play Ro2 yet but that all will be put right when people get into the groove of things, but it's simply not the case. And it isen't for the same reasons it wasen't in CoD1 and 2, or the BiA games, or the MoH games, or the BF's and so on, thouse were/are all games that when played with similar minded players can be very enjoyable and tactical team games, but only with likeminded players, because that is certainly not how their normal pub servers are played, at all, and it only takes one skilled lone-wolfer with an auto-weapon to screw it all up, because the fundamental gameplay mechanics lets that one guy dominate with his playstyle, it will get him the kills, and you have to adapt to that.
And Ro2, at it's very heart, is not very different from the above mentioned games, it is at it's core a run and gun ego-shooter, and skilled FPS players absolutely can dominate in Ro2 with speed and twitch. It may differ in the fine details, and to it's credit it does make it a little harder to dominate, because the controls are not quite as Quake-like as thouse of CoD, and it doesen't have gamey exploits like Dolphin-diving, but make no mistake, Ro2 very much rewards all thouse classic lone-wolf FPS skillz you've been learning since Doom and Quake, just like CoD did, just like BF2 did, just like MoH:AA and BiA:HH did.
And the ranking system only makes it more so, it gives you wholly self absorbed goals to strive for, for your benifit and yours only.
And that my freinds is why i'm not jumping for joy, because i don't like thouse kinds of games, i didn't like the CoD's, the BiA's, the MoH's or the BF's, they are not my kind of game. Infiltration and RO was my kind of game, but HoS just isen't that, it's just a milder version of your average military themed ego shooter (milder in the sense that it is somewhat more hardcore and tactical than thouse), and as much as some of you may
choose to play it more RO style than that, that just doesen't change what the game is, and what you will encounter out there on the servers. It's not the same kind of game that Ost was, it's a different genre just with a similar theme.
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