Discuss Hostile Waters gameplay feedback and bug report thread

[Raap]

Well, one of my concerns have already been mentioned. Buildings too easy to capture, but to be honest, I've always felt that bases should be more fortress like.

 

My original intent was indeed to make the islands themselves much harder to penetrate than the naval buildings, this to encourage hitting the naval buildings.

 

It just falls apart a bit too much in 12+ team matches, so I'll be shuffling a few defenses around, and removing a hand full. Also keep in mind that Naval Transports will no longer be able to sail past defenses and survive... They will properly need to be escorted, and a landing area made clear from defenses... Or take the long route and land on the island where chance of failure becomes larger.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Raap

[Raap]

Alright folks, my work on Hostile Waters has officially concluded. It's now up to Pushwall and the team to decide when the map goes live, and if they want to make any changes themselves or not - they are of course free to do so.

 

This map, and the custom buildings, took quite a bit longer to complete than my original estimation (these things happen). I hope you will enjoy the gameplay offered on this map when it finds itself in the standard map rotation.

 

Here is the change log for this version compared to the public test version. Keep in mind that additional changes could be made by the APB team if they so desired.

 

Gameplay

- Added crate powerups on the icebergs, using a custom Soviet themed loot table.

- Added infantry tunnel on the Refill Pad iceberg, as well as a wall for extra cover, which also provides some protection from the abandoned SAM Sites for Allied Longbows.

- Removed the Soviet Schock Trooper from the purchase list, as it had a too easy time wrecking both ships and aircraft alike from the icebergs.

- Removed and moved some base defenses on both teams to reduce the stalemate effect in larger player matches, as well as make early infantry rushes a little harder to pull off.

- Made the abandoned buildings harder to capture, by raising the amount of Engineer "ammo" required to capture them. (Service Depot/Refill Pad from 30 to 52, Silo's from 30 to 36.)

- Slightly raised fog density, to provide better cover for Allied ships attempting to flank the Soviet base.

- Made the free start-up Naval Transports spawn as spawners without re-spawn, rather than vehicle presets.

- Soviet Sub Pen - Expanded a blocker, preventing newly purchased subs from moving to the sides and being left in areas where they are hard to destroy, while still occupying the production spawn zone.

Visuals

- Redone the ice effect and textures.

- Soviet submarines clipping their camera through the icebergs will no longer be able to see through them.

- Separated underwater surface mesh in order to apply Underwater Dirt as material setting, for water splashy footsteps.

- Exported the mission accomplished/failed EVA messages with higher volume.

- Made cloud layer more dense, and added distant thunder storm.

- Corrected map-wide wind audio effects playing at too low volume.

- Iceberg ice material type changed to Glass.

- Re-textured iceberg rocks.

- Allied Naval Yard - Fixed window frames.

- Allied Naval Yard - Fixed a few extreme cases of vertex light solve uglyness on the upper platform exterior.

- Allied Naval Yard - Added missing edges to the upper area of the interior support beams.

- Allied Naval Yard - Fixed interior staircase pointy bits extending higher than the first floor.

- Allied Naval Yard - Newly purchased Naval Transports no longer bump into the edge of the platform while falling down.

- Soviet Sub Pen - Fixed light bleeding through the SAM platforms.

- Soviet Sub Pen - Re-textured barrel props like on the Naval Yard, to remove multi-materials.

- Island bases - Re-textured barrel props like on the Naval Yard, to remove multi-materials.

- Island bases - Corrected a texture seam in the Allied base.

- Added a new loading screen, with a modified background image from Vuxlort.

Thanks for your patience while I worked on this map.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Raap

[Raap]

And thank you for actually making stuff for the the game, instead of just posting extravagant insanity.

 

As a reward for your hard work, I wanna send you, two high class hookers and an 8 ball of yeyo, up a flight of 100000 golden stairs, past the mountain top peaks and into the clouds, where you can pound back some liquor with god himself while Jesus and Buddha throw a bitchin rave MDMA party, and Moses rolls up fatties. Your record just went quintuple platinum fused with triple gold, decked out with diamonds, muthafucken playah! The President of the United States of America wants to shake your hand on national TV while the first lady of France gives you a hummer!

 

Unfortunately, posting extravagant messages of insanity while doing exactly none of the things you mentioned in your post, is exactly the sole thing I know how best to do.

 

But on a serious note, I was happy to make this contribution. I certainly didn't plan on doing it but as these things usually happen with me, I got nostalgic and decided to do it. I've said it before, I'm not a designer by profession, I didn't do anything like this since I left BHP sometime in 2012, but I set my mind on doing this thing and so it happened... Even though it took a little longer than planned.

 

I'll be busy with other priorities for my spare time, something me and my friends have been planning to do even before I started working on Hostile Waters. But who knows, maybe I can come back and do another contribution sometime in April. As long as APB remains active with a player population, I'd be surprised if I didn't come back to make something new for you folks down the line.

[Raap]

They're being lowered on Hostile Waters at least, Raap went way overboard on putting defenses there initially.

 

Add a 2-4 extra credit tick to the naval building while you're at it, the level gameplay at times can be too slow, much slower than intended, especially when a team lost their barracks, their silo, and their ability to capture abandoned silo's.

 

The defenses were initially there to slow down the match and make infantry pushes in the early game harder. Having less defenses will make that tactic too strong.

 

Generalcamo once suggested interior defenses when I was working on the map. I'm not a fan of the idea as it breaks a lot of consistency rules, but perhaps it is the only option.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Raap

[Killing_You]

Why not just put a single Flame Tower/Pillbox in the middle of the base, so that they can deter infantry rushes without ripping apart ships?

[Pushwall]

Add a 2-4 extra credit tick to the naval building while you're at it, the level gameplay at times can be too slow, much slower than intended, especially when a team lost their barracks, their silo, and their ability to capture abandoned silo's.

 

The original 8 credits per second made it pointless to capture silos or destroy enemy silos any later than the initial LST rush. I remember when it was like that and I don't think I've ever seen my team's reserve money as high at the end of a match as it was back then, except when newbie ore truckers spend an entire match on other maps collecting gems.

 

What we really need is a way to set starting credits on a per-map basis, then I'd just raise it to 500 or 1000 on HW right away.

Why not just put a single Flame Tower/Pillbox in the middle of the base, so that they can deter infantry rushes without ripping apart ships?

 

I had considered that but then they can only shoot you just as you're about to enter a building, so all you have to do is sprint past 1 fireball or pillbox burst to reach safety. Which isn't going to leave you with much health as a solo infantry but that puts barely a dent in a full LST rush.

[delta]

I guess you can just stick a money crate or four in the middle of the base so you can just pick them up at the start and that would do the trick?

 

 

Also, should probably move this discussion over to that Hostile Waters thread, lol.

[Pushwall]

I guess you can just stick a money crate or four in the middle of the base so you can just pick them up at the start and that would do the trick?

 

I suppose you mean team money crates like Stormy Valley, but then anyone who isn't actually there at the start, or hasn't loaded in before someone gets the crates, doesn't get money.

[JigglyJie]

Was the idea of repair tools being able to capture stuff dropped in the end?

 

Also, the naval building gives 2/s but feels a bit too slow... why not make a 3/s?

[Pushwall]

Was the idea of repair tools being able to capture stuff dropped in the end?

 

Also, the naval building gives 2/s but feels a bit too slow... why not make a 3/s?

 

Only one warhead can work on a capturable building at a time. So only repair tools will work, everyone will be confused about why the golden wrench does nothing, engineers will not be any more worth buying than techies for capturing, and there will be even more unused money as a result.

[Raap]

Ideally Danpaul can enhance the script logic to make room for an optional second warhead, so that technician tools can also register.

[moonsense715]

Ideally Danpaul can enhance the script logic to make room for an optional second warhead, so that technician tools can also register.

Yet again people would not spend $500 if they can use a $0 unit for capturing.

[JigglyJie]

The idea with that was, if you lost the Barracks you weren't entirely screwed. You could make the repair tool 'capture' really slowly so that escorts must be brought or if possible, only allow such tools to work after losing your Barracks. I also think the removal of the neutral SAMS were a bad idea, because of the nimble frame of the Longbow, it's easier for the Allies to just waltz on in and capture stuff and tail back without taking much damage in the process. The Soviets don't have this advantage because Hinds are slow and tracking works almost all the time on them. it's Longbow central when it's under Allied control. But I guess a lot of it could just be down to teammates who don't like to listen.

[Raap]

 

Ideally Danpaul can enhance the script logic to make room for an optional second warhead, so that technician tools can also register.

Yet again people would not spend $500 if they can use a $0 unit for capturing.

 

 

I disagree, the Engineer has plenty of other perks in APB. If HW in particular was a concern with this, then it's simple enough to add some mechanics that only Engineers can deal with to make capturing easier.

 

And making capturing done via another weapon means too many niche utility keybindings to press.

 

But eliminating a team's inability to capture objectives should be the focus here.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Raap

[Pushwall]

Another problem with letting repair tools capture is that one lone technician/engineer can roam around the entire map and take everything.

 

Limited ammo (refillable) repair tools for technicians might change the main game too much though.

[Killing_You]

Perhaps a respawning engineer crate in the bases on Hostile Waters only? That way having the Barracks go down isn't a total loss, but still detrimental to the team, as well as not impacting the rest of the game.

[Raptor29aa]

Perhaps a respawning engineer crate in the bases on Hostile Waters only? That way having the Barracks go down isn't a total loss, but still detrimental to the team, as well as not impacting the rest of the game.

Interesting what would the respawn timer be? And what would this mean for beginning of match rush?

[DeviousDave]

You know, every time I see the name of this map... I just can't help but think of the game Hostile Waters Antaeus Rising

 

Great map by the way

 

(I'll just see myself out)

[delta]

Actually makes me think of the (much more obscure) naval sim, Dangerous Waters.

 

Edit: testing...will this really let me edit a two year-old post?

Edited November 15, 2018 by delta