Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Give us your feedback about the website! Or have an idea? Post it here!

Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby Whyme » 16 February 2020, 17:23

Yeah I noticed a bit too late there was actually a feedback channel on top there where I thought were only news and announcements so... Could someone kindly move it to the feedback section, please? Thank you. :)

It's been a while since I last played Plazma Burst 2, and today I went to check the game out again after hearing about it in one of my YouTube comment sections. So without further to do, I went ahead to check it out. And I saw a lot of new things. Goods and bads. I wanted to make a video about it at first but then I thought text might be more productive and seen.

The generals
Things that didn't deserve a separate point just go here. And of course the site goes here as well. While not a lot of things have changed initially, I can definitely see some improvements here and there. Custom maps which are being advertised, the news page is actually active, the game site itself was adjusted so you can update your game to your preferences. It's definitely a nice thing.

The game still played as well as before, and thanks to some new rig, it ran a little smoother as well.

We still have the good old and enjoyable maps. Some new, some old, and I would say it's great to see a mix of new and old still, which makes playing the game a lot more nostalgic.

Improved UI, enhanced stability
One thing I noticed immediately after entering the game is an improved stability. My biggest problem a few years ago were issues with the stability. Constant frame rate drops, connection issues, and I feel like today none of them were apparent. I didn't have optimal frame rate, but that's fine. I'm used to it in flash games and I definitely don't blame the game. But the connection was way more stable and my ping was much higher. I immediately felt the improvement.

Movements were a lot more fluid, less laggy, and people I played with mostly had fluid movements as well. During PvP, this quickly was noticable. So I definitely and hugely praise the improvement in this regard.

I also checked the options and I am impressed with how much new options were added. The separate options make customization a lot easier and better and makes the game a lot more playable to players like me who would like to have more options to as example disable custom music.

Player count improved?
Despite little amounts of players, I found a lot of full games. A long while ago, I used to see a lot of rooms with only one player in it. Today, it's a lot more full rooms and less 1-man or 2-man rooms. They were still there, but much more rare. And while I know that's (probably) not a game improvement in itself, but the community has improved in that realm. After entering a match, I found a lot of new things. Like an annoying text to speech for some reason, new weapons and also new character models. Which I guess was nice.

The ultimate gun mayhem
I entered the advanced level editor to see what it was about. I mean I saw two new weapons, new models, I was kinda curious to see what they are. I loaded up my test map and immediately went ahead to check for new weapons. I was... shocked.

I scrolled and scrolled and it felt there there was no end to it. If anything, I was overwhelmed. Too many weapons, in my opinion. We already had a lot two years ago or something, and was enough to fill up maps with diverse and interesting choices. Now it just feels like we want to force an infinite number of weapons without any substantial reason behind them other than just having them. I don't see any balance gaps which couldn't have been fixed with gun mod triggers.

And all those different sounds, projectiles, but same weapon concepts just really hurts eyes and ears. Keep games simple, not extensive and diverse.

Overall, and this is my definitive statement: We have WAY too many weapons now.

Custom backgrounds and custom decorations
I of course went ahead to check out the rest of the advanced level editor. I was impressed by some things, such as quality of life improvements for triggers (linked triggers, sorting), UI cleanup and finally a dark mode. Those were some impressive additions which I surely support and love to see.

Backgrounds and decorations were my next choice. And well, I have to say I enjoy the concept behind it, just not the execution. You see, I scrolled through the custom decorations, and eight out of ten decorations were completely out of place, didn't fit with the initial plazmaburst 2 style, were generally weirdly colored or looked terrible.

Now of course people will come forth and say "Just don't use them" but I'm afraid I'll have to see them on different maps where the style isn't at all unified. Retro-looking characters and full HD solar system? I mean, sorry, but this ain't a good idea. Rather create more decorations on your own, custom text fonds, maybe an in-editor decoration editor so you can recolor/transform existing decorations. But this just feels weird and to be honest, excessive.

It may be a good concept at mind, but the looks and execution of it will not work out for most people to enjoy.

---------------------------------

If anything, that's all that really fell into my eye. The last two points may be negative, but honestly, the game is still taking a good direction, and I hope to see the highly anticipated update sometime soon.

Kind regards ~ Whyme/PeriCore

Whyme
Recruit
 
Posts: 16
Joined: 3 August 2013, 11:43
Location: Germany/Netherlands

Re: Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby Incompetence » 17 February 2020, 21:33

Whyme wrote:And all those different sounds, projectiles, but same weapon concepts just really hurts eyes and ears. Keep games simple, not extensive and diverse.

Overall, and this is my definitive statement: We have WAY too many weapons now.

problem isn't that the game has too many weapons, there's just little variation between most of them to make them actually unique and different. sounds and projectiles might be different but for most guns, they behave generally the same. some guns act so similar that they're basically sprite swaps. more guns with unique gameplay mechanics would make the sandbox a lot more interesting than it is right now.

besides, in a pvp setting, only a few guns will see more use than others, especially in more competitive settings. number of guns don't matter since it'll just get narrowed down anyways in terms of usage/popularity.

Whyme wrote:Backgrounds and decorations were my next choice. And well, I have to say I enjoy the concept behind it, just not the execution. You see, I scrolled through the custom decorations, and eight out of ten decorations were completely out of place, didn't fit with the initial plazmaburst 2 style, were generally weirdly colored or looked terrible.

Now of course people will come forth and say "Just don't use them" but I'm afraid I'll have to see them on different maps where the style isn't at all unified. Retro-looking characters and full HD solar system? I mean, sorry, but this ain't a good idea. Rather create more decorations on your own, custom text fonds, maybe an in-editor decoration editor so you can recolor/transform existing decorations. But this just feels weird and to be honest, excessive.

unfitting decors are more so the fault of the artists that don't want to follow the art style or just lack the skill to actually follow it. can't really blame the system on this one other than allowing such things to be uploaded. i suppose you can also blame the people approving these decors too but that's not the system's fault either. the decors you mention might be out of place in general but it could fit perfectly in the context of whatever map they are being placed in. maybe someone really is making a pixel/retro map or some type of HD space map for whatever reason and so they need custom assets to make those maps.
User avatar
Incompetence
Civil Security Heavy [300]
 
Posts: 331
Joined: 3 February 2016, 03:55
Location: Definitely not behind you

Re: Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby Whyme » 18 February 2020, 16:10

Incompetence wrote:problem isn't that the game has too many weapons, there's just little variation between most of them to make them actually unique and different.

We have roughly 100 guns. Previously, we had approximately 30 guns, 27 if we exclude the vehicle guns. Which were more than enough, to be honest. We could have reworked those 27 guns to fit 3 into each category. 3 pistols, 3 AR, 3 Shotguns, 3 sniper type, 3 rocket launchers, 3 utility, 3 Special, 3 more special. And each to be distinctively different despite same type.

I mean I don't want to complain about more content, considering I have been complaining about lack of content in various games before. But just like you said, if they were unique, I guess we could talk about it. There is a ton of opportunities.

Incompetence wrote:unfitting decors are more so the fault of the artists that don't want to follow the art style or just lack the skill to actually follow it. can't really blame the system on this one other than allowing such things to be uploaded.

Yes, and no. Definitely, we cannot blame the system for what people create or approve. But this system could have been different to begin with. In-editor decoration changer/transformer. If that makes sense. We also have triggers that could influence the way things like decorations look.

At least that is my view on things. I generally like many of the changes over the one or two years I haven't been around much, honestly makes the game look fresh. But yeah, those two were kind of negative to me.

Whyme
Recruit
 
Posts: 16
Joined: 3 August 2013, 11:43
Location: Germany/Netherlands

Re: Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby Kiriakos Gr96 » 19 February 2020, 21:23

Topic moved to the right section.

On topic about the guns as a map maker i think its nice to options (guns for each faction)

About the decors I have to agree here many of the decors especialy the newer ones dont fit with the pb2 at all and most of the times they look out of place but there are nice decors too which fit with the pb2 if you want to find them i would suggest to press *random uploads*.
User avatar
Kiriakos Gr96
Administrator
 
Posts: 619
Joined: 13 August 2013, 16:52
Location: Greece.

Re: Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby Doomzerker » 22 February 2020, 01:35

Kiriakos Gr96 wrote:Topic moved to the right section.

On topic about the guns as a map maker i think its nice to options (guns for each faction)

About the decors I have to agree here many of the decors especialy the newer ones dont fit with the pb2 at all and most of the times they look out of place but there are nice decors too which fit with the pb2 if you want to find them i would suggest to press *random uploads*.


I agree with this too, I like that there are tons of guns for people to pick. While it definitely would be nicer to have more variety in how the guns feel, if that's not feasibly possible then more skins for similar weapons doesn't hurt. It's aesthetically better to fight 3 types of 'soldier' enemy from 3 different factions if they have 3 different skins and 3 different looking guns rather than the same gun between them.
This is a signature
User avatar
Doomzerker
Recruit
 
Posts: 19
Joined: 1 August 2019, 01:36

Re: Some feedback about 2020 PB2

Postby LazyRain » 22 February 2020, 10:19

Speaking of weaponry. Different looking guns with nice artstyle is cool. But I really prefer PB weapons with different operating principles. For ideas that have no difference among others we have Custom Images feature. In my opinion it must stay in the next game too. If Eric will crowd official guns with tons of pointless fan-arts the armory will become a total mess with repeating guns.

Another thing is that alien races are lack of firearms, objects, skins and factions. Yes, races are not factions. Same thing about Androids and Cyber Grubs factions. And only few people tried to make someting to fix this. Human race currently has enough fan-made factions, skins and weapons for the next game.

Custom Images features should have better sorting system with tags.
Spoiler: Show More
User avatar
LazyRain
Civil Security Heavy [300]
 
Posts: 323
Joined: 27 January 2015, 08:57
Location: Sofa


Return to Website / PB2 Game

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users