Titanfall game - Page 2

On November 05 2013 22:38 Latham wrote:
This is definitely one of the games I'm looking most forward to in 2014
It just gives off the BF2142 vibe which I loved so much. It's also a HUGE plus that it's not modern setting nor WWII.
The wall-scaling jetpack ability + well balanced anti-mech weapons could make for a good dynamic balance despite the lack of destructible terrain.
Too bad its on Origin, but I guess I'll put up with it just like I did for BF3.
I just hope to God it will not be inspired too much by CoD... i.e. mechs being rewards for killstreaks like choppers etc. -.-

As seen at E3, Titanfall will let you call down giant mechs for you to stomp around the map. That's all well and good, but just how often will you be able to order a mech? What's the ratio of being in a mech to not being in a mech? And just how many mechs can be squeezed into a map? These, and other mech-centric question, have now been answered by Respawn's community manager Abbie Heppe.

The game's Titans will be available on a countdown timer, reveals Heppe in an interview with MKGaming . “You can decrease the amount of time it takes to call in a Titan by completing objectives and getting kills. Once you lose your Titan the countdown starts again. It is possible that everyone in the match could have a Titan on the battlefield at the same time.”

That's potentially a lot of mechs, but Respawn's maps have larger areas designed to fit them in. “We have to have maps that support not only the Titans which are over 20 feet tall but also human-sized Pilots,” Heppe said, “so even our “smaller” maps are pretty large comparatively. What's cool is each map has areas for Titans and areas for Pilots, so you get these smaller maps built into the larger ones and all these cool pathways through them.”

On November 06 2013 05:35 karazax wrote:
info on mech spawning mechanics:
http://cskgamers.com/index.php/entry/titanfall-s-mech-spawning-explained-it-s-possible-for-everyone-on-the-map-to-pilot-a-titan



Some more info here too: http://www.pcgamer.com/previews/titanfall-hands-on-sharp-satisfying-man-vs-mech-combat/

On December 10 2013 05:27 Jswizzy wrote:
I think Titanfall will fall into the same traps as most console FPS games: Cumbersome Progression, Low TTK, Lack of movement mechanics, Regenerating health, clusterF*** maps, poor respawn mechanics, rewarding playtime and not player skill , ect. I doubt it will compare well with some of the great indie FPS games out there such as Natural Selection 2. I hope I'm wrong but Infinity Ward hasn't meet my expectations for a game since Grant Collier retired and I don't trust the remaining Respawn guys as much.

On December 10 2013 09:39 XXXSmOke wrote:
I absolutely love the idea of "Campaign Multiplayer." A lot of FPS can seem dull because its just a run around shit on each other fest. Yea some games have had "zones" you capture or the CoD with rewards. But this seems to be a whole new level where they are putting actual story line into your multiplayer experience to make you feel more like your completing a mission rather than just running around the map killing people.

That's because of the particular design of Titanfall. When not in their Titans, pilots aren't really meant to walk or even run along the ground, they're meant to traverse maps by wall running. And the more a player wall runs, the faster they move.

Combine that with the fact that players can essentially create their own approach into a building, up a building or around a building, and toss in those mammoth Titans, and suddenly a player's brain has a lot more to think about than in a typical shooter.

The increased speed that comes with wall running and with being in a Titan also means that players can find one another much faster than in your typical shooter, so player count doesn't have to be inflated to create action. The action is always seconds away.

So player count, while important, became less about delivering a number to match other online shooters and more about finding what felt the most fun and the least overwhelming.

Throughout development, Hendry said, the team played around with a wide variety of team sizes. The game started with 8 or 12 players per side and slowly drifted down to eight, seven, five even two per side before the team eventually settled on six versus six, he said.

"It's been this number for months," he said. "We are pretty avid players in the studio. People speak their minds and we listen and make changes. This is the number that felt best.

"The game is essentially built to be six on six."

And that headcount won't impact map size, he said; Titanfall has all sorts.

"There are at least two maps that are really big, one of those is huge," Hendry said. "The map size isn't a technical limitation, it's what felt best. It's, 'How do we make this thing feel good?' Some maps are smaller, some are medium size and some are bigger.

"I think the only thing that the player count does is really affect the overall chaotic level of the game."

Number of players also won't impact the sorts of modes the game has, though Hendry declined to say what they'll be beyond the two publicly shown.

The reaction to the game's player count, announced in a tweet earlier this week, didn't necessarily take the team by surprise. There seems to be an understanding at the studio that Titanfall isn't quite understood yet by people not directly involved in its creation.

By design Titanfall is meant to be a game that while easy to drop into, is hard to master and understand the nuance of.

"When people start playing Titanfall like Titanfall, the player count becomes a non-issue," he said.

Take the game's AI-controlled characters. They aren't there to fill in the roster or load out a map that only supports six players per side.

They're meant to serve several different functions. On one level, the AI characters are there as fodder for players who simply aren't good enough to kill other player-controlled characters. They also serve as an easier way to load up on the experience needed to call in a Titan. And they're meant to provide a sort of backstory and narrative to a game lacking any sort of single-player element.

Essentially, they're there so everyone has a chance to feel like a hero, no matter how good or bad they are.

Then there's another type of AI in the game, the one that can control your Titan. While the Titan is a walking tank that players can board and directly control, you don't have to. Instead, a player can put a Titan in guard mode, hop out to capture a hardpoint, and then return when they're done, knowing that the Titan will mop the street of enemies while you're gone. You can also place the Titan in follow mode, either to have it find you after you respawn, or to be your building-sized back-up as you make your way through a map.

All of this, the player count, the variety in play, the AI, the Titans, is also designed to be welcoming to both hardcore shooter fans and folks just dipping their toe into the often daunting genre. There are even gadgets and weapons designed specifically for those players not as dexterous as long-time fans of the genre.

"I've watched people come in and play the game that just don't have the twitch reflexes," Hendry said. "They'll get in the Titan and have fun."

The team at Respawn understand some of the reaction to the player count. In this particular genre, traditionally, more was often argued to be better.

"It just comes back to what makes the game fun," Hendry said. "If you're making a game and you're making decisions that's not based on fun because you're trying to please someone or trying to match numbers, you're not doing the right thing.

"Why not make Call of Duty 256 players, or Battlefield 256 or 512? Maybe that would be awesome. Maybe that would be awesome for that type of game built around that, but you can't just jam players into a game and say this is what is ordained."

Hendry points to games like Gears of War and Left 4 Dead, both titles that had relatively low player counts, as titles that succeeded without having to go big.

So the team is quite confident in their decision to cap the player max to six per side and they're not reexamining that decision based on this week's reaction.

"It all comes back to the same thing," Hendry said. "I can see why it's hard for people, why it's hard for it to make sense. But it's up to the developer to make the best choices and create the best experiences."

On January 11 2014 11:14 cLAN.Anax wrote:
Game will be strictly 6v6, but include A.I. "fodder" players.

Source.

On January 11 2014 15:29 HeeroFX wrote:
The game looks cool from what I have seen of it. But I don't like the idea of 6v6 and AI also being a part of the battle. I just find playing against the AI to be boring.

On January 11 2014 14:53 AnachronisticAnarchy wrote:

Brilliant. I was worried they were going to destroy their own game by taking away what makes it special with absurdly high player counts. I can't exactly put it into words why it's the case, but a game size of around 6v6 with AI creeps is perfect for maintaining the power trip. Pilots are supposed to be the best of the best and capable of all kinds of cute parkour tricks and clutch plays. Titans are supposed to be tanks with legs. Both need fodder to live up to their reputation and both need the low player count to turn bullet hail clusterfucks into organized skirmishes and even duels, where both parties receive ample opportunity to show just what they're made of.
I guess to use a comparison of sorts to describe what I'm thinking, imagine DOTA 2 with 5 players per team... and then imagine it with 12 on each team. Then imagine it with 32 on each team, because that's around where a lot of standard FPS games max out, and that's what some of the team-size complainers are looking for.
I just hope they manage to execute the idea well enough for what I'm envisioning to actually pan out. The devil's in the details.