Ghost Recon: Wildlands - Catch All

Dakhath wrote:

Hedinn? Didn't I send you an invite already?

I just checked and I don't see it anywhere. You are not on my friends list either, not sure if this is a requirement.

I'll send an invite to you both, hopefully between the invites Dakhath and I send will work.

Well apparently when I was given a key from someone and gave out 3 codes, that doesn't allow me to invite 3 new people after I got a separate email straight from Ubi inviting me. Sorry ;(

Huh, I sent the invite but it said you hadn't accepted my friend request

Dakhath wrote:

Huh, I sent the invite but it said you hadn't accepted my friend request

I don't see a friend request pending.

It's Hedinn-GWJ on uPlay, btw.

Weird. But thanks for trying at least!

Certis wrote:

I enjoyed Ghost Recon: Wildlands and I ... might not buy it? I don't think it differentiates itself enough from Far Cry and the rest of the Ubisoft gang. I like the one-shot-one-kill kind of gameplay, but it's pretty fluffy. I miss the days of fixed maps with randomly spawned enemies instead of trying to slap it all in a big, open world. You rarely feel constrained or particularly tense during your approaches. I need to try it on a higher difficulty I think. AI was pretty dull on normal.

The friction-less movement and driving through the woods with a sports car that can climb rocks kind of clashes with the (near as I can tell) realistic weapons and sounds. The tone in this thing is all over the place. Why are the locals cool with a crew of geared up maniacs driving around their region in broad daylight killing people? It's called Ghost Recon. Where's the ghost part?

I guess I'm just shaking my cane at the clouds. I miss the original.

"Seems quiet enough."
"Too quiet."
I remember hearing that a lot after dying and restarting that first level.

I may well buy it when it's cheap. I might be able to wring an Ghost Recon like experience out of the game if I play on a high difficulty, restrict my weapons and perks, etc. I've heard different people describe the game as being like Far Cry, Ghost Recon and Just Cause. It has elements of all those games. It is a weird mixture.

I agree the tension of the original games isn't really there. Much as I want it to be.

For what it's worth here is a video of a sneaky assault on a village using my AI team mates. The guy we are sent to rescue has a funny way of showing gratitude. After that are a few vignettes from my only foray into multiplayer.

NSFW language and the voices in the multiplayer segments are a lot louder than the rest of the video.

I wish the shooting was more like Rainbow 6: Siege. I think that's probably one of the best feeling shooters out there. Combine that with the more open world that this has and it would be pretty decent.

Looking at the stats page and they show the overall % of the map explored. The beta was only 4%

If you've been having a lot of graphical issues with this...are you on an Nvidia card? Just curious because myself and a buddy are both on 1070 and 970s respectively while our other two buddies are on AMD cards and we were the ones having issues.

b12n11w00t wrote:

If you've been having a lot of graphical issues with this...are you on an Nvidia card? Just curious because myself and a buddy are both on 1070 and 970s respectively while our other two buddies are on AMD cards and we were the ones having issues.

1070 and it automatically set my graphics to ultra and i've had next to no issues. FPS dips when driving sometimes, but beyond that been smooth.

I got an invite from w00t, thanks again.

I was able to play for a few hours on Veteran and mostly my impression mimics most everyone here. I think there is fun to be had, but you really have to ignore quite a few opportunities - AI, movement, sound, tension, etc.

I am hoping this is a fairly early build because I don't think it's $60 game with so many misses. I may end up getting it still for something to play with my son.

ranalin wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:

If you've been having a lot of graphical issues with this...are you on an Nvidia card? Just curious because myself and a buddy are both on 1070 and 970s respectively while our other two buddies are on AMD cards and we were the ones having issues.

1070 and it automatically set my graphics to ultra and i've had next to no issues. FPS dips when driving sometimes, but beyond that been smooth.

I also have a GTX1070, 16gigs of ram, i7 intel installed on an SSD running on a 144htz monitor and the FPS goes from the 80's up in a helicopter to the 30's driving around in some locations to 60-70 standing still overlooking the map. We didn't get drivers from Nvidia yet and as the optimization comes last I'll forgive the 50fps differences for now.

Certis wrote:

Why are the locals cool with a crew of geared up maniacs driving around their region in broad daylight killing people? It's called Ghost Recon. Where's the ghost part?

I've been thinking about this and a really fantastic Ghost Recon game would be a team operating in a country where no one could know you were there. You'd have to keep a low profile and not trust anyone outside your contacts. When on an operation no one could see you, not even a civilian. Any missing or dead civilians would be investigated. That could be a very different and compelling open world.

Hedinn wrote:
Dakhath wrote:

Huh, I sent the invite but it said you hadn't accepted my friend request

I don't see a friend request pending.

It's Hedinn-GWJ on uPlay, btw.

Weird. But thanks for trying at least! :)

I had sent it to: Hedinn
Guess that wasn't you, huh? Sorry, out of invites at this point.

I think after a a specific period of time, if the key isn't entered, it's reset and you can resend it to someone else.

whispa wrote:

I think after a a specific period of time, if the key isn't entered, it's reset and you can resend it to someone else.

48 hours. Which the beta will probably end.

Dakhath wrote:
Hedinn wrote:
Dakhath wrote:

Huh, I sent the invite but it said you hadn't accepted my friend request

I don't see a friend request pending.

It's Hedinn-GWJ on uPlay, btw.

Weird. But thanks for trying at least! :)

I had sent it to: Hedinn
Guess that wasn't you, huh? Sorry, out of invites at this point.

That's ok, thanks anyway!

I accepted your friend request, so maybe next time!

If the squad mechanics were just a tiny but more robust this would be a fantastic game single player. I don't mind my fellow squad mates being fairly autonomous most of the time but I'd like to position them and give them orders with more precision so I felt I was guiding their approach to combat rather than just depositing them in an area.

The ideal would be using the drone to select my squad mates individually and position them with an order to guard, target a spot, etc. You could even drag out a cone of fire from them to give them an area to watch. To me the squad mates are a weapon and, if used properly, I should be able to complete a mission just guiding them.

I tried elite difficulty (which didn't seem much different.) I didn't try the difficult above that. One of the reasons for a lack of tension in assaults is the marking. If you do it well you know where nearly everybody is all the time. Reinforcements that turn up are marked automatically. You can even use the marks as a sighting point for shooting people through foliage. On the higher difficulties I'd like the marks to fade away after a few seconds so you could get an idea of where guards are in a compound but, as you moved in, you'd be blind to their movement and positioning. Sync marks would stay.

Thinking of sync marks it would be interesting to expand the marks (may be an alternative control system for the squad.) You could have a mark for taking someone out with a knife, or removing a body or have a chain of marks to order one or two guys to work their way slowly through guards 1, 2, 3 and 4 as you worked elsewhere.

Higgledy wrote:

On the higher difficulties I'd like the marks to fade away after a few seconds so you could get an idea of where guards are in a compound but, as you moved in, you'd be blind to their movement and positioning. Sync marks would stay.

Thinking of sync marks it would be interesting to expand the marks (may be an alternative control system for the squad.) You could have a mark for taking someone out with a knife, or removing a body or have a chain of marks to order one or two guys to work their way slowly through guards 1, 2, 3 and 4 as you worked elsewhere.

I like this idea, it would add another layer of challenge.

Edit: Apparently, you can also find the following options In the gameplay options where you have a lot of freedom. You can turn of UI elements and configure turning off markers, mini map and enemy tags.

Mr Crinkle wrote:

Turns out if you jump out of the helicopter as the pilot, and hit your parachute, you can glide down while watching Escher spiral out of control and crash, unable to switch into the pilot seat.

Sold!

Spoiler:

Dick

whispa wrote:

Edit: Apparently, you can also find the following options In the gameplay options where you have a lot of freedom. You can turn of UI elements and configure turning off markers, mini map and enemy tags.

That's good. I think I looked for that option at one point and didn't find it.

Skill Up's thoughts on Ghost mode:

Plain and simple, AI needs to be a lot smarter and more consistent. That would sort out a lot of issues with difficulty. It would dynamically change the game in a good way. Also Cartel and UNIDAD should have different AI and tactics.
- Cartel should probably run the gambit of more brutal, aggressive assaults to a sloppy tactical response.
- UNIDAD should be more elegant and utilize a more disciplined, trained military response.

I think another big issue is corpse clean up. Corpses go away too fast. Sometimes AI will walk over their buddy's dead body and not get alarmed which I am guessing is an issue with the corpse being clean up, but not graphically yet.

Another good fix would be - Incoming reinforcements shouldn't be pinged on the map. Or if it is, then it should disappear quickly until they are much closer. I appreciate that they don't just pop in super close.

As long as they don't add more "HP" to enemies than the PCs have, I am okay. I think one of the worst things they could do is make NPCs bullet sponges. I like that a burst takes out most targets except the more armored UNIDAD.

ANyone set up a GWJ Task Force on ghostreconnetwork.ubi.com?

Do note, from the skills I looked at it seems like later on the AI might get better. That is the starter first zone it seems like with lowest difficulty.

I say this because if you look for instance at drone settings. All things to make it quieter get seen less, yet it was nearly impossible to get seen unless you ran into people with it. Makes me think that the AI will get better in the harder areas (at least I hope).

We were in a level 1 zone and only 4% of the map.

ranalin wrote:

We were in a level 1 zone and only 4% of the map.

Yeah, open world games are hard to demo/beta. Make it take place it in the tutorial area, people complain it's too easy. Make it take place in a high level area, people complain it's too hard or not intuitive or whatever.

Still, I think the 2nd option is better. Later in the game, the AI is supposed to become smarter and the player is supposed to have more tactical options. That's what you want to demonstrate in your "earlier access". If it's there at all.

First impressions are important and developers fail to make good ones with this kind of betas.

Well, hopefully, full game is better. Wait and see for me, no pre-order.

ranalin wrote:
b12n11w00t wrote:

If you've been having a lot of graphical issues with this...are you on an Nvidia card? Just curious because myself and a buddy are both on 1070 and 970s respectively while our other two buddies are on AMD cards and we were the ones having issues.

1070 and it automatically set my graphics to ultra and i've had next to no issues. FPS dips when driving sometimes, but beyond that been smooth.

Yeah the main thing I was talking about was was just issues with the co-op. Like characters falling out of helicopters on my screen but they're just fine on theirs. Just weird inconsistencies that were happening with us Nvidia peoples.

I did notice losing frames when driving as well but when I turned off motion blur it almost completely cleaned that up.

I had some weird full stop moments where the world would just pause for about 10-15 seconds and start up again. Not sure what that was about.

Besides the bugs, like Naterstein posted, I actually had fun with the beta. I do believe that the Ghost Recon name is wrong for this game. To me its more like Far Cry: Mercenaries or Just Cause 4. I played the first Ghost Recon and this is definitely not it. It's like Mass Effect 2 with giving orders to team mates with multiplayer. I might get this game on day one. I enjoyed doing a few missions here and there.

I really like how the guns feels. Played a ton of Division and its nice that enemies aren't bullet sponges. This beta kind of reminded me of the Division beta but with more bugs. I think there's potential here.

Hoping for major changes still, but this team of players really worked hard to make the BETA more tactical.

If the AI was to be overhauled and a few more mechanics ironed out to support their style of play, it would be pretty fantastic.

That was a good video. Shame my friends don't play that way.