Homefront - Catch all

Thumbs up to all those changes.

I'm level 42 after 18 hours or so of MP now, pretty good success rate (2.0 W/L, 1.65 K:D).

I really need to dedicate a night to playing through the campaign, sometime.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Thumbs up to all those changes.

I'm level 42 after 18 hours or so of MP now, pretty good success rate (2.0 W/L, 1.65 K:D).

I really need to dedicate a night to playing through the campaign, sometime.

That campaign is alright. You can beat it about three to four hours on normal. Now that I can connect to MP I will be playing it more often.

PC patch notes:

FEATURES

NEW FEATURE – DEMO URL
- A DemoURL can now be specified in the server playlist, this is used to indicate the location of stored demo files to user’s in-game (see the multiplayer options screen). A good practice for server admins would be to share the demo folder via FTP, this would allow users to grab demos of games they starred in, and also (very importantly!) allow users and anti-cheat authorities to download evidence for cheat reporting. Incidentally, it is now possible to dump all users unique steamID's from both in-game, and in-demos to the console or text file (this will make reporting abusive players and enforcing bans incredibly easy).

Improved Squad Based Gameplay
- Players will now re-spawn at a point nearest to the closest member of their squad.
- Squad mates will now be colored blue on the mini-map and full-screen maps.

GAME BALANCE
- RPG's now deal additional damage to HMMWV's
- Lowered m200 and m110 sniper rifle damages. The only 1 shot possible is now headshots.
- Flak jacket now has a lower BP cost, and a slight effectiveness buff.
- Diablo damage adjusted
- Weapon is taken out of ADS and accuracy decreases when jumping.

OPTIMIZATIONS & FIXES
- The Rhino drones weapon attachment was not being properly moved with the Rhino drone on dedicated servers, causing the rockets to fire incorrectly. This is now fixed.
- We have added some animation optimizations for large player games.
- Several UI related improvements were added for large player games .
- Fixed scaling text zooming on Battle Commander when opening up the battle chat or squad UI.
- Switched the buttons around on the load out rename confirmation dialog to better abide by conventions.
- Improved SLI/CrossFireX support.
- A few reported issues with WinXP 64 bit edition have been addressed.
- Improved menu navigation with analogue controls.

General Improvements
- User feedback for kicks and bans has been improved.
- The intermission lobby now displays clan tags.
- Text chat is now possible in the kill cam, spawn selection, and intermission lobby screens.

New Settings & Control Options
- EnableD3D10/11 is now accessible via the system settings menu.
- Mouse acceleration is now accessible via the controls menu.
- Mouse smoothing is now accessible via the controls menu.

Tkyl, are the gameplay changes going to carry over to console eventually?

Also, I assume the squad stuff is PC only? If not, I've completely missed a whole mechanic on Xbox.

MannishBoy wrote:

Tkyl, are the gameplay changes going to carry over to console eventually?

Yes and no. Yes, we are working on patches for the console that will fix several bugs, crashes, etc. as well as several balance tweaks. No, in that it won't necessarily be the same changes as the PC. The balance between the two systems is different.

Tkyl wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Tkyl, are the gameplay changes going to carry over to console eventually?

Yes and no. Yes, we are working on patches for the console that will fix several bugs, crashes, etc. as well as several balance tweaks. No, in that it won't necessarily be the same changes as the PC. The balance between the two systems is different.

Thanks.

So are these changes out there now and does Steam automatically update? Reason i'm asking is that i'm seeing a very reduced server list when i goto pick one and the lowest pings are triple from what they used to be.

I think the servers need to update. I tried to play last night and couldn't connect to them.

The PC patch dropped yesterday, I believe.

Ya Steam updated because i got on a server and all my keybinds had reset. Still the pings are god awful for me now. I'm not able to play reliably till the lower ones update i guess.

If anyone is interested I put my review up on me blog (got a link in my sig). Bottom line: well, I didn't play any of the multiplayer, so my opinion is purely based on the campaign. That said, I actually liked it. This is the first modern warfare shooter I've enjoyed since CoD4. So go Kaos.

Is there a GWJ community playing this on 360, by chance?

I'm still playing it when other people don't tempt me to play BC2. I know a couple more people on my friends list from here are playing, but I keep missing partying up with them, or sometimes don't feel comfortable barging in to parties that also have people I don't know in them.

I'm on almost every night. If anyone wants to play just send me a friend request.

Tkyl, any idea when we may see new maps? I love this game but the maps are starting to get a little old.

Finished the single player last night. Overall it felt like a B+ 'Red Dawn' mod for Half-Life 2, and by that I mean I enjoyed it a lot, and would have taken another three to five hours of campaign, gladly.

I beat the SP on normal tonight. It picked up a lot after the third mission (of seven), so it's kind of a shame that the first three are a bit rote. The last two were particularly awesome.

Stingy bastards, though! Only 145 achievements after I'd beaten it, and that was with 25 for mastering a weapon in MP.

I'd like to believe I'll play through again on Guerrilla for achievements, but the game seemed kind of cheap on Normal - I can just imagine the hardest setting. I also just organized my 360 Pile of Shame and it's 8 games, one Enslaved DLC, five Vanquish challenge maps, and four Borderlands DLCs deep.

Honestly, the game's campaign felt like it was just there as a sort of add-on to the multiplayer, which is the sort of thing that always pisses me off.

I've always been curious whether developers of competitive shooters make the multiplayer maps first and then graft a campaign on, or build the campaign first and then cut out sections for multiplayer. I'd assume the former.

Neither way bothers me as I enjoy both aspects. Multiplayer more, though. I prefer my single player experiences in third person.

Blind_Evil wrote:

I'd like to believe I'll play through again on Guerrilla for achievements, but the game seemed kind of cheap on Normal - I can just imagine the hardest setting. I also just organized my 360 Pile of Shame and it's 8 games, one Enslaved DLC, five Vanquish challenge maps, and four Borderlands DLCs deep.

It is quiet cheap on Guerrilla. I finished it the other day. I wish I hadn't gone that route, but once I started, I had to finish it. It wasn't fun.

It's probably in the same league as a CoD on Veteran, yes?

I'm always amused that the AI on the hard setting is better at shooting me than actual intelligence. It arouses some concern for the inevitable robot uprising.

Blind_Evil wrote:

It's probably in the same league as a CoD on Veteran, yes?

I'm always amused that the AI on the hard setting is better at shooting me than actual intelligence. It arouses some concern for the inevitable robot uprising.

Not exactly the same thing, but close. It was actually more consistently annoying and it actually felt cheaper. Where, say, Black Ops or MW2 had a couple of nasty spots and a lot of grenade spam.

IMO, Halo seems to do the right thing on difficulty. Reach rarely felt undoable to me on Legendary Solo.

Tigerbill wrote:

For anyone getting it used for the 360, I will have a spare code in a few days. I rented it on launch day and liked it enough to pony up for the stupid code (I know I enabled them to keep doing that crap), and then bought it new on Amazon.

Tigerbill do you still have a code? I'd appreciate you letting me have it if you do.

Played the campaign in a sitting (very rare for me) and mostly it was diverting enough but very short. A lot of the comments in the thread I agree with: very annoying to have to wait until the angry man shifts a fridge for me to get on with the next section, very linear, throwing a grenade looks laughable.

I had a queasy feeling about the out and out dehumanising of the Korean forces: shooting parents in front of children, killing innocents as reprisals for dissent and filling mass graves. I think the occupation of the country would be enough motivation for the game without piling all that on so deep. Naff.

I have a used copy so my MP experience is limited but I've enjoyed it. I played a lot of ground control and with base weapons and perks I get on fine. The mix of vehicles seems to work well and none of them are too overpowered. Driving a tank looks ridiculous when you come to a clanking halt on a fence but you get used to the limitations. I have had a couple of games where my team couldn't get out of the spawn area but that seems rare. Snipers have not been a big deal but it is sweet when you find a roost near their base and you can knock them off one at a time.

Not impressed with the sound. Everything sounds close and so there is a constant crowd of noise and you can't hear the direction of people nearby or walking up behind you (good for getting the snipers).

yregprincess, you've got mail.

Tigerbill is a gentleman.

yregprincess wrote:

Tigerbill is a gentleman.

Cookies or bacon are the best way to say thank you.

IMAGE(http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRbQ72hvK_eUft22pNOtQbq0YVMzjIPZXIoGBhx3g3mbVVAvQO5VA)

Just wanted to let people know, as it was finally announced today. We will be releasing an MP Demo for Homefront.

Tkyl wrote:

Just wanted to let people know, as it was finally announced today. We will be releasing an MP Demo for Homefront.

Glad to hear this because I can see myself putting a bit of time into the MP but even now I've not had any problem finding a game.

Tkyl, when you say we I take it you have been working on the game. I hope you didn't work on the grenade animation or I will feel bad. Did I mention I liked the MP?

yregprincess wrote:
Tkyl wrote:

Just wanted to let people know, as it was finally announced today. We will be releasing an MP Demo for Homefront.

Glad to hear this because I can see myself putting a bit of time into the MP but even now I've not had any problem finding a game.

Tkyl, when you say we I take it you have been working on the game. I hope you didn't work on the grenade animation or I will feel bad. Did I mention I liked the MP?

Yes, I did work on the game. I'm a graphics programmer for Kaos Studios. But please, don't feel like you have to temper your opinion because of that. Feel free to praise or blast Homefront as much as you want.

Tkyl, I'm surprised you are open about your involvement on a forum page of all places. I mean you are brave to put yourself in the place where somebody somewhere will inevitably hate what you have worked on and that always hurts. This is a relatively civilised site and I suppose the risk of getting targeted grief is low. Aren't you tempted to try and argue with some of the crap people write about your baby?

I've got to ask. Do you play the game after it is released or can you just not face looking at it again after the hours you put into it already?