Category: Playstation

Playstation, PS4, Video Games

My experience with ranked smite on PS4

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Only played 8 games of ranked conquest on PS4.  Broken down the divisions with ELO according to smiteguru.  Sample size is small but noticed small worrying trend which hints towards small player base.  General experience has been okay however average player appears take the game pretty serious.  Willing to admit made this mistake however given advice to players tried to make call outs.

So far ranked has been mixed bag with matchmaking failing to see why I should play it. Noticed that kept making some simple timing mistakes.  Communication is massive in smite without it can be impossible to judge when to do something.  Matchmaking appears to be work mainly on ELO over divisions.  Some toxic members within the community make me not want to play it thank you hate mail message.

Wards – Unicorns

Still don’t understand why players see these items as worthless.  Can count on my hand how many times seen people use them in ranked.  Only seen one or two players buy wards over course of game.

 

Breakdown of each match.

 

Game 1 – Victory

My team

Bronze 6 ELO 1,334

Qualifying

Silver 5 ELO 1,306

Bronze 3 ELO 1,298

Qualifying

Other team

Bronze 2 ELO 1,351

Silver 6 ELO 1,332

Silver 5 ELO 1,459

Bronze 1 ELO 1,292

Qualifying

 

Game 2 – Defeat

 

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,561

Gold 6 ELO 1,578

Silver 6 ELO 1,390

Silver 3 ELO 1, 4,68

Silver 3 ELO 1,471

Other team

Silver 3 ELO 1,409

Gold 5 ELO 1,527

Gold 3 ELO 1,652

Silver 6 ELO 1,447

Qualifying

 

Game 3 – Victory

Invited to party easy ish win even with strange team comp.

My team

Gold 5 – ELO 1,539

Qualifying ELO 1,481

Qualifying ELO 1,499

Qualifying ELO 1,650

Silver 6 ELO 1,535

Other team

Silver 3 – ELO 1,423

Silver 6 – ELO 1,328

Gold 5 – ELO 1,539

Qualifying

Qualifying ELO 1,529

 

Game 4 – Defeat

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,600

Silver 6 ELO 1,292

Qualifying ELO 1,456

Gold 2 ELO 1,646

Qualifying ELO 1,370

Other team

Silver 5 ELO 1,345

Silver 2 ELO 1,495

Bronze 2 ELO 1,470

Gold 5 ELO 1,456

Silver 1 ELO 1,556

 

Game 5 – Victory

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,543

Bronze 3 ELO 1,264

Gold 1 ELO 1,729

Silver 2 ELO 1,306

Gold 6 ELO 1,649

Other team

Silver 2  ELO 1,566

Silver 2 ELO 1,398

Qualifying ELO 1.433

Bronze 1 ELO 1,407

Bronze 1 ELO 1,543

 

Game 6 – Defeat

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,522

Gold 5 ELO 1,441

Qualifying ELO 1,570

Silver 5 ELO 1,398

Bronze 2 ELO 1,397

Other team

Gold 6 ELO 1,648

Silver 6 ELO 1,275

Silver 2 ELO 1,289

Bronze 3 ELO 1,360

Qualifying ELO 1,672

 

Game 7 – Defeat

And hate mail saying get good noob which is always useful.

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,488

Qualifying ELO 1,940

Gold 1 ELO 1,787

Gold 2 ELO 1,759

Silver 5 ELO 1,348

Other team

Gold 1 ELO 1,798

Silver 3 ELO 1,798

Silver 1 ELO 1,648

Silver 3 ELO 1,518

Gold 5 ELO 1,737

 

Game 8 – Result defeat

14 kills to 39 kills

Sort of obvious we could not win yet vote to surrender would not pass.

My team

Qualifying ELO 1,453

Qualifying ELO 1,550

Qualifying ELO 1,345

Qualifying ELO 1,435

Silver 3 ELO 1, 535

Other team

Gold 1 ELO 1,688

Qualifying ELO 1,137

Bronze 2 ELO 1,300

Gold 5 ELO 1,623

Gold 2 ELO 1,749

Playstation, PS4, Smite

Smite inefficient builds – Janus

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Key to better play within smite is understanding even the smallest mistakes.  Building inefficiently can cost you the game without you noticing.   Building items at the wrong time can reduce your power tie up gold in items not pulling weight.  Art to building gods within smite which takes time to master.  Playing as Janus last night had the following matchup Apollo, Janus and Bellona against Ah puch, arachne and Skadi.   Two physical gods and one magical god.

Ah Puch –  Great burst damage with good clear at any stage.

Arachne – Great at boxing with poor clear

Skadi – Great at boxing with poor clear.

Knowing that information helped shape the final build choices before starting the game. Scoreboard shows you opponents builds should shape your build.  Arachne started to build costly crits and Skadi went with standard hunter start.  SKadi turned out to be non issue but still going to be looking at the build.  Let’s review my opponents builds and see what happened.

Arachne

  • Deathbringer – 1st item
  • Stonecutter
  • Warrior boots
  • Malice
  • Bloodforge
  • ASI

Ah puch

  • Reforced shoes
  • Chronos pendant
  • Bancroft’s Talon
  • Breastplate of Valor
  • Spirit robe
  • Warlock slash – Last item

Janus – #1

  • Boots of magi
  • Breastplate of Valor
  • Chronos pendant – Inefficient
  • Void Stone – Inefficient
  • Rod of tahuti
  • Bancroft’s Talon

Only penetration coming from boots is inefficient, opponents building magical protections would make me worthless.  Chronos pendant does not give me enough power to make it worth it.   Void stone suffers from the same issue and Ah Puch not doing enough damage make it worth it.  Final items late game power can be traded around or switched for others.   Overall inefficient on two items could built better against that matchup.

Two builds could have followed….

Hard carry mage #2 – 657 magical power, 33% penetration,  -20% CDR, protections physical 135, magical 30.

  • Boots of magi
  • Breastplate of Valor
  • Book of Thoth
  • Obsidian shard
  • Rod of Tahuti
  • Soul reaver

Balanced #3 – 511 magical power, 33% penetration, 30% CDR, protections physical 175, magical 70.

  • Boots of magi
  • Breastplate of Valor
  • Book of Thoth
  • Obsidian shard
  • Spirit robe
  • Rod of Tahuti or winged blade

Comparing builds 

#1

Magical power – 481

Penetration flat 10

Protections

  • Physical 135
  • Magical 80

Cooldown -40%

#2

Magical powe 634

33% penetration

-20% CDR

Protections

  • Physical 135
  • Magical 30

#3

Magical power 511

33% penetration

-30% CDR

Protections

  • Physical 175
  • Magical 70

Build #1 had 153 less power compared to #2, 30 less power compared to #3.   Gained more magical protections, 10% reduction on cool down.  Less penetration reducing the damage output even further. Trade off is not worth it given the current matchup.

Conclusion

Original build was inefficient lost out on 30 damage and 33% penetration.  Inefficient when comparing the other options on the table and matchup.  Series of small mistake but damage adds up over time.  Other builds are far more efficient.

On that note why not end with some music

 

Call Of Duty, CoD, Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Black Ops 3 Weapon Tuning

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Recently Black Ops 3 has been updated with some weapon tuning.

Little bit confused why some of the tuning was done against some obvious balances issues. Studio is using various bits of data to make choices collecting player feedback have some faith given current meta. Treyarch has done decent job overall but issues between classes in my mind.  What do I know end of the day not very much only have small minor opinion.

Light on real numbers again but that normal for most studios.

Given some information which can be found here Weapon tuning

Normal sources should have the real numbers within couple of days/weeks.

Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Rainbow six siege open beta first impressions

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Rainbow six siege open beta first impressions

Ubisoft have released open beta of Rainbow six siege newest rainbow six game.  Marketing material featuring shorter game but full title is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is the full title name.  Tom Clancy’s Rainbow series started in 1998 last game I played was back in 2005.   Never any good at the game never put serious hours into it.  Do have some experience with rainbow games but very minor.

First impressions…..

Hello tactical first person shooter with higher than average skill ceiling compared to many other shooters.  Can’t see myself enjoying the title without some friends but does hold some promise. Willing to forgive Ubisoft for the server issues game is playing smooth as butter at the moment. Played one or two rounds with AI yet to go online likely to tonight with group of friends.  Game is reporting 22ms ping to the data centre.

Overall good first impressions do like the design of the menus so far and overall look of the game.

Never been a fan of tactical shooters due to playing solo most of the time.  Little curious what else this studio has done….

Planetside 2, Playstation, PS4

Magrider – Thoughts

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Magrider – Thoughts

Recently been playing loads of planetside 2 getting much better feel for the game as a whole.

You can find my various thoughts on the game listed under planetside category pretty big faults with the game.  Core of the game can be rather fun at times even with these faults helps put off new players.  Faction of choice Vanu Sovereignty playing on Ceres European Playstation 4 server. Vanu Sovereignty faction get various benefits with specialist vehicles along with weapons. Main battle tank is called Magrider Vanu get an hover tank.

Admitting my hate now love

Willing to admit that I hated the Magrider at first for various reason I could not make the tank work and would die.  Took me hours to work out how to use it along with upgrading it.  Could be I gotten better with time or something else but I did serious hate it that much I was thinking of switching.   Leaving the Vanu over one vehicle was bit silly so decided to keep at it.  Soon I found started to love the thing with my results improving.

Comparing tanks

New Conglomerate Vanguard – Best armour strongest main gun but cost of speed and acceleration.  Vanguard special ability activation of an tank shield base health is 4,000 but shield adds 2,000 on top for 6 seconds.  Defensive style of tank which is designed to bust up armour. 

Terran Republic Prowler –  Opposite of the Vanguard fastest top speed, quicker reload time lower protection due armour resistance.  Offensive ability anchored Mode lower reload speed higher projectile speed.

Vanu Sovereignty – Magrider – Takes traits from both takes combining both of them into one tank. Main gun 2nd highest damage mobility to match it armour wise middle of the pack.  Mobility does not equal matching prowler speed instead does better job hill climbing.  Unlike the other tanks limited by tracks can move side to side.  Main turret requires whole tank to move in order to aim result front is always facing your target.  Turret does have the lowest arc in the whole game meaning you can hit other tanks before they see you.  Downside comes with slow reload speed and velocity.  Magburner does give you major boost in speed for temporary period of time.

Okay it looks rather bad for Mr average.  Does nothing great just does everything average apart from one or two minor things.

Mr average?

Mr average in many respects with some serious downsides fighting other tanks head on results in death. Vanguard rips you to pieces with sheer damage, prowler burst damage is high enough to win.  Magrider must exploit lack of mobility getting behind taken by surprise you can burst down the other tanks.  Extra mobility over the environment with stealth allows you to win.  Against lighting tanks you can exploit the mobility or take them head on.  Still risky to take on lighting head on unless it the skyguard platform.

Below are some examples from last night….

Example 1

Magrider hides within an valley fires to the hillside which somebody tank. Vanguard follows magrider into valley after being hit. Magrider moves up the valley edge firing down on vanguard main gun can’t aim high enough to hit the magrider.  Vanguard pops the shield trying to escape dies seconds later.

Running stealth allows the magrider to get into positions like the one above. Driver of the vanguard should have avoided that situation.  Vanguard may have better armour with damage potential but can’t do much against burst damage with extra mobility.  Vanguard would been harder to kill from the hillside but still facing quite a task against the magrider.

Example 2

Magrider located to side of the road hidden behind the hill. One lone prowler racing ahead on the road is attacked by the magrider from behind. No cover for the magrider apart just open road. Prowler turns the turret to face the magrider who dodges one or two shots. Hit from behind by the magrider the prowler dies.

Example 3

Vanu has an armored column moving forward hits another armored column.  Main battle tanks start firing on each other Vanu are dodging shots keeping distance.  Small group of Vanu try to flank around using armour and heavy assaults.   Magriders flanking around weaken the armour letting the front armour finish them off.

Combined elements of the magrider allow the Vanu to win. Head on the tanks suffer but that mobility keeps them alive just a bit longer.

Example 3 front armour is best option with stealth being used on the flanking force.  Best results of the magrider requires you to exploit using the environment with some sort of element of surprise.  Vanu main battle tank is rather versatile allows you to burst damage but glass cannon compared to the other tanks.

Weapon velocity

One of the roles I told about with the Magrider was being able to snipe vehicles long range using hill climb to be annoying. However….the main guns suffer from Low weapon velocity.  Combined with bumpy nature of the main gun which is worse on console.   You can provide support from further ranges but not a fan of that play style myself.  Can be very powerful hanging back just at the outsides of one of the big battles.

Gunner

Benefits of the gunner can’t be underestimated for starters it provides you with much need extra awareness.  Extra damage is just the bonus that awareness which helps the most.

High entry barrier

Magrider is just works better with upgrades some of the best ones are upgrading your weapons followed by tank upgrades.  Default main weapon is okay, secondary gunner you get light machine gun which is average.  Very useful against people trying to C4 you but against other tanks no.

Pros and cons

Pro

  • Mobility – allows you to get to places no vehicle can go…
  • Middle ground – Middle ground in everything
  • Low turret arc
  • Versatile

Cons

  • Lack of straight line speed
  • Average armour
  • Low weapon velocity
  • Solo reduced damage output
  • Poor vision – , Low FOV, can’t turn your camera due to being turret based.
  • High entry barrier – Cert investment with cons
  • Weak against infantry

Sooooooo…

Magrider looks on paper rather bad however in practise the versatile nature combined with tactics means you can do some serious damage.  Front armour is good for moving with the zerg, stealth is good for flanking.  You can hill climb to avoid fire or hide on hills to rain fire down.  Not sure which upgrade is better racer or rival.  Overall I would say the tank good but does have high learning curve.   Still think Daybreak games should buff the main turrets so they have fastest velocity in the game given reload speed makes sense.   Instead of forcing one playstyle I taken the best of both worlds being aggressive defensive so attacking when it suits me.  Tank suits my playstyle aggressive flanking with some clever tactics over sheer force.

Battlefront, Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Star wars: Battlefront first impressions

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Star Wars Battlefront beta first impressions

The Star Wars: Battlefront Beta is live on Xbox One, Ps4 and PC beta runs from 8th October to 12th.  Given access to game modes walker assault, drop zone and survival mission.  Rebels and Imperials fight within lore inspired battles.

The Good

  • Visually stunning Star Wars inspired.
  • Easy to pick up

The Bad 

  • Vehicles
  • Random power ups
  • Lack of variety
  • Voice acting

The Ugly

  • UI does not fit into art style
  • Partner system
  • Power ups
  • Lack of server browser
  • Vehicles
  • Uninsipred static gamemodes

Game is not bad just brings nothing new, core mechanics are simple with extra mechanics being random.  Can’t see the game lasting that long based on the design don’t think that was the point.   No desire to pick up the game based on what I seen at full price.  List is rather vague going to fill out the whole thing at later date.

Fun but have no desire from myself to play more of it on my own.

Feedback, Planetside 2, Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Planetside 2 feedback/solutions

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Below you can find my feedback for Planetside 2 with solutions.

Now ranked 32 on planetside 2 so put some time into the title so far.

List of feedback:

  1. Spawn points
  2. Squads
  3. Squad UI
  4. Tutorial
  5.  Faction population balance

 

 

Feedback: Spawns

Problem:

Spawn point is destroyed player spawns some place else

Solution:

Let the player pick the spawn point

Feedback: Map UI

Problem:

Spawns points disappear with unclear what bases are spawn points.

Solution:

Add icon showing which bases are spawns

 

Feedback: Squads

Problem:  Can’t see other squads on the UI or near you, allow players to team up with other squads by displaying near by squads.

Solution:

  • Display other squads on the map
  • Make it easier for squads to team up with VOIP improving the UI so it more obvious. No need to add players.

Feedback: Joining squads

Problem: You need to be invited to squad to join it.  Also can’t join up with outfit members unless you’re friends.

Solution:

  • Allow players to join friends without an invite
  • Allow players to join an outfit squad

 

Feedback: Tutorial

Problem:  Game Tutorial system is currently basic does not teach players the core gameplay mechanics.

Solution:

  • Add video tutorials
  • Add test area which acts as a Tutorial for new players, this could be within the starting base. 

 

Feedback:  Faction population balance

Problem:  Faction population

Certain factions can have far bigger populations against the others.  No reward for underpopulated factions.

Solutions:

Population based bonus for underpopulated factions.

Certification points

  • Bounty hunter bonus against overpopulated factions
  • Flat bonus in earning certification
  • Flat reward of certification for taking part in alerts

Battle cash

  • Bounty hunter bonus against overpopulated factions
  • Flat bonus in earning certification
  • Flat reward of certification for taking part in alerts

Re spawn time

  • Increased re spawn time for overpopulated factions during alerts
  • Increased general re spawn time for factions

Nanites

  • Increased time to earn nanites for overpopulated factions during alerts or general
  • Decreased time to earn nanites for underpopulated factions

Sharing character information

  • Sharing the same pool of certification or level or unlocks

 

Call Of Duty, CoD, Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Black Ops 3 Beta Final thoughts

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Black Ops 3 Beta Final Thoughts

Call Of Duty Black Ops 3 has made some pretty big gameplay mechanics changes. Movement system has been changed again. Advanced warfare took movement system allowed a huge amount of freedom impacting the metagame. Combat along with travelling the map faced with massive changes. Movement freedom is scaled back in favour of a much more controlled pace. That said movement still plays a role but is far more tactical in use. Map is designed to use the movement system with certain routes being options. Movement allows for sliding once more with wall running added. Mechanical the movement has been redone from the ground up with physics changed and new limits put in place.
Advanced warfare worked on PC but movement did not work on console black ops 3 Treyarch has reached a happy median.

Lets take a look at the movement system.

Wall running – One button wall running with you able to fire when running.  Based on map design so far let’s players travel around choke points and avoid lines of sight.

Boost jumps –   players to boost in whatever direction even when moving.   Black ops 3 stops players from being able to move apart from a limited number of directions.

Slide – Returns pretty much unchanged

Forward momentum is another change from Advanced warfare which did not have any forward momentum at all.  Of course could be wrong given how I did not play that game.

Changes to the movement system means the game feels much closer to older call of duties and more natural. Movement system is easier to learn but hard to master. Rest of the game is rather much the same as past titles from a design point of view and gameplay mechanics. Call of duty also has dedicated servers along with listen servers.  Weapon balance wise is better however does have some issues but Treyarch appear to know what they are doing.

Weapon balance assault rifles are king however SMGs still have a place along with LMGs and other snipers.  Shotguns have quite good spread which are balanced with lower range/damage feels better compared to BO2.

Hope Treyarch can find the best balance between weapon classes right now assault rifles are too strong.

Metagame appears camping is best option and could see E sports being quite good.

Can see this title being frustrating but that standard for call of duty.  Watching out to see how the xbox version beta goes and PC version.  Do have some complaints about the title but looking forward to the single player along with zombies.

Game can be random at times but is rather fun.  Was going to avoid this Call of duty game however this beta has changed my mind.

Call Of Duty, CoD, Feedback, Playstation, PS4, Video Games

Black ops 3 specialists missed opportunity and balance issue?

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Missed opportunity when it comes to the specialists characters in black ops 3. For starters art style of each one is rather close to each other. Apart from the cyborg ones which sort of stand out but can still blend into the environment.

Impossible to tell the difference between each one at a distance.  Important information to know what sort of specialist you’re facing or what weapon.

From a design point of view also think becomes a missed opportunity gameplay wise. However I can understand why they have limited the power of them just like killstreaks they are very powerful tools.

Rejack is an gameplay mechanic which was removed from the game a couple years ago but has returned.  Allows the player to revive with health back to 100.  Many people have been saying this ability is overpowered however I think they are missing the bigger picture.  Rejack is a passive ability most of the other abilities in the game are something you need to activate.   Here a break down so you get the point…

Requires activation

  1. Gravity spikes – Offensive
  2. Overdrive – Defensive
  3. Sparrow – Offensive
  4. Vision pulse – Defensive
  5. Tempest – Offensive
  6. Glitch – Defensive
  7. War machine – Offensive
  8. Kinetic armor – Defensive
  9. Annihilator – Offensive
  10. Combat focus – Passive
  11. Ripper – Offensive
  12. Scythe – Offensive
  13. H.I.V.E. – Offensive
  14. Psychosis – Passive
  15. Active camo – Passive

Does not require activation

  1. Rejack – Passive

Glitch is very close to rejack but requires the player input in order to make use of it and rather situational.  Rejack success may be situational but the activation is not.  In game which you die so fast you want a reward which you’re likely to use.  Worth pointing out that only situational use for rejack is for you to die. Worse still every second counts if you’re wasting your time trying to kill somebody who should died 100ms ago you’re putting yourself at risk. If anything Rejack is going to become overused over overpowered without a doubt far more powerful situational abilities.

Annoying, frustrating as a gameplay gameplay mechanic no doubt.

Rejack is not that good but better compared to the other abilities.

Problem is they tried to make specialists have limited impact on the game not to over shadow perks or killstreaks but rejack is versatile.  Other abilities are far too situational for the average player.  As a result they have created something which is going to have quite a big impact on the game.

Still don’t view it as being overpowered just far more versatile compared to the others.

As for solutions….

I think they need to go back to the drawing board coming up new versatile abilities which react with certain perks or items within the game.  Giving every specialist a passive power and one which can be activated.  Of course I could be wrong with this but would be nice to see specialist impact the game more.

Not 100% on what the best solution would be when it comes to this…and just goes to show you how hard game design can be.

Worth pointing out that gameplay mechanics should be a two way street so the player using it should feel powerful but the player used against does not feel helpful.  Which is why killstreaks have been nerfed if anybody was curious that part of the reason why.

Credit to Treyarch however for making it obvious when somebody is using compared to some others which not obvious until you’re dead.