I received a free code from watching a Twitch stream of the devs playing. I am getting wrecked! I may just wait till season 1 starts to not "waste" progress. Any tips on a good starting set of characters?
Amphora is the best character in the game right now, and she's a good all rounder with no major weaknesses. I think she's due a nerf soon though since she's frequently complained about.
Kayi, Topnotch and Blastbeard are other good picks in terms of their potential. Blastbeard is especially good on the megarocket mode where you have to capture the point. Topnotch is a good all rounder with fairly easy to use attacks, definitely recommend him, though he can get pressured fairly easily by some of the more aggressive characters.
Plink I would stay away from as he has lower HP than the other characters, so if you aren't used to being evasive you'll likely get wrecked quickly. Boone is pretty hard to be effective with since he has no good movement options, no team utility and only so-so damage... Mysteen is very hard to play because her projectiles are simply very hard to hit.
Basically, try out Amphora, Topnotch and Kayi and see if you like any of those.
I feel this game is terrible and the characters move way too slowly.
When describing it to friends, I say it's basically a slow version of Smash Brothers with items turned on.
Mostly due to how you win / have to ring out people and have to damage them to do it. A bit reductionist, sure, I'd agree that it is, but it's still the quickest way to explain it to them.Weird take. While it takes inspiration from Smash for its damage system, it plays nothing like it.
I feel this game is terrible and the characters move way too slowly.
When describing it to friends, I say it's basically a slow version of Smash Brothers with items turned on.
Probably, yeah. My main issue with it just revolves around how so very slow the speed feels and survivability when getting double / triple teamed. I basically want to be able to move faster and for dodge to have a shorter cooldown.You can equip artifacts that make movement a little faster. The only time I feel like it's slow is if I spawn on the opposite side of the map from where the action is - but, usually there are booster pads or ways to traverse that'll get you over there quicker. If movement was faster the arenas would probably need to be larger to compensate.
Mostly due to how you win / have to ring out people and have to damage them to do it. A bit reductionist, sure, I'd agree that it is, but it's still the quickest way to explain it to them.
It sure as hell is closer to Smash than it is to Rocket Arena from 20-25 years ago :).
It is, though.I mean the core mechanism of interaction is the same as Rocket Arena, in that it's a shooter wherein you move your crosshair across the screen and fire to interact with the opposing players. So it's inherently closer to Rocket Arena, than it is to Smash, just on that principle of its interaction design alone.
I think your comparison obviously just paints the game very negatively. Because folks that really like Smash, often prefer items off because of various gameplay implications that items have. So describing it as Smash with items on, is not only reductionist, it misportrays the game as something that has those negative traits of Smash with items. Specifically, slow paced Smash brothers with items on would receive a lot of criticism because of the way that items work in Smash, they're randomly distributed.
So when you say it's 'slow paced Smash with items on' it conveys Rocket Arena as a RNG fest, wherein players don't have a meaningful influence over what happens in the game. But that's not Rocket Arena at all, Rocket Arena is a very skill-based, accuracy intensive shooter.
It is, though.
You pick up crates. You don't know what's in the crates. They're RNG. All of the items themselves seem pretty well-designed, but when I grab a crate, so far as I know you don't know what's in it ahead of time unless I missed something (VERY POSSIBLE admittedly :) ). Some crates even have mega gifts which definitely seem like even more RNG.
You try and damage people and get them to a point where they can be knocked out of a ring. You're not fragging them, you're trying to ring out them. They can even accidentally ring out themselves if they mess up.
You get artifacts which can increase damage and movement speed. These are character based and require leveling up. You do this by playing the individual characters and the artifacts seem to need to be equipped to level up. XP is not shared among characters. A level 50 character is probably going to be doing more damage / moving faster than the same character at level 1, which we experienced on day one.
I actually do like the maps....they're my favorite part of it, but the slow speed is just killing it for me beyond mucking around on it with a party of friends.
I think at the minute, at least on console, anything that upped the game speed would make it very difficult to actually kill anyone. It's already not that easy to hit folks, especially with some of the weapons in the game like Mysteens or the new characters, and then you also have a lot of escape abilities that give players an opportunity to reset back to full HP.
If you were to up the games movement speed, you'd need to reduce the time to kill.
In any case, the game was in beta for over a year, and this is the time to kill and game speed that they settled on. I really don't think they should be changing the game speed, or time to kill at this stage in development. There will be a large group of people that would lament the changes. The only games I can remember where the developers sought to make large system changes to things like speed and damage are games like Battlefield 5, and Uncharted 2, and if you look back how those turned out... those updates were resented by the community.
It ultimately doesn't matter if you think it's the right, or wrong decision to make those kind of changes. At this stage, the game will have an audience of players that like the game for what it is, and if you turn your back on those players in pursuit of the players that aren't that interested in your game... you'll end up with no audience at all.
The crates have pretty good items in them. I've actually killed people with the bomb, I've used the magnet to protect myself from shots. They do have a decent impact on the game. I can only imagine if people get good / coordinated with trip wires. If they're not random in ranked, that's a good thing for ranked.But those crates, aren't the main means in which you interact with the opposing players. I wouldn't even say they're a big influence. Crates are infrequent pickups that generally don't have a huge impact on the game. Plus, in ranked play these crates aren't random at all, they're fixed pickups that are dotted around the map.
I don't think you understand the artifact system either, artifacts can only be taken up to level 3, which doesn't take too long at all. A character that's level 50 won't be doing more, or less damage. But aside that, artifact levels are only factored into unranked play. In ranked play, all artifacts have a set boost and these are all unlocked for all players.
1st point. This is just straight up objectively wrong. I have about 40+ hours in the game so far and I have been on plenty of teams where I have won single handidly because I was going for the items. I can get the ninja headband which drops my dodge cooldown to 1 second and it increases the range. That item alone is extremely crucial. Such as items in smash. So this is wrong.But those crates, aren't the main means in which you interact with the opposing players. I wouldn't even say they're a big influence. Crates are infrequent pickups that generally don't have a huge impact on the game. Plus, in ranked play these crates aren't random at all, they're fixed pickups that are dotted around the map.
I don't think you understand the artifact system either, artifacts can only be taken up to level 3, which doesn't take too long at all. A character that's level 50 won't be doing more, or less damage. But aside that, artifact levels are only factored into unranked play. In ranked play, all artifacts have a set boost and these are all unlocked for all players.
1st point. This is just straight up objectively wrong. I have about 40+ hours in the game so far and I have been on plenty of teams where I have won single handidly because I was going for the items. I can get the ninja headband which drops my dodge cooldown to 1 second and it increases the range. That item alone is extremely crucial. Such as items in smash. So this is wrong.
2nd point. This is just a weak argument. Yes someone that has a level 50 player is objectively going to be a better player whether they actually are or not because of the artifact system and how it functions. There are artifacts that straight up make you do more damage and recover faster. How is that not giving them an advantage?
3rd point. Who is jumping into a new game and thinking man, I really need to start playing ranked? Ranked may have the items not be RNG and may have the artifacts at a similar level to all the other people playing it but then the issue comes down to oh, it levels up what I have in my load out. Well I don't have the artifact that increases damage unlocked but the guy who is a level 50 does. So he again has an advantage over me. This is insane to think that its more balanced when its not. ( I haven't played ranked, because I didn't think I need to bother with ranked in this game.) But even then if does give everyone all the artifacts in ranked? why not just do that period? In not doing it you alienate the new player that goes in to a casual match and gets wrecked by the level 50 who has more time. As an adult I see that I don't want to bother, as a kid, my nephew sees that and he goes back to fortnite where there is no inherent advantage other than skill.
I will say this as someone who actually spent money on the game and told his friends to buy it so we can play it together. The game is fun. It NEEDS a TON of improvement first of being player speed, second most important being balance.
As Bizazedo said. It's literally 3rd person shooter smash bros, in 1st gear, with items.
Items are absolutely a defining part of the game, if they weren't, they wouldn't be in ranked, and overall as a whole they just wouldn't be there unless you were to host a custom game or join a game mode with items. Period. And you can say that saying its smash with items is a shallow understanding of the game, but its a comparison. God forbid someone else use a reference point to impress upon someone a frame of reference. Or should I quote your original post where you say its overwatch smash and quake?1st point, yes an item can be influential, but they aren't anywhere near as influential as they are in Smash. An item can single handedly kill someone in Smash, and they often stack with players having multiple items at any one time. The items that are available here only compliment your core abilities, none of them can take you from 0 to kill, or anything like that. Moreover, they're not applied to the game in the same way, aside the bomb, items aren't projectiles, they don't disrupt the playing field and send everyone flying. I don't see how their application is anything like Smash.
2nd point. I didn't say anything about whether a level 50 player would be more or less skilled, or more or less effective as a result of their personal ability. The poster I replied to was talking about the damage benefits they could get as a result of their artifacts. I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Whether or not someone that has 10 hours experience on a character or 1 doesn't make a big difference. I for instance play all the characters, and I have a level 7 amphora, yet my amphora is still usually way better than most 30+ amphoras, it doesn't mean much at all, and that number you're referring to has no direct impact on gameplay.
As far as the artifacts increasing damage go, yes they do have an impact, but that's in casual matches.
3rd, I didn't say everyone should play ranked. But the casual mode, is for fun, it's okay to allow randomised elements to have an influence on the game, but I think it's farfetched to suggest that items are the defining influence. Casual is for casual play, where there's no skill based matchmaking and no stakes. Because there's no SBMM, the winning team here is almost always going to be the whichever team happens to have better players (usually the skill gap between teams is huge in casual), matches are very rarely matched so closely that items are going to be the determining factor.
Whatever though, if you want to reduce the game down to 'smash with items on' and that's helpful to you, then go nuts. I think it reflects a shallow understanding of the game personally, but we all have different views on different experiences.
The artifacts give a player who has played longer an advantage over a new player because they have them levelled up and they give benefits such as causing more damage and faster recovery and however you try to turn this into a "no it's not that big of a deal," let me inform you that those two alone are the ENTIRE point of the game.
But why play ranked? I want to play casual not inherently at a disadvantage, thats my pointeveryone has access to all fully-leveled artifacts in ranked though
But why play ranked? I want to play casual not inherently at a disadvantage, thats my point
In a world where I can play warface and have everyone start off on the same playing field in standard play, and fortnite and apex starting everyone on a same playing field, and even older examples of arena shooters like halo that starts everyone levelled in casual play. In this game you start at a disadvantage unless you've played before, not accounting for skill obviously
Gamers never should have happened. lolyeah i don't like it either, i'd prefer the cosmetic-only csgo or dota model, but i understand why they do it. at least it preserves the integrity of the ranked system.
developers feel games need progression or else people with mouse-brain instincts don't feel like they're being "rewarded" for the time they're putting in. even apex players complain that they're not getting rewarded because they have almost nothing to spend legend tokens on
Gamers never should have happened. lol
I'm posting all this stuff btw as someone that likes this game and there's a lot of potential to it, I want it to succeed, but it needs to be in a better place
I do the same, I have my character looking how I like and I check my stats right before match end anyways. But then again im like that in literally every shooter.yeah...after every game of rocket arena there's all these bars that fill up (thank god there's a SKIP ALL button) and i really don't give a shit about any of that
Whatever though, if you want to reduce every criticism of this game down to "items aren't crucial, speed would make it tougher to kill people" and that's helpful to you, then go nuts. I think it reflects a shallow understanding of the game personally, but hey, we all have different views on different experiences.
As Bizazedo said. It's literally 3rd person shooter smash bros, in 1st gear, with items.
Jeez couldn't be anymore condescending or demeaning if you tried. Thanks dude. I'm good. Keep defending the game. Not worth my time.For perhaps the 4th time across two posts you've misquoted or misrepresented something I said. I didn't ever reduce any criticism of the game down to 'items aren't crucial', if we want to talk about items and their role in the game, that's fine, I was just debating the point that this game is - again, in my view - very far removed from Smash Bros.
I don't mean to be impolite, but it's truly difficult to speak with you when you're not following along.
For example, at the end of your previous post, you have this...
That wasn't what he said, or what I took issue with in the original post and yet somehow this became the basis of your argument? He wrote that it was a 'slow version of Smash bros'. How does that align with what you wrote above? You're persistently arguing against a perspective that no one has expressed, in one direction or another.
Not only did you reply here putting words in my mouth, you even distorted someone else's post. It's very difficult to discuss anything with someone that simply isn't reading the material put in front of them. I don't know if it's intentional, but honestly it makes it hard to talk with you.
In any case, I'm not disagreeing that they give a player an advantage if they've played longer, but I am saying that that advantage is relatively small, and given that it does not apply in ranked play, it's of lower consequence. When something is on the line, everyone has access to the same artifacts. This is similar to something like Injustice 2, where you have regulated and unregulated matches. In my view it enables folks to have fun with their equipment and feel rewarded for playing.
The reason I was saying it doesn't matter if you're level 50, or level 10 is because artifacts are not levelled up per-character, they are per-account. So you can be level 1 and have level 3 artifacts. I think you seemed to misunderstand my point here. Artifacts do matter, but I don't think they're overly influential, but character level does not necessarily indicate anything meaningful.
It's also worth noting that you actually start out with three very helpful artifacts maxed out. So even if you don't change your artifacts, you're not terribly disadvantaged. Let's say you encounter an amphora that's changed her supercaviator to unstable canister... up to 10% damage increase on shots depending on blast meter. So lets bear in mind that amphoras primary shot deals 40 damage when fully charged, you're looking at 40-44 damage per shot. Even if you had this ability at its maximum, she would still need 4 direct blasts to kill her target, you'd have to use all three damage boosts, and proc them, to have any real difference in her time to kill. The artifacts like unstable canister and boom bit, are far less impactful than they might seem at first glance.
As far as items go, I don't disagree that they can be impactful, but I think in casual games where items are randomly distributed, you are not losing/winning games on items. I don't think the item distribution is determining the outcome of the game. Unless your team is getting completely destroyed, you'll be getting a fairly even distribution of items, and most of the time, these items are not going to make or break a combat encounter. And for those that want something a little more competitive, the ranked mode turns this into a fixed powerup mechanic, something that I don't think is without note.
Jeez couldn't be anymore condescending or demeaning if you tried. Thanks dude. I'm good. Keep defending the game. Not worth my time.