Tl;Dr - OPINIONS ABOUT THINGS.
So, the game is over-all amazing. Really enjoying it, though between work and getting sick as shit for a week I haven't had the time to do dig into it like I had hoped - yet.
There are some little disappointments that I feel like NRS could , and hopefully will, some with a patch before too much longer has gone by..
1. Ranked should have an option (default imo) for FT3 sets instead of a one-and-done. If a player wants they can bail after the first match, but the option to play should be there.
*2. KOTH and non-ranked matchmaking should have the option to disable gear entirely if you want. I should be able to create a Comp Mode KOTH that follows all the rules of ranked matches and I should be able to queue up in regular matchmaking to search for exclusively gear on it gear off opponents depending on what my preference.
3. I think boxes should open faster, or there should be a way to open several at a time.
* - I'm guessing the idea behind the current system is to keep from further separating the player base between gear on and gear off. In theory, any community segregation can be detrimental to the game and should be limited within reason (ie Ranked and Normal matchmaking modes segregate the community but it's an important separation) but I feel like the current default to gear, you have no choice, is a bad way to go about it things and is/will cause far more harm than good.
Those are my minor niggles with the game that I feel like will be ironed it in time. NRS very likely planned for them to be different from the get-go in all honesty, since they, at least to me, seem like glaring omissions.. but perhaps budget and time constraints meant they were among the features that were shelved for the launch build, and we'll see them implemented in a future patch.
My one REAL complaint though, is the extra ability system... I feel like we are staring at an astoundingly large wall of potential that isn't going to be tapped, and will in effect, be wasted. It's two-fold though, NRS would have to change some things and we as the competitive community, would have to accept the slottable abilities in a tournament setting.
It's actually kind of crazy that so many people have just screamed NO THATS DUMB NO and walked away from the discussion instead of taking the time to think things through.. this is an enormous opportunity if handled correctly. It feels to me like if we had gotten MKx and said "ok cool, but you can't use variations in tourney, just vanilla version of each character.. because the moves of one variation might be unbalanced or too strong"
So, how do we handle it? Well, it has to start with NRS. They have to curate the slottable abilities in to two catagories, Competitive and Fun. Competitive abilities would be designed and implemented by NRS with balance and competitive play in mind. This is no different than balancing anything else.. and anyone who thinks the workload behind all that balance would be impossible.. MKx had three variations for each character. We accepted and dealt with the balance changes and such in that game, I don't see why it's such an impossibility here. After the curation and separation of abilities, NRS implements a "Tournament Mode" that when accessed, unlocks and makes available all competitive mode abilities for every character. When you choose your character and lock him/her in window pops up that let's you choose your ability (s). There should be a short timer on this. 10-ish seconds. Most characters aren't going to have more than a few of these so choosing shouldn't take long. As people do it more snd get used to it and have preferances and such they will likely be choosing these abilities so quickly the 10s timer will be pointless. It will take 1-3 seconds.
Now, we as the community, would just need to add a couple simple tournament rules to this and we'd be fine. First, winner is locked in to abilities just like they are character. Second, once you choose your character and lock him in, that is your choice for that match. No backing out from the ability screen to try to counter pick it mess with anything. Third, we as a community just accept the damn system. Some abilities are going to be s little OP. But ya know what? Some characters are going to be a little bit op as well.
I mean, we have the potential for a system here that can add ENORMOUS variety and customization and tactical flexibility to our game. Allowing players to really express their style of play and who their character is and the system if handled correctly could act as a buffer against extremely bad MUs or make a winning MU more-so, or change s character's gameplan significantly. There is so much potential here for variety and difference it's wild. I'd hate to see it just founder in obscurity as a tiny piece of the game the competitive community totally ignores.
The trick here is NRS creating moves with the right mindset though. Slottable abilities shouldn't be "better" than stock moves, they should be different. They shouldn't be designed to always and automatically replace certain moves, or be so good they are 100% auto-losing vs everyone (though that's bound to be the case in a couple instances) they should be designed to change the way a character plays, whether that's to totally change their style or to shore up a hole in a bad MU , help cover a general weakness in some way, or further solidify an already strong tactic..
Anyway. This has been ridiculously long. Just how I feel. We as a community have been to old and cantankerous for our own goods here imo.
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