[2019] [Megathread] Demo Feedback and Spoilers Update

Originally posted by Axel799

Maybe u/biocamden might have an answer for you my friend? Or perhaps one of the other devs

Originally posted by Bretsenking

u/BioCamden Wow tnx for answering and kudos for being so transparent, even if it’s not always the exact answer the community wants to hear!

Well, will be a hard choice then, but understandable as it’s a Demo ;)

Maybe I’ll create another EA account if I am desperate after a bad choice, but since the Demo is going to be overall less difficult, I don’t see that happening! Best dev team ever :D

Originally posted by Axel799

Once again you're the best dude! Thanks, I actually was really hoping to find out about this as well.

Originally posted by NexusPatriot

Holy crap... you responded, even though the answer is slightly disappointing.

I don’t think I have ever seen this before. Usually every response is specifically focused on PR. If it isn’t for the best, nothing is said. But you actually responded, even knowing that the answer isn’t something we may not be pleased with.

Listen, u/BioCamden, THIS is how you keep a healthy community. THIS is how you make a game. Not picking and choosing the parts that only benefit sales of the game, but telling us EXACTLY what the game entails so that we can make a justified purchase.

I despise EA. They’ve let me down far too many times with disdainful predatory practices and games of poor quality. They’ve single handedly killed Star Wars gaming.

I was interested in Anthem the moment I was aware of it, but of course, I saw the EA icon and immediately tagged out. However, BioWare is an integral part of my childhood. In an effort to at least stay updated on the game, I joined this sub two weeks ago.

Honestly, I am buying this game purely based on your existence.

I understand that once we are past a few weeks following release, you may not be able to be as active. However, I really, REALLY hope EA/BioWare, or somebody is able to give you some kind of time exception throughout the workweek to hop on here and grace us with your presence.

You’re a neat guy Camden. Right now, you are the heart of this game.

Originally posted by Axel799

That my good sir, is the real question! I can't decide between Interceptor and storm. I have always been an AoE caster player at heart no matter the game: WoW, Neverwinter, Elder Scrolls, you name it. But the Interceptor looks so flashy and cool, and I love the get in and get the hell out look of the play style. Send help, my mind is on overload lol.

Originally posted by ATG_Bot

Hey /r/AnthemTheGame,

The Demo is one day out (woot!) and we wanted to give everyone a central place to give their feedback for the demo specifically! This will allow the devs to more easily see and respond to your feedback and ensure that all answers regarding feedback on the demo can be easily seen by the community!

Also, in case you missed it, IGN streamed the Demo earlier today if you wanted to take a look at it before diving in! The thread for that is RIGHT HERE

Spoilers

As the Demo contains some important story beats, we've decided that its around that time to start to enforce our spoiler guidelines that we mentioned we established in our last State of the Subreddit!

All posts on the subreddit from here on out should have either a [Spoilers] or [No Spoilers] tag. If you're coming from any other Bioware game subreddit, this should be pretty par for the course for you!

Examples of good post titles

[Spoilers] What if Kim...

If you can't ask your question or make your statement without spoiling things, try and give an idea of what the question will be about.

[Spoilers] A question about Fort Tarsis

You can make references to character names and places, even if those places and people are presented somewhat later in a game, comic, or novel, so long as the information about those names and places is entirely contained within the thread.

[Spoilers] I loved the ending of Anthem so much!

There's clearly no details about the ending. If you make a post with a title like this, any spoilers from Anthem are considered fair game.

Examples of rule-breaking post titles

(no actual Anthem spoilers here)

[Spoilers] So Kim was really dead all along, huh?

Post titles which reveal something about the character that you can't learn very easily through regular gameplay, or reveal a major plot twist, are big no-nos. Also try not to make vague references or implications about the ending of games; "I just learned the HARROWING truth about Kim" in reference to the above post may also be targeted for removal. Even if you put the word "spoilers" in your title, you need to keep spoilers out of the title itself! See Rule #1.

[Speculation] The alien lifeforms are the real victims in the most recent gameplay video.

Speculation isn't one of our spoiler tags, and instead should probably be marked with something like [Spoilers]. Additionally, while this is clearly marked speculation, it also makes reference to content from a video, which not everyone will have seen or will want to see. Please don't make references to pieces or parts of promotional materials in the titles of your post.

xXx A question about CODeX ENTRiES... xXx /~/~/~/sPo1l3rZ!!!/~/~/~/

No tags. Please don't use extra symbols and characters for decoration. Just don't.

Examples of iffy post titles

[Spoilers] Speculation: Kim doesn't really need the XP

While this technically doesn't breach any of our rules, and is clearly marked as speculation, there will be plenty of users who may find references to characters or parts of the game within this context to be spoilers. Don't be surprised if people get frustrated or users ask you to mark things with spoiler tags. You won't be breaking the rules, but a better way to phrase that title might be: "Speculation about Kim and his XP."

[Spoilers]

This title doesn't tell you anything about what's actually in the post. Does it spoil something small in the beginning, or the big bad ending? Is it a question? Is it about gameplay? Is it about lore? Is it about the expansions? We don't know!

[SPOILERS][Leak] New screenshots from the Anthem Closed Alpha.

Your moral feelings about leaks and nondisclosure agreements aside, leaked content gets a high number of reports, and will often be automatically culled. Any and all leaked information is subjected to the strictest rules about spoilers, and zero references to any of the contents of leaked materials will be allowed in the title of a post. And to reiterate, any image posts which are spoilers must be marked NSFW.

When you should use [No Spoilers]:

Spoiler Tag It!	No Spoilers (content permissive)
Discussions	Hardware & Software issues
Plot Discussions	Game Mechanics, Builds, & Combat
Lore & Fan Theories	Easter Eggs
Q & As	Announcements

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If you see any content that is breaking the spoiler guidelines, please report it and us mods will slap them with the force of 1000 grabbits before anyone else can be spoiled as well!

Audio Feedback with /u/BioWareJer

Hey fellow Freelancers! The demo is going to go live soon (stoked!), myself and the audio team are looking for feedback. We welcome any positive or constructive feedback from all of you!

The demo doesn't contain our final polish pass or optimizations, but we are still hard at work on the numerous future patches that are coming trying to fine tune your audio experience.

Our goal was the deliver the most visceral, dynamic and responsive audio experience for our fans. We firmly believe iteration is the key to quality, so please tell us about your experience, and how we can make it even better!

Strong alone, stronger together!

-/u/BioWareJer

If you'd like to talk about your experience this weekend with Anthem's Audio, head on over to the Anthem Weekends Audio Feedback Thread !

Final Notes

Whether you're on the subreddit or roaming the world of Bastion this weekend, please remember to be nice to your fellow human! On the subreddit side of things, remember that downvote is not a disagree button and that if you don't like a post, reporting it is always the best way to get it seen by mods!

We're all super excited to get to experience our first^{Second but NDA} taste of the world of Anthem and can't wait to enjoy it with y'all. Don't forget, we're also on Discord. Join us, the grabbits don't bite!

Originally posted by Naurloss

Looks like your game doesn't work with multiple videocard in a PC. I've went through a lot of hoops trying to be able to start the demo and was only able to after I disabled the rest of my videocards excluding the main one. Can you pass that to your technical department so me and other people with multiple videocard wouldn't need to disable them to play Anthem?

Originally posted by cart3r_hall

Why is the A.I. so static and boring?

Originally posted by cart3r_hall

I was watching DansGaming's stream earlier, and virtually every time he went into an opening with multiple enemies, all they did was stand in the same position (minus some occasional shuffling around within a small radius) the entire time and shoot.

Even if there's a group of 5-6 enemies, they, as a group, stay rooted in place.

At one point he landed on a ledge than had an enemy. The enemy was on the very edge of the ledge, and was knocked down violently, but stayed on the ledge, partially floating over the edge while it was down. Then it stood up and just resumed the idle animation, completely unaware he was there. He hit it again, still idling, then he hit it again and it died.

EDIT: I just watched another streamer attack the same enemy in the same location, it's a quarter circle stone formation by some water with boulders in it in the area with the Scars and the waterfalls. Once again, even though he made multiple separate attacks up close against the enemy, it never even registered that he was there.

EDIT 2: Elite Scar Scouts in general just do not react to being attacked. They get shot, they recoil...then they just stand there waiting to be shot again.

EDIT 3: I mean, Hunters have jetpacks...and they always stay in one small area! Why on Earth wouldn't the thing that makes a big point of hurtling up in the air to get an advantage fly back and forth over the player, trying to stay clear of their gun while getting a good angle on the player? If the player is keeping up with them and whittling them down, why don't they try to fly higher to escape, or drop down then resume hovering to throw off the player? You have so many options, but you've used none of them.

EDIT 4: Players aren't being downed because of tactical errors, but simply because the air becomes too thick with bullets.

I have yet to see any of the hive creatures do anything other than just make a beeline for you.

I have yet to see any creatures actually try to act with any sense of self preservation when they're attacked by the player.

In general it's very underwhelming.

Originally posted by BrightlordByrhtnoth

• ⁠Javelins - everything looks and feels amazing. The weight of actions and fluidity of motion is next level.

• ⁠Gear - cooldowns feel just right. Really liked what was shown and eager to play with builds. Inventory and salvaging definitely needs quality of life improvements however.

• ⁠Creatures - would like to see some more obvious indicators of elites vs. the higher lvl versions of mobs.

• ⁠Flight controls - played on PC. Easily my biggest complaint. Spent a good deal of time trying to tweak but nothing felt as responsive as it should. Having three separate settings to tweak flight sensitivity, none of which are terribly well explained is probably something that should be streamlined. Seems strange that there is such a difference between the ground look controls and flying. The issues are magnified significantly underwater, where navigation was nearly impossible.

• ⁠Difficulty - most of the time, especially as colossus, the difficulty felt just right. Switching in and out of shield mode and making sure you are using your defensive cooldowns is critical to survival. Hitting the weak spots of enemies with properly timed abilities feels important rather than a novelty. However, Though it felt properly challenging overall, I never felt like the entire squad was in danger. Especially during boss fights, environmental hazards might make the players who don’t have main Aggro still have to play carefully.

• ⁠Weapons - loved all of the abilities, particularly the flamethrower and ordinance launcher. But was a bit underwhelmed with the actual weapons. The auto cannons especially look and sound awesome but seem to have such little impact and run out of ammo so quickly. Not being able to shoot sniper rifle without being zoomed in is a bit annoying, especially when using the Whirlwind. And please for the love of god let me reload while sprinting and falling :)

Super excited for release. Just need those flight controls fixed!

Originally posted by Giesler14

Hiya,

Loving the game so far and here are my thoughts on your points.

Javelins -

Animations - since the javelins are so bulky it’s sometimes hard to see what the animation is doing. Obviously you can see it but it’s not very pronounced.

I love the feel, each javelin definitely has a specific vibe to them and the fact that you can keep up while traveling is a huge plus.

On that note, running doesn’t really slow you down when you overheat so I like that aspect. I would say it’s a little difficult to stop mid-air flying especially when your trying to get an objective that’s in a hard to reach spot.

I’ve only played ranger and colossus. I think the ranger is great but I have some issues with colossus. First - he’s suppose to be the tank but his health with his mobility he can’t last in situations. I’m constantly running away to try and preserve health, I know he has a shield so that helps a bunch, but personally I just feel like he’s weak when he shouldn’t be. i love his damage, but I hate that his ammo is so low, I’m constantly running out of Ammo. I have the biggest gun of all the rangers but I only have a 150 max? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

Absolutely love the AI/Creatures and there’s been more than one situation where all hell has broken loose and it’s definitely a challenge.

As mentioned above, I think flight could be a little less clunky especially out of battle.

I think the difficulty is spot on especially since you can change the level from just normal.

For the weapons, I’d really like to see what I’m using my crystals on. Right now it just gives me the summary of the weapon but no stats. I’d like to see the stats before I unlock it so I know what I’m getting. For example a better gun for colossus since I keep running out of ammo so often.

Originally posted by Avera9eJoe

Hey! Wanted to give my word about flight controls. I see most of the other PC users are also echoing my thoughts so that is a bit of a comfort.

 

I found that turning can be very disorienting since your camera doesn't automatically center quickly like it does in most other games, or on console with a joystick. Because the camera doesn't auto-center quickly, I have to manually drag my cursor back to center in order to slow my turn rate enough to go the direction I want. Could "flight auto-center speed" be a possible option? It might give people some more control. I hope this helps!

Originally posted by Avera9eJoe

Awesome. And what a fast reply holy cow! As a funny note, has anyone in the office played Halo Online? I think the banshee controls are spot on for PC flight. I don't know if that's useful information to reference but I thought it worth a mention. Best of luck over there!

Originally posted by Ninjaruski

I've been running the Interceptor as a main since I unlocked it, and I have a couple of concerns.

First of all, the Interceptor is the Javelin that best fits my play style. In the Mass Effect series, I've always run Vanguard, mostly because I enjoy careening across the field like a giant blue biotic comet and getting in close. My thinking is that the Vanguard and the Spark Dash will fill the same function. For the most part, it does. However, there's some things that I'm not quite sure about.

• The spark dash launches in the direction of the javelin, not the camera or the crosshair, which means that I'm occasionally thinking that I'm targeting an enemy to be spark dashed, but end up going in a different (or opposite) direction. I've taken to pressing forwards before I spark dash which corrects the position, but I'd like to see the dash go in the direction of the cross hair.

• The Spark Dash also doesn't seem to engage enemies in the air. I tried Spark Dashing an enemy that was hovering and the Interceptor just went under them.

• The Interceptor has wet tissue paper armor. This is fine, as I think we can fix it with augments and inscriptions, but it raises an issue for the close quarters nature of the Javelin.

• Most of the Interceptors other abilities also function like the Spark Dash in that they aim int he directio of the Javelin, not the crosshair, which makes it hard to predict where an attack will land.

• The Interceptor's passive, the "move fast to restore shields" feature seems inconsistent in its activation (and should synergize with spark dash tbh). I don't know if it activates on boost, on sprint, or a combination of the two.

• The inconsistency in the health/shield regen makes any kind of "hit and fade" play style or fast moving from target to target in close with a shotgun very difficult because of the lighter armor. Hopefully this is something that BioWare will address right now, as it doesn't seem like the Interceptor's passives are functioning as intended.

• Melee feels smooth and precise, though it should also follow the crosshair. Another Freelancer pointed this out upthread somewhere, but the inability to have the melee follow the crosshair makes everything else that much harder on a javelin that relies on flow and being in the mix to get things done.

Originally posted by Cloudless_Sky

Been playing Interceptor (my intended main) and have a few thoughts around abilities and general Interceptor play.

• It's kind of a shame that Detonating Strike and Tempest Strike have the same animation. It's a great animation (and I love that it's different when airborne), it's just that variety is always nice. And I just like melee!

• I noticed with abilities like Spark Dash and Venom Spray that they target in the direction your Javelin is facing as opposed to where the reticle's facing. This kinda slows the flow of the Javelin down a bit. You wanna melee some guy to death, then dash to the dude you're targeting over to the right, but if you dash before you let your Javelin turn to face him, you'll dash to nothing in the original direction. Wraith Strike actually works how I'm describing.

• In a similar vein, I sort of wish the regular dashes were context-sensitive in the sense that they depended on the reticle. It'd be nice if you could strafe dash without a weapon drawn. Like, the dash animation is modified so that when you're looking ahead but want to dash to the side, you do a side flip rather than a leap that leaves you facing the reticle instead. Again, it's just about smoothing the flow of combat.

• Melee feels a bit unimpactful - not in damage, but in visuals (a change in the audio would help too). You're hacking away at things, but it looks like a knife through butter. There aren't really any "visual hit effects", like slash marks (the blade "afterimage" slash isn't the same thing), or a blood equivalent (I guess that might affect rating). It's sometimes not quite clear that I'm even hitting an enemy, besides a health bar going down.

• Detonating Strike says that the enemy explodes after 4 seconds. That doesn't seem to happen though, unless I'm misunderstanding. I know you can trigger it if you kill them before it expires, but it sounds like it's supposed to explode when it expires too, just less powerfully.

• Searching Glaive kinda takes a weird flight path and doesn't really feel like a glaive because of it. It seems to stay horizontal in flight, and changes in elevation will make it zip up or down depending. The Cryo Glaives stay horizontal too. I just think it'd look cooler and more convincing if their orientation and rotation varied in mid-air.

But for the most part I love how the Interceptor feels in terms of agility. The animations for jumping and flipping really make you feel like the most mobile suit.

Originally posted by Cloudless_Sky

Thanks man. I tend to heavily value how cool things look, so some of the feedback might be sort of "selfish" in that way, lol.

Originally posted by Avera9eJoe

Hm, one bit of feedback I might recommend for ads is using cover when they are low, or if they are making it more obvious? It seems like most of the time enemies will stand out in the open regardless of their HP. Would make them feel more alive. His comment wasn't that helpful so, I hope this helps too :P

Originally posted by Giesler14

Hi, sorry for the late response but I’ve been playing a lot more. Basically I’ve started to have my shield out for pretty much the whole play. This is to keep my health up since it doesn’t regenerate. I’ve pretty much just using the abilities from a long range and sniping.

So my two cents,

I like having the colossus as a long range javelin. However, I still think he needs a regen and more Ammo. I think the ranger has like 340 and the colossus only has 150.

I’d really like a colossus that can be up in the front lines. I know that’s not really the play style of anthem, but I feel like the other 3 javelins have the option of close and far range fighting. To me, colossus is really only effective at long range.

So ultimately adding a regen and more ammo would make me happy, but it’d be cool to see a close range tank.

Edit:

I think making colossus charge with the shield would be pretty great, it pretty much tells you that when you bring the shield out anyway. So instead of his ground bunch, have him shield charge.