[2020] Post-Patch 2.1 Feedback

Hey guys! The last time I shared feedback for an update was after Patch 0.5, so I thought I'd drop in and do it again for Patch 2.1. To give a little bit of background info about me: I've been playing Hyper Scape on PC (M&K) since the technical test and have ~300 hours in the game.

First and foremost, I want to thank the devs for being so communicative and transparent with the community. You don't often see this level of open engagement in other games, and I feel that it's important to remind everyone not to take it for granted. It's reassuring from a consumer perspective because it facilitates communication. Whether it's on twitter, reddit, discord, or even in-game (devs are around streams/play with players all the time), the level of interaction makes me feel like I can give an opinion and feel heard.

Anyways, on to the patch notes~

CONTROLLER CHANGES

More controller layouts are good, but you can't please everyone.

• While additional layouts are great, it would be beneficial to everyone if players could just fully customize their binds. This is because custom controllers exist and will continue to give an advantage to those who have them. You also wouldn't need to worry about not being able to please everyone with the various layouts if they could just create their own. M&K players are also able to fully customize binds. The reason I'm addressing this is because during the beta, I struggled with having to hold shift to sprint, and while it was a seemingly small issue, it was still a nuisance. I can't imagine what it would be like coming from a different game and being forced to use a potentially entirely different layout due to a lack of customizability, and that's on top of the fact that Hyper Scape is already a difficult game for most to learn. The fluidity of controlling gameplay can make or break your performance in Hyper Scape, so improving player comfort with these kinds of features is important. Glad to hear that the FOV slider is on console now, though!
• Suggestion: Add fully customizable binds to controller.

HALLOWEEN

Nighttime Neo Arcadia is amazing.

• The map change was one of the things I looked forward to most after asking about it on the Q&A. I really hope you consider keeping it in the future as I feel like it brings the map to life.
• Suggestion: After Halloween, have every lobby take place during a randomized time of day so we could see maps during the day, evening, and night. Or maybe have the time of day change dynamically throughout the match. Seeing the environment light up progressively as the sun starts to set would be amazing.

The Candies are a great addition.

• Being able to instantly regenerate small amounts of health makes it easier to jump back into action without having an overwhelming game-changing impact.
• Suggestion: Candy canes for Christmas? :)

CROWN RUSH (SOLO) WITH SECOND CHANCE

• Adding the Second Chance feature was a really good idea. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting a while to get into a game only to get eliminated early on. It adds a deathmatch-like feel to the BR, and helps make low-populated lobbies feel a little fuller.
• Suggestion: I would definitely consider keeping this as a permanent feature in solos if it isn't already. It might be a good idea to consider adding a maximum number of re-deployments to deter reckless decision-making as it could be an issue if ever there are solo elimination-based tournaments in the future.

DARK HAZE (SQUAD)

Dark Haze (Solo) was a 'splode-fest.

• This isn't out yet, but I remember when the Dark Haze (Solo) LTM was in the game and the meta was heavily geared towards explosives (most people ran Salvo + Mine).
• Suggestion: I'm not sure what the limited roster is this time around but I would hope that there is a lesser focus on explosives and more on just close- to medium-ranged weapons like the Mammoth, Ripper, Hexfire, and Harpy. Salvo/Komodo/Atrax spamming would be very overwhelming in a close-range LTM like this one, especially in squads.

WEAPONS

The high skill ceiling is what drew in your most passionate players.

• The raw movement mechanics and mobility hacks, in addition to the (near) hit scan accuracy of guns, gives Hyper Scape a high skill ceiling that sets it apart from other BRs. The ability to consistently hit shots, make quick decisions to engage/disengage, predict enemy behavior patterns and react to an incredibly fast-paced environment is what differentiates a good player from the rest. These aren't easy things to do, and as expected, players who were skilled in these aspects due to playing other fast-paced or aim-intensive games excelled almost immediately, allowing them to dominate the scene early on. Similarly, those who took the time to critically analyze their performance and put in the effort to practice also got better. In the end, these players are the ones who truly enjoy and continue to play the game while many others quit because they either a) refused to keep dying to "sweats" until they got better or b) plateaued and didn't know how to get better.
• So what does this mean? It means that the people who were willing to adapt are the ones who contribute to the great community Hyper Scape is known for. I'm talking about the ones who consistently advocate for the game, organize community events/tournaments, make montages, create guides/tips/tutorials, and despite all of the negativity, continue to capture the best moments to share on Twitter that you retweet. They may not make up the entirety of the playerbase, but would you rather improve the number of people who are passionate about the game for all the right reasons that make it unique, or the number of people that rely on instant gratification to play and are more or less likely to quit anyway once the appeal wears off?
• Suggestion: Consider extensively nerfing explosives and the D-Tap as it really doesn't help anyone in the long run, and avoid using overpowered noob-friendly weapons as a means of making the game more accessible. I understand the efforts in growing the playerbase, but buffing explosives and lowering the skill cap in order to to do so is not the way to do it if it's at the expense of losing the dedicated players who stuck around when no one else did. If the efforts fail, you've lost the qualities that kept those players around in the first place and in the end, there will be even fewer of them left.

Give a player a kill and you'll keep him for a game; teach a player to kill and you'll see him in the next one.

• Some people will go the extra mile to figure things out for themselves, but all in all, given the right resources, people are willing to learn and get better. Take Fortnite as a prime example. People struggled with building at first, and a lot of them quit while some players took the initiative to adapt in whatever way they could (just practice building with limited resources during a real game). Building was a completely new mechanic that no one had ever heard of, and not everyone knew the most efficient way to get better at it. Then, Fortnite released Creative mode where players could freely practice for hours on end with unlimited resources. What happened? The overall skill level of players skyrocketed. Any changes they made to building in an effort to make the game more accessible to new players did not hinder the experienced ones, and in the end, EVERYONE got better. I use the same analogy when explaining movement to new players in Hyper Scape. People don't realize at first just how important having good movement is in this game and how much practice goes into getting better at it. They think it's as simple as "don't stop running and sliding" and then get disappointed when it doesn't work and they die.
• Suggestion: Instead of making the game easier with explosives, the focus should be on providing new/struggling players with resources to get better. If someone has subpar aim, you shouldn't make it easier for them to hit shots - instead, help them improve their aim. If someone has subpar movement, you shouldn't slow everyone else down - instead, help them optimize their movement. Like most of the "sweats", you learn just by playing the game and learning from others who have already figured it out. I think that the best way to go about this is to continue actively encouraging and promoting guides like this community-provided tips and tricks video by suhnody. A lot of new players seem to think they'll get better if they simply get carried by good players, but unless they're getting tips along the way, they won't improve. New players benefit more from actually learning how to pull their own weight. I'm not saying to introduce a Hyper Scape creative mode, rather...

A compact deathmatch mode where players can quickly respawn with a pre-set loadout will help players improve quickly by effectively increasing the amount of time spent in-game and decreasing the amount of time in the lobby.

• I've seen the teasers regarding a TDM mode, and in my opinion, that sounds AWESOME and is definitely a step in the right direction. Done right, I can almost guarantee that it'll be more popular than the BR. Why? Because people love Hyper Scape for its aim and movement mechanics, especially once they get the hang of it. This is why the "sweats" love the game so much - it's because they're good at it, but weren't spoiled in the process to get there.
• The recent increase in downtime due to small lobbies/prolonged matchmaking may also explain why new players seem to be improving at a slower rate compared to during the beta. Back then, lobbies were full and relatively more time was spent (getting better) in-game than just sitting in the lobby waiting for the next match. Like a lot of people, I struggled with the mechanics when I first started playing, but the quick restore system allowed me to get back in ASAP and that helped me practice more with minimal downtime.
• One of my first impressions of Hyper Scape as a game was that it had constant action, and it was great. Especially from a streamer's perspective, it was nice to not have to worry about dying early and being forced to spectate as long as my squad was still alive. Downtime is the worst because viewers get bored and leave, or complain until the streamer switches to another game. I noticed this was especially the case whenever an influential streamer played Hyper Scape and encountered game-breaking bugs or were eliminated because of something they had little control over.
• Suggestion: When the deathmatch mode is implemented, remember to preserve the aspects of Hyper Scape that players enjoy, that is, constant action, minimal downtime, high mobility and plenty of opportunities for counterplay. It's OK if new players are eliminated quickly by experienced players as long as they can get back in right away (low respawn times, pre-set loadout). They WILL get better, but NOT if they are spoonfed easy kills with overpowered explosive/auto-aiming weapons. It might be funny at first and amusing for a little while, but it quickly gets old and just ends up frustrating everyone, new and experienced players alike. I'm assuming the demand for killcams will be even greater in deathmatch modes so that might be another thing to consider.

Regarding other weapon changes...

• I'm on M&K so I can't comment on the AA changes, but I'm curious as to why there's a focus on increasing the value of ADS. I think that most people would agree that hip-firing just feels a lot better than ADS 99% of the time, so I can imagine that controller players would feel the same way.
• The damage falloffs were much needed and are fine. The Hexfire/Dragonfly underperformed relative to other weapons so the buffs to those are also fine (for PC, at least).

PLAYER HEALTH

The health regen trigger delay and rate is WAY too long and slow.

• I don't think I can emphasize enough just how much this negatively impacted the pace of the game. Not only has survivability dropped tenfold, even if you win a fight, you're stuck hiding for half a minute with low HP because third-parties are inevitable. It wasn't explicitly mentioned in the patch notes so I could be wrong, but the rate of the health regen also feels significantly slower than before. The health regen delay and rate was perfectly fine as it was.
• This change certainly created more opportunities to conclude fights by an elimination, but that's just another way of saying it reduced the opportunities to evade fights through counterplay. The issue is that having more opportunities for counterplay was GOOD. The potential for counterplay in Hyper Scape is high because of the quick health regen and high mobility. Now it's really just about who gets shot first, and with the overpowered explosives and overly nerfed defensive abilities, disengaging at low health and surviving long enough to regen to full health is incredibly difficult. You can go invisible and get revealed twice before your health even starts to regenerate. I like to think that I have decent movement, and it worries me because I know that new players are going to struggle with this. Hyper Scape officially has slower healing than Modern Warfare and Fortnite and with how fast-paced this game is supposed to be, this is definitely not fast.
• Suggestion: Revert to the previous trigger delay (5s). If you really think that a trigger delay nerf is necessary, change it back to how it was before at 10s with an increased rate then have players start regenerating health 5s after an elimination/assist. The time between engagements should be minimized, not increased, especially if the first engagement has already concluded with an elimination as the delay just results in unnecessary downtime. This allows the winner(s) of a fight to recover quickly in the event that a different squad or player arrives to third-party.

HACKS

Heal is now obviously NOT a choice.

• Assuming you can even disengage far enough to use it, Heal is simply not worth taking as it is easily destroyed by weapons and explosives. The rate is also so slow that you have a better chance of surviving with more mobility. Heal was good because it stacked with natural player health regen and continued to heal even when player health regen was interrupted, meaning you could sit on a Heal while getting shot at.
• Suggestion: Revert the changes and add a penalty to the rate of healing (e.g., use the patch 2.1 values) if the player recently received damage within the last 5 seconds. That way, Heal can be utilized at its maximum potential at the same time the player's natural health regen kicks in, with a reduced potential if used in the middle of a gunfight.

Not everyone uses the Invisibility/Invulnerable combo.

• It makes sense that players running double defensive hacks are difficult to kill. Why? Because they're running double defensive hacks at the expense of mobility. Players running double mobility hacks are difficult to chase. Why? Because they're running double mobility hacks at the expense of defense. I understand that it can be frustrating to play against invul/invis - when I run it I can feel the frustration of people chasing me and trying to take shots between uses. However, when I'm the one chasing someone and they know how to utilize their mobility hacks, they're able to disengage to a point where I can't even TRY to take shots at them at all. It's a give or take with both pros and cons, which is why most players use a combination of both. Nerfing these abilities because they're good together ruins it for players who only use one.
• Suggestion: Revert the duration changes to Invisibility/Invulnerable. Categorize hacks (e.g., mobility, utility, or defensive) and add a 1s global cooldown to all hacks of a particular category upon use. This means that if you have two hacks of one category, you must wait 1s after the conclusion of one before using the other (unless you fuse a hack - this should continue to reset the cooldown completely). This penalizes double mobility/utility/defensive combinations without affecting mixed combinations.

With regards to hack changes, I also wanted to re-iterate something I mentioned previously in my pre-patch 0.5 and post-patch 0.5 feedback because I think it applies now more than ever:

Rework abilities to balance them rather than modifying just the numbers. Nerfing the cooldowns and durations of abilities won't fix what makes them broken. (...) This entails, but is not limited to: making [Invulnerable] breakable with a maximum duration, adding temporary visible tracers to players who are tagged while Invisible, briefly reducing the effects of Heal if damage is taken, and scaling the damage of Slam to be based on how high you slammed from.

OTHER SYSTEM CHANGES

• Player rank threshold changes are good, however they seem too dependent on the sizes of lobbies. Perhaps a relative ladder system with a minimum lobby size to qualify as a ranked match and the requirement of a full squad could be more beneficial. On a side note, I don't think the ranking system should be prioritized at the moment.
• Loot system and deployment speed changes are great!

If you made it this far - thank you for reading. I hope I was able to provide some valuable insight in one way or another. I love Hyper Scape and really want to see the game succeed. I have faith that the right changes will be made eventually and that things will turn around for the better. :)

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