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[Techies]

Free Weekend incoming !!!
7-11 Augustus.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/246700/

Example of a Challenge Map and rotating environment.
http://a.pomf.se/pcxhxi.webm

Firestorm 1st person:
http://a.pomf.se/gsvrtw.webm

Outdated GIF nowhere near 60fps

Youtuber playing Strike Vector
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_DzMXg3_n4#aid=P-ioxVbeGes

Pro Player (ranked number 1) playing Strike Vector
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFRIut22Nz4

Pro Player abusing Swarms (which have been fixed)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpzEz9QwvaE

Servers Currently Available:
http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/3300318630180829438/8DEE8470D0CB9EF832B47B5712D322C56639E3C0/

PS. I know the OT could use some improvements. Help me out

 

[OminoMichelin]

I just bought this, I'll DL and try it tomorrow. I hope it's half as fun as it looks.

 

[jediyoshi]

I really liked flying around solo. Could never find a match I didn't lag out in during testing ]:

 

[Pinko Marx]

Was looking at this and thinking pureeeetty hard about buying it.

 

[chrominance]

Did they fix the server browser? Last time I tried playing this I'd try to connect to a server that had players, only to be connected to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SERVER that usually had no players because apparently only idiots like me pay $20 for an indie multiplayer game.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

It's a great looking game, but I found it really hard to play.

 

[Techies]

Did they fix the server browser? Last time I tried playing this I'd try to connect to a server that had players, only to be connected to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SERVER that usually had no players because apparently only idiots like me pay $20 for an indie multiplayer game.

Server browser fixed long time ago.
Stats and Level reset fixed.
Swarm fixed and nerfed into oblivion (RIP )

Most major bugs and issues have been squashed. Bunch of servers are up, actually seeing the first full 32 player server filled up to the max in ages.

This sale is very welcoming, gonna last till the 16th April, hopefully can build up the playerbase enough so that more games will be available at more timeframes. There's quite a dedicated bunch playing atm. It's about bloody time people take notice of this game.

The challenges gonna make it much more easy to get use to the game now, although you will still get maps like these:

That was taken a few minutes ago, that map is pure evil for the inexperienced (heck even the experienced tend to crash on that map)

Anyways 32 player warfare going on probably for the whole weekend.

 

[chrominance]

I just got on the default server. Holy crap I forgot that hitting ANYTHING will kill you. That was a really awful design decision. When over half the people on the winning team have negative kill counts, you know your game is fucked. Oh, also, the second challenge requires you to use a speed gate down a narrow tunnel and you will die a lot trying to do it. I assume that challenge is there to force people to learn how to fly without crashing into things, but all it does to me is illustrate how easy it is to die in this game doing things that normally wouldn't matter at all in other games of its type.

Though, to be fair, maybe I'm still bitter about whoever told me this game would be like Descent. It is NOT like Descent. It's not anything LIKE Descent. If you buy it thinking it might be like Descent you will be incredibly disappointed.

 

[jon_dojah]

I just got on the default server. Holy crap I forgot that hitting ANYTHING will kill you. That was a really awful design decision. When over half the people on the winning team have negative kill counts, you know your game is fucked. Oh, also, the second challenge requires you to use a speed gate down a narrow tunnel and you will die a lot trying to do it. I assume that challenge is there to force people to learn how to fly without crashing into things, but all it does to me is illustrate how easy it is to die in this game doing things that normally wouldn't matter at all in other games of its type.

Though, to be fair, maybe I'm still bitter about whoever told me this game would be like Descent. It is NOT like Descent. It's not anything LIKE Descent. If you buy it thinking it might be like Descent you will be incredibly disappointed.

You can go full speed towards a wall or structure and as long as you hit the button that transforms you into hover mode you will not destroy your mech. I've tested this a bunch and though its possible its really hard to get your jet to explode if you go into hover mode even a split second before a collision. I thought the devs were genius for designing it this way as you always have a safe feeling of the environment no matter how fast your going.

 

[Black Door]

The challenges gonna make it much more easy to get use to the game now, although you will still get maps like these:

I'm guessing GG is a dev or something. Looks like this game has quite the learning curve.

 

[Techies]

I'm guessing GG is a dev or something. Looks like this game has quite the learning curve.

The maps are rated via skulls that one has 5 skulls, great thing about this game there's a wide variety of maps and each one plays completely different.

Problem with that particular map is people try and take boost via the fan tunnel, that tunnel is curved and the fans rotate, but that takes some serious control. They also don't know that if your in Vector that won't get the boost.

Also note [GG]Whoracle, that guy is the best Strike Vector player in the world atm. He has no problems with that map lol.
The developers have the SV tag I believe.

 

[Techies]

Here's the Firestorm map where everyone crashes.
http://a.pomf.se/gsvrtw.webm

That map is scary as hell when you run it in first person and at a low framerate(FRAPS), but I've survived.

 

[chrominance]

You can go full speed towards a wall or structure and as long as you hit the button that transforms you into hover mode you will not destroy your mech. I've tested this a bunch and though its possible its really hard to get your jet to explode if you go into hover mode even a split second before a collision. I thought the devs were genius for designing it this way as you always have a safe feeling of the environment no matter how fast your going.

This actually helps a lot, thanks. Still have to deal with the weapons feeling awful, though. Two hours trying to make this game work for me might be enough, I think.

 

[Techies]

This actually helps a lot, thanks. Still have to deal with the weapons feeling awful, though. Two hours trying to make this game work for me might be enough, I think.

Weapons completely change your style of play.

For instance rockets and carbines you'd want to chase players down.

Machine gun you'd wanna engage, then disengage, come around for another attack.

Shotgun you want to get in close and move around the enemy.

Plasma, well plasma is really flexible, a double hit with plasma insta kill an enemy, so you might wanna find a high spot and see who you can snipe. Although when someone engages you, you better not miss.
Note that this is an instant hit weapon.

Homing, well homing is for noobs like me

The weapons have different difficulty curves, the higher the curve the more effective.

 

[OminoMichelin]

Ok, I'm getting used to the movement system, but there is a slight problem: nobody is playing in the EU. There is only one server with people in it, and it was full :/ Any eurogaffers playing this?

 

[Techies]

Ok, I'm getting used to the movement system, but there is a slight problem: nobody is playing in the EU. There is only one server with people in it, and it was full :/ Any eurogaffers playing this?

This is kinda weird since EU has the most players, but since the playerbase is so small everyone tends to play at peak time since that's when you will find the most people online.

I think at this very moment of posting, we're in that peak time.
http://steamcharts.com/app/246700

When that graph hits the peak it's a good time to join in.

PS. How long did it take you to get somewhat use to the movement?
It took me about two hours before I started flying through the most narrow spaces I could find.

 

[Techies]

Here's the official server list for those interested, as you can see there's many empty servers so the game isn't being fully utilized yet. There's even a Signapore and Australian server. But luckily there's always people online at peak times for both US and EU.

Netcode is luckily good enough to allow people with 200 ping to play too, so it's not strange to see US and EU play together, but of course higher ping always puts you at a disadvantage like usual.

 

[chrominance]

Weapons completely change your style of play.

For instance rockets and carbines you'd want to chase players down.

Machine gun you'd wanna engage, then disengage, come around for another attack.

Shotgun you want to get in close and move around the enemy.

Plasma, well plasma is really flexible, a double hit with plasma insta kill an enemy, so you might wanna find a high spot and see who you can snipe. Although when someone engages you, you better not miss.
Note that this is an instant hit weapon.

Homing, well homing is for noobs like me

The weapons have different difficulty curves, the higher the curve the more effective.

The only weapons I've had any success with are the shotgun and the swarm missiles. The swarm missiles I'm convinced only work for me when I'm at point-blank range, and the shotgun works because my aim doesn't have to be precise. Even so, I find that the aiming in this game is weird--for example, when I'm banking hard in a turn and my reticule is over an enemy, my shotgun still won't hit them or indeed give any indication I've actually fired it in the direction I was trying to aim at (since there's no visual feedback of where the blast is). I tried the plasma for a bit because, hey, mouselook, I should be able to snipe people with this hitscan weapon, right? But the plasma doesn't actually seem to hit where the reticule is; there's this weird offset that basically means I never so much as hit anyone with the plasma. Same goes for the carbine. And the LMG and gatling are so weak and you go through clips so fast that you're often reloading when you need to be firing. Meanwhile, homing missiles don't about half the time for me. Rockets were okay for a while, but across long distances they're useless and they don't actually move that fast.

Most multiplayer games, I quickly figure out what weapons I like and stick to them. In Quake, it was the rocket launcher; in Descent, quad lasers; in Battlefield, LMGs and carbines. Here, I just feel like almost every weapon makes me feel equally useless. The rest of it I've gotten a better handle on now--moving about the world, knowing when to switch between flight modes, picking up powerups--but actually hitting anyone is extremely difficult for me, and it feels like to some extent the game itself is getting in the way.

 

[Rogue_Ledr]

I haven't had tremendous success with this game. The two styles of play (hovering and flying) are confusing for me to use together.

 

[jon_dojah]

This game is like the definition of rubbing the top of your head and tummy in circular motion simutaneously.

I seem to have the most trouble in a 1v1 situation where you and your opponent are continuously circling around each other trying to get their ship into your FOV so you can begin locking on for a shot. The colored arrow at the edge of screen which shows where to start moving is what you pay attention to most rather than the radar. But if you're both chasing the arrow its hard for you and him to get a bead on each other.

When this happens I find that flying out a bit more and quickly turning around to get a wider fov of where they are helps out. Also taking some cover in the process. Flying out in the open while moving slow or even being stationary are bad habits you must overcome. Use as much of the maps geometry to hide and catch people by surprise is the best route.

 

[Techies]

The only weapons I've had any success with are the shotgun and the swarm missiles. The swarm missiles I'm convinced only work for me when I'm at point-blank range, and the shotgun works because my aim doesn't have to be precise. Even so, I find that the aiming in this game is weird--for example, when I'm banking hard in a turn and my reticule is over an enemy, my shotgun still won't hit them or indeed give any indication I've actually fired it in the direction I was trying to aim at (since there's no visual feedback of where the blast is). I tried the plasma for a bit because, hey, mouselook, I should be able to snipe people with this hitscan weapon, right? But the plasma doesn't actually seem to hit where the reticule is; there's this weird offset that basically means I never so much as hit anyone with the plasma. Same goes for the carbine. And the LMG and gatling are so weak and you go through clips so fast that you're often reloading when you need to be firing. Meanwhile, homing missiles don't about half the time for me. Rockets were okay for a while, but across long distances they're useless and they don't actually move that fast.

Most multiplayer games, I quickly figure out what weapons I like and stick to them. In Quake, it was the rocket launcher; in Descent, quad lasers; in Battlefield, LMGs and carbines. Here, I just feel like almost every weapon makes me feel equally useless. The rest of it I've gotten a better handle on now--moving about the world, knowing when to switch between flight modes, picking up powerups--but actually hitting anyone is extremely difficult for me, and it feels like to some extent the game itself is getting in the way.

Plasma, you have to hit dead center on the white dot. It's instant hit so don't lead it and it's much easier to do so in first person.

Shotgun is extremely close range and it's indeed hard to figure out the true spread, there isn't much info in the game with regards to hard numbers.

But there is a visual indicator when you hit someone, your crosshair will get a cross in it and you'll hear a faint ping sound.

Swarm unfortunately was fixed/nerfed to death, will have to wait for that to get fixed again.
However
Homing missiles are still viable though, not everyone knows how to effectively dodge them.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

I tried the beta but I could not get a hang of it so $25 was too much for me. So I'll probably buy in at this price especially with those challenge missions. That'll give me some area to practice.

 

[SmoothRunningGun]

If they added bot support or coop I might be interested. As it is, MP only is better off as f2p so maybe there would be a community (still no guarantee).

 

[Techies]

If they added bot support or coop I might be interested. As it is, MP only is better off as f2p so maybe there would be a community (still no guarantee).

Well the community is currently small, but there's no saturation since everyone gets the DLC, and it's slowly building up. The game cost as much as a CoD map pack atm...

There's no level up to gain advantage, you only unlock cosmetics and get ranked on a ladder. This means once you jump in, it's all you.
This is truly old-school, you get rewarded for becoming a better player, not for grinding an advantage.

I also see a few players including me are here to stay, other games like CStrike and CoD simply doesn't do it for me anymore.

The main problem with the game like all other indies is simply exposure, people only buy what's featured on Steam's front page and Strike Vector never got that opportunity.

COOP would be nice, but it doesn't need to go full free to play. The odd Free Weekend would be effective enough in my opinion.
Feels nice to play a game that's not invested with cheaters, smurfs and grievers.

 

[Techies]

My new favorite past time for when things get a bit too chaotic like yesterday, I call it Fly Swatting.

Fly way up high and close to the boundaries of the map, get a nice overview of the whole level.
Snipe anything that stops for a second, blow up the occasional fuel tank, and try not to give your position away to the wrong person.

This is great for practicing Plasma, not as easy as it looks though, you have to put that tiny little dot directly onto the tiny back dots and pay attention to their trails in order to get an idea when they might stop or change direction. You have to kinda follow some vectors and wait for the opportune time.

Also the view is nice, you can witness all the action taking place.

New city map has some pretty good game-play to it. Was also funny when everyone playing on the EU server realized that they were mostly American.

 

[OminoMichelin]

This is kinda weird since EU has the most players, but since the playerbase is so small everyone tends to play at peak time since that's when you will find the most people online.

I think at this very moment of posting, we're in that peak time.
http://steamcharts.com/app/246700

When that graph hits the peak it's a good time to join in.

PS. How long did it take you to get somewhat use to the movement?
It took me about two hours before I started flying through the most narrow spaces I could find.

About half an hour to being able to avoid most obstacles at base speed.
Attacking and dodging missiles however seems like a challenge, which I don't mind since I'm a Tribes:ascend aficionado, but the problem with the low amount of players still remains.

edit: how do I enable first person?

 

[KDR_11k]

Wow, hitting anything at that speed is hard (if you can even see anything...), plus there's the uncertainty of UE netcode which can make aiming at moving targets even harder. Also the radar is complete garbage, doesn't seem to react to your pitch at all so tracking above and below your height is needlessly complicated and generally it's easy to get disoriented in mid combat...

My main experience with that super open map is getting sniped from who knows where. Are snipers instakills? If not then the damage feedback is lacking because it's hard to notice that you're being shot at...

 

[Techies]

About half an hour to being able to avoid most obstacles at base speed.
Attacking and dodging missiles however seems like a challenge, which I don't mind since I'm a Tribes:ascend aficionado, but the problem with the low amount of players still remains.

edit: how do I enable first person?

F2 or F3

But there's no toggle for some reason unfortunately. I would of preferred it on one key.

That sounds about right in terms of time spend for movement, if you pay careful attention to the people who thumbs down the game in reviews, they spend less than 30 minutes on it.

Even though the playerbase is minimal when I open up Strike Vector I still see a 19/32 and 11/12 server I can jump into even the peak hasn't been reached yet.

So there's at least a core playerbase, the only problem is the limited choice leads to experienced players and new players mixing it with each other. Which has both it's upsides and downsides. One will just have to accept, that if you see a player named Whoracle in game, that you probably not gonna end on top of the leader-board.

Luckily the servers are set up in such a way, that maps and game modes get drafted, followed by a voting system. So you get to play all the modes and maps eventually, depending on how the people on the server feel at that moment.

The playerbase is essentially big enough for the current players to just play, but not big enough to hit critical mass and go mainstream (which would secure the future of the game).

 

[MercilessMercer]

Tried out the game for the first time today, and I have to say I'm loving the shit out of it.
The rockets are currently my favorite weapon, and damn do they pack a punch, my word. It helps that I have such an aggro playstyle, IMO.

Got used to the flying in under an hour through the solo mode, thank god. I can only imagine how hard it is to master it through multiplayer alone.

 

[Techies]

Tried out the game for the first time today, and I have to say I'm loving the shit out of it.
The rockets are currently my favorite weapon, and damn do they pack a punch, my word. It helps that I have such an aggro playstyle, IMO.

Got used to the flying in under an hour through the solo mode, thank god. I can only imagine how hard it is to master it through multiplayer alone.

Dual Rockets, Carabine, Plasma seems to be the main weapons of choice now. I suck at rockets though because of my latency, but I've gotten quite use to plasma now, can actually get near the top of the leaderboard now.

I see the people who pwns with rockets tend to get close to the enemy and circle them. Going for a health pickup doesn't always work, because that's the first place someone with a rocket full aim. Not to mention they completely throw your aim off.

 

[MercilessMercer]

Dual Rockets, Carabine, Plasma seems to be the main weapons of choice now. I suck at rockets though because of my latency, but I've gotten quite use to plasma now, can actually get near the top of the leaderboard now.

I see the people who pwns with rockets tend to get close to the enemy and circle them. Going for a health pickup doesn't always work, because that's the first place someone with a rocket full aim. Not to mention they completely throw your aim off.

Rockets are all I'm good with sadly. I'm mediocre with the Shotty, and my ego tells me that I shouldn't use the two homing weapons.

Whats the best special action in your opinion?
The mines are what I'm currently using, and they seem to be fine.

 

[Techies]

Rockets are all I'm good with sadly. I'm mediocre with the Shotty, and my ego tells me that I shouldn't use the two homing weapons.

Whats the best special action in your opinion?
The mines are what I'm currently using, and they seem to be fine.

So far there doesn't seem to be a best option, everyone seems to be using something different to fit their playstyle.

I see people taking minefields, who love being chased and when not chased, making double passes putting you in a awkward position.

I see people placing stalker mines right next to someone else which kills them if they don't react immediately or using them as defense in team based games.

I'm currently using regen + armor so that I can survive close quarter encounters a bit longer with my plasma.

Other players who are just plain dominating like whoracle tend to use EMP, to disable another vector and follow up with a kill. They the type of players that take any nonsense from people buzzing around them.

Then you also get the cloak players, who are a bit more sneaky than the rest and who don't like homing missiles.

There are even people who are using the Tesla effectively as damage over time in conjunction with their Gatling.

The only thing I rarely see used is the uncontrollable speed burst.

 

[Techies]

Well that was an interesting past few days to say the least. Somehow managed to make the top 20 in Plasma users.

PS. Anyone heard of a game called Air Rivals, I keep seeing that name pop up from some of the newer players, the ones that start kicking my ass two days later.

 

[Techies]

Plasma Montage, lots of sniping. He predicts and follow the target better than I do though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPndCYOTz68

It's a very relaxing past time.

 

[Techies]

Their seem to have been a permanent price drop to $12
Still waiting on that bomber mode, a lot of people play when there's an update. At the moment though, it's pretty quiet.

 

[Techies]

This is gonna be so sweet!

May and June Free content : GRAVITY mode + BOMBER
Hi Mercenaries,

Sorry for the lack of info, we have been really busy last weeks with the upcoming content.

First, we apologize, bomber mode will be available early June, it take more time than we expected to develop it.

But we will offer you really soon a new map called " GRAVITY ", you will be able to fly on space through moving sattelites, with different flying control, get ready, many people will crash !

You can see the first screenshots here, GRAVITY map will be available before the 15 th of May !

 

[Noisepurge]

Why is there no massive hype for this picked it up finally during steamsales and it's amazing! Pure Air-Quake. Love the Railguns especially

 

[Techies]

Free Weekend incoming !!!
7-11 Augustus.

Game will also be cheap to pick up for $5, and it has gotten a substantial amount of content updates including quality of life changes.

This is exactly what the game needed all this time, it's gonna be sweet mayhem.