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[Somnium986]

I understand the complaints about crushing health. Wasn't a big fan of in the experimental weekend. It will dramatically change the way the game is played.

I'm really excited about the new maps! I just hope the new ones are miles better than the fort. With the new skins it's like Drake's Fortune MP now. xDI can't wait to use the new Eddy Raja skin. DON'T MESS WITH EDDY RAJA! Is what I'll be saying now every time I get a kill.:lol

With Navaro, everyone will now be able to recreate the Poor Sully vid.... Or not.

 

[alr1ght]

When is 1.05 going live? Also, no double cash weekend . It seems the new skins are fully voiced as well.

 

[arne]

When is 1.05 going live? Also, no double cash weekend . It seems the new skins are fully voiced as well.

Monday. Mentioned it in my post on nd.com.

 

[arne]

How about the fact you are interpreting the results of the poll in a flawed mannered to back up your decisions in changing not only the balance but they way the game will be played online when its already very good except for a couple small issues that could easily be fixed yet have been ignored.

The main thing that is wrong with uncharted 2 online is the ability to spam a nade at your feet the instant before you die killing the other player when they clearly deserve the kill.

This could be easily fixed by upping the minimum grenade timer at short distance or having stopping power from bullets significantly slow down the grendade throw animation when not in cover yet this has been ignored since launch and instead you are making uneccessary changes.

This change is going to make alot more people upset than those that it makes happy which is the small group of Call of Duy fans that wants it so in every game you die in a couple bullets.

Gaming history is filled with Devs not being able to get online balance correct and losing the trust of players in the process, why change what doesnt need fixing?

I said why it is fine that way it is:




Also on a nother note lets also not forget when Naughty Dog screwed over people in europe you brought the Eye of Indra episodes when only a week later a bundle came out with multiplayer skins included. I know myself and many other people wrote nice emails directly to Naughty Dog about this which were completely ignored and not responded to. You also had nothing to say but your just a PR guy who picks and chooses who you respond to here to suit your agenda while ignoring any tough questions.

haha wow.
just wow dude. srs bsns.


we don't make any change that we don't want to do ourselves because, at its core, that is what we have determined what we like. we took the poll as the basis to see what paths to go down because, as would be expected working in the closed environment of a studio, just because we want to do something, doesn't mean we can't be affected by working in such a vacuum. prior to release, especially with the first beta, we went back and forth with how to deal with grenades and animation and network code and damage and blast radius and consistency and how it can affect other game modes and what is possible in to change within our code now that we've launched and many other factors, and what we have now is the best solution we found and haven't found something better yet. being an armchair game designer without knowing what's under a hood is fun!

interpretations and analysis are just that, the way we looked at it isn't flawed. as far as the experimental weekend is concerned. the majority of respondents liked the changed health. that's the results of the poll and you can't argue it. the poll wasn't a behavioral study so we can't and should not account for the potential reasons why someone picked to put it in a new playlist (i.e. all those folks who said "i hated it but i could see why someone would like it and that's why i put it down"). if you choose to mix the numbers up to suit what you think and take into account anecdotal information and so forth, that's your right and opinion. doesn't change that a clear majority of people, even taking into account the margin of error, answered for one particular answer.


As for the Eye of Indra -- we create products and our publisher then handles distribution. Sometimes we have a degree of influence, sometimes things go to plan, and sometimes we don't. While we get a say in a ton of things, since we're not actually releasing these things, we don't get the ultimate say in things like the specific regions for DLC, how the Eye of Indra was released, why the skins aren't available in the US yet. We can't affect everything, there's plenty of other people and organizations that are involved, and for good or bad, we are really happy with our relationship with them and we trust them to make the right decision for whatever reasons are important to them. And in many cases, I don't know what the answer is or what to say, because they weren't my or NDI's decisions, so I just don't know what happened or what the answer is. That should be obvious.

 

[we_are138]

why the hell cant i play online? is network down or something?

 

[alr1ght]

the majority of respondents liked the changed health. that's the results of the poll and you can't argue it. the poll wasn't a behavioral study so we can't and should not account for the potential reasons why someone picked to put it in a new playlist (i.e. all those folks who said "i hated it but i could see why someone would like it and that's why i put it down").

Well i chose to put it in a new playlist, seeing how I though it would be a nice change of pace, but didn't want it in everything. Still, I'm willing to objectively judge it, so I will have to wait until it goes live. A changelog would be nice.

Were any boosters tweaked (

Spoiler

DTI!

)?

 

[Interstellar]

DLC looks awesome, will purchase!!

 

[Gloinn]

I'm sorry Arne but.... with your "analysis" of the poll it's like you didn't take any attention to the "Give it its own playlist".
I was voting for that. Because I though that it would be selfish to close the door for "a new health" and easier to everyone to have choice. Pretty sure the same poll without this choice change the results.
And there is a lot of people who answer that.
You thought that this answer was "it's good but do it own playlist". But no. For me it was "it's awful, if you want to do it, let's have its own playlist".

But .... ok... it's your game. We're just some players.

 

[NeoUltima]

I also don't agree with health change, but we'll see...I guess it did take a bit to much to kill someone, but crushing levels are going a bit too far imo.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

This is definitely a problem, but it goes beyond that. This new health system absolutely promotes camping. It only takes 2 well placed shots with the FAL to grab a kill, which with lag and getting behind cover is simple. So many people just hang back in there base and shoot long range with the AK even and just pick people off. We'll see how it goes I guess :-/.

Exactly. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, this is going to fucking suck. I like how Arne is skipping over the valid points and focusing on the people over-reacting instead.

 

[arne]

I'm sorry Arne but.... with your "analysis" of the poll it's like you didn't take any attention to the "Give it its own playlist".
I was voting for that. Because I though that it would be selfish to close the door for "a new health" and easier to everyone to have choice. Pretty sure the same poll without this choice change the results.
And there is a lot of people who answer that.
You thought that this answer was "it's good but do it own playlist". But no. For me it was "it's awful, if you want to do it, let's have its own playlist".

But .... ok... it's your game. We're just some players.

again, the poll can't and shouldn't take into account that kind of unknown behavior.
Remember, the poll response actually said "I like it, but give it it's own playlist." I didn't say, I could see why others would like it, so put it elsewhere, or it didn't say, i don't like it so keep it segregated. I could understand and agree we'd have a good debate on our hands if it didn't say "I like it" which was put there to indicate a particular choice.

 

[Gyrian]

Good God, the lot of you need to back off.

It's the same every time we get any information about upcoming changes / additions.
The truth is that we don't know exactly what balancing changes will come into place, and we're extrapolating from wishes / fears / over-analysis.

Of course arne is purposely vague on some subjects.
He can't go on telling us details ahead of time just because we have the privilege of hanging around here, and that he's accessible.

He's also absolutely right on his remark that some can be very quick to go from 'Naughty Gods' to 'losing all trust' in what these people are capable of.

Give NDI the benefit of the doubt until you're actually living with the upcoming updates.
As far as I'm concerned, they've built one of the best multiplayer games out there.

I expect good things from their continued support of it.

 

[arne]

Good God, the lot of you need to back off.

It's the same every time we get any information about upcoming changes / additions.
The truth is that we don't know exactly what balancing changes will come into place, and we're extrapolating from wishes / fears / over-analysis.

Of course arne is purposely vague on some subjects.
He can't go on telling us details ahead of time just because we have the privilege of hanging around here, and that he's accessible.

He's also absolutely right on his remark that some can be very quick to go from 'Naughty Gods' to 'losing all trust' in what these people are capable of.

Give NDI the benefit of the doubt until you're actually living with the upcoming updates.
As far as I'm concerned, they've built one of the best multiplayer games out there.

I expect good things from their continued support of it.

We're not above admitting we're wrong, if, indeed, we are wrong and making changes based on that. See - the beta, other booster balancing, etc.

sheesh.

 

[SirFodderton]

I hope the spawning is fixed then from that "test" weekend. It seemed since everyone was dying faster they cut down on the respawn time to get you in the game faster. That led to a lot of players popping up right in the middle of a battle.

 

[Dibbz]

Arne I'm sure you guys know what you are doing and personally I can't wait to see what you have in store for us. These constant updates are so good because it keeps bringing me back to the game even if it is only balancing stuff. Keep it up.

 

[JB1981]

How can I see the new maps?

 

[arne]

How can I see the new maps?

There's a ton of screenshots and a video over on IGN?

 

[JB1981]

There's a ton of screenshots and a video over on IGN?

thats why i couldn't find any footage. i never go to that site. thanks, man.

 

[Stantron]

New maps look great, and reasonably priced. Will buy.

 

[Irish]

Seriously, you guys should lay off "ahR-neh" for a bit. (Problem solved for me and VsRobot) I'd take a bullet for that magnificent human. (Just go with it...)

Then again, that crushing health weekend with DtI still active was a load of bullshit. It only takes 7 AK shots to kill somebody normally, so lowering the health was a real pain in my ass (as a close range fighter). I actually like the way the MP is balanced now. Oh well, I'll still going to be playing U2 for quite a while.

I need to get a new TV though. Damn jaggies are starting to get to me.

 

[noah111]

My PS3 died at such a bad time that I missed out on U2, haven't boughten a game in so long that my backlog is huge, but this will definitely be the first I pick up. I just hope that the community is still decently active by the time I do. :\

thats why i couldn't find any footage. i never go to that site. thanks, man.

:lol

 

[Gyrian]

I just hope that the community is still decently active by the time I do.

I think a good number of us here won't be going anywhere. :]

 

[mr_nothin]

again, the poll can't and shouldn't take into account that kind of unknown behavior.
Remember, the poll response actually said "I like it, but give it it's own playlist." I didn't say, I could see why others would like it, so put it elsewhere, or it didn't say, i don't like it so keep it segregated. I could understand and agree we'd have a good debate on our hands if it didn't say "I like it" which was put there to indicate a particular choice.

Your poll had an agenda confirmed! lol
Why not have a "I dont like it...but give it it's own playlist"? :/

Jokes...
But on a serious note. Everyone's been wrong about so many different things with this game. Ppl thought it shouldnt even have multiplayer. Then the "see through walls" debacle. Etc etc
I'll reserve until I get to test it out.

 

[arne]

Your poll had an agenda confirmed! lol

totally. I purposely setup the poll to create the perfect scenario for strawman arguments. i'm totally an instigator.

 

[mr_nothin]

totally. I purposely setup the poll to create the perfect scenario for strawman arguments. i'm totally an instigator.

Awww I was joking Arne

 

[arne]

Awww I was joking Arne

so was i!

 

[Irish]

LIAR! You were clearly telling the truth with a bit of added sarcasm to try and fool us into thinking you were lying just so you could tell the truth without the consequences of having a sense of humor....

NVM

 

[Loudninja]

Got the platinum trophy this morning

 

[Rewrite]

Got the platinum trophy this morning

Congrats!

 

[fortified_concept]

Wait a minute, they're making permanent "crushing" difficulty (as I've explained in reality it's the most noob friendly version since it becomes a game of who saw whom first ala MW2 which is superficial and stupid) in multiplayer? Well, if it's true I'm bailing out. No rationalization can make me come back to that MW2 crap I witnessed that weekend.

edit: Has this been confirmed or is it just a rumor? Are there any details?

 

[Loudninja]

Congrats!

Thanks.

 

[Chris R]

Anyone know if the new trophies will automatically show up even if you don't download the DLC?

 

[Yeef]

Anyone know if the new trophies will automatically show up even if you don't download the DLC?

They always do for every game. I don't see why they wouldn't now.

A few firmwares ago Sony added the ability for developers to separate DLC trophies from disc trophies, but I don't think any dev has made use of it yet.

 

[Chris R]

They always do for every game. I don't see why they wouldn't now.

A few firmwares ago Sony added the ability for developers to separate DLC trophies from disc trophies, but I don't think any dev has made use of it yet.

Which is why I was asking If any dev could do it easily, ND could.

 

[Killthee]

Wait a minute, they're making permanent "crushing" difficulty (as I've explained in reality it's the most noob friendly version since it becomes a game of who saw whom first ala MW2 which is superficial and stupid) in multiplayer? Well, if it's true I'm bailing out. No rationalization can make me come back to that MW2 crap I witnessed that weekend.

edit: Has this been confirmed or is it just a rumor? Are there any details?

Overwhelmingly, to the tune of 39% of everyone who replied, you let us know that you enjoyed the lowered health during the Experimental Weekend. Coming in at a close second, 33% of you felt that it was a good thing as well, but that we should keep it within its own playlist, rather than have the lowered health active across all playlists and game types.

By contrast, only 20% of respondents disliked the lowered player health outright. If we take into account everyone who responded critically to the Experimental Weekend – adding those who didn’t like it along with those who thought the health was lowered too much – then 24% of all respondents didn’t like the change to player health.

Even counting our margin of error (at the bottom of this post), the results are pretty clear – the majority of you liked the lowered health.

So… where does that leave us?

We hosted the Experimental Weekend to see if the lowered health addressed criticism that opponents were “bullet sponges” without affecting the overall game mechanics. After reviewing gameplay data and the poll results, if this is something we really wanted to do, then the answer would be far more complex than just changing health.

After a lot of tweaking and a ton of internal play-testing, we collectively determined the only correct way to tackle this would be to tune a broader range of multiplayer mechanics rather than only change player health.

Our upcoming Title Update 1.05 will reveal the minor weapon damage and attribute balancing we’ve done based on this poll, which we feel evolves our multiplayer game and keeps it fun to play and true to our gameplay philosophy.

http://www.naughtydog.com/site/post/experimental_weekend_poll_results/

Patch comes out this Monday.

 

[fortified_concept]

http://www.naughtydog.com/site/post/experimental_weekend_poll_results/

Patch comes out this Monday.

They're being kind of cryptic. Eh, I guess I play and see for myself. If it becomes anything like MW2 or what it was that weekend I'm definitely bailing out though.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Why is the issue that the game's core mechanics getting shafted if the health gets lowered being ignored? I don't want to play a game that'll just become a shootfest like every other game out there. If this is to capture the casual crowd away from other games, it's pointless... Johnny COD is not going to care (nor find out) that the game has been patched with him in mind.

And if it truly is to make the game more fun... again, whoever isn't playing isn't going to care and a good chunk of us who do play will be upset. The ones who liked the change and are still playing most likely will keep playing without the change. So... why the need for the change? Serious question. If we're all having fun, why do this? Who's complaining (about the default health)?

 

[Gyrian]

Why is the issue that the game's core mechanics getting shafted if the health gets lowered being ignored?

FFS, what part of "We collectively determined the only correct way to tackle this would be to tune a broader range of multiplayer mechanics rather than only change player health." isn't clear?

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

FFS, what part of "We collectively determined the only correct way to tackle this would be to tune a broader range of multiplayer mechanics rather than only change player health." isn't clear?

All of that isn't clear... wtf, dude. I have NO IDEA what they've changed. I'm not sure how you can tweak the traversal system to balance out lowered health. Or how to stop someone from camping across the map to take down a treasure bearer in 2 shots. Until that can be easily explained, it's not clear to me at all, FFS.

That would be a shit ton of tweaking and balancing of every facet of the game just to make lowered health work. Do you make everyone climb faster? What about the climb faster booster (isn't there one...? I forget lol? Do you up that even more? Do you tweak the range of certain weapons to counter camping? Just seems like too much work to justify such a shitty change imo.

 

[No_Style]

I look forward to returning to UC2 MP w/ the health change.

 

[Gyrian]

All of that isn't clear... wtf, dude. I have NO IDEA what they've changed. I'm not sure how you can tweak the traversal system to balance out lowered health. Or how to stop someone from camping across the map to take down a treasure bearer in 2 shots. Until that can be easily explained, it's not clear to me at all, FFS.

Your previous comment suggested that the core mechanics would break, or become useless by changing health and that no one was minding this. The quote from NDI I replied with tells you that it's not health alone, other elements are getting rebalanced to compensate.

Now, we don't know the details on what else they're balancing, but you can tell it's deliberate. I suspect there would be an even bigger backlash if we did, which would still be pretty hollow since we would not have played it yet.

 

[Mizzou Gaming]

:lol I've tried going back as far as I can to figure out what's going on but I'm still confused.

Is there a mode available now that utilizes reduced health? I have stayed away from U2's multiplayer specifically because the amount of hits it takes to kill someone. I'd really like to try this out if its available.

Why are so many people blowing a gasket over this? Can't you just add a mode with reduced health? I would think this would make both sides happy.

 

[Kittonwy]

Why is the issue that the game's core mechanics getting shafted if the health gets lowered being ignored? I don't want to play a game that'll just become a shootfest like every other game out there. If this is to capture the casual crowd away from other games, it's pointless... Johnny COD is not going to care (nor find out) that the game has been patched with him in mind.

And if it truly is to make the game more fun... again, whoever isn't playing isn't going to care and a good chunk of us who do play will be upset. The ones who liked the change and are still playing most likely will keep playing without the change. So... why the need for the change? Serious question. If we're all having fun, why do this? Who's complaining (about the default health)?

Even crushing health during the experimental weekend was NOTHING like COD4 style health. There's no need to freak out. JFC people.

 

[Weenerz]

Been playing through the single player campaign, its very fun, but it feels like its dragging on now. I am at the

Spoiler

Monastery

. Feels like it should have ended an hour ago :lol

 

[fortified_concept]

Been playing through the single player campaign, its very fun, but it feels like its dragging on now. I am at the

Spoiler

Monastery

. Feels like it should have ended an hour ago :lol

Nothing personal but people complaining because the single player of any game -and especially games that aren't more than 20 hours- is lengthy need to be shot on sight.

 

[Weenerz]

Nothing personal but people complaining because the single player of any game -and especially games that aren't more than 20 hours- is lengthy need to be shot on sight.

I didn't complain about the length, I just said it felt like it was dragging, but you are free to overreact.

 

[fortified_concept]

I didn't complain about the length, I just said it felt like it was dragging, but you are free to overreact.

Like I said it was a general comment. Btw what do you mean dragging? It seemed repetitive or you just got bored for some reason?

 

[diddlyD]

i'm that guy who comes into a thread to bitch about a game being overrated 5 months after it was released when this conversation has probably already been had a million times.

anyway, i bought it finally, and it's a nice game mostly, but there are some issues i have. i've broken scripted sequences twice in my first play through so far

Spoiler

once at the bell tower when that blonde dude blocked my way at the top and i had to reload, once when carrying the injured camera man, a door got blocked by a scripted event before i made it through

, which leads me to believe it's not that rare of an issue, and disappointingly sloppy. the gameplay itself is often disappointing as well, especially the more difficult combat sections. i just got past the

Spoiler

ram beast in the mountains

and not only was that jarringly bizarre but the fight was 100% annoying and contrived (limitless ammo until you beat it for example). also a lot of hilarious game-ism stuff like scenes where a player gets shot and is crippled or whatever, but before and after that event everyone is getting shot a million times and insta-healing. also, the game over little world music thing is possibly the most annoying music ever, especially when hearing it over and over.

but the graphics are truly astounding. very very nice scenery and performance. i'd love a game that looked this good but didn't play so muddy and sluggishly. naughty dog needs to keep their tech team but find new game play programmers and they'll make something truly special.

 

[Yeef]

i'm that guy who comes into a thread to bitch about a game being overrated 5 months after it was released when this conversation has probably already been had a million times.

anyway, i bought it finally, and it's a nice game mostly, but there are some issues i have. i've broken scripted sequences twice in my first play through so far

Spoiler

once at the bell tower when that blonde dude blocked my way at the top and i had to reload, once when carrying the injured camera man, a door got blocked by a scripted event before i made it through

, which leads me to believe it's not that rare of an issue, and disappointingly sloppy. the gameplay itself is often disappointing as well, especially the more difficult combat sections. i just got past the

Spoiler

ram beast in the mountains

and not only was that jarringly bizarre but the fight was 100% annoying and contrived (limitless ammo until you beat it for example). also a lot of hilarious game-ism stuff like scenes where a player gets shot and is crippled or whatever, but before and after that event everyone is getting shot a million times and insta-healing. also, the game over little world music thing is possibly the most annoying music ever, especially when hearing it over and over.

but the graphics are truly astounding. very very nice scenery and performance. i'd love a game that looked this good but didn't play so muddy and sluggishly. naughty dog needs to keep their tech team but find new game play programmers and they'll make something truly special.

I don't recall any bell towers or blonde dudes, but I've never heard of anyone getting stuck when they weren't supposed to in the single player campaign.

 

[Weenerz]

Like I said it was a general comment. Btw what do you mean dragging? It seemed repetitive or you just got bored for some reason?

Now that I think about it, I change my mind kn it dragging, this game is pretty awesome, I should stop trying to find faults that don't exist.