Been playing source for a few weeks now and just wanted to vent a bit about the things valve has really improved on and other things they have messed up a bit. Overall I think source is really good but could be great with some tweaks. Right now I can't stop playing Source, it's my fricken heroin...
Is there any way we could submit to Valve change requests, if people here agreed with me and ask for changes maybe a whisper could turn into a roar... anyways Welcome any comments and critz...
The Bad
1. The knife. WTF happened here?? Use to be one of my favorite ways of humiliating people. Now when you sneak up on someone and pull out your knife, there's a VERY noticeable "SWOOOOSH" sound, alerting your enemy and giving him time to jump around and fill you full of holes. Now really shouldn't a knife by near SILENT. Also, you would think when sneaking up behind someone, one knife stab to the throat and your victim should be dead, having to slash (left click) 10 times to kill someone with kevlar on is freakin ridiculous. I usually use special weapon knife for the "stab and pull" but you have to be right beside your victim for too long. Then there's trying to knife someone in the head, well I have a hard enough time trying to do that to hostages standing still so forget about that.
2. Bouncing off Objects. I would really like to know the Einstein that thought this up? Bouncing off of fricken barrels and furniture, where the heck did this come from?? Here's a scenario that happens often. I'm inn a fire fight with some T's.. battles not going so well... gotta run around a corner and make for a door... oop there's a barrel partly covering the door. I should be able to easily squeeze past the barrel thru the door. NOPE... BOUNCE! dam it let me through, BOUNCE!, BOUNCE!.... wap wap wap, bullets to the back - I'm dead. Sooo basically the barrel killed me... if they don't take out this bouncing off crap I'll... I'll... I'll still play, but I'll be pissed...
3. Footsteps. Footsteps are really quiet now and have really reduced the strategic element that they offered. I guess the logic here was, "well footsteps really aren't that loud and noticable". Ya maybe, but this is a game and there are a lot of area's CS sacrifices realism for fun (Jumping awpers ring a bell). I thought footsteps was a real great strategic part of the game and really reward patient players and developed ones listening skills. I hope someone comes up with a way of modifying the sound file to boost the volume up a bit... hope this isn't considered a cheat...
4. Walking Slowed down. Walking seems to slow now and makes it almost too tedious to use. Increasing walking speed and footstep volume would be a much welcome improvement.
5. Blood. Not sure why they got rid of blood, but I used to think it was pretty wild see a player in front of you get hit in the throat, then having a long stream of blood come shooting out of his main artery... not necessary but sometimes details can really add to the immersion.
6. Balancing Maps. Could go on for hours here, but an easy way to get my drift is too look at 24/7 servers dedicated to a map and look at the wins/losses. For example, CTS always will have significantly more wins on the map Aztec, then T's. Soooo, wouldn't you alter the maps a bit to give T's an edge to balance the maps. No, instead on Aztec now they add a barrier shelf to the T area (above the ramp), so you can't look out into the water and take out cts rushing the water. There are too many instances of this to point out but, if you look at 24/7 dedicated servers and see 270 T wins and 160 CT wins, tweak the map to help the cts, then re-observe, then repeat, maybe this is a too simplistic way of looking at things...
The Good
1. Physics. Awesome! Love the rag doll effects... seeing a body go flailing through the air after getting naded is great. Being in a fire fight in the market area of Italy and seeing bananas and watermelon flying around is wickedly awesome. Great job... pat on back...
2. Water. Again awesome! Another pat on the back... reflections and bullets hitting water look way cool...
3. Increased Flash time. Good idea! I use flashes a lot, and when used right with good team members can produce great rushes...
4. Not sure if this is even a change or I just never payed attention before (can't belive I missed it, if it was there before 1.6). +3 kills for successful bombing and +3 kills for successful defuse. Nice incentive for T's to plant and reduce spectator waiting time.
5. No shield. Thank god for taking out the shield... hope it stays out. When they added the shield I was thinking oh great what's next, why don't they just add rocket launchers, space ships and laser guns. Not sure if this was done before Source...
People complain about some weapons being different and the hit zones being off, but seriously I really don't notice it being that different. Maybe the AK feels a little less accurate but that's fine.
I don't follow programmers logs so if they mentioned changing some of these things, that's fine I would still feel the same way about it whether they told us up front or not. Also, I didn't like 1.6 or CZ, but I used to played v1.5 and lower a ton, so if some of these changes came it after 1.5 sorry for the mis-reference.
Anyways there you have it, long winded I guess but I did try to get my point across as quickly as possible. Any critz or comments welcome... see you on the battlefield...