Member
These notes are from the perspective of someone who doesn't have any real experience with the previous Ghost Recon titles. I played Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and that's it.
Know that this list is mostly suggestions and criticisms, but overall I enjoy the game as a co-op experience. I think the singleplayer experience leaves a lot to be desired. The level of realism and tactical decision making falls short of what I was hoping for.
Okay, on with the notes.
AI
- Civilian traffic should respond to traffic backups: honking horns, turning around, trying to go around. This is especially true in a combat zone where they should attempt to flee the area. Currently they just sit there indefinitely until we leave.
- Civilian pedestrians need a better sense of self-preservation so we're not unjustly punished for their deaths. They need to flee active combat zones, hell, they need to vacate the area if they even see our squad setting up an attack on a nearby group of Cartel or Unidad. Perhaps you could add an ability to interact with the civilians, to give them a warning that they need to leave the area.
- Enemies seem to have some kind of superhuman ability to locate our squad even when using a suppressed rifle at range. Some tweaking of the detection AI would go a long way towards making the stealth aspect of this game more realistic.
- Our AI squad members are intentionally ignored by the enemy AI. There are any number of videos on YouTube that show this, but here's a good one. This tells me that Ubisoft either has not or cannot implement a more realistic AI. I don't know the reasons why obviously, I just know that the current implementation is inadequate.
Aircraft
- Add a weapon reticle. Currently we just have to guesstimate where we think our rounds will hit.
- Add full flight controls. Any aircraft control scheme that doesn't have all three axes of rotation directly mapped to an input is inadequate. Add an option to choose our control scheme if necessary: Normal and Simplified (or whatever you want to call it).
- The game could handle the pilot leaving the game unexpectedly a little more gracefully. Perhaps an autopilot that kept planes straight and level, and hovered helicopters until someone switches seats. Currently the aircraft just crashes, especially if the rest of us are in the menus.
Bugs
- If you're a helicopter passenger and you deploy a drone the drone will impact the rotor and cause the helicopter to crash. This is perhaps by design.
- If you open the menu while in a gunner position the targeting reticle will disappear when you close the menu. You have to switch seats or exit/enter the vehicle to get the reticle back.
- If you land a helicopter in the water the engine will continue to run normally, even after it sinks. Being in the water doesn't seem to cause any damage or ill effects whatsoever.
- Every time the game loads I have to hear about the quinoa plant being used to smuggle cocaine.
Camera
- Add an option for making switching shoulders manual only. I eventually got used to the automatic switching and found it quite nice actually, but it drove some of us crazy.
Difficulty settings
- Add some more specific information as to what the different difficulty options change about the game.
- I've always preferred a more granular approach to difficulty options when it comes to sims and sim-like games. Add individual toggles for things like damage received, heat signatures on the minimap, things like that. Check out the difficulty options in the Silent Hunter series for inspiration.
- Add the option to be able to change our currently equipped weapons only at a Loadout box and/or a Rally Point. It seems strange to have what will eventually be dozens of weapons on hand at any given time.
- Add the option for the host or elected squad leader to dictate the difficulty and HUD settings for everyone in the squad. If we're playing with friends we can somewhat manage this ourselves with a gentlemen's agreement not to spoil each others good time. This becomes a more serious issue when playing with randoms from public matchmaking though.
Enemies
- Bodies disappear way too fast. They should stick around until we leave the AO.
- Bodies should be able to be moved out of sight? I don't know about this one. It didn't seem to be a big issue to me, maybe if the AI reacted more to their friends being killed it would make more sense.
Equipment
- Binoculars should be able to be used while in vehicles. We can't have a true stakeout if we can't spy from our vehicles!
- Drones should have a finite supply, and have to be restocked like ammo. Or maybe we could retrieve our used drones so they can be recharged and used again.
- Having night vision without using equipment is weird. Do we have bionic eyes? What's going on? Night vision should be limited to equipment only: scopes, binoculars, drones, etc. Add night vision goggles to the loadout so we can make a tactical choice to have it or not.
- Add a flashlight to the loadout.
- If we're looking through a scope (one that doesn't blackout the screen) shouldn't the area within the scope itself be the only area that's zoomed?
Gameplay
- We could use a bleed out button (in solo only). When playing co-op, waiting for the timer is a good deterrent against being reckless.
- Add resupply boxes to all rebel mission destinations so we can restock after delivering the stolen helicopter or whatever.
- Add a territory mechanic. If we clear out a base or outpost shouldn't the rebels come in and occupy it? Aren't they at war with the Cartel? Why would the rebels let the Cartel just repopulate the area once we've cleared them out?
- Add a way to fast-forward time so we can better plan our operations. You'd probably have to make it a unanimous vote if there are multiple humans in the squad.
- Add the ability to drag fallen squad members so we can drag them into cover before attempting to revive them.
- Add blind fire from cover.
- Improve using binoculars while in cover. Either I can't see over the cover, or I have to stand up and expose myself. Some kind of peek over cover would be great.
- Add a "hard" cover system like The Division as an option? I really preferred the hard cover system until I got used to the "soft" cover system in Wildlands, and now I think the soft system is mostly fine. It could use a better way to look and shoot around corners though.
- If one person in the squad tags supplies all squad members should get credit. Currently we kind of get into a supply tagging conga line and follow each other around the area. It's kind of ridiculous.
- The spawn points for rebel vehicle drop offs need serious work. Land vehicle spawn on opposite sides of fences, helicopters spawn too close to obstacles and are destroyed if you try to take off, vehicles spawn on slopes and slide away from the squad, etc.
- The rebel vehicle drop off skill needs to allow us to choose which of the three vehicles we want: civilian vehicle, armored vehicle, or helicopter.
Internal Inconsistencies
- Vehicle shenanigans (car accidents, smashing into a rock at speed while on a dirt bike, etc.) is perfectly survivable, but failing to open your chute from "base jumping" height means death.
- Why do my weapons do more damage from stealth than they do in open combat? A stealth damage bonus doesn't belong in a game like this.
- Some skills are nonsensical in the context of this game. Why and/or how does the Advanced Suppressor skill remove the damage reduction from using suppressors?
Map
- Add side missions to province content? I'm not sure how that would work since we have to find intel to unlock side missions, but it would be nice to us completionists to see X/X complete.
- If there are multiple humans in the squad our tacmaps get blended together. It would be helpful if our names appeared next to map icons so we can differentiate which icons are ours or theirs. It would also help to alleviate some confusion as to why certain icons have reappeared on my map.
- The zoom level of the minimap should change depending on the speed of the vehicle we're in. Zoom out if we're going faster, zoom in if we're going slower or stopped.
- Show the specific weapon or caliber the weapon mod applies to on the map icon.
Missions
- There aren't enough different types of side missions. There aren't even enough to prevent duplicates within the same province. When I counted, there were something like eight side missions available, but only five different types. There were two steal the helicopter, two tag the supplies, two breach the radio station, etc. We're very concerned that this game is going to become highly repetitive.
- In the steal the helicopter missions there needs to be some delay between the enemy entering the cockpit and him taking off for at least two reasons. One, if the enemy reaches the cockpit it's basically an automatic mission failure, there's no chance to try to salvage it. Two, aircraft have lengthy startup procedures, and seeing him jump in and be 100 feet in the air in seconds is silly. Perhaps a 10-ish second delay while the engine/rotor spools up would be good.
- Don't automatically contact Karen Bowmen when we enter a province for the first time. Most of the time we're not there to do the missions, we're there to retrieve province content. By the time we get back to the province to do the missions we've forgotten what she said during the call. I suggest it be changed so that we have to contact her manually from one of the rally points.
Radio
- The damned radio. Please add options to have it permanently off in vehicles, and permanently off globally. Please, for the love of whatever you consider holy.
- Have your sound people give them a once over because they need some work: lower volume, volume changes with distance, more specific points of emission (they can't easily be pinpointed as their sound seems to come from everywhere), occlusion by obstacles, and reduce the number of them in the world.
Squad
- Add an option to turn off squad banter when playing solo.
- Banter should automatically be disabled when playing co-op. I'm a real person talking to my real friends in an Xbox party, yet the AI squad members ramble on even when they're not even present!
- Allow the AI to drive or fly to our waypoint so we can be a gunner.
- Squad members frequently get stuck, and then they run in place against the obstacle forever. Maybe some improved pathing is in order? I just leave them behind and eventually they get teleported to me, but it seems like this is something that should be solved by 2017.
- If we play solo we get three AI squad mates. If even one human is in the squad we get zero. Shouldn't we have the option to fill out our squad in whatever mix of human and AI that's required?
- Add the option to disable the AI squad when playing solo. I realize this is wishful thinking, and not very likely to happen.
- Add the ability to customize the AI squad members' appearances.
- Our AI squad members should need to have line of sight to their targets before being able to use the sync shot ability, and they should be smart enough to change their position until they do. The most egregious example of the AI blatantly cheating I've personally witnessed was when I infiltrated the mine in Montuyoc. I was inside the mine, and was able to use the sync shot even though my squad was on the hill the mine was cut into!
UI
- The distance to a marked location should be shown by the icon at all times. If the location goes offscreen, or if more than one person marks the same position the distance readout is removed.
- Door breach icons need to be unique, not the car icon (which is the reward icon).
- Bringing up the orders wheel shouldn't bring us to a halt. Sometimes we have to issue orders on the run.
- Include weapon paints in special outfit slots.
- Stop asking me what language I want when launching the game.
- Stop playing the kingslayer video on launch.
- The markers and minimap options need to be much, much more granular. I want to be able to turn all enemy markers off, but leave destination, supply, etc. markers on. I want to be able to turn the minimap off except when in vehicles so I can still make use of the GPS line.
Vehicles
- Vehicles are too easily damaged. Oops, I backed into that wheelbarrow and now the trunk is crushed and the back window shattered. C'mon now.
- Vehicles need horns, and pedestrians need to react to them. Currently they'll stand in the middle of the road and stare at you like deer.
- Headlights don't illuminate the ground until what would appear to be a certain time of night is reached. They should illuminate the ground based on darkness, not what time it is on the clock. For example, if you drive in the shadow of a mountain during the day the headlights do absolutely nothing.
- Headlights don't illuminate the ground far enough ahead of you.
- Add the ability to switch from any seat to any other seat from inside the vehicle.
- The driving model is adequate, but I wouldn't consider it fun. It just kind of is what it is. I'm not entirely sure what to change about it, maybe look to GTA for inspiration?
Weapons
- In the Gunsmith, show the range of the weapon in meters so we can correlate that to the range given by the binocs or what have you.
- What is Handling exactly? Reload speed? Weapon switch speed? Time to aim? I'm not sure why you'd carry an SMG over an assault rifle in this game. In the real world long guns are cumbersome in tight quarters, hence the need for shorter barrels, but in a video game it doesn't seem to make any difference.
- Muzzle velocity is too slow, and bullet drop is too severe. I understand things like range, velocity, and drop are modified to fit the rendering distance of the consoles and the space of the game world, but it still feels wrong.
- Boss weapon paint should be locked, but I think the rest of the parts should be able to be modified. Maybe if the boss weapon has a part that its generic equivalent doesn't have that should be locked too.
Community Manager
Member
You're welcome. Thanks for reading it!
I have some more I'd like to add:
Equipment
- Binocular and scope reticles need to have some kind of illumination system like their real-life equivalents. They're impossible to read in the dark or against dark backgrounds unless you use nightvision, and we may not want to use nightvision for any number of reasons.
Gameplay
- Enemy reinforcements spawn too quickly (almost instantaneously), and too closely. It would be more believable if they spawned farther away and had to physically move into position. It would be nice if after the enemy has radioed for reinforcements the reinforcements would radio back with their ETA. That would give the squad a timeframe to make any number of tactical decisions.
UI
- Double-tapping Y should draw our sidearm even if we have all weapons holstered. Currently, if our weapons are holstered double-tapping Y draws our primary or secondary, and we have to double-tap Y a second time to draw our sidearm.
This one... I'm not sure where to put this one.
The El Yayo briefing video explains how Santa Blanca makes their cocaine. One step is to "dust it with lime", and it shows some limes (the citrus fruit). The video then emphasizes that point by zooming in on the fruit and saying "that's right, lime."
Cocaine is made with lime the mineral (calcium hydroxide), not lime the fruit!
Given the context of the game I'm not sure how an error like that could be made in the first place, let alone emphasized with "that's right, lime". Maybe I'm missing the joke or something.
Member
HAHAA that is funny! I had to research this myself to double check, this is what happens when you only use google search for game development research...Originally Posted by BaneSixEcho Go to original post
Thank you!