Loadout: Deserving of a Romp?

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

ambershee

Nimbusfish Rawks
Apr 18, 2006
4,519
7
38
36
Nomad
sheelabs.gamemod.net
The issue is that you can elect progress faster in terms of unlocks, but not faster in terms of leveling. Match-making works using levels, so if you've boosted your blutes and not your XP, you're getting a hefty advantage.

By the time this guy is level 20, he'll have the unlocks you'd expect on a level 40 free player - think about what that means for you; you can either suck it up and play at a disadvantage, or you can also play the same way and pay for the boosters. That's 'pay to win'.

The damage bonus to shields from tesla weapons does exist - but you also do 10% less damage to health, which means it doesn't pay off to use it:

Default:
6 damage per shot versus 133 hit points = 23 hits to make a kill.

Tesla:
10 damage per shot versus 33 shield hit points = 4 hits to remove shield
5 damage per shot versus 100 hit points = 20 hits to make a kill (24 total hits).

This is also what I mean by the game being badly balanced - some of the options are really not as useful as they look.
 

Kyllian

if (Driver == Bot.Pawn); bGTFO=True;
Aug 24, 2002
3,575
0
36
45.64.294
kyllian.deviantart.com
A few things to note about upgrades.
Weapon level is an indication of how many upgraded parts are on it. A lvl 2 weapon only has a single part upgraded.
You're also overestimating how big the upgrade bonus is.
Take the basic Beam gun. Starting parts, it does 41.99 damage. The upgrade for Slug payload is +2.7% Strength. That comes out to 43.12, a difference of 1.13 damage
Upgrade all the starting parts on Beam, you get a whooping +6.75% boost to strength, or +2.83 damage

As for unlocks, I have 11 unlocks on the Rifle, 5 on the Launcher, 3 on Pulse, and 4 on Beam. Most of that is from Blute that I'd had left over from the last time I'd played the beta, around this time last year. The rest is from the bugged Daily Prize and getting to level 11
My primary loadout still uses the basic Rifle(albeit all starter parts are upgraded), and the only non-starter part on the Launcher is Tesla payload.
I'm still beating the crap out of people that have high-tier parts unlocked. High tier doesn't even mean higher power. Example, the HighCap mag for the Rifle. Sure, you get 100 rounds instead of 50, but you take 3.2s to reload instead of 1.6s, and you lose a bit of damage.
So your DPS suffers to push a reload back
 

DeathBooger

Malcolm's Sugar Daddy
Sep 16, 2004
1,925
0
36
44
This is also what I mean by the game being badly balanced - some of the options are really not as useful as they look.

I agree with this. I actually switched back to slug projectiles for everything because waiting for the "upgrades" to do their potentially extra damage wasn't paying off. I was able to unlock everything in 40 hours of play over 2 weeks. Most of the stuff is pointless.

The game loses it's luster after a while. I think the level design in the worst part of it. There's a ton of static meshes that have stupid blocking volumes that trip people up. Half the time players just get stuck on something instead of escaping like they planned and then get pummeled.

The other stupid design is the lobby for competitive play. You have to join 2 or more lobbies and waste time before a match will start because it won't start if someone leaves before the match starts. Most of the time people leave during a match anyway so it solves nothing. Also, only one map for competitive play? Really?

I honestly don't see the game progressing much. The studio responsible just got the gig for the next Transformers game. This almost seems like a experiment for them than something they planned on making money on.
 

N1ghtmare

Sweet Dreams
Jul 17, 2005
2,411
12
38
Where least expected
People leaving within 2 minutes of the Annihilation mode ruins half of the games I play. Either makes for a painful wait until defeat or a hollow victory. I wish they would have some sort of punishment system like LOL or CS. Maybe charge the player Blutes or something for rage-quits.

The level design should also focus more on forcing players to retreat with low health. At the moment I end up chasing guys across the map as they hit every single health pickup trying to finish them off.

I think what the maps need is more focus. Right now they work for any game-mode, each being decent for the level. This ends up making each level feel weaker and have no real sense of identification.
 

TWD

Cute and Cuddly
Aug 2, 2000
7,445
15
38
38
Salt Lake City UT
members.lycos.co.uk
I also found that this game doesn't have true longevity. I played it a bit with my Planetside outfit, but after a week we went back to our usual ways. The best part of the game is getting together a good team and roflstomping pubbies. But I just don't enjoy the game enough to get super competitive with it.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
I'm at about 1 hour but I've already moved on to other games at this point. I enjoy it, but I only really enjoy it due to its similarities to arena shooters. I started playing UT3 again just for the heck of it and it is such a better game than Loadout. Maybe I messed myself up by doing that :p

I can see why people enjoy it but it definitely has all the elements of pay to win. I'm getting beyond tired of these dumb F2P games already.
 

SkaarjMaster

enemy of time
Sep 1, 2000
4,870
8
38
Sarasota, FL
So this is a free-to-play game as long as you like grinding (similar to WOTs)? Hmmmm.....might be worth a shot. How does it compare to the UT series? How many different maps are there? How many different weapons? Will it run fine on a 5-year old system?
 

Vaskadar

It's time I look back from outer space
Feb 12, 2008
2,689
53
48
34
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Unfortunately seems like a lot of games have taken the grind-for-gear route, even fully-paid multiplayer games do this. It's a stupid gimmick left over from the CoD era and it needs to die.
 

TWD

Cute and Cuddly
Aug 2, 2000
7,445
15
38
38
Salt Lake City UT
members.lycos.co.uk
I think they had good intentions with their free to play setup, but they just didn't get it right. In Planetside the upgrades just feel like a natural progression. Once you've mastered one weapon or setup you have enough certs to buy the next thing, and you usually know exactly what to get. If you do put down cash you get the full experience you'd get if it had been a traditional monetary model.

Loadout on the other hand feels like a crap shoot. I feel like I'm rewarded randomly, and that it depends largely on who I'm paired with. Paying money just seems to get you more stood items. The upgrade system is confusing, and you have to spend too much time in the range figuring it out. Then you still get smoked by the assault rifle, and you spend the entire time thinking how much you miss your shock rifle.
 
Last edited:

ambershee

Nimbusfish Rawks
Apr 18, 2006
4,519
7
38
36
Nomad
sheelabs.gamemod.net
I worked out quite quickly that rifle with the spooling upgrade only is all I really need - took about 45 minutes in the range to work that out though. You can add a large magazine, but it reduces your DPS and make reloading slow - but lets you accurately pummel enemies from afar. All the other upgrades topped on spooling just made the weapon not worth carrying, usually by reducing accuracy or decreasing damage.

I also took a salvo hexabarrel launcher. One hit kill.

Once I had a shield, I was fully equipped and had nothing left to play for, because the gameplay isn't all that great to start with.