A Loving Critique of Titanfall 2
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- I’ve always loved TITANFALL 2, and with Titanfall 3 feeling more possible than ever, I wanted to do a deep game design anlysis of the game’s multiplayer.
With the revival of the Vanilla Servers, I jumped back in recently and I’ve identified what I believe are some core issues that, if corrected, could see Titanfall 3 redefine the FPS landscape and AAA Games the way it was always meant to.
This Critique/ Game Design Analysis/ Video Essay takes an in-depth look at Titanfall’s core, auxiliary and meta mechanics (specifically in regards to multiplayer, the campaign is flawless).
A lot of my critiques are based on how Titans impact the Pilot gameplay. I think the ease with which titans can kill pilots heavily punished the game’s core appeal of fast-paced and dynamic movement.
As I say in the video, I’d love to hear what the community has to say.
Respawn devs, if you’re watching this - Don’t crunch too hard, and thank you for hundreds of hours of fun.
I think the titans are actually what makes the learning curve engaging. For me, the titans gave me the ability to kill the guys who were destroying me pilot v pilot. I felt like I had a chance to get those guys back as soon as I got the titan, so the curve started for me as “learn to move and win some gun fights so you can get the titan faster” and pretty soon I was greatly improved at the movement.
That's a good point, and I think we'd need to be really careful to keep that element of the learning curve alive.
What do you think about the idea of skill based matchmaking in casual game modes? Personally I feel like current titans are a bandaid fix to the skill gap, but SBMM could give you those opportunities to get kills regardless of whether you're a pilot or a titan
Or is getting revenge on someone who keeps killing you too sweet to pass up?
@@I-OMusic I’m unfortunately not knowledgeable enough to really know how SBMM works. I’ve had bad experiences with it in other games but I usually felt like I was trying extremely hard all of the time. While I was no doubt improving the game would match me with new people and the fruits of the improvement were much harder to come by. Also I have had issues in the past where the game greatly overestimates my skill after a good game, and I play 3 more games with people waaaaaay out of my league.
In titan fall I feel like the ideal SBMM would try to have teams of mixed skill, ensuring that no one team got all 6 highly skilled players. If it’s possible (again I don’t know much about programming or designing the systems that make things like SBMM work and I’m speaking to an actual game maker lol) I think a system that tried to evenly divide the skilled and “scrubby” players evenly so that the teams are “balanced” in that way would be interesting. Players who improve and become skillful will still get a chance to show off a little, but they have to look out for a skilled counter part on the other team. Make the system known to players as well so that they can almost seek out those duals with the other teams top players by skill. As for the players who are less skilled they have their own counter part in the other players at their level, and in Titanfall specifically, the minions and titans can allow them to genuinely help their team win.
Again I’m not sure if that’s even possible but I think it would make for super interesting dynamics. There would be a small element of “get good” if you want to become a player the game considers skilled but I think it’s to a much lesser degree in a game with AI minions and teams that were balanced as I suggested. Or who knows maybe those top players just stomp on the bottom of the lobby.
To most concisely answer your question, I think if implemented extremely carefully it could be a great addition. But if it were implemented as it has been in other popular shooters like CoD I think it would create some issues for both casual and competitive players.
Facts bro it's funny u said that because I felt the same way today
@@kashourikatsu2543 yeah it’s kinda like tag. The person who is “it” has all the power in the game, and everyone else has to run. As long as everyone gets a chance to be “it” once or twice it creates a cat and mouse everyone can enjoy.
@@d-fens5866 damn I never thought of it that way that's facts
I think changing titan mechanics is not the answer to making them more fair against the pilots. Titanfall 1 had this great map design that let pilots very quickly reposition and take another shot where it's hard for the titan to predict. Titanfall 2's buildings are hard to reposition in without either being seen by the titan, confining yourself to a space that's easy for the titan to keep track of, or backing off for so long that you don't know where or not the titan has simply left the area.
Titanfall 1 had an interesting whackamole game where pilots would repetitively poke a titan and then use the movement mechanics to quickly be somewhere else, where the titan would be constantly trying to predict where the pilot would be next or maneuvering to hunt them down, doing things like locking down windows with cluster missiles or barraging rooms with missile salvo.
Also, something in Titanfall 2 that I really didn't like is that Pilot AT weapons feel way nerfed, which I assume is a necessary concession to the fact that titan HP doesn't really heal.
The anti titan weapons are either ridiculously OP or massively underpowered in TF1. The Archer always seems to take off half my health, an the MGL when used right can do the same.
The Sidewinder does less damage than a standard weapon, and the charge rifle takes 20 minuites to charge.
Pair that with the above mentioned manoverability and map desighn, plus the fact you cant see a thing in TF1 when taking damage, plus rodeoing made Titan v Pilot gameplay infuriating and harer than TItan v Titan IMO
They were much more balanced in TF2
But the maps were far, far better in TF1. Not that the maps in TF2 aare bad, the opposite in fact, but the maps in TF1 are just so good. Far more routes through them, more interiors, some were multi layered with better object placement for titan combat, plus things like the massive hackable turrets.
Add all that with a better art style, more intelligent Grunts and other minions make for a really good experience.
For me, the perfect Titanfall 3 would be the 2 games smashed together with some apex weapons put in.
Take the more gritty realistic tone from TF1, with the more michal bay filter (deep oranges and cool blues), the first person embarks and the maps/map desighn, the hcog sight (dont know why, just love the straight sides to it so much) and some limited titan customisaition, like the Chassis and Weapon, and the better grunt AI and sheild regen for titans
Then take the movement and abilites (plus a few more) from TF2, allow us to have 2 at a time, full pilot customisation that isnt linked to the abilites, the Titan abilites to be tied together in classes and the balancing.
Then add a the smart pistol as a primary again (it was actually pretty balanced against pilots) and a weaker version as a secondary, more weapon customisaition (underbarrel mods and drum mag etc etc,, limited ammo again, the abilty to open the cockpit whilst still in the titan and finally have a hybrid of the two games for rodeoing (get on and take the battery to remove the sheild , or shoot the core but limit the maximum damage to 1.5-2 bars of health before that stops working
the explosive primaries, smr especially melts titan health hitting weakpoints.
But yeah better maps would be cool
Man, Titanfall 1 maps are just straight up divine creations, I love the map where you had a complete rain forest with old building and logs everywhere, wild life and everything felt just, perfect, Titanfall 1 maps made it so the movement relied on momentum and creativity, where as today it only bases around, camping certain area because other parts of the map are plain fields for titans, where you can't hook or move fast enough to escape titans or other pilots; I seriously want a full customizable titan, I'm not talking about the tf1 customization, but instead an hibryd, where you can choose the general frame, tone, monarch, ion, scorch, that defines the main abilities, and you can choose from a variety of weapons and secondary titan abilities, for example, I think void shield should be a basic skill, the first simple skill that every titan should learn, but then, we have things like the weapon shield, tone shield, scorch shield, that in the concepto, work around the kit, but they can combine with other kits as well, and make stronger and of course, funnier combinations, for example, imagine a ronin with a shield gun, you need to learn how to play against it, and since it doesn't has the void walk, it can be severely punished by other titans, and it doesn't end there, I want titan weapons customization, I miss the old triple rocket launcher, I miss having a plain old x16 on every titan, I miss having the opportunity to play as crazy as I wanted, imagine a ronin with a triple rocket, or imagine a scorch with a sniper rifle, that can kill you from miles away, but still can defend in close quarters, but not as effective as it is with the main combination, so much space for experimentation, for balancing, for being unique, thats what Titanfall 2 is missing in the titan aspect
Now, the pilot, seriously respawn had the most not defined aesthetic of the whole world, where you can literally, design you armor as much as you want, but decided to give us, all standard armors with changing colours, bro, what?? Imagine changing your jetpack, changing how your helmet, arms, chest plate, legs, and even imagine having s robotic arm, or prosthetics in your pilot, among all the different models you could even create, that should be what we aim for in terms of customization aesthetically talking, but now, the weapons, dude, give us a perk system with a load out system, merged into the most beautiful amalgamation of factors that allows us to decide how we want to play, imagine changing sighst, stability, recoil, Hipfire, drum mag, reload speed, and then, you can also decide whether you can shoot and run, aim faster, reload faster, reload abilities with kills, reload grenades with kills, or even charge your titan faster with kills, that simply involves a so deep down universe for experimentation and making it so unique for everyone at the same time, imagine that, for every single weapon, where some of them have also custom accessories, like, bouncing grenades for the soft ball, or magnetic grenades, or even thermite grenades, that don't insta kill but deal good dot to kill a pilot and to damage a titan, some abilities for pilots should be redesigned since not all of them are pretty useful, clear examples are the holopilot, the deployable barrier and the phase change, you could seriously buff these with small changes, Holo pilot has ai so instead of just running, it literally goes wherever you are aiming your sight when deploying, it can jump, slide, climb, and all of that, to give the impression of being s real pilot, not just some npc that runs; phase change just needs speed boost and better visibility on the other world to be viable, and the deployable barrier should be a rare one, one tap to use it as a personal shield for extra health, 2 tap to use it as a deployable option to amp weapon damage, including antitan ones, so camping is rewarded a little bit, just enough, since camping in Titanfall is pretty dangerous and unrewarding, having a straight up ability that relies on the most dangerous practice to eliminate titans faster is in my opinion s good trade
And please, give us more maps, more game modes, Titanfall 1 maps dude, they're awesome, they were made with love in the heart, I need those.
And please, add the game modes from Titanfall 1, they were so much fun, the mode where the floor was literally lava, where in each team one player was marked to die, bounty hunter I think it was named, the one where it was only melee😂, you need to add gungame, you need to add only headshots with the revolver, only snipers, only shotguns, dude only softballs, free coliseum as a competitive mode. And of course, some rotations in competitive modes so the tryhards don't overwhelm the casuals, in my opinion, that's what the perfect Titanfall 3 should look like
@@drazven2785 I think that weapons some abilities (mostly the shields) should be transferable but be significantly stronger on their "native" titan, so that it doesn't devolve into Xo16/Arc cannon + vortrex sheilds as every build like the first game did
It should be about sacrificing one area to gain in another to keep balance. For example a Ronin with a Xo16 to gain some mid range damage, but it would hurt it at close range where its kit excels.
Or a scorch with any other weapon to up its DPS at mid to long range would stop him using it to blow up canisters and hurt his DPS ceiling when it starts committing war crimes up close.
Balance is essential, but so is variety and both the TF1 and TF2 systems lacked a bit in both areas and led to metas with the basic loadout in Tf1 and some kits being no brainers in TF2. Plus we should be able to open the cockpit whilst still piloting. Would be almost entirely useless, but its cool.
And regening sheilds could come back. And each Chasiss should get one more health Bar, and add a chassis to either extreme, 3 dashes 3 health and 0 dashes 7 health
As for Pilot customisation, the reason they did it that way in Tf2 was for easy identificaition between classes. However, i think we could have both worlds with a seige style identification system in the scoreboard where a symbol is displayed next to a players name with their ability that would allow customisaition. I wouldn't stray much further than what the grapple looks like anyway, i love the helmet, the jumpkit and the flappy bits of cloth on the arse of that model.
I also think that we should be able to pick 2 abilities, 1 from differnt categories, those being
1) Movement Grapple, Stim and Phase
2)Utility A-Wall and Pulse blade
3) Illusion Cloak and Holo (Holo would also make the pilot look like a grunt with a glitchy face and a jumpkit to make it more usefull
And id like to see some abilities that come with the kavyat of no jumpkit, like a heavy with a turret or a hacker who can access terminals that calls in a a few reapers or a 10 spectres or so, all get points for the team and give half/none when killed themselves, or activate those heavy turrets from the first game for 2 munities, and theyd get their ability thru executing pilots.
As for Pilot combat, id like the rodeoing to be a hybrid between Tf1 and Tf2. You jump on and get a choice. You pull the trigger to do the TF1 shooting thing, but limit the damage to 2 bars max, or you press the grenade button to steal the Battery which removes the sheild and its regen, and can be given to a teammate. And limited ammo should be a thing again.
As for specific weapon mods, id like to see Box/Drum mags for things like the CAR, R()01, flatline, volt etc etc things it makes sense on. But you only get 2/3 of those mags, the rest are normal, and you can select what sort of mag you will use next reload by tapping laft or right on the D pad. So you can start with a box mag, then use 2 normals, before going back to a Box mag.
Next, the full range of sights from both games should be availabele for the non Sniper or launcher weapons. So the straight posted Hcog from the first game (my favourite sight from any game, its so clean looking and good to use) the standard Hcogs from TF2 (he pentagony one on ARs and the round one from th SMGs) the AOG scopes etc etc.
Then under barrel mods. My thinking is some kind of Anti-titan/reaper rail gun sniper (it would lock on to titans reapers, spectres and stalkers but be hipfiring a Kraber agianst grunts and pilots so it isnt OP) it would do a tiny amount of damage to a Titan, but blur the vision like a arc granade to create a safe opening to move, and it would 2 or 3 shot a reaper.
Under barrel memestiff. self explanatory, 2-3 shot max
noob tube, fires currently selected ordance (excluding satchels and stars)
Smart pistol should be a primary again, like the first game, it was pretty well balanced.
And a smart pistol secondary, it would do more damage when not locked on (because the bullets dont waste momentum guiding themselves, IDK im not writing the lore for them) and would take 7-8 shots to kill a pilot or not lock on to piltos at all to make it balanced.
And secondaries should have quick switch (where you dont put away primary, just angle it down) from MW2 remake.
As for games themselves, i think your faction should determine weather your grunts are IMC or Militia, like they did in the original, because that pissed me off in the 2nd one, with the wrong armour colour on the grunts for the side you are on more often than not.(if the game cant find a even amount of players it should put the required in a "freelance" faction and add them to the side thats needed) and there should be more match entry veriety, so most of the time it would be the standard dropship, sometimes a dropship crash, sometimes orbital drop.
As for game modes, floor is lava is obvious enough as well as all the currnet ones, plus he ones you mention.
Id also like a battlefield style "campaign" where 3-5 games are stung together with different modes/maps each map.
Return to TF1s tone and artstyle , another tight yet veried single player campaign and use both games Map desighn ideology in creating new maps, + all the old ones, have a banger score again and DONT RELEASE IT BETWEEN COD AND BF and it would be a guarunteed success
@@dylanburston7453I wouldn't say the smart pistol was balanced against pilots. Enhanced targeting makes it juuust fast enough to make direct gunfights a 50/50, and the lack of a lock on warning makes being sneaky with it far easier.
Personally, I think the smart pistol shouldn't be able to lock onto Pilots at all. It doesn't matter how weak they make it, people are still gonna complain about a free aimbot. So, just make it a purely anti-infantry secondary.
Imagine a world where pilots one shot pilots with a melee but titans do not.
Titans are supposed to be stronger than pilots TvP is supposed to induce a fear response
I would be pissed if it took 2 shots to kill a pilot as scorch
Yeah honestly I disagree with this guy. Titans should always completely obliterate pilots. Being zip'd around like it's AoT by 3-4 half decent pilots is never easy unless you're legion with core.
@@KUD4Hlegion makes all titan scenarios easier
Well, it’s meant to be David vs Goliath, not wasp vs electric tennis racket
@@kazzookaEit’s never just 1 pilot vs 1 titan tho, the battle always converges on some point in the map for most maps and right now if you are the first titan in and more than one enemy pilot is on you they can do some heavy damage close to if not forcing you out of your titan. Personally i feel the game is pretty damn balanced all around already
I think the balance dynamic between titans and pilots is perfect as it is. However, a lot of the maps in Titanfall 2 have tons of open space, leading to pilots just getting picked off before they can dip into cover. That's why people love maps like Glitch, it gives pilots space to work while there's titans on the field.
Titan vs pilot isn’t meant to be a fair fight. I think its a really great thing that titans are so powerful against pilots. Constant high octane pilot v pilot gameplay can get overstimulating so making pilots think about a slower more planned out engagement when titans are present is a good thing. This makes it so that there are essentially 4 “gamemodes” in any one attrition match. Pilot v pilot, pilot v titan, titan v pilot, and titan v titan. Changing up how you think play and think throughout the game keeps the game so fresh in my opinion.
And then you have the combined arms aspect. You see a friendly pilot wallrunning 15 meters above you and toss a rocket or two to clear out a way for them, just for a clutch Arc Nade or Firestar to push a Scorch that was chasing you into Doomed state.
Perfect
Nope. The whole point of parkour from the beginning was so that pilots could easily out maneuver titans, but like he said, titans just make you not use that movement system. Tf1 did it way better, treated titans just as a change in playstyle rather than a killstreak.
@@dumpsterjedi9323 that makes no sense lol. You’re telling me I’m meant to get kills and score objective points and call in my titan just to be equal in power to a pilot??? Whats the point of the titan then? If I’m a titan + pilot and I’m meant to be just as good as a pilot, then there’s no reason to ever bother wasting my time with titans because they wouldn’t matter in anyway lol
@@dumpsterjedi9323 obviously titans are meant to change the balance of any game in your favor or else titans wouldn’t exist
the saddest part about grunts in titanfall 2 is that in titanfall 1 they had map-specific dialogue (because of how the "campaign" worked) and the majority of the time you saw them they were playing scripted, well made fight animations depending on whether two grunts found each other, or a grunt and a spectre found each other, or two grunts found one specter, etc, etc. The problem of grunts and pilots looking too similar was twice as bad though, since some of the actual pilot models were very, very close to grunt models
Tbh I think the way Titans are implemented is just fine. Yes they can kill you easily but they’re slower and less nimble, and make big targets. From anti-Titan weapons to grenades, there’s a lot of ways to deal with them, and if my team has a Titan on the field, that also shifts focus away from me. If I’m in a Titan, more than one or two pilots at a time trying to bring me down is going to be challenging enough to make it more evenly matched, and I’m not a noob. Even 1 good pilot can be a thorn in a Titan’s side, I say this having been both the Titan and the thorn. Once a new player gets past the intimidation factor of a Titan, they’re not an absolute death sentence, and frankly learning how to counter a Titan on the field is another way to make the player feel rewarded for learning the game.
This is how I feel - a couple of decently positioned pilots with the MGL or charge rifle can seriously ruin a titan's day (especially ronin or monarch who prioritise survivability with their low health pools/early weaknesses respectively).
Additionally, in attrition pilots respawn almost instantly, whereas titans do not. This means that you can throw yourself at a titan and fire off some good shots with the charge rifle with the only real downside to death being +5 to the enemy score.
Exactly I greatly enjoy playing around titans and coming out from cover to blast a pot shot from random points in the map
@@openjcd Exactly! and taking down the titan is worth +15
@@openjcdor you could just use a thunderbolt and throw in a shot towards a Titan when you see one and continue on with you day
Also you talk about the great movement system and how the game should seek to incentivize it but then recommend upping the time-to-kill. I get maybe making the hit boxes bigger but upping TTK would, imho ruin the fast and compelling pacing that the fast and agile movement mechanics play such a role in creating in the first place. I think I’d actually need to slow down more if TF3 ends up like apex legends where I need to throw 2.5 mags into an enemy to see them go down. Obviously Apex’s TTK is an extreme example, but still.
Pilot v Pilot is jousting, Titan v Titan is martial arts.
@@emberthecatgirl8796 Both PvP and TvT are martial arts, and Pilot vs Titan is a bull-fight. With the movement it’s more like Pilot v Pilot is martial arts, because movement skill, tacticals, grenades, weapons, and kits all factor in to a complex fight if the players are good. Titan v Titan, the combat is slowed down, but each Titan has its own abilities to try and outmatch the other Titan, the outcome is never a sure thing, every Titan is viable. Pilot vs Titan is a bull-fight, the Pilot the Matador, the Titan the Bull, for obvious reasons.
Here's a radical fix for this problem: Eliminate automatic health regen. If pilot v pilot fights were longer battles with higher TTK, someone could try to escape and reposition and outmaneuver their opponent. They'd be able to use the movement system to try to either get away or gain an advantage, and their opponent would have to use the movement system to pursue them and confirm the kill. This would feel a lot different than the current tendency toward "first to get the crosshair on the opponent wins". Obviously you'd need to have health packs on the map, or healing mechanics, or maybe a health recharge at spawn, etc.
have fun not having a playerbase then. newsflash: not everybody wants to be sprayed down in two shots by an smg from across the map by a guy moving 80mph. You either decrease the speed or increase ttk.
@@Matt-uk7zq Just my opinion no need to get unpleasant about it.
i dont want titanfall to be a competitive game, i want it to be titanfall
Thank you for that ❤
Titanfall with a competitive mode. I don't know in my opinion it would not work because of the skill roof and what modes would be used in ranked play.
Pilot vs. pilot nope LTS I don't think so Maybe Amped Hardpoint could work but no Titanfall is supposed to be fun the only thing that I half agree on is the time to kill. The game is a movement shooter it meant to be fast-paced.
I don't know @boinkinky2074 what do you think
I’m with you on that man.
@@Seraphim_yxru00I think the only mode that could work for a competitive Titanfall is bounty hunter, in tf 2 is new since was added last week, but in Titanfall 1, that shit was nasty, lightning rounds where all you had to do was move fast and aim well to kill the target, it basically rewards everything Titanfall is about, fast movement and good aim, that's what I'm craving for
I don't think straight up decreasing titan health would work, because then reapers would be even more annoying.
After 50 hours of Titan fall 2 I've finally reached a point where I can pick the right Titan for the right map and I win most 1v1 Titan fights. Reaching core upgrade lvl 3+ on monarch regularly has given me a huge ego boost
Nice! I think that high level strategy stuff is super important and tbh I'd love to see it get expanded on in a sequel, raise the skill ceiling for titans and give players like yourself even more room to experiment and be creative
In my opinion I think that the ttk and the bullet hitbox is amazing as is. Sometimes ya you do get randomly killed by a guy with a spitty sitting on a roof but then you know he's there and that he's still most likely sitting there. Then you smoke him while he stands still and you learn that he likes camping so you look for him and adapt. It is very frustrating fighting those guys sometimes (when they have good aim) but the fact that the game is still balanced for both movement players and campers is great for the audience size because it caters to everyone who plays. I just feel like the gunplay has almost no problems apart from balancing issues like the CAR. I feel that if they kept the same essential gunplay for (hopefully) TF3, then it won't flop like some people are scared of. Love the vids!
If titanfall 3 is just a nerf for the spitfire, car, and legion, I will be happy
Agreed. The ttk for pilot v pilot is good the way it is. Considering how fast the movement is especially for experienced players, increasing the ttk would mean having to track and follow people around for longer than you need to already, and I feel that would widen the gap between skilled and unskilled players.
@jacobpinson2834 Legion does not need a nerf lol and the spitfire is only annoying on console
I actually like campers, they are fun to play around as a grapple player
Have you played enough TvT to understand the roles titans play? Also, I think anti-titan weapons should be buffed instead of nerfing titans.
Just the fact that we’re having this discussion on how this game could improve is awesome. I’m hoping more people (and game devs) see this and add discussion, so we can in the future get what we want.
I understand the camping pilot problem but I don’t think increasing pilot health would be the right approach. Titans are already weaker and can easily lose a quarter bar of hp to these players and difficult to escape the line of sight due to size. Most titans don’t have a accurate enough weapon to take care of such pilots. Movement only makes that worse. There have been so many times where I felt robbed trying to shoot a ejecting pilot due to the weapon spread. Some titans are powerless against pilots while others like tone and ion shine and if you have the practice, Northstar. But for casuals you see why tone is so popular. I just suggest maybe a accurate ability for every titan to give titans some chance for gunplay skills to shine. For the death streak, I’m not sure if casuals will take advantage of map positioning. Most just want to run and shoot which is possible in titans which probably is what engages most new players.
To fix the smart pistol, you could make it so that it only auto locks onto AI. Then to lock on to pilots, you would have to track them in ads for a second before auto aim kicks in, also make the gun glow green or something to let enemy players know that they are dealing with a smart pistol
That's pretty good!
I think the issue at the core of the Smart Pistol is how every other weapon rewards players for moving unpredictably.
Your green light suggestion is great, players actually knowing where the lock is coming from would let them effectively take cover which would make it way more fair even if you didn't touch anything else
Awesome. I think they could also do what Deep Rock Galactic does with Engie’s smart rifle, and then require multiple locks.
So you’re required to stare at them like an idiot for a moment. 🗿
Smart pistol was balanced in the first Titanfall, and it absolutely works as intended, you had to look like an idiot to your enemy for a while to track enemy points and kill them, so overall, it was a slower ttk amongst every weapons, but still, if your enemy can't shoot, you can kill them, it was pretty rewarding once you mastered how to escape from to pov off your enemy while aiming, and of course, it has a decent range for s pistol, it was perfect, not op and definitely not thrash
@@contentconsumer3743It does require multiple locks. You need 3 locks to kill a Pilot that’s why you see people with SP staring at you in the death cam.
Good to know, am not a smart pistol user. usually go for the dumb variety of handgun
honest defense of the smart pistol. i was a smart pistol main in Titanfall 1. I had a crupted game file to were everything that moved was either missing or wrong, loved seeing a map turret walking at me with a 40mm, this ment the only way i could play was with the smart pistol. that sayed I never found it unbalanced ... this was because i did not know i could shoot before it was locked on. i would chase down pilots locking on and only when i had a full lock i would shoot. This was way more fair as they had time to react and kill me before a lock was established. I would propose moving the smart pistol back to primary but require a full lock to get the bullet bending, any other time it should just shoot straight.
Ooo what if they made it like tracking rockets on tone. Lock on three times and then you can shoot, makes a good dog fight weapon. Although I'd say increase the lock on time a bit and somehow In some way making it dodgeble. Like making the shot projectile mini missiles and a sudden change in direction will cause one or two shots to miss. Makes a good weapon for grunt killing as well
I like how difficult this game is it keeps me engaged and raged enough to try harder
i disagree with the titan to pilot strength point you had, i think that having to slow your movement down to deal with them adds more depth to the engagements
Exactly, their literally giant fighting mechs. They should be hard to kill.
I'm glad to see most of the comments disagree with this take, Titanfall is supposed to be a fast TTK game. Titans not killing Pilots in One shot would made Titan v Pilot a NIGHTMARE for Titans, as rather than incentivizing being out in the open more, it would make poking at a Titan with a Grenadier or Anti-Titan weapon completely safe. A majority of Tactical abilities make Pilot vs Titan Engagements safer for the pilot; Stim, Phase, A-Wall, Cloak, and Grapple, to a lesser extent. You can Blind Titans with Arc Grenades and Firestars to make engaging them safer as well. Without Hyperbole, it is literally a "Learn the Match up" moment. A new player shouldn't be able to jump in front of a Titan and Survive, they need to recognize when a Titan is there, using audio cues or the Minimap, which has a marker for enemy titans, and not go out in the Open without thinking.
All things are possible, Pilot's...😀- The Voice of Viper
A note on the sound: it is built in a (heavily modified) version of source which is somewhat famous for having a troubling sound engine to make things functional. Key and point CS:GO nuke and it’s a/b bomb site sounds.
I didn't know that, thanks!
Maybe I'll do some more research into that. Comparing anything to Overwatch's directional sound is kinda unfair because that game's audio is so precise you can hear exactly where people are to the point you can lead shots around corners by footsteps alone
Great video, you hit a lot of the points i had been brainstorming about for the past week. I think the most contentious point in this video is about the titan, for obvious reasons, but i have to say you nailed the issue on the head. Some points I would add: 1) make more Pilot only objectives. For example, each team could have territory/outposts and you have to fight your way through one and hack it's computers to deny some amount of enemy AI reinforcements from spawning along with getting a significant boost in points. It would kinda be like ctf but the entire mini game would be based on stopping enemy pilots from getting to the objective. 2) I think they should make auto titans much smarter. I think these changes would help with rewarding players who don't want to be piloting a titan late game. I feel like in attrition if you don't use your titan at every opportunity you can, you are hindering your team's progress since titan's are so powerful. + even with the assault chip the titans get killed very fast. So being able to call in your titan and work together but separately to help your team would not only be a good change to game play but also fulfill the power couple fantasy that exists between the pilots and titans.
The maps just need more verticality, gives more counterplay to titans whilst also improving movement options for pilots and giving several new vantage points. The reason glitch works so well is because it gives a safe space for pilots to roam around on a elevated verticality whilst the titans are mostly limited to the ground.
Sorry in advance for the essay.
I think reducing TTK for pilot against pilot engagements would largely make the game into a "Stop, engage in a gunfight with one opponent" and that'd overall be kind of against the design philosophy of the game. The key to winning in 1v1 engagements to me is just pure movement. If you're quick enough with movement, you can reposition against Pilots who've seen you or sneak up on Pilots who haven't.
The Titan vs Pilot imbalance also isn't much of an issue to me either. There are plenty of tools to use against Titans from the Arc Grenade, Phase, Stim or Cloak. Cloak completely makes you invisible from Titans and using that with Low Profile makes you pretty much completely invisible to Titans. The power imbalance with Pilots and Titans largely serves to slow down and think through engagements, where you can go due to where Titans are and if you have the tools to engage them. If you don't have the mobility or Anti-Titan tools, you can or have to play more conservatively. Even in the intro cinematic they say "A Titan can only be stopped by Overwhelming Force or an Equal". Plus playing smart/using mobility to Rodeo a Titan or engaging alongside your own Titans or as a team of Pilots can make quick work of Titans. The Archer alone takes off a full Bar's worth of a Titan's health and can kill a full health Doomed Titan in one hit. It's largely how you play it. I'd argue any Tactical can help against Titans. A-Wall to increase Anti-Titan weapon damage, Stims for Mobility or just to heal quickly, Pluse Blade to see where Pilots or Titans are. Holo Pilots to distract. A whole bunch of tools are in game to deal with Titans but you yourself are never meant to deal with them by yourself as a squishy meatball without cover or thinking about your moves.
I really like the idea to open the floodgates of game design to include boons for sucking. In lore and in universe explanations for it would be so easy to find also. "We need to back on the field pilot, take this dropship" or "Your combat effectiveness is dropping, deploying spectres to assist you and take some heat off". Could be really cool.
A lot of what you said, even what you though might hinder the casual core players, I feel would actually largely benefit new, non-sweaty players too. I never understood why MW2’s death streaks never became more popular. Changing the balance of titans vs pilots could make the choice of having your titan on autopilot more enticing too. Instead of feeling like you’re losing out by not being in the titan you could focus on making sure you have some sort of defense on an objective while feeling free enough to explore the movement tech and play more aggressive.
In regards to the whole spawn camping and the BR style air drop option, you could also implement choosing a spawn point, a system much like Battlebit’s would be excellent. It would allow players to choose between getting into fast paced CQC fights, play a more defensive role, or flanking.
A more controversial change that could be made would be altering aim assist. The amount of AA could be lowered when a player is sitting still with it decreasing more overtime, while players that are trying to move faster could gain a very slight buff to their AA. I feel as though a downward curve on the movement buff would allow for a hood give and take for more advanced players in that they can move fast but not gain a large AA buff so that players not as well versed in the movement system still have a fighting chance against them. And if players get the largest AA buff while moving at a non-ludicrous speed it would also allow players that play more defensively a better chance of being able to target them.
Great comment,
I agree with your point about auto-titans. I love the idea of fighting side by side with my titan like I do in the campaign, and it feels cool when my follow mode ronin saves me or helps me secure a flag. I'd say maybe we add more options to play with your titan. The 'Fastball' custom game is a great example. Hell, that could open up new avenues for titan customisation as you could give it behaviours like 'aggressive, defensive, titan hunter' etc.
They could even take some queues from Apex by having your titan feed more useful information. "Pilot, multiple enemies spotted on your flank".
Choosing spawns is definitely an interesting one, I think we definitely need a more robust spawn system. Correct me if I'm wrong, Battlefield and Battlebit change where you can spawn depending on your team's map control right? Imagine doing a god-like rollout and being first to reach, say, the 'east spawn beacon' and activate it, opening up a flank route for your team that just died? But yeah generally player agency over spawns is a good shout, it would also add a nice high-level strategic layer that could make attrition all that more fun, especially for new players.
Ooft yeah that aim assist take is a hot one indeed. Personally I'd be cautious about aim assist as a gameplay mechanic rather than an accessibility/ feel feature, but I like the idea of rewarding players for taking gunfights at high speeds. One of my games is an fps where bullets inherit your speed, so the faster you're moving the faster/ father your bullets travel. That might be a little too mechanically intense for Titanfall, but yeah something along those lines.
If the meta was more projectile-focused, like Quake, you'd have that mechanic built in by design - Since faster players/ flying/ tap strafing players are harder to hit. I notice people tend to move a lot more in the EPG-only game modes.
Maybe if we reduce the standing slide cooldown from three seconds to something like one, the defensive players would use their short-range burst movement more?
in regards to the spawn system, I know it's completely possible to have spawns be a lot more dynamic as shown by the "grunt mode" mod for the northstar client, which actually has you spawn with a group of AI/other players in a drop pod or drop ship. Something I personally have always thought should be a thing is spawning in as a titan still taking the 5 seconds to fall from orbit that normally calling your titan down does (think that one mission in the campaign that's mostly titan focused), instead of always just being a warpfall
Interesting idea, I thought that something like a ping system for your auto Titan would be neat. You could tell it to hold a specific place, attack with you, scan a certain area, assist friendly Titans in Titan combat, or even throw you across the map like BT in the campaign. Obviously certain titans would have to be tuned a bit (and the auto Titan ai would have to be massively improved), but it's a cool concept
I'd love to see more pilot gauntlets. Imagine an entire menu of dozens of gauntlets, ranging from beginner friendly to ultra difficult. You could vie for a spot on the leaderboard, go for that "S" rank, compete head to head with other pilots, and generally work your way through a series of challenges, being introduced to new movement mechanics and actually learning skill you can apply in combat as you progress. There wouldn't have to be any fighting, but there could still be either static or moving AI targets you need to hit or else you are penalized time. From a lore standpoint, the game already has the VR training pods, so it would fit right in.
A game mode like basketball/oddball would be incredibly fun. Alternatively or in addition with, making it “hot potato” style, where the ball can only be held by one player for a few seconds before it explodes would make for some fun team play
I just want to say that this is a really great video. A lot of ‘hardcore’ players don’t take the time to understand the game in clear terms, instead relying on intuition built over time. Your awareness of the mechanics and the flow of gameplay, as well as your ability to express those things properly, convinced me of a lot of changes and illuminated problems I never really noticed. Especially with the time-to-kill thing- I play with the mastiff because I love being able to actually move in gunfights, despite the frustration inherent to getting gunned down before I can do anything.
I was always vehemently against suggestions regarding raising the TTK because I figured I enjoyed playing with a shotgun because it made the gameplay snappy and fast-paced, rather than because it let me focus on movement, but after watching this I realize that wasn’t right. I think I’d be able to enjoy the game at large more with a higher TTK. The mastiff could even keep its role by having a shotgun-to-melee combo stay as an instakill, while stopping either alone from being one-taps.
If I had one disagreement it would probably be about Titans. I personally enjoy playing around titans as a pilot as it is, though I agree with your other suggestions that might help ease the learning curve for new players in lieu of adequate skill-based matchmaking. And I don’t have any ideas to replace your Titan changes’ place within those suggestions.
Overall I think this is, like, one of the only videos I can look at and genuinely say I think Respawn would be well served to keep your ideas in mind, even if that almost definitely won’t happen. You actually seem to know what you’re saying and aren’t just talking out of your ass based off what you think might be cool.
What about a game mode similar to King of the Hill except that the hill is a drone that moves around with a holographic sphere that the player has to stay inside of. The sphere can then change colors depending on if its contested or going to one team or the other.
I don't agree with your point on readability of the game. Other than just using your eyes and minimap, enemy soundeffects are distinctly louder to that of your teammates for both guns and things like jump jets. As long as you're familiar with the map, directional sounds can help you pinpoint your enemy's location. In addition the game has additional ways of detecting enemies. One of them is pulse blade, Tone's sonar and map hack.
I think that the solution for titan weapons being too strong against pilots would be not to decrease titan damage vs pilots but to increase pilot health as a whole with some meaningful adjustments to weapon damage to better reflect that change. Also given how smart pistol works this would increase the number of lock-ons needed for a kill.
However that being said a pilot SHOULD be at a disadvantage when going against a titan. After all titans are a reward for skilled play that give you the power fantasy of driving a death machine. Most maps in the game have two layers of play that separate the pilots nad titans obscuring former's positions to the latter with some spots that intertwine both of them.
While advanced movement makes you go faster and makes you harder to hit it, it also helps you get into advantageous positions giving you an upper hand while fighting titans or other players. For example weapons such as Spitfire, DMR and G2 are unreliable while jumping and wallrunning due to their strong kick or large zoom. This creates a two seperate gameplay styles. One all about crazy movement and fast weapons and second more accessible one where players go from point to point and lockdown the areas. Personally I don't think TF2 should be all about crazy movement similar to arena shooters like Doom and Quake simply because it would completely invalidate weapons that reward good positioning
Other than that this is an OK video. It would be better if you segmented it using youtube's chapter system. Especially since you already did that in your script.
I love that titans are something to be truly afraid as a pilot. For me, it is part of the esence and what is great about this game.
The titan vs pilot problem in titanfall 2 is due to the map design not being great, in titanfall 1 titans were stronger but because the map design was really really good, avoiding titans was much easier, so they just must design maps better in titanfall 3
I like pilots not being able to 1v1 titans and instead just increasing pressure and chipping in damage
That’s what I love about Titanfall, not everyone can hunt a Titan as a pilot and not everyone needs to. I know in the beginning you seem greatly outmatched and can’t even get near a Titan but you’re only getting punished for being dumb and not thinking in the 3rd dimension. You could stay on a roof top with charge rifle or you could jump from multiple rooftops with a charge rifle, maybe hit ‘em with arc ‘nade, slow ‘em down and snatch a battery. Things you only learn with time. People said Halo is like Doom, and Doom like a game of chess. Titanfall is like 3d chess with big ass robots.
Edit: What I’m trying to say is, movement isn’t everything. It’s a good lot but you also need improvised strategy. Being at the right place, at the right time.
Honestly I like alot of the quirks & chaos you mentioned like clarity and noise issues or ascetics. But one thing that's really annoying is not the fact that titans exist. But the way some people use them. Like if tones and monarchs incentivize playing like a coward then honestly they need alot less health. Because of thier defensive playstyle they live basically the entire match once they're out and the game stops being about movement and fun you basically have to engage in this tedious slog of hitting them while they aren't paying attention running and/or dying. Then sacrificing your titan just to get them out of them like you said. But thats only one of them at most when it could basically be the whole team and before you know it. The games over you either lost or won due to points and all you remember wasn't the sick wall run wingman gun down you did at the start. It was chasing some giant robot while everyone on the map shot at you and if you shoot back then the giant robot kills you.😂
glitch is not a good map, its just a very easy map when you are using car/smgs.
Thanks for calling out my scrub bias 😅
as an overwatch winston otp, i would genuinely gameswap if titanfall got the love it deserves
Your talk of a “basketball” mode gave me a fun idea, have an oddball type mode but with a suitcase, and call it the nuclear football
I disagree with the titans portion. I think Titans feeling overwhelmingly scary to a pilot is how it should be. It forces movement heavy players to play more grounded which coincidentally makes them easier targets for other roaming pilots. I don't feel like titans excessively punishes movement gods but instead forces them to adapt which gives other less-skilled pilots more opportunities to take them down since they're not catapulting everywhere at mach speeds. I also don't feel it is utterly impossible for pilots to kill titans either. I was in a game the other day and a coordinated enemy team of pilots with a combination of AT weapons and some even on invis managed to doom my titan (I was not throwing, about half the team decided to focus on my titan and trust me it's tough taking GL shots, lasers while an invis pilot who you legit can't see is trying to rodeo you), showing that coordinated teamplay is incentivised. I also personally agree with a commenter below saying that they were able to pump the pain onto enemy pilots who were destroying them in the early game via their titan. I'm not particularly great in pilot v pilot combat so having my titan allows the gap between me and a hardcore sweat to shrink (not to mention it's all so satisfying to see momslayer69 who was epg-ing me earlier in the game, absolutely get shredded like nothing by my Legion power shot). All in all I feel what we have now in terms of titans vs pilots is pretty solid.
as someone who studies game design for fun, i feel like titan fall 2, *mostly* gets everything i like in a video game. deaths are quick and snappy, there is no reason to have a player who died to be not allowed to play, this is a video game after all, not a movie. but i do feel like fight times are super low, like i died/i killed someone because i got seen/i saw them first. i feel like pilots would feel better if they had like 10 - 30% more health, you dont even have to touch damage.
and as for titans killing pilots, yeah, its a little way too easy to kill pilots. i feel like getting stepped on should be harder, and getting punched should be harder. it should be like swating a fly, where rather the fly fucking dies, but the fly just gets flung or something. but killing them with a gun actually feels fine. the only real time ive been killed by a titan from a gun is if i know im doing something wrong or if im ejecting.
i also feel like aither the map design is not up to par, or the anti titan weapons deal too much damage, cause sometimes, i feel like i would do more damage if i just got out of my big ass mech and fought the mech on foot. and that doesnt feel particularly great. i feel like titans should be most effective against titans, and pilots being most effective against pilots. it just sucks when i feel like im doing more damage against titans when im a pilot alone. to me, playing as a titan should feel like halo, and playing as a pilot should feel like playing sonic on crack with guns. if that makes any since.
im not too much read up on how to keep a multiplayer game alive but i feel like 1. events would help a lot. and 2. i dont think this type of game needs a competitive game mode. whenever i see a game get a competitive game mode, it immediately becomes toxic. at varying levels. but i dont know if i like that idea. its just what ive seen.
but i feel like games should be fun, fun for everyone. and i dont think this game needs to be competitive. yes, the better player should be winning, but losing should be fun. and i feel like titan fall is about getting caught off gaurd, so even the godlyist gamer should be able to be bamboozled by some joe shmoe using holograms. or something.
Very well put togher video. Definitely agree with a lot of what you said. I really liked the original Titanfall but when picked up this game, the matchmaking was already very sweaty which put me off from committing to it back in the days, but the influx of players lately finally got me into the game and had some great matches. I always felt Titanfall 1's gunplay is like popping plastic wrap bubbles: pilots had inflated health comparing to grunts, moved slower, and their models and hit boxes are larger and round. Titanfall 2 gunplay sometimes feels like threading a needle at the backseat of a motorcycle going 80 miles per hour. Pilots are far more agile and skinnier but also a lot more vulnerable, which makes new players like me feel like we don't stand a chance against the veterans.
To me, Titanfall 2, and by extension Titanfall 1 as well, reminds me a lot of Call of Duty 4 and the early 360 era of multiplayer games: Not a lot of customization options, the balance is highly questionable, no officially supported competitive offering, but damn isn't it so much fun with a player base of varying skill levels.
I think it would be cool that if you got enough kills you could call in a goblin gunship being able to drop ticks pick up you friendly pilots deploy grunts and shoot missiles(this is something that they(the goblin dropship which you and your team spawn in) can and does do cannonicly) or maybe choosing between haveing a goblin or a Titian
Reducing Titan weaponry against pilots removes the git gud aspect of positioning and hard movement for the Titan to track
Also, Titans are supposed to be like tanks in the battle, they’re supposed to be OP against Pilots
How many hours have you played tf2? At 50 hours I fell in love with the fast movement and fast ttk, AND the pilot vs titan balance. I learned that as a pilot taking on a titan by myself was a terrible idea, no matter how good my positioning and movement was. I was instead supposed to notice titan fights happening near cover, and then weave through cover to take shots at distracted titans who would have to choose between tracking me or defending themselves from my teams titans.
Camping is, in my experience, mostly done with a car, spitfire, or similar weapon, and occasionally a sniper. This annoyed me at first but another 20 hours taught me to just equip frag grenades
Melees being one shot and the frequency of one shots in general is what for me makes titanfall titanfall. In other games I find them unfun, but in titanfall where it takes me less than 2 seconds after spawning to find someone and everyone is moving so fast that hitting just one shot is hard enough, I have a blast. Slidehopping is basic titanfall movement, the equivalent of sprinting around the map. Learning how to quickly change directions while maintaining insane speeds is when the game gets SO GOOD.
I love titanfalls structure, and if I were to change anything it would really just be reworking the weapons that cater to camping, nerfing the spitfire, car, and legion and making a better tutorial for its systems. If you want to buddy alongside your titan, you just need an assault chip and learn how to direct your titan’s movement and targeting
Agreed with literally almost everything here.
Imagine if Titanfall had a MOBA-style mode with better AI units.
They’re trying to corner us!
I feel like limiting the amount of titans on teams in gamemodes which have both pilots and titans would be awesome. recently ive been running into games where the whole enemy team has titans and I just wanna play pilots
And what makes the Smart Pistol so amazing is…
I have over 600 hours on titanfall 2 and over 200h on titanfall 1, so I do believe I have some level of understanding what this game is and how it opperates. Titan v pilot is the most unique match up in the hole game due to fact that pilots are inherently weaker than a walking death machine. This however does not mean pilots are overall weak. They have a lot of options to deal with titans themselves. However each option is vastly different than anyother and I think thats what you dont like about them. You like to be fast all the time and never slow down, which titans like ronin requires you to do so. This is in my opiniok how the game should be as dying as a pilot has only two consequenses:1-you lose a battery if you had any2- you lose the yellow part in your titan meter. Meaning that the game insentivises you to change your aproch. For example, to deal with a legion you can use cloak to steal batter and then annoy him with mgl, this would deal a huge amount of damage and would result in your titan meter charged to maximum or to half at the very least. This is why I like this game because it lets you deal with problems however you want. You can either stick to your loadout and get stomped or change your aproach a little to have an easier time. Also quick note even tho this game allows for insane movement it is not the only way of traversel, you can still use smt like holo pilot and still traverse the map and have some fun. Speed-as much as I hate to admit- is not everything.
Sane take. Some pilots are just take a more slow paced and methodical approach. Its tense and engaging, and i prefer to play that way, but every suggestion he gave would disadvantage that playstyle. I mean "sorry that i shot you down when i took an angle, but your the one that wanted to run around like a spider monkey, im sure youll catch me out on your next spawn"
personally, i think the flaw of titanfall is something it has no control over. FPS players inherently have a power fantasy of "carrying" the team. Realistically speaking, hyperfast wall leap movement is an idiotic strategy in a gunfight because you wont be able to hit a damn thing. Leaping around a giant mechsuit is gonna result in you getting swatted like a fly. Those people on roofs standing still and easily able to kill you? That should happen. How it should be dealt with is teamwork. Covering fire. Pinning people down so that others can zip into better positions. Titanfall is in the same trap as almost every other FPS: the gameplay is too fast, it wants to make everyone feel like the top dog, it doesnt want players to think about strategy nor teamwork. While i wont necessarily say thats a bad gameplay style, it is the absolute antithesis to titanfall because of the huge disparity between mechs and pilots. You need solid teamwork for it to work, you need strategy. FPS games have become completely stale because theyre so desperate to play into the power fantasy of individuals since it gets them sales. Then you look at games like Hell Let Loose and Holdfast, and they have immensely strong communities because the gameplay is so solid and teamwork focused, because theyre willing to take the risk of making a game with a slow pace, of losing out on adrenaline junkie players. Yet if you look at their gameplay, they still have the exact same high octane moments, just in less frequent doses which ultimately makes it so much more satisfying
While high speed, short arcade shooters have their place in gaming, ironically for a game like titanfall (with such fluid and quick movement) it just doesnt work because the use of it doesnt pay off. You're constantly in action trying to try out a Cool Thing(TM) and getting it interrupted
Finally someone has the balls to say anything other than tf2 is a perfect and flawless game. Only things I would add is that Tf1 had a great balance between pilots and titans, it treated titans more of just a change in playstyle rather than a killstreak.
And I don't care if they include micro transactions, as little customization as there is in halo infinite, there's still more free customization than there is in tf2.
I think nerfing the titans in a damage aspect is a flawed idea, however I see people’s complaints with titans. The easiest and best fix is the removal of electric smoke as a default for all titans. This should be followed with a change of the rodeo mechanic, making it more in line with Titanfall 1’s rodeo. This forces players to leave their titan to engage the threat making an even fight. Titanfall 1 proved this idea worked and often lead to more interesting engagements. However unique ideas like Northstar’s cluster missile provide ideas to keep it from being the guaranteed most effective way to deal with titan rodeo. Introduction of more effective and damaging titan weapons would also help. More gadgets to disrupt and disarm titans.
I agree with most of your points. However, I think TvP comabat shouldn't be changed. Most of the time, people just don't use their anti-titan weapons. If I encounter a dominant titan team, I just switch to my anti-titan loadout. Satchel charges, SMR, and Thunderbolt + cloak. Deletes titans in an instance.
And in regards to the Smart Pistol and and Pilot Sentry I think they should only target AI. This would make them balanced and very useful in Bounty Hunt and Attrition
I think that LTS is by far the most viable mode competitively. It incentivizes teamwork while in titans and let’s you flourish your movement once you eject. You can also support friendly titans with battery runnjng
i know im late, but can you imagine a battlefield style titanfall mode, like, massive maps, 32 v 32 or something like that, just crazy shit going on all over the place
As someone who comes from a semi-pro league background, giving Titanfall definitive mechanics such as roles and limiting factors isn't the right way to go about it in my personal opinion. It creates arebitraty necessity to dumb down the gameplay.
The competitive scene needs to develop meta naturally and trying to force players into something they don't want to will create a lot of just uncomfortable gameplay, especially in such a free flow style franchise.
Creating multiple interesting modes with their own mechanics would be fine and interesting, but keeping a cohesion between them all would be preferable and none should be marketed as the "right" or "competitive" way to play the game, they could have tester seasons with competitive matchmaking trying out different mixture of game modes and see what the community finds the optimal, rather than conform into a moba style game.
There is much to be learned from league, but implementing their competitive gameplay design philosophies in a completely different ganre would disrupt what we love about Titanfall, and it's how simple it is to play for yourself yet has the depth available for team play and synergy
I'm glad I came across this video. Since I first played it, I've considered Titanfall 2 as one of my favourite shooters, but I always stuck to Pilot vs. Pilot and didn't really know why. I think the titans are great, but it's unfortunate that no other game has the movement and solid FPS mechanics that Titanfall does because the only way to experience it, especially these days, is mostly in modes that have titans enabled.
Like you mentioned, the Pilot vs. Titan dueling is what could really be made better by making pilot movement an advantage. The devs knew it too, as you never had to fight a titan without BT in the campaign. If we do get a Titanfall 3, I'm sure they'll rethink a lot of the balancing, and I'm excited to see what the full potential of Pilot vs. Titan really is!
I truly don’t mind how powerful titans are against pilots. In doom, no one talks about how overpowered demons are, because they’re supposed to be. The point of a demon is to rip and tear everything in their path for about a minute and a half. I think TF2 does the same.
“If you defend the smart pistol I will use it against you”
Based
Also a bit more of a radical idea, but like be more creative with ADS sights, like for instance for snipers, have a sight with essentially is like the softball's ADS and shows the trajectory of the bullet, but with out vastily taking up your whole screen so you can focus on movement, or hell have a boost which gives your gun a smart scope, which works similar to the smart pistol but on your primary weapon.
Changing the game mechanics is not the solution to the problem you proposed. The game is actually called "Titanfall" for a reason.
After religiously playing this game since summer of 2018, my main complain is how the game fills during matchmaking. It's just not fair (nor fun) when novices get paired with streamer level players.
Actually, if it wasn't for the Titans as a concept and the chance they gave you to fight back, I would shelved the game after the single player campaign.
Besides, Ronin is broken both for titans but specially against pilots... Is like having A-Wall and Speed Boost at the same time. 😅
My favourite part of this game is the pilot vs titan gameplay. Idk i just enjoy killing a titan but running up and around it with the softball and using arc grenades to blind it and take its battery. Its alot of fun and only real favourite part of the game
If you deal with titans by camping rooftops, that's a you problem. Yes, the titans are a threat, but there are multiple ways to deal with them, amongst the best ones: cloak, grapple, Thunderbolt/MGL/Archer, Arc Nades, Firestars and good movement. Titans disincentivise camping because all have some sort of AOE capability or a way to negate the threat of a camping pilot. Cover is important, but the emphasis is on *moving from cover to cover*, which usually involves ample wallrunning and slidehopping.
No matter how you slice it, your perspective towards defeating Titans is wrong on a fundamental level.
So wild take but I think they should bring back the smart pistol as a primary weapon, however it would only be able to lock onto ai and not pilots. As for a lore explanation for it could be that pilots all have a coating on their armor to prevent lock on systems from defense systems and smart weaponry.
He talks about how there is a bad learning curve and new players will struggle, but then complains about how camping is too effective. Also he makes the point that titans can kill pilots too fast but pilots can kill players just as fast.
there was a lot of effort on respawns part to make titan vs titan combat in titanfall 2 much more interesting than it was in titanfall 1 (chip shields by holding m1, chip hp by holding m1, move on) but i feel the pilot vs titan combat suffered massively in exchange for that. The most interesting part of titanfall when i first played it in 2015 was that player vs player fight you would have against a giant rocket mech or against a tiny spartan supersoldier, and i feel that in most regards was balanced well up until the end of the games lifespan with titans exclusively running stryder smoke cluster missile arc cannon (you will not be missed)
I think the titan V pilot issue can be resolved by tweaking the pilots abilities.
Each ability actually has a use against titans, it’s just the most popular ones, aren’t as useful, and are better versus pilots
1: cloak
The cloak is widely accessible, meaning newer players are probably going to use it first… unfortunately for them, it kinda sucks player vs player
This is because the cloak is easily spotted even in a titan, so maybe it could literally increase effectiveness when at a distance, and is better vs titans
2: grapple…
This one is definitely the most popular. Idk what to do, it’s not hugely beneficial when moving (vs titans) but can help find safe spots, if a titan is either not looking or not present… but maybe… if it was more of a tether when used on a titan, you could swing *around* friendly and enemy titans, making striking a pilot more difficult without melee
3: stim
Man.. this one is actually hard to fix, maybe it just needs better level design… or… ok this is probably a titanfall 3 idea… but, maybe if the pilot could simply maneuver around titans better (through the legs, or give him a haircut)
Then maybe it would be more viable, but idk I’m not *that* smart
Now here are the ones that are already good
4: pulse knife
Alright… this one.. SUCKS against pilots, but being aware of titans is massively helpful for teammates and for maneuvering tactics
The only thing I would change is to make it have a solid outline around pilots instead of pulsing, then it could potentially help differentiate pilots to grunts
5: drop wall
I love the drop wall but I HATE IT
All it needs is to slide when you throw it, so you move with it
So now you can shoot titans while moving fast in the open
Maybe it can also stay put idk
6: hologram
By FAR my favorite ability. It’s only problem is that it doesn’t encourage fast movement…
I think… it has to be smarter, like not run into stuff so much.
This would make it slightly harder to use for camping, and easier to maneuver around titans, and sneak up on pilots
7: phase shift
I love this one.
It’s already great.
Except… maybe it can make you go through certain walls.
Ok hear me out.. maybe it could encourage knowing the location of your opponents and optimizing putting you in a good position, in order for you to kill them.
So extra surfaces appear (or abilities are given) while in the phase dimension… but… opponents can see a little better where you are going
Which makes sneaking up on them even more useful
I’m forgetting one aren’t I
…
Nope I think that’s all
Argue with me I want to find the real best answer
I liked my own comment
Because I agree with it
Hot Take: They should’ve removed Grapple Hook along time ago because it is simply way too powerful
I hinestly think titans are PERFECT how they are right now. Pilots have many ways of destroying a titan. Cloak, stim, grapple. Rodeo, arc grenade, fire star, anti titan weapons and your own titan.
Also with the whole less time to kill and more health would just ruin the fun, that would be a more counteracctive thing for new people. Standing still and holding a position will always be better than eunning around stimming jumping in the air.
What many people forget is that its not just some party game, it has some war factor i to it as in the campaign and most of it is WAR.
Most of what i hear in this video is just summed up to. Nerf EVERYTHING and just make it apex but with wall running and goofy mechs
I really agree that time to kill needs to be increased, as games with higher ttk like team fortress 2 always feel like such a joy to have a somewhat extended fight, and always having a chance to outskill and outmove your enemy even if they see you first is great.
However, I honestly really dislike your focus on competitive play, I and I think a lot of other people love this game because it's the perfect combination of casual arcadey gameplay, with enough skill expression to be able to flex without needing to go full tryhard mode and be on mic with your whole team constantly. I agree that having a competitive league would be cool, but not focusing the gameplay on just the competitive players preferences to the detriment of casual play like a lot of games nowadays do.
I do not have problems with knowing who's a pilot and a grunt
I can't really explain how this is the case for me, but I disagree with you saying the guns discourages movement. I always die to the guy flying around with a SMG. The spitfire camper on a roof is free food for me, knowing the maps and being kinda fast. Even when they open fire on me from a distance, I can get out of the way with my life. The kraber is very interesting to consider with time to kill balance changes. Nerfing every other gun and keeping the kraber and such 1 hit gets tough. I remember when they did a high TTK mode, and I enjoyed it. I felt it ruined some guns, like the cold war. Everything in Titanfall is difficult to balance for new and old players, but I don't think there is a way around it. I like the death streak idea.
Nooo, I don’t want to indirectly buff titans made to more easily kill pilots
I think titanfall 1 had better balance for pilot vs titan gameplay. Electric smoke was an optional titan ability and you had to sacrifice another ability to use it. I believe in tf2 all titans get electric smoke on a cooldown. You also didn't get automatically ejected off a titan like you do in tf2 after you remove the battery. I feel like reverting those two changes would help in balancing pilot vs titan a bit better.
Also I really dont want them to increase time to kill. The quick ttk just adds to the overall speed of the game and fits well with the speed of the movement. Respawn time is only a few seconds too so dying doesn't feel like a big penalty.
Yeah, spamming grenades into a titan while riding on its back felt great. Also a nice risk/ reward of "how long are you willing to stay in this very exposed position for high amounts of titan damage?"
I would only ever increase ttk by maximum 50%, I get where you're coming from though. Sw00p (Other commenter) suggested buffing pilot aim assist when moving at high speeds. While I don't agree with the implementation, maybe there's a middle ground where we slightly increase ttk while rewarding speed in other (possibly more nuanced) ways. Would be interested to know what you think.
@@I-OMusic Mag-dumping into titans *was* great. It also had a special kind of reward because it bypassed Titan shields, which would otherwise be a regenerating obstacle. This shield regen also made titans feel way more durable if you played them well.
Pilot AT weapons could also deal more damage, but as a Titan, you don't feel like you're getting screwed by them if you play smart and don't let them deal damage past your shields. You either turn tail and get your shields back, or you stay and risk hull damage for a pilot kill.
On the other hand, as a pilot, you feel like you're getting a win on your opponent by forcing them to retreat, whereas in Titanfall 2, there's much less incentive for a titan to run away instead of just camping a pilot's last known location for a bit. The titan can either turn tail and gain nothing, or stay and get a kill.
the game already dose this if you use stim@@I-OMusic
I disagree with the electric smoke change, cloak pilots would just easily kill you
Most of what you've said here is wrong. Titanfall does not need, nor should it ever have a competitive mode. Competitive modes are not healthy for video games, period.
I'm a professional game designer working for a studio who specializes in multiplayer shooters. I agree with almost every take here. Early on in Titanfalls lifespan, I would always think "Why did they design the guns in such a way that invalidates all the cool work they did on movement" so it's nice to hear that echoed by others. You can almost feel how that thought carried over into Apex Legends too. The average time to kill is much longer in that, especially with higher rarity gear as a match continues.
I would love to see a version of the game where they lean into objective based gameplay extra hard and make the time to kill something like double the Apex Legends TTK and with longer regen times. Like you said, they could make weapon projectiles more forgiving to compensate since the movement is such a massive skill in itself. I just want to see the highlights of the game rewarded and emphasized more heavily.
I actually worked with one of the sound designers from Titanfall and Apex a couple years ago. He joined our studio direct from Respawn. Really great guy. I'll have to ask him next time I see him about the sound scape direction he was given.
Thanks for the comment! If whatever you're currently working on has been announced, I'd be more than happy to go show it some love.
From the small amount of time I've spent in Apex, and from watching other people play, it feels like flashy movement does a much better job of giving players interesting options in fights. I feel that could be chalked up to the generally nerfed movement in that game as well as the ttk, since the slower movement makes it much easier to predict where people will be.
I think Titanfall would probably want to lean more into Intel gathering to achieve that rather than slowing everyone down.
That's awesome, audio is actually my main discipline so I'd be really interested to know what he says!
as a player, i can not think of titanfall with reduced life for the titans and slower TTK, the "git gud" factor its not a bad thing, i jist got onto titanfall 3 to 4 weeks ago and i was dogshit... and that was fun, getting crushed and then becoming the one crushing. SBMM would ruin the game
Please let titanfall be titanfall and don’t try to make it just another shooter but with cooler movement. They made tons of movement shooters around the time titanfall cam out and it’s commitment to a shorter ttk has to be a part of why it survived
@@meandtheboyss I would agree here, the low ttk feels really core to this game and inflating it would be a detriment, deflating from the power fantasy and strongly incentivizing unfun to-play-against behavior like deathballs/fullstacks. I believe the core of the issue here is that the 'best' weapons in the game are the 'accurate' low-skill hit-scan ones, weapons like the car, alternator, R97 or Spitfire all have the best time to kills, fire rates, accuracy/spread, reloads and/or magazines sizes in the game. It is to the point is no where there is no contest.
For example, take the CAR, it has a ttk of about 0.21 seconds(close range, no headshots). Sure, its only ever so slightly faster than say a R201 at 0.22, however- the CAR is practically 100% accurate in hipfire, has no ads recoil, it has base magazine capacity of 30, 6 more than the R201 and a faster reload. The downside? It has worse bullet damage- at range, though due to its accuracy it will still kill more consistently. The R201 is the best case here as well outside of those set 4. The crux I see here, is while they are easy to use by say a new player, an experienced player can very well exploit these 'problem weapons' to their full effect, these weapons with very fast ttk's, no downtime(large mags/fast reloads) and ease of effective use; It leads to stomps of games, where one side can't do anything to compete, and all-round unfun time for all those in that game. Players will feel cheated too, as they'll see it more as a weapon over performing than say that players skill. Also to note here, is that while some projectile weapons might have faster ttk's, you need to bring in the time that the projectile takes to reach the target, as hit-scan hits instantly.
At the opposite end of the spectrum here we have a weapons that are high difficulty but still fast ttk and the best example I believe would be the Kraber. Its is a one-shot instant kill, but players rarely feel cheated or stomped. This is due to its difficulty in use, being projectile based and very unforgiving with a slow fire, small mag and long reload. Its also much harder to 'stomp' with I as well, though while it can happen, opposing pilots have many more opportunities to beat them, such as between shots, during the reload or in two-on-ones. Other weapons have this as well, like the EPG or L-Star, the EPG having a relatively long period between shots while having slower projectiles, or the L-Star having a short wind up before it fires, projectile based and a punishing cooling and overheat system. This can further be extended to Titans as well, like with comparing Ronin(more effective, low risk) and Scorch(overall less effective and hard to use). In short, its that hard to use and punishing weapons should kill the fastest, and easy to use risk-free weapons should kill the slowest, and while having good examples of this like in the Volt SMG or the Kraber Sniper, Titanfall 2 fails in a few core areas of its weapon lineup.
I would suggest that the biggest change needed to make the game better it so either buff ADS movement speed so fights while in your sights feel engaging / dynamic, or buff the hipfire on all weapons that currently lack efficient hipfire at ranges close to their ADS ranges. Don't buff the alternator hipfire but use it as a benchmark for where guns should aspire for hipfire accuracy (and also airborne penalties to hipfire should be axed entirely). This might also come in tandem with a nerf to weapons like the spitfire and hemlock to prevent long range still ADS behavior.
This incentivizes movement during gunfights as opposed to stopping the moment you see someone and would go very well with a lengthened TTK to add more depth to engagements.
I feel like nerfing the titans ruins the pawer of titans but rather have anti titan weapons get a buff like archer and charge rifle have less charge up and the other 2 do more damage, and i feel like pilots should stay where there at
I think the fact that titans make you have to change your movement is genius. Now you need to evade two types of insta-killing threat (pilots and titans). Your argument about moving fast being in favor of the titans is not correct in my opinion. I think the issue arises when there is nowhere to go where there is no titan. As a pilot, it is pretty easy to just not get in a face to face fight with a titan, and you shouldn't. I think the titans should still quickly kill pilots, but this can further be balanced in two ways. Reduce the number of titans deployed at once (like some modded servers). Another idea is to reduce the points titans make killing pilots. Maybe from 5 to 4 or 3. Maybe reapers should spawn in response to titans rather than response to points.
Anti-titan weapons shred titans severely. Two or three pilots have the same or more dps as a titan if they are trying to kill a titan. Here is where another issue lies. The campaign does a pretty good job teaching you how to play the game, but there is one thing it does not teach. You never fight a titan (certainly not a skilled one) as a pilot. This leads to pilots in multiplayer skipping on killing titans. You hear people like Iniquity Games constantly telling people to pull out the AT weapons because they don't think to do it themselves. I got some friends to play Titanfall 2 with the fixed servers. In a private match, I showed them that a pilot can completely embarrass a titan is they know how.
Titans are always dangerous to face, but the mobility of a pilot as well as the multiple options they have for dealign damage enables them to be sufficiently effective to keep balance. The only thing more dangerous than a titan, is 5 titans. Having a large body of titans working together makes flanks by the pilots much more difficult and unfair.
I'm only 5 minutes into the video, so maybe you already said all of this...
As a new player and huge enjoyer of TF2, you hit the nail on the head with many of the frustrations when trying to learn the game. Noobs like me are being crushed and we need some type of SBMM
Well first off welcome to the game!
I think back in 2016 it was a little more normal to just have general matchmaking, it *can* be really cool to see players who are way above your level and try to figure out what they're doing differently, but yeah the lack of SBMM basically means the whole game has to be designed around not having it, and nobody wants to feel like the game is either giving them kills or they're being killed out of nowhere
God, please no. Apex has a terrible Matchmaking, i think it just that everyone that play TF2 just loves the game and has been playing for ages
Fair point, a bigger playerbase would just be inherently good for casual players.
Not much of an Apex player so I can't speak for its matchmaking, maybe something closer to Call of Duty, where it's less about strictly balanced teams and more about giving players a nice mix of easy and hard games.
Until I see a single multiplayer game successfully implement a hidden-MMR SBMM system that doesn’t feel like the seventh circle of hell, I’ll have to disagree. Classic general matchmaking seems to be the way to go.
@@RieBec-K agreed the reason I've stop playing COD and apex is because of SBMM. I'm happy to get shat on a couple games if it means I don't have to sweat ever match and stop playing after 2 games because i've had enough. I like being able to run around with the fun guns like the softball and Mastiff without the threat of being shat on. Yh please GOD forbid no Sbmm
The most infuriating thing in this game to me, above all else... Is the allocation of points for titan kills, mostly in attrition. You could put so much work i to killing a titan, wither through burning through all of your hard earned Titan's health fighting another titan, or by carefully and strategically chasing one around the map, chinking away at its health as a pilot. All it takes is one team mate to come along at just the right time and hit thst titan to doom it and all of the credit goes to them when that titan ejects - losing 10 points is no small loss.
Moreover, dooming a titan and then your team mate rushes up and does a titan execution or a rodeo to destroy the titan you just doomed, and they steal 15 points off of you just for clicking one button? Its enraging.
They need a system where you get points based on the amount of damage you do to a titan, so if you do 90% the damage, you get 9 points or something like that. Its just always been an annoying design quirk thst can mean a lot of your hard work fighting against titans in this game can go unrewarded and it ends up making your own team mates your biggest competition
What if instead of a royal for death streaks, power weapons are granted. Smart pistol, sentry, an advanced cloak, a hitscan Kraber, so on..
I think the titans need to stay powerful. I easily get outrun and outgunned in pvp. If anything, I think the old TF1 method of rodeo should be brought back. Pull the battery then stay up there till the titan is killed or pilot is killed. None of the on and off. A couple pilots focussing on one titan can easily drain their health. We need more emphasis on teamwork. If anything ad more connectivity between hiding spots so you can relocate undetected instead of getting caught in the open at homestead.
I have to say that I love all of your thoughts. Wish many were implemented.
Love your take on the A-Wall rework and damage drop off with range; that might actually make sniper rifles seem more viable again. No need to buff the DMR or charge hack charge rifle back up to a 1 shot behind the A-Wall despite me being a DMR style gun lover.
I recently tried the Spitfire for fun. It should not be as easy to get kills from as far away as it is.
I was thinking perhaps adopt a Black Ops 2 pick 10 system with inherit legit trade offs based on your choices.
Perhaps some to buff duration at the expense of cool down.
And buff poor Papa Scorch.
All the best!
A-wall is an anti titan tool, any rework/balance changes need to keep it/make it more that way.
Spitfire, car, and legion all need a nerf
I feel like scorches main problem is that the way it looks like he should be played and the actual optimal way to play him can be very different
why nerf legion? he"s always been right next to scorch in the trash bin lol@@jacobpinson2834
3:03 They arent antithetical to the games core design, its antithetical to what the playerbase at large believes is fun about the game, there are plenty of items and abilities that proves the game isnt just about wallrunning and advanced movement but also about camping, in a corner, like a pussy. A-Wall, Snipers, Arc Grenade, gravity star, these are all things that require you to either hunker down and stay still or stops other players in their tracks. Its why only 2/7 of the pilot abilities have anything to do with movement. The game has advanced movement and thats what draws players in, its the best part of the game easily, but what the playerbase expects and what the developers intend are two different things. The playerbase is expecting top notch advanced movement game from the get go, its why 75% of the playerbase uses grapple, 10% use the stim and the last 15% use everything else, those are made up statistics, but tell me that isnt too accurate to the truth. The game is obviously designed around Pilots being super campy a lot of the time, camping is the number 1 way that Pilots can deal with Titans, utilizing their small hitboxes and cover to poke and prod to gain Titan meter. The game is a lot campier than people would like to admit because everyone agrees that it is lame and god forbid anything about Titanfall 2 be lame, you cant have legitimate criticism about how the game is designed without people jumping down your throat calling it a perfect 10/10 masterpiece.
I find that good pilots can band together and destroy a couple titans without so much as a scratch. Of course depending on if the map is titan or pilot oriented. But there have been multiple instances where i have been outplayed in a titan due to pilots trading shots on top of buildings and using good movement to throw me off. I have done it to others as well, i think that when you get into the higher skill levels the gap between pilot and titan power closes some. Even though titans can exploit a mistake of a pilot alot more than the pilots can of titans, if you learn how to deal with that type of titan then the learning curve or power gap between titans and pilots becomes exponentially easier to deal with after more time.
Summing up the video:
"The problem with Titanfall 2 is that, the proletarian is oppressed by the bourgeoisie, so the most obvious solution is to nerf the titans to the point that they feel like they're made of toilet paper, so that the poor pilots can kill them as easily as they can kill each other, thus negating the need for titans in the first place in a game called Titanfall"
First, WTF? Second, do you know that there is already 3 games exactly like that?
I present to you, CoD Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3 and Infinite Warfare
woah that was an information overload, it felt much longet than 20 minutes!
I like the video but I disagree with some key things. Number one is that I think the low ttk IS the equalizer in the game. Anybody can kill anyone at any time no matter the skill level. Increasing that would hurt the new players whose aim aren’t there yet and they could get discouraged and quit because they can’t be effective. But obviously that depends on how much of an increase you mean.
I know this is a given, but like more attachments and maybe more of a gunsmith system for weapons would be fantastic as well. Also more secondaries cuz jeez, 3 ain't enough
Give pilots some sort of anti-titan armor or jammer, make them take a BIT, (not much, just a bit) more effort to kill
But idk anything, I've played like 2 online games before it crashed
No, no, you've got it lol.
Also, it's working again.
Honestly as a titanfall 2 sweat i disagree with you, its so easy to kill titsns that you shouldn't make them even weaker. (Monarc's spray increases kill time anyway and you can't make a player withstand a projectile thats as big as his body in scorches case). But i have to agree i hate ronin 😂
I really wish that more people played and enjoyed Live Fire. It's by far my favourite mode, and is very competitive when in good games
Imma be honest, i think you missed the mark on this one :/
Titans are supposed to be more powerful, and they're at a pretty good place as a whole.
There's few here and there, such as tone who's too poweful, and north star who has some issues.
(Tone needs a smaller bullet, and northstar needs penatrating rounds as a default.)
But, again, as a whole they are balaced in respect to pilots. They just need some balances to even themselves out with eachother.
As for the AI, i think its pretty good too.
The fact they use the same weapons is quite neat and dince they are so inaccurate its not so much of a problem. Especially since they can't chase you down.
The grunt and spectres looking like pilots is really not an issue. It will catchbyour eye every once and a while, but thats part of the fun.
The only one i dislike is the reaper, (which i think would be better off with the same durability that they have in regular difficulty on frontier defense.)
Having the other ones there add a lot to the attrition mode. In fact they raise up the skill floor greatly.
Id highly recommend you make it a point to engage the AI more while playing, it will improve your play experiences and your hamstringing your performance as well.
I think you might find that it puts some things into perspectiven and reframes some of your other complaints.
Just for the sake of credibility here,
I've got over 459 total hrs, according to the multi-player stat screen.
Anywhere between 180 and 200 of which was spent in Attrition as a pliot.
(There's some estimation involved, but I did do the napkin math, promise 😊)
It'd be nice if you could buy weapon mods with the regular credits. I mean, you can buy kits, abilities, hell, even monarch with it, why not weapon mods so when you wanna try out a new weapon you dont have to be at a disadvantage until you level up?
Yeah, I feel like the idea was to get players used to the base weapon so that upgrades would feel more like upgrades than “oh, but I have to not use the meta augment to try out this new arrangement for a few games”
Agreed, I would probably spend a lot more time with the weirder weapons if I could equip tactikill from the start
Honestly, the gun upgrades aren't all that, just minor improvements most of the times. Mainly focused on reliability (extra mag, quick reload).
And I'll be honest, I've never noticed much benefit from tacti-kill.
Titans are the best part of the game, change my mind
I agree with a lot of this, but I don’t think the Titans necessarily need to be NERFED although I do recognize their strength against pilots and their aspect on the battlefield but pilots aren’t by themselves super soldiers like Spartans from halo, they’re just faster humans/robots although I do recognize how changing titans in this way would make it easier for game balance. after all of this game is not called manrun, it is titanfall. But I do find myself yearning for competitive mode.
Most of these suggestions are quite honestly what I am afraid they will do with titanfall 3.
I'm sick of good games being ruined by catering to esports.
A single pilot should not be a match for a titan, or your titan suddenly means nothing. A group of focused pilots can already shred a titan like nobody's business; there's no need to allow a single pilot to be an even match for a titan, that defeats the entire point of a titan. I already find myself delaying my titan in favor of pilot gameplay when there are mostly pilots on the field so I don't lose my titan before the enemy titans drop.
Reducing melee damage for titans when even pilot can oneshot you sounds... eeeh? Nerf fucking sword... eeeehhh?
But having a longer time to kill also means if your new player is standing still shooting at the movement god of the lobby they may have gotten the kill with a short TTK but a longer TTK means the skilled player will win almost every time as the movement god now has more time to re-adjust and further maneuver and the new player has lost the element of surprise and is a sitting duck due to their lack of skill.