I think we're starting to find our way as a team now. v0.5 was probably the first release that *started* to play like I had hoped it would. But there's a lot of things fundamentally wrong with v0.5.
eg:
- weapon fidelity is totally mismatched to engagement ranges
.. so we've upped the map size bar to 17 sq km and 1000m engagement ranges for v0.6; and I want to encourage all PR map devs to build out 17 sq km maps with a minimum of 800m engagement ranges where combined arms are to be used
- A learning point in v0.5 was just how bad implementing half of an intended design can be; we only put in half of the intended spawn mechanics overhaul and I personally was really not too thrilled about how that ended up playing
.. so we're wrapping up the rest of the intended changes with v0.6
I think v0.6 is going to be an outstanding release. There's so much major game play changes that we've implemented based on learning about game play dynamics. Lots of folks will dislike v0.6 cuz we're trying our best to eradicate gameyness.
I recently dug up my Saitek X36 and Logitech Formula Force pedals. My X36 was fubar, so I ended up buying an X52 Pro. I've been using those in testing PR v0.6 for a couple of days now and am really enjoying the increased immersion a HOTAS and Pedals setup brings. I still suck, and it's actually quite a bit harder to master flying with a joystick and pedals... but really cool that you can do stuff like set the throttle to 60% as opposed to the "binary" setting with WASD.
We'll be having a short open beta with v0.6 to make sure we get a good shot at addressing as many bugs as possible (we'll never shoot for a bug free release, as that's an incredibly inefficient use of time) as well as some opportunities for load testing and game play testing.
Thanks again.. more to come