🚀 go-pugleaf

>I've been playing Player Unknown's Battlegrounds for about a week.

    Very good summary.  And it pretty much covers why it's not for me -- I'd 
likely get frustrated with dying repeatedly without ever seeing who got me 
:)  It does sound great for the modern casual gamer:  Jump in immediately, 
play a fixed length round, repeat as desired.  But this all-on-the-surface 
gameplay is also it's drawback, and I'm seeing multiple posts where players 
fairly quickly get to the 'ok, I've seen all there is to this' point, and 
they're done.

You don't mention playing with teammates, but one positive comment I've seen 
is that in PUBG you don't have to worry about what they're doing or not 
doing, as in some of these competitive MP games.

I like the audio tips.  Audio is so neglected in games.  Does PUBG directly 
support surround sound in some fashion?  I've pre-ordered a '3D headphone' 
set, but how well it will be supported is a big unknown.

rms 

On Tue, 11 Jul 2017 19:00:39 -0600, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>I've been playing Player Unknown's Battlegrounds for about a week.
>
>    Very good summary.  And it pretty much covers why it's not for me -- I'd 
>likely get frustrated with dying repeatedly without ever seeing who got me 
>:)  It does sound great for the modern casual gamer:  Jump in immediately, 
>play a fixed length round, repeat as desired.  But this all-on-the-surface 
>gameplay is also it's drawback, and I'm seeing multiple posts where players 
>fairly quickly get to the 'ok, I've seen all there is to this' point, and 
>they're done.

If someone explained the inevitable death ending to me on paper, I
would probably get the impression the game is not very fun.  It's not
the process of dying that's fun, it's the moments leading up to it.
It's the gaming manifestation of something like Battle Royale or
Hunger Games.   The sense of having a relatively large portion of the
world to yourself (for a while), then being under time pressure to get
to a specific area of the map.  And, with each successive move, you
know there is a greater chance of running in to someone else.  So
there is this sense of increasing tension as you scramble from
building to building, trying to find the best supplies and weapons you
can so that when you do need to fight you'll be hopefuly in better
shape than your foes.  That part of the game is more of an explore and
looting exercise, but there is something about the open world in this
game that is completely immersive.  

In most games, being in a small village and running into an enemy
(computer or human) is no big deal, they are usually all over the
place.  But in this game, contact with the enemy early in the round is
quite rare, so that if you're in a village trying to loot and all of a
sudden you hear something, there is this "oh shit" feeling where you
go into stealth mode, trying to gauge where he is, what he's doing,
etc.  The tension at this point is off the charts.  And yes, if you
should die, you're quickly pulled out of the tension into a moment of
disappointment, but then you realize the game just found the optimal
endorphin cycle in your brain and you feel compelled to try one more
round.  That aspect of it makes it so much more than a typical
shooter.

>You don't mention playing with teammates, but one positive comment I've seen 
>is that in PUBG you don't have to worry about what they're doing or not 
>doing, as in some of these competitive MP games.

This reminds me, I actually have not even tried playing duo or squad
yet, I'm having too much fun playing solo.  I haven't even researched
team play enough to know whether the game puts duo and squad teams up
against solo players, or if the choice to play solo / duo / squad
determines the type of match you enter.  I think one of the reasons
I've stuck to lone-wolfing so far is because of the importance of
audio in these stealth-combat situations.  If I am working with
someone else, and they are talking when I need to hear where twigs on
the ground are breaking, then it is going to offset any advantage of
working as a team.  And some of these guys are like chatty cathy dolls
when they have a mic, they don't know when to stop screwing around and
use voice comms as an effective team mechanism, so I always wonder
about the maturity of my team mate in games like this.  But they say
team play is good, so I will try it soon.

>I like the audio tips.  Audio is so neglected in games. 

I've noticed that audio has a huge impact on immersiveness of a game
for me.  Everything from the sounds the guns make to the ambient
environmental sounds to music matters in huge amounts.

> Does PUBG directly 
>support surround sound in some fashion?  I've pre-ordered a '3D headphone' 
>set, but how well it will be supported is a big unknown.

I'm not sure if it supports Dolby surround or not, there is no toggle
that I can see in audio settings.  I can tell you that at least with
my headphones (Steelseries Siberia 840), determining position of enemy
movement or fire is not a problem, because for example if you hear
gunfire in the right earcup, and move the mouse slightly you can
determine by the volume increase or decrease of the noise whether the
enemy is front right, front rear, or straight right.  Many years ago
during my competitive CS days, I used to use a 4.1 speaker setup with
front and rear speakers, but over time I just determined that
right/left is enough in most games for the reason I mentioned above. I
haven't really done extensive 3D audio tests with my 840s, maybe I
should.  The few times I have experimented with Dolby surround I
wasn't really impressed with the results, but one of these days I'll
try again.

I can't say enough good things about the Siberia 840s.  They are
expensive, but I noticed the Siberia 800s (same I think but without
Bluetooth) are going for peanuts right now at $160 a pair on Amazon,
big price difference between the 800 and 840.  In addition to overall
quality, the killer feature is the easy swap battery and the way they
recharge in the dock.  This means even though they are wireless, you
are literally never have to worry about charging hassles, you just
keep one battery in the unit, and when it runs low take it out, put in
the charging dock, and put the fully charged one in the headphones and
repeat (takes only a few seconds), and they go for crazy amounts of
time between charges.  You can of course get a wired set of headphones
that will work just as well in terms of game audio, but for me the
wire is a hassle, I love being able to get up and walk across the room
or whatever without removing the headphones or just generally having
wires hanging off of me when I'm gaming.

I do like the Bluetooth feature of the 840s, I can listen to music
from my phone while gaming (in games where it makes sense, wouldn't
want to do that in PUBG because it would mask important game sounds),
but given the current price difference between the 800 and 840 I
wouldn't pay an extra $200 just for bluetooth.  The 840s have
apparently gone up in price while the 800s went down, creating a
larger price gap.

For speakers (games where headphones aren't an absolute necessity), I
use Klipsch Promedia 2.1.

Follow up:

Tried out a few rounds of Duo mode (only one other teammate)... great
fun.  As much as I enjoyed lone wolfing, I think this might turn out
to be my favorite mode.  It helps tremendously when you've got each
other's back during enemy encounters.  I've been playing with people
from all over the world, some of which are just adept enough at the
English language to speak and understand basic commands, but it still
results in highly effective teamwork. There's something about having a
2 player team, knowing that you'll only encounter enemies two at a
time (at least early in the game) that really works.

I've only tried one squad game (4 teammates), and first impressions
are that it can get a little weird if not everyone is using their
microphone, decides to jump out of the plane at different locations,
or other things that get the team out of sync.  Much easier to stay in
sync with only two players per team.   However I plan to come back to
this and try more rounds, this isn't my final conclusion.

>Tried out a few rounds of Duo mode

    I'm eager to hear about the FPS mode they'll add next month also!

rms

On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:21:33 -0600, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>Tried out a few rounds of Duo mode
>
>    I'm eager to hear about the FPS mode they'll add next month also!
>
>rms

My understanding is the first-person-only mode will be a "hardcore"
mode, where a match only plays in that perspective.  The idea is that
first and third person options don't mix in a game like this (because
third person gives the ability to take cover behind an object, while
simultaneously seeing whats on the other side for example, giving an
unfair and unrealistic advantage);  as it stands now, nobody really
plays in first person.  They are also making some improvements to
first-person itself, because having been developed with a focus on
third-person, it feels a bit clunky in first person.

I see it as potentially making the game more immersive at the
expensive of higher difficulty.  It will be more difficult because for
example it will take longer to search a building (the player will only
see the items within their point of view rather than the items around
them), and in theory it will make it harder to survive ambush
situations, since it will take longer to visually locate enemies.

It's possible that they will make enough tweaks to FPS mode that it
simply feels and plays like a different game, doing things to equal
out the difficulty (one thing they could do is slow the timer, giving
players more time to loot areas).  

My thinking is that unless they do, hardcore more will be more or less
what it sounds like -- a way for existing PUBG players to try
something a bit more challenging after they've rackup up lots of
experience with the base game.

More updates on duo mode.  It just gets better and better.

The tight level of cooperation between you and your teammate is some
of the best I've seen.  For whatever reason, duo mode only seems to
attract players interested in teamwork, no screwing around or juvenile
headaches.  Even some of the youngest players I've encountered (a
couple of them sounded like they were about 10 yrs old), turned out to
be excellent team mates, able to work effectively as a pair.

One thing I observed only after my skill level improved (something
that is ongoing in this particular game) is that when you and your
teammate survive long into the round (for example the two of you are
in the top 6 or 8 players left), you encounter these incredibly
intense two-player team dynamics.  You both want to win, but you might
have somewhat differing ideas on where or how you should position
yourselves to do so.  You typically don't want to drift too far from
each other, because if your teammate is downed (but not killed) you
want to be able to revive him.  However, in most cases if you are down
to the last 10 players, you're holding on for dear life in a dangerous
situation, and the chances of actually being able to revive him
without getting killed get reduced by the second.

So, as the overall intensity level grows, the way you work with your
teammate changes.  You both are faced with this tasks of balancing
individual tactical ideas, personal compromise, and the not-so-easy
task of simply agreeing on the best plan to keep both of you alive (or
at least one of you) as long as possible.

I do understand how some people could say they've "seen it all" after
a week or so of play, they are referring to the fact that there are a
fixed number of cities on the (huge) map as opposed to procedurally
generated terrain (thank god), and while knowing where to find weapons
changes with each round, the process of looting is what it is and
could be considered repetitive.  In duo mode you're doing more than
just grinding though, you're also working with your teammate to trade
items you've found to be sure you each have the best loadout available
before you head into serious combat.

The crux of the game, where you and your team mate are progressively
making your way to the target area, plays out differently each time,
and just feels like a different game.  It's not just the game
mechanics themselves, it's the in interaction between players that
creates the dynamic variation.  

I suppose at some point everyone will get tired of it unless the devs
progressively add more content, but right now I see player fatigue as
a long way off, this game is already a sales phenomenon.

That said, I'm still not a huge fan of squad mode, which is rare for
me because I'm normally a fan of squad based games.  In this game, it
just lacks the tight focus and teamwork of having only two player
teams.  If duo mode weren't available, I'm sure I'd probably be more
interested in squad play.

On Fri, 14 Jul 2017 18:21:33 -0600, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>Tried out a few rounds of Duo mode
>
>    I'm eager to hear about the FPS mode they'll add next month also!

First-person only mode is out now (noted in the UI with the caveat of
"beta"), and that's all I've been playing since.

It does become a different game, and there are some things to get used
to. For example, when entering buildings to loot weapons and
equipment, it requires a bit more diligence to be sure you don't miss
a useful item, because of the fact that you can't see the areas around
you other than the field of view you're directly facing.  It's not a
disadvantage of course, because it applies to all players, but it does
highlight one reason that it's not always easy for a development team
to just change the player perspective in a game and call it done, it
requires some thought as to how the gameplay will be affected.  

Overall, it does feel like there's a bit more work to be done on first
person mode, but it is more than playable in its current form.
Everyone I've played with in duo mode says they prefer playing in
first-person.

>First-person only mode is out now (noted in the UI with the caveat of
>"beta"), and that's all I've been playing since.

    By other comments I've seen, yeah this would be the way to play this. 
And I'm still resisting it, as MP titles like this feel like a poor use of 
my limited gaming time.

rms 

On Thu, 10 Aug 2017 11:07:00 -0600, "rms"
<rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote:

>>First-person only mode is out now (noted in the UI with the caveat of
>>"beta"), and that's all I've been playing since.
>
>    By other comments I've seen, yeah this would be the way to play this. 
>And I'm still resisting it, as MP titles like this feel like a poor use of 
>my limited gaming time.

I'm similar in the limited gaming time, but different in how I use it.
I like titles like PUBG because, once learned, I can jump in for a
half an hour here or there to play a around with no real consequence
of stopping.  A SP game with a storyline requires me to stick with it
until completion, otherwise I lose track of the story, characters, and
eventually interest.

For the same reason I don't read a lot of fiction.  I tend to prefer
non-fiction where each chapter can stand on its own as much as
possible.  Sometimes I will read short stories for the occasional
fiction fix.