PLEASE READ: My suggestion on what to update in Gears of War 2

[Auriel]

1. Fix the unnecessary rag-dolling during a smoke stun. Either make it simply cause the player to pause and cover their heads while still standing, fall to their knees (maybe shake their heads somewhat as though they were shaking off the stun), or make them move slowly while struggling to walk for roughly 2+ seconds without the ability to lift their weapon.

2. Reconfigure the sniper rifle. The targeting is excellent already so no need for tweaks there. Either you need to bring back active downs from Gears of War 1 or cause the player to be stunned in someway from taking a hit from an active shot that isn't a head shot. Perhaps the player stops in place, and momentarily grabs the part of their body shot and screams in pain for roughly 2-3 seconds, or slightly keels and hunches, gasping in pain for 2-3 seconds while still allowing the player to move (perhaps in the roadie run animation), albeit very slowly, giving the opposing sniper approximately 1+ second, assuming they've achieved an additional active reload, for a clear head shot (or additional body shot for a down). The way the sniper rifle is configured today its a weaker choice in the face of the torque bow, which can cause instant death and more severe damage without a headshot.

3. A frag grenade turned into a mine should be modified to be more of a deterrent from entering an area rather than causing instant death. Either reduce the blast radius by 50%, reduce the planted frags ability to damage by 50%, or cause instant death only by direct contact, with near adjacency only causing damage.

4. The shotgun needs to be modified to allow for hip firing similar to Gears of War 1. The stopping power of the Lancer, Hammerburst, or pistol weapon is already a great deterrent to charging or rushing, which was a complaint in Gears of War 1. The additional tweaking of the shotguns hip firing, whether intentional or unintentional, is almost crippling to a fire fight with the shotgun.

5. Offer "player" matches as an online multiplayer option, similar to Gears of War 1. As entertaining as "public" matches are for ranking purposes, gamers also want to be able to play other random gamers, many of whom become new friends, and continue playing with them. Personally, I met most of my Xbox Live friends through "player" matches. The "public" matches have created smaller social opportunities than the "player" matches of old. The added competitiveness and relative small time window of gaming with new players in "public" does not offer what the "player" matches from Gears of War 1's online multiplayer feature provided for that purpose. In addition it is near laborious to play with gamers online in "public" matches from far countries when forced by the "public" system. I can recall one game I personally played in with a host that was in Kuwait (I'm in the western US) and was disgusted. I fail to see the competitive spirit of playing a game that I cannot possibly win, due to lag. In "player" matches, one only needed to search for a more suitable room where the host was close enough that lag was not major issue.
I think that Gears of War 2 would thrive with 3 options: "Public" matches, "Player" matches, and "Private" matches.

5b. If player matches are not a viable addition, give players the choice to play "public" matches regionally, or worldwide. Too often poor connections caused by distant and/or low speed hosts and players caused absolute frustration with Gears of War 2's online "public" matches.

6. The chainsaw really needs to drop after 1-2 shots; similar to Gears of War 1.

7. The time frame lull between spurts of the Gorgon pistol seems too wide. I suggest either a time cut on the lull altogether or an active reload causes the time cut on the lull. This may warrant a lessening of the damage it inflicts to prevent an overpowering of the weapon with the additional speed. So far the Gorgon is mostly unused by many players I've observed.

Also I'd like to complement Epic on the perfection of the Boltok pistol. Being one of the few players who used it in Gears of War 1, I am happy to see it being a more effectual weapon this time around.

I hope my suggestions have been informative without seeming negative. I have enjoyed the Gears of War universe for 2+ years, and been a gamer for 27 years. I would really like to see the experience improved and offer my thoughts on the matter in the hopes of helping you create a more dynamic and fun atmosphere.

Thank you.

[OVERKILL 501]

Hmmmm, You have some good points in your post but here is where I need to say some things.....

1. The things you've talked about in your post are true *except for the sniper* but before I get into that is.

This update is too big to be done soon or even possible. What your really asking for is a whole new game. Your update is basically making a new game GoW3. I'm not saying that your idea is not good. I'm just saying this update is just to big. Just making the new animations will take a lot of time. There is so much coding that would go into that. Its just too big.

2. The sniper thing......
I don't think that the sniper need to be changed to one shot downs. In my opinion that was the worst thing in GoW1. Don't get me wrong I'm a great GoW1/GoW2 sniper. I just hated one shot to the stomach and boom I'm down.

3. The G-nade thing, I think that everyone wants the Frag mines to be edited. Every corner you walk around your scared of being blown up.....I hate having to look around corners, or throw frags around corners, Just to make sure me or my teammates don't get blown up by a stupid nade.

4. The Players match thing has been talked about before. So had the locked private matches. But that update seems out there too. Not as hard as the re-animation but still a little hard.

5. Right on about the chainsaw thing. That idea has been around too, but that should be in an update. That would be a quick and easy fix! If only I worked for Epic :rolleyes:. I would be a man for the people :D.

6. The gorgon pistol. Not a lot of people actually use it. But when I have, I do notice the slowness of the shots. Another easy fix! But this would probably be on a later update :(. They need to fix the soft walls and glitches that are in the game at the moment.
_____________________

All in all you've got some great ideas in your post. Very nice and well thought things. Just I don't believe the sniper thing needs to be easyer. The sniper is pretty east to get snipes on. Just need to aim for the head :D

*I might have to edit this, I don't like to proof read :p*

[Auriel]

I think even if the frag beeped when planted, slowly at first and then quickly as time went on and then just goes poof and disintegrates or disappears, it would make it so much better.
The problem with the sniper in regards to online play is that the head is not always in the spot actually shot at due to lag, or is too difficult to shoot when moving, and most people are always on the move. The fact that it is only good for headshots makes it less of a weapon I want to use or cause me to completely favor the torque bow. I agree, one shot downs were annoying in Gears of War 1, therefore the rifle would be better suited to handicap the active shot player in someway to allow a better placed additional active shot to the head or to the body for a down.

[faithfulsamurai]

I hope that Epic fixes the following...

1. The ability for the other team to hit standby on their modem or use a lag switch and make the other team lag out for easy kills

2. Going down in rank because your team is winning and the host quits and the rank system thinks you lost.

3. The ability to keep teams from hiding their Leader off the map in Guardian...the other team spawning right behind you in a fire fight

4. Stop people for being able to use the Lancer and the Shotgun with the shield

5. Using smokes to get through the security lasers on security without pushing the button

6. People floating in the air and being able to snipe or shoot or being able to shoot through walls with the shotgun

7. The ranking system...right now people just shut off their xbox 360's right before the match ends and they keep their kills and it doesn't record that they lost

8. The cover system...sometimes when taking cover it makes you float over the wall and you can't move till the other team kills you

9. Tone down the Smokes when hit by three or more you fly through the air sometimes off the map and other times you can't get up for almost a minute

10. The shield and door glitch on Pavilion...better yet just open the doors like they are on Wingman

11. Make the weapon spawning more even...On Hail the COG is at a disadvantage, since the Locust get the Frags and Torque Bow every round

[Auriel]

Completely agree with you faithfulsamurai. I'm so sick of four-bar players dropping at the first hint of a loss. I have yet to play a four-bar that was actually good. They are one-bars posing as a four-bar. Whats the point if you're rank doesn't reflect your skill. Why go through the trouble to play better players via higher rank and then drop to avoid a loss when you get your ace handed to you?

[HaydenH]

I agree with pretty much everything here.

Instead of changing the sniper, change the TB.
Make charge time longer and splash damage less.

Sniper is an awesome weapon when used with a partner who has HB. One sniper shot and 1 or 2 HM rounds they they're down, it works amazing. (can also be done the other way around)

[xxxsrgxxx]

also on subway when cog always spawns with torque bow

[NSC BuGz]

ive seen suggestions like this everywhere!!!

And i doubt they will bring back the sniper riffle active down back that would make gears of war 2 100% noobish and its currently at 98% the chainsaw can suck you in from 5 feet away throw a smoke granade and stand over you with a chainsaw. Now imagine people camping with sniper(with active down ability) and tagging nades/smokes on the walls think about it man very very noobish!!

[Auriel]

I agree if it was total active downs, but ideally that's not what we want. Ideally it would still require skill for head shots, but there has to be an equalizer for making body shots just as dangerous which is why I suggested that the active shot player should hunch over (as in near stunning pain) in the roadie run stance, but still can move, slowly, for 2-3 seconds. This animation already exists in the stopping power on roadie run animation. The only difference would be that the shot player wouldn't lift his arm to protect himself and also not be able to lift his weapon. This would also accomplish 2 things. 1. A slightly lowered body could make the head harder to hit the second time if there is decent cover yet could make it easier because they are moving slowly. All in all it would still require a good sniping skill for the head shot. 2. An additional body shot, active, would cause a down.
However both would require an additional active shot.
I really think this is the best option. Especially for the fact lag can interfere and a slower moving target is best for a lag situation.

[jasva]

how to know if the people of epic is seen this ?
maybe they wont do nothing bcs they still getting alot of money
hope they fix all the issues they had in this MP.

[sooner619]

1. Smoke grenade "knockdown" is inconsistent (especially on stairs). I suggest to tone down the "knockdown" time.
2. Shotgun, I am ok with the slowness of the fire rate, but the inconsistency with the shots and how it does not stop the chainsaw with just one or two hits. The shotgun is now unreliable and the stopping power of the other guns is enough to avoid the run and shoot style gameplay of GoW1.
3. Chainsaw is still like a vacuum, and it, as far as I know, is suppose to stop revving when you are shoot, this does not happen.
4. Invisible glitch! I believe that explains itself.
5. Boomshield glitch! it is easy to kill the "F*****" who does the glitch but it is a irritating thing. For those who don't know what this, it is a glitch where you can have ANY weapon with the boomshield to protect you. This can also be done with a meatshield.

These are the only problems that I see to need to be fixed in the near future. I know of five of my XBL friends who will not play the game until it is "fixed" I know of many other people who have returned the game altogether. I love GoW1 and I enjoy GoW2, I play the game more then I should but I feel like these improvements will best help EPIC to attract the GoW1 fans back and to keep all the fans they have now. Those fixes will also make the clan and everyday player much more satisfied with the game and continue to play it as long as they did with GoW1.

Thank you for reading and thank you EPIC for the great games you have produced, I hope you read this and consider what I have suggested.

gamertag: sooner619

[Auriel]

It would be nice if they were listening but the cynical side of me wants to say not at all. I told my friends last night that this game, as it is right now, feels like a beta. I'm pretty sure Epic knew they were going to have to patch but they had a release date to keep. I have a hard time believing they felt it was where it ideally needed to be. The news release at the menu screen suggests otherwise.

[Malicious16]

Epic already has their work cut out for them. They are working on fixing the shield glitches, a lancer glitch that involves infinite ammo, and some other host advantage issues. At the top of my list personally, that I hope they would do is the following...

I hope instead of the servers choosing a host at random, they choose a player with the best connection.

[Malicious16]

Sorry for the double post, but I also would like for them to maybe layout exactly how we can rank up. This doesn't really have to be done in an update... they can present that to us here on the site. What would be nice though for a title update would be a progression of our ranks in our War Journal and what we must do to proceed.

[Auriel]

Sorry for the double post, but I also would like for them to maybe layout exactly how we can rank up. This doesn't really have to be done in an update... they can present that to us here on the site. What would be nice though for a title update would be a progression of our ranks in our War Journal and what we must do to proceed.
I guess we'll see if they implement any ideas from these forums. I agree there is no manual on how the ranking system works. Really, how many 4 bar guys deserve it if it is about skill? There's only a handful of 4 bars that don't cheat in this game.

[Tomeeboy]

There are definitely some major issues in the game right now. I think before we get into things like tweaking the weapons (which, for the most part, I'm happy with anyway), some of the big glitches/exploits need to be fixed.

The standby glitching is real problem, and I notice more of it the higher in rank I get (as I start to get matched with more and more 'fake' rank 4 players). We played a match the other night where the ENTIRE opposing team started going invisible once it was clear that we were going to win the match. We STILL beat them, which just goes to show how pathetic the people who do this are, but it was definitely not an experience I'd like to repeat on a nightly basis. I also hate ending up on the same team with somebody who is doing this, because I'd rather not be associated with somebody who has to cheat to win. It's no fun when some douche-bag on your team hits standby and freezes everyone up, then you see the entire enemy team die 15-20 seconds later when they reconnect and the game syncs back up.

This issue is obviously a side-effect of code that was implemented to give the appearance of uninterrupted online gameplay, even for somebody with a less than reliable connection. It is being exploited, though, and I think the number of people being negatively effected is much larger than the number of people with poor connections who benefit from having such a generous timeout delay. Any player who's connection appears to cut out for more than a couple seconds should be dropped from the game and replaced with a bot. Right now, it seems like the amount of time that has to pass before they cannot recover their connection is a bit closer to 15-20 seconds, maybe even more, which is ridiculous.

In my opinion, the standby tampering and other lag-related exploits/issues (invisible players, extreme stuttering & rubberbanding, inability to pick up weapons / stuck in run with no weapon) are the #1 thing ruining the game for me right now.

Coming in at a close 2nd place would have to be the poor matchmaking process (including the regularly terrible choice of hosts), mixed with the absurd number of quitters. People are going to quit, regardless of what Epic does, but there would be a lot less of it if the matchmaking server would choose quality hosts and not stack teams horribly on occasion. When people quit before a match even begins, it should pull in new players to fill those spots, there is absolutely no reason not to do this. Why even start a game when one team is down 2 or 3 players before they even leave the lobby? Why should a team have to play at a disadvantage because somebody suddenly dropped to join a friend's game or because some spoiled kid left because the map/mode votes didn't go his way?

When a player quits during a match, their team should at least get a bot with a decent skill level. It has been said countless times and I think enough people have suggested it that Epic should implement it.

The boomshield glitches are probably the last major issue that I think needs to be fixed immediately. Honestly, this cannot be that big of a deal to fix. Surely there is a way to recognize when somebody has a shield equipped and is firing a weapon other than a handgun. As soon as it happens, just take all of their items/weapons and let them die helplessly, or kick/ban them and replace with a bot.

After all of that, it would be nice to tone down the lameness of chainsaws a bit, but I don't think that's a major game killer or anything right now. These other things are a priority and I think most people would be happy to accept the rest of the game as-is if big problems were patched up.

Gears of War 2 is a great game with great gameplay. Unfortunately, it is heavily tainted by a combination of exploits and unwanted player behavior. Epic can fix it, I have no doubt, but it would be preferable if they did it sometime before Gears of War 3 :)

[NoUrOtherLeft]

i agree with everything you said except the part about the longshot sniper rifle...don't bring active downs back into the picture...and the nades blast radius do need to be toned down alot....im getting sick and tired of players camping by the grenades and planting them on the walls and when one person goes in i always get blown up from hella far away

[siris]

ok i agree to i mean the active down was gay in the first one and the stand bying just sucks i heard that microsoft is goin to start looking into it that like im guessing throught the i.p. address not sure host dosent rly matter to me its just another person to kill.

[Fat Budz]

I dont think the active downing process via sniper would be such a horrible idea. I am one of those people you all hate that would active down and pop your top on the second shot. Being able to crawl and move around should eliminate that aspect. The only issue is being down for 15 horrible seconds in a public match instead of the more favorable 5 seconds in most gears 1 execution matches...... just my opinion....

[Passion Overload]

I totally agree with the player matches option. I think people should want to play just for fun sometimes instead of playing ranked matches when things actually get serious. I believe the player matches would defienatly be a big boost to the GOW2 fans.

[f00tyfreak]

Shotgun lag

snniper lag

torque bow

but lag dammit i get lag every single game and i atleast thought they were gonna fix shotgun lag in TU2 but its all the same

[siris]

yeah the player matches would be fun but i dont think that there gonna put them back in the game and as for the active down u can still pop there head when there getting up you just gotta aim at the right spot and shoot at the right time and you also gotta fallow the person so u dont lose them its just a harder shot to test who can rly snipe

[TurboChef]

A Social Bracket of matches is absolutely perfect. Epic needs to take a page out of Bungie's book. Their matchmaking is PERFECT.

[EXTREME NOOBHUNTER]

I agree LOL!

[Auriel]

I want player matches back so bad.

[RhoOmegaBeta]

Does anyone else get frustrated when their weapon auto-reloads? I'm sure some people like this feature but this is the #1 thing that causes me to jam my gun. It throws my timing completely off. I would really like there to be an option to turn this off and let me reload manually all the time, clip empty or not.

[DEMOLITION M4N]

the sniper is fine to me the active downs were annoying especially when the person tries to get the hs n misses but downs u again.the only reason y da sniper is not gud is lag issues like always lag makes u hit the shoulders etc. alone from that it is the charactar that the other person uses to. i have trouble sniping therons cuz there head is surround by the collar or what ever it is.
things that need to b fixed
1.Host advantage is so powerful its not funny 2 shot shotgun downs all the time n 1 shots. they r impossible to 2 pc cuz they shoot b4 u always.give the host to the person that has the best connection for everyone if 7 people r in ny and nj dont give the host to someone in uk or person wit bad connection.STANDBY is self explanatory
2.i put this b4 the chainsaw vaccum the freakin smoke nades.OMG! beginning of wingman smokes r being thrown at all the power weps n spawns. lets smokes go back to gow1 or just have it stop u from moving for a half a sec
3.chainsaw people hide behind corners n just wait for u even if u come out wide the vaccum owns all. the shotty stopping power doesnt work 3 shots is way too many. plus not everyone that chainsaws runs up to u they roll. i was playin on canals i couldnt escape cuz the person was reviving sp there chainsaw n i kept gettin stuck on all the stone blocks by the side of the sniper stairs.
4.frag nades can b called claymores or land mines the way peps use them lik others said i dont want to have check every wall in da game for frags thats unreal. also make them spawn 1 time or 2 times in elimination or wingman constant spawn of frags r insane. im tired of having people running to frags everytime they spawn n hide wasting time.same with boomshot peps camp at boomshot n keep gettin ammo
5.TB omg do peps even charge it i hate the active rule its insane. peps charge for 1 sec n it sticks n kills u
srry for long post
ps shotty is gud its just the lag that makes it horrible

[z NOTHINGFACE z]

I think the hit box needs to be adjusted on snipe, I hit people on the top of there heads and then there head never pops and sometimes I dont even get points for it.

[DEMOLITION M4N]

true but its very hard to snipe in the game alone with all the problems. i hav got some insane snipes though playin

[Dark_Templar]

I really don't think the sniper needs any sort of update for more power or 'crippling'...Either you hit them in the head or not, I myself do not snipe, but friends of mine with whom I play with very frequently have no problems using the sniper rifle. If you can't get a headshot, don't complain, either get better or use a different gun. You should not be asking Epic to cripple(in more ways than one) everyone else because you lack sniping skills

[Invader Skooj]

Sniper Active should "Stun" a player. Not make them fall but make them get knocked back no matter what they're doing.