stonecutter
03-23-2004, 11:54 PM
How is it? I have heard lots of problems regarding lag, and getting into games due to connection speeds.... what is your experience? Especially interested in hearing from my Canadian friends since Capcom says it is worse in canada on their website.
I bought it, but haven't opened it and I am debating if I should return it. Also, are late comers at a disadvantage since people already on have better VTs etc,,
Thanks for your opinions.
bargora
03-29-2004, 04:17 AM
You know, you bring up good points. Yes, there is lag from time to time. They tell me that SB:LOC uses a "peer-to-peer" networking method, and that that means that any single bad connection between users can slow things down. Me don't know. Me just monkey.
But most games I've played in have proceeded at normal speed for the great majority of the time. Unfortunately, 3 vs. 3 games seem to be the largest that are working in North America. I don't know whether that will change. And I am disappointed in this, because many of the maps would be much deeper, strategy-wise, if you could actually play a 5 vs. 5 match, like the way the game works in Japan.
You ask whether you'd be at a great disadvantage, due to other people having better VTs and such. Well, it seems that someone is always at a disadvantage. The HSD pilots had nothing but Vitzhes and Vortexes at first, and got chopped to pieces by the PRF dogs in their Deciders. Then the Scare Faces came out and the Deciders were getting sniped before they could even get within smooth bore range. (A lot of PRF pilots switched to HSD at that point.) Then you had the Falchions and Blades in limited release; and the players who spend their entire lives online were able to either jump on them or trade for them. In some ways it's a snake pit, and there's no parity.
Fortunately, if you take 1st gen VTs instead of 2nd gen VTs (like any new pilot must do), you get to respawn many more times. Add this to the fact that 2nd gen VTs cost nearly ten times as much as 1st gen VTs, and you can doubly savor the sweet scent of a burning Prominence as you clomp past in your Vitzh.
I had a KIA pilot last week and so I had to start over with a new one. I will say that it was kind of tough coming back in using 1st gen. VTs at first, but that's really only true if you're trying to maintain a "positive" destroyed/lost ratio. You have to think of it in terms of supply points. The first time I bagged a Jaralaccs with my m-Vitzh it was like hitting the supply point jackpot. I got enough points from that one kill to buy 5 Scare Face IIs. So, assuming that you have the skills from playing the first game, you only have to get lucky once or twice to become competitive with the other players. Of course, I'm getting shot down in my 2nd gen. "Yellow Jacket" VT by those PRF bastards in their Prominence M2s, but that's life. And using inferior VTs tends to spur teams on to greater feats of teamwork. You realize that lone-wolf hot-dogging will only lead to rapid ejection.
But then, if you'd never played the first Steel Battalion game, you'd be in for an uphill ride jumping in right now. It's deplorable, but I've occasionally seen total n00bs treated badly. Just tonight I played a match where a n00b was abandoned by his two teammates who presumably didn't want to take a hit in the stats department. I detest stat whores.
To conclude, despite the flaws, I'd recommend the game. I've played some great matches with some very cool people, and I think that the positives of the game by far outweigh the negatives. I look forward to seeing you aject, Stonecutter.