Illuminate are not fun to fight, were better in the first game

[Petrichor]

Something is seriously wrong with the implementation of the faction in HD2, they don't have a single unit that feels satisfying or fair to fight against, it's just incredibly frustrating to get anything done, and it's not about them being difficult to fight, it's about them being tedious to fight.

Every unit is the same combo of "what if it was fast and had a lot of health" that results in every encounter being the exact same experience, and the only break up you get from that is the tripods which are so slow moving and inaccurate that it's almost better to just ignore them rather than coordinate the whole squad to take them down before they become immune to damage again.

All the overseer units have armour plating that makes them appear to just ignore damage, the flying enemies constantly clip up and down over terrain which makes them impossible to track, the voteless all move so close into melee that if you try to use melee weapons to hit them you actually just attack over them instead, the shields on the dropships invalidate any attempt to stop reinforcements before they come in, the ground overseers kill you almost solely by either oneshotting you at range with a projectile that makes very little noise and flies near-instantly or by sprinting at you and ragdolling you for so long that something else gets you.
The faction is built out of everything that is annoying in the game or poorly implemented in the engine without any of the stuff that makes it fun and engaging, and all the tools required to win are so exact that there isn't really much room for trying out things that are goofy or "off-meta" because it just results in frustration and death-spiralling.

In the first game they had these big energy balls that you had to shoot before they hit you, cloaked units that hunted you down, flying scout units that teleported in reinforcements, dudes dashing at you from across the map, huge charge-up laser guns that broadcast where they were about to hit, and it all worked really well!
I have no idea why you would move away from that to this!

It's annoying that half of the events in the last six months have just been "fight these guys that make playing the game feel like a chore" and it's honestly pulled me out of wanting to play the game at all.

Hopefully something is done about it, otherwise I'm just going to continue not playing the game for weeks at a time until I'm called to shoot bugs

[mrwwww]

The Illuminate are the worst developed part of an already rather shoddy game. I'm amazed they decided to spend 3 months building up to an event that focuses entirely around them and then did nothing to fix them.

[shnappy]

I can certainly see some of your points. They are fightable on 10s, but their entire existence in HD2 has kinda been "what is meta?" > "how can we ♥♥♥♥ that up?".

They also require a rather large diverse loadout compared to the other two factions.

[Chaos]

Idk.
Squid in the first game were kinda annoying with all their funny tool and "mind control".
But I guess they are more interesting overall.

This here is just bullets sponge.

[Bear your Bears]

Originally posted by Petrichor:

It's annoying that half of the events in the last six months have just been "fight these guys that make playing the game feel like a chore" and it's honestly pulled me out of wanting to play the game at all.

I honestly feel they're doing this because the players keep trashing on the new faction, and AH is having a fit that we don't love what they're doing. It was the same feeling with every enemy buff and weapon nerf they have ever implemented, aside from them fixing the killbots who basically OHKO you from across the map. Odd how they just re-implemented that with the squids...

The smart thing to do to retain players is pay attention to what faction is getting played the most, and then make that the one that is most often part of the MO. I've seen nothing but hate for squids, so much so that even bugdivers and botdivers are actually on the same team. It makes no sense to make this the faction players are forced to play.

[mrwwww]

Originally posted by Bear your Bears:

I honestly feel they're doing this because the players keep trashing on the new faction, and AH is having a fit that we don't love what they're doing.

Typical dev behaviour. "The fans must just be wrong. They don't know what they like."

They should focus on making the Illuminate more fun to play rather than trying to force it down everyone's throats.

[VelxraTV]

Originally posted by Bear your Bears:

I honestly feel they're doing this because the players keep trashing on the new faction, and AH is having a fit that we don't love what they're doing. It was the same feeling with every enemy buff and weapon nerf they have ever implemented, aside from them fixing the killbots who basically OHKO you from across the map. Odd how they just re-implemented that with the squids...

Yes, AH really needs to step away from their discord echo chamber. The nerfs have always been a glaring reason why. Then they also listen to the "game to easy" threads from plebs who barely scratched fifty hours.

Then for me, I get to experience new events by going to random lobbies on super helldive. All filled with sub level 50 players or players who dont even understand basic game mechanics at level 100 plus. I spent hours and hours today going through the slog of players being under prepared. To the point where I couldnt carry to the end like usual.

I like increased difficulty. But too many enemies are health sponges and now that is mixed in with two instant kill enemy air units...

[adobo]

Laser cannon makes quick work of them. Overseers can take a beating with their medium armor heads so body shots can take a while. Laser cannon the face. Harvesters? Laser Cannon. The Interloper? Laser Cannon.

Laser dog makes a big comeback this patch with fire changes so it can keep the meatballs on fire. Gas dog plus laser cannon means stacking DOTs with gas and fire so you can quickly down them.

[Iron Horse]

Originally posted by mrwwww:

Originally posted by Bear your Bears:

I honestly feel they're doing this because the players keep trashing on the new faction, and AH is having a fit that we don't love what they're doing.

Typical dev behaviour. "The fans must just be wrong. They don't know what they like."

They should focus on making the Illuminate more fun to play rather than trying to force it down everyone's throats.

But that would require like, work, man.

[Frostbeast]

Just dont foght them. Win or lose. Most of the time its just an illusion.

[mrwwww]

Originally posted by Iron Horse:

Originally posted by mrwwww:

Typical dev behaviour. "The fans must just be wrong. They don't know what they like."

They should focus on making the Illuminate more fun to play rather than trying to force it down everyone's throats.

But that would require like, work, man.

Exactly. Won't happen.

[♠♣The Jester♣♠]

Originally posted by adobo:

Laser cannon makes quick work of them. Overseers can take a beating with their medium armor heads so body shots can take a while. Laser cannon the face. Harvesters? Laser Cannon. The Interloper? Laser Cannon.

Laser dog makes a big comeback this patch with fire changes so it can keep the meatballs on fire. Gas dog plus laser cannon means stacking DOTs with gas and fire so you can quickly down them.

All Overseer's head armor requires heavy penetration. The rest of their body of medium penetration and you can kill them with 1 shot to the head with the P-4 Senator or the R-36 Eruptor but in that case it doesn't matter since the explosion damage is enough to kill them in 1-2 shots. Or you can just use the Scorcher which kills them in 8-9 shots if you are accurate.

[Cryptic]

I like fighting the illuminate here. But bots are still my favorite and bugs are for relaxing.

Everyone has an opinion...

[Night_Meaty22]

Originally posted by Cryptic:

I like fighting the illuminate here. But bots are still my favorite and bugs are for relaxing.

Everyone has an opinion...

I second this. My only real issue with the illuminate is that I can't do everything conveniently in 1 loadout, but it's a team game so I shouldn't have to. I think that's also one thing I like about em, makes me use different things, forces me to think differently.

[Lunaire]

My only issue with the illuminates is the airplanes. In a team, that means that someone has to take the RR. Which is cool and all... got a m8 that takes it everytime because he likes it. But what if one day, he decides he wants to try something else for a change?

[Rifluvr]

HD1 Illuminate - tankies faction with shields, punishing you for every little mistake
HD2 Illuminate - tankiest faction with reactive armour, punishing you for every little mistake

They are different but also the same in the core. After recent update they are very fun, but need more polish a few elements, like stingray's warning lights, and meat tank's clippong through walls and floors.