Matters of Opinion:
THIS IS TO BE TAKEN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. Just trying to highlight some of the conversations that have been going on since the beta.
-Overwhelmingly, the feedback has been that everyone would have preferred SteamWorks over Gamespy. Obviously its too late, but keep that in mind for future Crysis titles. Perhaps you can someday provide Steam Achievements.
-Movement speed might be a bit too low for the PC version. Might want to consider raising it in some way for our platform, UT3 style.
-Some argue that players have too little health or that armor mode could use a slight buff.
-Weapon recoil/spread is too low for the PC version; mice are just too accurate. Default recoil is about where it should be if you have "aim enhance" enabled; without the perk, recoil should be increased significantly. This would help SCAR balance issues. Look at Gears of War PC as an example of a game that realized PC gamers need more recoil to experience sufficient challenge.
-Nanovision was overnerfed. Rather than making it useless at all but the closest ranges, the energy cost should have been massively increased. (Example fix: Let it detect cloaked people from slightly farther away than now, and uncloaked people from significantly farther away than now, but less than the infinite range in the demo. Then double the energy cost.)
-The flag carrier penalty might be too severe. Perhaps let them aim down the sights of the pistol.
I disagree with some of these.
- Movement speed is fine as it is. In fact, it might be too fast at times. Combined with aim enhance++ and power mode, just moving from one side to the other is split second fast, making such targets nearly impossible to hit unless you hit the rhythm perfectly, which isn't impossible, but still overpowered.
- Default health is indeed a little too low. And actually, we need an explanation to how health and energy works in this game. Someone who's energy has been blown will go down much, much faster than someone who's just in power mode.
Also, I do believe the differences between damage rates between different parts of the body are much too severe and is a major source of inconsistency.
- Weapon recoil isn't a problem and the SCAR is fine. The SCAR is actually the most balanced weapon in the game. It's the other weapons that are just that much worse. Or not maybe worse per se... The hit detection seems really, really bad. Like, really bad. I'm pretty confident (and this is actually on videos on youtube) that hit detection in this game isn't working properly. A weapon with a higher rate of fire (read: Feline) will suffer greatly with such low-grade hit detection. To the point that using anything other than a weapon with reasonable rate of fire and higher damage rate, isn't possible (unless you hate yourself that much, for whatever reason). So, maybe the Feline isn't such a horrible weapon, but it's the hit detection that makes it unusable.
- Nanovision was indeed "nerfed" much too severely. What they should do is leave the range as it is, but increase the range of which you can detect cloaked enemies further. I don't think the energy cost should be fiddled with without caution, because there are other things that use energy. Things such as, for example, armor and cloak. More specifically, armor. I don't want to see people die more easily just because they had nanovision on, further increasing the already pretty bad inconsistency in this game.
- The flag carrier penalty is completely ridiculous in my opinion. This makes sense for Extraction, where the team controlling the tick gets an actual benefit, but for Capture the flag, this is completely unacceptable. Basically, this means that if you're carrying the flag and an enemy sees you, you can already consider yourself dead. And due to the nature of spawns and the flag locations, it's really difficult to get access to the flags in the first place. There shouldn't be any penalty other than perhaps a slight movement penalty for carrying the flag.
Now, those are my opinions on your opinions (plus a little extra).
Another really awful thing that's going on in this game right now (again, regarding networking (hint: next time, test your technology in normal user circumstances))... If there is a lag spike (either your side or player X's side, I'm not sure which one applies here), you can become stuck on player X's perspective. Just standing there, doing nothing. In actuality, you would be running around the map. Now, if player X kills you, you ACTUALLY die. In your perspective, you would die completely randomly, because player X was nowhere near you (though, the kill cam would still show player X's perspective). Now, the even more shocking part of this... If player X were to hit you enough times, you would die MULTIPLE times. That's right.
While this might not be overly common, it isn't rare. I've seen people do this to me a couple of times and I've done this to people a couple of times as well. It's definitely not rare. It's uncommon, at best.
That's it from me for now.
Thanks
Iceman
Thanks for posting! I was really trying to highlight the ongoing conversation rather than to put out my own opinions, and when I get the chance I'll try and modify that section to do a better job with neutrality. For the most part, what I have written at the moment IS what I've seen most commonly on various forums, however.
I absolutely agree with you in terms of CTF. It just seems out of place that in a game all about how kickass the Nanosuit is, in CTF you're suddenly handicapped for being aggressive. I've always preferred CTF games where there are lots of captures and capture attempts and penalizing the flag carrier is the opposite of how to accomplish that. If I were in charge, I'd give the flag-carrier full access to their weapons for both game modes. I understand that it reduces the requirements for team play, but really, the only games that have that happen anyway are games like TF2, where its enforced and built in, or any game once people get on mics and vent and play with clans-- whether or not you force one player to not have a good gun.
I do feel somewhat strongly that the SCAR is overpowered, however, and I'd be interested in hearing a lot more debate on the subject. I am very good at this game (to be blunt), and can top the server with literally any gun-- but it just comes SO much more easily using the SCAR in every single situation. Even on very small maps where I expect to be able to use the Feline, or capitalize on the LMG's infintie ammo-- SCAR headshots are just as effective. The only exception is on very large maps, where the sniper outperforms the SCAR for me. The Grendel, sadly, does not have a niche at the moment. Which is sad-- I've always preferred to master the most challenging guns in online shooters-- and I had hopes for either the K-volt or the Grendel, and neither can deal with the SCAR.
I think the best solution is to nerf its damage to the head-- that way, it can remain a high accuracy jack of all trades gun, which is its nice, and gives the Grendel, feline, and LMG a role-- for people who can more skillfully shoot at the head. Grendel for medium-long range headshots, feline for close range headshots, and LMG for high capacity. Not that I think this paradigm is perfect or that I have it all worked out in my head just yet

Grendel + lazer + point enhance and not aiming down the sight has been weirdly powerful for me, though. I do feel we still have a lot to learn about the game though and that what balance discussions we're having now MIGHT seem idiotic down the road once we figure out "standard play"; but its still a conversation worth having

It would be pointless to nerf the SCAR (which would HAVE to be followed by a nerf to the Mk.60, since they're VERY similar). What this game needs is a serious rewrite of the netcode. Until that happens, it's pointless to even argue about any sort of damage vs. rate of fire problems, since most of the bullets aren't registered to begin with.
I think SCAR is fine and I'm pretty sure as far as damage and health values go, this is what the developers were going for. However, they test the game internally and don't get the sense of what happens with real internet connections. As far as damage values go, the Feline, K-volt and SCARAB don't actually look that bad. As far as fire rate and damage values go, this SCAR bias is a complete mystery.
So, I'm fairly confident that there are some very serious problems under the hood here. Specifically, the networking.