Thoughts on Classic Vs. Reloaded #1 — The First Step by NF.

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So I keep telling people to voice their opinions and to support other people making videos about this. But then I never went and gave my own. Partly because I didn't know what I wanted myself to be honest. But I think I've had enough time to collect my thoughts on the subject. And I think it's finally time to get down to business and make this video, in fact, it's probably a little bit overdue but as long as the community actually takes the time to listen, it'll never be too late.

First of all, I don't want this to become another place for people to go and fight over the subject. If you have a different opinion, be my guest to comment and voice your own opinion.
But the only thing I ask, is that we be civil about it. We can debate things without insulting each other and getting angry. Not gonna name any names, but you can literally type hello on the Discord and people will spam you with quesitons like "WHAT IS OLD CA." But I digress. So back to my thoughts on old ca vs reloaded.

Like UCD said on his video, I don't want old CA back. With that being said, that doesn't mean I want reloaded either. So calm your tits, don't press the X button yet. I know some of you were already on their way as I said that. Please actually take the time to process what i'm saying. There's a middle ground out there that people aren't even bothering to try and find. And finding it is the only way that a game like Combat Arms will ever survive.

And that is due to it's nature. Because Combat Arms isn't just a single game. Combat Arms is literally a million different games all mixed into one. And it's really up to the player to go and find out which game they want to play and how they want to play it. Because after all, the game we all love and know as Combat Arms has a multiple-personality disorder.
And that's always been fine. In fact, going and trying to change that was the biggest mistake Nexon ever did.

Considering that, I think the first step towards greatness is going back to old CA. Key words "First Step." Now, I already said I don't want old ca back. So why am I contradicting myself now? Well, that's the thing. I'm really not. And here's the reason why:
Sometimes in life, things have to get worse before they can get better again. But that doesn't mean it'll stay bad. Greatness doesn't suddenly show up at the door either. It's a step by step process and if you try to rush it, it'll end up blowing up on you. And that's something I've always known, but never even realized until very recently.

So how does all that life stuff translate into Combat Arms? We'll first of all let's think about the things that compose the Reloaded update. And lets talk about the results and implications each one of them had in the game and it's core gameplay. The 4 main things that compose the Reloaded update are:

1. The new UI.
2. The matchmaking system.
3. the questionable new graphics.
4. the re-balancing of gear & weapons.

So let's begin with the UI.

I'm not entirely sure why I'm even wasting my time talking about this one. The general consensus of the new UI has been pretty much unanimously negative. That's because it's complete dog shit and here's a few reasons why.

1. It looks like a fucking mobile game.
2. Things are needlessly hidden from plain sight.
3. Core features were removed entirely for seemingly no reason. (ex. search bar in inventory.)

Which is funny because the shop has one. So why the fuck wouldn't you include one in the inventory as well? Seems like an easy copy-paste to me, but then again, my programming abilities are limited. Maybe we just don't have that kind of technology yet. Maybe that's something to be excited for in 2018.

Anyway...

4. Everything takes an extra 15 steps than it used to. again, for literally no reason.

Please, just go back to the old UI for now. Key words "for now." The old UI was better but also shit. A good example of a decent UI to me is the 2012 UI. You had the rooms on top, your chat on the bottom, your character info on the left and your friends list on the right. All visible and usable. There was no need for a bunch of extra steps to do anything. It also looked way better than the sorry excuses for UIs we've had in both Reloaded and Pre-Reloaded CA. Last on that subject, we don't need old or reloaded. We need a UI that works as well or better than 2012's, but is able to look like reloaded or better. That's all I have on the UI.

Next dish on the menu is the match-making system.

Contrary to popular belief, a match-making system is a good thing for every game to have. The reason why it had such a negative impact on CA, is because Nexon tried to focus the entire game around it. There was no need for that. It's a good addition to CA, but it shouldn't go and try to be the only game in CA. Like we said before, CA is composed of many different games and people enjoy the game for very entirely different reasons. Like UCD said on his video... You can try-hard on SnD, and minutes later, you can jump on a fireteam with your dad or some shit. Having that ability made CA really easy to get addicted to. Because even if you burned out on one mode, you'd relax by playing another. And at the end of the day, you were still playing CA.

With that being said, I think promoting MM as a company would be a great idea. A competitive scene that's healthy will always help any game grow. In fact, the real path to greatness, in my opinion, is finishing and polishing the match-making system in the future. Key words "the future." Because there are other things that need to be prioritized first, or there won't be any player-base to even try it. The changes made to accommodate match-making need to be reversed. And when I say that, I'm talking about:

1. The UI update (which we already talked about),
2. The explosives update,
3. The speed update,
4. and I never thought i'd say this before, but even the spec update (more on that in another video).

What we need in match-making isn't to accommodate the entire game around it. What we need is stricter rule-sets for both standard and hardcore. A more limited match-making rule-set would've done the same job without compromising any other mode. So keep the match-making system. There's no need to remove it. But let it be another game within CA's multiple personality disordered world.

Next up is the graphics "update"
(Or should I call it the biggest scam in the history of the entire fucking planet.)

Let me start out by saying that NOBODY WANTED THIS. Combat Arms was never about the graphics. Anyone that ever put more than 10 minutes into the game, did so for the gameplay. Regardless of anyone wanting it or not, I think we can all agree that there was no significant update in terms of graphics. You can summarize the entire graphics update in the following:

1. Better shadows that everyone will turn off for better performance.
2. A lighter color palette, that makes textures blend and overall make everything hard to see.
3. Jesus floating above every map, blinding everyone with his shining glory.
4. Performance improvement features that increase an average of 1 fps and make everything feel laggier somehow.
5. And last but not least, unreadable text. I feel like a grandpa complaining about not being able to read.
But I legit can't see shit without squinting or grabbing a magnifying glass on Reloaded.
There's no way to improve it. It's shit in it's entirety and has no place in a game like CA.

Last on the list we have the rebalancing of gear & weapons.

My god.. Did they fuck this one up. The idea was good but the implementation was complete ass. There was literally a handful of weapons that needed to be tweaked. And what did Nexon do? Well they went and changed every single OTHER weapon in the game instead. Yes, there may have been changes to each of those weapons, but they were and still are, much better by a long run, than every other weapon in comparison. So it's almost like there was no real change. Or should I say no real positive change. Because things did change, but for the worst. Nerfing things like explosives and speed destroyed modes like Quarantine Regen and Fireteam. You can't just make a change like that and not think about the implications. Quarantine Regen was a huge part of the player base that was still left on CA. I was never a fan of the mode or it's community, but their world within CA is gone. And I can't help but feel for them. There's simply no reason for them to play anymore. Same thing happened in Fireteam. With explosives nerfed, buffed zombies and less speed, shit's impossible now.

These changes NEED to be reversed. AS QUICK AS POSSIBLE.

I'm trying really hard, to think of things that are good about reloaded, and so far, the only things that come to mind are the mouse fixes and MM. And I don't even know if I can count MM. Because in it's current state, it needs a lot of work.

Which brings me to the question, why is anyone confused about this vote? Is there anything else that you think is good about reloaded?

Please leave a comment down below and let us know. Note that I didn't say me. I said us because this really isn't about me. This is about the community coming together and figuring out where they can meet half way. Because there's really no other way to go about this.

This is the time to raise our voices in unision for a better future. Not fight amongst ourselves and create more noise for valofe to have to go and filter through.

So if you haven't voted yet? Go fucking vote. And as you do, think of all the things I mentioned on this video.

And regardless of what ends up happening, remember that greatness will not come immediately. We all want instant gratification. We want the next update to be the one that finally makes the game great again. And frankly, that'll just never happen. There will never be an update like that, and that's not only because of Nexon's shitty decision making, but also because of our own human nature. We will always want more. Now, that's not to say that Nexon wasn't at fault. I've talked enough about Nexon's shitty decision-making in previous videos. What we have to remember though, is that Valofe isn't Nexon.

​​​​​​​We need to take a step back and realize that Valofe is a new beginning. Sure they've already made a few mistakes, but that doesn't mean that they don't care. And that was Nexon's first mistake. They stopped caring. Because as a business, they didn't need to. People played CA regardless of what they did... And they got away with all kinds of shady shit. We don't know what Valofe is willing to do, we don't know how much they'll be willing to listen. But one thing is for sure. People are no longer willing to put up with that shit. And as a company, I'm sure they already understand that.

But in conclusion, reloaded put the last nail on the coffin for CA by focusing the entire game around matchmaking. And in doing so, it destroyed many other modes and play-styles we all used to know and love. I won't tell you guys what to vote for. I'm simply providing the reasoning behind my voting. If you agree or disagree that's great. We're all entitled to our own opinion. But I really do believe that the only way to go forward here, is to first go backwards a little and turn towards a different direction. Because the way it seems to me, the way this train is currently going, we're headed straight towards a fucking cliff and we have 4 days to stop that from happening.

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