Skyrider

@fredchuckdave: Enforcers have too much health and infiltrators have too little? Even the dev's admit there is basically no appreciable difference in the class' respective health pools.

@hatking: The MGO team doesn't handle FOBs, so who knows. I haven't touched the single player stuff since MGO launched, but what I hear about the FOB changes makes me wonder if they're exactly they're going for, or what team (if there even is a full team) is handling it to begin with.

So based on forum activity I'm going to assume that not a whole lot duders are knee deep in MGO, but I figured I'd share MGO's recently released patch notes for the November update.

November Update Notice:

Please see below for the complete list of adjustments planned for the MGO update scheduled for November.

[Auto-matching]

- You will now be matched with players of similar level to your highest character level.

- It is now less likely to join a host with poor network connection.

[Mission Adjustments]

- The game will now end once all teammates are stunned or tranquilized in CLOAK AND DAGGER.

[Loadout/Equipment Adjustments]

- The "E.LOCATOR" will now only available for the Scout class.

- Machines guns and launchers will now only be available for the Enforcer class.

- Shotguns will now only available for the Infiltrator class.

* As a result of these changes, custom loadouts will be initialized during the maintenance period following the update patch.

[Character Ability Adjustments]

- Overall movement speed will be increased.

- Mobility has been re-balanced to allow faster travelling between objectives.

- Infiltrators will have health and stamina decreased.

- Enforcers will have health and stamina increased.

- Scouts will have health increased.

- Scouts will be able to mark targets more quickly while using binoculars.

[Weapon Adjustments]

- Firing sway for Machine Guns will be reduced.

- Weapon sway will be reduced overall when aiming in first-person view.

- Damage inflicted by the Walker Gear's Gatling gun will be reduced.

- Walker Gears and Anti-Aircraft will now take more damage from certain weapons.

- Weapon damage of certain weapons are being adjusted for better balance.

- Damage value on the ISANDO RGL-220" will be significantly reduced.

- Reduced ammo count on "ISANDO RGL-220" .

- Max carry for "E.LOCATOR,""STUN GRENADE," and "SLEEP GRENADE" will be reduced.

- The throwing arch of the Empty Magazine will be invisible to enemies.

- The noise radius made by Empty Magazines when they land will be expanded.

[Item Adjustments]

- Max carry amount of "C.BOX" will be increased.

[Stealth Camo （STEALTH CAMO.PP） adjustments while using the STEALTH CAMO+ Ability]

- Stealth camo will be temporarily disabled when taking damage.

- Battery life will be reduced, and battery will take longer to charge.

- Marking time for cloaked players will be reduced.

- Cloaked players detected with NVG will be marked in standard marking time.

[CQC Adjustments]

- Range for CQC grabs will be narrowed.

- Icon for CQC grabs will no longer be displayed.

- Non-lethal damage done by CQC hits and grabs will be reduced.

- 1-hit CQC knock-outs will become exclusive to Infiltrators with "CQC STEALTH+" Lv.2 or higher.

[Fulton Adjustments]

- Fulton speed when using "FULTON+" Lv.2 or greater will be slowed.

- When a player fultons an enemy, the fulton balloon and the enemy will be invincible to other teammates.

[Buddy System Adjustments]

- Time required to establish a buddy link using the link action will be shortened.

- Link action will succeed regardless of the direction your character is facing, as long as you are in range.

- The buddy gauge will now clear at the beginning of each round.

[Other Adjustments]

- Search filters in "SELECT MATCH" will be now saved.

- Countdown time on the Spawn screen has been extended from 10 seconds to 15 seconds.

Please note that the patch is still a work in progress, and some adjustments may differ in the final update. Details regarding the final changes will be announced once the patch is released.

Regarding issues not addressed above, we are constantly monitoring user feedback and will continue to make changes and adjustments moving forward. Thank you very much for your continued support of MGO.

As an avid player, these changes can't come soon enough and it's great to see the devs have recognized most of the major issues that players have run into (although they haven't said outright that they'll add host migration, so that will likely still be an issue). Obviously we'll have to wait to see if these changes will actually have a tangible effect on the current meta, but I'm optimistic.

Hopefully a lot of the class changes help them feel as distinct as they were originally intended to be, as I think that will go a long way to set MGO apart from other multiplayer shooters.

Anyone else taken to not using the stealth camo on Infiltrator? I played a bunch of Bounty Hunter matches without it today and I honestly felt like I got shot at less than I do with it. I don't even really crouch walk around, I just stand straight up and jog about, placing fulton cannons wherever I deem to be high traffic areas and it seems to be quite effective. Being invisible can certainly give you the jump on someone, but being aware of your surroundings and using the fact that most players aren't to your advantage seems to be just as effective (something I learned while playing my scout). At the very least, no one can complain about this infiltrator running around with a machine gun while invisible.

"Hot garbage" and "ostensibly", the latter because it really is a useful word, and the former because . . . I dunno. I do also pronounce "executable" the same way Will Smith does.

@fredchuckdave: An hour long comm control? Christ, that somehow sounds both awesome and hellish.

I can't believe how quickly some people are levelling. I'm pretty sure I saw a guy who had already ascended and was back to lvl 17.

I'm surprised to hear y'all are having issues even with the automatching, as it has been flawless for me on xbox (well, aside from the occasional host disconnecting which is super annoying). Regardless of the mode I pick, I maybe way 30 seconds at most to find a match.

The more I play, the more I'm starting to like all of the game modes a bit more evenly. Playing with randoms will always be a mixed-bag, but when both teams are clearly working together and are focused on getting shit done, it's rad. It's surprising how well a group of randoms can work together even when no one is speaking (Which is almost always. Odd, given that most people have the mic icon next to their name in any given match).

I've been putting some time into levelling an Enforcer now that it's very clear there are way too many Infiltrators, and I have to say that I quite like it. Unfortunately, there's not much that makes it feel unique, especially early on. Being able to tank more damage is nice in theory, but it rarely feels like I'm able to do so since you mow down anyone pretty quickly regardless of class. It has only just started to feel different and fun in its own way now that I have a shield and submachine gun combo going. The shield, while obviously not making you impervious to bullets, is enough to give me a slight edge in some firefights. I even managed to win a one-on-one with a Walker Gear thanks to it (not that you can take a decent burst from a Walker Gear even with it).

In any case, it will be interesting to see how thinks balance out over time, especially in terms of the classes. I like to think that enough people will switch to other classes just for the sake of something different once they get sick of playing with teams of only infiltrators.

I didn't think anything would be able to tear me way from my Diamond Dogs and Motherbase, but MGO is proving to do just that. The matches are so chaotic and hilarious, and yet quite tactical (well, at least they can be). The CQC can be a bit vexing even when I'm getting the benefit of its tomfoolery, but it's nothing I can't put up with. Hell, the inevitable CQC clusterfuck between a handful of people is always a match highlight for me.

For the match types, I think cloak and dagger might be my favourite, largely because it does encourage a more tactical approach by both teams. Granted, rush mode kind of ruins that since the defenders always rush the attackers' spawn area since it takes all of 5 seconds to sprint there. I like the idea behind the Bounty matches as well even if the practice of tracking down and fultoning high bounty targets kind of falls to the wayside when most people don't seem bother marking enemy players (still, I've had the "trailer" moment of fultoning a high bounty target and winning the match at the last second happen a few times, and boy does that feel awesome)

As for the classes, I'm really enjoying the infiltrator class, which unsurprisingly seems to be the most popular. I do think that the enforcer will pick up quite a bit of steam the more people play, however.

So I already shared Rabid Hippo, but he was just my favourite with the Savage skill. My two all-time favourites are Spying Rooster and Lonely Orca. They're two of my longest serving combat unit members, although I largely now keep them on out of nostalgia (A+ just barely cuts now). Given I recruited them around the same time and they speak all of the same languages, I like to think of them as a brother/sister duo working for Diamond Dogs. Spying Rooster in particular has a special place in my heart, as I've easily spent more time playing as him than any other combat unit member (maybe even more than Snake, actually). I leveled my bonds with both D-Dog and Quiet mostly while playing with him as well. The rescuer perk my be useless to me at this point, but he'll always be my #1. The fact that he's probably the only guy in my combat unit with a non-repeated face doesn't hurt either.

So we all know there's this avatar creation business. Like I'm sure many others did, I figured I'd make my avatar look like myself as much as possible, but then I realized something: why run around in MGO as myself when I can run around in MGO as Jean Claude Van Damme from Universal Soldier.

And so, I've embarked on my quest to make an avatar that looks as much like JCVD as possible. In a hilarious twist, for once I've found it much easier to recreate my own face than that of someone else. Perhaps it is because of the creation tools limitations, my own, or both, but I'm coming up short on my quest so far (as shown by the above pretty much generic white dude).

In any case, I figured it would be cool to see what amazing things (or monstrosities) my fellow duders have been making. Have y'all been making other MG characters, movie characters, yourself etc? Let's see them!

(Also, if you have any tips on how to make my JCVD more JCVD-like, feel free to rescue me in my quest)