Does anyone here feels that the new Lerk movement is really annoying and way harder ?
You also cannot "fly" anymore as a Fade with Shadowstep, which was really interesting.
Also dont forget that the new bitecone is bigger than the 75 damage zone from before. You really dont need superhuman skills to land a bite.
This is actually the issue, lowering the skill-cap.
The 75 damage bite cone in BT is inbetween the two previously tested versions, solving most of the problems of the previous iterations. However, without glancing bites, newer players and those of us that can't aim will do a little less damage overall. The flipside is that there would be less confusing and frustrating mechanics to learn and deal with. The only question is, which do you value more?
I was against removing the gradual damage zones myself. But after much playing its clear that its better without them. Also dont forget that the new bitecone is bigger than the 75 damage zone from before. You really dont need superhuman skills to land a bite. Its really only an issue if you judge the bt mod only on its changelog without playing
That just pushes the issue in the other direction. A wide 75 damage bitecone was tried before, it meant that marines got annihilated by skulks of slightly higher skill levels due to the drastically increased mobility permitted to skulks while still maintaining maximum attack damage.
The 75 damage bite cone in BT is inbetween the two previously tested versions, solving most of the problems of the previous iterations. However, without glancing bites, newer players and those of us that can't aim will do a little less damage overall.
Yup, lower-skilled players will get slightly worse and upper skilled players will get slightly better. Which is exactly my issue.
The flipside is that there would be less confusing and frustrating mechanics to learn and deal with. The only question is, which do you value more?
I have never met anyone* who, once they were told how skulk bites worked, responded to the mechanic any way other than positively. If the criteria for removing mechanics is "confusing unless explained", regardless of other considerations, then there'll be nothing left of the game at all.
*Edit: Excluding people crying about hitreg issues.
3) Don't overblow the tech changes. LuaJIT gave things a bit of a boost, but it isn't all that because of how Lua/C interop works. OpenGL and DirectX11 aren't gonna do shit, let's stop pretending they are the second coming of ja himself.
The "a bit" might not be big for you; but it is for many others.
Considering how Valve proved in their test that OpenGL can be faster, I believe you're wrong. Plus OpenGL allows Unix-based system to run the game... I think an easy ~10% more players can be reached by that (and I'm being pessimist).
I like some changes(like advanced movement for skulk, encouraged welder use), but dislike some, such as scalable upgrades(unintuitive) or MACs being unable to weld each other(why? bile bomb can show them!).
As to my taste game desperately needs some mechanics/balance tweaks
(
why is SG named bane of Skulks?Rifle does it ton better
Pistol seems to lack a role
why can't we still see our Steamfriends highlighted
why won't allow to drop a spare magazine to mate?
)
Btw Can anyone help with modding, I've been playing for more than 900h and have many ideas spinning in my head aimed towards gameplay variety and against being confusing(scalable upgrades). I have some experience with C++ and OOP, but it was too confusing to find logic and the routes for modding in the Game's vast fodlers.
PM or reply here would be nice
In my opinion, the biggest offender in the balance mod is the Fade. The BT Fade is horrendous. If you aren't a competitive level Fade, you'll almost never be able to be competent at BT Fade unless you put in a lot of practice and understand the mechanics of it. New Fades need to learn things like Blink tapping, energy management, Blinking in combat, and using timed jumps after Blink to move around quickly. And those are just the basics.
With Shadowstep being worthless and lack of double jump, Fades all play the same; there is no variety or creativity in playing Fade. This leads to Fades being extremely predictable. Any decent shotgunner can solo even the best of Fades. All this adds up to a low skill ceiling lifeform that just isn't fun anymore.
There are other problems with the Fade that seem more like bugs than anything else. You can't strafe while moving forward, and Blinking through vents is extremely slow. The former seems to be a conflict with strafe-jump acceleration and the latter just seems to be a collision issue.
I don't see how a single thing you mentioned is nearly as hard to pick up as the Shadowstep-skipping of live.
The flipside is that there would be less confusing and frustrating mechanics to learn and deal with. The only question is, which do you value more?
I have never met anyone* who, once they were told how skulk bites worked, responded to the mechanic any way other than positively. If the criteria for removing mechanics is "confusing unless explained", regardless of other considerations, then there'll be nothing left of the game at all.
*Edit: Excluding people crying about hitreg issues.
I've had the opposite experience. All I ever hear with regards to glancing bites is that they are frustrating and unnecessary, or I just hear general confusion. I know people that quit NS2 simply because of glancing bites. I, personally, find it annoying and convoluted as I try to figure out how many more bites it will take to kill that marine in front of me, and I know how the system works.
In fact they are making it worse by promoting comp friendly/casual hostile mechanics.
This holds no weight unless you provide *how*, exactly you find this to be true.
Take 10 noobs and have them join vanilla. They'll be confused but interested (until they get rocked as skulk).
Now have them join BT, and they won't have a fucking clue what is going on.
How do I know? I've got 600+ hours in NS2, and BT mod is a major shock to me every time I play it.
All my friends who still play (who are significantly more casual than me) think it is crazy. It's almost a different game and it's so obviously far more complex and casual player hostile than vanilla I'm amazed anyone would try to claim otherwise.
New Fades need to learn things like Blink tapping, energy management, Blinking in combat, and using timed jumps after Blink to move around quickly. And those are just the basics.
Haven't played the BT version of a fade very much but I've always felt that those were key components of how you should play the existing fade. But then, maybe that's why I've always much preferred celerity over adren as fade. I will miss the existing SS though since I love moving around with the SS double jump movement combined with tapping blink.
In fact they are making it worse by promoting comp friendly/casual hostile mechanics.
This holds no weight unless you provide *how*, exactly you find this to be true.
Take 10 noobs and have them join vanilla. They'll be confused but interested (until they get rocked as skulk).
Now have them join BT, and they won't have a fucking clue what is going on.
How do I know? I've got 600+ hours in NS2, and BT mod is a major shock to me every time I play it.
All my friends who still play (who are significantly more casual than me) think it is crazy. It's almost a different game and it's so obviously far more complex and casual player hostile than vanilla I'm amazed anyone would try to claim otherwise.
Complexity is not the enemy of the beginner or "casual(PC users being casual makes me laugh)", but the inability by UWE to make decent tutorials, and really this game isn't that complex.
Marines = shotgun and win.
Aliens = be good at movement and win.
I believe there's too many FPS players sometimes, people from a strategy genre or similar find this game to be very shallow, luckily the BT mod tries to change this, also playing Classic really shows how lackluster NS2 is.
Complexity is not the enemy of the beginner or "casual(PC users being casual makes me laugh)", but the inability by UWE to make decent tutorials, and really this game isn't that complex.
In relative terms BT is way more complex than vanilla.
I believe there's too many FPS players sometimes, people from a strategy genre or similar find this game to be very shallow, luckily the BT mod tries to change this
This type of game will never appeal to many RTS players. Token changes to add more minor RTS elements as present in the BT mod won't make NS2 popular with StarCraft 2/insert other popular RTS here fans.
Complexity is not the enemy of the beginner or "casual(PC users being casual makes me laugh)", but the inability by UWE to make decent tutorials, and really this game isn't that complex.
In relative terms BT is way more complex than vanilla.
I believe there's too many FPS players sometimes, people from a strategy genre or similar find this game to be very shallow, luckily the BT mod tries to change this
This type of game will never appeal to many RTS players. Token changes to add more minor RTS elements as present in the BT mod won't make NS2 popular with StarCraft 2/insert other popular RTS here fans.
no.. it's not more complex, it's (attempting) making things that are already in the game more viable; also making the game flow into things better
What's more complex? What is changing besides fade movement (and lerk not allowed to be so aggro anymore) skulk is the exact same, except now with wallhopping you can pick up speed with it and add in strafing so you can turn
The core of the game is the same, for the alien commander you now use biomass to get upgrades; and dropping a shell and the etc gives both abilities, drop three for the max benefit
Play the mod, understand it, then provide honest feedback instead
Complexity is not the enemy of the beginner or "casual(PC users being casual makes me laugh)", but the inability by UWE to make decent tutorials, and really this game isn't that complex.
In relative terms BT is way more complex than vanilla.
I believe there's too many FPS players sometimes, people from a strategy genre or similar find this game to be very shallow, luckily the BT mod tries to change this
This type of game will never appeal to many RTS players. Token changes to add more minor RTS elements as present in the BT mod won't make NS2 popular with StarCraft 2/insert other popular RTS here fans.
Which is better because the vanilla is plain and shallow as you get, it takes about a couple of hours to understand the game, though admittedly most games this days are shallow.
Actually you'll be surprised how many RTS players who are playing.
Seriously? Bunnyhopping? WTH. Can't we come up with something better than that? I want to feel like an animal, not a physics bug.
Technically it's not bunny-hopping, it's a similar thing, but not the same. You should give it a go, quite enjoyable especially getting the Skulk movement down.
Hey everyone average pubber here ^_^ First off, Biomass seems awesome, I've always felt a little restricted as an alien commander and I love the idea of strengthening aliens with it. Next on the list, I'm sad, because I've been practicing really hard to get really good with the original Fade and now its movement mechanics might be changed. Q.Q all that hard work. As far as I can tell I like all of the marine changes. Hmmmmm.... I suppose that means I'm only really upset about the Fade........Well, regardless, I can assure you that I will continue to play regardless of what gets implemented this patch.
The skulk bite was never confusing to me, never really had to have it explained to me. *shrugs* I personally have enjoyed every update, even if I'm stuck at 20 fps every game. On the competitive level I understand how skulks feel against God-like aim, but on the pub level, I've seen a few skulks rip through a lot of marines.
I like the idea of making late game units easier to deal with and being able to still get res despite dying. Hmmmm.. That's about all I can add about how I feel about this, hope my opinion helps you guys out and if it angers you.....well.......sorry you had to read it? *shrugs*
Do we really need sprint in this game? Feels like a chore to hold/tap shift all the time.
Like you could just hold down sprint all the time and you get only the small pull up delay that you can just skip by doing a small strafe before shooting.
Is this skill based movement?
Hm says he is from Austria. Is that part of Germany?
Is that a serious question?
Austria borders Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. German is the official language, though they have their own dialect (which was probably made internationally popular by Falco in the 80s and 90s).
But let me fuel your your prejudice by telling you that Hitler was an Austrian.
The alien vision orange hell could go away. There's better vision mods that could be implemented, especially the one that shows the map normally but highlights marines. It's annoying to learn the same map twice.
Also picking up welder under lmg is rage.
Hm says he is from Austria. Is that part of Germany?
Is that a serious question?
Austria borders Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. German is the official language, though they have their own dialect (which was probably made internationally popular by Falco in the 80s and 90s).
But let me fuel your your prejudice by telling you that Hitler was an Austrian.
austria, italy, california, it doesnt matter, we dont care. they're all the same to Americans. We simply cannot be bothered by lesser nations, please pardon our lack of geographical knowledge while we're walking on the moon, going to mars, taking over the world, exterminating the buffalo. You know, simple things like that.
Look, I don't care what you change but please be careful managing it. Carefully consider your roll out options for large changes and how you plan on keeping everyone informed. If you fumble it, you risk splitting your player base and I'm not sure you have that luxury. Good luck.
austria, italy, california, it doesnt matter, we dont care. they're all the same to Americans. We simply cannot be bothered by lesser nations, please pardon our lack of geographical knowledge while we're walking on the moon, going to mars, taking over the world, exterminating the buffalo. You know, simple things like that.
I played a few BT games this weekend and I'm impressed. Some point I'd like to note :
Bunny hopping revival makes it more interesting to move (and how a single wrong movement can nullify all your speed ><). I understand that the permanent down-key is there to help new players get good speed .
Having shade-crag-spur... Games are way more interesting for aliens at the beginning (and way less boring)
I'm a bit disappointed that fade damage was nerfed (but it gained HP for late-game; so I guess it compensate)
Grenade launcher and FT have a use (and are used ! ; if not interesting)
I feel there is something wrong with exos; since they aren't that needed anymore (1 base marine can do everything but exos ...)
Helpful icons beside the player, showing if they have a welder. Also auto-welder + 3 res cost. I like it.
Quick-fade is... interesting (I mean by this low-res needed)
Skulks become soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier for noob. I kept getting para-2bite/3bite like crazy (almost never before).
Biomass seemed at first, on the change list, like a big suckage; but it's actually somewhat clean. I prefer this over a hive count. The "leaderboard" with the row of ability helps understanding it. It is however unclear that you HAVE TO also research those abilities. Having variable health is great IMO.
The skulk dog sound.... (I find this realist; skulks finally have a way to refresh their body revealed)
Shotgun... ish... I'm divided on that change. (Shotgun inter-shot cooldown was its weakness; but I feel it's too good now)
Having the need of a teamate to weld you encourage teamwork IMO.
Being weld when welding a structure is totally stupid. Worst thing in BT. Unlogical, stupid and ....wtf. How do you explain that you can get armor when welding a damaged structure and not when that structure is full life ?!...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Marine increased spawn time is a good thing IMO. (But maybe an upgrade could make it 9-->7 ? just an idea)
It seems marine can't really "snipe" an upgrade anymore... I think they need a way to deal a technological blow... (the only thing I see is killing a gorge tunnel... ). The fact that there is no more incentive (well... "less" incentive) to rambo into a hive's room is a bit sad.
Overall, the game seems refreshed and less "static". And please note that many description are misplaced/outdated (I can't think of anything; but let's say an ability description said "x" then it does or work like "y".
I am saddened that the BT looks to be coming in pretty much as is.
Yes I have played it, though not every variant that has been thrown about (seeing as it was changing daily) and have also played a lot of NS1 and NS2 over the years.
I used to play games with a clan...but no longer have the time/desire to devote so much of my life to gaming.
I will now at best play a game for a 2-3 hours a week (occasionally more (but have played some 800 hours over the journey)), I have been spending this time playing NS2...but I have been less and less active due to the continued nerfing of aliens (the side I prefer to play).
Sure some will argue that aliens needed nerfing or that they are not really being nerfed...but from my viewpoint they have been nerfed and the skill floor raised.
I would fear seeing players like mf during the beta (even with the supposed lawn mower skulk), but from the point where the alien bite cone first got nerfed I have struggled to maintain interest in playing.
Simply put I dont want to have to play marine to get a positive K:D ratio...and I dont find alien gameplay rewarding.
For me I view rewarding as being able to get kills as a skulk, this is hard enough at the start of the game...and nigh on impossible once marines have A3 w3.
I have said on countless occassions this game is becoming very unfriendly for casual gamer, removing glancing bites just penalising us less accurate with our aiming.
The wider changes are all about reducing costs for marines and speeding up their access to tech...whilst removing anything that might hinder them (ie allowing building on infestation).
Alien game play from a new players perspective is boring, tedious and frustrating.
You spend most of your time as a skulk (dieing easily...often 1 shotted after 5 min in) and you struggle to get kills, if you do evolve into a higher lifeform it will be for a short period before you die to a shotgun or two.
Adding in complicated movement mechanics further isolates casual players who dont have large amounts of time to devote to learning these.
The claims others have made about these changes being targeted at comp players I agree with, there is seemingly a small group of ppl who's opinions hold sway...this is apparent when looking at the changes being made.
The only time this varied was just before we went retail...when alien gameplay took a step towards being fun (100% camo helped this).
Since then we have had the comp scene influence changes...with UWE seemingly more concerned about keeping a small % of their overall player base happy....this has sadly been at the expense of the casual gamer.
Overall player numbers are down...keeping your existing player base happy wont do anything to help the game survive...we need to attract new casual players to do that...and not simply believe that we can attract players who want to invest large slabs of their life to learning mechanics just to be able to enjoy playing the game.
Easy to learn...hard to master was a design mantra....I dont see this being achieved in alien game play at all...nothing is easy to learn (except dieing).
The game was closer to this at launch...but apparently the Win/Loss ratios being weighted to alien was an issue...so aliens got nerfed.
What this did was made alien gameplay un-enjoyable for casual players...sure the overall winloss ratios might have improved but the level of fun obtained from playing aliens for casual players has plummetted.
I will, as usual, take a lot of heat for saying things that some will take offence too...I will be seen as "hating comp players" but I dont care...I would like to see ns2 still being played in 12 months time and with a bigger player base...the way things are heading this wont be the case...
Regardless of the perception of others I shall not be the deckhand on the titanic that did not scream out "iceberg".
This game is heading away from being accesible to players like me....I dont have hours and hours to dedicate to this game...and will simply go play other games that cater to a casual gamer.
The facts are pretty clear...if oyu cater to a casual player base...you will have a good comp scene...cater to a good comp scene will not create a good casual player base.
twilitebluebug stalkerJoin Date: 2003-02-04Member: 13116Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited June 2013
I feel that Biomass does not offer sufficient rewards for the complexity it add. If Biomass provides better HP scaling on aliens (Cara is still the most popular first hive because it saves lives, esp Fades against weapons upgrade rush), or costed less, it would have more strategic value. Right now, it is just a big "tax" on aliens (eg. leap now costs 115 res to research).
Fades get countered (too hard) by almost every marine weapon, now that they're much easier to hit. Fast weapons 3 Shotguns are the main culprits. Shadow step research cost is a little too high, due to Biomass "tax".
I think Bilebomb research, on the other hand, could be pushed back slightly (to biomass 3), so it can still be researched off 1 hive, at a high cost. There is little reason BB should be available at biomass 2. It makes mines and sentries obsolete even faster.
Alien structures die a little too fast off infestation. It takes less than 30 seconds for a Shift to die from this damage.
Grenade fuse research seems really out of place, and should be replaced ASAP.
I played a few BT games this weekend and I'm impressed. Some point I'd like to note :
Being weld when welding a structure is totally stupid. Worst thing in BT. Unlogical, stupid and ....wtf. How do you explain that you can get armor when welding a damaged structure and not when that structure is full life ?!...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Nanites.
You can think of them as intelligent welder sparks that get absorbed by marine armour.
Excellent work sewlek and friends. I like pretty much everything about BT mod and it has made NS2 actually enjoyable to play. Can't wait for these changes (and I'm sure alot more intelligent design changes) to be implemented in the future.
To the whingers: Awww wah wah I don't have time so you should make the game easy for me wah. Harden the fuck up. I don't have alot of time either. If you don't wanna suck at the game, learn how not to suck at the game. Otherwise don't complain if you get destroyed by someone who has taken the time and practice to learn.
Comments
The 75 damage bite cone in BT is inbetween the two previously tested versions, solving most of the problems of the previous iterations. However, without glancing bites, newer players and those of us that can't aim will do a little less damage overall. The flipside is that there would be less confusing and frustrating mechanics to learn and deal with. The only question is, which do you value more?
*Edit: Excluding people crying about hitreg issues.
Whoa don't put words in my mouth!
As to my taste game desperately needs some mechanics/balance tweaks
(
why is SG named bane of Skulks?Rifle does it ton better
Pistol seems to lack a role
why can't we still see our Steamfriends highlighted
why won't allow to drop a spare magazine to mate?
)
Btw Can anyone help with modding, I've been playing for more than 900h and have many ideas spinning in my head aimed towards gameplay variety and against being confusing(scalable upgrades). I have some experience with C++ and OOP, but it was too confusing to find logic and the routes for modding in the Game's vast fodlers.
PM or reply here would be nice
I don't see how a single thing you mentioned is nearly as hard to pick up as the Shadowstep-skipping of live.
I've had the opposite experience. All I ever hear with regards to glancing bites is that they are frustrating and unnecessary, or I just hear general confusion. I know people that quit NS2 simply because of glancing bites. I, personally, find it annoying and convoluted as I try to figure out how many more bites it will take to kill that marine in front of me, and I know how the system works.
Take 10 noobs and have them join vanilla. They'll be confused but interested (until they get rocked as skulk).
Now have them join BT, and they won't have a fucking clue what is going on.
How do I know? I've got 600+ hours in NS2, and BT mod is a major shock to me every time I play it.
All my friends who still play (who are significantly more casual than me) think it is crazy. It's almost a different game and it's so obviously far more complex and casual player hostile than vanilla I'm amazed anyone would try to claim otherwise.
Haven't played the BT version of a fade very much but I've always felt that those were key components of how you should play the existing fade. But then, maybe that's why I've always much preferred celerity over adren as fade. I will miss the existing SS though since I love moving around with the SS double jump movement combined with tapping blink.
Complexity is not the enemy of the beginner or "casual(PC users being casual makes me laugh)", but the inability by UWE to make decent tutorials, and really this game isn't that complex.
Marines = shotgun and win.
Aliens = be good at movement and win.
I believe there's too many FPS players sometimes, people from a strategy genre or similar find this game to be very shallow, luckily the BT mod tries to change this, also playing Classic really shows how lackluster NS2 is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boBosGiUDOw&hd=1
In relative terms BT is way more complex than vanilla.
This type of game will never appeal to many RTS players. Token changes to add more minor RTS elements as present in the BT mod won't make NS2 popular with StarCraft 2/insert other popular RTS here fans.
no.. it's not more complex, it's (attempting) making things that are already in the game more viable; also making the game flow into things better
What's more complex? What is changing besides fade movement (and lerk not allowed to be so aggro anymore) skulk is the exact same, except now with wallhopping you can pick up speed with it and add in strafing so you can turn
The core of the game is the same, for the alien commander you now use biomass to get upgrades; and dropping a shell and the etc gives both abilities, drop three for the max benefit
Play the mod, understand it, then provide honest feedback instead
Seriously? Bunnyhopping? WTH. Can't we come up with something better than that? I want to feel like an animal, not a physics bug.
Which is better because the vanilla is plain and shallow as you get, it takes about a couple of hours to understand the game, though admittedly most games this days are shallow.
Actually you'll be surprised how many RTS players who are playing.
Technically it's not bunny-hopping, it's a similar thing, but not the same. You should give it a go, quite enjoyable especially getting the Skulk movement down.
The skulk bite was never confusing to me, never really had to have it explained to me. *shrugs* I personally have enjoyed every update, even if I'm stuck at 20 fps every game. On the competitive level I understand how skulks feel against God-like aim, but on the pub level, I've seen a few skulks rip through a lot of marines.
I like the idea of making late game units easier to deal with and being able to still get res despite dying. Hmmmm.. That's about all I can add about how I feel about this, hope my opinion helps you guys out and if it angers you.....well.......sorry you had to read it? *shrugs*
Like you could just hold down sprint all the time and you get only the small pull up delay that you can just skip by doing a small strafe before shooting.
Is this skill based movement?
Austria.
Is that a serious question?
Austria borders Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary. German is the official language, though they have their own dialect (which was probably made internationally popular by Falco in the 80s and 90s).
But let me fuel your your prejudice by telling you that Hitler was an Austrian.
Also picking up welder under lmg is rage.
austria, italy, california, it doesnt matter, we dont care. they're all the same to Americans. We simply cannot be bothered by lesser nations, please pardon our lack of geographical knowledge while we're walking on the moon, going to mars, taking over the world, exterminating the buffalo. You know, simple things like that.
'merica.
Overall, the game seems refreshed and less "static". And please note that many description are misplaced/outdated (I can't think of anything; but let's say an ability description said "x" then it does or work like "y".
Red
Yes I have played it, though not every variant that has been thrown about (seeing as it was changing daily) and have also played a lot of NS1 and NS2 over the years.
I used to play games with a clan...but no longer have the time/desire to devote so much of my life to gaming.
I will now at best play a game for a 2-3 hours a week (occasionally more (but have played some 800 hours over the journey)), I have been spending this time playing NS2...but I have been less and less active due to the continued nerfing of aliens (the side I prefer to play).
Sure some will argue that aliens needed nerfing or that they are not really being nerfed...but from my viewpoint they have been nerfed and the skill floor raised.
I would fear seeing players like mf during the beta (even with the supposed lawn mower skulk), but from the point where the alien bite cone first got nerfed I have struggled to maintain interest in playing.
Simply put I dont want to have to play marine to get a positive K:D ratio...and I dont find alien gameplay rewarding.
For me I view rewarding as being able to get kills as a skulk, this is hard enough at the start of the game...and nigh on impossible once marines have A3 w3.
I have said on countless occassions this game is becoming very unfriendly for casual gamer, removing glancing bites just penalising us less accurate with our aiming.
The wider changes are all about reducing costs for marines and speeding up their access to tech...whilst removing anything that might hinder them (ie allowing building on infestation).
Alien game play from a new players perspective is boring, tedious and frustrating.
You spend most of your time as a skulk (dieing easily...often 1 shotted after 5 min in) and you struggle to get kills, if you do evolve into a higher lifeform it will be for a short period before you die to a shotgun or two.
Adding in complicated movement mechanics further isolates casual players who dont have large amounts of time to devote to learning these.
The claims others have made about these changes being targeted at comp players I agree with, there is seemingly a small group of ppl who's opinions hold sway...this is apparent when looking at the changes being made.
The only time this varied was just before we went retail...when alien gameplay took a step towards being fun (100% camo helped this).
Since then we have had the comp scene influence changes...with UWE seemingly more concerned about keeping a small % of their overall player base happy....this has sadly been at the expense of the casual gamer.
Overall player numbers are down...keeping your existing player base happy wont do anything to help the game survive...we need to attract new casual players to do that...and not simply believe that we can attract players who want to invest large slabs of their life to learning mechanics just to be able to enjoy playing the game.
Easy to learn...hard to master was a design mantra....I dont see this being achieved in alien game play at all...nothing is easy to learn (except dieing).
The game was closer to this at launch...but apparently the Win/Loss ratios being weighted to alien was an issue...so aliens got nerfed.
What this did was made alien gameplay un-enjoyable for casual players...sure the overall winloss ratios might have improved but the level of fun obtained from playing aliens for casual players has plummetted.
I will, as usual, take a lot of heat for saying things that some will take offence too...I will be seen as "hating comp players" but I dont care...I would like to see ns2 still being played in 12 months time and with a bigger player base...the way things are heading this wont be the case...
Regardless of the perception of others I shall not be the deckhand on the titanic that did not scream out "iceberg".
This game is heading away from being accesible to players like me....I dont have hours and hours to dedicate to this game...and will simply go play other games that cater to a casual gamer.
The facts are pretty clear...if oyu cater to a casual player base...you will have a good comp scene...cater to a good comp scene will not create a good casual player base.
Fades get countered (too hard) by almost every marine weapon, now that they're much easier to hit. Fast weapons 3 Shotguns are the main culprits. Shadow step research cost is a little too high, due to Biomass "tax".
I think Bilebomb research, on the other hand, could be pushed back slightly (to biomass 3), so it can still be researched off 1 hive, at a high cost. There is little reason BB should be available at biomass 2. It makes mines and sentries obsolete even faster.
Alien structures die a little too fast off infestation. It takes less than 30 seconds for a Shift to die from this damage.
Grenade fuse research seems really out of place, and should be replaced ASAP.
Nanites.
You can think of them as intelligent welder sparks that get absorbed by marine armour.
Oh well having to aim in a first person shooter was getting old anyways.
To the whingers: Awww wah wah I don't have time so you should make the game easy for me wah. Harden the fuck up. I don't have alot of time either. If you don't wanna suck at the game, learn how not to suck at the game. Otherwise don't complain if you get destroyed by someone who has taken the time and practice to learn.
Kids these days, want everything for free.