ALIEN IMPROVEMENTS

Harhar

<div class="IPBDescription">some of my ideas on how to make aliens more fun</div>I see alot of posts on how to make marines better but i see very few talking about how to make the aliens better or more fluid. And in almost every NS game more people immediately jump into the marines team. For me i didn't really realize until recently why i enjoyed marines more. I think it has to do with being able to identify more with the marines because their game play is very familiar. (and i suck at aliens)

I think that the kharra need to be much more fluid in their play style.

And by that i mean the clipping effects need to be toned down. Nothing annoys me more than being stuck on a light while wall walking or not being able to easily enter a vent because of the way you walk on walls. Most maps usually make if fairly easy to get around because the way they are designed. I'm hoping for a much more fluid movement when climbing walls and railings, lights. Climbing on the top of a wall should feel as natural as running on the ground. In aliens the video game you would jerk around as you moved from surface to surface and PoV to PoV making you get disoriented very easily. In NS you didn't have to worry about that as your PoV never changed. What i was hoping is for them to incorporate the PoV changing like in aliens but make it more fluid. You would glide over lights and other minor obstacles. Than when you ran into a wall you would not get jerked off into you new PoV. You should transition slowly and smoothly.

Make aliens abilities more fluid also. I know that most of what im saying is in pretty bad English, and some people may tell me to L2P,but hell screw you commies <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> . It, for some reason, annoys the hell out of me when i want to "spring" at someone as a skulk, and to be able to bite them i have to change damn weapons. We should be able to do both at the same time, maybe implement some thing like the double jump from HL and you use your movement keys to pounce around. Same thing with fade, i shouldn't have to switch between blink and melee attack. and for Onos our stomp should have the same basic controls. Aliens shouldnt feel like they are switching weapons when they select different abilities , it should feel natural but different from any other game.

Cataclyzm

In 3.2 they incorporated a key for those abilities most accessed for movement (ie. leap and blink) so you don't have to switch between them. People were making scripts to switch between the two more "fluidly" so I suppose the developers figured they might as well level the playing field between people who know how to script and bind to those who don't. I was surprised to find this new feature after. I was always wondering why the fades were able to blink in the ready room (*smacks head*).

StixNStonz

Yeah, bind mouse2 +movement, and then bind another key to +popupmenu
That'll make it so that when you fade, your right-click will always be your blink (and for skulk, leap, and for onos, charge).

invader Zim

at the momment when im a skulk i get from a to b along the floor, unless im using air ducts. I only usually wall walk when im positioning for combat. this is because im not brill at wall walking and often fall off when i come to a right angle or obstical. Ive played AVP 1 and 2, the only other games that ive played with wall walking in them, I found it not prefect but alot more natural in those games, because u cling to the walls better and u dont have to hold down the wall walk key, its an on/off key, u also get an arrow showing u which way is gravitationally down to help u aviod getting disorrientated.

I would like to see wall walking become natural enuth, that players use it to get from A-B and general map movement rather just for positioning for ambushes and getting to inaccessable places.

When skulks rush they usually do it by strafing and bunny hopping down corridors, id like to see skulks in ns2 rushing along cellings and walls as much as along the floor. Rushing rines as a skulk isnt usually successful but some players can do it, but ive never seen any player do it along the celling, cos theyd fall off.

I dont know how ud solve this problem from a programing point of view, but one idea may be - a code that causes skulks to have a different gravity setting to everyone else, when they hit a walk walk mode key. this different gravity would simply mean they fall towards the nearest surface. So if a skulk runs along a celling and falls off a little or jumps, if at the end of the jump or second delay for the fall, hes nearer the floor he falls there, if hes nearer the celling he falls to that. This way skulks to could move down cellings and walls easier and faster making them more alien from the rines. If alien structures r gonna be put on walls and cellings too then an alien team could fight the first part of a game entirely from the celling

MasterPTG

I have my mouse2 bound to jump. I have a G5, so I have mouse wheel left bound to +movement.

Domining

Eh, pubbers don't use walls and ceilings because they NEED to walk in a straight towards a marine along the floor. Those that don't do this usually hide on top of doorways 99% of the time.

<!--quoteo(post=1661528:date=Nov 22 2007, 03:30 PM:name=MasterPTG)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MasterPTG @ Nov 22 2007, 03:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1661528"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I have my mouse2 bound to jump. I have a G5, so I have mouse wheel left bound to +movement.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Eh, that's inefficient use of finger muscles. The muscle groups that move your fingers parallel to other fingers are tiny, get tired fast and are slow.

Khaze

I've vouched for an AvP style wall-walking PoV since the begining, and personally after playing AvP2 actively for half a decade primarily as an alien, the Skulk wall-walk feels very unnatural and clumsy to me. You just can't attain the degree of control over your avatar as you can in AvP2 and I feel my performance is retardified (gosh, is that even a word?) because of this lack of control.

However... after reading several topics about the subject, it has become apparent to me that there indeed <i>are</i> people out there that get disoriented and even motionsick when dealing with a feature like this, so the most logical and user-friendly solution would be a simple menu setting for toggling this ("Use old-style wallwalk for Skulks?" Yes/No). Could even be a bindable button so you can do it on the fly.

Domining

The AvP wall walk isn't very newbie friendly.

naggy

Khaara gameplay ######s all over marine gameplay. Nothing needs to be changed, It's flawless as it is. People complain about marines and suggest new ideas etc because they are gimp.

Also, learn2+movement.. Make use of your thumb while playing and bind some useless key like V.

Vman

I feel that aliens dont need much improvement, its just that people need to get better at them. Ever wonder why alien scores are like 1:4? or close to that? its because they rush out by themselfs to get kills, while they should be in groups, thats what it is about. Either way... I say The Kharra gameplay is best as is, unless a new alien is to be added then it shouldent be tampered with.

focus on marines, they have NO stealth once so ever, just clumsy humanz >_<

gamakun

I just hope they add cross hair for all the different skills.

invader Zim

i dont think you could describe anything in ns1 as flawless espcially not khaara game play. im not a pro or a clan player but i find alot things about khaara game play very fastrating, and it makes the game less fun, and since fun is the aim of most video games, these issues need to be looked at. on this thread, skulk wall walking is my issue. I almost always fall off when i come to a 90degree corner on a celling or wall. i spose you could blame this on my skill as a player, but you shouldnt have to build up hours of game play experience to do somthing simple like wall walking with out falling off. If a skulk is a natural wall walking class it should be fairly simple to wall walk. Wall walking on avp isnt perfect but its alot better than ns. I spose this point leads back to a basic game principle. Should ns2 focus on widening the game market and bringing in new players, or should it focus on making a more complex game for current players. If the alien game play is seen as near perfect, and just touched up for current players, ns2 wont appeal to a wide market and it will fail, i know this because ive tried to get my mates in to ns, and cant be bothered with the learning curve. On the rine team even if u know sod all aobut ns u can shoot stuff and engage with the game but on the alien team almost all the roles are niche. Skulks are niche because they wall walk and ambush, which takes alot of skill, gorges are nich cos u have to know the teck tree and strategy, fading is nich, because u have to master ur moving in and out controls. onos and lerk are probably the most accesable roles but they arent exactly easy to do well.

Makeing the khaara team more accessible for noobs may cost some khaara character. but hopefully the devs will find away to make it more accessible to new players with out sacrificing the teams depth, and uniqueness in the gameing market, but if someting isnt changed new players will get fed up and leave and the game will fail

commofdoom

ns needs a tutorial or a larger group of players training other players.