Differentiation and Balance
fr0st2k
Join Date: 2004-04-26 Member: 28210Members
Join Date: 2004-04-26 Member: 28210Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Marines vs Aliens</div>Personally ... when people get used to the maps, and when things get too comfortable, gameplay is changed. People play differently and things become much more routine.
My suggestion : Obviously, the marines should focus more on teamwork, due to the whole idea of the commander position. So, promote "leader" status, which provides AoE bonuses to damage, hp regen etc. I would push this idea sofar that it would be required to kill specific aliens. Perhaps give each marine a base "job" which grants them auras, which effect their "party." Or maybe give the commander the ability to grant these bonuses to specific units with a cooldown.
Take this idea to whatever extent youd like...but the general idea behind it is to slow down the marines, and group them together; like a school of fish...stronger in numbers. If you do something like this, then when a single marine is left to fight against a Skulk, or particularly an Onos...they will feel fear, and will typically want to run away and wait for reinforcements. In cases where 1 marine goes against an alien: make it so they won't stand much of a chance, unless the commander is there helping them. (obviously 2+ marines are stronger simply because there are more of them.. but this should be balanced that without the upgrades one another provide, they wouldnt be able to kill aliens of equal numbers. This would require the boost to grouping to be substantial.)
Aliens, on the other hand, would be the more "solo" team. Obviously, if they choose to work in groups they would be strengthened considerably. That is where balancing comes in.
Consider this:
Marines have 2 layers; Commander + Infantry,
whereas
Aliens have 1 layer: Infantry.
In that sense; 3 Marine Infantry should be weaker than 3 alien Infantry....But 3 Marine Infantry + commander should be stronger than 3 alien infantry. However, because people will not always be in groups, and the commander can really only focus one, maybe 2 groups at a time; AND he has to build and maintain tech, the aliens would be balanced against that main infantry group due to their ability to spread across the map.
If you make marines generally slower...as in require them to stay grouped in order to be a formidable force, then you are efficiently differentiating between the two teams. Being slower, you cut down on the amount of "heroes". No rushing from spawn to resource, to Hive, etc. Now, lets say player A is told to go check on a resource node...He goes out alone because the main group is pressing forward...he now has to worry about running into an alien, which would essentially be fatal unless he gets help from the commander, or is much more skillful. This would make the game much creepier and enjoyable.
Sorry for the somewhat confusing post. I hope you understand it and agree :D
My suggestion : Obviously, the marines should focus more on teamwork, due to the whole idea of the commander position. So, promote "leader" status, which provides AoE bonuses to damage, hp regen etc. I would push this idea sofar that it would be required to kill specific aliens. Perhaps give each marine a base "job" which grants them auras, which effect their "party." Or maybe give the commander the ability to grant these bonuses to specific units with a cooldown.
Take this idea to whatever extent youd like...but the general idea behind it is to slow down the marines, and group them together; like a school of fish...stronger in numbers. If you do something like this, then when a single marine is left to fight against a Skulk, or particularly an Onos...they will feel fear, and will typically want to run away and wait for reinforcements. In cases where 1 marine goes against an alien: make it so they won't stand much of a chance, unless the commander is there helping them. (obviously 2+ marines are stronger simply because there are more of them.. but this should be balanced that without the upgrades one another provide, they wouldnt be able to kill aliens of equal numbers. This would require the boost to grouping to be substantial.)
Aliens, on the other hand, would be the more "solo" team. Obviously, if they choose to work in groups they would be strengthened considerably. That is where balancing comes in.
Consider this:
Marines have 2 layers; Commander + Infantry,
whereas
Aliens have 1 layer: Infantry.
In that sense; 3 Marine Infantry should be weaker than 3 alien Infantry....But 3 Marine Infantry + commander should be stronger than 3 alien infantry. However, because people will not always be in groups, and the commander can really only focus one, maybe 2 groups at a time; AND he has to build and maintain tech, the aliens would be balanced against that main infantry group due to their ability to spread across the map.
If you make marines generally slower...as in require them to stay grouped in order to be a formidable force, then you are efficiently differentiating between the two teams. Being slower, you cut down on the amount of "heroes". No rushing from spawn to resource, to Hive, etc. Now, lets say player A is told to go check on a resource node...He goes out alone because the main group is pressing forward...he now has to worry about running into an alien, which would essentially be fatal unless he gets help from the commander, or is much more skillful. This would make the game much creepier and enjoyable.
Sorry for the somewhat confusing post. I hope you understand it and agree :D