Random hive spawn

[R8]DJBourgeoisie

<div class="IPBDescription">Why did this change?</div>Just curious as to why there is no longer a random hive location, for me that was part of the fun in NS and it often determined the strategy you wanted to use on both teams. I'm not saying it is wrong now because I really have not had a chance to get in a "real" game of NS2 and see how it works, I am just curious if this is how it will remain or is it just the current implementation. Bases on Tram seem awfully close which is sort of the reason I am asking. Sure in NS1 a competent commander could snuff out the starting hive in 10 seconds, but the randomness of the locations is what IMO made the game that much more dynamic every round. I'm sure I am unaware of the bigger picture, so enlighten me :)

Quovatis

Hives are built much faster in NS2 (and you can build one from the start of the game). That means it really doesn't matter as much whether you start at a random hive or not. The randomness it really which way the aliens will push.

I had an interesting game last night as marines. It was a stalemate for a while, but then we started pushing toward the alien's starting hive with our overpowered grenade launchers (2 grenades take out a fade WTF?), and took it out. But while we were there, they took out marine start. Marines won the game, but had to assault marine start as the last hive. Kind of cool.

countbasie

We should always remember, that no balance is in it yet. Neither the random spawn, nor the hive building speed is the final version.

Revi.uk

<!--quoteo(post=1809291:date=Nov 23 2010, 05:32 PM:name=countbasie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (countbasie @ Nov 23 2010, 05:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1809291"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->We should always remember, that no balance is in it yet. Neither the random spawn, nor the hive building speed is the final version.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yep. I suspect damage from flamer + nades will be dropped dramatically and the cost of research will be increased and the rate which resources are collected will be lowered.

Cerebral

Random spawns for both teams could be pretty comical. Spawning in two adjacent rooms would get interesting real quick.

Chris0132

Edit: durr i am stupid

WatchMaker

I believe this was put on the back burner, but was intended to make a return at some point. As far as I know, random starting hives and random marine HQs are both still planned for NS2. Though, it has been awhile since a developer rang in on this topic, so it's possible the plan has changed. That said, I personally think NS2 would be losing a good deal by abandoning the random starting hive, because I feel it added an awesome strategic layer to both sides.

As far as map size goes, I really didn't like the change in level design right up until the previous patch. To put it simply, it feels good. It isn't too big, and it isn't too small. (Based on 8 max player rounds, of course.) I suspect we'll see greater variety in maps later on, with some being larger than tram. As their first environment theme and primary alpha map, I can understand why they would want to keep the size of tram to a minimum.

Chris0132

Honestly, rockdown feels big.

It's about six rooms stuck next to each other but it honestly feels big and varied.

If tram is not even an example of a large map, I can't imagine what the big maps will be like.

[R8]DJBourgeoisie

So they do plan to eventually have the hive as a random start location or is this still up in the air? As I said I have not really played a real game yet but could see the close proximity / predictability of knowing where each teams base always is as a deterrent to certain tactics being used (relocations). It always "felt right" that in NS1 marines always started in the same location while the hive was random, just that asymmetrical element I miss already.

Chris0132

Oh wait you mean START location?

I thought everyone was talking about respawn locations.

Yeah I think they might be intending to introduce randomized start locations but I wouldn't mind really if they didn't. It won't work stealth-wise because you would notice the lights going off.

Could be interesting (although perhaps difficult to balance) if you could play across maps in many different configurations though.

[R8]DJBourgeoisie

<!--quoteo(post=1809323:date=Nov 23 2010, 06:30 PM:name=Chris0132)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chris0132 @ Nov 23 2010, 06:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1809323"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh wait you mean START location?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yes, sorry if I did not clarify this enough, I mean the starting hive location so when a game starts, the hive location can randomly start in 1 of 3 possible locations.

Chris0132

<!--quoteo(post=1809324:date=Nov 23 2010, 06:31 PM:name=[R8]DJBourgeoisie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE ([R8]DJBourgeoisie @ Nov 23 2010, 06:31 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1809324"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Yes, sorry if I did not clarify this enough, I mean the starting hive location so when a game starts, the hive location can randomly start in 1 of 3 possible locations.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

No you did I just somehow managed to skim read over every reference to it in the thread.