My thoughts on the game after playing for a couple days
Therealsmokey
Join Date: 2007-09-18 Member: 62353Members
Join Date: 2007-09-18 Member: 62353Members
I finally got the game working enough to play some games over the past few days and I have some questions/comments.
First of all, this game is seriously complex for just an average gamer to comprehend and maneuver through.
As a marine:
the buildings are kind of difficult to distinguish from one another until you are right up next to them. This means that it takes more time to find the building you want to
go to to purchase guns, equipment, get health/ammo. When time is of the essence (which is always), it is kind of frustrating running through spawn trying to get health,
etc., while allies are dying, or also trying to get health/ammo. Perhaps make the buildings a little more distinguishable or slighty different colors? (Phase gates also
don't stand out very well. They need to be brighter or something)
The movement of marines seems to be very sluggish, for lack of a better word. They aren't necessarily slow, it just seems that they aren't as quick as they need to be in
order to be able to be effective in close combat situations. I guess I am saying they need to be a little more agile (not exos ofc) in terms of changing directions and things
like that.
The health bars are very difficult to see. When I am trying to weld exos and, to a lesser extent, structures, I can never really tell if I am welding the person or if that
person is fully healed. In NS1 there was a very distinct sound that was made that notified you that you were welding or that you were done welding, not to mention
a big ass health bar that changed colors based on how full the armor was. Is it possible to do something like that without messing up the game? Color changes for
structure health would be nice too.
It is sometimes difficult to tell when you are hitting aliens, especially fades. Sometimes I can see the green blood when I am up close, but a lot of times it is just too
difficult to tell if you actually hit the alien (e.g. while the fade is blinking). Seeing and hearing that shot hit the alien is a big deciding factor in a marine's decision to
pursue the alien and try for the kill, or go back and regroup for another attack.
These are just some of my first impressions as a marine.
As an alien:
The movement and combat capabilities of the aliens seem pretty decent.
The skulk leap was really drawn back compared to NS1. Skulks are a vital part of alien strategy, not just a lifeform you are relegated to until you can go higher lifeform.
The skulk is small and weak, but makes up for it by having outstanding maneuverability. I feel that "nerfing" the leap so much has taken too much of that advantage
from the skulk. I can live without bunnyhop, but the leap is essential and is too scaled back in NS2 in my opinion.
The building and evolution processes are just upsetting. Period. I'm sure I can eventually get the hang of having an alien commander and having one person be
responsible for all the upgrades, but it is just such a chaotic and random process I fear that it will turn a lot of casual gamers away. Perhaps just making it so
all upgrades of a certain type (similar to mc, dc, sc in NS1) can be upgraded at once by the commander would be a good compromise without having to change much
in terms of the overall game structure and playstyle. Not everyone is going to want celerity or silence or adrenaline first. I think just making that little change would
allow people enough individuality to stay interested in playing on the alien side. I'm sure there is more I could add to this idea, but this post is already getting long so I
will save it for a future post.
Other than that the aliens seem to be pretty nice, or at least tolerable.
Second, just some random ideas:
One of the most essential and fun parts of the old NS was the ability to make a game changing move. From what I have seen so far, this is lacking. It is basically a trench
warfare style game. Each side throws wave after wave of units into battle hoping to inch their territory forward until they finally make a breakthrough, and then ultimately
one side slowly pushes the other into a long, drawn out defeat.
For example, the marines had the ability to "ninja" a phase gate deep in alien territory and take out a hive, just when it looked like the marines might be losing the battle.
Now that there is a zergstyle creep for aliens (pardon the starcraft reference) and a reliance on power nodes for marines, this is impossible. I like the idea of having power
nodes power structures, and creep preventing structures from being built, but at least take phase gates out of that equation. The phase gate is the first structure that needs
to be built when attempting to take new territory as a marine.
On the other side, aliens had the ability to "ninja" a hive into a heavily marine dominated hive room, and then teleport the team into the hive. I have seen some posts in
reference to the hive teleport topic so I won't go into detail about it, but this is the game changing move that comes to my mind for the alien side. Perhaps only allowing
aliens to use hive teleport to teleport to a hive that is being damaged by marines would be a good compromise on this issue. (i.e. no hive teleport unless a hive is being
damaged, in which case any hive will teleport you to the hive that is under attack)
Just a random thing. The shotgun also seems sluggish. You really have to stop and place your shot. I'm not saying it should be a noob cannon, but it really isn't practical for killing fast
moving aliens that prey on idle marines. It either needs a SLIGHT increase in the rate of fire or it needs to be a more instantaneous shot when it does fire. It just seems to delay too long
between clicking on the mouse and firing in the game.
Hope I am not making an ass of myself or offending the dev's who I know have put in a lot of work, just offering my thoughts and hoping to propose suggestions to what I perceive to be minor speedbumps in my gaming experience.
First of all, this game is seriously complex for just an average gamer to comprehend and maneuver through.
As a marine:
the buildings are kind of difficult to distinguish from one another until you are right up next to them. This means that it takes more time to find the building you want to
go to to purchase guns, equipment, get health/ammo. When time is of the essence (which is always), it is kind of frustrating running through spawn trying to get health,
etc., while allies are dying, or also trying to get health/ammo. Perhaps make the buildings a little more distinguishable or slighty different colors? (Phase gates also
don't stand out very well. They need to be brighter or something)
The movement of marines seems to be very sluggish, for lack of a better word. They aren't necessarily slow, it just seems that they aren't as quick as they need to be in
order to be able to be effective in close combat situations. I guess I am saying they need to be a little more agile (not exos ofc) in terms of changing directions and things
like that.
The health bars are very difficult to see. When I am trying to weld exos and, to a lesser extent, structures, I can never really tell if I am welding the person or if that
person is fully healed. In NS1 there was a very distinct sound that was made that notified you that you were welding or that you were done welding, not to mention
a big ass health bar that changed colors based on how full the armor was. Is it possible to do something like that without messing up the game? Color changes for
structure health would be nice too.
It is sometimes difficult to tell when you are hitting aliens, especially fades. Sometimes I can see the green blood when I am up close, but a lot of times it is just too
difficult to tell if you actually hit the alien (e.g. while the fade is blinking). Seeing and hearing that shot hit the alien is a big deciding factor in a marine's decision to
pursue the alien and try for the kill, or go back and regroup for another attack.
These are just some of my first impressions as a marine.
As an alien:
The movement and combat capabilities of the aliens seem pretty decent.
The skulk leap was really drawn back compared to NS1. Skulks are a vital part of alien strategy, not just a lifeform you are relegated to until you can go higher lifeform.
The skulk is small and weak, but makes up for it by having outstanding maneuverability. I feel that "nerfing" the leap so much has taken too much of that advantage
from the skulk. I can live without bunnyhop, but the leap is essential and is too scaled back in NS2 in my opinion.
The building and evolution processes are just upsetting. Period. I'm sure I can eventually get the hang of having an alien commander and having one person be
responsible for all the upgrades, but it is just such a chaotic and random process I fear that it will turn a lot of casual gamers away. Perhaps just making it so
all upgrades of a certain type (similar to mc, dc, sc in NS1) can be upgraded at once by the commander would be a good compromise without having to change much
in terms of the overall game structure and playstyle. Not everyone is going to want celerity or silence or adrenaline first. I think just making that little change would
allow people enough individuality to stay interested in playing on the alien side. I'm sure there is more I could add to this idea, but this post is already getting long so I
will save it for a future post.
Other than that the aliens seem to be pretty nice, or at least tolerable.
Second, just some random ideas:
One of the most essential and fun parts of the old NS was the ability to make a game changing move. From what I have seen so far, this is lacking. It is basically a trench
warfare style game. Each side throws wave after wave of units into battle hoping to inch their territory forward until they finally make a breakthrough, and then ultimately
one side slowly pushes the other into a long, drawn out defeat.
For example, the marines had the ability to "ninja" a phase gate deep in alien territory and take out a hive, just when it looked like the marines might be losing the battle.
Now that there is a zergstyle creep for aliens (pardon the starcraft reference) and a reliance on power nodes for marines, this is impossible. I like the idea of having power
nodes power structures, and creep preventing structures from being built, but at least take phase gates out of that equation. The phase gate is the first structure that needs
to be built when attempting to take new territory as a marine.
On the other side, aliens had the ability to "ninja" a hive into a heavily marine dominated hive room, and then teleport the team into the hive. I have seen some posts in
reference to the hive teleport topic so I won't go into detail about it, but this is the game changing move that comes to my mind for the alien side. Perhaps only allowing
aliens to use hive teleport to teleport to a hive that is being damaged by marines would be a good compromise on this issue. (i.e. no hive teleport unless a hive is being
damaged, in which case any hive will teleport you to the hive that is under attack)
Just a random thing. The shotgun also seems sluggish. You really have to stop and place your shot. I'm not saying it should be a noob cannon, but it really isn't practical for killing fast
moving aliens that prey on idle marines. It either needs a SLIGHT increase in the rate of fire or it needs to be a more instantaneous shot when it does fire. It just seems to delay too long
between clicking on the mouse and firing in the game.
Hope I am not making an ass of myself or offending the dev's who I know have put in a lot of work, just offering my thoughts and hoping to propose suggestions to what I perceive to be minor speedbumps in my gaming experience.
Comments
As for shotguns, they are fine as they are, they can one shot skulks and mess up fades quite nicely.
Your welder displays a percentage on the lcd of the repair progress on the top of the wielder.
We used to have batteries but they made power nodes not as important, they did let you ninja gate though.
Shotties in general seem to punch above their weight though. They are my go to weapon for fighting everything. Skulks? 1shot, gorge? 2shot, lerk? 1shot, fade? 2shot, onos? Now its got mostly hp its the most effective weapon vs them. For a 20 res weapon that can be bought 30 seconds into the game it does seem a little much. They even do decent damage to buildings, though why you wouldnt just axe them in close range I dont know.