Feed Back

Lionfish

So I've been playing for a bit now and let me tell you guys what I think.

Being an alien starts off pretty cool but quickly begins to feel terrible. Because Marines research permanent armor and weapon upgrades, skulks and lerks quickly become ineffective, and there's no real way for them to make up the difference. Even if you do get upgrades they can be taken from you, and you have to evolve them every time you spawn (why? they're free!). You go from being cool monsters to pathetic little creatures. And because you die in a heartbeat to anyone who can aim, you get what upgrade? Feign Death.

Feign death is ass. It's not fun.

Basically aliens are really annoying but without being very threatening. They're too fast but too fragile.

Also I don't think aliens get good information about where their teammates are and enemies their allies see and such. Frankly I don't see why you don't just let aliens see marines through walls, it would certainly make them feel more like cunning hunters.

Marines feel strong (although exo weapons feel weak for being huge chainguns and likewise for the flamethrower) but it's super hard to get anything done because for every alien you kill you have to sit around waiting for them to come out of feign death. Just annoying, it's not even tricky you always see if you got resources or not for the kill.

Sops

<!--quoteo(post=1979345:date=Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM:name=Lionfish)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lionfish @ Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1979345"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Being an alien starts off pretty cool but quickly begins to feel terrible. Because Marines research permanent armor and weapon upgrades, skulks and lerks quickly become ineffective, and there's no real way for them to make up the difference.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have actually had pretty good luck playing as a skulk even in late game, the skulk is much more effective late game in NS2 then it was in NS1. Really though you need to practice with the fade, that is intended to be the alien's answer to teched up marines.


<!--quoteo(post=1979345:date=Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM:name=Lionfish)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lionfish @ Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1979345"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->And because you die in a heartbeat to anyone who can aim, you get what upgrade? Feign Death.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I really hope you are not using Feign Death as a skulk, that is just a waste of time.


<!--quoteo(post=1979345:date=Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM:name=Lionfish)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lionfish @ Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1979345"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Frankly I don't see why you don't just let aliens see marines through walls, it would certainly make them feel more like cunning hunters.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
parasite


<!--quoteo(post=1979345:date=Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM:name=Lionfish)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lionfish @ Sep 17 2012, 10:26 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1979345"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Marines feel strong (although exo weapons feel weak for being huge chainguns and likewise for the flamethrower) but it's super hard to get anything done because for every alien you kill you have to sit around waiting for them to come out of feign death. Just annoying, it's not even tricky you always see if you got resources or not for the kill.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The exo, especially the dual mini gun version can kill anything pretty damn quickly.

Lionfish

Admittedly Skulks are more useful against exos than they were against ye olde heavy armor. Still the mismatch between the marine's permanent upgrades and the alien's lack thereof is a bummer situations of nearly mutual annihilation. Also marine upgrades are mostly just raw power increases while alien upgrades (with the exception of carapace) mostly make you more annoying to kill and only marginally more of a threat. It all feeds back into that feeling of aliens being weak but super annoying.

It doesn't really matter what you use feign death as, it's always unfortunate. It's not a waste a skulk, it forces marines to wait around those extra seconds to finish you off instead of doing something useful (or FUN).

Parasite is nice. If you're a skulk. If it doesn't mislead your teammates into thinking only one marine is in the room when there are three. Also, it has some slow travel time now or something? It's much harder to land than NS1. What happened to the ability to smell marines with low health?

I think the issue with the exo is that it has some spread combined with maybe a lower rate of fire than the graphics/sound make me believe? I'm not sure what the actual situation is, but I find it has a tendency to do very sporadic damage to anything smaller than an onos. I've sat across a small room from an exo while it shoots me and took no damage for several moments before suddenly losing a huge chunk of health, followed by a few more moments without damage.


Anyway my main point is not about whether the game is balanced or not, I just think the game has some things that aren't super fun or just feel strange.

HeatSurge

So what would be your suggestion? To have armor and bite level upgrades for skulks as well? IMO that flies in the face of the basic "asymmetric" design premise of the game.

Sure, the marines get upgrades, but they cost res. The aliens can get upgrades as well, but as someone else mentioned the real answer to marines' upgrades are higher life forms - the lerk (which hopefully will be made more useful in the future) and especially fades.