NS2 Re-Impressions
Underwhelmed
DemoDetective #?! Join Date: 2006-09-19 Member: 58026Members, Constellation
DemoDetective #?! Join Date: 2006-09-19 Member: 58026Members, Constellation
I tried the Alpha and Beta a bit on a 6 year old laptop a while back, which obviously struggled to run the game at anything faster than a Powerpoint speed, so I decided I'd let the game mature and come back to it. Since the game is close to release, I decided to revisit it on my desktop (i5 2500k OCd@4.2, GTX 670). Here's what I've noticed:
1. The FPS/input lag is still there. It's hard for me to really enjoy a FPS when the game doesn't react as it should.
2. The maps have a lot of clutter everywhere and seem smaller than their NS counterparts. It feels like the terrain doesn't matter as much as it ought to, but I'll withhold final judgment for now.
3. Marines are slowwwwwww. It's not just the Marines either, all movement feels sluggish. There is zero way for Marines to actively avoid melee attacks and the only thing that saves them right now is bad Aliens and hitreg. Once/if these things are gone, there is going to be practically zero way for Marines to survive up close. I understand that UW wants Aliens to have the upperhand at close range, this is too much of an advantage. Debuff Marine ranged combat if you must, but please don't let range decide so much of the outcome of the engagement.
4. Spores obscure far too much vision. At least Onos stomp in NS1 had a purpose, making damage-dealing spores into an impenetrable cloud of darkness is just an awful idea.
5. Volume range needs to be extended. At max volume, everything still sounds muted - in every other game I have, I can find a good volume with only in-game settings.
6. Alien structures die very quickly. Maybe the Aliens I've been seeing are just bad, but it really feels like Marines have too much of an advantage here. It's not uncommon for one or two Marines to wander about and take out a bunch of structures before Aliens respond.
7. Non-weapon ammo indicators are needed. Alien energy bar is too small too.
1. The FPS/input lag is still there. It's hard for me to really enjoy a FPS when the game doesn't react as it should.
2. The maps have a lot of clutter everywhere and seem smaller than their NS counterparts. It feels like the terrain doesn't matter as much as it ought to, but I'll withhold final judgment for now.
3. Marines are slowwwwwww. It's not just the Marines either, all movement feels sluggish. There is zero way for Marines to actively avoid melee attacks and the only thing that saves them right now is bad Aliens and hitreg. Once/if these things are gone, there is going to be practically zero way for Marines to survive up close. I understand that UW wants Aliens to have the upperhand at close range, this is too much of an advantage. Debuff Marine ranged combat if you must, but please don't let range decide so much of the outcome of the engagement.
4. Spores obscure far too much vision. At least Onos stomp in NS1 had a purpose, making damage-dealing spores into an impenetrable cloud of darkness is just an awful idea.
5. Volume range needs to be extended. At max volume, everything still sounds muted - in every other game I have, I can find a good volume with only in-game settings.
6. Alien structures die very quickly. Maybe the Aliens I've been seeing are just bad, but it really feels like Marines have too much of an advantage here. It's not uncommon for one or two Marines to wander about and take out a bunch of structures before Aliens respond.
7. Non-weapon ammo indicators are needed. Alien energy bar is too small too.
Comments
How did you come to this conclusion? They can sprint across the map in a minute and jump around like jack rabbits in combat.
2. By clutter you are referring to crates/obstacles placed around for cover? Docking was very open at release and much was added so that aliens could survive all the open areas.
3. Marines are NOT slow... base speed 5 (6 sprinting, 6.3 sprinting with axe) as opposed to skulk base speed of 7.
4. Spores used to obscure all vision, which was preferred by me. At least they buffed the damage so its viable now, don't nerf gas again.
5. Volume problems? Probably on your end, I can hear perfectly when there is a skulk running towards me from the next room (or walking underneath/overhead in vents).
6. Alien structures are harder to kill the longer they live (they have a maturity % that increases over time). Early game 1 marine can kill all alien RT's if they are not dealt with, loss of many RT's early is the fault of the alien team.
7. Non - weapon ammo indicators? Not 100% sure what you mean. Alien energy bar too small? Buy better glasses...
Also, no offense (hopefully) but if you think marines struggle to fight skulks in melee you might need to try playing a few more games.
hitreg depends on your framerate by a lot, if you have 30fps your (or at least mine) reg is about 50%, I tested this. That's what mine is right now, just have to deal with it I guess.
There is no input lag when using raw input. That's what raw input is, it takes your windows input directly.
Sounds are currently really buggy this patch. I play with the sound off it doesn't make a difference, can't hear anything other than random directional noises. Weird how this passed testing.
Its because skulks can defy Newtons third law and steer in mid air so that you cannot escape a skulk who can keep you on screen while spamming jump.
For what its worth, I've heard people link this to v-sync. I'd seen it mentioned so much, in fact, across so many games, that I ended up disabling v-sync from my graphics card's settings outright. It may not be as bad as everyone says, but if you have it enabled, try turning it off for a match or two and see if that helps.
You can't shoot while sprinting and can only run the direction you're looking at, which makes not very useful in combat. Jump doesn't give much horizontal movement either, so once Skulks can actually land bites on things in range and right in their face, Marines are going to have a hard time at close range. The one saving grace is going to be the nanobot shield or whatever.
Spore as it is is awful. Until exosuits (I assume exosuits are immune to spore) the only real defense against them is to either shoot the Lerk down before it gets overhead or exit the area. If you're looking up at the Lerk, you're not shooting the other Aliens at your ankles (and good luck killing anything with spores blotting out the sun). Attempting to get out of the spores often means running straight into other Aliens. It's just a no-win situation and ###### with player vision is a horrible and frustrating game mechanic. At least flashbangs in CS can be mitigated by reacting and looking away and don't involve fairly fast and unpredictable targets moving in three dimensions.
With sound what I mean is setting in-game volume to the max still isn't loud enough; the maximum volume ought to go higher. I could make my volume in Windows higher to get the desired volume, but as I said, in no other game that I have is this necessary.
Didn't know about the maturity mechanic. What's the point of it? Is it to give Aliens an advantage in areas they've already held for a period of time? To force Marines to attack before everything matures?
Ammo indicators are on the weapon itself and are at an angle. They're not visible while reloading either. I'd like to see them displayed on the HUD instead. Alien energy "bars" are off to the side, too small, and take longer to read since they're a circular bar. In the middle of frantic combat, I don't want to have to spend more attention looking at my energy more than I have to.
Also, no offense (hopefully) but if you think marines struggle to fight skulks in melee you might need to try playing a few more games.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
it takes 10 shots to kill a skulk in NS2 with a lvl0 lmg. (was 9 shots in NS1)
NS2 skulks are slower and bigger than NS1 skulks, yet seem much harder to kill despite having the same hp and similar number of lmg shots to kill.
And the devs have just recently found a bug with the skulk bite hit detection (fix coming in 221 i hope) so these things do happen, you shouldnt just paint everyone with 1 brush, like how your friend has bad aim therefor everyone else complaining about hit detection has bad aim ? So those people who complained about skulk bite hit detection just sucked and should have spent more time learning the game ?
NS2 skulks are slower and bigger than NS1 skulks, yet seem much harder to kill despite having the same hp and similar number of lmg shots to kill.
And the devs have just recently found a bug with the skulk bite hit detection (fix coming in 221 i hope) so these things do happen, you shouldnt just paint everyone with 1 brush, like how your friend has bad aim therefor everyone else complaining about hit detection has bad aim ? So those people who complained about skulk bite hit detection just sucked and should have spent more time learning the game ?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nah, I'm just saying have someone watch you.
This is how I know you haven't played the game much, it is actually really easy for marines to jump away from skulks
<!--quoteo(post=1982260:date=Sep 23 2012, 11:24 PM:name=Underwhelmed)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Underwhelmed @ Sep 23 2012, 11:24 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1982260"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you're looking up at the Lerk, you're not shooting the other Aliens at your ankles (and good luck killing anything with spores blotting out the sun). Attempting to get out of the spores often means running straight into other Aliens.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Two players working together are able to kill one enemy, clearly there is a problem with this mechanic.
<!--quoteo(post=1982260:date=Sep 23 2012, 11:24 PM:name=Underwhelmed)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Underwhelmed @ Sep 23 2012, 11:24 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1982260"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Alien energy "bars" are off to the side, too small, and take longer to read since they're a circular bar. In the middle of frantic combat, I don't want to have to spend more attention looking at my energy more than I have to.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, a circular bar, with a number right in the middle.
Sorry if I am being hostile but it kind of sounds like you played a couple of rounds after not having played for months, died, and now think the game is broken because other people are better at it then you. This game is far from perfect but some of your complaints are the exact opposite of what everyone else thinks it wrong with the game.
2) the clutter keeps the skulks from being destroyed. There's lots of criticism about mineshaft due to the tunnels being void of clutter, and thus, cover.
3) Marine movement in NS has always been kinda weird. I've come to accept it kinda sorta. I understand aliens with their meelee focused combat wouldn't stand a chance otherwise, plus it's kinda realistic too. Ever tried to shoot an automatic rifle while running? I'm kinda happy marines don't run around like players in Nexuiz.
4) Spores obscuring vision is actually a cool feature IMHO. I still miss the ranged spore gas though :/
5) Volume's fine for me. Actually, hearing aliens is a HUGE part of the game, and it works fine for me.
6) Hmm maybe. Then again, taking down a res tower takes quite some time either way when alone. I dunno, I didn't feel there to be a great imbalance.
7) Agree on the alien stamina info. Marines could use a stamina indicator too maybe. However, the ammo indicators are cool as they are and I much prefer them to be ON the gun instead of some corner of the screen, or obscuring the crosshair.
Methinks part of your issues stem from problems with your PC. My biggest gripe with the alpha and much of the beta was the horrible input lag, and this has been completely and utterly fixed many builds ago. The fact that NS2 is actually being played competitively is a testament to the solid input handling.