Idea/Suggestion based on a newbie's point of view
Hissatsu
Join Date: 2012-12-05 Member: 174247Members
Join Date: 2012-12-05 Member: 174247Members
Greetings.
I am relatively new to the game. I have played two days straight for this weekend, about 14 hours total. I have played a bit in rookie servers, and mostly on non-rookie servers. However, I also watched tons of videos, especially casts of tournaments like past tournaments or this weekend NS2 Australia tournaments. I also read posts from people who're bored going 10:1 or 5:1 in most games, and faced people who clearly came to rookie servers to pwn noobz, going as far as 34:1 in a match.
Here's what I think this game really lacks, and what could potentially thwart new audience from it, and naturally, changing what could this game be much more enjoyable to newbies and attract a broader audience.
I dont know how to say this better, but the problem is:
<b>This game has a single narrow skillset required to be the "good" player.</b>
I'll try to explain. What I mean is that there is no variety in skills useful to the team. You cannot have a player that is good at A but bad at B and a player that is good at B but bad at A and have them both benefit the team. You cannot have, say, a player that has pinpoint accuracy work as a sniper, a player that has twitch reflexes work as a front line soldier, a player that is good at controling complex machinery work as a mech pilot, a player that is good at understanding the technical stuff work as a construction worker.
Every single marine must be good at exact same skills - fighting pro skulks that use walljumping and leaping. Every single alien (except maybe one that plays Gorge, that's the only exception to this rule) must be good at walljumping, leaping, maneuvering in combat and biting exactly -75 with each attempt. Until you are exactly that, you are a liability to the team. You are taking up a slot that could be occupied by a better guy. You cannot be useful elsewhere. You are of no use to a pro team or a pub team of aliens if you are uneffective with a skulk (with one exception of a gorge, maybe), you are of no use to a pro team or a pub team of marines if you are not skilled as a marine against skulks (with no exceptions). Every player who has basic sense of teamplay - can follow orders and can understand what simple thing to do without being directly ordered - will be judged by his skills at exact same activity - aiming a gun if he's a marine, and maneuvering in 3d space with walljumps and leaps if he's an alien. There is no depth to the skill beyond that - learning how to position yourself when repairing or building and how to look up ceilings is simple and comes fast. And still wont help if you cannot win fights. If you cannot level your twitch reflexes or walljumping techniques beyond certain point - you will ALWAYS remain a medicore player and ALWAYS be of a limited use to your team.
I'd like to compare this to another game, called <b>Free Allegiance</b>.
I hope some of you have played this game, if you didn't and you live in american timeframe - do play it, it's worth it, and it's free. (if you dont live there, you probably wont find people to play with). Its basically Natural Selection 2, but sides are a little bit more symmetric and Space Simulation in place of FPS. Two teams fight each other on a map consisting of series of space sectors (think big rooms in NS2), one player of the team sits in the base and is a commander, he has strategic interface and can order players and NPC's (like constructors that become bases, or miners that earn resources) around, he can also at any time leave base and act as a regular player. Players are piloting different spaceships, some cost resources (which commander has to grant, all resources are shared by the team) and some are free.
Now, here comes the big difference.
In this game, you are not locked to a single type of "free" unit. There are basically three base unit types:
- Scout (it scouts and deploys scouting probes)
- Fighter (it is an average combat craft, can go on offense or defend)
- Interceptor (craft that especially excels at defending sectors)
Now, between Fighters and Interceptors difference is minimal for my point I'm going to make. However, scouts change everything.
Basically, Fighters and Interceptors are blind. They can barely see beyond their minigun range. You could be in an enemy home sector, and you would only see asteroids and vast space. And that is before stealth technology comes in (which makes your ship detectable at a much reduced range).
In order to actualy detect objects in space, you have to either have your bases there, have scouts there, or deploy probes. And only scouts can deploy probes. However, not only that - game starts with sectors filled with goodies. Resource pickups, technology pickups (if you pick it up and return to your base with it you will get this tech for free!). Plus, you never know where "tech point" analogue (asteroid that can house a base of some kind) or "resource nozzle" analogue (asteroids that can be mined for resources) will be placed.
And here comes the game changer.
When you are a total 100% noob and you join a game for your first time, all you have to do to be useful to your team is follow your autopilot (aka commander given orders)! You are already a HUGE boon to the team, because most "pro" players (or rather those who think they are) want to "######" (aka get 10:1 kill:death ratios by pwning noobs). They want to pilot fighters and rack up kills. But you, as a newbie, take a scout, load it with probes, and follow your commander's orders. If your commander is in a good mood, and your team isn't failing hard, he has enough time to give you exact orders - like, position your probe here, pick up this item, leave this item, go into this sector etc. If not he will at least tell you which sector to probe and you will just bring home everything you find. You can observe the flow of the game and learn the game while not being a liability to the team at all, but actually helping your team very much. A team of 5 skilled pilots where noone wants to scout versus a team of 4 skilled pilots and one complete noob that follows an autopilot - well, 5 pilots will lose most of the time.
But it doesnt stop at using your autopilot.
You will learn tech trees as you scout, since you will have time to watch what your comm is doing, and you will start learning which tech you will be needing and which you wont (like if your team is going into stealth fighters tech, you will be needing stealth fighter guns but wont be needing interceptor guns). You learn how to position probes so that probes will detect enemy miners but enemy miners will not detect probes (so that your probes dont get shot down). You learn how to scout more effectively and avoid danger. So you can actually be a PRO scout and here comes another difference: there are multiple skills wanted of a pro player, and a player skilled at scouting can be a totally useless fighter pilot. He wont be a liability to the team at all. Sure, team of universal players would be at an advantage, but very little. You could have no twitch reflexes and still be a good player, a boon to your team and very useful in pub and pro games.
But then it goes further and further.
There are "nanites" in the game - guns that repair ships, and only scouts can equip that. This requires actual dogfighting skills because you will have to keep firing at your own cruiser class ships to keep repairing them, while dodging enemy fighter's bullets going your way (skilled enemies will take "nans" out first because if they focus the cruiser, they wont be able to take it down most likely with constant repair going on). But still, this means that you can be good at maneuvering and not that good at actually firing, and be of use to your team. So when big ships start flying, you can be useful also as this role. I guess there is a kind of analogy in NS2 where you can be the first skulk to pop into marine view and start jumping around walls and ceilings, drawing fire, while next skulk actualy eats them, but skilled players will recognise you by the name and know you're not that good at actually hitting them and are a distraction and will focus on others first, so this maneuver wont work that well against pros or people who know you. And "healing" as using a repair tool marines has is not a stand alone job - you still have to fight skulks and whatnot and if you cant - you're taking up someone else's slot.
So yeah, key points here:
1) A newbie is useful to his team because he can take up a role that people who love to get high kill-death ratios do not want to take.
2) A newbie is already useful if he just follows his commander's orders, he isnt required to have much skill in the game to become somewhat-useful
3) This "newbie" role actually has depth, so he can progress in that role and become a "pro" at this, and pro teams need pro scouts, not only pro fighter pilots.
4) There is diversity in activities taken by players on a team, and thus, there is no "ideal player" and no single set of skills required of any player who wants to be "good" at the game. Different kinds of skillsets are required for different roles, and those roles are all important in a pro or pub game, thus players with different skills can be of use to a team. Thus, people with different physical attributes and preferred activities can play the game and excel at it.
That's the point I want to make. I don't expect the game to change this way, but the way it is now, it will apply to a very limited audience (unless matchmaking with ELO ratings is implemented to make people only play with other people of their skill level, which probably won't happen ever). Everyone who doesnt have "exactly that" skillset will always be behind and will never be wanted in a team. However, problem is, you just are limited in how good you can get with walljumping and twitch reflexes, naturally. This game has a very high pace. You may be unable to progress just because you can't. Physically. Then, by design of this game, you're out. You'll never be any good. You will forever be a liability to your team. You will forever be the underdog, the loser. Knowing that, people lose the will to play. And leave.
Alternative, of course, is an introduction of a public matchmaking, pitting people of similar rating together, but this is going against the whole concept of the game, with servers belonging to players who have their own rules set up, their own format (from 6v6 to 12v12) and their own mods. Plus matchmaking has its own problem, in that unless you can be the "good" player, you will always win and lose 50% of the time in boring similar games, and worst of all, you will never have chance to learn from playing, because you will never play against a pro (always against people who are of your rating).
I am relatively new to the game. I have played two days straight for this weekend, about 14 hours total. I have played a bit in rookie servers, and mostly on non-rookie servers. However, I also watched tons of videos, especially casts of tournaments like past tournaments or this weekend NS2 Australia tournaments. I also read posts from people who're bored going 10:1 or 5:1 in most games, and faced people who clearly came to rookie servers to pwn noobz, going as far as 34:1 in a match.
Here's what I think this game really lacks, and what could potentially thwart new audience from it, and naturally, changing what could this game be much more enjoyable to newbies and attract a broader audience.
I dont know how to say this better, but the problem is:
<b>This game has a single narrow skillset required to be the "good" player.</b>
I'll try to explain. What I mean is that there is no variety in skills useful to the team. You cannot have a player that is good at A but bad at B and a player that is good at B but bad at A and have them both benefit the team. You cannot have, say, a player that has pinpoint accuracy work as a sniper, a player that has twitch reflexes work as a front line soldier, a player that is good at controling complex machinery work as a mech pilot, a player that is good at understanding the technical stuff work as a construction worker.
Every single marine must be good at exact same skills - fighting pro skulks that use walljumping and leaping. Every single alien (except maybe one that plays Gorge, that's the only exception to this rule) must be good at walljumping, leaping, maneuvering in combat and biting exactly -75 with each attempt. Until you are exactly that, you are a liability to the team. You are taking up a slot that could be occupied by a better guy. You cannot be useful elsewhere. You are of no use to a pro team or a pub team of aliens if you are uneffective with a skulk (with one exception of a gorge, maybe), you are of no use to a pro team or a pub team of marines if you are not skilled as a marine against skulks (with no exceptions). Every player who has basic sense of teamplay - can follow orders and can understand what simple thing to do without being directly ordered - will be judged by his skills at exact same activity - aiming a gun if he's a marine, and maneuvering in 3d space with walljumps and leaps if he's an alien. There is no depth to the skill beyond that - learning how to position yourself when repairing or building and how to look up ceilings is simple and comes fast. And still wont help if you cannot win fights. If you cannot level your twitch reflexes or walljumping techniques beyond certain point - you will ALWAYS remain a medicore player and ALWAYS be of a limited use to your team.
I'd like to compare this to another game, called <b>Free Allegiance</b>.
I hope some of you have played this game, if you didn't and you live in american timeframe - do play it, it's worth it, and it's free. (if you dont live there, you probably wont find people to play with). Its basically Natural Selection 2, but sides are a little bit more symmetric and Space Simulation in place of FPS. Two teams fight each other on a map consisting of series of space sectors (think big rooms in NS2), one player of the team sits in the base and is a commander, he has strategic interface and can order players and NPC's (like constructors that become bases, or miners that earn resources) around, he can also at any time leave base and act as a regular player. Players are piloting different spaceships, some cost resources (which commander has to grant, all resources are shared by the team) and some are free.
Now, here comes the big difference.
In this game, you are not locked to a single type of "free" unit. There are basically three base unit types:
- Scout (it scouts and deploys scouting probes)
- Fighter (it is an average combat craft, can go on offense or defend)
- Interceptor (craft that especially excels at defending sectors)
Now, between Fighters and Interceptors difference is minimal for my point I'm going to make. However, scouts change everything.
Basically, Fighters and Interceptors are blind. They can barely see beyond their minigun range. You could be in an enemy home sector, and you would only see asteroids and vast space. And that is before stealth technology comes in (which makes your ship detectable at a much reduced range).
In order to actualy detect objects in space, you have to either have your bases there, have scouts there, or deploy probes. And only scouts can deploy probes. However, not only that - game starts with sectors filled with goodies. Resource pickups, technology pickups (if you pick it up and return to your base with it you will get this tech for free!). Plus, you never know where "tech point" analogue (asteroid that can house a base of some kind) or "resource nozzle" analogue (asteroids that can be mined for resources) will be placed.
And here comes the game changer.
When you are a total 100% noob and you join a game for your first time, all you have to do to be useful to your team is follow your autopilot (aka commander given orders)! You are already a HUGE boon to the team, because most "pro" players (or rather those who think they are) want to "######" (aka get 10:1 kill:death ratios by pwning noobs). They want to pilot fighters and rack up kills. But you, as a newbie, take a scout, load it with probes, and follow your commander's orders. If your commander is in a good mood, and your team isn't failing hard, he has enough time to give you exact orders - like, position your probe here, pick up this item, leave this item, go into this sector etc. If not he will at least tell you which sector to probe and you will just bring home everything you find. You can observe the flow of the game and learn the game while not being a liability to the team at all, but actually helping your team very much. A team of 5 skilled pilots where noone wants to scout versus a team of 4 skilled pilots and one complete noob that follows an autopilot - well, 5 pilots will lose most of the time.
But it doesnt stop at using your autopilot.
You will learn tech trees as you scout, since you will have time to watch what your comm is doing, and you will start learning which tech you will be needing and which you wont (like if your team is going into stealth fighters tech, you will be needing stealth fighter guns but wont be needing interceptor guns). You learn how to position probes so that probes will detect enemy miners but enemy miners will not detect probes (so that your probes dont get shot down). You learn how to scout more effectively and avoid danger. So you can actually be a PRO scout and here comes another difference: there are multiple skills wanted of a pro player, and a player skilled at scouting can be a totally useless fighter pilot. He wont be a liability to the team at all. Sure, team of universal players would be at an advantage, but very little. You could have no twitch reflexes and still be a good player, a boon to your team and very useful in pub and pro games.
But then it goes further and further.
There are "nanites" in the game - guns that repair ships, and only scouts can equip that. This requires actual dogfighting skills because you will have to keep firing at your own cruiser class ships to keep repairing them, while dodging enemy fighter's bullets going your way (skilled enemies will take "nans" out first because if they focus the cruiser, they wont be able to take it down most likely with constant repair going on). But still, this means that you can be good at maneuvering and not that good at actually firing, and be of use to your team. So when big ships start flying, you can be useful also as this role. I guess there is a kind of analogy in NS2 where you can be the first skulk to pop into marine view and start jumping around walls and ceilings, drawing fire, while next skulk actualy eats them, but skilled players will recognise you by the name and know you're not that good at actually hitting them and are a distraction and will focus on others first, so this maneuver wont work that well against pros or people who know you. And "healing" as using a repair tool marines has is not a stand alone job - you still have to fight skulks and whatnot and if you cant - you're taking up someone else's slot.
So yeah, key points here:
1) A newbie is useful to his team because he can take up a role that people who love to get high kill-death ratios do not want to take.
2) A newbie is already useful if he just follows his commander's orders, he isnt required to have much skill in the game to become somewhat-useful
3) This "newbie" role actually has depth, so he can progress in that role and become a "pro" at this, and pro teams need pro scouts, not only pro fighter pilots.
4) There is diversity in activities taken by players on a team, and thus, there is no "ideal player" and no single set of skills required of any player who wants to be "good" at the game. Different kinds of skillsets are required for different roles, and those roles are all important in a pro or pub game, thus players with different skills can be of use to a team. Thus, people with different physical attributes and preferred activities can play the game and excel at it.
That's the point I want to make. I don't expect the game to change this way, but the way it is now, it will apply to a very limited audience (unless matchmaking with ELO ratings is implemented to make people only play with other people of their skill level, which probably won't happen ever). Everyone who doesnt have "exactly that" skillset will always be behind and will never be wanted in a team. However, problem is, you just are limited in how good you can get with walljumping and twitch reflexes, naturally. This game has a very high pace. You may be unable to progress just because you can't. Physically. Then, by design of this game, you're out. You'll never be any good. You will forever be a liability to your team. You will forever be the underdog, the loser. Knowing that, people lose the will to play. And leave.
Alternative, of course, is an introduction of a public matchmaking, pitting people of similar rating together, but this is going against the whole concept of the game, with servers belonging to players who have their own rules set up, their own format (from 6v6 to 12v12) and their own mods. Plus matchmaking has its own problem, in that unless you can be the "good" player, you will always win and lose 50% of the time in boring similar games, and worst of all, you will never have chance to learn from playing, because you will never play against a pro (always against people who are of your rating).
Comments
Considering NS1, I think it was more noob friendly on the alien side; as a gorge you could do massive contributions to your team by dropping upgrades, RT's and hive, while being a noob at everything except some basic understanding of the game. The lerk spores were also much more easy to do good with while avoiding direct combat.
One - you would add a different role to the game, meaning a different kind of players that would have home in the game.
Two - you would add a way for newer players to study the game without being slaughtered over and over and shunned at by their teammates.
Marines in NS1 had hand-grenade, which were pretty easy to use.
And being an extra target during an attack/ambush is also good, so yeah for the Skulk there are other things to do besides killing marines. And a decently played (any class) is useful for any team, yes even the Gorge.
On the marine team, I'd love to see more specialized units. But keep in mind that you already change your role depending on the weapon you're using. However locking this to a class that you choose negates the flexibility the marine team has.