CoD has better hit registration than this game.
Merciless One
Join Date: 2012-11-08 Member: 168344Members
I can literally be 4-6 steps away from an Onos and he will still somehow hit me. While I'm jetpacking away from an oncoming Onos, he can still hit me even though we could play hopscotch in the space between us.
Marines are vastly under powered until Weapons #2-3 and Armor #1, and then they go in to god mode. That is, if they can hold enough extractors to get enough res for everything that they need just to survive.
Carapace on Alien side is useless after Marines get Weapons #2+, maybe even after Weapons #1.
Fades are a hit or miss. Good Fades are OP, bad Fades die too easily for 50 Res to 2 shotgun blasts. Something needs to be done, but I can't think of what.
Gorgies are OP for everything that they can do and only costing 10 Res. Nothing on the Marine side even compares.
Cyst chain placement and cutting off can and should be used strategically, but really if I were to cut 1 or 2 cysts in a chain, it would take the next 5 minutes for the extractor to die, and a minute for the cysts to die.
Shotguns. Just... Shotguns. I hate them. I don't buy them as Marine because they're so ridiculously OP.
Shorten the range on the ARCS, so my Deposit hive can be safe from Central Drilling. And Locker Rooms from Bar. A tad bit ridiculous. It encourages way too much turtling on the Marine end.
Do not allow MAC's to repair Marine Armor. They should only be able to repair structures and EXO's. I don't know how many times I've had to micro manage them because they went off playing tag with a Marine who was running back to base to an Armory just so he wouldn't lose his precious Assault Rifle ><
When I put a clip in to a skulk or 2, and I'm reloading, I Alt + Tab and browse Reddit for a bit just to wait for my Marine to finish reloading. Reload time is way too long in relation to how many times I can be bit/swiped/stomped on. Even when I switch to the Magnum in the middle of a fight, my Marine still has to waste time cocking the thing. Let fast reloading be a research or something, but in return lower Weapons Damage upgrades.
Marines are vastly under powered until Weapons #2-3 and Armor #1, and then they go in to god mode. That is, if they can hold enough extractors to get enough res for everything that they need just to survive.
Carapace on Alien side is useless after Marines get Weapons #2+, maybe even after Weapons #1.
Fades are a hit or miss. Good Fades are OP, bad Fades die too easily for 50 Res to 2 shotgun blasts. Something needs to be done, but I can't think of what.
Gorgies are OP for everything that they can do and only costing 10 Res. Nothing on the Marine side even compares.
Cyst chain placement and cutting off can and should be used strategically, but really if I were to cut 1 or 2 cysts in a chain, it would take the next 5 minutes for the extractor to die, and a minute for the cysts to die.
Shotguns. Just... Shotguns. I hate them. I don't buy them as Marine because they're so ridiculously OP.
Shorten the range on the ARCS, so my Deposit hive can be safe from Central Drilling. And Locker Rooms from Bar. A tad bit ridiculous. It encourages way too much turtling on the Marine end.
Do not allow MAC's to repair Marine Armor. They should only be able to repair structures and EXO's. I don't know how many times I've had to micro manage them because they went off playing tag with a Marine who was running back to base to an Armory just so he wouldn't lose his precious Assault Rifle ><
When I put a clip in to a skulk or 2, and I'm reloading, I Alt + Tab and browse Reddit for a bit just to wait for my Marine to finish reloading. Reload time is way too long in relation to how many times I can be bit/swiped/stomped on. Even when I switch to the Magnum in the middle of a fight, my Marine still has to waste time cocking the thing. Let fast reloading be a research or something, but in return lower Weapons Damage upgrades.
Comments
Vanilla skulk vs vanilla marine is widely considered to be ever so slightly in favor of the marine, but still ever so slightly. I find general early game (first 5 minutes) combat to be extremely balanced and fair.
Weapons and Armour upgraded to level 2 is more powerful than a single alien upgrade (carapace for example). Aliens should have both celerity and carapace for their skulks by that point. The fact that weapons 3 and armour 3 marines are much stronger than fully upgraded skulks is well known, but whether or not its a problem that needs addressing is still up in the air. After all, an Onos will beat any marine unit in fair combat, regardless of upgrades. This may simply be asymmetry rearing its ugly face.
Fades are complicated. It isn't a case of it being hit or miss, its a case of the fade being instantly countered against better players, and almost unstoppable against worse players. This is a symptom of a very high skill ceiling, which a lot of people like. Low skill ceilings make for lifeforms like the Onos, which is often an iwin button.
LMG reload rate does what its supposed to do. It forces you to change weapons. If you insist on firing with your primary weapon, then you must suffer the consequences of its long reload. The pistol's reload rate is actually comically quick, and I think it should be increased.
The phenomenon that you are describing is caused by "lag compensation". Lag compensation is also the cause of the occasional situation where you move behind cover just in time to avoid being killed but you still end up dying a few milliseconds later anyway. Lag compensation has been a part of all decent multi-player shooter games for more than a decade now and yet players still complain about the same symptoms in every game and put the blame on some alleged "crappy netcode".
The alternative (a game without lag compensation) is a situation where all players need to shoot well ahead of a moving target rather than directly at it. The distance that players would need to "lead" their targets would be larger if their ping/latency was higher. Essentially, you'd need to shoot at the position where you think the enemy will be by the time your network packets reach the server. This would lead to a remarkably awful game-play experience. In some cases, it would even make it impossible to hit a target. For example, if a Fade used shadow-step to move from one piece of cover to another piece of cover within a shorter span of time than your ping/latency, it would be impossible to hit it.
You need to understand the following: When you are moving around, the server's knowledge of your position in space is somewhat behind where you appear to be on your own computer. In addition, all other players on the server will see you as being even further behind where you think you are. The total time difference between two players would be equal to the sum of both of their latencies plus some other factors that are outside the scope of this basic overview (such as interpolation delays).
So lets go back to the Onos that hit you from 4-6 steps away. If you could see the game from that player's perspective, you'd find that he was actually right up in your face. Just play on servers on which you have a low ping/latency.
As the rest of your post... well...
Okay, I'll just say this: Some things in the game need to have weaknesses. Other things need to be very good at what they do. If everything in the game is just mediocre, then get used to playing endless stalemates.
Needs a longer CD, or have it do a knockback in addition to a knockdown.
Lag compensation has come a long way since it first reared its' ugly head.
It's not nearly as horrible as it used to. Quake 3 is/was a game without lag compensation.
I don't know if Quake Live has it or not.
It was still a phenomenal, and well balanced game.
Also, lets not forget CoD had hyears to improve the game, did anyone play the first call of duty? I did.
Less crying more putting things into perspective, time sovles everything, weve seen from UWE that they take things seriously, last hotfix anyone? yeah, interrupting sleep to fix a problem ona game, not many devs do that nowdays do they?
Also, alt tab while reloading and browsing reddit? you sir, are ridiculous, come back with a valid argument and we may, just MAY give a crap about what you have to say, until then, toodles.
It doesn't take a multi-billion dollar corporation to produce good netcode.
UWE is fantastic at trying to resolve problems quickly. I will never stop being critical however, of their choice to program an engine in LUA. Don't get me wrong, I'm impressed a team that size produced an engine of this quality on the budget they had. I do think, however, they would have been better off investing that time in money in working off an existing engine like Unreal or Source.
This is a nitpick, but the engine itself isn't in LUA; the game code is written in LUA and processed by the engine (which is, I believe, compiled C++). Think of it kind of like a virtual machine.
It does not take a multi billion dollar corporation to create a good netcode, no, but it does take a multi billion dollar corporation to have a numerous team working on a feature.
UWE could not and still cannot afford (I think) to have teams the size of the big companies (we are talking over 100 people working on a game on some cases)
So yeah, things like this happen, I knew it when I got in it, I dont complain. I do expect them to see them fix at one point, but they are what? 6 people working on a game this size? even then theyve put out more patches than most AAA games in a matter of 3 months.
All im saying is, look at the big picture, they are doing good, things will get fixed soon enough, im sure they are aware of the issues and they are or will be working on things soon.
It all comes down to the balance of the intensiveness of Lag Compensation effects V.S. how many players with high pings are not allowed to play on the server, i.e. auto-kicked.
According to you I am to be punshied because of this problem, that is just terrific. I shouldve payed less than you if I was to not be allowed to play on the servers I choose to play
Considering lag compensation, im happy to see that you ignored my quote from the documentation of the first lagcompensation mod on the Quake 3 engine where the problems you described are already assumed to occure. Additionally that dude warned about using lag compesation "In mods where movement is important enough with respect to aim"
Since movement is a vital part of alien skill, lag compensation in NS is very detrimental to the gameplay.
@DamDSx: No, you should not be punished as in kicked/banned but you should have to play with disadvantage compared to players who have less ping, not the other way around.
I do know about software development, as I am in IT business, you obviously do not know how a well managed team works, or your software development knowledge and experience is limited to home brewed software.
Big companies have set guidelines as to programming techniques, work load delegation, etc. Ive seen this first hand at TATA consultancy services (indian company who does software related work here in uruguay http://www.tcs.com/Pages/default.aspx ) and it works quite well, as long as all code is written in the same way, complement eachother and there is a good team piecing it together, you wont have a problem. then again, this takes a crapton of time to coordinate and outline the software and the indended use, specially if it is a big one. so yeah, I think I do know a bit about what im talking about, it just takes some brain to make something like this work.
Of course 2 people cna write an entire engine, one person could write the engine on his own, does that ensure quality work? of course not.
Also, I did not ignore anything, I chose not to comment on it, is that a problem now? or should I reply in detail to everything you say like I actually care? sorry, but that is not how it works. Besides, what you are saying has been beaten to death on these forums many times over, and im not about to give that horse another blow.
So, basically I should simply be punished for living far away, having payed the same amount of money, I agree this happens everywhere, I never wrapped my head around it, I played wow for years and I adapted to lag and performed on par with people with little or no lag, WIll this give me a chance to outplay lag and not be at a disadvantage? I dont know.
"Very detrimental" is a very big exaggeration. The only place in NS2 where lag compensation can occasionally be perceived is with roosting Lerks getting destroyed before they have a chance to fly away. Other than that, it's imperceptible and the alternative is surely far less desirable.
Carapace definitely needs a buff! It should at least take one extra shotgun blast to kill someone with carapace (more for Onos of course).
If that makes carapace too powerful early-on, then perhaps additional armor should be applied for each living hive...
I like the cost right where it is. Gorge is the only life form that makes you give up your front teeth and it shouldn't be prohibitively expensive like all the other evolves.
Those are problems with the maps. If you shorten ARC range enough to compensate for both of those, you'll have made them useless.
You should try being a marine welding another marine... It is not unlike trying to give your pets a bath.
Shift-tab and use the steam browser. Its faster.
But in all seriousness, reload time is fine and it provides a much-needed opening for skulks to jump in.
Anyway, I dont intend to have a discussion about software engineering with you on this forum and I will ignore your flamebait. Have a good day.
You are right about that, yet i do not see the purpose in the LUA, at all. I'm not a programmer or something, by any stretch, but I would think that one of the things you'd want to do is keep things as simple as possible, and as efficient as possible. I don't see how having one language interpret another when you could have just used the one language. I use VMs constantly in and off work/school, and while I see the usefulness of it, it's never quite the same as far as performance. I just don't see the logic behind the design choices made as far as engine and performance.
The medical field has a name for things like that, you know?
"Problems" in the eyes of some. Legitimate strategies in the eyes of others.
Yeah, it was kinda written in C++, the game code is in LUA to make it widely open to modding.
That decision obviously makes the game run a bit slower but I've heard rumors Max's "Rocket" may speed things up a bit if it ever makes it in!
These are unfortunately typically mutually exclusive in development. The faster something becomes, the less accessible and more complicated it becomes.
In my honest opinion, I think Charlie was looking back at the halcyon period of gaming, when the best games around were all made by guys in their basement, simply modding the half life engine. Its an admirable thing to want to bring back, but I think that those times are gone forever. Gaming has since been corrupted by the mainstream, and nobody will be putting the kind of time and effort into making high quality games for everyone to play for free.