Contrast in game design: how to NS2
Katana-
Join Date: 2008-11-25 Member: 65575Members
Join Date: 2008-11-25 Member: 65575Members
I see a lot of people who don't understand some of the fundamental concepts on NS. I think these are foundational to the way NS works and if you understand them you'll have a better understanding of how NS works.
1. Contrast in Strengths: (this is well understood by most players and commanders)
Marines are incredible at defense. Their ranged attacks allow them to focus fire. Their phase gates and ability to build multiple IPs allow them to reinforce quickly and over long periods of time. Armories allow them to quickly heal for free. They can defend with out spending any resources.
Aliens are very good at attacking. They can move quickly to hit the weakest point. They have very high dps and the ability to destroy structures very quickly (bile bomb etc). They don't need to build and they have a field medic class that allows them to attack constantly with out effecting their economy. The way they spawn naturally bunches them up for making concentrated attacks.
2. Contrast in Objectives: (this is really key, and what most pub players don't seem to understand)
The goal of the marine team is to end the game quickly. They are the offensive team. They need more resource nodes in order to keep up with alien tech. They need to push aliens out of hive rooms. The aliens are faster, so at the beginning of the game, you can imagine that almost the entire map belongs to aliens. So from the very first moments of the game, the marines are on the offensive. Marines gain power for the entire team as they unlock weapon upgrades and phase gates, so they are less dependent on pres this means they tech more gradually.
The goal of the alien team is to secure hive locations, but because they are faster they will always arrive first. This means they are playing defense! Aliens need to secure and defend early hives and harvesters. If they do this they are very likely to win. Pres is their primary way to increase power level, this means their power increases in bursts as more team members gain the res needed to change lifeforms. Power is unlocked with small team res investments. This means that there are moments when the aliens are much more powerful than the marines, namely shortly after a hive goes up. In between these times, the marines are frequently more powerful.
3. Timings:
The slow team, the marines, want to end the game as quickly as possible. The best way to win as marines is to be decisive and prevent the second hive drop, or attack before it finishes growing. At the very least you want to damage the alien economy so you have high upgrades and shotguns before lifeforms start coming out.
The fast team, the aliens, want to draw the game out. The longer the game goes the more advanced lifeforms the team will be able to field. By causing the game to go longer, the aliens will get more advanced lifeforms, and have higher numbers of hive abilities.
The time when marines are strongest relative to the aliens is when the second hive is building, or at the very moment the hive goes up. You can see this peak of relative strength if you look at ns2 stats, marines have the best chance of winning if the game is between 5-10 minutes long. After this point the aliens tend to be much stronger.
4. Bending the rules:
The strongest techs in the game are those that allow your team to 'break' these rules. IE they let the marines attack effectively and the aliens defend effectively. this isn't an exhaustive list.
Jetpacks: Suddenly the marines can move as quickly as aliens, allowing them to attack on multiple fronts. They can exert intense map control.
ARCs: These let the marines attack, while defending. It is a strange situation when you think about it, but an ARC siege allows the marines to defend a location and simultaneously attack an adjacent one.
Medpacks: medpacks allow marines to resupply in the field, in exchange for damage to their economy. thus allowing them to attack alien positions as opposed to just camping near armories.
Lerk Spikes: Spikes allow aliens to negate the range advantage and chip away at marines as they attempt to advance. Lerk spikes allow aliens to defend locations much more effectively.
Drifters: These allow the aliens to have advanced warning, making it much easier for them to respond to marine attacks.
Crags/Shifts: Allow aliens to defend locations more effectively, but damage their economy. Their normal means of healing is mobile, and thus allows them to attack. Crags and shifts allow aliens to reinforce and heal in a specific room.
1. Contrast in Strengths: (this is well understood by most players and commanders)
Marines are incredible at defense. Their ranged attacks allow them to focus fire. Their phase gates and ability to build multiple IPs allow them to reinforce quickly and over long periods of time. Armories allow them to quickly heal for free. They can defend with out spending any resources.
Aliens are very good at attacking. They can move quickly to hit the weakest point. They have very high dps and the ability to destroy structures very quickly (bile bomb etc). They don't need to build and they have a field medic class that allows them to attack constantly with out effecting their economy. The way they spawn naturally bunches them up for making concentrated attacks.
2. Contrast in Objectives: (this is really key, and what most pub players don't seem to understand)
The goal of the marine team is to end the game quickly. They are the offensive team. They need more resource nodes in order to keep up with alien tech. They need to push aliens out of hive rooms. The aliens are faster, so at the beginning of the game, you can imagine that almost the entire map belongs to aliens. So from the very first moments of the game, the marines are on the offensive. Marines gain power for the entire team as they unlock weapon upgrades and phase gates, so they are less dependent on pres this means they tech more gradually.
The goal of the alien team is to secure hive locations, but because they are faster they will always arrive first. This means they are playing defense! Aliens need to secure and defend early hives and harvesters. If they do this they are very likely to win. Pres is their primary way to increase power level, this means their power increases in bursts as more team members gain the res needed to change lifeforms. Power is unlocked with small team res investments. This means that there are moments when the aliens are much more powerful than the marines, namely shortly after a hive goes up. In between these times, the marines are frequently more powerful.
3. Timings:
The slow team, the marines, want to end the game as quickly as possible. The best way to win as marines is to be decisive and prevent the second hive drop, or attack before it finishes growing. At the very least you want to damage the alien economy so you have high upgrades and shotguns before lifeforms start coming out.
The fast team, the aliens, want to draw the game out. The longer the game goes the more advanced lifeforms the team will be able to field. By causing the game to go longer, the aliens will get more advanced lifeforms, and have higher numbers of hive abilities.
The time when marines are strongest relative to the aliens is when the second hive is building, or at the very moment the hive goes up. You can see this peak of relative strength if you look at ns2 stats, marines have the best chance of winning if the game is between 5-10 minutes long. After this point the aliens tend to be much stronger.
4. Bending the rules:
The strongest techs in the game are those that allow your team to 'break' these rules. IE they let the marines attack effectively and the aliens defend effectively. this isn't an exhaustive list.
Jetpacks: Suddenly the marines can move as quickly as aliens, allowing them to attack on multiple fronts. They can exert intense map control.
ARCs: These let the marines attack, while defending. It is a strange situation when you think about it, but an ARC siege allows the marines to defend a location and simultaneously attack an adjacent one.
Medpacks: medpacks allow marines to resupply in the field, in exchange for damage to their economy. thus allowing them to attack alien positions as opposed to just camping near armories.
Lerk Spikes: Spikes allow aliens to negate the range advantage and chip away at marines as they attempt to advance. Lerk spikes allow aliens to defend locations much more effectively.
Drifters: These allow the aliens to have advanced warning, making it much easier for them to respond to marine attacks.
Crags/Shifts: Allow aliens to defend locations more effectively, but damage their economy. Their normal means of healing is mobile, and thus allows them to attack. Crags and shifts allow aliens to reinforce and heal in a specific room.
Comments
If the aliens attack the marines head on, assuming equal tech, the aliens will almost always be annihilated. The alien team is most affective when doing hit and run attacks constantly. The most deadly thing to an alien team's chance of victory is to defend.