FT were viable in certain situations when the effect on energy was bugged and more apparent in beta. It made fades ability to stay in fights for more than a moment very difficult. It still had the same trade offs that it does now in regards to damage and range, but made it much easier to deal with a high number of fades.
I think it's hard to design the late-game NS2 techs in such a way that choosing which ones to go for will actually make a difference, because most games are going to be decided much earlier and by other factors. given the realities of the gameplay, I think having steep requirements (eg. 3rd hive required, advanced armory + 2nd cc + prototype lab required) is inherently unexciting. in order to be interesting/influential, the tech needs to be viable to rush without being OP, and that's tricky to balance.
marines having to choose where to spend res is designed fairly decently in the early-mid game (the cost/benefit equations could probably be tweaked... but the general idea seems okay)
I think the alien side needs more work, especially in relation to the first hive upgrade. but even beyond that, it seems like the viable options are just slightly different routes to the exactly same destination. oftentimes, it is too tough to tell whether a decision was right or wrong. there seems to be much better feedback about decisions on the marine side of things.
NS2 is a game where your advantages snowball extremely hard. Every ability has to result in immediate combat or RT retention benefit or else its res that could have been spent better. Along with being a res battle NS is a game of risk reduction, which carapace also excels at. For these two reasons carapace is clearly and objectively the best upgrade.
The alien tech trees other then carapace needs to be completely overdone. Silence is an almost there ability but the speed of marines requires aliens to be able to withstand dmg in a head on assault from time to time and then silence just doesn't cut it. You can slowly see the paring down of the alien strategy to (give or take a bit) - RT/CARA/RT/RT/HIVE/CRAG/CRAG/blink,fade egg, leap, bile, second upgrade i guess with a scattering of drifters.
This is caused by fades being the only lifeform that can somewhat stand up to shotguns until eventually onos comes, carapace being the best upgrade and crag being by far the best support structure. Even if a tech tree existed which allowed aliens to benefit later at the cost of early game strength (it doesnt), because aliens are more vulnerable in the period before fades arrive, and as a result of the snowball effect, aliens would still probably select carapace every time.
Some ideas to help alleviate this clearly best strategy issue would include adding focus, celerity/silence, celerity fully maintained in combat, partial camo at full speed, regen buff, attack speed buff? But whatever is done it has to have immediate combat benefits or RT defending/attacking benefits equal to that given by carapace.
Another idea would be to redesign the support structures of the weaker upgrades as incentive to go that route. They would have to be really great though to be of greater benefit then the cara/crag combo without changing anything else. It is difficult to employ any tech choice in NS2 which does not result in immediate benefits because of the heavy snowball effect.
6v6 works for comp play in games where one player is not removed from the game.
The maps are too large for 5v5(The commander doesn't really count all that much).
I will concede that 5v5 puts more emphasis on personal skill, which is kinda the point of competitive play, but at the same time, too few people leads to boring gameplay(From as spectators perspective).
I'm not sure that you can say the maps are too large for 5v5. In comp matches it's very rare that you are far from any action. As a player it definitely doesn't lead to boring game play and players should be the main focus. Saying that, I don't think it's really boring from a spec perspective either. In good games there will always be groups of people pushing, which is where the fun to watch comes in.
I think it's hard to design the late-game NS2 techs in such a way that choosing which ones to go for will actually make a difference, because most games are going to be decided much earlier and by other factors. given the realities of the gameplay, I think having steep requirements (eg. 3rd hive required, advanced armory + 2nd cc + prototype lab required) is inherently unexciting. in order to be interesting/influential, the tech needs to be viable to rush without being OP, and that's tricky to balance.
The biggest issue in NS2 is that UWE doesn't want to make any 'superweapon' type tech, which is traditionally how late-game tech is able to change the course of a match. Unfortunately, its extremely hard to get the balance right where the 'superweapon' is viable, but doesn't become the dominant strat.
We got a glimpse of the problem when we had two-hive TRes onos eggs. 6-min onos (the closest aliens have to late-game 'superweapon' tech) rushing became the dominant alien start, to the chagrin of many comp players.
Comments
edit: found it http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/ns2-build-217-titanium-changelog-2/
"Fixed flame thrower energy penalty (should have been -20% regeneration instead of -80%)."
marines having to choose where to spend res is designed fairly decently in the early-mid game (the cost/benefit equations could probably be tweaked... but the general idea seems okay)
I think the alien side needs more work, especially in relation to the first hive upgrade. but even beyond that, it seems like the viable options are just slightly different routes to the exactly same destination. oftentimes, it is too tough to tell whether a decision was right or wrong. there seems to be much better feedback about decisions on the marine side of things.
The alien tech trees other then carapace needs to be completely overdone. Silence is an almost there ability but the speed of marines requires aliens to be able to withstand dmg in a head on assault from time to time and then silence just doesn't cut it. You can slowly see the paring down of the alien strategy to (give or take a bit) - RT/CARA/RT/RT/HIVE/CRAG/CRAG/blink,fade egg, leap, bile, second upgrade i guess with a scattering of drifters.
This is caused by fades being the only lifeform that can somewhat stand up to shotguns until eventually onos comes, carapace being the best upgrade and crag being by far the best support structure. Even if a tech tree existed which allowed aliens to benefit later at the cost of early game strength (it doesnt), because aliens are more vulnerable in the period before fades arrive, and as a result of the snowball effect, aliens would still probably select carapace every time.
Some ideas to help alleviate this clearly best strategy issue would include adding focus, celerity/silence, celerity fully maintained in combat, partial camo at full speed, regen buff, attack speed buff? But whatever is done it has to have immediate combat benefits or RT defending/attacking benefits equal to that given by carapace.
Another idea would be to redesign the support structures of the weaker upgrades as incentive to go that route. They would have to be really great though to be of greater benefit then the cara/crag combo without changing anything else. It is difficult to employ any tech choice in NS2 which does not result in immediate benefits because of the heavy snowball effect.
I'm not sure that you can say the maps are too large for 5v5. In comp matches it's very rare that you are far from any action. As a player it definitely doesn't lead to boring game play and players should be the main focus. Saying that, I don't think it's really boring from a spec perspective either. In good games there will always be groups of people pushing, which is where the fun to watch comes in.
We got a glimpse of the problem when we had two-hive TRes onos eggs. 6-min onos (the closest aliens have to late-game 'superweapon' tech) rushing became the dominant alien start, to the chagrin of many comp players.