My alien vision mod works on every server I've tried to play on. About 10 different american ones, all the australian ones, 3 euro ones.
You waiting for someone to ask for you to share more info before you do?
Cause that's what I'm doing.
I was kinda, you got me. All I can say is I overwrite the file in my game files instead of using it in a mod. BUT that shouldn't make any difference, it's under the same name, should be blacklisted or whitelisted regardless.
I agree the dark alien vision is flawed. I remember when watching Hugh play an often occurring pattern was Hugh commenting, and I'm paraphrased from memory, on trying to remember to turn off alien vision when showcasing to show off the beautiful graphics, even though it puts you at a disadvantage.
Yet it wasn't replaced, it was mostly just turned off in marketing material. You could argue this is dishonest, since the game won't at all look that way to anyone being at all competitive when playing alien, which you should at least try to be or you won't have a good time.
Now I'm not arguing UWE has been dishonest, that would be pathetic. But the point I do argue is that the ways in which the flaws of alien vision has been addressed was not ideal, which I think this proves. To sum it up; alien vision is necessary to stay competitive. This isn't a problem. The primary tradeoff of alien vision is overall less appealing graphics. This is. Though the first time you use it it's pretty cool, but something you should be using all the time can't be optimized for that.
Better NS2 adds an option to change the alien vision. Type b_vision in the console on any of these servers to use an alternative alien vision. It currently only supports minimal alien vision; no one has ever asked for anything else.
I just dislike how you can't tell your cloaking level in alien vision when you are using Phantom. Unless I am missing an indicator.
That was intentionally added to make it easier to see cloaked structures due to flaws in the vanilla dark vision, unfortunately it's far more a bother than a help. In my opinion a better approach would be to make dark vision itself better rather than adding more, even more flawed band-aids. With dark vision enabled before the patch that added so called albedo cloak it was a bit difficult too tell cloaked alien structures apart, but not at all impossible. After the albedo patch it was easier to do so, but instead truly impossible to tell if your character is cloaked and to what degree! Not a tradeoff I would make.
When selecting the minimal alien vision in BNS2 this is fixed as well. Minimal alien vision won't do this alone as changes to the game code was made.
BNS2 also remembers if alien vision was already enabled when respawning into another lifeform (like an egg, or a skulk after dying, or ejecting from the hive). Vanilla NS2 forgets the vision mode whenever your lifeform change.
For me the "problems" are just game features, when I'm scanned I always remove alien vision, same thing when I hide, when I want to check the flashlights at the exit of conduit, when I build hydras/tunnel or when I umbra. Know at which moment switch is just a part of the game, making it more powerful will just let the normal vision useless.
I'm pretty sure I can say, with confidence, that the vision is not useless. That being said, I could turn it off but choose not to. I'm one of those people who use it 95% of the time. :P
Comments
I was kinda, you got me. All I can say is I overwrite the file in my game files instead of using it in a mod. BUT that shouldn't make any difference, it's under the same name, should be blacklisted or whitelisted regardless.
Yet it wasn't replaced, it was mostly just turned off in marketing material. You could argue this is dishonest, since the game won't at all look that way to anyone being at all competitive when playing alien, which you should at least try to be or you won't have a good time.
Not a single screenshot on the Steam store has alien vision enabled.
Now I'm not arguing UWE has been dishonest, that would be pathetic. But the point I do argue is that the ways in which the flaws of alien vision has been addressed was not ideal, which I think this proves. To sum it up; alien vision is necessary to stay competitive. This isn't a problem. The primary tradeoff of alien vision is overall less appealing graphics. This is. Though the first time you use it it's pretty cool, but something you should be using all the time can't be optimized for that.
Minimal Alien Vision mod solves all these problems (except one, addressed below).
Better NS2 adds an option to change the alien vision. Type b_vision in the console on any of these servers to use an alternative alien vision. It currently only supports minimal alien vision; no one has ever asked for anything else.
That was intentionally added to make it easier to see cloaked structures due to flaws in the vanilla dark vision, unfortunately it's far more a bother than a help. In my opinion a better approach would be to make dark vision itself better rather than adding more, even more flawed band-aids. With dark vision enabled before the patch that added so called albedo cloak it was a bit difficult too tell cloaked alien structures apart, but not at all impossible. After the albedo patch it was easier to do so, but instead truly impossible to tell if your character is cloaked and to what degree! Not a tradeoff I would make.
When selecting the minimal alien vision in BNS2 this is fixed as well. Minimal alien vision won't do this alone as changes to the game code was made.
BNS2 also remembers if alien vision was already enabled when respawning into another lifeform (like an egg, or a skulk after dying, or ejecting from the hive). Vanilla NS2 forgets the vision mode whenever your lifeform change.
-Not seeing glass is an issue
-As a lerk, being able to see a sprite outline on umbra etc would be helpful
edit: Alien vision is useless
Now that I think about it, the first issue has caught me a few times. (Stalking marine, jumps to try to bite him, SPLAT.)