Behold everyone : The wish list

UncleCrunch

No i'm not so negative: So before the "list", what's good in the latest build ?

Added female Marine
helloooo! Does she have rollers and little short ?

Added Catpacks (increases marines movement and reload speed)
Commanders gonna command!

Added Gorge Webs (slows down enemies)
Though it's a little far in the tech tree i like.

Added Commander tutorial
Yay!

Interactive ground-troop tutorial for new players, covering marine and alien basics.
Yay 2!

Tutorial are good and "this" is the ground technology for creating a FPS scenario. Which can be the other side of NS. NS was always on-line multi-player. A lot of players just don't like it. Some others don't like games in which you directly go on-line. A First person scenario would give them some training (it's not only to understanding but also time), and probably get some more selling. You never know.

Added TechMaps to both teams, accessible by pressing “J”
Fine!

Added grenades
Some don't like it but i do because it's giving more ways to do thing on marine side. I probably even vote for more stuff if Flame thrower was removed. Yeah i know some are gonna cry rivers but it's a *** wrong weapon as a skilled soldier never gonna need backups (teamwork) with that thing in his hands and a Jetpack.

Increased Lerk melee attack speed by 30%
Finally!

ARCs display now their attack radius to Marine Commanders when selected
whooohoo! Is it real ?

Scores for constructing and killing are now based on how much the player has contributed to the kill / construction
THAT is interesting. if skill isn't base on K/D only, it really is gonna help.





So now here is my wish list concerning NS2.
Feel free to post your need here. We all know now it's a time of change just because of the (many) bugs. So maybe it's time to say it properly. Try to show an example why you want something.



Concerning Spawn:
People hate egg/IP lock. I hate that so much that i have my finger on the "disconnect" key when it happens (i binded one just for that). If it's unlocked fast i still play, otherwise if it goes more than 20 ~30 seconds, i'm out. I'm not playing a game for waiting the next round!

People want to play. Plain and simple. Competitive or not, waiting for re-spawn and die in an egg/IP is just a useless game. Pls build a system that just get rid of that. There are many ways to do it without having to do more graphics of stuff. It would also put some bases to avoid the "bashing" in the first minutes until end.

Harassing ok, bashing... not interesting. Same goes for marines. People want to develop a little and bring something to fight (and to fight for).

->Alien : Ability to spawn directly with selected upgrades and or life form (If P-Res ok) in a "waiting menu". Of course a timer would delay spawn depending on what is chosen. Graphically : Looks like one of the first NS2 draft with some kind of drifter eggs flying around is ok; Alien choose one with jump and when the time comes, it pops up.

->Marines keeps JP or % of money back in order to be able to buy something. IP super armored in first minutes of game. Then reduce as game goes. No animation on marine respawn. It's too easy for alien to follow the sequence between two IPs.

It will remove the "1 minute rush game" that is so dumb. I explain why. People/clans just don't do that to surprise the enemy anymore. It's just because they don't have time any more to play (late at night). Games can last 30mn to an hour even in clan match. So they want to finish and disconnect. I remember some final match with "_@/" that was somehow, cut because no more time was available. I mean it's not only use as a strategy but more as a "let's finish it and move on". wow.


No hard coded keys
The tech tree is always changing on alien side. This time the Kham needs more to rely on fast actions. This shouldn't be an obstacle for any non-qwerty keyboard user. Plus you have Cysting problem on this build. i'll explain later.
->Every "Commander key" configurable. in fact one profile for every class. And mouse-wheel configuration


Vision
AV in my opinion is just useless now. I rarely use it. I even found myself saying: "Bah let's get out of here, don't even enable AV. Get to a room with lights on".
->better default vision as a constant AV (more than one color depending on type) and remove the AV. The mod-ed one look and feel was great. It just needed minor changes. Also don't make it only an outlined version. IR style would be better.
->Choice of 90° FOV and perspective for skulk.



Webs
Timer is too short, a marine free himself too fast.
->need a little more. Especially as Web require high biomass level.


Fade
The new weapon should work the same as a rail gun. The 252 system is the opposite. For this weapon, you hit the key and the sequence starts. You have to hold on the target until it fires. Not really good.
->You hold and shoot when wanted. If holding time is up = automatic release. To balance that a little; make a timer on the ability to create a vortex again. "On scene" vortex is just too powerful (especially with macros). see for an example: http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/131850/why-i-love-vortex-fade-video


Marine
You can't balance a game with jumping beans on the field.
1 they don't look like marines.
2 This only make people see faster and better the lag issue the game has.
->No possibility to fire when jumping, and reduce speed when running and fire at the same time (like the 252-exo). They will adapt in making proper check in rooms, proper moves also. And finally look as marines. This is also a really good base to properly balance 1 on 1 fights.


1 On 1
-Alien have a different view so tracking becomes awful as he gets "disturbances" in the screen. Teeth rack...
-Lag issue, it look like they teleport (not even talking about (VCR-rewind, lag, dead), even with good pings. You see more the "turn around dance".
-Gnarling...

I do believe when you have a skulk biting an ass or a leg is like a bear trap... Why on earth does the marines isn't slowed down ?
*Especially when
-The marine never saw it coming.
-The skulk land a proper set of bites.

The secondary attack could be a kick on the skulk to put some distance (so get time to recover speed) It would be fair and less depending on lag. Which is really an issue right now.

This would force marine to pay attention a little more and or get the teammate to 'cover'. I rarely see on NS2 a marine covering the other one that is welding something.
->If no change are made on AV. Bear trap hits for aliens. Marine can buy some time to regain speed by pushing back the skulk with secondary attack


Cyst
Cyst is so annoying right now that i truly thinks it should be changed for a more ground based version.

Here are the examples:
1/ First cyst then harvester
A marine attacks the cyst first in order to cut the harvester income then attack the harvester. They usually do it with the axe to save bullets.

The kham has 3 problems
-1 re-Cysting immediately will just get no result as it will get obliterated the same way. Add the red circle problem to that. And apparently sometime re-Cysting is not effective as the new added chains just die instantly (bug???).
-2 Even if alien team intercept the guy(s); the harvester will probably die (say 60% chance). Usually because of infestation slow development.
-3 The harvester is usually getting low in these kind of situation. So next time it will be gone if no gorge heals it. You can do some little thing as kham but not so much compared to time left.


2/ Cyst Logic???
Apparently the development is illogic. Let's say the kham produce 4 Cyst chains. One on the left we call L1, then on Right side of map R1 and R2. Then kham create another chain on the left but to a different destination, L2. L2 use a part of L1 path. Same for R2.
So you have L1, R1, R2, L2 chains. Infestation will develop in the same order. even L1 was first and is supposed to be fully grown. L2 will grow infestation last. hmmm...

->I would like to see:
-Cysts should grow infestation faster and remove infestation faster.
-A little extra life on cysts.
-No delay for growing infestation if cyst is in proximity of a living harvester.
-When it gets cut off, creates a gas cloud that is toxic to marines and work as enzyme for alien. So marines will have to shoot it from a distance instead or attack the harvester first.

ex:
If marines kill a cyst and alien units are around it will produce a "claiming situation". On one side you have marines that will have to fight against alien for that spot. On the other side alien if they get in the cloud have enzyme activated (what the f**k you do in my territory!?!?!).

If marine wins the dogfight the harvester will go down. Disconnected Cyst chain will die faster than it is right now, and let the marine have the reward. They got here, claimed it and won the spot. Not problem with me to let them have it, they diverse it.

If they loose, the cyst chain will be recreated and infestation will regrow fast. The harvester stays wounded until the kham or a gorge heals it.


About shift
Apparently you have to deal with structures one by one when you want to teleport them. You can't select them either other than type. For example if you want teleport one of two shell inside the radius of the shift. Just to move it a little. You won't be able to do it for the second as the same shell will be selected over and over.
->Select structure to teleport directly on the commander view. It suppose of course that if it is multiple structures (a selection). these are rearranged on destination spot. It would be a good asset for late game as alien have many difficulties against turtle behavior. instead of growing things everywhere and make server lags.



About whip
Considering that late alien games (when they win) can be difficult. What about whip that can do something outside of infestation ? That would help bile bombing the base and stuff.
->Whip can do things outside infestation at a determined biomass level. Winning aliens means 3 hive at least. So biomass = 9. They still take damage outside infestation. See it as a helper to finish it.



Feel free to add yours.

UncleCrunch

Console
Many don't use it. Messages can't be read as there is no control to see history (like a terminal). Even if you read the message they are clearly for developers/admins. It probably use CPU and drawing that could be saved.
->console
-should quiet by default and "Scrollable"
-implementation of "Help" command to see available commands
-Colors, especially on status output
-if possible debug level to be able to set what's gonna be displayed (only critical errors etc...)


in-game menus
Some servers run a mod for voting in a second menu (key M). In the original version it has to be done in the regular menu.
->What about make this official. One menu for in-game things and another one for voting and some basic command in console.


Recording demos
Demo is really cool but work only before you connect a server. It does not record voice. It will only work with the build it was made with (or map version). So it is underused.
->Please
-Add a tool that can allow to convert demo into video format (avi, flv etc). So we can choose upon several hours of demo the parts we want to convert as video. Demo format takes less space on drive than pure video.
-Add recording voice option. Truly useful for tutorials.
-Allow 3rd person on replay. Useful for replay and tutorials
-Recording at any time (oh yes, really needed).
-Record option in a menu (special M).



MOTD
Nobody reads it unless it's in the middle of the screen. It's not a big problem except for language. A lot of people don't read it so they don't comply to server rules if the rules are different than the "default usual stuff". Ex: "It's a Mexican server you're required to speak Spanish".
->Option for server admin to make MOTD displayed on client screen.