1.04 Represents Pinnacle Of Ns
Edcrab
Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4324Members
Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4324Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Gameplay thus far is best ever... agree?</div> I used to have a lot of problems with NS... really, a <i>lot</i>. Nevermind things like the siege bug in earlier days and the oft-occuring hitbox problems, what got me most was the feeling of utter helplesness in the dying stages of the game. Which, sometimes, was actually the midgame.
The slightest mistake, and you were doomed. As aliens, phase gates were a bugger to take out- they were surprisingly durable, and were, of course, capable of suddenly teleporting a player to a location they really didn't expect to arrive in. Fades appeared suddenly and wiped out any un-attended outpost... which is most of them, if you got saddled with an un-cooperative team or you had stretched yourself too thin in a vaguely optimistic fashion. As much as comebacks were possible, you just didn't feel like it. When the sieges were effortlessly levelling your outposts or the Fades were sitting in vents and killing everything that moved... it was slow, depressing, and repetetive. The fun only really occured when both happened at the same time...
Now? It feels different. Skulks stand a fair chance against a siege/phase outpost. The tiniest change in Fade cost means that marines have <i>just</i> enough time to organise before they appear. Quite bluntly, when your team loses, it doesn't feel like abject failure- that your teams been conned out of fun because of the tiniest error in strategy. It feels like NS should feel- an atmospheric, tense battle between everything that matters on the gaming field. It doesn't feel like the enemy win was unfair- simply as there's so much that either side can do now.
This is my opinion, of course. For me, it comes down to changes (bugfixes apart) like the "using" of phase gates, cheaper TF's, turrets and shotguns- the tweaking of the siege system means that marines have to move or take other action, and the chances of the aliens are either heightened or shortened depending on their own reaction time. I played two alien games on the same map, and won the first and lost the second.
I didn't feel conned- an early phase rush at the Port Engine Room hive on nancy was repelled, as we could quite simply destroy the PG without accidently teleporting to some unknown place. We lost this second game- the marine team was well commanded and efficient but we sure as hell gave them a run for their money.
Flayra's poll above gives me a good indicator of what other people think- but why, excactly? Do you think 1.04 is the only version not to be terrifyingly and depressingly frustrating? Or is it just me? And why?
The slightest mistake, and you were doomed. As aliens, phase gates were a bugger to take out- they were surprisingly durable, and were, of course, capable of suddenly teleporting a player to a location they really didn't expect to arrive in. Fades appeared suddenly and wiped out any un-attended outpost... which is most of them, if you got saddled with an un-cooperative team or you had stretched yourself too thin in a vaguely optimistic fashion. As much as comebacks were possible, you just didn't feel like it. When the sieges were effortlessly levelling your outposts or the Fades were sitting in vents and killing everything that moved... it was slow, depressing, and repetetive. The fun only really occured when both happened at the same time...
Now? It feels different. Skulks stand a fair chance against a siege/phase outpost. The tiniest change in Fade cost means that marines have <i>just</i> enough time to organise before they appear. Quite bluntly, when your team loses, it doesn't feel like abject failure- that your teams been conned out of fun because of the tiniest error in strategy. It feels like NS should feel- an atmospheric, tense battle between everything that matters on the gaming field. It doesn't feel like the enemy win was unfair- simply as there's so much that either side can do now.
This is my opinion, of course. For me, it comes down to changes (bugfixes apart) like the "using" of phase gates, cheaper TF's, turrets and shotguns- the tweaking of the siege system means that marines have to move or take other action, and the chances of the aliens are either heightened or shortened depending on their own reaction time. I played two alien games on the same map, and won the first and lost the second.
I didn't feel conned- an early phase rush at the Port Engine Room hive on nancy was repelled, as we could quite simply destroy the PG without accidently teleporting to some unknown place. We lost this second game- the marine team was well commanded and efficient but we sure as hell gave them a run for their money.
Flayra's poll above gives me a good indicator of what other people think- but why, excactly? Do you think 1.04 is the only version not to be terrifyingly and depressingly frustrating? Or is it just me? And why?
Comments
But in all honesty, I think I agree. The only significant balance changes that will need to be considered now will stem from any advanced gameplay changes, like actually adding new content (such as the proposed flame-thrower).
1.04 is great, very little wrong and teams are very equal now. I just hope there wont be any major changes to a single team that throws the equality into chaos again.
My very first experience of 1.04 went suprisingly well. I still think that 1 or 2 of the changes were a little severe (shortening seige range AND making them LOS/detected AND increasing the cost of sensor sweeps).
I think the devs didnt do too bad a job with this one. Fades come along slightly later, giving more cautious commanders a fair go. Sensory chambers are now fairly viable at any point in the game. Seige isnt the uber be-all-and-end-all that it used to be. Shotguns are now viable early weapons.
Yay for NS.
Hell we had a game in which we'd JUST taken 3 hives (and one of us went onos).
The marines all arrived outside one of our hive in HA/HMG + GL's and set up an armoury + phase + siege.. they then stormed in under cover of the sieges's blasting everything, no one could heal up because the sieges got ya <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Mr onos got himself stuck on some scenery and well we lost that hive.
However like the good aliens we are we did not surrender!
We (now all skulk without enough res to go fade) hit their main base with Gorge Skulk and Lerk!
We just managed to wipe out the prot lab, and all their HA'ers befor all of us died.
Course next time we came in with fades instead of skulks (Game over man! GAME OVER <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->)..
The game was pretty much in the air up to the point we wiped out their base with the skulk attack. Even then they could of taken both hives with jebo's while we were evolving fade.. Although it woulda been mighty tricky.
BlueGhost
We like being Marines better because we find it more challenging, but we have yet to win a match as Marines and yet to lose a match as Alien. Most our members want me to bring back 1.03, So I figure if you can come in as Marines and own us I could show them that 1.04 is worth keeping.
Here is the website you can get a hold of us at. Visit the forums <a href='http://www.dgkclan.com/ns/phpbb2/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.dgkclan.com/ns/phpbb2/index.php</a>
I really want to like 1.04 <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
We like being Marines better because we find it more challenging, but we have yet to win a match as Marines and yet to lose a match as Alien. Most our members want me to bring back 1.03, So I figure if you can come in as Marines and own us I could show them that 1.04 is worth keeping.
Here is the website you can get a hold of us at. Visit the forums <a href='http://www.dgkclan.com/ns/phpbb2/index.php' target='_blank'>http://www.dgkclan.com/ns/phpbb2/index.php</a>
I really want to like 1.04 <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Clangames are 6v6, right? The increased costs really hurt small marine teams, as they get less resources than large games. OTOH, most clans says that marines wins far more often than not, even in 1.04. Maybe that's due to the power of the HMG or the interesting features of the JP in skilled hands, but as I don't play clan games, I don't know.
However, as most 1.04 testing was done on large servers, balances for small servers may well have been adversely affected.