realityisdeadEmployed by Raven Software after making ns_nothingJoin Date: 2002-01-26Member: 94Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
a) There <i>is</i> diversity between the two teams.
b) The marines are not supposed to be able to single handedly take out a swarm of aliens. The concept is teamwork. Real teamwork. As a marine you stick together in this game. If you run off on your own like in TFC, you're sure to die... That's your fault, and not something you're going to want to do.
c) There <i>are</i> grenades in the game... in the form of a grenade laucher. I don't see what you're getting at. Why does it matter if they are visually thrown by hand or not?
a) Because I have very little idea about the details of the game, I can't really comment on things like how diverse the races will be from eachother. I can, however, say that having marines be able to whip out the unexpected high explosive in a tight spot will give them an interesting strength which Aliens will have to compensate for with quick thinking, and further deepen the gulf between how the two races function adding more diversity to the game. That's all.
b) I realize that, and it's something that totally makes sense and which I agree with. But it's difficult to get kills with grenades, even in games where they're extremely powerful like Front Line Force. In a setting like NS where your opponents will probably be moving at least twice as fast they'll be even harder to get kills with. Because of this, they shouldn't compromise the emphasis on teamplay for Marines, but rather would serve as a punishment for Aliens who aren't on their toes 100% of the time, which is, of course, exactly how they should be played. I don't think they'd hurt the teamplay element at all, and in the process deepen the experience for both alien and marine players.
c) Thrown grenades would make it possible for an alert and aware marine player toting an assault rifle, shotgun, or other direct fire weapon to pull one out in a tight spot with a hotkey. That is, of course, assuming that the weapons will be set up counterstrike style, where you have one primary weapon, a pistol, and a knife or similar weak close combat weapon (which would be the best way to do it, I think). If that won't be how it'll be configured then I guess you can just basically ignore what I just said. I'm thinking they'd probably have the same damage as the grenade launcher ones, but nowhere near the range capability.
realityisdeadEmployed by Raven Software after making ns_nothingJoin Date: 2002-01-26Member: 94Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Oh, ok.. now I see what you mean about thrown grenades. Makes sense to me. Not sure why the team opted for a laucher, but it's not something they threw in randomly. I know there was a few discussions about laucher/hand a while back but can't quite remember the details.
I don't have an opinion on the hand vs launcher issue, but I *would* like to see tactical grenades in for the marines. So far it seems like aliens get all the 'cool' abilities, where the marines just have stuff that's mostly a matter of increasing firepower.
There are the classics - smoke and flashbang - and I'm sure the imaginative people on the NS team can come up with some others that would be fun and balancable.
I'm not sure stun grenades would have much place in a fight against aliens. For one thing, you'd need various sizes to stun various aliens. What stuns Bob probably wouldn't stop Tiny. Or even Pudgy. And since there is no "capture" objective (like X-Com), stunning an alien would only be a prelude to killing them. Why stun and alien and then shoot it when you can just blow it up?
Comments
b) The marines are not supposed to be able to single handedly take out a swarm of aliens. The concept is teamwork. Real teamwork. As a marine you stick together in this game. If you run off on your own like in TFC, you're sure to die... That's your fault, and not something you're going to want to do.
c) There <i>are</i> grenades in the game... in the form of a grenade laucher. I don't see what you're getting at. Why does it matter if they are visually thrown by hand or not?
<!--EDIT|ken20banks|May 11 2002,20:29-->
b) I realize that, and it's something that totally makes sense and which I agree with. But it's difficult to get kills with grenades, even in games where they're extremely powerful like Front Line Force. In a setting like NS where your opponents will probably be moving at least twice as fast they'll be even harder to get kills with. Because of this, they shouldn't compromise the emphasis on teamplay for Marines, but rather would serve as a punishment for Aliens who aren't on their toes 100% of the time, which is, of course, exactly how they should be played. I don't think they'd hurt the teamplay element at all, and in the process deepen the experience for both alien and marine players.
c) Thrown grenades would make it possible for an alert and aware marine player toting an assault rifle, shotgun, or other direct fire weapon to pull one out in a tight spot with a hotkey. That is, of course, assuming that the weapons will be set up counterstrike style, where you have one primary weapon, a pistol, and a knife or similar weak close combat weapon (which would be the best way to do it, I think). If that won't be how it'll be configured then I guess you can just basically ignore what I just said. I'm thinking they'd probably have the same damage as the grenade launcher ones, but nowhere near the range capability.
Another horrifically long post by:
Reaver
*shrugs*
oh this is to spider i know what you were talking about with what most call a Nuke nade but the blast is still fine
There are the classics - smoke and flashbang - and I'm sure the imaginative people on the NS team can come up with some others that would be fun and balancable.
-dio