A Different Type Of Ns
Harry_S_Truman
Join Date: 2002-11-21 Member: 9568Members
Join Date: 2002-11-21 Member: 9568Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Something I'd like to see....</div> I have lots of fun playing NS but it seems to me that the game is lost in a tangle of resource management strategies that have very little to do with the game play. It's like playing an RTS game where none of your units follow orders (unless you are the alien team and there is NO RTS game) or you are playing a FPS game where none of the rules make sense and are arbitrarily left up to a single player (i.e. commander or gorge placing the wrong things, etc.)
Wouldn't NS be interesting if we got rid of the resource management part?
I know this is really radical and I don't even SUSPECT that any of this would be considered but here's what I'm thinking....
Marines
Instead of all the Resource management on the Marine team, just have a commander. Someone that sits in a command position off station that actually commands the marines rather than building objects. He would have an array of sensors and tactical overview that allows him to actually command the troops at hand.
At his disposal he would have a limited number of men and equipment that he can deploy to "get the job done". The marines either complete this task or fail. Simple as that. Put the hands of the game back into the people fighting in the trenches., but use the commander as an element to improve their capabilities. This commander would have the ability to beam troops onto the station, arm them BEFORE he beams them in.
For example...a marine commander starts the game with a company of marines, say 120, if he loses this company he evidently failed in his mission to eradicate the alien presence. But don't base his success on just cleansing the base, reward it on how well he does it. For example, if the marines can clear the base and take 20% casualties it should be a marine victory, if they clear the base and take 50% casualties it would be a draw, if they clear the base and take 80% casualties it would be a tactical defeat, etc.
He would also have a limited stores of weapons, armor and equipment to draw from. 10 HMG's, 5 suits of HA, 4 GL's, 20 Turrets, 5 Turret Factories, 2 Ammo Facilities, etc. If you lose an HMG than well...that's it...it's gone.
Instead of all the hassle of resource collection just make the commander position purely tactical where is only job is to command and support the team NOT decide on what to build next. This would also hugely simplify balancing issues.
Aliens
Give the aliens an overall tactical commander, sort of like a "brain bug" like starship troopers. He uses the hive mind to gather information over the entire map (he can see what everyone sees) and guides the aliens as a whole to be more combat effective. This hive mind also has an overview map, can give waypoints, etc. The hive mind dies when the last hive dies. Yes...the aliens start with all three hives, they don't have to build them.
Aliens are unlimited in number, they have no pool to draw from. They gain the power to "upwardly" evolved by absorbing the marines bio material (eating in most cases). They risk nothing by throwing their lives at the marines again and again. Their job is to wear down and stop the marines from taking back the facility. Make the spawn time of aliens instantaneous. When one dies, the hives births another to replace it. Abilities can be chosen by individual aliens as they are now. Evolutions can be controlled by individual aliens as they are now. Aliens still have a resource pool to do these things, but don't gain them by collecting them passively, they can only gain them by active combat with the enemy.
This is only a smattering of ideas of what I think NS could or should have been. I've come to the conclusion that with the resource gathering model NS is TOO much of an RTS. Why should the game, which 90% of the players are FPS be so guided by 10% of the players that are playing an RTS? If all the RTS lovers move onto greener pastures, where does that leave NS? I love the idea of a commander, like the commander in the movie "Aliens" commanding from the APC, etc., but the commander role is too confusing. Is he a builder? Is he a commander? Is he a resource gatherer? It surprises me that some of our players don’t have to "carry/mine" resources back to the command chair or the hive.
In the end, it's really my dislike of RTS games that leave a bad taste in my mouth. As the RTS part of the game hugely impacts how well you can play the FPS part and all of it is guided by one player. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one team doesn't even have to deal with this problem. Personally, I think it's a fatal flaw in NS game play and will never allow it to be a truly mainstream FPS or RTS.
Get back to the FPS roots, if you want a commander/hive mind, then let them command. Get rid of all this silly resource management stuff. In the end, it has only served to wildly skew the game one way or another each time.
Wouldn't NS be interesting if we got rid of the resource management part?
I know this is really radical and I don't even SUSPECT that any of this would be considered but here's what I'm thinking....
Marines
Instead of all the Resource management on the Marine team, just have a commander. Someone that sits in a command position off station that actually commands the marines rather than building objects. He would have an array of sensors and tactical overview that allows him to actually command the troops at hand.
At his disposal he would have a limited number of men and equipment that he can deploy to "get the job done". The marines either complete this task or fail. Simple as that. Put the hands of the game back into the people fighting in the trenches., but use the commander as an element to improve their capabilities. This commander would have the ability to beam troops onto the station, arm them BEFORE he beams them in.
For example...a marine commander starts the game with a company of marines, say 120, if he loses this company he evidently failed in his mission to eradicate the alien presence. But don't base his success on just cleansing the base, reward it on how well he does it. For example, if the marines can clear the base and take 20% casualties it should be a marine victory, if they clear the base and take 50% casualties it would be a draw, if they clear the base and take 80% casualties it would be a tactical defeat, etc.
He would also have a limited stores of weapons, armor and equipment to draw from. 10 HMG's, 5 suits of HA, 4 GL's, 20 Turrets, 5 Turret Factories, 2 Ammo Facilities, etc. If you lose an HMG than well...that's it...it's gone.
Instead of all the hassle of resource collection just make the commander position purely tactical where is only job is to command and support the team NOT decide on what to build next. This would also hugely simplify balancing issues.
Aliens
Give the aliens an overall tactical commander, sort of like a "brain bug" like starship troopers. He uses the hive mind to gather information over the entire map (he can see what everyone sees) and guides the aliens as a whole to be more combat effective. This hive mind also has an overview map, can give waypoints, etc. The hive mind dies when the last hive dies. Yes...the aliens start with all three hives, they don't have to build them.
Aliens are unlimited in number, they have no pool to draw from. They gain the power to "upwardly" evolved by absorbing the marines bio material (eating in most cases). They risk nothing by throwing their lives at the marines again and again. Their job is to wear down and stop the marines from taking back the facility. Make the spawn time of aliens instantaneous. When one dies, the hives births another to replace it. Abilities can be chosen by individual aliens as they are now. Evolutions can be controlled by individual aliens as they are now. Aliens still have a resource pool to do these things, but don't gain them by collecting them passively, they can only gain them by active combat with the enemy.
This is only a smattering of ideas of what I think NS could or should have been. I've come to the conclusion that with the resource gathering model NS is TOO much of an RTS. Why should the game, which 90% of the players are FPS be so guided by 10% of the players that are playing an RTS? If all the RTS lovers move onto greener pastures, where does that leave NS? I love the idea of a commander, like the commander in the movie "Aliens" commanding from the APC, etc., but the commander role is too confusing. Is he a builder? Is he a commander? Is he a resource gatherer? It surprises me that some of our players don’t have to "carry/mine" resources back to the command chair or the hive.
In the end, it's really my dislike of RTS games that leave a bad taste in my mouth. As the RTS part of the game hugely impacts how well you can play the FPS part and all of it is guided by one player. On the opposite end of the spectrum, one team doesn't even have to deal with this problem. Personally, I think it's a fatal flaw in NS game play and will never allow it to be a truly mainstream FPS or RTS.
Get back to the FPS roots, if you want a commander/hive mind, then let them command. Get rid of all this silly resource management stuff. In the end, it has only served to wildly skew the game one way or another each time.
Comments
The concepts are very similar Yours and Combat's.
I think combat, a more traditional fps style gameplay, will prove more popular on pubs, while normal ns will become more the domain of clanplay or pugs.
What makes ns clan wars so good is the rts elelment, the resource management etc is very important to provide a wide range of strategies
*/Edit : I do think that objective based teamplay maps would be cool... enemy territory styles... eg build this, secure that, take out the power, etc etc.