Balance Is ****en Amazing!
Reign
Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1652Members
Join Date: 2002-10-27 Member: 1652Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Wow...story and comments. LONG</div> If there was anyone who ever doupted aliens, the idea was dropped after one game on ns_eclipse.
I was on the alien side and all was going well until the computer core (this was our first and only hive...or was it the maintanence hive?) hive came under attack. Sadly, near to no one was there to defend it as most had moved to the eclipse command one to prepare for a second hive. We were being pushed back by the marines and lost many resource nodes. So down went our first hive.
Things went downhill from there. The marines began to weed out nearly all the aliens. Four remained, including me. I remember Lars, B33f, myself and someone else. Me and this unknown were in the Eclipse Command hive area and B33f and Lars were in the Computer Core. We were all gorges and were hoping to save up for a hive. I struck out to find more resource nodes while the unknown had 60 or so resources. I didn't make it too far and was mowed down by some marine.
The hives were started. B33f told Lars to head to eclipse command but Lars was killed before he could make it all the way.
For some reason...the marines never seemed to attack us very badly during the hive's building. B33f high-tailed out of the computer core after it came under attack again but the attack stopped I believe.
It was hard to believe that the hives were up. We had lost one hive and come back with two. Things went uphill from here.
Long story continuing (gonna shorten this up a bit), the marines managed to get gernade launchers and heavy armor. We could've lost but we continued to evolve to fades and fight back. Gorges came by where marine bases had just been destroyed and made sure we got resources and defense towers. So finally, we pushed at the maintenence hive where the marines had constructed a large base. Through a combination of acid rockets and 5-defense tower building, we destroyed the marine hold in the third hive and built it up. We had secured our victory. The marine base was to become a slaughterhouse very soon.
But even as an onos with redemption, we couldn't get through the marine's defenses. They had placed dozens of turrets at the doors and it was hurting us. They must have had a ton of resources because they seemed to keep on getting weapons and armor. But of course their stockpile eventually dwindled. But back to the turrets, we had to resort to the fade's usefull bile bomb with occasional spore launches from the lerks' and some onos' charges. For a better idea of how many turrets there were, keep in mind that even with umbra, an onos didn't have long to live. The odds were that the onos would die wether it had redemption or not from the huge amount of firepower. Sometimes, I would redemp back to the hive only to die a half-second later.
Sooner or later, the turrets were lessened and then the factory destroyed altogether. We charged in and walked around goring little marines who were running all about. It was truely a slaughterhouse. We won.
COMMENTS (yes, theres more):
It's amazing to me that we were able to recover from losing our starting hive so early into the game. More amazing still that we won.
Aliens are powerful but they must reach around two hives to be truely powerful. For the bloodthirsty, a third hive is a must and it usually brings about the end of the game soon enough.
I'm in awe of the balance struck here in NS. Although the marines were quite possibly maxed out with armor and weapon research (I'm not sure if they were) they still lost. Being maxed out is a very powerful thing and it is usually hard to lose in such a case.
Basically, the aliens are more independent. But it still stands that teamwork doesn't hurt. The game almost FORCES the aliens to cooperate ie: the building of defense and offense towers helps the player as well as the team. No one wants to have to respawn every time they attack something and then re-evolve and such. So just build some defensive towers and everyone is happy.
Marines truly depend on their commander. While a good commander will usually win the game, marines still depend on their comm to keep them outfitted. This can slow or speed things up. Aliens on the other hand, can just evolve and outfit themselves.
But this of course doesn't debalance things since marines have guns. But it's still balanced because aliens are strong and have abilities. This doesn't debalance things because....
The point is, the list goes on and on. NS happens to be one of the most balanced games out there. True, you might be mad that the marine killed you with a knife but that doesn't make it "OMG ****en BS!" If NS had been a retail game, I would have bought it immediatly. The consideration and thought that has gone into this game continues to leave me in awe and amazement. Wether most of the balancers were thought of or put in on accident, it amounts to a job well done. And they worked for what...two years?...for free!
Wow. Thanks. NS P3wns.
EDIT: This was one long game. To give you an idea, B33f left before we had really started attacking the maintenence hive. When B33f came back at least 30-45 minutes later, we were still bashing through the marine's homebase turrets.
I was on the alien side and all was going well until the computer core (this was our first and only hive...or was it the maintanence hive?) hive came under attack. Sadly, near to no one was there to defend it as most had moved to the eclipse command one to prepare for a second hive. We were being pushed back by the marines and lost many resource nodes. So down went our first hive.
Things went downhill from there. The marines began to weed out nearly all the aliens. Four remained, including me. I remember Lars, B33f, myself and someone else. Me and this unknown were in the Eclipse Command hive area and B33f and Lars were in the Computer Core. We were all gorges and were hoping to save up for a hive. I struck out to find more resource nodes while the unknown had 60 or so resources. I didn't make it too far and was mowed down by some marine.
The hives were started. B33f told Lars to head to eclipse command but Lars was killed before he could make it all the way.
For some reason...the marines never seemed to attack us very badly during the hive's building. B33f high-tailed out of the computer core after it came under attack again but the attack stopped I believe.
It was hard to believe that the hives were up. We had lost one hive and come back with two. Things went uphill from here.
Long story continuing (gonna shorten this up a bit), the marines managed to get gernade launchers and heavy armor. We could've lost but we continued to evolve to fades and fight back. Gorges came by where marine bases had just been destroyed and made sure we got resources and defense towers. So finally, we pushed at the maintenence hive where the marines had constructed a large base. Through a combination of acid rockets and 5-defense tower building, we destroyed the marine hold in the third hive and built it up. We had secured our victory. The marine base was to become a slaughterhouse very soon.
But even as an onos with redemption, we couldn't get through the marine's defenses. They had placed dozens of turrets at the doors and it was hurting us. They must have had a ton of resources because they seemed to keep on getting weapons and armor. But of course their stockpile eventually dwindled. But back to the turrets, we had to resort to the fade's usefull bile bomb with occasional spore launches from the lerks' and some onos' charges. For a better idea of how many turrets there were, keep in mind that even with umbra, an onos didn't have long to live. The odds were that the onos would die wether it had redemption or not from the huge amount of firepower. Sometimes, I would redemp back to the hive only to die a half-second later.
Sooner or later, the turrets were lessened and then the factory destroyed altogether. We charged in and walked around goring little marines who were running all about. It was truely a slaughterhouse. We won.
COMMENTS (yes, theres more):
It's amazing to me that we were able to recover from losing our starting hive so early into the game. More amazing still that we won.
Aliens are powerful but they must reach around two hives to be truely powerful. For the bloodthirsty, a third hive is a must and it usually brings about the end of the game soon enough.
I'm in awe of the balance struck here in NS. Although the marines were quite possibly maxed out with armor and weapon research (I'm not sure if they were) they still lost. Being maxed out is a very powerful thing and it is usually hard to lose in such a case.
Basically, the aliens are more independent. But it still stands that teamwork doesn't hurt. The game almost FORCES the aliens to cooperate ie: the building of defense and offense towers helps the player as well as the team. No one wants to have to respawn every time they attack something and then re-evolve and such. So just build some defensive towers and everyone is happy.
Marines truly depend on their commander. While a good commander will usually win the game, marines still depend on their comm to keep them outfitted. This can slow or speed things up. Aliens on the other hand, can just evolve and outfit themselves.
But this of course doesn't debalance things since marines have guns. But it's still balanced because aliens are strong and have abilities. This doesn't debalance things because....
The point is, the list goes on and on. NS happens to be one of the most balanced games out there. True, you might be mad that the marine killed you with a knife but that doesn't make it "OMG ****en BS!" If NS had been a retail game, I would have bought it immediatly. The consideration and thought that has gone into this game continues to leave me in awe and amazement. Wether most of the balancers were thought of or put in on accident, it amounts to a job well done. And they worked for what...two years?...for free!
Wow. Thanks. NS P3wns.
EDIT: This was one long game. To give you an idea, B33f left before we had really started attacking the maintenence hive. When B33f came back at least 30-45 minutes later, we were still bashing through the marine's homebase turrets.
Comments
The good thing about NS is that if even if a team has 1 hive/only main marine base left they can still make a strong recovery and win the game. Last game i played i was a alien and we hade the marines down to their main base. We charged the base and we destroyed everything and thaught we had won, but the marines where still spawning. Then suddenly 2 of the aliens left the game, and we discovered that they had one expansion left. But since two men left our attacks wherent as powerfull anymore, and we had to fall back. They could later regain their main base and in the end they won the map.
The morale of mine and Reigns stories: Never give up even if the the enemy have you pinned down to your last base/hive.
EDIT: This was one long game. To give you an idea, B33f left before we had really started attacking the maintenence hive. When B33f came back at least 30-45 minutes later, we were still bashing through the marine's homebase turrets.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
only? i went away for 1.5 hrs, came back and STILL was going on...about half an hr after that it ended <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
.....
The shotty is fine.
Its just that the FADE cannon is way too overpowered. And once the Aliens get FADES, its almost always all but hopless for the Marines to win. Even if they have a top-notch commander, work in perfect coordnation, and are all decent players, the Marines still face a uphill battle if Aliens get FADES.