The 'inbalance' Issue

TzarconTzarcon Join Date: 2002-02-28 Member: 259Members
<div class="IPBDescription">This is it, I've had enough</div> Every day the majority of the topics I see in these forums are about "Aliens are overpowered!" A few minutes later I see a "Marines are overpowered!" "Aliens are too strong!" "Game is unbalanced, marines always win!". I think it's time that this is clarified

The game is not unbalanced. This game was playtested for MONTHS. The only reason people are having trouble at this point is because the game has only been out for <b>11 days</b>. When the game has been out longer, for say a month/2 months, The unbalances will stop. People do not yet know the game well, once people have played the game more, then they will get better, and play it properly, like it was meant to be played.

I have seen alot of people say things like "Its unfair, the playtesters know the game inside and out, but we dont, so for us it's unbalanced!"

This may be temporarily true, but the game wasn't designed specifically for when it came out. It was designed for when people will actually know the game, like the playtesters do. Notice that the unbalances arn't biased for one side, sometimes aliens win alot, sometimes marines win alot, depending on whos playing on what team.

(Note: I think a topic similar to this should be stickied)
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Comments

  • sTo0zsTo0z Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8275Members
    What's to know? You can't do much. Everyone picks up the grenade launcher or the rocket alien and all strategy elements are gone.
  • wackowacko Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8283Members
    I would have to agree with stooz. This mod does have some issue that really stem around the over all gameplay. I mean there is a pretty big list.... I will say that the overall implementation of both races were done well, but i will say that often times it becomes one sided really easy. For example. The aliens at the beg of the map just all rush the Command center and kick the crap out of it. Well then the marines are screwed and we have a one sided match. But then you could say if the marines upgraded real fast they are unstoppable. So i mean these are issues that i think the team needs to address as well as fixing some of the minro issues with the minimaps.
  • BronskiBronski Join Date: 2002-10-29 Member: 1702Members
    *applauds Tzarcon*

    I agree.
  • DanDaManDanDaMan Join Date: 2002-03-19 Member: 335Members
    the most skill comes in the early elements of the game, before the aliens have 2 hivse. This is where marines are mostly under equiped, the skulks don't have heal chambers around every corner, and the game can go either way. Usually I can wrack up around 10 kills in this period, on either team. As marines you just make sure you have a 5 meter space before aliens can get to you (and look up). As a skulk you gotta find one good room with high dark ceiligns and drop down on any marines.
  • BridgerBridger Join Date: 2002-10-30 Member: 1761Members
    skulk rush is easy enough to stop if you have some decent marine members. Usually you can get up an IP and part of a turret factory/armory before the skulks hit, and they have a trademark sound. Have 2 people build and the rest stand gaurd watching the entrance, the instant somebody hears an alien they all turn to face the threat and any alien that walks through a door with 5 LMGs pointed at him is a dead alien.

    I've seen the skulk rush work against teams who run off on their own in the begining, but not against a team who simply stays put and defends themself for 60 **obscenity** seconds.
  • DanDaManDanDaMan Join Date: 2002-03-19 Member: 335Members
    I find the secondary skulk rush is really effective too. After the first skulks have caused some damaged so not all of the marines are alive, and the rest think they're safe. They start on a turret fac and mayb e afew sentries. Just leap in, rip out the throats of the marines and chomp on the factory. Hopefully by the time you kill it, you have some backup to help take out the respawning marines, and then you've won the game in the first 5 minutes.
  • ShadowicsShadowics Join Date: 2002-11-07 Member: 7652Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--sTo0z+Nov 12 2002, 09:14 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (sTo0z @ Nov 12 2002, 09:14 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What's to know?  You can't do much.  Everyone picks up the grenade launcher or the rocket alien and all strategy elements are gone.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    I think you're the kind of person he was talking about. This game requires more strategy and teamwork then anyother game I've ever played, easy, mid, and end game. Sometimes you only have 1 hive and they're attacking with GLs, sometimes they expanded quickly and all you can do is Shotgun their Onos. Strategy is especially important for Gorges and the Commander, you don't always have GLs and Fades, sometimes not ever in a game.

    From my point of view the game is balanced quite well, I alternated teams all evening and won maybe 60% of the time, some games lasted nearly forever, going back and forth. Things will get better as soon as people get better, learn to follow comm's orders, learn to only have 2 gorges, etc...
  • MoleculorMoleculor Namer-of-Bob Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 9Members
    Well, the whole 'problem' with turning around a losing game will go away when people find out the tactics for turning around a losing game.
  • wackowacko Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8283Members
    There again your assuming that you have a good team. Tzar brought up a good point, a common thing i see when on a server is " how the hell do i work this thing" or "give me ammo and health" and nothing comes. I think the major issue that makes the marines some what week is that they are like almost 100% reliing on the commander. I don't know if thats the greatest thing. If you have some guy in there that has no clue what he is doing then your not going to have a good team.
  • DanDaManDanDaMan Join Date: 2002-03-19 Member: 335Members
    it might be useful to setup a commander rating system that servers could use. Like CS servers often keep track of kills etc. Keep track of how many wins someone has as a commander on that server, or % of games won. That way players can choose to let the good commanders in.
  • Rico1Rico1 NS Oldtimer Join Date: 2002-05-24 Member: 664Members
    edited November 2002
    Hah, typical remark someone who knows nothing of NS would make.

    If youre a good commander, you KNOW for a fact that a marine with GL and HA is absolutely useless unless he has

    A) A backup marine he can trust with an HMG.
    B) An enemy base to attack (GLs are useless against aliens since they can close up on you fast)
    C) a good commander who promotes teamwork

    Have you ever tried taking out a skulk coming straight at you with a GL and HA? yeah... i thought so.

    The strategy isnt only on the marine side. The aliens have plenty of decisions to make. To rush, to stay back and fortify their hive or to go all out and grab as many nodes as they can. It all depends on the alien team and how good a team they make. People say HMG is too powerul, but i dont see any aliens saying "Omg fades are too good theire unbalanced! and how about those onos, maybe they should tweak their health down just a bit"

    Same goes for people who whine about the aliens, the point is, any team can seem unbalanced if it has good players and a good strategy. The whole point of the mod is to make people actually have to think a little bit before they beat their enemy. Going out and just killing people? Sure you can do it, but as long as it helps the team. If it doesnt, youre about as useful as a babbler sent out in hopes of anihilating the entire enemy team with it. Its just not gonna happen...

    Unbalanced? maybe, perhaps in the long run we can tell, but to me, it seems as balanced as it gets. I have yet to lose a single marine game where im commanding. Coincidence? who knows...
  • wackowacko Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8283Members
    That or make them less dependant on the commander. I mean i think its lame to have the commander have to give you the weapons. Why not be able to get them from the armory or something. I mean woulod have it taken that much longer to implement that?
  • NubiNubi Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8026Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What's to know? You can't do much. Everyone picks up the grenade launcher or the rocket alien and all strategy elements are gone. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I disagree, I hate the grenade launcher, gimme a HMG any day

    But I do agree about Fades being over powered (rocket aliens)

    Claws, Acid Rocket, Bile Bomb, and Teleport all in one tidy pack, and for only 44 resources/2 hives! Not a bad deal....

    But I still enjoy Leerks just because they can fly and that, to me, is one of the coolest things in the game (another thing is Skulks wall climbing)
  • DSYStaufDSYStauf Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4429Members
    Tzarcon, the major flaw with your logic is that the game has recieved a patch that changed a variety of factors. I'm not going to say whether it was unbalanced before, if it's unbalanced now, or anything like that, but...

    Because of the patch:

    If it was balanced before, it's unbalanced now.
    If it is balanced now, then it was unbalanced before.

    The fact is, you can't say that it has always been balanced, unless of course making some fundemental changes to the game doesn't have <b>any</b> affect on it <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--> ...
  • The_Naked_GunnerThe_Naked_Gunner Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8279Members
    I notice no inbalance in NS and i have been playing since day one.




    GOD, I LOVE THIS GAME!!!
  • wackowacko Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8283Members
    I will also say the flaw with tzar's logic is that sadly... MODS make of break in the first week or so. Many mods today just get installed played for awhile and if its good in that short amount of time, they go gold, but if they are not people can them. So i would say the issue has to be addressed within this short amount of time. Its the same way with many retail games, as a marketing guru myself, i can say that if the game does not sell well in the first month the game will most likely not sell well after that. Unless there is some economic change that greatly pushes for the title in the future. the point is the players are not going to want to wait 2 months, they want to play the game now and now is the time for the issues should be adressed.
  • NubiNubi Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8026Members
    Well, Wacko, not sure how you meant that post to be interpreted but here's my take:

    Marines HAVE to rely on their commander, he's the Core of their game

    Let's face it, with no body part doing more damage then the other, you waste a LOT of ammo, then, if you're in the heat of battle, there's gotta be someone there to provide that ammo

    so until we get Field medics (if we ever do) and Mules (not the donkey type...peeps who lug around ammo) the Marines will always have to rely on the commander

    Bad commander - Bad team
  • wackowacko Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8283Members
    I am just saying we cannot wait 2 months to see if the unbalnced issue goes away, the team needs to atleast fix some of the major ones.

    On your topic of the commander, the issue with that is I think its bad to rely on the commander 100%, it takes away from a lot of things. Most often we see bad commanders and thus we have issue, or we see player who sit there and say "GIVE ME GUN" about 1000 times, because the commander has so much other stuff to do. i think it woudl be wise to take off some of the burden on the commander and put it on the player.
  • EflfKEflfK Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6868Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Tzarcon+Nov 12 2002, 09:12 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Tzarcon @ Nov 12 2002, 09:12 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Every day the majority of the topics I see in these forums are about "Aliens are overpowered!" A few minutes later I see a "Marines are overpowered!" "Aliens are too strong!" "Game is unbalanced, marines always win!". I think it's time that this is clarified

    The game is not unbalanced. This game was playtested for MONTHS. The only reason people are having trouble at this point is because the game has only been out for <b>11 days</b>. When the game has been out longer, for say a month/2 months, The unbalances will stop. People do not yet know the game well, once people have played the game more, then they will get better, and play it properly, like it was meant to be played.

    I have seen alot of people say things like "Its unfair, the playtesters know the game inside and out, but we dont, so for us it's unbalanced!"

    This may be temporarily true, but the game wasn't designed specifically for when it came out. It was designed for when people will actually know the game, like the playtesters do. Notice that the unbalances arn't biased for one side, sometimes aliens win alot, sometimes marines win alot, depending on whos playing on what team.

    (Note: I think a topic similar to this should be stickied)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    OK so they recently balanced the game because it was even? I could have sworn one of the fixes said "balance issues". The game is not perfect. The fact is that the majority of the time.....basically all the time marines won before the patch. Now when I play the game the aliens seem to always win, granted they have even a little team work. At least this means the teams wont be stacked all the time. The last patch really idd balance the gmae out more. I'm seeing a lot less spamming of the aliens by 3 times as many marines. The one thing that may need a fix is umbra. One lerk can take out a whole base of turrets which really isn't right. The only problem here is that the turret factory controls them all. maybe there should be a rule like only 2 turrets can be run after the factory dies or so on. I played as aliens for the majority of the time even before the patch and still enjoy it more. Again if you think the game does not need balance and it is perfect in its current condition go read the main page and explain to me what all those fixes like increased cost on guns and armor are as well as lowered round capacity of grenade launcher.
  • Rico1Rico1 NS Oldtimer Join Date: 2002-05-24 Member: 664Members
    Odd... i seem to recall winning lots of games as a commander even though i had to do all these things that "burden" the commander.

    In fact, the only hard thing about being a commander is getting you marines to follow your orders and being able to help them as much as you can.

    Commanders bad? If theire so bad how come ive had a team full of marines cheering me on when some wise guy asks for an HMG 5 mins into the game, i tell him no and he tries to kick me out of the chair.

    Most of you newer members may not know this, but NS spent about a year of its development in Playtesting.... i think they know what theire doing.

    As for the last patch, i believe the only thing that unbalanced it was the resource bug and perhaps the lag a little bit. Otherwise, i think the dev team just answered to the cries of the general public to make them happy...

    Keep on doing that and you get a weapons mod with marines and aliens deathmatching.
  • Bicycle_Repair_ManBicycle_Repair_Man Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7926Members
    Onoses have alot of health because....well just look at them. They are huge
  • True_BelieverTrue_Believer Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 8074Members
    im so with you man. the game isnt unbalanced. its quite nice. maybe a few tweaks here and there with minor things but COME ON! i think the one problem with all the people complaining is that they dont know how to work as a TEAM! TEAMWORK PEOPLE! TEAMWORK! YOU CANT COOPERATE WITH YOUR TEAMMATES SO YOU BLAME THE DEV TEAM! "OMFG THE ALIENS ARE TOO STRONG" "WTF THE MARINES ARE INVINCIBLE!"

    bottom line: TEAMWORK SOLVES EVERYTHING!
  • Da_SargeDa_Sarge Old School Suck Join Date: 2002-10-15 Member: 1502Members
    I think the game is plenty balanced. Here is my view on it.

    HMG-Fade's Bile Bomb/Onos
    GL-Spore Cloud(I think spore cloud deadliest attack in game, towards players that is)/Onos
    HA-Onos
    Siege Cannon-...nothing directly but....Onos

    Plus the fact aliens get all sorts of benefits, like not needing to wait for someone else to drop a building, or doing all sorts of sneaky stuff, like totally dissapering then rippin your head off. And marines get a commander, who if is good enough, is a great benefit. Plus all sorts of other things. So, in the end, I think this game is plenty balanced, we just gotta pick up on the strong and weak points on each team first.
  • MercenaryForHireMercenaryForHire Join Date: 2002-10-03 Member: 1410Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Bicycle Repair Man+Nov 12 2002, 10:07 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Bicycle Repair Man @ Nov 12 2002, 10:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Onoses have alot of health because....well just look at them. They are huge<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Don't tempt the n00bs ... we'll see an "I want an elephant gun" thread in requests in about two seconds. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->

    - M4H
  • ForlornForlorn Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 2634Banned
    This game is balenced.
  • StoneburgStoneburg Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8174Members
    It was "tweaked" a bit, no major changes.

    Unless you mean the resource thing, which wasn't ment to be exploited by admins and messed up the first version.

    I find the game to be very balanced, and very true to it's intention. The key is teamwork. The aliens can get away with having a couple of deathmatchers on their team, since it fits into their strategy, but the marines need teamwork from everyone to win, that's the difference.

    Right now people aren't playing as a team enough, and that is why the aliens (who are less reliant on this) win a bit more. Aliens just need a couple of players with some teamplay or strategy brain cells to be ok, marines need more. Once the deathmatchers get tired of NS and go back to CS/Quake/Whatever NS will probably take on a new level of play, after THAT has happened we can discuss balance issues <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • BattousaixBattousaix Join Date: 2002-06-25 Member: 822Members
    lol i remember one game at nothing, many pts will laugh about this.
    We where aliens in a nothing game, we had powersilo and viaduct, marines early rushed cargo bay and took it, we where trying to advance trought the middle of the map when we see that the marines are sieging viaduct hive, we all try to save it but we get pretty much screwed by the ha´s, then theiggsta says over voicecomm: Damn, we are screwed, its all over....... WE LOST!!!.Then we all say stuff like: hey, be possitive, we will win and stuff like that, after a hard time fighting viaduct, i just get killed and i see a little gorge building a huge base behind their defending base at viaduct, so i go skulk and i help the gorge, cleaning everything up from marine spawn to cargo bay, then we all massivelly assaulted cargobay. Marines where using a lot phase gates so they never noticed the base the little gorge had built in the way <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->, after we took cargo bay we easily took care of viaduct defenses, then we where all laughing at iggsta because he sayed we had already lost when we all hear: THE HIVE IS UNDERATTACK!! THE HIVE IS DYING, then Sentrysteve yells: damn, we got a siege, gogogo, after a really hardcore battle (like 10 mins atleast) we took the siege off and rebuilt powersilo base, then i bugged the elev (mwhaahahah) so they couldnt bother us trought power silo anymore unless they attacked trought a whole wall of offensive towers and lotsa stuff =). After like 10 mins of constantly assaulting marines outposts till we got them cornered we all morphed into onos, and i mean ALL (we where like 7 onos atleast) we all rushed in at the same time, and destroyed the base. then we where all having fun when we notice that the game hasnt finished.... there where like 2 marines left around somewhere. One of them was hiding with a jetpack in the elev i bugged, he was with his shotgun all confident flying around having fun when i paralize him, he fell to the ground and broke all his bones, damn that was funny as hell. After like 10 secs another onos kills the last marine. This game is seriously balanced if you know how to play it, you can be dying and then getting close to the win when something you never expected happens and you get totally surprised. After that game we played a long nancy game and marines won (they totally destroyed us......) so this game is pretty much balanced the problem is that we dont know how we should play it, so we just complain about the balancing issues, but, there arent any........
  • DSYStaufDSYStauf Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4429Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Stoneburg+Nov 12 2002, 03:45 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Stoneburg @ Nov 12 2002, 03:45 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Once the deathmatchers get tired of NS and go back to CS/Quake/Whatever NS will probably take on a new level of play, after THAT has happened we can discuss balance issues <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--><!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Alright, I guess this conversation is over. Please tell me when all of them have left, thanks <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • LazerusLazerus Join Date: 2002-11-12 Member: 8299Members
    I have played ALOT of RTS games in my time.. since the original Dune game.. And this whole imbalance argument is so typical of these games... well most games have people whining about imbalances, but especially RTS games.. And myself have had alot of experience with balancing RTS games (and games in general)..

    Basically, no games of this nature are 100% balanced. SO just stop your moaning, and enjoy the game.. all this bitching will just cause the designers to keep messing witht the balance, and eventually the game will suck.. Usually when a game is too balanced, it gets boring.. On the flip side when games are too unbalanced, they can just be anoying.. so far NS seems pretty balanced.. to me..

    But from what I can tell.. if you arent a team player, you should play as an alien, and marines really need a good commander and need to follow orders, and work together. (ie. humans need to evolve or else they will be destroyed...) isnt this the whole premise behind the game?

    Just have fun, and keep the posts positive people.. you have a great game here .. enjoy it..

    and If you have an idea that you think could make the game better, share it.. instead of just being negative and inconstructive...

    later,
    LAZ
  • coilcoil Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    The patch improved server performance and fixed the resource bugs. As for the balance issues it addressed -- Flayra made those changes after watching a few very talented clan matches, which led him to believe that a marine team that works effectively together (as is to be expected in a good clan match) will overpower an equally effective alien team.

    Note: that's not saying a good team of marines will beat an average alien team; it's saying that in a match of two equally skilled teams, the marines will win. Therefore, some elements were tweaked in the aliens' favor. This kind of thing could not be seen in playtest because as talented as we are, we're not pro clanners. (:

    Tzarcon is completely correct in his statement. Oh, and if you want to suit up an entire team of marines with HA and GLs... please, be my guest. Just make sure I'm an alien when you do it, meatpop.
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