A few questions before pre-ordering.
ShadowXOR
Join Date: 2002-11-27 Member: 10106Members
Join Date: 2002-11-27 Member: 10106Members
I'm about ready to plop down and pre-order but I have a few questions first, please point me to the answers:
1. Is the Alpha playable? As in is it remotely balanced with a decent feature set, or is it just for running around to check out the engine/assets then turn off?
2. Any write-up on the overall game mechanics? I loved NS 1.04 but hate where the game ended up. I felt they ruined a lot of the greatest aspects of the game with later ability/alien changes mainly.
3. Will it have the combat game mode? I sure hope not.
4. Any other info you can provide would be great. I don't mind dropping $20, but to drop $40, I really need to be convinced.
EDIT 1:
5. Do we have any rough idea when the final, polished version will come out? Just a ballpark, like Q4 2010, etc.?
EDIT 2: Wow, didn't realize how long ago I joined! I'll never forget my first day playing NS...
1. Is the Alpha playable? As in is it remotely balanced with a decent feature set, or is it just for running around to check out the engine/assets then turn off?
2. Any write-up on the overall game mechanics? I loved NS 1.04 but hate where the game ended up. I felt they ruined a lot of the greatest aspects of the game with later ability/alien changes mainly.
3. Will it have the combat game mode? I sure hope not.
4. Any other info you can provide would be great. I don't mind dropping $20, but to drop $40, I really need to be convinced.
EDIT 1:
5. Do we have any rough idea when the final, polished version will come out? Just a ballpark, like Q4 2010, etc.?
EDIT 2: Wow, didn't realize how long ago I joined! I'll never forget my first day playing NS...
Comments
2. All gameplay mechanics are subject to heavy tweaking, check the <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/index.php/Main_Page" target="_blank">wiki</a> for some general gameplay direction.
3. I echo that: I sure hope not
4. Don't get me started on extra "incentives" to buy SE... Do what you gotta do.
5. From this point, I'd say give or take 4 months.
#3, CO can be modded in
#5, none yet but I'd bet 4-6 months
It's also very confusing to me that a lot of people are wary about "dropping" $40. "Dropping" is usually reserved for a large amount of money, which $40 is most certainly not. Especially seeing as you've obviously played NS1 for free for years. Plus, $40 for a brand new game is a bargain. Buy the Special Edition and stop being a stooge :).
1. Is the Alpha playable? As in is it remotely balanced with a decent feature set, or is it just for running around to check out the engine/assets then turn off?
2. Any write-up on the overall game mechanics? I loved NS 1.04 but hate where the game ended up. I felt they ruined a lot of the greatest aspects of the game with later ability/alien changes mainly.
3. Will it have the combat game mode? I sure hope not.
4. Any other info you can provide would be great. I don't mind dropping $20, but to drop $40, I really need to be convinced.
EDIT 1:
5. Do we have any rough idea when the final, polished version will come out? Just a ballpark, like Q4 2010, etc.?
EDIT 2: Wow, didn't realize how long ago I joined! I'll never forget my first day playing NS...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
1) Playable. Of course, it's going to have it's bugs and what not. But I would say for the most part it's going to be balanced for what you get.
2) I don't know how to answer this question. I think NS is fine right now.
3) No, Combat mode won't even be made by UWE.
4) $40 gets you the Black Armored Marine, which can be seen on the front page. You also get Alpha access, so you get to play sooner than everyone else.
5) Fall 2009.
Joke or typo?
I for one hope the game play is flexible enough making comebacks very possible and pushing this time more around 40min to 1 hour...
Besides, we could always mod 1.04 back into the game. This time without the stalemate issues and bugs :P Time/dedication is the only issue here...
I don't know what part of the podcast you are referring to, but the aliens are not going to have "way less skills". The aliens will have plenty of abilities, some the same as NS1, some new. The alpha is not going to have all of the abilities yet, and there are still a lot of movement skill based abilities and tweaking that are going to be added as we go along, but the end result of the game should have some fully fleshed out aliens that are hopefully as fun to play or more so then NS1.
As far as rounds lasting 20 minutes, we are aiming for that as the average length. It doesn't mean there aren't still going to be longer games, and even some epic matches, but, do you really want a game where everytime you sit down to play you have to invest at least an hour into every round?
--Cory
As far as rounds lasting 20 minutes, we are aiming for that as the average length. It doesn't mean there aren't still going to be longer games, and even some epic matches, but, do you really want a game where everytime you sit down to play you have to invest at least an hour into every round?
--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks for the response. I could be confusing the info, it may have been the NS Wiki, but I recall 2-3 skills being removed per alien and only hearing of one new skill per, so it seemed the aliens were being stripped, perhaps the new info just isn't out there.
As for the round length, I kind of played NS to commit those long rounds, that's what makes it so epic. If I wanted a short game I would go play Counter-Strike or something. I hope you guys will strike the right balance.
All this talk of adding accessibility, and Flayra multiple times saying Natural Selection 1 was too complicated is serious cause for concern. I understand you say you're trying to preserve complexity but that seems to be the opposite of what Flayra described in the podcast.
I don't want Natural Selection 2 to pull a Bioshock/Deus Ex: Invisible War and seriously dumb down the game compared to the original.
Despite their questinable selling methods, they have solid interesting idea that needs a lot of tweaking to become something. Alpha version is most likely to cause more rage than fun but it itself might be a worthy memory, if you are type that prefers to play more finished product I recommend 20 dollar choice.
1. Is the Alpha playable? As in is it remotely balanced with a decent feature set, or is it just for running around to check out the engine/assets then turn off?
2. Any write-up on the overall game mechanics? I loved NS 1.04 but hate where the game ended up. I felt they ruined a lot of the greatest aspects of the game with later ability/alien changes mainly.
3. Will it have the combat game mode? I sure hope not.
4. Any other info you can provide would be great. I don't mind dropping $20, but to drop $40, I really need to be convinced.
EDIT 1:
5. Do we have any rough idea when the final, polished version will come out? Just a ballpark, like Q4 2010, etc.?
EDIT 2: Wow, didn't realize how long ago I joined! I'll never forget my first day playing NS...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
1. An alpha is a feature incomplete testing phase. Beta is a feature complete testing phase, and where balancing and tuning will really start to take precedence. If you are expecting to buy the SE and play a feature complete balanced game, you'd be mistaken. Imagine playing chess without kings, knights and bishops, and pawns have a bug where they can move off the board eat your bacon.
2. There are several write ups detailing some of the game mechanics. Take some time and read through the list of main page blog posts or sift through the forums here.
3. If you don't like combat, don't play combat. Asking for it not to be included is like asking for grocery stores to have less selection, it's absurd. Sure you may not like crunchy peanut-butter, but I'll be damned if I let you take it off the shelf.
4. Unless you are a student or unemployed $40 is almost nothing compared to the amount of return you'll get from the game. Consider that you even play the game for 10 hours. A lot of single player games yield this kind of length these days, most multiplayer games I get into provide ten times that before I get bored. Fast food and a cheap movie will cost about $20 and a good meal in a nicer restaurant and a new hit movie will cost more than $40. If anything they should be asking for much more considering how much entertainment you'll get out of it.
5. When it's ready. Impatience gets you nowhere and leaves you frustrated.
I'm sure it's more or less playable, but maybe the most fun will come from weird stuff that is going to happen and so you might miss out on the creation of any memes, looks like you've been around for the start of NS1, so if you liked that I can't possible imagine why you would want to miss out on the NS2 Alpha.
Just remember that 60$ buys a new EA game ("It's in the game .... you bought last year" ~Penny Arcade), which is basically beta on release and never gets improvement :P.
So I guess if you have any EA games in your home, you should just miss out on any random yearly game sequel EA is publishing and instead get yourself NS2 SE and have another 20 bucks left to spend on some beer and I promise you, that you are going to have an awesome week (at least) with Alpha and Beer :)
I hope that's convincing enough !
Ofcourse if you just hated the NS1 starting phase and are more for the playing part than the social stuff and meme stuff and the whole "be part of it" you should preorder for 20$ and use the 40$ to ... drink until the beta comes around, but until then you'll get owned by hardcore alpha trained people like Renegade (with black armor, just kidding @ Renegade )
EDIT: Also think of it as potentially more than one game, there are going to be mods for sure (and I don't mean uncreative stuff like combat), the mod support from UWE is great and additionally the community is also great at modding (just look at the mods for engine test, its just mind blowing imho, what they did from basically nothing !)