My first impressions and thoughts (noob here)
The-Fish
Join Date: 2011-06-14 Member: 104292Members
Join Date: 2011-06-14 Member: 104292Members
This post is meant to be a bit of constructive criticism based on my first couple of hours playing on both marines and aliens.
First off, hats off to the team for developing such an awesome game. Its really a thrill ride and I believe that this blending of genres is the future of pc gaming.
Ive been a pc shooter gamer since dark forces, and i played ns1 amongst many other hl1 mods.
The atmosphere of the game is excellent. the creepy close quarters maps really help out with this, but I am feeling that the game is lacking either some music or ambience when it comes to the sound. I would also say that as a noob I had trouble listening to figure out what was going on. there didnt seem to be a ton of footsteps or electrical noises or even a good burning sound for the flamethrower. the gunshots were pretty generic.
Speaking of gunshots, I found the rifle to be a boring gun. I think what could help this out would be upgrades - a couple points here or there for an extended magazine or hollow tipped shells or maybe a scope, for engaging at a distance. these could be bought peicemeal or maybe as upgrades for the whole team. I know its kind of a staple weapon but adding some flavor couldn't hurt.
That leads me into the combat aspect, which in itself felt almost just like NS1. I believe that the real advantage the marines are supposed to have is in engaging at a distance, which, due to the map design is mostly impossible. That is fair enough, but even so, at a distance the rifle gets so innacurate its worthless to try to engage, you will just waste ammo. Aliens will try to get close before attacking to gain an advantage, but it seemed like most fights just ended up at melee range, running in circles around each other, and shooting/biting almost randomly. Heres how I would change this- Give aliens the ability to lock on at close range, so they can kill their enemies more efficiently, but the challenge should be in getting multiple kills, i.e. you are slowed for a sec after making a kill or something, or are vulnerable for a split second while you are tearing out that poor marines throat. To counter balance, marines would get a concussive grenade or two which would slow down enemies (alternatively, flashbangs) and perhaps an option to purchase heavy armor which would slow you down, but provide a ton of hp. more accurate rifles could come in the form of the ability to aim down the site, or a CS style recoil system. The object would be to make fighting more opportunistic and skill based, rather than random death tango dancing.
As a side note, Maybe I am a bad marine but I played as a fade and against several and I feel they are a bit OP. just make them able to blink less often and that is fixed IMO.
I attempted to play as a gorge, but even having been my favorite "class" from NS1, I couldnt figure out what the heck to do. some more detailed info is needed for the noobies out there.
the infestation stuff is like spray paint and needs to be animated better. its function and how it is spread is unclear to a noobie like me.
I also feel that you will need to have some variety in the maps if you want the game to stay fresh for the add types. the room-hallway-room cave concept is nice and creepy, but leaves something to be desired and can leave one feeling clausterphobic (I know that is the idea, but stay with me) This is a wild idea, but I think as a shooter, there needs to be more emphasis on shooting stuff, at a distance. A little more open mappage (outdoors plz - they can all be nighttime levels) could be really cool. you won't know until you try.
You may have stopped reading by now, but my final crazy thought was that there should be a ranged class for the aliens. I'm thinking hyralisk or maybe some kind of diemetradon that shoots spike or barfs on people. just an idea.
That is all, and please don't take this the wrong way - its meant to be constructive. I had a blast playing so far and I'll be back for more soon. look for me ingame
The Fish
First off, hats off to the team for developing such an awesome game. Its really a thrill ride and I believe that this blending of genres is the future of pc gaming.
Ive been a pc shooter gamer since dark forces, and i played ns1 amongst many other hl1 mods.
The atmosphere of the game is excellent. the creepy close quarters maps really help out with this, but I am feeling that the game is lacking either some music or ambience when it comes to the sound. I would also say that as a noob I had trouble listening to figure out what was going on. there didnt seem to be a ton of footsteps or electrical noises or even a good burning sound for the flamethrower. the gunshots were pretty generic.
Speaking of gunshots, I found the rifle to be a boring gun. I think what could help this out would be upgrades - a couple points here or there for an extended magazine or hollow tipped shells or maybe a scope, for engaging at a distance. these could be bought peicemeal or maybe as upgrades for the whole team. I know its kind of a staple weapon but adding some flavor couldn't hurt.
That leads me into the combat aspect, which in itself felt almost just like NS1. I believe that the real advantage the marines are supposed to have is in engaging at a distance, which, due to the map design is mostly impossible. That is fair enough, but even so, at a distance the rifle gets so innacurate its worthless to try to engage, you will just waste ammo. Aliens will try to get close before attacking to gain an advantage, but it seemed like most fights just ended up at melee range, running in circles around each other, and shooting/biting almost randomly. Heres how I would change this- Give aliens the ability to lock on at close range, so they can kill their enemies more efficiently, but the challenge should be in getting multiple kills, i.e. you are slowed for a sec after making a kill or something, or are vulnerable for a split second while you are tearing out that poor marines throat. To counter balance, marines would get a concussive grenade or two which would slow down enemies (alternatively, flashbangs) and perhaps an option to purchase heavy armor which would slow you down, but provide a ton of hp. more accurate rifles could come in the form of the ability to aim down the site, or a CS style recoil system. The object would be to make fighting more opportunistic and skill based, rather than random death tango dancing.
As a side note, Maybe I am a bad marine but I played as a fade and against several and I feel they are a bit OP. just make them able to blink less often and that is fixed IMO.
I attempted to play as a gorge, but even having been my favorite "class" from NS1, I couldnt figure out what the heck to do. some more detailed info is needed for the noobies out there.
the infestation stuff is like spray paint and needs to be animated better. its function and how it is spread is unclear to a noobie like me.
I also feel that you will need to have some variety in the maps if you want the game to stay fresh for the add types. the room-hallway-room cave concept is nice and creepy, but leaves something to be desired and can leave one feeling clausterphobic (I know that is the idea, but stay with me) This is a wild idea, but I think as a shooter, there needs to be more emphasis on shooting stuff, at a distance. A little more open mappage (outdoors plz - they can all be nighttime levels) could be really cool. you won't know until you try.
You may have stopped reading by now, but my final crazy thought was that there should be a ranged class for the aliens. I'm thinking hyralisk or maybe some kind of diemetradon that shoots spike or barfs on people. just an idea.
That is all, and please don't take this the wrong way - its meant to be constructive. I had a blast playing so far and I'll be back for more soon. look for me ingame
The Fish
Comments
The rifle is almost perfectly accurate, if you're missing either you're shooting at a lerk which I think has some sort of hit registration issues or a really weird hitbox, or you're not aiming at the thing you're shooting at. It does a lot of damage, you can kill a skulk in under half a clip at any range if you hit them perfectly.
It could use some upgrades though, especially for the late game as its effectiveness diminishes, so some late game addons to bring it up to scratch would be nice.
Fades are OP, don't worry about it, it'll get fixed eventually. Until then just play aliens or try to enjoy the game before fades turn up.
Lerks are the alien ranged class, they shoot spikes of two varieties and can fire gas bombs, they also fly.
The key to success as marines is fire control, if you aim carefully you will generally win. As aliens your key to success is generally not letting marines shoot at you, by hiding, drawing them to you, picking when you attack, attacking from odd directions, all that jazz.
Welcome to the forums Fish
Yeah that is true, it is much more effective if you aim each bite instead of biting randomly. If you do bite randomly you can miss the times when you actually have your aim on them.
The only problem with properly aiming it is the lag, it is quite hard to aim it properly if your fps isn't up to scratch.
Lock-on ability for aliens would take away the need for any skill.
I agree with many of your points, especially removing the random/tango-dancing from close up combat.
Before you get anymore "great" ideas, please revisit the issues after the game's networking performance doesn't suck. I have a feeling things will be a lot different once marines actually hit what they're aiming at.
But I agree. Right now the guy that wins in a tango is he who jumps the most and has the best FPS. It shouldn't be that way.
I definitely support this. It's a suggestion that balances out an awkward part of the game by applying the exact downsides that common sense says such actions would normally have.
I assume stamina would also be tied to running, so that bunny-hopping to safety wouldn't be an efficient choice.
To clarify - our networking is fine, it's just server CPU usage which is the problem.
that is good to know. however, i too would like to see how things play out when the gameplay is smooth before big changes and tweaks to the gameplay happen. as of now i find the close quarter situations pretty fun. they are intense. the only frustration comes from the choppy play. i played for a number of hours the other day and had a blast. finished multiple games with no crashes and some real tough competition. i can only imagine how the game will feel when it performs like it should. great job so far!
I believe the dev order is most efficiently comprised as "Insert All Mechanics--->Insert All Models----> Optimize Game"
That way you don't have to re-optimize performance for an old part at a later date due to some new change.
It's not what's happening or it's not the most efficient?
I have absolutely no authority to say how the Devs are planning their content, but I do think it's logical to (theoretically) optimize at the end of you want to minimize effort.
I have absolutely no authority to say how the Devs are planning their content, but I do think it's logical to (theoretically) optimize at the end of you want to minimize effort.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, but how much fun is it for us who paid to play a beta? At least a functional one.
I too think that optimization is a continuous thing that is only going to improve. Also, I dont think it relates to UWE's networking at all. The hitches in the game is due to either FPS drops (which are being improved) or server cpu dips.
I like that! We should start calling eachothers for numbers on the forums instead.... I should atleast know mine.
I have absolutely no authority to say how the Devs are planning their content, but I do think it's logical to (theoretically) optimize at the end of you want to minimize effort.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
i believe the devs have stated at one point that they are always focusing on optimization, which is really smart because you can't know how your game mechanics work when the game doesn't perform well. for example, melee could have an advantage over rifles because the game is too choppy which makes it hard to aim. this would seem like the alien team is too overpowered when in reality it could just be due to optimization issues. this may not be true, it's just an example, but it illustrates the point i'm trying to make. sure it would be cool to take all of the optimization in one final step, but that would be a ton of work at the end and wouldn't allow for good testing throughout the process. but i'm no genius here. uwe knows what they are doing. this game is high quality at its core. it's amazing from such a small team and even for some much larger teams.