How I "feel" about NS 2 so far
Monster`
Join Date: 2011-06-27 Member: 106616Members
Join Date: 2011-06-27 Member: 106616Members
Well, I've played a whole heap of NS2 lately (since build 179 really) and I'm absolutely loving it!
I think that the real core features of the game are sticking good, love the infestation req'd to build res, really love the new fade blink, awesome how both teams can have more than 1 commander, loves MACs and their funky talk.
There are a few things that (to me) are letting the game down, they aren't HUGE things, but they just don't seem to fit in to me. I only post this in the hopes that other players could provide their feedback on these items & (dis)agree with me. Hell, if it's the way everyone else wants it, who am I to say it's wrong!
<b>Aliens:</b>
Gorge - Cannot fit in vents!? lol, whether this just means map makes need to make vents larger or gorges need to be downsized I don't know. But I want my damn gorgie to sit in a vent and bile bomb!
Skulk - Why are the skulks so huge! They seem like mutated bulldogs from Resident Evil or something. A smaller, sleeker skulk would be much cooler.
Leap - I feel that leap at 1 hive is taking out alot of the "skill" the game could potentially require (or inspire). Maybe 1 out of every 10 skulks I have seen tries to ambush, the rest just leap right in and mash their teeth away!
Fade - I really love the who new blink / teleport thing going on, but I HATE it how the fade stops dead after blinking. I wish there was some momentum to get around more efficiently (and inspire better players to use uber energy management skills)
Crag - There is a button to "heal" but it doesn't seem to do anything?
Map - The commander and marines see WAY too much information on the map as it is (as in alien positions) perhaps this is why people aren't ambushing.
Fade (yeah, back to the fade) - Is crouch for fade planned? e.g. I like to swipe the resource tower and crouch behind it as the marines open fire on me for cover
Lerk - Can't see my gas clouds sometimes, not sure if it's working or not
Alien Commander - When moving around on the map from one hive location to another, it takes a while to "update" all the buildings / infestation. Is this just me or the server or what? (Same thing happens when I die and it teleports my view back to the hive, i get a "Connection Problems Detected" then after about 2 seconds it loads all the detail on the screen.)
<b>Marines:</b>
Marine - I want a crouch + jump!
ARC - Moving around is tough (sometimes my ARCs decide to jump off the map into heaven)
Armories - Should cost more - too easy to drop an armory to help a marine push / hold and it's VERY effective. idea: lerk gas on armory stops it from functioning?
Marine Commander - Dropping buildings / ammo / meds etc should always perform the same way regardless of what you have selected (select a marine and build a building and it drops instantly, select a MAC and build a building and it won't drop until the MAC arrives there). Sometimes nothing drops at all and people think it's bugged, but they just need to select marines again.
Scan - ARC seems to fire without scan / marine vision? Makes scan kinda underused (I guess it's nice for finding new hives and maybe if cloak comes in)
Arms Lab - is catalyst dropping going to cost personal res for the comm? If it is, I don't think it's ever going to be used because ARC / meds are more precious
Personal Res - Commander should be able to transfer his/her personal res into team resources if they choose to do so (epic strategy, anyone?)
Grenade Launcher - Doesn't always explode and show the explosion animation (sometimes I have no idea where my grenade detonate)
<b>General Gameplay Comments:</b>
Marines can deal with mass hydra / crag etc quite easily, aliens on the otherhand really struggle with turrets. Balance issue? not sure
I think that one of the greatest difficulties in taking surface hive is that the room is so damn dark, commander using scan should brighten it up momentarily to help marines see what the hell is going on in there
Hive sniping - Hives seem very vulnerable from LMG fire early on (i.e. when they are building). Maybe this is something for map makers to factor in, maybe not.
Have no idea how much more I need to burn how of infestation to get rid of it - indicator would be nice
Is bunnyhopping going to be introduced? It's nice to strive towards mastering something as useful as this in a game - maybe there could be an achievement lol
Personal res cap - put it in!
Alien commander doesn't seem to have much at their disposal in terms of spending loads of resources to improve the alien position. marines on the otherhand... turret spam anyone?
I'm sure there's more good stuff to be looked into, but that's enough from me
what do you guys/gals think?
I think that the real core features of the game are sticking good, love the infestation req'd to build res, really love the new fade blink, awesome how both teams can have more than 1 commander, loves MACs and their funky talk.
There are a few things that (to me) are letting the game down, they aren't HUGE things, but they just don't seem to fit in to me. I only post this in the hopes that other players could provide their feedback on these items & (dis)agree with me. Hell, if it's the way everyone else wants it, who am I to say it's wrong!
<b>Aliens:</b>
Gorge - Cannot fit in vents!? lol, whether this just means map makes need to make vents larger or gorges need to be downsized I don't know. But I want my damn gorgie to sit in a vent and bile bomb!
Skulk - Why are the skulks so huge! They seem like mutated bulldogs from Resident Evil or something. A smaller, sleeker skulk would be much cooler.
Leap - I feel that leap at 1 hive is taking out alot of the "skill" the game could potentially require (or inspire). Maybe 1 out of every 10 skulks I have seen tries to ambush, the rest just leap right in and mash their teeth away!
Fade - I really love the who new blink / teleport thing going on, but I HATE it how the fade stops dead after blinking. I wish there was some momentum to get around more efficiently (and inspire better players to use uber energy management skills)
Crag - There is a button to "heal" but it doesn't seem to do anything?
Map - The commander and marines see WAY too much information on the map as it is (as in alien positions) perhaps this is why people aren't ambushing.
Fade (yeah, back to the fade) - Is crouch for fade planned? e.g. I like to swipe the resource tower and crouch behind it as the marines open fire on me for cover
Lerk - Can't see my gas clouds sometimes, not sure if it's working or not
Alien Commander - When moving around on the map from one hive location to another, it takes a while to "update" all the buildings / infestation. Is this just me or the server or what? (Same thing happens when I die and it teleports my view back to the hive, i get a "Connection Problems Detected" then after about 2 seconds it loads all the detail on the screen.)
<b>Marines:</b>
Marine - I want a crouch + jump!
ARC - Moving around is tough (sometimes my ARCs decide to jump off the map into heaven)
Armories - Should cost more - too easy to drop an armory to help a marine push / hold and it's VERY effective. idea: lerk gas on armory stops it from functioning?
Marine Commander - Dropping buildings / ammo / meds etc should always perform the same way regardless of what you have selected (select a marine and build a building and it drops instantly, select a MAC and build a building and it won't drop until the MAC arrives there). Sometimes nothing drops at all and people think it's bugged, but they just need to select marines again.
Scan - ARC seems to fire without scan / marine vision? Makes scan kinda underused (I guess it's nice for finding new hives and maybe if cloak comes in)
Arms Lab - is catalyst dropping going to cost personal res for the comm? If it is, I don't think it's ever going to be used because ARC / meds are more precious
Personal Res - Commander should be able to transfer his/her personal res into team resources if they choose to do so (epic strategy, anyone?)
Grenade Launcher - Doesn't always explode and show the explosion animation (sometimes I have no idea where my grenade detonate)
<b>General Gameplay Comments:</b>
Marines can deal with mass hydra / crag etc quite easily, aliens on the otherhand really struggle with turrets. Balance issue? not sure
I think that one of the greatest difficulties in taking surface hive is that the room is so damn dark, commander using scan should brighten it up momentarily to help marines see what the hell is going on in there
Hive sniping - Hives seem very vulnerable from LMG fire early on (i.e. when they are building). Maybe this is something for map makers to factor in, maybe not.
Have no idea how much more I need to burn how of infestation to get rid of it - indicator would be nice
Is bunnyhopping going to be introduced? It's nice to strive towards mastering something as useful as this in a game - maybe there could be an achievement lol
Personal res cap - put it in!
Alien commander doesn't seem to have much at their disposal in terms of spending loads of resources to improve the alien position. marines on the otherhand... turret spam anyone?
I'm sure there's more good stuff to be looked into, but that's enough from me
what do you guys/gals think?
Comments
The fact that we see 14 player servers now is nice to, keep it up I want 32 player servers and huge maps like NS1 ;-)
I so far managed to win all games as alien commander, and 0/3 as marine commander, but I assume that's because there are more new functions there, and I just need to master them still. I see other commanders doing well so the balance should be ok.
There are some minor things that bother me:
- I liked the old minimap more, this one as a commander I don't seem to have much of an idea whats going on by just looking at the minimap. Granted I can recognize aliens & marines, but as for structures I have no idea whats placed where, if they are being attacked and where they are being attacked. We should at least be able to choose what our minimap looks like..
- Infestation doesn't always seem to (visibly work). It used to yes, but not anymore, sometimes I need to click a different building and then click again. Same actually goes for simple actions such as upgrading a whip..
- Sometimes my ARC or MAC goes under the cc, and can't get out anymore, or they get stuck behind something, same goes for the alien flying things.
- The ingame ping divers from the ping I see on the server screen, I have to do allot of join & disconnect because of that, kinda frustrating
- Still get black screen occasionally after load
- Still occasional sever crash, or fall trough the map, less then before tough
- Quite some lag when the map is being spammed with structures, sentry's, and ofc..hydra's
Lerk flight is out of control. I thought the handling for lerks in NS was spot on, they were agile. Right now they handle in flight like a onos with wings.
Aliens got a huge advantage cuz they can spawn way quicker than marines. I agree that spawn camping was an issue in NS with marines, so make it that aliens spawn from those all over the place eggs, but one at a time.
Also why why why can't gorges build RTs anymore? I don't see a reason to be a gorge at all without that ability. In fact I think the whole alien comm is a bad idea. NS was awesomely balanced ( and also didn't have both sides working the same way ) with no comm for aliens, so some people on the team had to be gorges to build chambers and RT's. Right now I think that's what causes the balance issue with marines always losing - simply too many leaping skulks around.
As a marine commander I also have had problems with not being able to drop meds or ammo, for no apparent reason. I had enough resources to do so.
A problem also is that marines do not have access to HMG vs Fades, which I think would be needed when theres more than one fade. ( I guess that's being worked on though, so no biggie )
Edit : I forgot one HUGE thing! Bunnyhopping!! How are you meant to play skulk without that? Makes skulk movement feel unnatural and sluggish to me. Also it affects fades and gorges imo, since you could move around the map so much faster having mastered that skill.
Those are the things that came to mind. I also had issues as marine commander to get enough resources, but I think it might've come down to the other team simply having better players.