I guess you already know this - noob impressions
SmellyTerror
Join Date: 2011-08-22 Member: 118027Members
Join Date: 2011-08-22 Member: 118027Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Playing for the first time</div>I love the game. It's cool. I don't mind the steep learning curve - everyone is helpful and I take orders. Overall I'm really positive about how the game is shaping up - it's atmospheric, it's exciting, it's fun. But since "yay" isn't helpful, here's my ignorant criticism as a brand-new player.
1. Do my weapons do anything at all to the Fades (the big guys that teleport and have scyth arms - those are Fades, right?)? We've had three people basically unloading our rifles into the thing, well late in the game where I assume our commander (experienced) had upgraded everything, and it's just casually strolled around tearing everyone apart. Not just that game, either - game after game I can't see that anything but the flamer does a thing to those guys. I almost never see one die, even in a 1v3 situation, and they often have something like 40-5 kill-death ratios.
The teleport is cool. The damage they do is... a little over the top (two or three hits to kill? bit much). But the massive unkillability of the things is just nuts. So far in almost every game I've played, the humans have won early or not at all. I just played a game where the human comm just placed millions of turrets around. Boring as hell, but honestly, I can't blame him. Even with half a dozen turrets and three guys, we often had a Fade jump in, kill everyone, and leave. By the time we had a dozen or more we could make them leave before we were all dead (we only killed one occasionally) but I felt that my role was basically to run around and wait for the turrets to do something.
<b>My weapon apparently does nothing to Fades.</b>
It's demoralising.
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2. Honestly, everyone's jumping around like crazy. Humans and aliens. It works as a strategy - it's hard to hit people, and you can clearly see which people are experienced because they're bouncing off the walls, but it looks <b>really dumb</b>. What's the point of awesome atmoshpere and great graphics and dark moody maps and scary aliens and all of that if the effect is messed up by everyone acting like the energiser bunny?
I could live with it, but it really stood out to me.
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3. Please please could there be a way (or if there is a way, then a more obvious way) for people in an otherwise empty server to build from the comm positions? I'd really like to just take a look at how it all works without people swearing at me, but it seems that if you're the only person on the server you can't build.
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Everything else I've got is for bug reports, but I just wanted to put that out there. I gather lots (most?) people playing right now are old NS fans, so I wanted to just give first impressions from someone who was coming into the game cold.
1. Do my weapons do anything at all to the Fades (the big guys that teleport and have scyth arms - those are Fades, right?)? We've had three people basically unloading our rifles into the thing, well late in the game where I assume our commander (experienced) had upgraded everything, and it's just casually strolled around tearing everyone apart. Not just that game, either - game after game I can't see that anything but the flamer does a thing to those guys. I almost never see one die, even in a 1v3 situation, and they often have something like 40-5 kill-death ratios.
The teleport is cool. The damage they do is... a little over the top (two or three hits to kill? bit much). But the massive unkillability of the things is just nuts. So far in almost every game I've played, the humans have won early or not at all. I just played a game where the human comm just placed millions of turrets around. Boring as hell, but honestly, I can't blame him. Even with half a dozen turrets and three guys, we often had a Fade jump in, kill everyone, and leave. By the time we had a dozen or more we could make them leave before we were all dead (we only killed one occasionally) but I felt that my role was basically to run around and wait for the turrets to do something.
<b>My weapon apparently does nothing to Fades.</b>
It's demoralising.
--
2. Honestly, everyone's jumping around like crazy. Humans and aliens. It works as a strategy - it's hard to hit people, and you can clearly see which people are experienced because they're bouncing off the walls, but it looks <b>really dumb</b>. What's the point of awesome atmoshpere and great graphics and dark moody maps and scary aliens and all of that if the effect is messed up by everyone acting like the energiser bunny?
I could live with it, but it really stood out to me.
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3. Please please could there be a way (or if there is a way, then a more obvious way) for people in an otherwise empty server to build from the comm positions? I'd really like to just take a look at how it all works without people swearing at me, but it seems that if you're the only person on the server you can't build.
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Everything else I've got is for bug reports, but I just wanted to put that out there. I gather lots (most?) people playing right now are old NS fans, so I wanted to just give first impressions from someone who was coming into the game cold.
Comments
All I can say is go in groups of 3 with flamers and shotguns and try to get as many hits in as possible. Once they have 2-4 fades though it's quite often just game over or a long stalemate.
2. I have no issue with that, I just don't care
3. People swear at you?? People in NS2 are always very friendly to me even if I'm not doing that great as comm and will offer advice.
Create your own server. Go into console (the "~" key), type "cheats 1" and then "autobuild". Now you can play like it's a real game, can build anything, and anything you drop will be instantly built. Good way to try everything out.
Jumping around is still the best way to avoid being hit. It looks daft and I don't think it adds to the gameplay. This may improve once performance, collisions and animations are better.
I agree with #3. I don't see any reason why a comm by himself cannot build on an empty public server. Once a player joins the other team, the game would start, resetting anything that had been done.
I agree with #3. I don't see any reason why a comm by himself cannot build on an empty public server. Once a player joins the other team, the game would start, resetting anything that had been done.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
what are you talking about the comm not being able to build anything alone, jump in chair, drop stuff, build it no? or is building disabled for comms until the game has started.
There is probably a nerf coming ....but do not expect to ever take down one with a rifle ...alone
The Fade is ALWAYS supposed to be frightening
But at this moment it is close to unbeatable.
I believe these things will still constant when fighting fades
1) Travel in groups
2) Shotguns do more damage
3) Flamethrowers remove their energy to teleport.
Concerning the jumping ....
A recent change made marines jump less.
The aliens are supposed to jump, climb walls, and run fast.
Primarily the game is range group based vs. melee solo based
You can learn the commanding aspects like the other poster indicated with cheats 1
I would also suggest switching sides after each game if possible.
It is the best way to learn the strengths and weaknesses of both sides.
welcome aboard
People always say you need around 3 people to kill a fade. What do you do when the other team has 5 fades?
Realize that you should have kept the alien team from getting so much res and promise yourself to try harder to prevent this in the future.
The res model is quite problematic. Either nobody can afford a fade or 5 players may afford it at once. There's no middle ground. I doubt the game can be balanced around a no-fade alien team either.
In that case, why not give marines who save up some res something similar like the fade, where you would need two lerks and a gorge combo to take him down without feeding him enough resources to instantly upgrade to whatever it was again once he spawns?
/sarcasm...
Imo a big part of the issue with fades right now though is the bug where they hit you before you can see them. Its this with 2 swipe kills thats making it a bit powerful..
Moreover, with the changes to shotgun range, im not so sure JP will be as effective as everyone thinks it will be and im interested to see how effective HA/exo will be seeing as fade swipe does 'puncture' damage (extra to armour).
/sarcasm...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You mean something like power armor?
Wellll, as I said I just got here.
Thanks for the replies, all!
Re: lots of people vs Fade: that's really the problem. We ARE going in with three guys, and often we'll have one or more shotguns and maybe even a flamer, but we still just get torn to pieces. Sure, at least one of those people is ME, so there's a nub in there, but it's not uncommon for me to be down the back, start shooting as the fade appears, and be holding the trigger down on the guy for a full clip and a bit, while it eats the other two. It still comes up and kills me next, and there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it.
I've seen 2 Fades just jumping around a heavily defended point, seriously, 10 turrets, 3 marines teleporting back in as soon as we die, and they still get to rip us apart for several kills each before leaving (apparently) unscathed. There was one time a Fade was just standing there trying to hit the jumping marine (I assume that Fade was a new player too), and me and another guy had time to put nearly two clips EACH into it, and it still killed our buddy, then us. Maybe I'm up against godly players or something, but I've seen something like that in half the games I've played now.
Is there maybe a hitbox issue with Fades? I am getting little red "hit sumfink" markers...
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->So we end up huddling near our turrets, advancing only as we can build them, because even three guys out in the wilderness have absolutely no chance (IME). Seriously, none. <b>I've never survived a 1 Fade v 3 Marines situation without turrets</b>. Ever. This is in maybe a dozen games over three days, and I think about 20-25 encounters with 3 v 1 (half of those from one really long game, but still representative of the other games).<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
(Made that font big because it's important, not for RAEG. :) )
Buuut, if the humans just don't have their Fade-equiv goodies yet, then I am content to wait for them. Very much aware we're in Beta, but wanted to get my impressions down as a newbie in the present build. It's actually kinda cool to be sneaking around knowing an unstoppable beastie awaits to bite your face off, and when you see it you know you can't kill it, or get away, or do anything more than give it indigestion and / or crap yourself. Very horror-movie feel. :P
Anyway, thanks again for all the useful replies. I got a lot more practice to do!
I think it's a game and a community I'm going to really like.
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PS: forgot:
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->what are you talking about the comm not being able to build anything alone, jump in chair, drop stuff, build it no? or is building disabled for comms until the game has started.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, it says that the game will only start when there are at least 2 players, and nothing drops - you can't build (apart from ammo, as far as I can tell). Seems to me that you could just let the game run as normal (allowing building) and when the game "starts" with an extra player, it could just reset. No need to block building.
I'll try starting a server in the mean time, though.
Fades are pretty ridiculous now, and you hear a lot of swearing around the office from the marine side during our playtests. They have had a few changes, like lower health, that will be in the next patch, but they are still a force to be reckoned with. We don't want to go too overboard with that balance stuff at the moment, however, as there are still a lot of elements left to the game that will have an effect on the balance...such as additional higher tier tech for both sides, as well as improvements in optimization and other things which will allow aiming to be more precise.
The jumping is still a bit out of control on the marine side, as well. We did make a change to try and reduce the amount of jumping not that long ago, but we may need to do more. We have to be careful, though, as we really want to avoid limiting the player movement too much, or adding penalties like not being able to shoot when jumping and long cool down periods, which is not fun, either.
Enjoy NS2!
--Cory
It's somewhat realistic, doesn't restrict marine movement which makes them feel sluggish and reduces the incentive to jump..
^This.
It's somewhat realistic, doesn't restrict marine movement which makes them feel sluggish and reduces the incentive to jump..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This doesn't really work for shotgun and flamethrower.
<img src="http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/4389/2011081400001.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Yes, it's a member of Anagram, but regardless. This is not unattainable for even someone as incompetent as me to achieve.
It's somewhat realistic, doesn't restrict marine movement which makes them feel sluggish and reduces the incentive to jump..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
add a stamina bar which makes accuracy proportional to stamina, it makes sesne, if you're breathing hard from doing too much cardio your accuracy is going to be ###### because you're body is moving too much while you shoot, cause jumping to remove a good chunk of stamina per jump and sprinting to reduce stamina slowly as you sprint.
..and that goes with SG and FT, how?