The real issues
measles
Join Date: 2007-02-26 Member: 60122Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2007-02-26 Member: 60122Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Stop talking poopie</div>
What the hell are (alot of) you crappong on about this 'learning curve' what ever crap?
The real issue is hive-sight/sound.
The choatic nature of the hivemind is not ergonomic/fit for human compliance.
Never know where a havrvester is being attacked. Overlapping instructuion from hive and all those things need work.
What the hell are (alot of) you crappong on about this 'learning curve' what ever crap?
The real issue is hive-sight/sound.
The choatic nature of the hivemind is not ergonomic/fit for human compliance.
Never know where a havrvester is being attacked. Overlapping instructuion from hive and all those things need work.
Comments
If he's talking about the hive sight being a chaotic mess, then yeah, I'll agree. There are a number of ideas that could alleviate this, like giving different things different symbols, scaling the size/translucency of icons with importance and proximity, omitting needless (to the player) information, and perhaps somehow hacking it so that distant (and therefore less important) icons render in an established background (like don't draw it or give it very high translucency when the icon is behind allied and enemy units), allowing a player to focus on the important things.
^This^
@Topic, are you drunk or high?
The marines got a shiny new Hud with important information and so on.
Aliens got still the old HUD showing only armor, health and sometime some dots from parasites or aliens under attack. It is pretty cluttered by contrast to the marine HUD.
However, I am sure that UWE will redesign it too when they have time.
I'd love something like this as well :-)
Good players learned how to use the minimap. Without it, you can be severely disadvantaged. Knowing what's going on in another room on the other side of the map, knowing your RTs are going down etc. and communicating, that's all intertwined with good use of the minimap.
It's a lot deeper than ARCs/Shotguns, it's about teamwork, communication and organising yourself and others. It's something which helps this "curve" you don't seem to get. And yes it really is a big difference between a good player and an average/bad one, using the minimap is a huge advantage to a better player.
We're not even arguing about a new gameplay feature here. You can see parasited marines through walls in Natural Selection already! We're just speaking about how it should look like. And imo silhouettes would look a lot better and most of all be A LOT more accessible.
We're not even arguing about a new gameplay feature here. You can see parasited marines through walls in Natural Selection already! We're just speaking about how it should look like. And imo silhouettes would look a lot better and most of all be A LOT more accessible.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
+1
Love people that keep track of conversation and don't go down any rat holes.
tl;dr : Silhouettes = easy/noob mode.
As for silhouettes, not only are they silly looking in a game like ns2 (they already look silly in l4d) but as konata pointed out they give too much information e.g. building/what direction facing/class etc. Not to mention its alot easier to quickly count how many red dots there are as opposed to how many overlapping silhouettes imo.
What really needs fixing is the way players, buildings and powernodes give LOS. For example, they give LOS through thin walls and up through vents and ledges that are actually out of LOS. Sometimes you can be staring at aliens on a lower elevation but somehow geometry or props with transparent parts block them from appearing on the minimap. In 189 i'm also seeing instances where aliens chewing on an rt do not show up on the minimap. Atrium vents/glass hallway are good examples of this problem.
*The sound problems are definately a pretty big issue though..
L4D-style silhouettes would not be noob/easy mode (saying that is just illogical, it's not like a magnetic crosshair), it would just lower the barrier to <u>entry</u>, but wouldn't affect the skill ceiling.
Perhaps you just want your elite community filled with people that believe that you have to put in a minimum of x amount of hours to be merely <u>competent</u> at the game, and everyone else can get screwed (and will get screwed, by you).
I don't think I could criticise you for that, since that's simply your preference.
However, many of us wouldn't agree, since, for us, playing a game is not a job.
tl;dr: Wrestling with the user interface is not "skill", it's just bad design.
still suggesting silhouettes<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
the current hive sight is meant to simulate the alien sense of "sensing" life forms, you do not sense their shapes, or the direction they look at, or their class
giving aliens the ability to see such silhouettes would just add another imbalance, aliens would know in which directions marines are facing, telling them the exact distance and class based on the shape and size of the silhouette . this would be nothing more than a full grown wallhack, and very frustrating for a marine who just lost his mates and tries to hold his position until help arrives. even though there is a blip telling the aliens where the marine is, they do not know how far he is away, or in which direction he is facing, giving the marine a slightly higher chance to defend himself. silhouettes might be alright if the marine and the alien are just separated by a thin from each other, and when moving away from it it turns into a very vague outline until it just gets a small blip again, the only information it was supposed to give was in the first place telling the aliens from which direction the threat comes from, and not to do precision strikes like a cruise missile, exactly knowing when someone turns around to poke his nose.
btw. I'm not so sure VALVe is so bad at game design, as they are the ones the silhouette idea comes from.
In NS2 you have full control over your alien during attacks, making that information a bit too powerful :)
That's alright, skulks are allowed to die. If you manage to para 1 or 2 marines before going down, it is time well spent. Of course that is so with NS1, where skulks spawn faster and move faster around the map, whereas currently in NS2 skulks are slow as ###### and it has become quite bothersome to die at the other side of the map. It begs re-iterating that movement needs to be fixed before further gameplay-decisions are made.
I will choose to kill 1 or 2 marines by ambushing them without giving away my position and getting shot at. If all i got was to parasite 1 or 2 marines before going down i would be disappointed. Especially knowing how easily parasites are cured so i will probably never get to see the benefit of the parasite(s).
Giving the ability to see the other teams classes is a huge advantage which would be a massive imbalance. Equally silhouettes overlapping would be a huge mess as opposed to dots you can count on a screen.
If it's not broke, don't fix it.
I honestly don't have a problem with Green dot for gorge/hive, beige dot for friendly and red dot for friendly under attack. With obviously yellow for parasite and yellow/red for sensory that you find in NS. It's not like I even have the best eye sight in the world, it's just not that difficult.
Parasites can be cured? I don't play this game enough...
Just pickup a medpack and it's gone.
Never played as infected in l4d? I like the l4d glows but I doubt they will use them in NS2 just because everyone associates them so much with the l4d games. I don't think they want people seeing screenshots and just thinking it's l4d but with aliens. Perhaps after 1.0 once the game has established itself a bit more.
btw. I'm not so sure VALVe is so bad at game design, as they are the ones the silhouette idea comes from.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Or just counter it with a medpack, just like now?
Someone was faster..