Recycling for Aliens

NakorsonNakorson Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140253Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
edited February 2012 in NS2 General Discussion
There is a growing number of problems with the fact that the alien commander cant recycle buildings.

In the Game i'm currently playing the comm cant place harvesters at our hive locations because of the too many entities problem ...

The problem that there are too many buildings in a area so that the comm cant even place a harvester is the biggest problem. Which is mostly caused by mini-cysts and hydras.

Another problem is the imbalance that the marines can recycle the RT when its under attack. The aliens can look at their rt and say good by to the resources.

The simpel fact that the alien commander cant rearange the buildings if he or someone else placed the buildings wrong. With small narrow corridors this is a growing problem now that we have the enormous onos.

Comments

  • PsiWarpPsiWarp Gifted Gorge Richmond, B.C., Canada Join Date: 2010-08-28 Member: 73810Members
    They should exclude the Cysts and Hydras from the Alien Comm entities limit. I do recall a dev saying "no recycling for aliens" some time ago, but probably not absolutely dismissing it.

    When the Shift gets introduced, it is said to have the ability to relocate buildings (even entire Hives).
  • NakorsonNakorson Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140253Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    <!--quoteo(post=1899385:date=Feb 3 2012, 03:33 PM:name=PsiWarp)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PsiWarp @ Feb 3 2012, 03:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899385"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They should exclude the Cysts and Hydras from the Alien Comm entities limit. I do recall a dev saying "no recycling for aliens" some time ago, but probably not absolutely dismissing it.

    When the Shift gets introduced, it is said to have the ability to relocate buildings (even entire Hives).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    The limit for entities is a thing they introduced and think its a good thing, and allowing to place to many structures in a small area can create performance issues.
  • QuovatisQuovatis Team Inversion Join Date: 2010-01-26 Member: 70321Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    There's also the problem of being able to completely block off all your drifters from a hive. This is very easy to do in Atrium on Summit. Two crags placed by the stairs means no drifters can get out, and the aliens basically have lost the game since they can't build another hive or build expand at all. They can't destroy or move the crags, so they're SOL.
  • ShuflYShuflY Join Date: 2002-11-15 Member: 8760Members
    I don't think aliens should be able to recycle extractors, unless they change the game mechanics and require skulks to be present to 'build' the extractor. Aliens have an advantage that the commander can build extractors independently of his teammates, while the marines are forced to have players build extractors until mid-game when/if a robotics factory and MAC are built. I think aliens not being able to recycle is fine, but if they did make it so aliens could recycle, they also have to make MACs available for marines at the start of the game and not require a robotics factory to build additional MACs.
  • TechercizerTechercizer 7th Player Join Date: 2011-06-11 Member: 103832Members
    edited February 2012
    Kharaa equivalent of recycling: Once the Kham tags a building as disposable, and other kharaa can now eat/destroy it. No res regained; the process is like white blood cells attacking malfunctioning cells or growths. Potentially, you could even have skulks that destroy it become healed (for "eating" the building. Or not. Just ideas.
  • NakorsonNakorson Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140253Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    edited February 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1899416:date=Feb 3 2012, 04:51 PM:name=ShuflY)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ShuflY @ Feb 3 2012, 04:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899416"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I don't think aliens should be able to recycle extractors, unless they change the game mechanics and require skulks to be present to 'build' the extractor. Aliens have an advantage that the commander can build extractors independently of his teammates, while the marines are forced to have players build extractors until mid-game when/if a robotics factory and MAC are built. I think aliens not being able to recycle is fine, but if they did make it so aliens could recycle, they also have to make MACs available for marines at the start of the game and not require a robotics factory to build additional MACs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The discussion isnt about if extractors should be recycle able or not.

    But i dont think that there is such a big difference between the way the harvesters are build. The aliens can build the harvesters without a player having to build it up, but it can be destroyed/disabled way easier then the extractor by destroyin the cyst chain. The drifters are really low health, so they can be easily killed on the way to the res node. Also is seems to me that the harvesters have lower starting health then unbuild extractors. The pheromones arent in so maybe this will change, but the marines can "easily" delay the destruction of the extrator with the nano shield. Since the Marines get MACs during the game, the aliens should get a research to recycle harvesters.


    <!--quoteo(post=1899427:date=Feb 3 2012, 05:17 PM:name=Techercizer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Techercizer @ Feb 3 2012, 05:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899427"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Kharaa equivalent of recycling: Once the Kham tags a building as disposable, and other kharaa can now eat/destroy it. No res regained; the process is like white blood cells attacking malfunctioning cells or growths. Potentially, you could even have skulks that destroy it become healed (for "eating" the building. Or not. Just ideas.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I'm pretty new in the forum so i dont know if this has been said by any dev and if he explained it.

    But why shouldnt the aliens be able to recycle and get resources as refund? Being not able to do this kinda harsh and in my eyes not that easy to balance.
  • ogzogz Join Date: 2002-11-24 Member: 9765Members
    have suggested this before, but basically, 'recycling' for aliens is just turning a building back into a drifter

    or de-volving?

    altho this doesn't address issue with cyst/hydras

    the fact that you can block a res node by building a cyst too close to it
  • QuovatisQuovatis Team Inversion Join Date: 2010-01-26 Member: 70321Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    The aliens at least need a way to move or destroy structures that block drifter traffic. You can easily put yourself in a situation where you can lose the game, only because you place 2 structures wrong. The marines don't have to worry about that.
  • NakorsonNakorson Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140253Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    Anymore ideas, suggestions and comments who are for this change? Or even people who are against it, who explain why?
  • ZurikiZuriki Join Date: 2010-11-20 Member: 75105Members
    I'm for it, simply for the fact that sometimes it's absolutely necessary to destroy structures, also allows aliens to remove bad gorgies hydra farms easily.
  • playerplayer Join Date: 2010-09-12 Member: 73982Members
    Arbitrary limits suck. I'm guessing the entity-limit is there for the sake of server-performance, so before you start balancing around it, let's wait for performance to go up and give limitless contruction another try (not saying it will succeed, NS1 servers often had limits to prevent game-breaking stuff going on, but it should absolutely be attempted).

    As for the recycling ability, I'm not sure. It introduced additional asymmetry that forced aliens to be more thoughtful about buildings and go about things differently than marines otherwise would. Though of course it shouldn't work against the aliens to the point where the game is completely ruined.
  • ScardyBobScardyBob ScardyBob Join Date: 2009-11-25 Member: 69528Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    My preference is for it to be the same as marine recycle (easy to understand). However, I could live with this next:
    <!--quoteo(post=1899435:date=Feb 3 2012, 02:41 PM:name=ogz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ogz @ Feb 3 2012, 02:41 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899435"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->have suggested this before, but basically, 'recycling' for aliens is just turning a building back into a drifter

    or de-volving?

    altho this doesn't address issue with cyst/hydras

    the fact that you can block a res node by building a cyst too close to it<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Or this:
    <!--quoteo(post=1899427:date=Feb 3 2012, 02:17 PM:name=Techercizer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Techercizer @ Feb 3 2012, 02:17 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899427"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Kharaa equivalent of recycling: Once the Kham tags a building as disposable, and other kharaa can now eat/destroy it. No res regained; the process is like white blood cells attacking malfunctioning cells or growths. Potentially, you could even have skulks that destroy it become healed (for "eating" the building. Or not. Just ideas.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Quite simply, the entity limit no-build because a gorge went hydra farming is pretty annoying as alien comm. In general, a recycle is also much more new comm friendly as it lessens the impacts of mistakes (i.e. dropping the wrong structure or in the wrong location).
  • NakorsonNakorson Join Date: 2012-01-13 Member: 140253Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    <!--quoteo(post=1899648:date=Feb 4 2012, 12:58 PM:name=player)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (player @ Feb 4 2012, 12:58 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1899648"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As for the recycling ability, I'm not sure. It introduced additional asymmetry that forced aliens to be more thoughtful about buildings and go about things differently than marines otherwise would. Though of course it shouldn't work against the aliens to the point where the game is completely ruined.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Building thoughtful inst possible since you have the comm and several gorgies who are building structures.
Sign In or Register to comment.