An NS1 Veteran's Meaningless Opinion on the Current NS2 Beta

Master BlasterMaster Blaster Join Date: 2012-03-17 Member: 148908Banned
edited March 2012 in NS2 General Discussion
I have played NS1 since the very beginning. I recently bought NS2 (somewhere around build 190, give or take a couple of patches). I have now played NS2 for 127 hours (this gives you an idea of how addicting Natural Selection can be). I must preface this by stating that I think overall NS2 is great so far and I have nothing but confidence that whatever the developers decide, it will be a great game. The fact I can play NS2 so much as a Beta is a testament to this.

NS1 was the best Half-Life mod ever created. Nothing can compare to it. The gameplay offers more freedom and variety than any other game I have played. This includes major titles as well.

I love the fact that the developers are trying new things. People were upset about changes made to NS1 as well. I remember when aliens started gaining individual resources and when Combat was introduced. It was quite controversial. It is very important to innovate and so far NS2 has been great. However, this new patch feels like a step in the wrong direction for the following reasons (there may be more than this, but this is what I have noticed):

1) Gorge bile bomb was fine right where it was. It created a balance between a Gorge that created structures and had a very strong attack against structures but relatively weak direct attacks against marines. The variety of play offered by the Gorge is why people play it.

2) Lerk Bile Bomb is a massive failure right now. You have to be in the air to use it, and run out of energy after just 3 attacks. You would need like 10 lerks to have the same effectiveness as a Gorge with bilebomb. I have suggested that it might be beneficial to try giving the lerk spores that shoot like in NS1, but I am always met with insulting criticism saying "Maybe you should get out and go play NS1 then!" I am not saying that NS2 should be NS1 with modern graphics. In fact I like a lot of the new innovations such as the infection/cysts and the increased number of hives. But NS1 worked for a reason, so there must be a balance between innovation and avoiding the tendency to change things just for the sake of change. That said, I think the current spores for Lerk are working at least acceptably well, and it makes sense from an artistic point of view (the lerk becomes more of a dive bomber).

3) Lerk is nothing more than a minor annoyance to marines now.

4) The Skulk in Build 199 was arguably the BEST skulk in the entire game, including NS1. So why did someone say "Hey, we did something really good so lets change it!!!" Now the skulk is the worst it has ever been. It went from best to worst in 1 patch. Skulks feel unacceptably slow. People are even saying that marines are faster than skulks now. I thought the idea of Skulks was that they are very fast, extremely agile and athletic, and kill marines with speed and agility rather than with head-on force. Currently, leap no longer seems to effectively work and I move far too slowly to be of any use. Before this change, skulks felt like the most important Kharaa in the entire game.

5) The Skulk biting sound is so obnoxious, disturbing, and loud that I have to mute my TV to kill extractors. People tend NOT to play games or do things that involve inherently unpleasant sounds. Game music and sounds should be relaxing -- Jeremy Soule is a great example of a composer that can make players return to a game just for the relaxing music (he did the Elder Scrolls games among others). I have heard he did the music from NS1 but I have no idea if that is true. If it is, it explains why I love the NS1 ambient music so much. I believe the soft music of NS1 provided a great background to the gameplay.

6) Certain aspects of NS1 that were great are missing in NS2 right now. For example, marines had more options in terms of strategy. A marine could sneak in through a vent and quietly build siege turrets, taking out a hive before the aliens were even aware of the marines activity. Gorges could do the same with bile bomb. Comm Chairs could be placed anywhere on the map, and I have seen games where aliens win with all hives dead (gorge rebuilds a hive and they win the round). These kinds of victories are the reason many players keep playing the game. To play in THAT kind of round. As it is right now, NS2 has less strategy, more "Lets run in the hive and shoot it down" or "Build an Arc train and go straight, head-on to the hive. There is no alternative strategic variety. This trend can cause it to become Call of Duty with aliens or Counter-Strike or whatever, which is NOT what I personally believe this game should be about.

7) The first-person deaths seem odd and I believe that the third-person deaths were much better.

I like the increased number of hives. However, I wish the game did not end until the entire opposing team was killed. I know many people hated this, but for some reason I liked the idea that the aliens could still win without a hive, or the marines could hide a command chair in a vent or anywhere on the map, rather than be restricted to pre-determined Command Station locations.

I also like the new maps but would still like to see some larger maps like in NS1.

Lastly, I miss the ambience of NS1. The ambient music and sounds that played during the round (the string instruments and horns that played) were great. It really fit the game extremely well. I hope to see this again in NS2.

The idea that the players of a game have no right to question developers is wrong. BioWare did it with their recent Mass Effect 3 when they told their fans to "stop whining," which is causing lots of players to stop buying their games. We know that the development team is small and that this is a Beta so anything can change. We are simply a passionate group of players who have found a VERY special game and we want to see that game grow and be rewarded for its intelligence and ingenuity -- we do NOT want to see that game dumbed down like so many other games we have loved.

So I hope that the final product will have as much, if not more intelligence and strategic variety as the original Natural Selection. The fact that this is done by such a small development team is amazing, and it is a great example of a game developed by gamers rather than by a strictly business organization. Regardless of how the finished product turns out, I am sure it will be great. I have personally waited for this game since NS1 so it is great that one day I googled "Natural Selection 2" and found out that the game was finally being produced. I have nothing but admiration for the developers of this game, and the other players of this game as well. It really is something special.
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Comments

  • Cyberwarrior00785Cyberwarrior00785 Join Date: 2010-02-20 Member: 70651Members
    my agreement percentage is OVER 9000!
  • RisingSunRisingSun Rising California Join Date: 2004-04-19 Member: 28015Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    edited March 2012
    There are points i disagree with but mainly the music and sound effects. I always turned off ambient ANYTHING. So i personally dont care what the music is as long as there is an off button. The skulk biting sounds awesome, but that is opinion on both sides =)

    As for the other stuff i think they were correct moving bile bomb and giving the lerk a better role, now they just have to tweak the rest of his skills and give the gorge more utility. Skulk movement has been terrible and was nice when it was fast but i am still unconvinced that the skill based movement trying to be created will work. Just give me a semi hard method to gain speed that is fun =) (that doesnt require walls).

    Lastly on the same topic of moving skills around i think the devs have a couple ideas on how they are going to improve the gorge and lerk but are keeping it locked up tight until it is ready so they can say "at least give it a shot, it's in this patch anyway" instead of "here's what we will do 4 patches from now" and we can proceed to whine about it and bash it because it is different. Just look at the Gorge Goo Wall. No word until it was just about ready. They have plans but arent sharing =) so until we have the entire picture let's keep our complaints to performance and Max's hat =)
  • Squeal_Like_A_PigSqueal_Like_A_Pig Janitor Join Date: 2002-01-25 Member: 66Members, Super Administrators, NS1 Playtester, NS2 Developer, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Developer
    Hi Master, thanks for the feedback. Here are some of my thoughts on the various points you brought up:

    --We have a quite a few reasons for moving the bilebomb to the Lerk, but overall we really believe it fits the role of the Lerk more then the Gorge, and helps keep the Lerk relevant late game. The damage/energy costs were just a quick pass when first implementing this change, and we knew they weren't where we wanted them to be, but we just needed to get the patch out. Our playtesters have already done a good amount of testing with some new number values, which seem to work much better, and we've already checked those changes in. The Lerk's bilebomb should be much more useful in the next patch.

    We know changes like this may seem to come out of nowhere, and can be difficult for players who have gotten used to playing the game a certain way, but they are often changes we've been thinking about for quite some time. We feel this is a better direction to go in, and want to give this change enough time for people to try it out more and get used to it, and we'll continue to keep tweaking and improving it based on PT and community feedback.

    --When we first changed the movement code for the Skulk for 199 it was met with a resounding chorus of "OMG Skulk movement is atrocious!". Now after people have played with it for a few weeks, when we change it back closer to what it was before 199, we are getting the same reaction. I think largely this was due to the fact that in 199 to compensate for the changes, the skulk was sped up, but we overcompensated, and made it too fast. So, bringing the speed down is naturally going to feel not as good for the first few times playing as Skulk in build 200. Player speeds are a very tricky thing to balance, and while speeding them up can make them feel more fun and responsive, it can also throw game balance completely out of whack. All we can say is that we are going to continue to be working on player movement, and player speeds, all the way up until v1.0, and probably even after, to make sure we get it to a point where we are happy with it.

    --Skulk bite sound is subjective, as some people are going to like it and some won't. But the volume of it may be a little too high right now. There's still a lot of work being done on the sound side, to find the right volume and balance between all of the sounds, so some are still a little too quiet and some a little too loud.

    --Regarding the game ending by killing hives/cc's instead of having to kill all the players, it's a necessary change we felt needed to be made, to end games in a reasonable fashion. I agree that there were certainly some great moments in NS1, where a team was able to stage a comeback even though they were down to one player, but there many more times where the last surviving skulk would run off and hide in a vent, and the game just dragged on as the marines had to search every square inch of the map to find them and end the game.

    --We are still planning on adding some more music to the game, but we are going to still need to keep it pretty minimal, as most players do tend to turn off the music if there is too much of it and it is interfering with hearing the important gameplay sounds.

    --In general, there are still a lot of features left to come. The Gorge will get plenty more to do, the alien commander still has a lot of work left on it, the Exo still has to go in, and there are a lot of game design changes in the works. Between new features and some tweaking of existing game mechanics, we are hoping to be adding a lot more depth and strategic variety to the game by the time we release it.

    Thanks.

    --Cory
  • ImbalanxdImbalanxd Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104581Members
    The strange thing about the lerks bile bomb is that it forces them to work alone. If the damage over time effect can only be applied once, there is no point in having two lerks in the same place, since only one of them will ever be applying the damage. Since the vast majority of combat tends to happen at a single location in most cases, this almost forces the aliens to never have more than one lerk, lest they have wasted potential in their ranks.

    To put it simply, having two lerks attack the same location is trading 2 players for 1.5, since half of one players abilities are wasted.
  • IeptBarakatIeptBarakat The most difficult name to speak ingame. Join Date: 2009-07-10 Member: 68107Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Diamond, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited March 2012
    The roundstart music and ambiance around the map is something I do miss from the ns1. Although ns1, the teams wouldn't engage each other for at least 30-45 seconds. Thanks to the larger map size and aliens players required to gorge. So the music never really interrupted anything.

    And totally agree with the round over when the entire team is dead with no chance to respawn scenario, hunting down the last of the frontiersmen or kharaa was satisfying.

    Pretty much agree with everything here. Great game and have been playing since the engine test.

    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 04:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 04:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->--Regarding the game ending by killing hives/cc's instead of having to kill all the players, it's a necessary change we felt needed to be made, to end games in a reasonable fashion. I agree that there were certainly some great moments in NS1, where a team was able to stage a comeback even though they were down to one player, but there many more times where the last surviving skulk would run off and hide in a vent, and the game just dragged on as the marines had to search every square inch of the map to find them and end the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Could work if the remaining player's position was revealed to the opposing team like parasite does on the minimap. A recipe for some intense last stand or 'you can run but you can't hide' moments.
  • Master BlasterMaster Blaster Join Date: 2012-03-17 Member: 148908Banned
    edited March 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 12:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 12:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hi Master, thanks for the feedback. Here are some of my thoughts on the various points you brought up:

    [reply]
    Thanks.

    --Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Thanks for such a quick response. I like the idea of keeping any music minimal as I found NS1 had music that amounted to a nice ambience rather than total background music.

    I believe that the sound is not entirely subjective, however. The sound of nails scraping against a chalkboard has been shown to be almost universally abhorrent to people. So in this way, game sounds (and ambient music) are important. Even when I describe the sound of grating fingernails on a chalkboard right now in this post, the mere act of reading my description is enough to cause some amount of displeasure in many (if not most) people. So the selection of game sounds has a profound, albeit subtle and esoteric, effect on the amount of pleasure derived from a game.

    As for everything else, I'm sure it will all come together in the end, so rather than raising alarms I am simply offering my observations so that other players or even the development team might be able to appreciate it in their work. I think that is a major use of this forum. I appreciate all the work that goes into developing this fresh game and I appreciate even more the fact that the community is very open and willing to communicate with each other.

    EDIT: I want to also point out that I added one more issue which is the fact that deaths are now in first-person which feels very odd compared to third-person deaths, which felt and looked great.
    Regards,
    Mr. Blaster
  • rhombusrhombus Lerk Queen Join Date: 2011-06-23 Member: 106055Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    <!--quoteo(post=1914384:date=Mar 17 2012, 04:38 PM:name=Imbalanxd)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Imbalanxd @ Mar 17 2012, 04:38 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914384"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The strange thing about the lerks bile bomb is that it forces them to work alone. If the damage over time effect can only be applied once, there is no point in having two lerks in the same place, since only one of them will ever be applying the damage. Since the vast majority of combat tends to happen at a single location in most cases, this almost forces the aliens to never have more than one lerk, lest they have wasted potential in their ranks.

    To put it simply, having two lerks attack the same location is trading 2 players for 1.5, since half of one players abilities are wasted.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


    Bile bomb stacks.
  • ImbalanxdImbalanxd Join Date: 2011-06-15 Member: 104581Members
    edited March 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1914401:date=Mar 17 2012, 11:51 PM:name=SabaHell)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SabaHell @ Mar 17 2012, 11:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914401"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Bile bomb stacks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    TO THE TEST CHAMBER

    Edit:
    Hmm, so it does. Don't know how the hell we were meant to know that. Either way, it doesn't stack very satisfactorily at the moment. With a 4 second duration and a 3 second cooldown, the most you can ever have is three stacks active at one time. I think it would be better if reapplying the effect refreshed the duration. Also, it seems to diminish based on distance from impact, dealing 4% (to an IP) at zero range, and about 1% 1 meter away.
  • pRiNcEkAhUnApRiNcEkAhUnA Join Date: 2012-03-06 Member: 148264Members
    I agree with Master Blaster
  • Shrike3OShrike3O Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6678Members, Constellation
    Yeah, they've stated a couple of times that the numbers for Bile Bomb's current implementation were off the cuff, and will be getting tuned up in the future.
  • XariusXarius Join Date: 2003-12-21 Member: 24630Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    edited March 2012
    Good post, if only all criticism was brought forward like this, rather than the non-constructive mess that patches currently tend to bestow upon these forums. I definitely agree with a lot of things that were brought up. (And it's great to hear UWE is already on it)

    In regards to the lerk bilebombing, it seems that I am mostly incapable of AND bilebombing AND gassing, since both require quite some energy, which feels somewhat strange considering they're on two different buttons. (Supposedly just for that reason, enabling lerk players to combine both) I honestly don't consider having the ability to do both would somehow be overpowering, so hopefully this also gets addressed.
  • lunsluns Join Date: 2010-12-05 Member: 75502Members
    this isn't about bile bomb alone, even though its included in the big list of "wtf did you do to this game."

    the problem is NS1 goes completely ignored when they made ns2. Sure, elements of NS1 is part of NS2, but they completely changed/removed what actually worked for years perfectly and what made it actually fun. And to top it all, they shoved combat ideas into classic mode. the essence of what NS1 was about is no longer part of ns2 frame work. Charlie reply to this? we must not like change, no really that's his reply to this. we must not ignore years of what worked and balance, in addition what made it FUN.

    to new players the game might seem fine, but to older vets who loved everything ns1 was about, this game is just huge disappointed. So yeah, they do ignore everything NS1 was about, and same goes for veteran players. Who do they listen to? Either the CoD crowd or newer players with little or no understanding of NS1 generally.

    The only hope NS1 has, if and when this engine ever becomes "stable" we might actually get NS1 mod. That is the only hope I see for the veterans, really.
  • RyneRyne Join Date: 2012-02-25 Member: 147408Members, NS2 Map Tester
    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 01:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 01:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->--Skulk bite sound is subjective, as some people are going to like it and some won't. But the volume of it may be a little too high right now. There's still a lot of work being done on the sound side, to find the right volume and balance between all of the sounds, so some are still a little too quiet and some a little too loud.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I disagree here. Every game I have played has had people complain about that noise. It is not just the volume, but the noise itself. I have seen some people stop chomping res towers just because it is so bad and so loud.
  • MrGunnerMrGunner Join Date: 2003-01-03 Member: 11757Members, Constellation
    edited March 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 04:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 04:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->--We have a quite a few reasons for moving the bilebomb to the Lerk, but overall we really believe it fits the role of the Lerk more then the Gorge, and helps keep the Lerk relevant late game. The damage/energy costs were just a quick pass when first implementing this change, and we knew they weren't where we wanted them to be, but we just needed to get the patch out. Our playtesters have already done a good amount of testing with some new number values, which seem to work much better, and we've already checked those changes in. The Lerk's bilebomb should be much more useful in the next patch.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Exactly what, in your opinion, makes lerks worth playing at all in the game currently? The only thing that they bring to the table right now is mobility for early scouting and slight utility, which doesn't really make them worth the res cost. In order to do any damage right now they have to commit to going toe to toe with marines, which is a change from ns1 where you could play them by sitting in a vent all game pot shotting spores, and that damage is quite low.

    If the goal is to make them ineffective at actual marine combat and push them more into the support/scouting role can you just straight up remove spikes and give them a better ability to replace it? Something more like primal scream or a short range paralyze. Spikes currently are not a fun ability and really don't mesh with lerking. I don't want to sit in one spot and hold down mouse 1 to harrass marines for minimal damage. I want to be able to swoop in and disrupt them and help my team get kills and win the game.

    [edit] Also if the goal is to go the other way and have them be actually able to win a 1v1 fight against a marine can you remove the rapid fire spikes and make the shotgun spike work better? Or add bite ;)
  • XariusXarius Join Date: 2003-12-21 Member: 24630Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    I've been swooping in killing marines pretty effectively with spore + spike to be honest. Granted the damage on spike is still a little underwhelming, once you get a good control on the lerk you should be having no trouble succesfully harassing a group of even 2 - 3 marines.
  • Shrike3OShrike3O Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6678Members, Constellation
    ^^^truth. The spikes are less accurate than the LMG but at most of the ranges encountered in NS2 they're accurate enough, and not having to reload is a huge DPS boost. Spikes start to lag behind around when the marines get armor 2-3, and IMO do need a small improvement in their damage output, but between that, properly tweaked bilebomb, and a decent player, the lerk is fairly deadly. That mobility allows you to zip across the map, back up a skulk or two getting into a fight, and then zip somewhere else and back up your teammates there. You've got to go looking for fights as a lerk to make it perform.

    Lerks sow discord, can completely disorganize a marine team, and can do super annoying things like ducking into the marine base, spiking mines off the floor and hitting targets for a bit, and then haul ass out again before any kind of real response can be mounted. They're ideal harassers because of their speed, and since this is a game where real people (rather than AI) control the grunts, harassment is all about technique. If you buzz marines and gas them, they'll fire off a few rounds and basically ignore you. If you can lock up their hallway with gas, or buzz them spiking several times, you become an issue people don't want to ignore... at which point they're paying attention to the hard-to-hit flying thing rather than the couple of skulks that come bouncing in. Is it currently underpowered? Yes, somewhat (especially bilebomb). Is it still worth playing? Sure. Looking forwards to when it gets tuned up and becomes deadly :)
  • m42m42 Join Date: 2012-03-01 Member: 147923Members
    edited March 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1914476:date=Mar 17 2012, 06:35 PM:name=MrGunner)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrGunner @ Mar 17 2012, 06:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914476"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Exactly what, in your opinion, makes lerks worth playing at all in the game currently? I want to be able to swoop in and disrupt them and help my team get kills and win the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The new gas works good for this. It's hard to see through and it falls to the ground so you can stay in the air and they cant see you very well. You can really severely disrupt a marine hive push if you catch them early and gas them as they're pushing out. Just make sure you have silence so you can swoop in from behind them before they know you're there. You can separate them with the gas and finish them off one by one since they cant see you. The lerk is actually pretty effective as long as you're not trying to spike them to death by just flying in. Without shotgun spike, that's not going to work.

    Silence makes the lerk op!
  • MrGunnerMrGunner Join Date: 2003-01-03 Member: 11757Members, Constellation
    edited March 2012
    Right now the game is kind of buggy and the hit detection is wonky. As it continues to get better and better lerks will become more and more useless as a half decent marine will just shotgun them when they swoop in every time. They will also be outdamaged by marines any time they are trying to spike because spikes are far lower damage than the marine weapons and less accurate to boot. You guys seem to think that just because you can fly around willy nilly currently gassing all over marines that can't hit you for ###### that lerks are super good. They aren't. They have a couple of large problems and the largest by far is the fact that spikes are worthless. Speaking as someone who would like to play this game in a competitive setting I can't see lerks being used at all unless they are given better damage or more utility.

    Also I'm not sure if maybe you either think that I've never played lerk before or am just brain dead retarded, but I've spent tons of time playing nothing but lerk in NS1 since 1.04 and have played it currently in NS2 beta. I know how to play it extremely well I assure you, and that is why I make posts like these to try to get them fixed.
  • m42m42 Join Date: 2012-03-01 Member: 147923Members
    edited March 2012
    Just because you cant find find them useful does not mean they are useless and not worth using. Spikes don't start-out worthless. They get worthless as marines get upgrades. The gas remains effective regardless. I've played the lerk many hours since the release of 200 and at first i thought "well this is going to suck", but the lerk remains useful early game. It's by far my favorite life form. Mid/lategame is where the lerk lacks because spike doesn't increase in damage as marines get more upgrades. No one was using lerk late game because of this. They tried to address this issue by giving them bilebomb. Obviously, they need to address its damage as they have stated.

    One problem I foresee is that though they want lerk to be the one doing the bilebomb, they expose themselves too much as someone who's role is supposed to be a defense breaker. Maybe this is what they want for balance issues? It's why i suggested before that bilebomb should remain on the gorge. The lerk is super fragile. Try doing a flyby in flight control... It's just not going to work.

    <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The only thing that they bring to the table right now is mobility for early scouting and slight utility<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    You're missing the fact that they can deny areas pretty well and slow down groups of marines until you get more players to thee area.

    I understand that bullet registration isn't that great right now, but you don't increase their effectiveness now with the assumption that some day later it will balance out. You'll totally break early game balance, NOW. They're not supposed to be some almighty life form that you can go toe-to-toe against several marines. That's silly. (Once the alien team gets 30 res, everyone go lerk... GG)
  • VeNeMVeNeM Join Date: 2002-07-13 Member: 928Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 01:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 01:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Hi Master, thanks for the feedback. Here are some of my reasons why youre wrong:

    Thanks.

    --Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    fixed
  • CodeineCodeine Join Date: 2010-11-22 Member: 75155Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914388:date=Mar 17 2012, 09:45 PM:name=Master Blaster)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Master Blaster @ Mar 17 2012, 09:45 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914388"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Even when I describe the sound of grating fingernails on a chalkboard right now in this post, the mere act of reading my description is enough to cause some amount of displeasure in many (if not most) people.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    yep...
  • VeNeMVeNeM Join Date: 2002-07-13 Member: 928Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914476:date=Mar 17 2012, 06:35 PM:name=MrGunner)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MrGunner @ Mar 17 2012, 06:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914476"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Exactly what, in your opinion, makes lerks worth playing at all in the game currently? The only thing that they bring to the table right now is mobility for early scouting and slight utility, which doesn't really make them worth the res cost. In order to do any damage right now they have to commit to going toe to toe with marines, which is a change from ns1 where you could play them by sitting in a vent all game pot shotting spores, and that damage is quite low.

    If the goal is to make them ineffective at actual marine combat and push them more into the support/scouting role can you just straight up remove spikes and give them a better ability to replace it? Something more like primal scream or a short range paralyze. Spikes currently are not a fun ability and really don't mesh with lerking. I don't want to sit in one spot and hold down mouse 1 to harrass marines for minimal damage. I want to be able to swoop in and disrupt them and help my team get kills and win the game.

    [edit] Also if the goal is to go the other way and have them be actually able to win a 1v1 fight against a marine can you remove the rapid fire spikes and make the shotgun spike work better? Or add bite ;)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    the FUNNIEST part about what he says its the lerk was ALREADY relevant late game ffs lol

    - umbra higher lifeforms
    - primal scream
    - gas


    Id say those abilities made the lerk pretty goddamned important -_-
  • MrGunnerMrGunner Join Date: 2003-01-03 Member: 11757Members, Constellation
    edited March 2012
    Spikes are crap though and I don't see how you can think that they will be useful in any way when the marines have ranged weapons that are far superior. They also have close ranged weapons that are far superior, so really what can lerks do damage wise that marines can't do better and just straight up murder the lerks?

    My point isn't that lerks aren't useful in some way it's just that currently you are better off saving your res and going fade than you are going lerk. A team with no lerk and an extra fade in 20 res is better off than a team with a lerk. They don't do anything worthwhile at hive 1 other then move faster than skulks. Is that really worth the 30 res?

    Lerks were always crap against armor3 marines. In NS1 if you had 3 hives the game was over so primal scream was never really a factor, and while umbra was good it was usually better to just spore to eat armor than umbraing for the -damage, unless it was against heavy armor.

    Also I don't really give a crap about game balance in closed beta so much as I want to see how the game balance is going to be at release in a few months. By fixing the problems now with balance you can see how things pan out as the rest of the game is optimized. I don't want to have to suffer through slowly spiking marines to death while their bullets don't reg on me just so that I have to adjust later to other mechanics that make the lerk more fun to play, and cohesive to the alien teamplay.
  • MisterNubsMisterNubs Join Date: 2012-03-01 Member: 147912Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914477:date=Mar 17 2012, 08:43 PM:name=Xarius)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Xarius @ Mar 17 2012, 08:43 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914477"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I've been swooping in killing marines pretty effectively with spore + spike to be honest. Granted the damage on spike is still a little underwhelming, <b>once you get a good control on the lerk you should be having no trouble succesfully harassing a group of even 2 - 3 marines.</b><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    And better yet, I can do that and kill all 3 marines as a skulk that costs 0 res.

    I completely detest the NS2 Lerk. It's a Lerk in name and nothing else.

    Where's Ozzy Osbourne. Maybe he can put it out of its misery. Haha.
  • XariusXarius Join Date: 2003-12-21 Member: 24630Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    With the new skulk movement I honestly doubt many people, certainly not groups of 2 - 3 marines, are having trouble dealing with a single skulk.
  • arualarual Join Date: 2005-03-12 Member: 44989Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914380:date=Mar 17 2012, 08:30 PM:name=Squeal_Like_A_Pig)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Squeal_Like_A_Pig @ Mar 17 2012, 08:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Thanks.

    --Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    It's great to get feedback like this.

    Personally I was mostly surprised by at how fast some players were to complain about the new patch. New patches need two things from us players; plenty of testing time - very few people will be able to fully test new balance changes within the same day a patch goes up and yet the whiners started within hours (or less) of the patch going live; and secondly the understanding the new features, and even older features, may still need re-balancing. Something completely new like the Lerk bilebomb is obviously not going to perfect on the first patch.
  • FroztyFrozty SWEDEN Join Date: 2012-01-22 Member: 141596Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1914607:date=Mar 18 2012, 10:39 AM:name=arual)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (arual @ Mar 18 2012, 10:39 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914607"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It's great to get feedback like this.

    Personally I was mostly surprised by at how fast some players were to complain about the new patch. New patches need two things from us players; plenty of testing time - very few people will be able to fully test new balance changes within the same day a patch goes up and yet the whiners started within hours (or less) of the patch going live; and secondly the understanding the new features, and even older features, may still need re-balancing. Something completely new like the Lerk bilebomb is obviously not going to perfect on the first patch.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    The LERK in this patch.. man i LOVE IT!
    Flying around and harrasing with BOMBS+ACID :D
    The marines flames the chat "lame lame lame lame" haha
    They cant "outWield" the damage of the acidBomb so the buildings are f****.
  • internetexplorerinternetexplorer Join Date: 2011-10-13 Member: 127255Members
    edited March 2012
    <!--quoteo(post=1914608:date=Mar 18 2012, 11:44 AM:name=BuzterOne)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BuzterOne @ Mar 18 2012, 11:44 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914608"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The LERK in this patch.. man i LOVE IT!
    Flying around and harrasing with BOMBS+ACID :D
    The marines flames the chat "lame lame lame lame" haha
    They cant "outWield" the damage of the acidBomb so the buildings are f****.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Now add up all the damage you do in one life like that and I'll tell you you're not actually accomplishing much at all, even if it feels fun to you right now.
    After another week (or month) of that, you and others will get bored of the current lerk that has no real substance to it.


    <!--quoteo(post=1914497:date=Mar 17 2012, 11:57 PM:name=m42)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (m42 @ Mar 17 2012, 11:57 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914497"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->(Once the alien team gets 30 res, everyone go lerk... GG)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    That's funny, because this is true for shotguns. You also get them before aliens can get lerks. On top of that, it's much easier to use them because you target slow skulks (who are probably running headlong into walls trying to speed up), or eggs that don't move. Having good shotgun aim pays off to such an absurd degree that it makes every early game alien mechanic (except cheesy shade rushes) seem extremely weak. Only when you get the ability to w+m1 through marines with fades does this stop happening as often.
  • Master BlasterMaster Blaster Join Date: 2012-03-17 Member: 148908Banned
    <!--quoteo(post=1914608:date=Mar 18 2012, 07:44 AM:name=BuzterOne)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BuzterOne @ Mar 18 2012, 07:44 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914608"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The LERK in this patch.. man i LOVE IT!
    Flying around and harrasing with BOMBS+ACID :D
    The marines flames the chat "lame lame lame lame" haha
    They cant "outWield" the damage of the acidBomb so the buildings are f****.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    I don't know what kind of servers you are playing on, but in any game with about 2 veteran marines the lerks do not do anything of relevence.

    Bilebomb doesn't do any damage so what is this post? I don't even...

    Marines complain "lame lame lame" because lerk is a minor annoyance to them. "Oh no! Our comm station lost half of one percent!!!"
  • Soul_RiderSoul_Rider Mod Bean Join Date: 2004-06-19 Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
    <!--quoteo(post=1914622:date=Mar 18 2012, 06:07 PM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Mar 18 2012, 06:07 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1914622"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's funny, because this is true for shotguns. You also get them before aliens can get lerks.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    Really? I don't do marine comm very often, so excuse the noob question.. What is the minimum time to get shotty's up?

    I know it's build armory then research shot's, but how long does that take?
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