- Help new players to keep track of marines in frantic melee fights by providing a clear, stable, bright, clean game image. - Prevent players to get headache after playing more than 10 minutes. - Make the game looks good.
Current implementation fails at the majority of these, by making the use of alien vision very obfuscated to new players, inducing headache to those who switch alien vision rapidly. Good look is more debatable.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Look no further! <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=119407" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=119407</a>
Why so little steps? Just replace all textures with white ones! And when we are on it, lets rename the game Quake Selection 2...
Srsly, Tweadle I know you are against darkness as a gameplay mechanic in multiplayer games. And if I were a comp-player I would probably agree. But as the pub-player I'm now, I like the atmosphere and the possibility of aliens that hiding on (and blend in with) the ceiling and other cool moments that arise of the mechanic of darkness.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Why so little steps? Just replace all textures with white ones!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The previous implementation was doing exactly that, but with yellow textures. It wasn't very beautiful.
<!--quoteo(post=1951263:date=Jul 13 2012, 08:00 AM:name=Yuuki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yuuki @ Jul 13 2012, 08:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1951263"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The previous implementation was doing exactly that, but with yellow textures. It wasn't very beautiful.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> He was sarcastic:P
I've lost the link but I remember reading a great topic on brightness in games and the difference in implementing it in single-player versus multi-player. The conclusion was that darkness can be applied far more liberally in single-player and should be confined to very specific and unique locations on multi-player maps. There's also good statistical evidence to show that light maps are favoured over dark maps in online multi-player games.
I'm not saying that atmosphere is bad (although, in some ways, it is in disharmony with the fast pace of NS2), but I do feel that a multi-player game needs to approach it differently. Games like NS2 need to be extremely re-playable, whereas Resident Evil, for example, only warrants one play through. Both my gut and my head tell me darkness as a gameplay mechanic is a bad idea. Not only is it frustrating for a large proportion of the playerbase, but it is also circumvented through gamma and brightness tweaks anyway which is bad for equality. Even NS1 saw the vast majority of players with a decent level of knowledge tweak settings or adopt the knife/nL packs to improve the quality of their gaming experience - personally, I find NS2 intolerable without upping the gamma.
I'm not even sure if it really works as intended at the moment. I've never felt like I've really taken advantage of dark spaces because of the wallhop frenzy-mode, minimap wallhack, powergrid redundancy and the fact that marine flashlight uncovers you most of the time anyway. I've *never* been ambushed from a dark spot in competitive and I don't remember it happening in public either. To bring it back to alien vision, these are all reasons why the tradeoff is so unnecessary. If we really want darkness in the game to advantage aliens, then just let them have an advantage in it. It doesn't have to be any more complicated.
Beyond that, I find it incredibly annoying. Toggling alien vision is not my idea of fun or skill. It's done exactly what I feared and predicted which is force optimal gameplay into running around toggling it on and off turning my head into goo. Further still, it actually makes me feel a bit ill if I use it as I should be. There are many things I liked about this patch, but this was not one of them.
rhombusLerk QueenJoin Date: 2011-06-23Member: 106055Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
edited July 2012
I myself hate the energy regen reduction and even the fact that Adrenaline only increases the regen rate from 2 to 4 instead of increasing it to something around 12 (not bad, barely noticeable). This was the wrong approach and it was completely worse before the patch was released. We're in the process of trying to move it away from the energy, since it's imperative for an Alien to have the energy, to something that affects the vision instead like we had quite a few months ago when one of the devs was messing with the shader (I believe it was Matso).
<!--quoteo(post=1951131:date=Jul 12 2012, 04:36 PM:name=internetexplorer)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (internetexplorer @ Jul 12 2012, 04:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1951131"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->But do people who play NS2 honestly have trouble seeing marines to bite them? I just don't buy it, to be honest..<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
YES
You know what is really bad? It is harder to see marines in infested areas :( Especially jetpacks.
Comments
So..
<!--quoteo(post=1951085:date=Jul 12 2012, 05:09 PM:name=Yuuki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Yuuki @ Jul 12 2012, 05:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1951085"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><b>Design goals for alien vision:</b>
- Help new players to keep track of marines in frantic melee fights by providing a clear, stable, bright, clean game image.
- Prevent players to get headache after playing more than 10 minutes.
- Make the game looks good.
Current implementation fails at the majority of these, by making the use of alien vision very obfuscated to new players, inducing headache to those who switch alien vision rapidly. Good look is more debatable.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Look no further!
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=119407" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=119407</a>
Srsly, Tweadle I know you are against darkness as a gameplay mechanic in multiplayer games. And if I were a comp-player I would probably agree. But as the pub-player I'm now, I like the atmosphere and the possibility of aliens that hiding on (and blend in with) the ceiling and other cool moments that arise of the mechanic of darkness.
The previous implementation was doing exactly that, but with yellow textures. It wasn't very beautiful.
He was sarcastic:P
I'm not saying that atmosphere is bad (although, in some ways, it is in disharmony with the fast pace of NS2), but I do feel that a multi-player game needs to approach it differently. Games like NS2 need to be extremely re-playable, whereas Resident Evil, for example, only warrants one play through. Both my gut and my head tell me darkness as a gameplay mechanic is a bad idea. Not only is it frustrating for a large proportion of the playerbase, but it is also circumvented through gamma and brightness tweaks anyway which is bad for equality. Even NS1 saw the vast majority of players with a decent level of knowledge tweak settings or adopt the knife/nL packs to improve the quality of their gaming experience - personally, I find NS2 intolerable without upping the gamma.
I'm not even sure if it really works as intended at the moment. I've never felt like I've really taken advantage of dark spaces because of the wallhop frenzy-mode, minimap wallhack, powergrid redundancy and the fact that marine flashlight uncovers you most of the time anyway. I've *never* been ambushed from a dark spot in competitive and I don't remember it happening in public either. To bring it back to alien vision, these are all reasons why the tradeoff is so unnecessary. If we really want darkness in the game to advantage aliens, then just let them have an advantage in it. It doesn't have to be any more complicated.
Beyond that, I find it incredibly annoying. Toggling alien vision is not my idea of fun or skill. It's done exactly what I feared and predicted which is force optimal gameplay into running around toggling it on and off turning my head into goo. Further still, it actually makes me feel a bit ill if I use it as I should be. There are many things I liked about this patch, but this was not one of them.
YES
You know what is really bad? It is harder to see marines in infested areas :( Especially jetpacks.