The Onos...
Crucio
Join Date: 2012-11-10 Member: 168929Members
Join Date: 2012-11-10 Member: 168929Members
I know there are plenty of other of complaints about this alien but after struggling to take down smart Onos players for a dozen or more games I'm starting to not enjoy playing the "late game" of natural selection. I think this is going to turn into a bit of a rant so you have been warned, but this is my opinion and I'm trying to back it up as best I can.
I enjoy the combat presented by every alien beast and weapon, however the late game is just not fun to me anymore. I am willing to say I like to play marines more because I like to think its more challenging, key words there being "I like to think". Admitting this I still think that at this juncture Onos are too survivable. A smart player can keep alive and racking up kills for an exceptionally long time. I see no problem with having an excessive amount of defensive survivability because that is part of the benefit of being on defense. I cannot enjoy having one Onos storm into the marine base, kill 3 people, and then outrun us when an Exosuit, I believe, moves slower than a marine. I might be able to enjoy it if I could continue to pursue and actually manage to kill it before it heals up, however that just simply is not possible.
Overall I think that the late stages of the game are just not balanced right now. The support an Exo requires to actually push is far more demanding than a silent celerity Onos that keeps up with a jet packing marine and also killed me while I was standing on top of a tower in ore processing and jetting to the roof of the room. *cough* kinda pushed me over the edge *cough* I suppose it could just be me getting vexed at being killed by the same Onos over and over again in one game, but to be honest I really do think its more that at this point the Onos needs to lose some mobility, hp, or something so that it doesnt require a team of marines and a couple of exos to just burn though the thing the moment it shows up or they will never actually be able to kill it.
Ideally I would like to think that an exo and an onos if both running in the same direction would run about the same speed, but that would be in favor of the marines as then they could just kite the Onos. I know thats my bias towards marine talking so instead I would like to see something that stops onos from running in, stomping, killing one marine, and then running out and repeating the same process over and over. The only way that comes to mind right now is to make sure that a marine can move at the same speed or just a tiny little bit less than as fast as an Onos so that there is an actual threat that the Onos needs to engage with support or get chased and murdered. I figure that the stomp should be an upgrade that allows Onos to really catch and deal with marines and that jet packs should not be necessary to only keep up with an Onos.
Really I have thought multiple times that I might actually enjoy this game more if they just took out late game units(exo, arc, and Onos) but I know thats not how progress occurs and that it would turn into a stalemate more or less.
I enjoy the combat presented by every alien beast and weapon, however the late game is just not fun to me anymore. I am willing to say I like to play marines more because I like to think its more challenging, key words there being "I like to think". Admitting this I still think that at this juncture Onos are too survivable. A smart player can keep alive and racking up kills for an exceptionally long time. I see no problem with having an excessive amount of defensive survivability because that is part of the benefit of being on defense. I cannot enjoy having one Onos storm into the marine base, kill 3 people, and then outrun us when an Exosuit, I believe, moves slower than a marine. I might be able to enjoy it if I could continue to pursue and actually manage to kill it before it heals up, however that just simply is not possible.
Overall I think that the late stages of the game are just not balanced right now. The support an Exo requires to actually push is far more demanding than a silent celerity Onos that keeps up with a jet packing marine and also killed me while I was standing on top of a tower in ore processing and jetting to the roof of the room. *cough* kinda pushed me over the edge *cough* I suppose it could just be me getting vexed at being killed by the same Onos over and over again in one game, but to be honest I really do think its more that at this point the Onos needs to lose some mobility, hp, or something so that it doesnt require a team of marines and a couple of exos to just burn though the thing the moment it shows up or they will never actually be able to kill it.
Ideally I would like to think that an exo and an onos if both running in the same direction would run about the same speed, but that would be in favor of the marines as then they could just kite the Onos. I know thats my bias towards marine talking so instead I would like to see something that stops onos from running in, stomping, killing one marine, and then running out and repeating the same process over and over. The only way that comes to mind right now is to make sure that a marine can move at the same speed or just a tiny little bit less than as fast as an Onos so that there is an actual threat that the Onos needs to engage with support or get chased and murdered. I figure that the stomp should be an upgrade that allows Onos to really catch and deal with marines and that jet packs should not be necessary to only keep up with an Onos.
Really I have thought multiple times that I might actually enjoy this game more if they just took out late game units(exo, arc, and Onos) but I know thats not how progress occurs and that it would turn into a stalemate more or less.
Comments
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I've played many matches, and won a few as both teams on all game times (opening, mid, and late game). 'Course, it's anecdotal evidence, but ns2stats also had similar graphs when there were a bunch of servers using it. I'm hoping more servers will use the ns2stats add-on and report more statistics.
I wish this game had more of a 1 on 1 balance going. That's one of the biggest appeals in MOBA games to me. League of Legends has over 100 units, and it's relatively balanced(it can and will be argued I'm sure). A tank in LoL isn't going to do a whole lot of damage; it's the initiator, it sometimes has a crowd control ability, and it's in theory supposed to soak up damage while the other friendlies do damage by protecting them. The tank for the Aliens in Natural Selection 2 does the most damage AND has the most health. It's so screwed up because to compound things even further, the tank for the Aliens in Natural Selection 2 on top of having the most health and the most damage has the only form of crowd control in the game(that I've seen anyway, I don't think I've witnessed whatever Vortex is). The combination of balance and the number of units(and thus team compositions) makes 1v1s and team fights interesting. Here, there's little reason to play anything other than a Skulk(not by choice, it's your default) or Onos. It's not about team composition, it's not about countering anything, it's not about finding a way to win a 1v1 encounter, it's just picking what's clearly and by far the best unit when you can afford it.
At LEAST with an Exo, you have drawbacks. Exos are slow and they can't be beaconed in... once you commit to an attack it's very difficult to pull out, especially if the team needs to respond quick to an attack occurring in another part of the map. You also can't get out of an Exo suit(and thus build anything), so if you've lost all your respawn pads and the only people left alive are guys in Exo suits, it's over. An Onos with celerity is stupidly fast, an Onos can cloak with the right upgrade(or by being near a Shade), an Onos can be 100% silent with the right upgrade... it just doesn't have a single weakness attached to it, at all. It's the tank, it's the damage dealer, it can be fast, it can be hidden from sight and it can be 100% silent.