Balance and skill suggestions
Dustmop
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174780Members
Join Date: 2012-12-11 Member: 174780Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Balance and skill suggestion box</div>NS2 Balance and Skill suggestions
1. Onos frontal skull shield – Changing the onos to have their skull be a giant shield vs small arms (no minigun) fire on the front would be a fun addition to add to the game. To keep balance it would be good to reduce armor and hp but make the onos a directional tank to scatter marine groups.
2. Jetpacks 1 comm station – Jet packs are fun! Marines suffer from limited mobility and skulks with celerity can ninja nodes too quickly. Getting jet packs earlier would really help marines survive and have a chance during the end of the game if aliens are controlling the map. Having only 1 comm station and a bunch of upgraded weapons is pretty worthless against ono’s and heal stations.
3. Skulk jumping costs energy- skulks jump and turn, for most people this makes them almost impossible to hit. If their jumping used a small amount of energy like a bite this would give a pack of panicked marines a chance to destroy their target. Also, skulks would be justified in choosing adrenaline rather than leaving it for higher life forms.
4. Camouflage slight shimmer on movement – camo is a little OP. On alien movement there should be a very slight shimmer that marines would probably miss when moving but see if they are staring at the cloaked enemies direction.
5. Marine goggles – having purchasable goggles via personal resource from the prototype lab could be a huge benefit to game balance vs lurks with spores and camo. The goggles should give the same effect as an observatory or infrared but only for short periods of times like a personal scan available only to the player with the purchased goggles. Lurk spores block vision and break apart groups of marines making them easy kills for skulks and others.
6. Commander selection suggestion: At the start of every game player should vote on their commander in a screen that shows total score of player (from all games played).
I love playing both teams which is why I always random but marines could definitely use some help. They are completely dependent on having a great commander where as aliens you can win with a average commander who doesn’t do much commanding.
Obviously implementing all these suggestions would make marines win near every game but I think a few of them go in combination and would work well.
Thank you for reading!
1. Onos frontal skull shield – Changing the onos to have their skull be a giant shield vs small arms (no minigun) fire on the front would be a fun addition to add to the game. To keep balance it would be good to reduce armor and hp but make the onos a directional tank to scatter marine groups.
2. Jetpacks 1 comm station – Jet packs are fun! Marines suffer from limited mobility and skulks with celerity can ninja nodes too quickly. Getting jet packs earlier would really help marines survive and have a chance during the end of the game if aliens are controlling the map. Having only 1 comm station and a bunch of upgraded weapons is pretty worthless against ono’s and heal stations.
3. Skulk jumping costs energy- skulks jump and turn, for most people this makes them almost impossible to hit. If their jumping used a small amount of energy like a bite this would give a pack of panicked marines a chance to destroy their target. Also, skulks would be justified in choosing adrenaline rather than leaving it for higher life forms.
4. Camouflage slight shimmer on movement – camo is a little OP. On alien movement there should be a very slight shimmer that marines would probably miss when moving but see if they are staring at the cloaked enemies direction.
5. Marine goggles – having purchasable goggles via personal resource from the prototype lab could be a huge benefit to game balance vs lurks with spores and camo. The goggles should give the same effect as an observatory or infrared but only for short periods of times like a personal scan available only to the player with the purchased goggles. Lurk spores block vision and break apart groups of marines making them easy kills for skulks and others.
6. Commander selection suggestion: At the start of every game player should vote on their commander in a screen that shows total score of player (from all games played).
I love playing both teams which is why I always random but marines could definitely use some help. They are completely dependent on having a great commander where as aliens you can win with a average commander who doesn’t do much commanding.
Obviously implementing all these suggestions would make marines win near every game but I think a few of them go in combination and would work well.
Thank you for reading!
Comments
2. I think 2 comm stations is good as it is for jetpacks. It gives marines a reason to hold and contest for a second base rather then turtling on one base for an entire game.
3. I thought originally you we're talking about leap which does take energy. I guess this woud be fine depending on how much energy it consumes I don't feel skulk jumping requires balance though.
6. Commander selection stage should be extended as sometimes it'll take over a minute for someone to think "Screw it i'll do it". This score selection could be a bit unreasonable for people who want to comm but don't have the scores / wins, people will just assume they're bad and not vote them in.
Just wanted to comment on these ones.
-Doesn t the onos already have that front shield? I am pretty sure you can deal full damage if you hit him on his head.
-the jetpack is the best equipement in marine gameplay (in my mind, far better than exo) so i am glad you have to take 2 CC to use it.
-skulks energy cost on jump? so far i had doubt that this post was just about "nerf alien", but now i am sure of it.
-i understand that camoudlage seem over powered, at least it is if the marine commander isn t doing is job, but adding some glitter or slight animation would only advantage thoses who have good computer with high resolution (not that it would bother me but that doesn t seem fair)
-that is why i only agree with thoses googles. depending on its price (more than a scan) it does seem fair and also give an oportunity to every marine to play even with a slow commander (yeha, me neither i am not fond of being ganged by an entire invisible team).
-a commander doesn t get score, so why should we vote for him depending on it? even if it was the case, why should we vote for a commender who have big score, excluding (and by the way preventing other getting a big one) other player?
Skulk jumping costing energy is a terrible idea. They can hardly jump as is, and I don't see what so special about it to demand energy cost.
JPs at 1 CC is also a bad idea since marines need a strong incentive to expand, and losing the second CC now leads to cascade ending via tech denial. I think its good to speed up the game ending.
Other suggestions are alright though.
1. Onos frontal skull shield – Changing the onos to have their skull be a giant shield vs small arms (no minigun) fire on the front would be a fun addition to add to the game. To keep balance it would be good to reduce armor and hp but make the onos a directional tank to scatter marine groups.<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->This has always been the intended system for onos, but has had a lot of issues. Hopefully it be added <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
2. Jetpacks 1 comm station – Jet packs are fun! Marines suffer from limited mobility and skulks with celerity can ninja nodes too quickly. Getting jet packs earlier would really help marines survive and have a chance during the end of the game if aliens are controlling the map. Having only 1 comm station and a bunch of upgraded weapons is pretty worthless against ono’s and heal stations.<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->In short this would be game breaking, JP are extremely powerful and should only be moved to 1CC if things like leap,spores and such where also moved to 1Hive. <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
3. Skulk jumping costs energy- skulks jump and turn, for most people this makes them almost impossible to hit. If their jumping used a small amount of energy like a bite this would give a pack of panicked marines a chance to destroy their target. Also, skulks would be justified in choosing adrenaline rather than leaving it for higher life forms.<!--coloro:#F4A460--><span style="color:#F4A460"><!--/coloro-->Skulks are already disadvantaged to (LMG)marines in a head to head fight. All this is doing it lowering the skill ceiling and thus making skulks worse<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
4. Camouflage slight shimmer on movement – camo is a little OP. On alien movement there should be a very slight shimmer that marines would probably miss when moving but see if they are staring at the cloaked enemies direction.<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->This has been discussed, something like this will be added(Some nerf to camo)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
5. Marine goggles – having purchasable goggles via personal resource from the prototype lab could be a huge benefit to game balance vs lurks with spores and camo. The goggles should give the same effect as an observatory or infrared but only for short periods of times like a personal scan available only to the player with the purchased goggles. Lurk spores block vision and break apart groups of marines making them easy kills for skulks and others.<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->I don't really like the idea, it just makes scan useless late game..... But that just my thoughts<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
6. Commander selection suggestion: At the start of every game player should vote on their commander in a screen that shows total score of player (from all games played). <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->All this is going to do is split the comming and not comming player base more, new people will never get comm and old players will always be voted comm<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
I love playing both teams which is why I always random but marines could definitely use some help. They are completely dependent on having a great commander where as aliens you can win with a average commander who doesn’t do much commanding.
Obviously implementing all these suggestions would make marines win near every game but I think a few of them go in combination and would work well.
Thank you for reading!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
2. An other thoughts on how to give the loosing team a chance to come back? All RTS games have this problem, the team who has controlled key areas better can give the opponent a long slow death. Maybe 1 arm exo with 1 comm station?
3. "Skulks are already disadvantaged to (LMG)marines in a head to head fight. All this is doing it lowering the skill ceiling and thus making skulks worse" this one I disagree on. Most players as skulks just jump and bite mindlessly. If energy was more of an issue they would have to time their bites. Also I have often ripped through 3 or sometimes more marines with LMG's as a skulk by jumping around and making them shoot each other and never get hit. Intelligent skulks who ambush and stay quiet have a huge advantage over LMG, at least in my experience. As a marine with a LMG I find only the new players who attack head on are easy to rack up multikills where as those (celerity skulks) who are on top of you before you get the first shot off generally mean instant death if armor isnt upgraded, could be I am just a bad shot or have a low frame rate but that is my experience.
4. I didnt think my idea's were that original, good too hear it.
5. There are not many good lurk players, however when you meet one or are one you can nearly guarantee victory with laying down spores. Lurks are so fast and you cant see them whey they are spraying spores on you. Maybe goggles with very limited range? Or a let a welder burn nearby spores?
6. Commander doesnt have to be based of score but some seleciton system before game starts would be nice.
Thanks for reading, I look forward to the next big update but I still enjoy playing in the mean time.
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Yeah it was th intended design<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
2. An other thoughts on how to give the loosing team a chance to come back? All RTS games have this problem, the team who has controlled key areas better can give the opponent a long slow death. Maybe 1 arm exo with 1 comm station? <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->As much as you want to let people come back: you dont want the loss of a CC or Hive mean nothing, its a delicate balence<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
3. "Skulks are already disadvantaged to (LMG)marines in a head to head fight. All this is doing it lowering the skill ceiling and thus making skulks worse" this one I disagree on. Most players as skulks just jump and bite mindlessly. If energy was more of an issue they would have to time their bites. Also I have often ripped through 3 or sometimes more marines with LMG's as a skulk by jumping around and making them shoot each other and never get hit. Intelligent skulks who ambush and stay quiet have a huge advantage over LMG, at least in my experience. As a marine with a LMG I find only the new players who attack head on are easy to rack up multikills where as those (celerity skulks) who are on top of you before you get the first shot off generally mean instant death if armor isnt upgraded, could be I am just a bad shot or have a low frame rate but that is my experience. <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Really this has to do with 2 things, ONE: newer players don't stick together and let them selves get snuck up on a lot. TWO: The hitreg is a bit buggy....... Basicly once the metagame settles a bit we will be back to the LMG being lightly better then skulk... So don't worry about it, and try to play on better servers that have better hitreg (16-18 player I5-OC 4.4-4.6Ghz servers are best) <!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
4. I didnt think my idea's were that original, good too hear it.
5. There are not many good lurk players, however when you meet one or are one you can nearly guarantee victory with laying down spores. Lurks are so fast and you cant see them whey they are spraying spores on you. Maybe goggles with very limited range? Or a let a welder burn nearby spores?
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Once you see flamers get a little buff, you will start seeing lerks get wrecked by them. Meanwhile brushup on your shotguning, there borderline OP VS lerks<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
6. Commander doesnt have to be based of score but some seleciton system before game starts would be nice.
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Yeah its not a bad idea, something where you can ask to be the comm<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Thanks for reading, I look forward to the next big update but I still enjoy playing in the mean time.
<!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->Yeah, all the Indev maps are looking awesome!!!<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Jump Costs Energy. </b>Definitely disagree (plus for a leapy skulk Adrenaline isn't a terrible option.) If something is addressed here, it should be the way the Skulk model flies through the air and interacts with walls. Currently a jumpy skulk's player model instantly snaps to insane directions, creating a very chaotic target. Combine that with wall-jumping actually changing your overall movement speed and the overall combat quality drops (although the problem here is that when wall-jumping increases speed, movement skill has more depth than it would otherwise.)
<b>Camo. </b>I do sort of feel something should be done to address Camo. I still think the safer paths are
<ul><li>a cheaper scan but reduced radius, or</li><li>a cheaper Observatory with quicker build time but reduced hitpoints and radius</li></ul>
Another (riskier) possibility is a new item: the commander can research <b>Motion Scanners,</b> which can periodically (perhaps at an additional P.RES cost of 1?) scan a medium range cone in front of the marine, de-cloaking aliens.
Tweaking camo itself is also possible, but seems fraught with problems. Your solution can work, but then do players want to turn their gamma up to ridiculous values so they can see cloakers from further away? Another solution is to attach an energy cost to stealthing, but that requires some tighter control over when you cloak which makes camo really awkward compared to the elegant simplicity it currently has (which I wouldn't want to ruin.)
Or maybe there are other elegant solutions like:
<ul><li>Players can only enter cloak in shadows (light of value x or less)</li><li>Players can cloak anywhere but has a constant energy cost in bright areas (but energy recharges in dark areas.)</li></ul>
Buuuuuut, if it does indeed need some sort of control, why not a timer? doesn't take energy, but is something separate, a bar around the icon or something that slowly drains while you're camoed. Kind of like stamina in other games, or cloak in TF2 i think is like that. That way the actual camo is still good as long as it isn't a 10 second camo or something extreme. Plus would take more skill to use.