AltBalance by StepAhead
Hey guys!
I've been waiting to play fair NS2 for a long time, dropped playing for 2 months, yet situation is still where is was. So here's my own solution. Alternative balance.
*********************************************
Our very own server: AltBalance Valley
searchable by Game: balance
*********************************************
Phase 1 is complete.
Current version: 1.5
Features:
-Aliens-
1. Bilebomb: -20% damage.
2. Hallucinations got 3 times more HP.
3. Adjusted costs of Chambers to 10 res and Evolutions to 15. Shift Hatch reduced to 3 res.
4. Crags only heal up to 65% of your constitution.
5. Xenocide, Umbra and Vortex are available at Second Hive. Research time is increased. Costs adjusted.
6. Khammander can't drop Onos eggs.
7. Gorge, Fade and Onos altered to have more base armor. Amount of armor with Carapace is the same.
8. Fade altered to have significantly more survivability and less mobility with Shadow step.
-Marines-
1. Tech Tree became less expensive, more posibilities for staring builds and general strategy.
2. Advanced Armory got removed, functionality passed to basic Armory. 2 per room max, to prevent turtling. Costs sligtly reduced.
3. Sentry altered to be an offensive tool. 1 per room, doesn't require power, can be built on infestation, reacts faster. Damage is the same, has a blind zone of 90 degrees.
4. Batteries work as small reserve power sources for structures. 1 per room, small radius. Don't need Robotics to use.
5. Phase Gates are limited to 3 per map. Use them wisely.
6. Mines trigger faster.
7. Slightly higher jetpack acceleration.
8. ARCs HP reduced to 1500, damage reduced by 35%
9. Nanoshield: 35% dmg reduction and 60 sec cooldown.
10. Claw Exo cost reduced to 35 res. All exos get slighlty more armor and can crush cysts.
Mod's page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=127813673
What critical balance issues my mod adresses:
1. Inability to build defense even against 1 skulk without setting up mines everywhere. And even with mines it was easily crackable.
2. Marines being nailed down to thier own RTs and not having time to actually attack Aliens.
3. The whole Marine base going down without a single vulnerable structure - powernode.
4. Skulk's most annoying and efficient technique - jumping in circles around marines.
5. Overpriced marine tech tree.
Mod should fix these major problems and bring interest and competition back to NS2.
This is AltBalance Thread and we can discuss further development here. Go!
I've been waiting to play fair NS2 for a long time, dropped playing for 2 months, yet situation is still where is was. So here's my own solution. Alternative balance.
*********************************************
Our very own server: AltBalance Valley
searchable by Game: balance
*********************************************
Phase 1 is complete.
Current version: 1.5
Features:
-Aliens-
1. Bilebomb: -20% damage.
2. Hallucinations got 3 times more HP.
3. Adjusted costs of Chambers to 10 res and Evolutions to 15. Shift Hatch reduced to 3 res.
4. Crags only heal up to 65% of your constitution.
5. Xenocide, Umbra and Vortex are available at Second Hive. Research time is increased. Costs adjusted.
6. Khammander can't drop Onos eggs.
7. Gorge, Fade and Onos altered to have more base armor. Amount of armor with Carapace is the same.
8. Fade altered to have significantly more survivability and less mobility with Shadow step.
-Marines-
1. Tech Tree became less expensive, more posibilities for staring builds and general strategy.
2. Advanced Armory got removed, functionality passed to basic Armory. 2 per room max, to prevent turtling. Costs sligtly reduced.
3. Sentry altered to be an offensive tool. 1 per room, doesn't require power, can be built on infestation, reacts faster. Damage is the same, has a blind zone of 90 degrees.
4. Batteries work as small reserve power sources for structures. 1 per room, small radius. Don't need Robotics to use.
5. Phase Gates are limited to 3 per map. Use them wisely.
6. Mines trigger faster.
7. Slightly higher jetpack acceleration.
8. ARCs HP reduced to 1500, damage reduced by 35%
9. Nanoshield: 35% dmg reduction and 60 sec cooldown.
10. Claw Exo cost reduced to 35 res. All exos get slighlty more armor and can crush cysts.
Mod's page:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=127813673
What critical balance issues my mod adresses:
1. Inability to build defense even against 1 skulk without setting up mines everywhere. And even with mines it was easily crackable.
2. Marines being nailed down to thier own RTs and not having time to actually attack Aliens.
3. The whole Marine base going down without a single vulnerable structure - powernode.
4. Skulk's most annoying and efficient technique - jumping in circles around marines.
5. Overpriced marine tech tree.
Mod should fix these major problems and bring interest and competition back to NS2.
This is AltBalance Thread and we can discuss further development here. Go!
Comments
Update 1.1
Adressing some future balance issues:
-Sentries - now depend on power. From either powernodes or power batteries.
-Batteries getting more health, range and cost.
-Bilebomb - damage reduced by 35%
-Nanoshield - cooldown 60 sec and 35% damage reduction.
It's just an issue of how the players are playing the game, which in the case of 1 skulk killing a whole base, Marines unable to attack, the base going down because of the power node, or being unable to shoot skulks are all examples of players playing poorly and there's no reason to add crutches for poor play to work around that.
And the Marine tech tree is pretty fairly priced..
I'm not alien biased in any shape or form. If anything I am Marine biased. But these issues aren't really issues with the exception of the power node's existence.. that is only point where I would agree that it's very dumb for one structure going down to essentially raise the GG for the Aliens.
You're saying pretty damn right things. But what we have on practice is aliens take less skill to win. And they do.
So I'm trying to reduce a little that difference in skill requirements between teams. And also reintroducing some new mechanics that would give more playing options.
It's going to be fun.
And it's almost untouched.
I took a small sheet of paper yesterday. Divided it in two. On the left side I wrote requirements to build an Exo. On the right - onos requirements. And then I chuckled.
I released mod just a few hours ago
Mod has "balance" game name.
If current state proves itself imbalanced, we can very fast change it. VERY. Hours. Not months, or weeks.
Power nodes are where they where. Sentry Batteries got another function. They power structures around them in an average radius. If power node is destroyed, battery will keep base operational.
Do you think power nodes should be changed at all?
It's a base mechanic and I wouldn't like to mess with it at the moment. With battery losing key nodes is not that scary.
Would you like to hear it? (and feel free to change it for your balance needs)
Sure.
Yes, that's interesting concept. And mostly not that hard to implement.
When I decide to step away from original NS2 line, I will consider it. Thank you!
I'm currently working on that one, so I can't answer yet. In that version pressing space would cause zero-height jump.
Even marines can link 2 jumps, heck marines have faster lateral movement than aliens as their speed changes don't ramp up like aliens do.
I can think of a few players who would like this very much as the only chance you ever have with them is if your not a ground skulk (aka dead skulk).
20 clogs? Sorry gorge forts on that scale are not fun, 10 clogs is fine....its called been there tried that (though that was a long time ago that we saw clog limits set) and I think it was pretty much accepted that a clog limit was needed. After the initial grumblings I think most gorge players have learnt to shut down an area with 10.
A gorge, 20 clogs and a shift.....clearly you must find it fun shooting at big globular walls.
I applaud you for actually getting out there and having a go, but one of the reasons UWE take so long to deliver changes is that they test all these silly ideas and make sure these things work...they also need to test the pants off things.
We have had some very quick patches through the beta, but these often brought about unexpected gameplay elements...heck its why not everyone knows about feign death and hype-rmutation. It was not because feign death fades where OP'd but that the combination of the two led to un-killable skulks (funny but kinda game breaking).
Wow, it's been a long day. Just got home.
I will refresh feature list, cause it's outdated.
Skulks were getting 1.5 ground speed in return, so it could've been not that bad. Still, I'm gonna give them jumps back.
It's 15 clogs now.
Thank you! I might make mistakes in modding, but I'm very intusiastic about it, so they'll be getting polished very soon. Frankly, I don't remember any significant balance changes since release. 3.5 months, that's kinda long.
Also, community generously shares with me experience of past changes and features so I've got everything I could've dreamt of to make a really good mod. And I will.
Latest complete feature list:
-Aliens-
1. No more glancing bites for skulks. Movement system back to original, for now. Xenocide - 300 damage, but smaller radius.
2. Bilebomb: -33% damage. Gorge is reworked to be less dependent on carapace. 15 clogs.
3. Whip's Bombard is now free to evolve and deals some heavy type damage.
4. Hallucinations have 30% of original hp.
5. Adjusted costs of Chambers and Evolutions: 10 res to give more freedom in starting build orders.
6. Carapace is slightly nerfed. 700 armor for Onos.
7. Crags only heal up to 65% of your constitution.
-Marines-
1. Sentries depend on electricity and have 360 degree awareness. 2 per room.
2. Batteries work as small reserve power sources for structures. 1 per room, small radius.
3. Mines trigger faster.
4. Slightly higher jetpack acceleration.
5. ARCs HP reduced to 1500.
6. Nanoshield: 35% dmg reduction and 60 sec cooldown.
7. Exos crush cysts.
8. Marine tech tree cost slightly reduced to give more freedom in starting build orders.
searchable by Game: balance
Yay!
http://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/128223/lets-enjoy-playing-ns2-once-again-altbalance/
I'm not. Slightly faster. Jetpackers are mobile, yet vulnerable, cause they lack that initial thrust.
You, probably, would've not even noticed it in game. I mentioned it just to be fair.
While I have not tried out this balance mod yet, I can say that disregarding someone and saying "The games fine, you're just bad" is a logical fallacy. There are a lot of problems with the game, and the game should not be balanced around the 2-3 teams at the very top. Nor do I think that win statistics are to be trusted as far as balance.
Trickle-down balance is a failure.