Sewlek's Beta Test Mod
halfofaheaven
Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168660Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Gold
Join Date: 2012-11-09 Member: 168660Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Gold
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=130391092
Boom.
IMO the first balance mod that looks promising.
Any servers running this?
Boom.
IMO the first balance mod that looks promising.
Any servers running this?
Comments
Only thing I'm a little on the fence about is crag change, if they get rid of heal stacking they should probably consider boosting its healrate a little. Somebody please host this on a server!
I think I heard in one your podcasts that they were thinking about including a button on the front page that tells people what the server is for and to connect if they wanted to test a few changes. Will this be added? I think it's a good way to actually get people to join.
Unlocks alien abilities. Instead of individually researching abilities, you would simply upgrade the Biomass level of your hive(s). Each ability requires a certain amount of biomass before it automatically unlocks. Gorge Tunnels require 2 Biomass. Leap/blink require 3, etc etc. All the way up to the endgame abilities which require 9 (3 hives fully upgraded to max Biomass). Each hive can have up to 3 Biomass levels, each level costing more res to research (it's 30 res to upgrade to a level 2 Biomass hive, 50 for a level 3 Biomass hive iirc).
And that would be in keeping with shells unlocking Regen and Cara together, not one or the other.
Removes some khammander decision making, but the alien players gain some as a result.
Interesting, I look forward to trying this out.
At the very least I would say the Alien commander loses nothing in terms of tech paths/choices. In the best case scenario the Khamm would have several viable opening strategies to choose from.
And with the new chamber system the marines have to kill multiple structures to remove an upgrade, and for aliens to get it back they just have to rebuild the structures, rather than build and upgrade.
Looking forward to this even more then!
Everything else looks pretty interesting though. Would be interested to know about movement code changes.
Only question for me is: WTF is khamm doing then?
I mean deciding which upgrades come when is one of the few things a khamm can control at the moment. If youre doing shells/spurs/veils NS1 style as well as lifeform abilities, all khamm has to do is count res ticks and press the proper button.
Dont get me wrong, I don't think it's neccessarily bad but I think the next step will be to think really hard whether khamm is needed or his remaining 3 tasks can't be given to the players.
Make the khamm's abilities useful enough and he'll have plenty to do aside from clicking the next upgrade.
If there were just CC(including ONE upgrade you can research multiple times aka biomass), Armory, Arms Lab, MACs(which spawn from CCs) and meds/ammo, then at least I would say yes, comm is not neccessary.
why... why... why? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Marines should have at least someway to heal armor outside of counting on a teammate to spend 5 p.res on a welder AND spend the time to heal you.
I'm all for promoting teamplay and causing marines to stick together when attacking, but not when it comes to the characters personal hp/armor when they are AT A BASE.... well.... I guess it would force the comm to build MAC's to heal armor.... which is pretty absurd.
You can type "connect inv.ns2servers.com" in console to join.
Maybe if welders were free... but even then I have a baaaad feeling about this.
Nope. Gorges = Welders + Medpacks for aliens.
Gorge = 10 pres, likely more on hydras/tunnels
Welder = 5 pres
Medpacks = 1 tres each
This sounds pretty balanced to me, which is the point of this test.
It also makes armor upgrades more useful. Most of the time you see marines lose all of their armor, get medpacks back to 100 hp and then continue to fight with no armor. This will encourage team-welding which will result in marines having their armor more often.
I like the changes a lot. Not sure about Biomass.
It's ridiculous. Try that on aliens as well. Only a Gorge can heal armor. Within pubs being dependent on teammates to heal armor with a welder is a bad idea. Especially because it makes them not wield a gun and use a welder that heals one target making 2 people vulnerable in addition to wasting 5 res which we all know pubs are likely not to do. Hard enough right now getting people to weld the most basic of structures and so this is my main concern. I doubt this will stop armory humping because even with negating the armor effect, now people will run back when they lose health because they will feel more vulnerable without armor.
People are already not spending pres on welders in pubs because they are saving up for exo or whatever. Not to mention the xenocides late game that will absolutely make playing annoying and more frustrating. If NS2 pubs always had players where team work and camaraderie were present this would work fantastically. However if you spend a lot of time in pubs you will know how most players act. I had a guy with 55 pres yell for others to get a welder when he was an exo and yet he refused to get one when he died and some one else was an exo even though I died welding his butt earlier.
Gorge bile bombs/alien attacks will tear down armor even from level 3 and after that point you better hope someone is nice enough to purchase a welder if you have a lot of expensive gear on you because no one is doing it now.
Seriously? Do you ever see Xenocide used to help win a game? Do you ever see Gorges using bile bomb to take down marine armor?
If anything, these changes will promote those underused mechanics. Being dependent on teammates is exactly what this game is about.
Did you miss the commander role?
EDIT: If you're going to disagree with my post, at least respond and tell me why. Otherwise I will regard it as a troll.
yeah exactly, those were the reasons for the change. keep in mind when playing that mod, its very early stages and probably completely changes. especially the movement code will change. you can imagine that such kind of a change is not something you can "just implement" and it works.
It was removed once before but it was reinstated to balance out other issues at the time. It just promotes turtling and mass humping and doesn't really add anything and there are better alternatives to armoury armour healing. However, this is just my opinion and I don't expect everyone to agree with it.
First off I am speaking for pubs.
As marine teams advance they lose armor. Unless someone is nice enough to bring welders which they usually do not you will be likely wiped out unless your team is heavily coordinated which pubs are usually not. Especially during those heavy armory pushes where everything turns hectic do you think people will whip out their welders and weld with that slow rate and risk getting killed? Once your armor goes down you will not get it back unless you are welded. This includes when your main base is being assaulted. The only way I can see this working is if welders are 0 pres and you have a choice between the switch axe and a welder. Then I will be ok with it. I am specifically talking about pubs which people horde their pres. They will not buy them. That is my issue. Xenocide will just add to the frustration late game and bile bomb is targeted at exos with marines trying to weld them. Forward bases will be much weaker.
personally i hate the idea of having 100 hp and no armour in late game... you'd get instagibbed by anything and lose all of your gear. the only way to prevent that is running around the map looking for a guy with a welder?
it might be okay in comp play, but pub players aren't reliable enough. i'd literally have to run back to spawn and type 'kill', then respawn with my armor.
aliens have crags and hives to heal armour, in addition to gorge.
Yes, I see people with welders now and I expect more people to use them in the future with these changes. The problem you are not considering is that Aliens need to use Gorges to heal out of their base. Marines now use Armories, not Gorges, which do not cost one of your players to have.
For balance, both teams need to require some sort of personal investment to heal each other to full in combat. For Aliens now, it's Gorges. For Marines it should be Welders, but instead right now it is Armories. I hope this explains why the changes are good at not bad. It only takes a few seconds to weld your buddy to full.