Poor implementation of 250

Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
edited June 2013 in NS2 General Discussion
Build 250 itself is great, congrats to Sewlek and everyone else involved for putting together an excellent patch that improves the game.

However, the implementation of the patch by UWE has been... lacking, to say the least. All of the old tutorial videos, which were never that good and are now all horribly outdated, are still in the game. No new ones have been added. Explore Mode is now outdated and yet it has not been changed. Some tooltips for things in the commander UI are inaccurate now (like armories being able to heal armor or drifters being cloaked). There has been no post on the site to accompany the new build, explaining the changes and their impact on the game. I remember when I raised concerns on this a couple of weeks ago, Hugh assured me that the in-game movie system would be improved alongside the release of 250. I have not seen this happen as of yet.

It isn't that big of a problem for people who followed the balance mod throughout its development process, but for players who are new to 250 the changes will be jarring and no adequate explanation is being provided by the developers to help them out. I strongly urge UWE to rectify these problems and make this transition a little bit smoother for those players who didn't know 250 was coming.

Comments

  • BestProfileNameBestProfileName Join Date: 2013-01-03 Member: 177320Members
    They just put NS2 on sale on Steam. There is absolutely no way they can rectify the tutorials in this period of time.

    With that said, the tutorials need to be worked on and revamped VERY soon.

    And BTW UWE, did you convert temporarily some rookie only servers, as I suggested? Or did you set all the noobs up for stomps again? The playing field is slightly more level now than last time due to the changes, but is it enough?
  • AyanomooseAyanomoose Join Date: 2013-05-06 Member: 185153Members
    Clearly this implementation was not properly balanced.
  • YMICrazyYMICrazy Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 165986Members
    They just put NS2 on sale on Steam. There is absolutely no way they can rectify the tutorials in this period of time.

    Ughh I honestly expected rewritten tutorials and practice videos but this was not well done at all. In the game itself, there is nothing to explain to the older players how to use the new movement mechanics and nothing to help the new guys coming in because of the 66% off sale. Instead the outdated videos might confuse the heck out of them attempting outdated mechanics. I know most of these guys will not go out of their way to look outside of the game because they are the same people that had no idea this patch was coming.
  • JektJekt Join Date: 2012-02-05 Member: 143714Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
    I should of put this here.
    Jekt wrote:
    I wouldn't disagree at all that the information regarding changes isn't properly given to the player in-game. Life form specific evolutions being tied to support structures is maybe the biggest offender here. There really is no way of knowing that to get leap, you need to build a shift and click on it once the biomass requirement has been met, or what evolutions tie in with each structure unless you read the description bubble. Which is in word sentence structure instead of something compact and concise that can be scrolled over.

    The in game tutorials should be removed entirely. Scrims that were played during the beta, release date help videos, outdated explore mode and the current ingame hint clips. Right now I think it is the most important aspect that needs to be addressed and improved. A tutorial system needs to be sequential, brief, interactive, give the player a sense of progression and get them familiar with the workings of a standard NS2 round.

    Then there needs to be ingame help systems in place for people who don't go through the tutorial. In game tips that explain an arms lab the first time you build one for example. This information should be given in a well presented panel that fades out when you stop looking at it, with any voice tutelage defaulted to off.

    Thinking about it, a great tutorial might be one of the most challenging and time consuming extras to get into a complex, independent game, but it's worth every bit of the effort. So many on my steam list just got so overwhelmed after joining an in progress game for the first time.
  • SUPER_SARSSUPER_SARS Join Date: 2013-02-13 Member: 183039Members
    People can have whatever thoughts they want on the new build, but new player management has been and is still terrible.
  • YMICrazyYMICrazy Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 165986Members
    Zek wrote: »
    I agree, it doesn't feel like UWE has been taking this release very seriously given its magnitude. The most disruptive patch NS2 has ever had(not in a bad way) and no one even thought to update documentation, prepare a release video, make the changelog more readable, etc. This stuff is important and the patch should have been delayed until it could be done right.

    Honestly I think they rushed it due to the sale. They did not want new people to get a taste of vanilla either because they did not want to confuse newer players a week later with a game changing patch. Plus UWE had to realize it would be difficult to get the disgruntled players to come back after 250 so they had to try to fetch new players to see how it works out with their new system. Obviously vanilla was not exactly peaking with a large playerbase as it was. Chivalry also released a new patch around the same time as UWE so they might have released early because of that. Just my guess as soon as I saw the sale picture though.
  • Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I agree that the sale should have pushed back until new player management was improved, as it is I fear this sale will end up like all the others - a brief spike in player count before a quick return to the status quo. It's simply too difficult for new players to learn how to play the game as it is, and expecting all of them to find ezekel's BT movement videos (which are excellent but sadly not included in the game) is pretty unrealistic.
  • RabidWeaselRabidWeasel Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 5337Members
    Honestly I think they rushed it due to the sale. They did not want new people to get a taste of vanilla either because they did not want to confuse newer players a week later with a game changing patch. Plus UWE had to realize it would be difficult to get the disgruntled players to come back after 250 so they had to try to fetch new players to see how it works out with their new system. Obviously vanilla was not exactly peaking with a large playerbase as it was. Chivalry also released a new patch around the same time as UWE so they might have released early because of that. Just my guess as soon as I saw the sale picture though.

    Pretty sure this is 100% on the ball, I'm assuming the time of the sale was set in stone at a specific date and couldn't been changed even though there are some serious fixes needed to documentation etc. Still, it was better to push 250 now than to have new players come into a soon-to-be-obsolete game.
  • KattcattisKattcattis Join Date: 2013-01-31 Member: 182683Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    The new build confuses me.
    I get that movement have been changed, and I feel a lot faster as alien. Does this mean I have to change my way of playing?
    Like if there is something that I miss. I know when they before changed the movement of skulk I had to change completely how
    I approach a target. Do I have to learn a new way again?
    Worried that I am missing something.
  • IndustryIndustry Esteemed Gentleman Join Date: 2010-07-13 Member: 72344Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Supporter
    Kattcattis wrote: »
    The new build confuses me.
    I get that movement have been changed, and I feel a lot faster as alien. Does this mean I have to change my way of playing?
    Like if there is something that I miss. I know when they before changed the movement of skulk I had to change completely how
    I approach a target. Do I have to learn a new way again?
    Worried that I am missing something.

    The basic premise of the skulk is the same. The high speeds will allow you to traverse the map and gain positional advantage, but your engagements should still mostly be ambushes. Barreling in head first will net you kills against newer players, but veterans will tear you apart.
  • Blarney_StoneBlarney_Stone Join Date: 2013-03-08 Member: 183808Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    @Kattcattis check out the videos posted by ezekel, he does a very good job of explaining how the jumps work.
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    @Kattcattis and watch out for the buggy collision system. You can get stuck on absolutely anything at absolutely any time at random. But it usually happen in combat, especially if you've just bought an expensive lifeform. Collisions with marines as skulk are absolutely horrible now.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    *shakes fist at @roobubba *
    Gimmy dat video! :-D
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    IronHorse wrote: »
    *shakes fist at @roobubba *
    Gimmy dat video! :-D
    @IronHorse I haven't got any capture stuff set up! I run at 1920x1200 and my machine is 3 years old (I can get >100fps sometimes, but I think if I start recording I'm going to drop to <30 in combat for sure). Will see if I can reproduce it sometime, but I don't get a whole lot of time for games. Sunday is my next gaming time I think.
  • IronHorseIronHorse Developer, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributor Join Date: 2010-05-08 Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
    edited June 2013
    @roobubba

    Then type record (optionally you can type any name following that) in the console (~ key) while at the main menu.
    This will not impact your performance, and once you've captured the issue you can find the file in your hidden %appdata%\Natural selection 2\ folder
    Then just play it back in game (play "name") and have any free video capture program running, like fraps.
    Compress to H264 format with free program "Handbrake"
    Upload to youtube.
    Sewlek observes.
    Bug fixed.

    :bz
  • cyanidecyanide Join Date: 2013-06-15 Member: 185567Members
    Hugh deserves a written warning.
  • KattcattisKattcattis Join Date: 2013-01-31 Member: 182683Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    I don't know why, but I get stuck on arcs <_< furious stuff when attacking arcs and then gonna flee from marines. But then you are stuck, and dead
Sign In or Register to comment.