As a new player to NS2, here's what almost instantly turned me off to the game -
lukeman3000
Join Date: 2013-08-13 Member: 186801Members
Join Date: 2013-08-13 Member: 186801Members
I remember playing a bit of NS back when it was just a mod for HL, and although I never got into it, I saw a game with a LOT of potential and it seemed very interesting.
Cue the Steam summer sale of 2013, when I decided to buy NS2. I hadn't seen the game for awhile and MAN, it looked a lot better than I had remembered. I was stoked to play. After loading the game, tweaking the settings, playing practice mode for a bit and searching for servers, I finally decided to join a server and try out the game "for real".
Let me get this out of the way and say that, for the most part, I really, really like the actual gameplay. But for me, the worst part is before the game even starts. I can't tell you how many games I've joined in which neither side chooses a commander, and 10+ people just run around, hitting each other with the switchaxe for what seems like forever. A couple times, I've jumped in the commander chair myself just to force the game to start, but I don't like to do this because sometimes, no one even wants commander and I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do (I like commander but I'm not ready for it yet).
That said, I wish that perhaps there was a 30 to 60 second timer, after which the game would randomly select two people to play as commanders so that the game would be started. It gets really old just sitting around, waiting, and to me, it takes away a lot from the game.
I know that this game is nothing like Halo, but one thing that I really like about Halo is its awesome matchmaking system. I don't remember waiting for more than a couple to a few minutes (at most) between games -- they were very back-to-back. I realize that a lot of this may have to do with the amount of people playing NS2, but once you get enough people in the game, I think that it should automatically start after a preset amount of time.
There's probably a good reason that it isn't this way already that I'm just not aware of, but I just thought I'd offer my opinion as a completely new player to NS2. Waiting around so long for a match to start is without a doubt one of the most frustrating things. My brother also agrees (he recently bought NS2) - he said this same thing to me without me even mentioning it to him first.
And one more thing - is there some kind of squad system already implemented in NS2? If not, I think that would be really cool. In a lot of games I've played in, I've seen many people just go off by themselves, getting killed and accomplishing nothing. I know you can't force people to do this or that, but grouping your team into squads might make it easier for the commander to send them different places on the map, and to keep people coordinated in general.
Please keep in mind I'm completely new, so if I'm suggesting something that doesn't make sense (or if there's already a way to do that and I'm just not aware of it), please go easy. I really like the game, and I really like the steep learning curve. A lot of games lack that these days. And maybe some of these problems are just inherent of the game itself, I don't know.
And finally, on a somewhat unrelated note; I really like the idea of bots and a "practice" mode. The bots definitely need some work, as I've seen them get stuck in one area and then I have to restart the game, but I really, really like having a practice mode with bots. My bro and I played this way for a couple hours last night to try and learn the game a little better. It would be nice if you could change the alien AI difficulty (they were kind of easy at times). But yeah, bots are great, especially for learning how to play. I hope to see more progress being made on that front.
Cue the Steam summer sale of 2013, when I decided to buy NS2. I hadn't seen the game for awhile and MAN, it looked a lot better than I had remembered. I was stoked to play. After loading the game, tweaking the settings, playing practice mode for a bit and searching for servers, I finally decided to join a server and try out the game "for real".
Let me get this out of the way and say that, for the most part, I really, really like the actual gameplay. But for me, the worst part is before the game even starts. I can't tell you how many games I've joined in which neither side chooses a commander, and 10+ people just run around, hitting each other with the switchaxe for what seems like forever. A couple times, I've jumped in the commander chair myself just to force the game to start, but I don't like to do this because sometimes, no one even wants commander and I'm stuck trying to figure out what to do (I like commander but I'm not ready for it yet).
That said, I wish that perhaps there was a 30 to 60 second timer, after which the game would randomly select two people to play as commanders so that the game would be started. It gets really old just sitting around, waiting, and to me, it takes away a lot from the game.
I know that this game is nothing like Halo, but one thing that I really like about Halo is its awesome matchmaking system. I don't remember waiting for more than a couple to a few minutes (at most) between games -- they were very back-to-back. I realize that a lot of this may have to do with the amount of people playing NS2, but once you get enough people in the game, I think that it should automatically start after a preset amount of time.
There's probably a good reason that it isn't this way already that I'm just not aware of, but I just thought I'd offer my opinion as a completely new player to NS2. Waiting around so long for a match to start is without a doubt one of the most frustrating things. My brother also agrees (he recently bought NS2) - he said this same thing to me without me even mentioning it to him first.
And one more thing - is there some kind of squad system already implemented in NS2? If not, I think that would be really cool. In a lot of games I've played in, I've seen many people just go off by themselves, getting killed and accomplishing nothing. I know you can't force people to do this or that, but grouping your team into squads might make it easier for the commander to send them different places on the map, and to keep people coordinated in general.
Please keep in mind I'm completely new, so if I'm suggesting something that doesn't make sense (or if there's already a way to do that and I'm just not aware of it), please go easy. I really like the game, and I really like the steep learning curve. A lot of games lack that these days. And maybe some of these problems are just inherent of the game itself, I don't know.
And finally, on a somewhat unrelated note; I really like the idea of bots and a "practice" mode. The bots definitely need some work, as I've seen them get stuck in one area and then I have to restart the game, but I really, really like having a practice mode with bots. My bro and I played this way for a couple hours last night to try and learn the game a little better. It would be nice if you could change the alien AI difficulty (they were kind of easy at times). But yeah, bots are great, especially for learning how to play. I hope to see more progress being made on that front.
Comments
And yes bots are buggy but they work most of the time and are good enought to practise basic things. The practise mode is only for learning basic gameplay to get rdy for rookie servers.
About Squads: a com can make groups of players like in every other rts game and set waypoints for the hole group. Otherwise moving in a Squad is not always the best idea e.g. when you want to sneak into enemies base to build a fast pg.