UWE, what's going on with this patch?
Wheeee
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2003-02-18 Member: 13713Members, Reinforced - Shadow
I've been on the fence about the changes in this patch, notably the garish alien vision (although I can get used to playing without it...TBH in its current form is better to be left out entirely), but a few changes have made me question whether UWE still remembers some of its core design goals.
1) Intuitive gameplay.
2) As few hidden variables as possible.
Now, it seems to me that "comms start with 0 res and receive 0 res for 1 minute after exiting the comm station/hive" is just about as unintuitive and hidden-variably as you can get. There is ZERO reason for this to be in the game. Another hugely unintuitive thing is that lifeforms don't benefit from biomass until their "tech tree" is unlocked. What? In what world does that make sense? Not only do you have to build a worthless building (whip) to benefit your base class, there is no in-game or cognitive link besides being explicitly told "oh, well skulks need this random building to tech up." Oh, and why do we have to penalize the regeneration rate of carapace? I thought we already went through that phase where certain upgrades had built-in disadvantages and it was deemed a terrible idea.
If you want to penalize teams for jumping in and out of the chair, you could make logging in a time-consuming process (10-15s), or having to re-gestate to leave the hive (an extra <x> seconds of re-egging). As an aside, what's the rationale for having all khamm dropped eggs have a 45s gestate time?
Resource costs are not the only costs in the game and to try to force everything to operate on a resource basis shows a completely linear thought process that is completely incapable of solving balance issues in the game.
Also, I'm convinced that UWE hasn't learned from its mistakes with regards to making sweeping changes all at once instead of incrementally working towards better balance. Fades did not need all the nerfs that they got. Fades were mostly fine, the only problem was the life-form explosion issue which is -still- not fixed. And requiring bio 9 to drop fade eggs is insane.
1) Intuitive gameplay.
2) As few hidden variables as possible.
Now, it seems to me that "comms start with 0 res and receive 0 res for 1 minute after exiting the comm station/hive" is just about as unintuitive and hidden-variably as you can get. There is ZERO reason for this to be in the game. Another hugely unintuitive thing is that lifeforms don't benefit from biomass until their "tech tree" is unlocked. What? In what world does that make sense? Not only do you have to build a worthless building (whip) to benefit your base class, there is no in-game or cognitive link besides being explicitly told "oh, well skulks need this random building to tech up." Oh, and why do we have to penalize the regeneration rate of carapace? I thought we already went through that phase where certain upgrades had built-in disadvantages and it was deemed a terrible idea.
If you want to penalize teams for jumping in and out of the chair, you could make logging in a time-consuming process (10-15s), or having to re-gestate to leave the hive (an extra <x> seconds of re-egging). As an aside, what's the rationale for having all khamm dropped eggs have a 45s gestate time?
Resource costs are not the only costs in the game and to try to force everything to operate on a resource basis shows a completely linear thought process that is completely incapable of solving balance issues in the game.
Also, I'm convinced that UWE hasn't learned from its mistakes with regards to making sweeping changes all at once instead of incrementally working towards better balance. Fades did not need all the nerfs that they got. Fades were mostly fine, the only problem was the life-form explosion issue which is -still- not fixed. And requiring bio 9 to drop fade eggs is insane.
Comments
The biomass + whip(or whichever tech building) change is also pretty cryptic, and I really dislike the idea of tying upgrades to random buildings. It was bad enough with the crags, shifts, and shades, but a whip now too? What's the rationale behind putting upgrades into buildings that serve a completely different purpose? Why scatter them around aimlessly? Again, completely goes against the "intuitive gameplay" philosophy that was supposed to be core to the game.
I haven't had adequate time to play with fades, but they're a lot less fun to play. I'm also very confused as to how the balance is going to work out as fades were very even against shotguns aside from the fade pack issue in competitive play. My first guess is fades are going to be significantly weaker in competitive play, and there's nothing else to balance it out. Onos are still just as weak and useless.
intuitive play/hidden variables is true, however none of the hidden variables are severe enough to effect anything. commander getting no res... well... maybe they should stick to comming like they're meant to? it's a good change - so we're back to the argument of intuition versus balanced gameplay.
did the game benefit from alien commanders going gorge and spamming hydra? or marine commander maybe buying a shotgun for his teammate? i don't think so, it was just 'cheating' res.
also, fade's are potentially insane now with new vortex and stab (they work together right?), so dropping fade eggs could easily be broken OP - better to make fade eggs harder to get in 'close' games at least for the time being to see where the fade goes with the changes.
edit: alien comm is complicated as all hell to me, but i'm sure 5 mins in tutorial/practice mode will sort that out.
I agree. Part of managing expectations is communication. I think the main reason is that UWE playtest new ideas constantly up until release, so you are not 100% guaranteed of the end result of a new patch. This means you can't release a trailer for a feature or change you are going to remove. Unfortunately this also leads to the current results of many people who are being shocked by changes they didn't have an opportunity to get comfortable with.
For example new units are often released in trailers in other games as a marketing tool, but also to manage the reaction of seasoned players who are used to things being the way they are.
People, in general, are very resistant to change, and HATE surprises when something they are emotionally connected to is changed. EVEN WHEN THEY ARE CONSTANTLY DEMANDING THINGS BE CHANGED.
In RTS tech trees are hugely important. Unfortunately they are historically not marketed as they aren't as nifty as a new weapon.
Maybe there should be strategy trailers AND gameplay trailers.
Sure, this makes the hive the end-all- be-all of alien structures since it is also where biomass comes from...but isn't it the point of the Hive to be the single most important structure for aliens?
To me, it is much more intuitive to have all alien abilities come from the same place that biomass comes from, as biomass is the precursor to abilities.
If tying their research to support structures (i.e. crags, shift, shade, whip) is meant to be an additional cost, ability costs could be increased accordingly, if it is meant to force Kahmms to use all structures available, I suggest reworking the structures that are not being used (whip)
p.s. biomass should always affect all lifeforms....it just makes sense with its purpose.
This is my personal conspiracy theory
That, and they tried to slow Alien tech by forcing them to pay for Crags/Shifts/Shades, whether needed or not.
You can still walk them off infestation, now even faster than before.
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Am I the only one who is all excited about this patch?