Increase alien spawn time
SupaDupaNoodle
Join Date: 2003-01-12 Member: 12232Members
Join Date: 2003-01-12 Member: 12232Members
Aliens spawn too fast. Base rushing early or mid-game is a win-win for them: if they can kill the IPs/arms lab or other vital structure that is a load of res lost for the marines or even an immediate win for aliens. At the same time, if marines react fast and clear out all the skulks, they've delayed marine offensive actions, but are able to spawn back in numbers and try the same thing again about 1 minute later, this while their structures are magically built for them automatically. Whereas on the other side, if marines rush a hive early on, they can be taken out pretty fast and then take ages to spawn back in singly, plus each IP costs more than a few waves of egg purchases.
This has in fact been a long running problem with NS2, but since 254/5 I've noticed it as a more acute problem.
In the late game, I've had countless occasions where marines get exos/jps and full upgrades, and then start killing alien onos/fades. Then, the aliens, all respawning as skulks, rush directly at the exos and/or main base, and thanks to the abysmal hit-registry and lag/lag-compensation issues, end up just wiping out the heavy weapons and proceeding to drag out the game for another 20 minutes. Again, I think this is due to their fast respawn time.
Please make the cost-benefit calculation for alien base-rushes skew more towards a considered action, rather than letting it be a pre-xenocide win-win suicide-attack tactic. Increase alien spawn time, or halve marine spawn time. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
This has in fact been a long running problem with NS2, but since 254/5 I've noticed it as a more acute problem.
In the late game, I've had countless occasions where marines get exos/jps and full upgrades, and then start killing alien onos/fades. Then, the aliens, all respawning as skulks, rush directly at the exos and/or main base, and thanks to the abysmal hit-registry and lag/lag-compensation issues, end up just wiping out the heavy weapons and proceeding to drag out the game for another 20 minutes. Again, I think this is due to their fast respawn time.
Please make the cost-benefit calculation for alien base-rushes skew more towards a considered action, rather than letting it be a pre-xenocide win-win suicide-attack tactic. Increase alien spawn time, or halve marine spawn time. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Comments
Moreover, if you lose exos and jps against skulks that just spawned (without upgrades like carapace), it's because you still don't have the feeling on when the aliens are popping. It's kinda easy to keep in mind that aliens will spawn after you killed them. Just take the eggs down (for example 1 marine does this constantly and the other ones just shoot the hive/upgrades).
Don't take it personally, but I don't really understand the reason why you are whining about base rushes. It's part of the game and will always be.
Commander and marines on the field should have their map open really often. Maybe use more communication, or get in the chair, research mines, or just beacon in time.
If you leave the base without such buildings within the first 3 minutes, it is an invitation for the aliens to finish you. I see so many marines leave the base as soon as they spawn or the round begins. That is why I tend to stay behind, build stuff and watch the minimap. If my team doesn't get attacked in the corridors next to the natural expansions, I smell a baserush and warn the team and I am right on stuff like this a lot. Then people come back/comm drops an Obs or sth. We kill the skulks, have 3 RTs up and everything is fine, because the the comm can beacon by now/rines that didn't get back to base can advance and build more RTs/destroy enemy RTs. And if aliens try to rush again, we research mines and after they blow up a few times and lose map control, they leave the base alone
On the other hand, if you increase the spawn time (as it was during the beta), than you doom the aliens to watch their structures die as people are waiting for spawning too long. If the rines kill the first alien wave, it takes ages to spawn all aliens and since they are not spawning most likely all at once, they will die one by one and the match is over. Long spawn times are the death for Harvesters, the #1 reason beside dying for older egg lock in older builds and it is frustrating. Who wants to wait 40-120 secs to spawn (happend in old builds - bugs, no eggs etc.) if you know that there is a rine near the hive going to kill the upgrades and all you can do is watch and warn your team. Nothing happens, upgrades go down and you press tab to see 80% of the team waiting for spawns.
I think the spawn times are fine the way they are. And that marines have a big advantage over the alien spawns if they build 2+ IPs. That is worth the res. But I have to consoder that I am not able to play for three builds now. Did something get changed concerning the alien spawn times? Can't tell I read something about that...
what caliber of player are you? a pub hero? low level comp? high level comp? newbie? semi-casual?
it looks like unsubstantiated whine. if the marines watch eachothers' backs, i can't see aliens being able to 'respawn zerg'... since in my experience it only takes 1-2 decent marines to instakill an entire team of fresh spawns.
1.) It isn't fun to have a match last only 2 minutes. It feels like I wasted my time watching skulks do all the work.
2.) If it doesn't work then a lot of time was wasted and marines probably just secured a third hive tech point with an armory/mines/turrets by the time you can get a group to get there and a possibility of a phase gate/obs in the near future.
The way I see it, you either succeed in a BS win or you lose valuable ground unnecessarily. I could see it in competetive play since a win is a win, but in pub? Just stop.
Close position lololol. Only cross positions are allowed in matches... And i still don't get why a lot of pub servers don't run custom spawn for cross spawns only. Of course it's easy to constant base rush as alien. But it's even easier to egg lock as marine...
Not an issue of spawn mechanics, this just means you're playing on low level/no communication pubs. The punishment for aliens doing that is to have 2-3 people protecting spawn while 1-2 people go out and get power up on the other side of the map as your phase tech completes while camping cysted empty res-nodes waiting to kill them the second they drop.
If they keep throwing 3-4 aliens at you at a time at spawn you'll take at least one tech point, they won't be defending their res, and you'll have little to no opposition capping 2-3 res nodes.