What happened to this game!?
gsgrego
Join Date: 2012-12-20 Member: 175651Members
Join Date: 2012-12-20 Member: 175651Members
Came back after a long while to find a game that feels completely bland lacking any of the atmosphere of when it released.
Levels are always lit with it no longer feeling either scary as a marine hearing the footsteps approaching in the darkness or like the hunter stalking its prey in the shadows.
There is less tactical elements tied to lighting since marines always have the advantage and are even rewarded for NOT building power nodes in areas since lighting is always on and cannot be turned off if they don't build it.
Emergency lights are much brighter than the original shadows and as such still don't bring the original feel to it for either side.
Alien vision and marine flashlight are almost completely pointless now since levels remain bright 99% of the time.
WTF did you do to this game? It just feels bland lacking anything on both sides that gave the game its feel.
Levels are always lit with it no longer feeling either scary as a marine hearing the footsteps approaching in the darkness or like the hunter stalking its prey in the shadows.
There is less tactical elements tied to lighting since marines always have the advantage and are even rewarded for NOT building power nodes in areas since lighting is always on and cannot be turned off if they don't build it.
Emergency lights are much brighter than the original shadows and as such still don't bring the original feel to it for either side.
Alien vision and marine flashlight are almost completely pointless now since levels remain bright 99% of the time.
WTF did you do to this game? It just feels bland lacking anything on both sides that gave the game its feel.
Comments
Try rereading my post for the keywords "Came back". This game has lost its atmosphere and has become another bland game.
The current balance is boring. Utterly boring. It is almost too balanced. Marines have it way to easy atm. Aliens are still easy just more limited in how they fight,
Sewlek said he had no problem if someone actually made a mod to recreate the changed lighting from an earlier BT mod iteration (where darkness and emergency light were essentially swapped out and alien structures were glowing in the dark).
I'd do it, but I don't know my way around in NS2's modding API, so hopefully someone else can take care of it. According to Sewlek is it not really difficult.
The reason why we don't see that stuff from official side any time soon is probably because aliens are already stronger in pub play than marines at the moment and have no need for such a big buff at the moment.
You can still tweak the rules of the system, for instance turning the emergency lights back on as soon as the destroyed power node is 10% welded. Or adding cheap flare grenades. Or increasing the range of the flashlight.
It also depends a lot on the map.
- Veil has enough skylights to still feel pretty good without electrical lights.
- Summit only has the area between the northern and eastern tech point going for it, the rest doesn't have any natural lights except Glass Hallway.
- Tram doesn't have any external light sources save for a small row of windows in Elevator Transfer and Observation.
- Mineshaft barely has any natural light sources save for the bright spot in the Gap and the waterfalls in Cave.
- Refinery has Lava Falls and the Smelting pods.
- Docking has enough external lights around the marine start positions of the map and becomes more prone to darkness the further you get into alien territory.
- Descent has just a bunch of windows, which are rather small and only cover a part of the room.
- Biodome has plenty of large windows for external light sources that make darkness a lot less severe.
I honestly have no idea what you're referring to, when did the lighting change?
huh ... ?
Also, lighting effects for destroyed power nodes and emergency lighting haven't been changed.
He's right that the current balance is boring, wrong that marines are the superior side though.
That is all. You can't have both scary atmospherics and sprinting with guns blazing.
I'm happy for the change. It's always fun to shoot stuff.
Yeah. They switched a good game for mimicking cheap overdone shit.
Either way I found it boring on both sides and easy either way. No challenge as a marine and no fun as an alien left.
Not saying they are superior. They are simply easier aka playing the marine no longer feels rewarding because their is no more challenge. The game has been dumbed down.
I miss playing as a marine walking the dark hallways with only a flashlight, listening to the sounds around me as I wait for the ambush to come.
I miss playing as a alien moving through the shadows stalking my prey, ready to spring when they think it safe.
What you get now is a generic game that looks like they compiled the map with fullbright and plays like it too.
I very much want to hear what you consider "cheap" and "overdone" and how it is in NS2 now
Besides the fast that all it has to it atm is a sci fi fps with aliens? The game feels and plays like the hundreds of f2p generic fps games out there. There isn't any depth to it anymore, less tactics and strategy needed, less teamwork required. Its become dumbed down and bland.
NS2 brings old school gameplay up to date. Look at a load of old school remakes like DNF and ROTT to see how graphically limited and oversimplified gameplay looks like and you realise that what ns2 has done so far is actually pretty incredible.
If it's not for you, it's not for you but in that case coming to the forums just to whinge belligerently is bad form.
As someone already mentioned above, were you playing on an nsl version of the map? The lighting there has been much simplified to help frame rates for competitive matches.
Lighting has not changed at all since release, nor has the pace of gameplay. The only thing that has changed is the way people understand the game. The only thing you have to blame is your own changed interpretation or choice of server.
Obviously I meant the interval between encounters. I find it hard to imagine what a slow-paced FPS would be like. Perhaps a maximum speed of 10 dpi mouse movement per second?
Eh....I dunno about that. It's different, but I don't know if the terms "better" or "worse" can really be used. I personally don't enjoy it as much as I used to.
If you dont like the game, dont play it/post about it, its pretty simple.
A good skulk ambush still gets the ol'heart racing though.
That's the right attitude ... to lose the rest of the tiny* remaining player base, except for the die-hards.
*) About only 600 players are left that play ns2 on average per day, worldwide. That is 40% down from previous months, over 70% down compared to a year ago.
And don't even get me started on how GARBAGE the alien Khammander is nowadays. It's literally one GIANT res sink. it's what? 135ish res for a single fully upgraded hive? life form upgrades at 35 res each aside from skulk(and maybe gorge?). Not to mention how much res you spend on near useless cysts who only exist to limit expansion speed of the aliens and be a further res sink. I could complain about Alien Khammander for hours but i'll spare everyone the time.
You came back after a long while of not playing? And because the game has improved and is in somewhat a better place, because the changes are not something you are used to!
Spend a few more hours playing and you will see that the game is somewhat better than before.
I really wish the fade was as scary as it was in NS1, where it could very likely take out 3 members of a group solo very easily. If you didn't have a shotgun there was no hope for you at all. Even if you did, there was a good chance you'd lose in a pair (if it was running upgrades), no hope solo.