Build 260 Live on Steam! - Natural Selection 2

135

Comments

  • ns2isgoodns2isgood Join Date: 2013-04-16 Member: 184847Members
    edited November 2013
    For those worrying about no performance improvements, Red Dog has mentioned that he has got a 10 to 15% FPS increase from this patch. I'm guessing there are plenty of little tweaks not mentioned in the log.
    For those worrying about no performance improvements, Red Dog has mentioned that he has got a 10 to 15% FPS increase from this patch. I'm guessing there are plenty of little tweaks not mentioned in the log.

    I don't notice anything. Maybe it's because my bottleneck is GPU.
  • kalakujakalakuja Join Date: 2012-09-11 Member: 159045Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter
    die ns2 pve gameplay die
  • PuphBallPuphBall Join Date: 2013-06-06 Member: 185488Members, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited November 2013
    What do we mean by pve gameplay here? (talking to kalakuja, Roobubba)

    Player versus enemy? Surely that isn't it because I can't make sense of it.
    Also, the drifter is basically useless in large games. Whips too... but I'm glad Alien Kham heals got nerfed. I was able to heal an onos to full hp in seconds with Crag/Healwave/Hive/Mucous combined so that was a big excessive.

    oh god... the drifter.. such humanity. I shed a tear last night reading the changelog. It was a tear that was long due starting when the gorge got nerfed in 259. It's like my favorite life forms and positions are getting hit the hardest. Every nerf since 255 has drastically affected my gameplay because I used every facet of power in each race (except aim lol)
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    PuphBall wrote: »
    What do we mean by pve gameplay here? (talking to kalakuja, Roobubba)

    Player versus enemy? Surely that isn't it because I can't make sense of it.
    Also, the drifter is basically useless in large games. Whips too... but I'm glad Alien Kham heals got nerfed. I was able to heal an onos to full hp in seconds with Crag/Healwave/Hive/Mucous combined so that was a big excessive.

    oh god... the drifter.. such humanity. I shed a tear last night reading the changelog. It was a tear that was long due starting when the gorge got nerfed in 259. It's like my favorite life forms and positions are getting hit the hardest. Every nerf since 255 has drastically affected my gameplay because I used every facet of power in each race (except aim lol)

    Player versus entity or structure, but not Player vs player.

    The amount of player vs structure in this game is huuuuge, this nerf to drifers and whips helps to alleviate that very slightly. Now if we can reduce the vision obstruction ala Mendasp's cHUD mod... then we would be getting close to a real competitive game. :)
  • FrozenFrozen New York, NY Join Date: 2010-07-02 Member: 72228Members, Constellation
    Mucous needs to heal a flat rate of armor.

    Not a percentage. It will never make sense until it is less useful.
  • AgielAgiel Join Date: 2006-11-14 Member: 58605Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Subnautica Playtester
    PvE is a term mostly used in MMOs and stands for players versus environment (as opposed to player versus player). Another term I like to use in the context of NS2 is inverted turret defence. The less of this the better IMO.
  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    Roobubba wrote: »
    Now if we can reduce the vision obstruction ala Mendasp's cHUD mod... then we would be getting close to a real competitive game. :)

    His hud does this after the recent update. He has a setting for reducing particle effects. It's fantastic.
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    edited November 2013
    Ghosthree3 wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    Ghosthree3 wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    so.... all i see are "balances" that only nerf aliens...? drifters are rarely used in pubs (although more are catching on), why would they mess with them now that they are slower and have less armor? were crags too OP? I missed that somewhere while playing the game.. and reading what people that have already posted. Can a playtester help me out on this one?

    "Players didn't use them in public play so they weren't OP". No. You DO NOT, EVER, balance around player ignorance. You balance around game play as intended, if people don't know how to play like that, that's their problem. Learn to play correctly.
    And now you're saying that you want no more balance changes?

    *WOOPS! The weirdest thing happened. I swore in my post and found it mod edited. And a warning ended up on my account. No more swearing now!*

    OH DEAR, Hugh doesn't know what a forum censor is. If you have an issue with swearing, you make it delete the word entirely instead of just making it **** it and then complaining about people saying things the forum let them say. Hugh, I know you're a mod (or admin, w/e) but you can't punish people for swearing when it's already been censored, especially when you could have stopped it appearing at all. In fact I'd go so far as to say you can't punish anyone for posting anything unless it's abusing another person directly or spreading illegal information, or misinformation. Everything else is opinion which you are not right to squash. If you'd really had a problem with JUST the swearing in my post, you'd have removed the *'s ONLY and left the rest of the sentence where it was. That was a really low move and speaks volumes about your opinion of freedom of speech.

    Original sentence said, minus the "swearing":
    RapGod wrote: »
    Ghosthree3 wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    so.... all i see are "balances" that only nerf aliens...? drifters are rarely used in pubs (although more are catching on), why would they mess with them now that they are slower and have less armor? were crags too OP? I missed that somewhere while playing the game.. and reading what people that have already posted. Can a playtester help me out on this one?

    "Players didn't use them in public play so they weren't OP". No. You DO NOT, EVER, balance around player ignorance. You balance around game play as intended, if people don't know how to play like that, that's their problem. Learn to play correctly.
    And now you're saying that you want no more balance changes?
    I have no idea where you got that from, as I am one of the few people who actually would like the game to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch because it's in such an awful state of balance right now.

    As far saying "L2P" it's not trash, you can't say "oh I never use mucous or rarely do so it's not OP and shouldn't be nerfed. If people had been using them as much as they were able to then you wouldn't have an issue. You don't just leave it there out of good faith that "na, no way he'd spam mucous everywhere, that'd be really OP and unfair". This isn't about people being unskilled, this is about not balancing AROUND the unskilled.

    OK so I take that as don't balance for ''unskilled'' players I.e. pubs and only for those skilled? again, retention issues and elitism. edit:
    nachos wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    so.... all i see are "balances" that only nerf aliens...? drifters are rarely used in pubs (although more are catching on), why would they mess with them now that they are slower and have less armor? were crags too OP? I missed that somewhere while playing the game.. and reading what people that have already posted. Can a playtester help me out on this one?

    Just because something is not used in public OFTEN doesn't mean it's not over powered. A couple of builds back no one really knew how strong babblers were until a little experimentation found out that babblers were being healed by mucous and the gorge heal making them tank all the bullets being fired on a skulk.

    Wasn't used often in public, but stupidly over powered and needed to be fixed before everyone started doing it and ruining games and then the shouts for nerfs.

    Mucous is overpowered.
    Drifter micro in your face is a bit overpowered when you can't shoot it down and it's mucous spamming.
    Whip echo instant slap was a bit unfair because if you had a high ping you could often get hit 2 times before seeing the actual whip.
    Whip distance decreased because there's too much PvE in large rooms and I suppose UWE wants whips to be for choke points or something.

    those sound like mostly bugs, not balance issues. the drifter can be annoying for the view of players and perhaps that could have been fixed instead of randomly slowing them down and taking armor away. and whips are nearly useless as is unless they are mature and have a crag. even then its easy to solo a tres structure that is ALSO an upgrade chamber.

    your problem is somewhat fixed now that the whips have to settle into the new infestation after echo. that's a fine change and makes sense.
    :-)
    edit: I do agree that. mucous can b op but I really only see mucous being an issue in comp problem. either way, they nerfed drifters when the issues were drifters being in the way they and op mucous. lowering speed and armor doesn't address the real drifter issues.
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    joshhh wrote: »
    Roobubba wrote: »
    Now if we can reduce the vision obstruction ala Mendasp's cHUD mod... then we would be getting close to a real competitive game. :)

    His hud does this after the recent update. He has a setting for reducing particle effects. It's fantastic.

    Indeed, I'd love to see these changes in vanilla, although if it really MUST be comp only, then in the unified NSL mod!
  • RoobubbaRoobubba Who you gonna call? Join Date: 2003-01-06 Member: 11930Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    RapGod wrote: »
    and whips are nearly useless as is unless they are mature and have a crag. even then its easy to solo a tres structure that is ALSO an upgrade chamber.

    your problem is somewhat fixed now that the whips have to settle into the new infestation after echo. that's a fine change and makes sense.

    Whips are far from useless! They provide a means to delay and/or injure marines, giving aliens a much longer time in which to respond to the threat, and also they provide extra damage within a fight if that fight occurs near them. Well-placed/echoed whips are ridiculously effective.

    If someone is soloing a whip there are a few things to consider, the biggest of which is this: Why isn't the alien team responding to the threat? Maybe they wrote off the whip to take that player out of the action elsewhere, in which case it's still useful. That marine will probably have taken some damage, including armour damage even from a non upgraded whip (and if he's alone, bye bye armour). He will have cost his team resources in ammo as well as any meds required. He won't be pressuring or defending elsewhere on the map. If the alien team values that whip, they have more than enough time to get to it and take out the marine. Even more time if he decysted it first, though then the whip can't help in the fight.
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    Roobubba wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    and whips are nearly useless as is unless they are mature and have a crag. even then its easy to solo a tres structure that is ALSO an upgrade chamber.

    your problem is somewhat fixed now that the whips have to settle into the new infestation after echo. that's a fine change and makes sense.

    Whips are far from useless! They provide a means to delay and/or injure marines, giving aliens a much longer time in which to respond to the threat, and also they provide extra damage within a fight if that fight occurs near them. Well-placed/echoed whips are ridiculously effective.

    If someone is soloing a whip there are a few things to consider, the biggest of which is this: Why isn't the alien team responding to the threat? Maybe they wrote off the whip to take that player out of the action elsewhere, in which case it's still useful. That marine will probably have taken some damage, including armour damage even from a non upgraded whip (and if he's alone, bye bye armour). He will have cost his team resources in ammo as well as any meds required. He won't be pressuring or defending elsewhere on the map. If the alien team values that whip, they have more than enough time to get to it and take out the marine. Even more time if he decysted it first, though then the whip can't help in the fight.

    whips can be killed by 2 marines pretty easily. you have to hope they don't kill the whip first. not to mention how u can hit structures by barely looking at it and still hit part of it around corners (where as whips can't)
  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    edited November 2013
    Roobubba wrote: »
    Now if we can reduce the vision obstruction ala Mendasp's cHUD mod... then we would be getting close to a real competitive game. :)

    Of course. Particle effects are pretty. Pubs love immersive pretty things.
    RapGod wrote: »
    whips can be killed by 2 marines pretty easily. you have to hope they don't kill the whip first. not to mention how u can hit structures by barely looking at it and still hit part of it around corners (where as whips can't)

    Whips are meant to delay, not stop marine pushes. A whip or two paired with a crag + mucous can easily stay alive until aliens react.
  • ZEROibisZEROibis Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
    joshhh wrote: »
    Whips are meant to delay, not stop marine pushes. A whip or two paired with a crag + mucous can easily stay alive until aliens react.
    Lets hope your not relying on healing wave to have that work out, ROFL!

    But seriously in this build we have a serious nerf: " Reduced excessive tree sway in the main menu" We need to stand up against tree nerfing asap before it gets worse. Next build they will likely start removing trees at this rate!


    Also there is a REAL BUG where as when you beacon the entire team IS NOT SENT BACK TO THE BASE. This is not to be confused with players near the base these are players that are on the oppiset side of the map. 11 marines were alive in marine start and beaconed to Falls but only like 7 of them actually got teleported there while the rest remained in marine start.

  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    @ZEROibis,

    Old heal-wave + drifter mucous could keep a whip up for quite some time. You would be surprised.
  • ZEROibisZEROibis Join Date: 2009-10-30 Member: 69176Members, Constellation
    joshhh wrote: »
    @ZEROibis,

    Old heal-wave + drifter mucous could keep a whip up for quite some time. You would be surprised.

    Oh I agree, I was just making a jab at the combined nerfs of wip and creg.

    I think the real hit of these nerfs is more in a pub environment where with the larger player counts nerfs like this basically make these structures paper. Unlike in a competitive environment where it is 1 marine vs a creg or wip in pubs it is usually 2-3 marines. Also in a pub environment commanders often try to user structures like wips, turrets ect to make up for a team that will not listen or respond to what is going on in the game. Sometimes you got to wait for these guys to cook dinner and eat it before they go where you told them lol.
  • WobWob Join Date: 2005-04-08 Member: 47814Members, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow
    ZEROibis wrote: »
    joshhh wrote: »
    @ZEROibis,

    Old heal-wave + drifter mucous could keep a whip up for quite some time. You would be surprised.

    Oh I agree, I was just making a jab at the combined nerfs of wip and creg.

    I think the real hit of these nerfs is more in a pub environment where with the larger player counts nerfs like this basically make these structures paper. Unlike in a competitive environment where it is 1 marine vs a creg or wip in pubs it is usually 2-3 marines. Also in a pub environment commanders often try to user structures like wips, turrets ect to make up for a team that will not listen or respond to what is going on in the game. Sometimes you got to wait for these guys to cook dinner and eat it before they go where you told them lol.

    Back to "the game is not balanced for X v X" (8v8 imo) arguments.

    Two solutions:
    1. Add a multiplier on resource collection, structure hp, structure effectiveness, etc etc dependent on player count.
    2. Don't play on servers too large for what the balance is intended for.


  • radionautradionaut california Join Date: 2013-01-22 Member: 181192Members, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Gold
    thanks for the updates!
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    edited November 2013
    joshhh wrote: »
    RapGod wrote: »
    whips can be killed by 2 marines pretty easily. you have to hope they don't kill the whip first. not to mention how u can hit structures by barely looking at it and still hit part of it around corners (where as whips can't)

    Whips are meant to delay, not stop marine pushes. A whip or two paired with a crag + mucous can easily stay alive until aliens react.

    how much res do all of those cost? drifter, a whip or two, a crag, and mucous? and then u have to rely on enough of the aliens to get there IN TIME. whips hardly worth it unless its in a 6v6 server... or competitive matches.... meh.
  • joshhhjoshhh Milwaukee, WI Join Date: 2011-06-21 Member: 105717Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Shadow, Subnautica Playtester
    What do you think I was talking about? The herds of marine cattle that roam around in 24 player servers make every alien structure a joke.

    P.S.
    ZEROibis wrote: »
    Unlike in a competitive environment where it is 1 marine vs a creg or wip in pubs it is usually 2-3 marines.

    Marine pressure teams in comp are rarely 1 man squads (unless your name is mendasp and ninja solo-push harvestors the entire game *shakes fist.) They usually consist of 2 or 3 marines... Just a correction :P
  • _INTER__INTER_ Join Date: 2009-08-08 Member: 68392Members, NS2 Playtester, Reinforced - Shadow
    edited November 2013
    Craigs aren't even big enough to block anything. Either make it big like the robofactory or armory or just rename it to "useless stepping-stone structure"
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    _INTER_ wrote: »
    Craigs aren't even big enough to block anything. Either make it big like the robofactory or armory or just rename it to "useless stepping-stone structure"

    wut
  • DC_DarklingDC_Darkling Join Date: 2003-07-10 Member: 18068Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver
    Wait, people are using crags now for anything else then structure healing? :D
  • crymearivercrymeariver Join Date: 2013-08-29 Member: 187185Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    Wait, people are using crags now for anything else then structure healing? :D
    Its fo' deco-ration

  • blindblind Join Date: 2010-04-17 Member: 71437Members, Squad Five Gold
    Like where this patch is going, waiting for how this works out in the next weeks :)
  • xen32xen32 Join Date: 2012-10-18 Member: 162676Members, Reinforced - Supporter
    Reduced excessive tree sway in the main menu
    First the lemon tree nerf, now this...
  • reeqlreeql Join Date: 2013-05-05 Member: 185125Members
  • best_jeppebest_jeppe Sweden Join Date: 2012-11-27 Member: 173391Members, Reinforced - Shadow
    After playing a few games tonight I (and my friends whom I was playing with) have noticed that it is significantly harder for your bites/swipes to connect with Marines as Aliens. I mainly played as Skulk but it was hard as hell to make the bites connect with the marines. I played this Sunday and it was way easier to make bites connect. The difference is night and day. This past sunday I think I had a killstreak of 8 with one skulk but today I had a hard time even managing to get one kill at all. My friend who played as a Fade said he had the same problem.

    So is this a bug or is it meant to be this hard now for Aliens to attack Marines?
  • joederpjoederp Join Date: 2012-11-02 Member: 165992Members
    For the love of god, stop gorges from being a bile sniper in cargo from areas that are 100% inaccessible for marines until they have jetpacks. This is the railing that goes across the entire room, and the vent in the front up high. Or just give marines a way to climb up there cause it's ridiculous!
  • cooliticcoolitic Right behind you Join Date: 2013-04-02 Member: 184609Members
  • RapGodRapGod Not entirely sure... Join Date: 2013-11-12 Member: 189322Members
    joshhh, I didn't know you were speaking about large servers. but those usually are pubs and the majority of the player base. not many 6v6 servers full. but on a server like that then most of my complaints mean nothing.
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