Learning the Game Changes from the past 6-8 months
LeoBrok3n
Join Date: 2013-12-21 Member: 190454Members
Join Date: 2013-12-21 Member: 190454Members
So I put down NS2 exactly at the time there were some major changes to the way commanding was changed, I'm guessing roughly 6-8 months ago. I'm thinking about getting back into NS2, but I need a concise way to understand what the changes were so I can Comm again effectively. I'm been browsing through tutorials on youtube but they all seem to be based off the earlier builds. I'd look up build notes, but I'm unsure which build to check for.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Comments
The way evolutions work for the alien commander was changed. And will probably change again in the future, but how it works at the moment is.
Lifeform evolutions (spores, umbra etc etc) are grouped together. That is you can research a lifeform upgrade that gives that lifeform possible access to all of its evolutions. ie leap and xeno for the skulk.
Even if you have the lifeform upgrade however, the access of the ability depends on the level of biomass you have. Biomass is researched at hives and each hive can be upgraded to be worth 3 levels of biomass. That is if you have the skulk lifeform upgrade. Skulks still won't be able to use leap or xeno until their respective biomass level requirement is reached.
Lifeform evolutions are researched at the support structures.
Gorge - Hive
Skulk - Whip
Lerk - Shift
Fade - Shade
Onos - Crag
Side note, these structures can now be dropped freely. You no longer need the shade hive to drop a shade. Or a crag hive to drop a crag.
The other major change to alien commanding is the drifter support abilities which depend on hive selection. They are.
Enzyme - increases alien move and attack speed
Hallucination - hallucinate hives, harvesters or players.
Muccous - Heals the armor of players and structures
Drifters are also a requirement to build structures that you drop. They build very slowly without a drifter or a gorge to build it.
Like drifter abilities, the support structures also have hive dependent abilities that require the proper hive type.
Crag - Healing wave
Shade - Ink
Shift - Echo
Last thing, upgrades like cara and regen have 3 different levels depending on if you have 1-3 shells up. Likewise for spurs and veils. The upgrade its self no longer needs to be researched at these structures.
Hope that makes sense.
Catpacks - researched at the command station, work the same as catpacks in NS1 (increase move speed, fire rate, reload speed)
Power Surge - lets you power an unpowered structure for 20 seconds or so. you can only do it if you have a powered robo
Grenades - research them at the armory
Alien commanding has been reworked significantly. Abilities are researched in a totally different way and drifters are essentially a completely different unit (they no longer cloak so instead of scouting they are used for building/supporting aliens in combat) In addition to the changes Jekt mentions, a new ability for the alien commander has been added. It's called Contaminate and it can only be used if you have biomass 9. It basically drops an infestation bomb that lasts for about 15 seconds or so and can be used to spread infestation anywhere. It's usually used to echo whips into the marine base and stop them from turtling.
Also some things have been streamlined to make things more convenient, so you no longer need to "unroot" a whip, it'll just do it automatically, and bombard also doesn't need to be researched. And rupture isn't on cysts anymore, you can just do it anywhere on infestation
Lastly there is a "supply limit" for both commanders that limits the numbers of certain structures but you probably won't ever run into it unless you're spamming arcs or whips
No joke!
Oh, and you can upgrade a single gun (40 res) exo to a dual gun for 20 res. The second gun has to be researched.
There is a new upgrade for the Shade path: Aura. It allows lifeforms to see marines through walls in form of a dot that changes colour according to the marines health. Yellow for healthy, orange for wounded and red for badly wounded. Camouflage and Silence have been combined to Phantom. You can now be nearly (I think it was 80%) invisible and totally silent at the same time