400 hours later; a refined perspective
Jekyll
Oregon Join Date: 2013-11-20 Member: 189469Members, Reinforced - Silver
Oregon Join Date: 2013-11-20 Member: 189469Members, Reinforced - Silver
Hey everyone
This is a follow up to a thread I created a while back titled "300 hours later; my thoughts on NS2". Since writing that post, I've learned a good deal more about commanding, which has given me a new perspective on many of the things I talked about.
First of all, I was wrong a lot about a lot of things. I said that Alien commander didn't have many cost effective microing tools. And that was just plain wrong. It took me a while to learn how to use drifters effectively, but once I got the hang of it, Alien commander became a lot more engaging. And looking back, my list of suggestions for ways to improve the Alien commander experience seems pretty dumb.
My only real complaint about Alien Commander now relates to balance of hives and their various upgrades. In an ideal situation, all three hives would be viable starting options. But my experience after patch 261 has been that shift hive is easily the most useful starting hive, especially for the commander. The enzyme + storm ability for the drifter seems just as useful, if not better than mucous membrane. And the ability to echo structures is hands down more useful than post-261 heal wave. I'm curious which hive competitive teams are starting with now that crag hive has been nerfed.
Shade Hive doesn't seem like a viable starting option for anything except trolling in pubs. The upgrades it unlocks aren't as useful as those of shift or crag (though I would personally rather have aura than carapace any day of the week), the drifter ability is almost useless, and ink is only useful if you allow the enemy team to get arcs within striking range of one of your hives.
Those are my thoughts on the viability of each hive. As far as upgrades are concerned, I think Phantom and regeneration are far less useful than their counterparts, and need to be buffed.
So that's it. Those are my thoughts after another hundred hours. Am I right about the hives being unequal? I understand that the game plays different in a competitive setting than it does in pubs. I'm curious, which hive has been the favorite starter in competitive play after 261?
Happy Gaming,
Dr. Jekyll
This is a follow up to a thread I created a while back titled "300 hours later; my thoughts on NS2". Since writing that post, I've learned a good deal more about commanding, which has given me a new perspective on many of the things I talked about.
First of all, I was wrong a lot about a lot of things. I said that Alien commander didn't have many cost effective microing tools. And that was just plain wrong. It took me a while to learn how to use drifters effectively, but once I got the hang of it, Alien commander became a lot more engaging. And looking back, my list of suggestions for ways to improve the Alien commander experience seems pretty dumb.
My only real complaint about Alien Commander now relates to balance of hives and their various upgrades. In an ideal situation, all three hives would be viable starting options. But my experience after patch 261 has been that shift hive is easily the most useful starting hive, especially for the commander. The enzyme + storm ability for the drifter seems just as useful, if not better than mucous membrane. And the ability to echo structures is hands down more useful than post-261 heal wave. I'm curious which hive competitive teams are starting with now that crag hive has been nerfed.
Shade Hive doesn't seem like a viable starting option for anything except trolling in pubs. The upgrades it unlocks aren't as useful as those of shift or crag (though I would personally rather have aura than carapace any day of the week), the drifter ability is almost useless, and ink is only useful if you allow the enemy team to get arcs within striking range of one of your hives.
Those are my thoughts on the viability of each hive. As far as upgrades are concerned, I think Phantom and regeneration are far less useful than their counterparts, and need to be buffed.
So that's it. Those are my thoughts after another hundred hours. Am I right about the hives being unequal? I understand that the game plays different in a competitive setting than it does in pubs. I'm curious, which hive has been the favorite starter in competitive play after 261?
Happy Gaming,
Dr. Jekyll
Comments
You are right about shade hive being underpowered. Both hallucinations and ink are fairly useless.
I wouldn't agree with regeneration being weaker than carapace, I find it to be more valuable than carapace on certain lifeforms, and particularly in the early game it's great.
Edit: The above statement sounds a bit too strong. I think that is generally the case, but shift hive is useful in comp level games.
I think Phantom is ten times more powerfull than Aura (pubber here). I use Aura only on Gorges and Onos, because they can't rely so much on speed to scout out the enemy lines. The health meter sure helps to effectively thin out enemies, but I usually just go after marines according to their eqquipment anyway.
I'm not sure about ink, it is hardly ever used aside from protecting from an ARC attack. In a recent game as a marine it was used while we attacked the Hive and I found it pretty confusing. Not sure what it looks like in the alien's vision tbh.
You basically pick shade hive for aura and phantom and that's it.
I love shade hive but it sucks commanding for aliens and not being able to echo stuff.
Few things:
1. On a full pub server you have enough skulks to be most places at once and you want them to have enough health to survive the onslaught of bullets, so on average I would pick Crag Hive.
With that said, Shift Hive is so powerful for the Fade and Onos (celerity) that if you could only ever choose one hive, then yes, Shift might be better. For the first 5 minutes I have to pick Crag as being more useful.
2. To the guy who said he said Phantom is more powerful than Aura - I would say that is true unless you choose the lerk. For the lerk, aura is a lot more useful because you can pick out the weaker marines before engaging the rest (with help).
3. Here is something to try - how about allow the Hallucination technique the ability to block scans? Maybe to overwhelm it you need to scan twice. So if you try to scan topo for the skulk rush you might miss it - but if you'd scanned it twice you would have seen it. Additionally, it stops the aliens from hard countering the ARC push. Just a suggestion though - needs some work.
Focus was an upgrade that was available in NS1 that increased the damage of each individual attack but decreased the attack speed. It's similar to the fade's Stab ability except it applied to primary attacks of any lifeform (and it wasn't as bad as Stab). It came from the sensory chamber, which is now the Shade
What problems stopped this being implemented in NS2?
stab
Any hit and run alien would greatly benefit from focus. Which is most if not all aliens. It made it the mandatory sensory upgrade.
But but.. I loved ns1 hive sight.
- Aura allows players to see which weapon an enemy player is holding through walls, as well as which direction an enemy player is facing
- Enemy players that are within range of a life form's aura show up on the mini-map for teammates as well as the commander
- Phantom grants the life form using it immunity to scans and observatories. Scans and observatories will, however, reveal cloaked lifeforms even if they are sitting still.
- Drifters gain a new ability that isn't hallucination
I'll toss out an idea for a new drifter ability
Illuminate: Reveals marine structures and activity within range for a maximum of 1 minute. Can be cleared by scans or observatories. Costs 2 team resources.
Do these changes sound good? If not, what do you see as problematic?
I don't see why this would be a problem. Besides, if I see a lot of marines are in one place, I tell how many and where to my teammates.
I think he means Obs/Scan will reveal cloaked lifeforms visually to players, but not make lifeforms visible on the minimap unless player/entity Line-of-Sight is in affect. This would allow aliens to subvert marine reliance on Obs/Scan. This could even apply to shade-cloaking and structures. The structures would be revealed visually, but not on the minimap unless a MAC/ARC/turret or marine had LoS.
There's definitely some added complexity with this idea, but I feel it fits with the gameplay theme of NS2. It would definitely make the shade hive have a much greater element of ruse and deception.
It would fit in the upgrade paths: more speed, more hitpoints, more damage. Aura could be a passive upgrade or one for drifters. Or even better, add a 3rd upgrade to crag and shift too.
And this would stop all fades from grabbing only focus how?
I might take aura instead if marines are 4 swipe but 3 swipe with focus, but the 4 swipes come out faster.