One thing to help marines win more: Fix the lack of alerts when your base is under attack
MrChoke
Join Date: 2012-12-13 Member: 174990Members, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2012-12-13 Member: 174990Members, Reinforced - Gold, Reinforced - Shadow
Why after all of this time does the game often fail to not inform the marine commander that the power in the base in under attack. I lost another game as marine comm today because I got ZERO, NADA, ZILCH that told me my base was under attack. I always look at the map as often as I possibly can for this very reason. But as usual, when I am in the heart of helping the team take down a hive, I get nothing that tells me our own base is under attack. I can't stare at it constantly. And considering it takes many seconds to take down power for example, you'd think it would tell me at least once in that time. But nope, I got nothing.
In many of my other threads I have said how badly marines get owned. So here is my one idea that I think would help and not change balance in any way. We need a message from the game whenever key buildings are under attack. Even better to give us a different message as well to emphasize the issue.
How about this:
Whenever power, comm chair, obs or phase gate in a room with a command chair is under attack, report this condition. Above all other messages, sound effects, game clicks, whatever. REPORT THIS MESSAGE.
Example message: "Power in Sub Access is under attack".
I consider this a long-standing and VERY annoying bug in NS2. It needs to be fixed, not balanced.
In many of my other threads I have said how badly marines get owned. So here is my one idea that I think would help and not change balance in any way. We need a message from the game whenever key buildings are under attack. Even better to give us a different message as well to emphasize the issue.
How about this:
Whenever power, comm chair, obs or phase gate in a room with a command chair is under attack, report this condition. Above all other messages, sound effects, game clicks, whatever. REPORT THIS MESSAGE.
Example message: "Power in Sub Access is under attack".
I consider this a long-standing and VERY annoying bug in NS2. It needs to be fixed, not balanced.
Comments
Either way, I agree that the alert system could use a little work,
Maybe the voice clip for base under attack doesn't have proper priority over smaller voice clips like ammo/health requests? Or if they both come in at the same time, only the first one gets played?
For example CTRL + 9
As Max says, there are ways for the high level, attentive comm to notice base rushes effectively. However, while a response of 'l2p' may not be wholly inappropriate, I think it's a valid criticism that more could and should be done to improve commanders' experiences.
No. It's just an annoying habit you have to learn. It's not hard to hammer into your subconsciousness "hey when this spot blinks, it's important" just bothersome. I haven't had a problem with this since ages, but I do remember it being very annoying.
You can derive skill out of noticing things in obs range and making educated guesses about that. But this player versus interface thing is just le silly.
That was Roobubba's point, while there are technically sufficient alerts in place for a god-tier comm to notice, they are currently not intuitive enough and could use work.
Special alarms that base-powernodes are attacked? Thats basically the same as automatic beacon...
This, although I never really look at the hotgroup icons. I've gotten in the habit of looking at my small minimap in the bottom left when they're big marine offenses going on, as that is the prime time for alien base rushes.
It should start sounding at 80% of powernode max health, and be audible to the commander wherever he is on the map at the time.
A minumum health loss threshold could be added (send alarm every time a power node loses x% health), so minor attacks such as parasites on power nodes won't trigger the alert constantly.
yeah the red flashy should show on the minimap or the command map when power nodes are getting bit. maybe just have the whole room red flashy might work. it annoys me that i can monitor all my important structures via command map, but not the damn power supply.
it doesn't take much to tap space and see where your alerts coming from. just tap at all announcements, which kinda should be a reaction already ingrained anyway.
Your scenario happens due to a lack of preparation, not having a comm that pays enough attention, or just an unresponsive team.
That is a very lame and stupid way to win a game. Special alerts is not an auto-beacon. Only if the comm chooses to go back to the base and react to it will something get done on it. I am not asking for some kind of auto-scroll back to where the alert is coming from.
Doesn't the control keys allow you to quickly go back to a place on the map and that's it? That may help you quickly get back to the base, fine. But if you are never informed that it is under attack, what good does this do?
Personally I have nothing wrong with how the map indicates something is under attack. To me its probably overkill to highlight the whole room. its just how often does the marine comm have to look at the map to be sure the base isn't under attack? Too much because of this problem.
Did you read my OP? I already said the same thing at the start of this thread.
I am missing the relevance of how an obs fixes the issue I have raised.
That issue is: Sometimes the game doesn't give a verbal warning when things are under attack. Namely the power node in main base for example. Does the power node in range of an obs affect this???
*Merged 5 posts* - Mouse
Also can you not post 4 posts in a row? What the hell happened to forum etiquette in the last few years.
All the more reason for you to not read. Please feel free to use your time elsewhere.
For example the issue with the warp pg, that got removed without notice and changed back to meatgrinder (I'm I right about it has not been announced? Maybe its just bugged?). Ah yes with "warp pg" I mean spawning Marines a little off the phasegate in case it is blocked. Though it is annoying for aliens to predict the warping.
because while audio cues are nice, it seems like a bit too much hand holding to me. all I'd argue for is a visual indication incomparable to every other structure taking damage. as it stands now, you can't tell if your node is taking damage unless you have los and see the skulk or an obs.
This has been addressed multiple times in multiple patches.
Despite this, there has been internal suggestions and even disagreements with the end result..
But where things are now are intended - unless there is a bug that you are able to reproduce.
I agree there are far better implementations.
My question is : Just the power node? What about the obs? The IPs? Where do you stop making distinctions? When do you stop making up for the non attentive comm? Personally, 9 times out of 10, I'll go for the obs.. *shrug*
I guess that's when you know you're not cut out to play RTSs online - when you get in the com chair in a game where you don't really have to do anything but click a predetermined sequence of buttons and babysit for the occasional medpack/ammo/mist/drifter (mind you, you don't even have to actually micro any group of fighting units, let alone several groups or lines as you would in a semi-competent actual RTS match online) - and you still fail to observe the map.
Don't have vision on a power node in an important (to you) location? It's your mistake, not the game's.
Sadly, with the continued ineptitude that I've seen in commander chairs, I guess you might as well cater to the n00bs if they're the only ones which will end up "commanding" most of the games. As I've mentioned before, this game has failed to attract most RTS-minded players for many reasons, the biggest of which is IMO the lack of choice and impact a commander can have towards winning.
personally, I don't want much, just consistency. everything else flashes when damaged, why not powernodes?
also, not having vision isn't always under your control. when res is at a premium, extra15 res might mean getting an upgrade at all.