A few ways NS2 could be improved
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Oregon Join Date: 2013-11-20 Member: 189469Members, Reinforced - Silver
Oregon Join Date: 2013-11-20 Member: 189469Members, Reinforced - Silver
Make exos more viable
I think both casual and competitive players alike would agree that exos can't really compete with jetpacking marines. Here's a quick outline of the weaknesses of an exo when compared with a jetpacker:
- can't use phase gates, which means they can only defend a single area. If they get beaconed, it takes them a long time to get back to where they were.
- very vulnerable to skulks and onos
- requires teammates to stop fighting and weld it frequently to keep it alive
- costs 60 personal res, and can't be dropped by commander
- comes very late in the marine tech tree due to high cost, long research times, and inability to compete with jetpacks
I would suggest the following:
- bundle the research for exos and dualies into the same upgrade, and make it cost 30 res and 90 seconds to research
- reduce the cost of a single gun exo to 30, and the cost of a dual exo to 50
- either increase the speed at which marines can weld an exo, or replace the fist on a single exo with a welder
- make railgun exos suck less
Reduce the cost of fade upgrades
Fade upgrades are pretty much always the last item in the tech tree to get researched. I think they should be 20 res instead of 35.
Increase the base speed of gorges from 6 to 7
A lot of higher level players don't like playing gorge because they are so vulnerable. I think a slight increase in their base speed would make gorges less helpless against good marines.
I think both casual and competitive players alike would agree that exos can't really compete with jetpacking marines. Here's a quick outline of the weaknesses of an exo when compared with a jetpacker:
- can't use phase gates, which means they can only defend a single area. If they get beaconed, it takes them a long time to get back to where they were.
- very vulnerable to skulks and onos
- requires teammates to stop fighting and weld it frequently to keep it alive
- costs 60 personal res, and can't be dropped by commander
- comes very late in the marine tech tree due to high cost, long research times, and inability to compete with jetpacks
I would suggest the following:
- bundle the research for exos and dualies into the same upgrade, and make it cost 30 res and 90 seconds to research
- reduce the cost of a single gun exo to 30, and the cost of a dual exo to 50
- either increase the speed at which marines can weld an exo, or replace the fist on a single exo with a welder
- make railgun exos suck less
Reduce the cost of fade upgrades
Fade upgrades are pretty much always the last item in the tech tree to get researched. I think they should be 20 res instead of 35.
Increase the base speed of gorges from 6 to 7
A lot of higher level players don't like playing gorge because they are so vulnerable. I think a slight increase in their base speed would make gorges less helpless against good marines.
Comments
I feel about the exo the same way I do about the gorge (see below).
Regarding fade... I never upgrade fades til very last if at all not because they're expensive, but because good fades are effective enough without them. Gorge, lerk, skulk, and onos upgrades (w/ at least bio 6) far out-weigh the value of fade ups IMO.
And the gorge... well, gorges should be vulernable. They're support roles, not hunters. That's why lifeforms need to keep an eye on lonely gorges on their map. Plus they can just eat celery.
Source requested.
Because it was a knee jerk reaction to values during Reinforced testing, where fist damage was something close to the HP of a skulk and did double damage to structures.
The values were raised so high to make up for the obvious dead weight that is the single exo fist. (we did A LOT of exo tweaking in that time)
Unfortunately after we discovered that it was more viable to punch things than shoot, the exos turned into something else... and thus the kneejerk reaction occurred, relegating them back into uselessness just before release.
And thus rests in peace the dual-fist exosuit.
When ARE we getting those by the way?
anyway
Some of these points are silly.
Railguns fricken hurt.
base gorge speed is working as intended, please. get celery, don't use false "comp players say!" When they don't, please.
Other than that, i agree with most of your other points
The reason i brough comp players into the discussion is because the game is balanced around a competitive 6v6 experience
Agree about gorge speed, when i eat celery as gorge, no marine can catch me. position yourself so you can see them coming, and run as soon as they pop up. That along with my fat belly slide = Ferrari gorge (someone will post a picture soon I am sure) means I can always get away (unless the marines have a JP or unless the marine is Duckville ;-) youtube.com/watch?v=0nN-tdwEVvQ&feature=c4-overview&list=UUN7QK_Y3nxPW7OD_RJHdK6Ahttp://
Edit: added the youtube link
Caption: lets slide!
Cory has touched the ugly lizard hiding deep within all of us!
Bring back all elements and gameplay style of NS1 and just import all graphic elements from NS2. Done! You're welcome! Bye.
I used to go rail often, but now they're almost useless.
You want a Heavy armor like NS1 plus jetpack and if possible a railgun in the back to shoot the Lerk while you kill the hive.
You want a bouncing to the ceiling Gorge.
Admit it.
More seriously
We don't see much Exos and gorges in serious teams. The trend is more in favor of "attack units".
I think
-Exo should be at a higher price (So we won't see a train) and real steel (less paper).
-Gorge are somehow difficult to adjust. It is a little weak in early game without support (cost of tunnel and hydras). And pretty deadly when bile bomb is up. 2 gorge + bile in a base is strong (but not enough for top teams).
Exo Boxing - modders get to work
lmao YES!
1) If they didn't focus SO much on making it competitive. Many changes made in the name of "perfect balance for 6v6 play" have actually killed a lot of the fun in pub play.
2) If we had the ability to mute the text chat of a specific player. It's nice being able to mute the voice chat of a troll, but there's no way to ignore when they spam text chat.
3) It would be nice if people couldn't instantly rejoin after being vote kicked from a server. They really need to either tweak vote kick or add a vote ban option.
Now of course #1 is wishful thinking, but #'s 2&3 would pretty much eliminate trolling and greatly improve the gaming experience on servers without admins.
Do you have any evidence for this claim?
I highly doubt anyone does
The serious 2/3rds maybe, but certainly no less or more fun because of it.
Almost needs some congrats to have actually pulled it off. (Well, 260+ builds is a lot of work, I guess I shouldn't be surprised both camps are apparently happy ... )
Actually the competitive community isn't happy with the balance of the game, considering its not balanced for competitive. We've moved on ourselves and started our own balance mod to great success.
For fades, replace stab and vortex and switch back shadowstep and blink (but don't make blink expensive)
I think gorges are fine.
Solution: make vanilla NS2 more focused on wider range of player counts (but not necessarily for low-skill), while competitive players can use that nice competitive balance mod in development right now.
I don't think NS2 is 6v6 only, but there are a few things that make higher player counts just a little problematic.