Build 327 Balance Patch Notes - Natural Selection 2
System
Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
Build 327 Balance Patch Notes - Natural Selection 2
In 327 we’re introducing some big changes to Gorge Tunnels, Alien PvE, Marine weapons and more. Below you will find extensive explanations and reasoning behind these changes- One common theme...
Comments
I'm a bit worried about the self cloaking drifters. Do they look like cloaked players or cloaked structures? I guess not having crag or shift means there's a tradeoff, though.
I'm also a big fan of the advanced support research.
Of all the things to be worried about, I think I can safely say this is almost a complete non-issue.
Thank you! I've been missing this ever since NS1 build 323!
NS2 had +30% energy regeneration with adrenaline until it was removed in build 323.
Again, Aliens have a lot of change, nor does marine have
Please let marine build Sentry Battery without needing the Robotics Factory...
EDIT : and limit the buying of 2 FT and 2 GL... or at least a warning message...
Sentries are OP against early game aliens, why make it even more useful in that regard?
What i dont like about them is their fragility after aliens get bilebomb. They should have some researchable extra measure for middle-late game usage.
What about rushes? I've commanded plenty of rounds on pub where we won by rushing the hives with only FT+GL.
Any built-in mechanic to organize loadout would be way more cumbersome than just asking pple over voicechat.
What I would like to see though is a number when buying a weapon (or evolving as lifeform) how many of your team has that weapon atm (or is that lifeform)
That would be nice. Like Grenade Launcher. (0/2) Then turn grey once limit is reached.
Also this update looks great. Played a few of the beta builds so far and Ive enjoyed most of what Ive seen. One difficult part now is that aliens have to work together quite a bit more than previously. Shotguns feel great at close range so that's awesome. In 326 i feel like after a certain point sgs just tickle aliens but in 327 they are good place.
Gls are in a better spot now. No more 1-2 shotting aliens. But they do great structure damage. Nice balance to it.
Gorges are fun to play. More evasive than they used to be and can be much more annoying but thats a good thing. Rather them be annoying then useless sitting on tunnels all game.
Bilebomb is fucking cheated.
Gorge have a HUGE amout of HP, they can hide in tunnels, and now their belly-slide speed is increased ? What a joke.
Back in NS1 gorge didn't have belly and not much HP. If he get discovered that was the end. And know what ? It wasn't a big deal, the player had just to regorge...
1 Rifle marine vs 1 gorge is a waste of bullet for marine. It shouldn't be like that.
Also, decrease IP cost to 15 please...
Im down with a slight nerf on Bile bomb to structures. That I can agree with. However if you have played in the beta servers you will realize that BB + faster slide is not horrendous. If you let a team of gorges in your base then that is your teams fault.
Plus with 10v10 or 8v8 player environmant as this build is made to represent, its a lot harder to take over a base or do much damage with less players. It can still happen though but that is to be expected.
This was always a "why was the NS1 energy system not better" thing for me. Just limit the scans and make them free
Moreover the game likes to have around 12 players total for games to be played efficiently on pubs. When players leave after a game ends the rick of losing the entire server due to the player count dropping below 12 is significantly increased.
We lived though the disaster of the 18 player servers on launch and got saved by going to 24 where you could lose half the players and still have 12 for a fun game. Why are we returning to this train wreck again.
As much as I hate seeing 12v12 changing to 10v10, it'll just mean more servers are required and hopefully it means that each server will have less of a spread of skill level (ie, players no longer have to play in a server with players with a certain skill level as there'll be more to choose from).
The changes to the Shotgun spread, Skulk floor jump speed, Lerks, Fades crouching while blinking, and Marine backpedaling speed will significantly lower the learning curve for new players and hopefully it means that they'll keep playing.
● Gorge structures cost no p-res anymore
● Hydras are now more accurate at close distance
● Now fires consistently every 0.8 seconds
"to encourage them to be more active on the field as opposed to the PvE map-control"
???????
logic has left the game
Server cost money. They can be funded in two ways.
1) A rich server operator just pays for it all out of his pocket. -Game is completely dependent on random rich server operators to exist.
2) Server is funded by community donation. -Game is dependent on random server operators creating a server that the community enjoys and members are willing to donate money to.
In number 2 the most common way to do this is the selling of reserved slots so that players can join the server when it is full.
There is currently 3 ways to implement reserved slots:
1) Kick players to make room for a new player to join.
2) Leave 2 slots open so up to two additional players with reserved slots can join.
3) Implement some sort of mod to manipulate the spot values to allow for you to do option 2 but while creating more than the allowed number of slots. For example you get a server that has more than the maximum allowable slots but you just forge the data to cheat the system and hope they do not catch on.
Logically when you reduce the number of players on a team the game naturally becomes more competitive. Now ask yourself has the game not being competitive enough been a problem for pubs and or new players, NO. In fact it is just the opposite to some degree. We all enjoy the competitive nature of NS2 and many of us recognize that most new players are not used to such a competitive game and become overwhelmed. While I am not advocating in making the game less competitive than it has been historically I do not see how making it more competitive is going to be helpful.
Comp servers have existed since the beginning, nothing stops you from making a 6v6 server except that the majority of players do not want to play in something that competitive. This is why you see most pub servers at 22-24 slots. There is a lot more players out there looking for a competitive pub match than there is looking for a competitive competitive match.
The update they are talking about is supposed to be making the game more "fun" rather than perfect balance. This seems to imply that the devs want to make the game appeal to a more pub friendly base. However, by reducing the player counts they are achieving the opposite and instead making the game more competitively focused.
I have tried it as both comm and player and didn't like it you may want to try 2 kinds of servers.
It will most likely make me search for a new game to play 2272 hour on NS2
Just saying
I am so glad paid reserved slots are going away. NS2 is one of the last games I know of where it seems rampant/