1-3 Work in teams. 1-3 Communicate with new players and teach them how to play. 4-Working in teams can help with this too. Problems solved.
No learning curve == no learning to play == nothing to figure out == no reward when figured out == no game == boring. Skulks have a learning curve on purpose; to make this a game and make it worth learning.
I never said achieving 1:1 was going to be easy. I only meant that should be the goal.
And yes, I also understand that would change the core gameplay significantly, but it's a necessary balance adjustment. Lets get something straight here. Asymmetry is the aspect which makes the aliens team different than the human team as far as gameplay is concerned. Balance is the aspect which makes the aliens team <i>perform</i> as close as possible to the human team. So in other words, you can have two teams behave in radically different ways but no one team should perform <i>better</i> overall. Think starcraft for an example.
Balance itself is composed of several factors which include the game length, map layout, and team skill. Map layout depends on the map being made and can't really be helped. If the map favors one team, at that point just pray you're on the winning team. Game length means how both teams perform in the early game, the middle game and the late game. It's important that this remains balanced, as one team shouldn't gain an edge early on or towards the end no more than one team should outperform another, generally speaking.
The one factor which *should* influence balance to favor one side or the other is team skill, which in theory if all other factors are balanced, should be the only thing which allows one team to win the game.
In natural selection, you have a resource system, which means resources almost directly influence performance. The team which gets more resources should rightfully outperform the other team. Examples of this include aliens having only fades and onos and the marine team having a hard time achieving level 2 armor due to resource problems. When I mean 1:1 kills, you could also think of it to mean for the amount of resources x spent in player y, that player y should be able to have a 1:1 kill ratio with player z with amount of resources x spent. If marines only have a maximum of resources upgradable to a single marine at 30 resources than say a fade of 50 resource points should statistically be able to kill him or her. If you really wanted to be a stickler, the amount of damage inflicted to that fade should be 30 / 50 or 60% of his total life, but of course it'd be difficult to get balance that fine tuned.
<!--quoteo(post=1698509:date=Jan 26 2009, 03:37 PM:name=Hawkeye)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Hawkeye @ Jan 26 2009, 03:37 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1698509"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I never said achieving 1:1 was going to be easy. I only meant that should be the goal.
And yes, I also understand that would change the core gameplay significantly, but it's a necessary balance adjustment. Lets get something straight here. Asymmetry is the aspect which makes the aliens team different than the human team as far as gameplay is concerned. Balance is the aspect which makes the aliens team <i>perform</i> as close as possible to the human team. So in other words, you can have two teams behave in radically different ways but no one team should perform <i>better</i> overall. Think starcraft for an example.
Balance itself is composed of several factors which include the game length, map layout, and team skill. Map layout depends on the map being made and can't really be helped. If the map favors one team, at that point just pray you're on the winning team. Game length means how both teams perform in the early game, the middle game and the late game. It's important that this remains balanced, as one team shouldn't gain an edge early on or towards the end no more than one team should outperform another, generally speaking.
The one factor which *should* influence balance to favor one side or the other is team skill, which in theory if all other factors are balanced, should be the only thing which allows one team to win the game.
In natural selection, you have a resource system, which means resources almost directly influence performance. The team which gets more resources should rightfully outperform the other team. Examples of this include aliens having only fades and onos and the marine team having a hard time achieving level 2 armor due to resource problems. When I mean 1:1 kills, you could also think of it to mean for the amount of resources x spent in player y, that player y should be able to have a 1:1 kill ratio with player z with amount of resources x spent. If marines only have a maximum of resources upgradable to a single marine at 30 resources than say a fade of 50 resource points should statistically be able to kill him or her. If you really wanted to be a stickler, the amount of damage inflicted to that fade should be 30 / 50 or 60% of his total life, but of course it'd be difficult to get balance that fine tuned.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Early game is marine biased. Mid game is alien biased. Late game is roughly dictated by the performance of both teams during early and mid game.
Comments
1-3 Communicate with new players and teach them how to play.
4-Working in teams can help with this too.
Problems solved.
No learning curve == no learning to play == nothing to figure out == no reward when figured out == no game == boring.
Skulks have a learning curve on purpose; to make this a game and make it worth learning.
Peace!
And yes, I also understand that would change the core gameplay significantly, but it's a necessary balance adjustment. Lets get something straight here. Asymmetry is the aspect which makes the aliens team different than the human team as far as gameplay is concerned. Balance is the aspect which makes the aliens team <i>perform</i> as close as possible to the human team. So in other words, you can have two teams behave in radically different ways but no one team should perform <i>better</i> overall. Think starcraft for an example.
Balance itself is composed of several factors which include the game length, map layout, and team skill. Map layout depends on the map being made and can't really be helped. If the map favors one team, at that point just pray you're on the winning team. Game length means how both teams perform in the early game, the middle game and the late game. It's important that this remains balanced, as one team shouldn't gain an edge early on or towards the end no more than one team should outperform another, generally speaking.
The one factor which *should* influence balance to favor one side or the other is team skill, which in theory if all other factors are balanced, should be the only thing which allows one team to win the game.
In natural selection, you have a resource system, which means resources almost directly influence performance. The team which gets more resources should rightfully outperform the other team. Examples of this include aliens having only fades and onos and the marine team having a hard time achieving level 2 armor due to resource problems. When I mean 1:1 kills, you could also think of it to mean for the amount of resources x spent in player y, that player y should be able to have a 1:1 kill ratio with player z with amount of resources x spent. If marines only have a maximum of resources upgradable to a single marine at 30 resources than say a fade of 50 resource points should statistically be able to kill him or her. If you really wanted to be a stickler, the amount of damage inflicted to that fade should be 30 / 50 or 60% of his total life, but of course it'd be difficult to get balance that fine tuned.
And yes, I also understand that would change the core gameplay significantly, but it's a necessary balance adjustment. Lets get something straight here. Asymmetry is the aspect which makes the aliens team different than the human team as far as gameplay is concerned. Balance is the aspect which makes the aliens team <i>perform</i> as close as possible to the human team. So in other words, you can have two teams behave in radically different ways but no one team should perform <i>better</i> overall. Think starcraft for an example.
Balance itself is composed of several factors which include the game length, map layout, and team skill. Map layout depends on the map being made and can't really be helped. If the map favors one team, at that point just pray you're on the winning team. Game length means how both teams perform in the early game, the middle game and the late game. It's important that this remains balanced, as one team shouldn't gain an edge early on or towards the end no more than one team should outperform another, generally speaking.
The one factor which *should* influence balance to favor one side or the other is team skill, which in theory if all other factors are balanced, should be the only thing which allows one team to win the game.
In natural selection, you have a resource system, which means resources almost directly influence performance. The team which gets more resources should rightfully outperform the other team. Examples of this include aliens having only fades and onos and the marine team having a hard time achieving level 2 armor due to resource problems. When I mean 1:1 kills, you could also think of it to mean for the amount of resources x spent in player y, that player y should be able to have a 1:1 kill ratio with player z with amount of resources x spent. If marines only have a maximum of resources upgradable to a single marine at 30 resources than say a fade of 50 resource points should statistically be able to kill him or her. If you really wanted to be a stickler, the amount of damage inflicted to that fade should be 30 / 50 or 60% of his total life, but of course it'd be difficult to get balance that fine tuned.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Early game is marine biased. Mid game is alien biased. Late game is roughly dictated by the performance of both teams during early and mid game.