Yay next patch!

TravCarp

<div class="IPBDescription">More frequent patches to come?</div>So what Flayra is saying is that we are not going to suffer balance problems because we are in beta. Yay!!!! Do you think that they're going to start patching a lot more now? Trying to bring the fixes quicker to keep more people playing on a daily basis? (Instead of these big patches having a lot of people not playing for a while.)


<!--quoteo(post=1852674:date=Jun 14 2011, 05:24 PM:name=Flayra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Flayra @ Jun 14 2011, 05:24 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1852674"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--coloro:#00BFFF--><span style="color:#00BFFF"><!--/coloro-->It can be hard sifting through balance posts and trying to make sense of them (fact? opinion? personal/team bias?), but after reading enough posts and watching videos, patterns do emerge. There are lots of insights here though and they do help make the path forward more clear.
<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
Of course <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->it IS early<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> but that doesn't mean we should helplessly suffer balance problems until we have more game features in. Whenever possible, the game should be fun now, if not yet fully-featured. And changing numbers is certainly possible. So the relevant balance changes for 179 are as follows:
<!--coloro:#00BFFF--><span style="color:#00BFFF"><!--/coloro-->
<b>Shotgun cost reduced from 25 to 15</b> (it was inflated from previous versions and NS1 and should help address the feelings of poverty on the marine side)

<b>Reduced Fade armor from 100 to 50</b> (translates to 20% less total "health" and should compensate for the fact that the Fades are now invulnerable while blinking, which wasn't the case in NS1...but it NS2 was using the health and armor values from NS1.)

<b>Reduced ARC cost from 25 to 20</b> (ARCs seem a bit rare and much of their cost is in the Robotics Factory. Pathing-related deaths are another reason for this change. Also note, all damage-dealing capabilities must cost personal res, not team res.)

<b>Fixed bug where Gorges could help speed building of hives</b> (should prevent Fades from showing up early)

<b>Lowered energy recuperation when on fire from 20% per second to 10% per second</b> (improves its "crippling" effect on Fades and others)

There are other changes too - we added Bile Bomb for Gorge (researchable by the comm and purchasable by Gorges) - but these are the ones that are germane to this thread.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

PsiWarp

I think we'll be seeing weekly patches again after big Build 178. Still waiting on that trailing flamethrower effect, hopefully soon :)

jkflipflop

I know it's a pie-in-the-sky request, but I'd love to see some true volumetric effects. We have for the most part confined hallways and air ducts and stuff. This would be perfect for volumetric flamethrowers. Lerk spores that could be blown away by the fans in the walls that currently just look cool. Would add a little more dynamic into the power-nodes for the marines if the nodes controlled the vent systems in the rooms as well.

Blasphemy

Having spores dissapear quicker with fans that are powered by power nodes does sound like an effective game mechanic. And maybe with shoddy ventilation, the volumetric setting of the lights (sun beams or 'god rays') could take effect, especially in hive rooms. Also having a triggerable fog controls near hives that slowly gets thicker the longer power is out could be an excellent atmospheric factor.

Maybe spores could be slightly combustable to prevent the want of using flamethrowers in close quarters, but they could generally get burned away quicker in open areas?

MrYiff

<!--quoteo(post=1852880:date=Jun 15 2011, 05:00 AM:name=jkflipflop)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jkflipflop @ Jun 15 2011, 05:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1852880"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I know it's a pie-in-the-sky request, but I'd love to see some true volumetric effects. We have for the most part confined hallways and air ducts and stuff. This would be perfect for volumetric flamethrowers. Lerk spores that could be blown away by the fans in the walls that currently just look cool. Would add a little more dynamic into the power-nodes for the marines if the nodes controlled the vent systems in the rooms as well.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

The plan was to have that effect eventually, I suspect it will be something that Max revisits once client/server performance is better (proper volumetric flamethrowers will also fix the problem of flames going through walls and doors which will be nice).