Arcs are used for base assault not sieges. Its not working as intended, unless arcs are suppose to be the base assault finishers. I'd rather have the players doing that.
They need to inflict less damage, but have longer range. Marines can slowly damage alien building from a bit longer distance, but gives aliens more than enough time to react to it. However it forces the aliens to attack a position of the marines choosing. They are tools to break fortified positions, but not win the game for players.
+1 ARCs should slow down on infestation noticeably
<!--quoteo(post=1918822:date=Mar 27 2012, 06:11 PM:name=Chris0132)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chris0132 @ Mar 27 2012, 06:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1918822"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If you could afford ten arcs how were you possibly losing?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Recycling a forward base/half of your starting base can turn up a sudden burst of res pretty easily. Not the kind of thing that makes for a viable long term strategy in most cases but it'll generate enough res for an ARC rush.
Had a game yesterday. We saw 7 ARCs rolling to Elevator transfer. 1 Onos, 2 Fades and a few skulks went there as soon as they where set up to fire. After we killed 4 ARCs the other 3 made the final shots to kill the Hive. That was heavily unbalanced, Marines didn't even defend them and we had no chance.
In NS1 we had a Turret factory that could be killed to switch all Sieges off immediatly.
So maybe ARCs should have some kind of portable power station with them? Making them weaker would mean the com will make 15 instead of 7 and rush then.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just played a game where the Marines made 5 ARCs and made a push to Server Room. We managed to kill the entire Marine escort, but the aliens who survived the battle (~3 fades, 1 skulk) couldn't kill off the ARCs in time before they destroyed the hive.
If the ARCs did continuous damage to one target until it popped, then moved to the next target (rather than the current BIG WHOOM waaaaaaaaaaait...) they might be easier to balance. Rather than losing entire hydra farms at the first volley, aliens would have time to react to the vibrocannon (or whatever) shaking their base apart from the next hall over.
I feel like "Deployed ARCs are much easier to kill" makes so much more sense in almost every way. It's intuitive for both sides, and makes teams keep ARCs relegated firmly <i>behind</i> the main push as siege equipment instead of assault craft.
matsoMaster of PatchesJoin Date: 2002-11-05Member: 7000Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Shadow, NS2 Community Developer
It used to be that a single gorge could take out any number of unescorted ARCS before they could get in a second shot (ie, in < 20sec). With the lerk taking over the bilebomb, that can't happen - first, because you are not going to have as many lerks as you had gorges, and second because the gorge bilebomb had about 3-4 times more sustained damage than the current lerk bomb.
Removing the ability of aliens to cheaply kill ARCs while at the same time halving their cost makes for a pretty nasty combo.
<!--quoteo(post=1919547:date=Mar 29 2012, 05:32 PM:name=matso)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (matso @ Mar 29 2012, 05:32 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1919547"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Removing the ability of aliens to cheaply kill ARCs while at the same time halving their cost makes for a pretty nasty combo.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Don't forget ramping up their damage significantly! Stuff like that is why some of us are skeptical of the playtesting process.
I mean, if they put those 3 changes together on the list of 'stuff to notice in the new internal build', isn't it your duty to complain as loudly as you can until it gets fixed or they say "we're not fixing it"? Surely if the 'regular beta testers' can find this stuff in a day or two after release, it could be noticed in between iterations of the internal build and sorted out.
I watched the playtesting stream and I didn't see anyone trying out a big ARC push to show off (find out) how broken they are...
matsoMaster of PatchesJoin Date: 2002-11-05Member: 7000Members, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Squad Five Gold, Reinforced - Shadow, NS2 Community Developer
The main task of the playtesters is to ensure that the game does not contain game-breaking bugs. This allows people to actually play the game and see where the balance is, and then comment on that on the forums, which then feeds back into the next patch.
If playtesters were responsible for ensuring that the balance were right, you would get a patch every other month instead of weekish... if you were lucky.
Comments
They need to inflict less damage, but have longer range. Marines can slowly damage alien building from a bit longer distance, but gives aliens more than enough time to react to it. However it forces the aliens to attack a position of the marines choosing. They are tools to break fortified positions, but not win the game for players.
+1 ARCs should slow down on infestation noticeably
Recycling a forward base/half of your starting base can turn up a sudden burst of res pretty easily. Not the kind of thing that makes for a viable long term strategy in most cases but it'll generate enough res for an ARC rush.
Had a game yesterday. We saw 7 ARCs rolling to Elevator transfer. 1 Onos, 2 Fades and a few skulks went there as soon as they where set up to fire. After we killed 4 ARCs the other 3 made the final shots to kill the Hive. That was heavily unbalanced, Marines didn't even defend them and we had no chance.
In NS1 we had a Turret factory that could be killed to switch all Sieges off immediatly.
So maybe ARCs should have some kind of portable power station with them? Making them weaker would mean the com will make 15 instead of 7 and rush then.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just played a game where the Marines made 5 ARCs and made a push to Server Room. We managed to kill the entire Marine escort, but the aliens who survived the battle (~3 fades, 1 skulk) couldn't kill off the ARCs in time before they destroyed the hive.
It just felt wrong.
Removing the ability of aliens to cheaply kill ARCs while at the same time halving their cost makes for a pretty nasty combo.
Don't forget ramping up their damage significantly! Stuff like that is why some of us are skeptical of the playtesting process.
I mean, if they put those 3 changes together on the list of 'stuff to notice in the new internal build', isn't it your duty to complain as loudly as you can until it gets fixed or they say "we're not fixing it"? Surely if the 'regular beta testers' can find this stuff in a day or two after release, it could be noticed in between iterations of the internal build and sorted out.
I watched the playtesting stream and I didn't see anyone trying out a big ARC push to show off (find out) how broken they are...
If playtesters were responsible for ensuring that the balance were right, you would get a patch every other month instead of weekish... if you were lucky.