ARC and Drifter hard limits
paradoxum
United Kingdom Join Date: 2012-03-05 Member: 148193Members
United Kingdom Join Date: 2012-03-05 Member: 148193Members
I think there should be a hard cap on how many ARCs and Drifters can be up at once. Marines are able to turtle in their base for ages and build 10+ ARCs and then just roll them out to the nearest hive and even if all the aliens attacked them at once they wouldn't be able to destroy them before they took out everything. I don't know what the limit would be, maybe 5, 7? I don't know.
Also i've seen a few alien commanders build about 35 drifters and it causes the servers to lag really badly, this is really common sense not to build so many but because it's possible means that some people are going to do it. I think 10 "non built" drifters at a time is a good limit.
Also i've seen a few alien commanders build about 35 drifters and it causes the servers to lag really badly, this is really common sense not to build so many but because it's possible means that some people are going to do it. I think 10 "non built" drifters at a time is a good limit.
Comments
I'd like to try out a 3 Drifter per Hive system, where up to 3 would auto-spawn like Eggs, and any additional Drifters would be costly to produce, using Energy again for example (so likely used for emergencies only).
For ARCs, something like "Robotics Factory requires a Tech Point to build" could help. Comm.'s only ever build 2+ RFs to spam ARCs, so this change would "limit" the ARC spam to a single RF in most games; although, this would require Marines to expand to a Tech Point to access Sentries, which is not a bad thing IMO (we already see mini-bases away from base w/ PGs)
Only reason you see drifterspam lategame is because comm has nothing better to do and t.res to waste anyway, i.e this should automatically be resolved when the Khamm feature gets finalised. (With more t.res and hopefully also p.res sinks for the khamm)
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As I've stated somewhere I'm all for 1 ARC per robotics factory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This, and make the structure more expensive so they can't spam 10 of them to steam roll everything.
I don't know how 1000 Hive Armor affects how much damage it takes, but with 4000 HP it will take 4.44 hits from an ARC to die, so 5 shots. that's 50 seconds with 1 ARC, if the marines roll in with 5 ARCs the Hive will be dead before the aliens can even take down a single ARC. is it possible they do too much damage? they already destroy non-hive buildings in 1 (or 2?) shots, and that much destructive power for 10 res seems way overpowered. you can take out say, 10 Hydras which cost some gorges a combined 100 res, using a 10 res ARC, does this seem fair?
so...nerf arc survivability?
At that point your team deserves to lose if you allow the marine team to mass up to many arcs.
At that point your team deserves to lose if you allow the marine team to mass up to many arcs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Why would the marine team not deserve to lose for sitting in one base?
If sitting in the base with sentrys was any effective at all ppl would do it in scrims or tournaments...
Nobody does it, since it only works against teams without teamwork. (especially after the 1 hive lifeforms)
If sitting in the base with sentrys was any effective at all ppl would do it in scrims or tournaments...
Nobody does it, since it only works against teams without teamwork. (especially after the 1 hive lifeforms)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
90% of NS2 games played are going to be pub games involving mediocre (not great) levels of teamwork. Turret/armory farms + grenade spam + monster lag due to the previous two make some marine encampments REALLY hard to destroy without some amazing Lerks/Onos skill and coordination.
If sitting in the base with sentrys was any effective at all ppl would do it in scrims or tournaments...
Nobody does it, since it only works against teams without teamwork. (especially after the 1 hive lifeforms)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You could hardly say that ARCs take any teamwork either. In fact, I have to rate it as the most skill-less based unit in the game. And was seriously disappointed they when brought it over from NS1. A better alternative to ARCs would have been an immobile siege cannons (tripods, just like the sentries) that requires a nearby robo factory to function.
It's current implementation needs to have more restrictions such has being unable to traverse over infestation or unable to go into siege mode while on infestation to eliminate the Marine commander from being able to just rolling 10 ARCs straight up to the hive. Restricting it to 2(or 1) ARCs per Robo factory is another good step as well as reducing their armor/health.
Arcs become a serious issue in smaller games, its just impossible to kill an arc rush in a 5v5. The arcs make the aliens outnumbered massively.
Same with drifters, the alien comm doesn't need help to build, so in small games the drifters allow for much faster deployment compared to the marines.