Natural Selection 2 News Update - Alien Commander v2.0
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Comments
Alien comm sounds fully fledged out now. Will be fun to experience in the next patch.
- AFAIK it's pretty hard to tell the difference between a cyst and a mini-cyst for the khamm, are there plans to make that difference more noticeable? I can imagine this can be quite confusing/frustrating (i.e when they're mixed up in an area you'd have to click them all to find out which ones you can rupture)
- What's stopping an alien commander from spending all his energy on speeding up the expansion with nutrient mist? I.e the Khamm usually only has one energy sink early in the game anyway, this could result in not needing those gorges for faster expansion.
- Does rupture and 'foresight' imply that hivesight is going to be removed/reworked? I see very little point in splashing infestation on marines when they're already on infestation and thus visible to the entire team (aside from the visibility reduction, which can be a big thing I suppose) Also at 1 p.res comm spreading cysts everywhere for free maphack is going to be as good as ever.
Anyway, can't wait :) Great job
Good ideas over all. It's good to see you guys pay attention to the big issues people are bringing up.
That's where they got the idea? :P
Hugh 'The Gardener' <insert lastname here>
Sounds fun, and gorges too, especially reading through the high-level design document and seeing the ideas for the gorge with abilities encrust, clog and spiders :D
Spent most of my time as a gorge in ns1, loved building forward bases and defended choke-points :D
I really like the direction this is taking. can't wait to see where it ends up in 3-4 more patches.
I mean I love that Gorges got bumped a bit to the forefront because of Alien team mechanics, but Gorge mechanics are still like nails on a chalkboard.
I really like the direction this is taking. can't wait to see where it ends up in 3-4 more patches.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh I didn't think about the hydra maturing! If they tweak it, they could trade off a "just more damage" upgrade on the mature hydra by making it more 'Hydra-y' and growing more heads for an attack speed increase. Any buff to the hydra makes me very happy though.
This update is going to be so much fun. Sorry skulk buds, the marines can wait, I gots to heal me some harvesters.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My only concern is (I assume this wasn't missed or not included, or that I didn't completely read past it) that while the Gorge has been made more important, the flaws of the Gorge are still right up front. Mini-cysts generally aren't worth the resources outside of putting on a surface for Hydras. Hydras are rarely ever worth the resources for the lackluster performance they give.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I agree with this, and the heal nerf was a little painful too, especially in regards to keeping buildings up and running. Though AFAIK they have changes to gorge structure costs planned as well, hopefully we can get news on that soon too. (There was talk about making them free) As a stopgap, they should really consider dropping mini cysts to 1 (doesnt make sense for them to be 3 if comm cysts are 1) and maybe even hydras to 5 - 8 to be honest. It would already be a huge help to gorges.
Problem. Aliens are still OP as it is in 204. Especially the Lerk. There are now a more substantial amount of Lerks than there are Fades even late game. All the aliens really need to do is have everyone Lerk up and go at it in a group and the marines are screwed. I've seen games where 3 lerks destroy marines in groups with a combo of gas and spikes. Marines are blinded by gas and lerks are zooming around so fast that marines cant aim at em hardly at all as they get spiked to death while choking. It's OP. Except in rooms with low-level ceilings. But if your base is sub access, lerks will own you if they know what they're doing.
Icing on this cake?:
"2 Hives no longer needed to unlock Tier 2 weapons, and 3 for Tier 3 weapons."
Unless something is done about Lerk's bile bomb, aliens are in huge favor. Beginning bile bomb runs would destroy marines within 5 minutes. The first 2 minutes of the game would be used for accumulating pres. The last 3 to end the game.
Im certain you plan on giving the marines something in return to combat the above? I know that the exosuit (Heavy armor) would be something. But if you're not going to have them this build then what else?
<img src="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/images/2/28/Whip_render.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/wiki/images/4/44/Drifter_render.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
From these images I assume that the Whip was designed with the Drifter in mind, due to the translucent scales-like carapace lining the back of the tentacle. As for other structures, they have bony opaque carapace, to put visual emphasis on their armor (Shade has no armor because of this).
What I'm suggesting is a change in the carapace for the remaining alien structures, namely the Crag, Shift, Shell, and Spur, to reflect their Newborn status by using carapace similar to the Whip; their mature versions could then use the bony versions, depending on the decision for structure armor amount (Shade, Veil). It would be really cool and distinctive, but hopefully not involve a lot of work.
If you take a look at the spreadsheet, the initial numbers make it so it takes ~16 minutes for a hive to mature. That initially sounded like a lot, but it makes sense and opens up more strategies, such as:
stay with 1 hive and 1 chamber until the hive is mature, focus misting on hive to get second chamber
or
put up second hive for some more tres, but doesn't require the misting, so the mists can be used on other chambers to improve map control.
It's more of a tradeoff, t-res for energy. Also if you have a dedicated gorge then the second option would probably be better since the gorge can help build the hive, but that would take a player out of the game.
But since we don't know the t-res cost for any of this I could be totally wrong, will have to wait and see.
I disagree.
Mini-cysts are great for a multitude of reasons. One is helping your commander by placing them next to harvesters so the comm doesn't have to waste pres on a short cyst distance.
Hydras are also very good harassment damage, but positioning is key.